Final consumer event at Cleveland’s I-X Center begins, closing a 60-year Auto-Rama tradition
A three-day finale for the region’s largest exhibition hall
The final consumer show scheduled inside Cleveland’s I-X Center begins Friday, March 27, 2026, with the 60th annual Car Parts Warehouse I-X Piston Powered Auto-Rama. The event runs through Sunday, March 29, marking the end of public, ticketed shows in a venue that has served as a cornerstone of Northeast Ohio’s large-format event calendar for decades.
Organizers have framed the 2026 edition as a last opportunity for longtime attendees and builders to gather on the I-X Center floor. The show’s published schedule lists daily operating hours across all three days and promotes a program centered on show vehicles, competitive judging, specialty displays, and a vendor marketplace.
How the I-X Center reached this point
The I-X Center’s history predates its role as an exhibition hall. The building was originally constructed in 1942 as the Cleveland Bomber Plant and later used for military production during World War II. After the war, the facility cycled through different uses before reopening in 1985 as the International Exposition Center, becoming one of the region’s most prominent venues for consumer expos, trade shows, banquets, and large gatherings.
In June 2025, Cleveland City Council approved legislation amending the site’s lease structure to end the building’s long-term use for large exhibitions and to support a transition toward industrial occupancy. Council materials described the anticipated arrival of a major corporate tenant and cited an expected payroll and job count tied to the planned change in use, along with continuing rent payments connected to the city’s airport-related ownership of the property.
What the transition means for events and the local market
As the I-X Center winds down its public event schedule, organizers of recurring regional shows have faced venue decisions that are likely to reshape where large-scale consumer events are staged. Recent planning discussions in Greater Cleveland have centered on whether downtown facilities can absorb displaced events and how future projects—such as planned event-capable space within a proposed new football stadium complex in Brook Park—might compete for trade shows and exhibitions.
At the same time, uncertainty has surrounded the timing and structure of the I-X Center’s industrial conversion, including reports that at least one high-profile redevelopment effort did not proceed as initially expected. For show producers and exhibitors, the near-term result is clear: the I-X Center’s long run as a consumer-event destination is ending with Auto-Rama’s March 27–29 dates.
Auto-Rama’s 2026 schedule highlights
Dates: March 27–29, 2026
Location: I-X Center, Cleveland (Brook Park area)
Programming: show cars, judged competition elements, specialty displays, and vendors
The end of the I-X Center’s consumer shows closes a chapter for a venue that has linked Cleveland’s industrial past with decades of regional public events—and sets up a new contest over where the area’s largest expos will go next.