DETROIT - Adient is looking forward to assuming a front-row seat in the auto industry as construction crews demolish the interior of the 113-year-old Marquette Building, across the street from the Cobo Center, which houses the North American International Auto Show.

The world's largest maker of car seats is pouring $98 million into a makeover of the 10-story red brick building that was originally built as an ice factory.

When completed in 2019, the building will be the world headquarters for Adient, which employs 85,000 workers in 238 factories in 34 countries.

The new offices will replace Adient's headquarters in Milwaukee and move executives from the company's offices in Plymouth, said Eric S. Mitchell, Adient's executive vice president.

Mitchell said the new downtown headquarters will attract hip millennials who are driving the future of the industry.

"The industry is going to be very different in the next five to 10 years," he said.

"We were really attracted to downtown Detroit because of the buzz that's going on down here," Mitchell said. "We feel it's going to be a big catalyst for us."

Adient will continue to operate its tech center in Plymouth, Mitchell said. With about 4,600 employees statewide, Adient also operates manufacturing plants in Battle Creek, Holland, Lansing, Warren and Detroit.

Meanwhile, Adient executives were showing off their latest seating designs to suppliers and manufacturers at the private showroom they have occupied in Cobo Center ever since the company was spun off of Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls and several international partners.

From futuristic seating that will dial up a massage in autonomous cars to the racy Recaro seats it will build for the Ford Bullitt Mustang, Adient executives were eager to show off the technological underpinnings of their latest seats.

With ride-sharing vehicles on the horizon, tomorrow's seats will have to be flexible and easily adjustable, said Nicholas Petouhoff, an Adient designer who was showing off the company's Vision seat.

With just three controls, the new seats will offer multiple comfort settings designed to keep their occupants comfortable quickly, he said.