Borrowed money from a bond sale will fund the much-anticipated $221 million dollar renovation of Detroit’s Cobo Center. Those bonds would be paid back from revenues from Cobo.

For those of you thinking the current look of Cobo is pretty jab it’s understandable considering the last major renovation of the convention center was some 20 years ago in 1989.

While the new plan doesn’t expand the size of the convention center as originally planned, it instead better utilizes the space already there by transforming the little-used Cobo Arena into a 40,000 square foot ballroom with a huge atrium overlooking the river.

In my opinion though, the coolest feature to be added may be the huge video walls that will be on the front of the building facing Jefferson Ave.

The entire project will be completed in three phases and is expected to be finished by the time the 2014 North American International Auto Show rolls into town.

Check out the animated fly-through video below of what the new Cobo will look like and click here to read the entire Freep article detailing the renovations.