Massive $270M development planned next to Novi convention center

The owner of the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi is rolling out an ambitious proposal for a mixed-use development anchored by a 225-room hotel, more than 400 housing units, a grocery store and a restaurant.

Blair Bowman, who has steadily expanded the conference center off of I-96 since buying it more than 30 years ago, said the roughly $270 million project would revitalize the Grand River Avenue corridor — but it hinges on public funding. The development, dubbed Novi City West, is plotted for about 50 acres of land west of the 600,000-square-foot convention center on both sides of Grand River that Bowman has been acquiring since the late 1990s. A 126-room Hyatt Place hotel was added to the east side of the complex a few years ago, but Bowman said a new hotel is needed to lure and retain large events.

Project officials are seeking Transformational Brownfield Program incentives from the state to support the vision, which Bowman intends to pitch to lawmakers this week at the Mackinac Policy Conference. The vision is to create a “walkable, integrated urban district” that will serve as a community asset and driver of economic activity.