Owners of the Detroit Red Wings said today that they will spend an additional $95 million on the team’s new arena — pushing the total project cost to $627 million — for enhancements that include unique seating, a practice rink and outside public spaces.

The Ilitch organization that is managing the project for owners Mike and Marian Ilitch is assuming all of the new costs.

Conceptual artwork provided today by Olympia Development of Michigan shows a concourse called the Via that looks like a pedestrian-friendly city street of shops and restaurants encircling the stadium seating bowl and covered by a clear plastic ceiling to provide natural lighting.

The arena’s overall design is called “deconstructed,” meaning that concessions, retails, offices, etc., are separate buildings pulled away from the bowl of the arena to create the street-like concourse that’s covered but open visually to the sky.

The are outside of the west side of the arena will be called the Piazza, an open-air plaza space that will have a massive LED video board that could show games, according to Sports Business Daily.

“It could be for a Lions tailgate,” Olympia Entertainment President and CEO Tom Wilson told SBD. “On Opening Day for the Tigers, there are 40,000 to 50,000 people just walking the streets down here because it’s like a holiday. Maybe 5,000 of them will be watching our LED board.”

The magazine said Wilson gave a presentation of the overall development during last week’s NHL owners meetings in Las Vegas.

The arena project is being designed by architectural and engineering giant HOK, which assumed the work after acquiring Kansas City-based 360 Architecture last year.

HOK’s principal-in-charge of the project, George Heinlein, told Sports Business Daily that some of the design around is the arena is modeled after New York City’s elevated High Line parkway that snakes through Manhattan.

Other conceptual artwork released today shows suspended “gondola” seating above the ice. Add-ons to the project include more food-service options, enhanced video and sound capabilities, a metal skin on the exterior of the seating bowl upon which video and graphics can be displayed, and additional elevators, according to Olympia Development, the real estate arm of the Ilitch business portfolio.

The project now will also include an on-site practice ice rink, which will also be used for amateur hockey; an outdoor plaza featuring a massive video wall; and more green spaces across the arena site, Olympia said.

The organization said other improvements to the arena project will include additional points of sale, best-in-class security systems and augmented load-in, load-out systems.

Details about the specific additions were not disclosed. Additional information has been requested by Crain's.

“These enhancements will ensure we create a unique multi-use venue that brings the best in sports and entertainment to Detroit, while creating a destination for everyone in our community to enjoy,” Olympia's Wilson said in a statement. “We’re completely focused on delivering an arena that hosts exceptional experiences for our community, players, fans and neighbors while driving additional investment and development in Detroit.”

The project additions and costs were first reported early today by Sports Business Journal.

The original project cost, financed via $450 million state-issued bonds that will be paid back from Olympia’s arena revenues and from a specialized downtown property tax arrangement, was $527 million.

An additional $200 million-plus will be spent on a 45-block plan to rehabilitate and improve the neighborhoods surrounding the arena, known as The District Detroit and managed by Olympia. That will include housing, retail, office space and public green spaces.

Construction of the arena began in September 2014, and excavation of the massive hole for the seating bowl was finished in September of this year. Concrete and structural street work is now underway, and will continue through the winter.

The 20,000-seat venue is scheduled to open in time for the 2017-18 hockey season. The building also will be used for a variety of nonhockey events, such as concerts.

Olympia noted today that $138 million of the than $202 million in contract awards for the arena so far have been for Detroit-based or Detroit–headquartered businesses, and $190 million has been for Michigan companies. It also said that 54 percent of the workers on the project are Detroiters.

Southfield-based Barton Malow Co., Detroit-based White Construction and Indianapolis-based Hunt Construction Group are jointly managing construction of the arena. In addition to HOK, Detroit-based civil engineering firm Giffels Webster is the design consultant, and the Detroit office of Parsons Brinckerhoff is the traffic engineer. Ann Arbor-based SmithGroup JJR is handling the landscape design.

White Plains, N.Y.-based Street-Works leads the urban planning and design for the project. It specializes in mixed-use and commercial development, planning and financing. Also working on the project is Heritage Development Services LLC, a unit of Detroit-based economic development consultant The Diggs Group Inc.

The Red Wings’ current home, city-owned Joe Louis Arena that opened in 1979, will be razed at a cost of $6 million once the new arena opens.

Detroit’s Downtown Development Authority will own the new arena, and Olympia will operate it under a long-term contract that includes it received all revenue from the facility including any naming rights.

Last week, the Ilitch family announced it would donate money and land totaling $40 million for a new business school building for Wayne State University, the largest donation in the school’s history. The Mike Ilitch School of Business project will be located in The District Detroit.