Jan. 21, 2005 - DETROIT CAN LOOK WEST FOR INSPIRATION: Grand Rapids is only 149 miles from Detroit, but it might as well be on another planet, so stark are the differences in how the two cities address their regional needs.

A week from Tuesday, Grand Rapids will throw a dinner party for 2,500 people to celebrate completion of the final phase of the impressive $211 million DeVos Place convention center downtown.

In Detroit, meanwhile, after three years of huffing about a new or expanded convention complex to replace Cobo Center, things are in a muddle.

One so-called action group of metro Detroit leaders will meet Feb. 9 to discuss a $650 million proposal to expand and renovate Cobo. That plan, however, is virtually dead on arrival. Key politicos from Gov. Jennifer Granholm to Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano all oppose public funding for the project -- at least from their own respective coffers. And Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, saddled with a budget deficit that gets worse by the day, certainly can't afford to go it alone.

Given the bleak prospects for consensus on a publicly funded Cobo expansion, no wonder Patterson and others are salivating at the prospect of the Las Vegas Sands building a new Detroit casino-convention-hotel complex entirely with private funds.

Patterson gave me a tongue-lashing Thursday for writing a column that was skeptical of the Sands scenario and chided Patterson for raising expectations that some casino is about to rescue taxpayers from a Detroit-Cobo boondoggle.

"I've been working my butt off for a year behind the scenes to help identify private sector funding, because this is the only chance, the only hope to get a new or expanded Cobo deal done. There simply is no appetite for public funding," Patterson insisted.

Fair enough. I believe that Patterson believes that. And I believe that Patterson believes it's possible to get a privately funded convention center deal done. And who knows? Maybe he's right.

But let's not make this an either/or thing. What's wrong with a private-public partnership if we can't find a casino angel to foot the whole bill?

Which brings us to Grand Rapids, which launched its convention center crusade with $33 million in private donations.

Amway Corp. co founder Rich Devos' foundation led the way with a $15 million gift and other local corporate citizens followed: the Meijer retailing family, former ambassador to Italy Peter Secchia, the Steelcase Foundation, etc.

Every corner of the complex has a donor's name on it. Call that naming rights if you wish -- they prefer the term "donor recognition" in Grand Rapids -- but the cash adds up.

Therefore, the DeVos Place convention center, with its Meijer Exhibit Hall, Secchia Gallery and Steelcase Ballroom, now exists because the community pledged to raise more than $30 million in private funds before asking for public dough. Ultimately the State of Michigan kicked in $65 million and a Kent County hotel-motel tax backs $86 million in bonds.

As Grand Rapids has shown, a public-private partnership can produce results.

Detroit is a different animal, to be sure. The scale is larger, and the budget squeeze on governments is worse than when Lansing committed $65 million to the Grand Rapids complex back during the John Engler administration.

Yet even in metro Detroit, with its history of regional squabbling, some form of private-public solution to the Cobo dilemma may be possible, if the key players can resist sniping at one another.

Contact Tom Walsh at 313-223-4430 or [email protected].

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