A $125 million expansion of Detroit’s marquee convention center that will connect it to a new hotel is set to begin within the next month, marking the final phase of the riverfront project.

Construction on Huntington Place will add about 20,000 square feet to the southwest corner of the facility and a pedestrian bridge connecting it to a JW Marriott hotel expected to be completed by early 2027, said Claude Molinari, president and CEO of Visit Detroit.

The Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority board approved on Monday the final drawings and start of construction on the expansion and skybridge, said Molinari, who also serves as board chair for the authority. Molinari said work will begin in the next 30 days.

“We want to have that bridge connection in place by the end of 2026 so that it’s waiting for the hotel to open,” Molinari told Crain’s after a media event highlighting development by the Sterling Group and a new name for the nearby People Mover station.

The expansion will bring the convention center nearer to the edge of Second Avenue, which is being extended from Congress Street to the riverfront, creating a pedestrian-friendly route that for decades has been blocked by the Lodge Freeway and Huntington Place’s loading area. The vision is to land higher-profile events with a new 600-room attached hotel, while breaking up a concrete jungle to create riverfront access.

“Right now, if I’m on the RiverWalk and I’ve got to get to Fort Street or the other side of the building, I either have to go through Wayne County Community College or I have to double back through the convention center through the atrium,” Molinari said. “It’s a huge difference, and it was critical to making this a successful project.”

A rendering of the expansion depicts new public space on the rooftop of the convention center in addition to the skybridge connecting it to the new hotel. In 2023, the regional convention board struck an agreement with Sterling Group to build the expansion and bridge as part of its broader development of the former Joe Louis Arena site, which includes the future hotel and a newly opened luxury apartment tower in an area now dubbed Water Square.

“Right now, it ends in a brick wall and old 1960s windows and a vestibule,” Molinari said of the convention center. “Now, it’s going to be a much more open, glass-enclosed area.”

The Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority, which is funded through the state by revenue generated from liquor and cigarette taxes, has said it would invest $500 million into the new hotel and convention center expansion. About $120 million is budgeted for the expansion and skywalk.

A joint venture of Detroit-based L.S. Brinker and Sterling Heights-based Roncelli was tapped as general contractor for the connector project, while Dallas-based AECOM Inc. was selected as the architect, in partnership with Northville-based INFORM Studio, Detroit-based Giffels Webster and Buro Happold, which has an office in Detroit.