Tuesday's ribbon-cutting ceremony at Little Caesars.
No one can deny the grandness of the new Little Caesars Arena on Woodward Avenue that officially opens next Tuesday with a Kid Rock concert.
But that grandness hasn't come without a big price tag -- far bigger than originally expected.
Joe Guillen of the Detroit Free Press reports:
Since those plans were revealed in 2013, the cost to build Little Caesars Arena has nearly doubled to just under $863 million. The new price tag comes with an increase in public funding, too, from an original estimate of $262 million to $324 million, according to a Detroit City Council analysis in May.
"Originally, four years ago at $450 million, this was just kind of an arena, another Joe Louis Arena or another generic one," Glen Long, CFO and interim president/CEO of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., said recently in an interview with the Free Press. "The Ilitches, Olympia, the Red Wings decided to put a lot more enhancements in them and to really make it a complete, state-of-the-art facility.
The $324-million public contribution to the arena's construction represents the bulk of taxpayers' commitment to the project. The only other public support for the District Detroit — the 50-block section of the city including the arena and other new office, retail and residential spaces — is a $74-million payment the Ilitches' development firm receives if it causes at least $200 million in new development near the arena.
