The old and vacant Brewster Wheeler Recreation Center in Detroit's Brush Park neighborhood, that was all but written off as being a goner, will get a second lease on life with a $50 million investment plan.
Matt Helms of the Detroit Free Press reports that the city officials and developers announced Tuesday that a restaurant will go into the facility along with new residential and retail rises nearby. There had been serious talk, and plans for that matter, of razing the facility.
Helms writes:
The rec center where legendary boxer Joe Louis trained will be reborn as a restaurant with a rooftop beer garden, a basement bar, event space and offices for groups including the Detroit City Chess Club, Alternatives for Girls and the Slow Roll, the weekly Detroit bike ride group.
The center will be redeveloped, with an expected investment of up to $15 million, by a group of investors that includes K.C. Crain of Crain Communications, and Curt Catallo, the owner of restaurants including the Clarkston Union and Vinsetta Garage in Berkley.
Meanwhile, developers John Rhea and the Schostak Brothers & Co. will build 150 units of residential multiuse housing along with retail and community space just to the south of the center adjacent to I-75 just north of downtown. Detroit-based Jenkins Construction will be the contractor on both jobs, Mayor Mike Duggan said at a news conference outside the historic center.
The city issued a press release following the press conference Tuesday that said:
Eight months after the historic Brewster Wheeler Recreation Center was scheduled for demolition, Mayor Mike Duggan stood in front of it and next to Joe Louis, Jr., to announce that the iconic building where the “Brown Bomber” once trained will be preserved and see new life. A team of developers will spend nearly $50 million to redevelop the building into a multi-use facility with new businesses and community programming, as well as construct up to 150 new residential units on the southern half of the property.
One of the signature features of the redeveloped Recreation Center will be a new restaurant unlike any other in Michigan – built on top of a basketball court floor still inside the building that will be restored as the floor of the dining room. The restaurant itself will celebrate Joe Louis and his history at the Recreation Center. It will incorporate elements of the iconic Joe Louis mural inside the building and the boxing ring in which he frequently trained.
Mayor Duggan said that the Brewster Wheeler Recreation Center, with its new use, will be an anchor for the redevelopment of the Brewster and Brush Park neighborhoods and create new opportunities for Detroiters.