DETROIT - The Detroit Events Center looks a lot different than it did just one month ago.

It actually looks a bit like a coliseum at the moment.

Olympia Development of Michigan said so far more than 1,500 pieces of steel have been placed. The arena needs 9,500 to be completed.

Over 20,000 cubic yards of concrete have been poured by the nearly 200 workers on site every day.

Olympia also said over "$259 million in contracts have been awarded in total. More than 65% of contracts have been awarded to Detroit-based or headquartered businesses and Michigan businesses have earned 95 percent."

The price tag for the arena was $450 million with an additional $200 million of development around the arena. The cost of the Events Center has ballooned to $627 million , with additional private funding pouring in.

The arena is scheduled to be completed by the start of the 2017 NHL season.

In November, Olympia said there would be a player walkthrough area, much like that seen in modern NFL stadiums, for fans. He also said the massive 785,000-square-foot facility will house the entire Wings practice facility; that includes an ice rink, locker rooms, a track and training facilities. The new locker room is three times bigger than that at Joe Louis Arena.

The 20,000-seat facility will have "gondola" seating, a public plaza with a big video wall, practice and amateur hockey arenas and "additional video and sound capabilities. The additions will add an additional $95 million to the arena cost, according to the company.

The arena will sit on a plot of land along Woodward Avenue just north of downtown Detroit. Retail, restaurants, offices, living space, parking garages and a park will all be pieced into the current planned development zone.

According to the District Detroit website, the planned neighborhoods will all back up to a major property affiliated with the Ilitch family. "Columbia Street" encompasses The Fox and the future site of the Little Caesar's headquarters; "Columbia Park" sits behind that, covering the Cass Avenue approach to the back of the future arena site; "Woodward Square" holds the arena development; "Wildcat Corner" ropes in Comerica Park and the site of future apartments planned for the parking lots that touch Woodward Avenue.

And it's "Cass Park Village" -- currently known as a part of Cass Corridor, and part of which has already been redubbed as "Midtown" -- that the most recent reports of land buys circle around.

The Village would connect the arena district to MotorCity Casino, which looks over The Lodge at some new housing, but a lot of vacant land.

The development is funded by private investment and an estimated public investment of $284.5 million.

Ian Thibodeau is the business and development reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit. He can be reached at ithibode@mlive.com, or follow him on Twitter.