Detroit's famed Motown Museum plans to undergo a $50 million expansion.

The project, announced Monday morning, would add 40,000 square feet to the existing museum, which includes the Motown studio and Hitsville USA house on West Grand Boulevard. The expansion would house interactive exhibits, a theater, a cafe and expanded retail, said Robin Terry, chair and CEO of the museum.

Renderings released by the museum show a new facility behind the existing museum, with an entrance next to the existing studio.

The organization plans to start a donor-led fundraising effort in the near future to raise the money, Terry said.

"We've had enormous support (behind closed doors) for this concept," she said. "We feel optimistic about how the funding is going to play out."

The timing of the expansion is unknown at this time and will depend on funding, but the organization wants it to occur quickly, Terry said.

"With all of the development going on throughout the city, the QLine landing on our front door ... it has just created the perfect environment to leverage this brand that Detroit holds so dear."

Phil Freelon, managing director of Chicago-based architecture firm Perkins + Will, is leading the initial concepts on the project, and Detroit-based Hamilton Anderson Associates is architect of record. Detroit-based L.S. Brinker Co. will serve as construction manager and Washington D.C.-based museum design firm Gallagher & Associates is developing the visitor experiences and exhibition design.

Motown Records founder Berry Gordy launched his cultural and commercial music empire in 1959 at the Detroit site. Scores of stars and hits were created there before it moved to California in 1972.

"The Motown Museum brings thousands of visitors to Detroit each year to see the historic place where this internationally celebrated story was born," Larry Alexander, president and CEO of the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, said in a news release. "These visitors stay in our great hotels, eat at our diverse selection of restaurants and experience the other incredible attractions that Detroit and Southeast Michigan offers."

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Hamilton Anderson Associates is architect of record on this project.