LANSING - Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today joined with Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Senator Levin, officials from the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), Travel Michigan, members of the Mexicantown Community Development Corporation and community leaders to cut the ribbon for a $17 million international welcome center in southwest Detroit at the foot of the Ambassador Bridge.
         
The Welcome Center is part of the $206 million state investment known as the Gateway Project that will create direct access from I-75 and I-96 to the Ambassador Bridge, while keeping commercial truck traffic off local streets, and creating designated local service drives for area residents to use to more easily and safely navigate through the southwest Detroit.
        
 "This Welcome Center and Mercado will further enhance the image of Mexicantown, southwest Detroit and the state of Michigan as an international gateway in an historic neighborhood that is warm, welcoming, and culturally diverse." said Granholm. "It is a dream come true that has been 30 years in the making, thanks to many visionary community leaders."
         
The state is making a major investment in the Mexicantown International Welcome Center and Mercado, in partnership with the local community and the Ambassador Bridge, to create a permanent international gateway that will enhance economic and cultural development of the area. The state will lease 5,000 square feet for a new Welcome Center that will provide information for travelers crossing the Ambassador Bridge on their way to and from Canada. 
                  
Mexicantown will be the state's first urban welcome center.  Currently, Travel Michigan operates 13 Welcome Centers in various locations in the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan, attracting nine million visitors each year.

Michigan established the first travel information center in the nation at New Buffalo back in 1935.  Even today, Michigan's Welcome Centers continue to move forward, with the first in the nation totally accessible playgrounds at the New Buffalo and Monroe Welcome Centers, plus Wi-Fi Internet access at the Coldwater and New Buffalo Welcome Centers.  

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