Signature Associates

Detroit Athletic Club may expand footprint north of downtown building

The Detroit Athletic Club is looking into an expansion downtown.

What precisely that will include will be hashed out in the next eight to 10 months as Detroit-based architecture and planning firm Rossetti Associates Inc. comes up with a new master plan. That process is expected to begin next month.

In an article in its December issue provided by a DAC spokesman, the DAC News magazine says that during an Oct. 28 town hall meeting, club members, board members and executive leadership discussed “the next phase of the club’s master plan” that is “centered on an expansion of the Athletic Department into an Athletic Performance/Wellness Training Center to better service current and expanded athletic, health, wellness and recovery programming.”

The expansion could include “making better use” of about 1.2 acres of property currently referred to as the Pavilion immediately north of the club across from Comerica Park, said Bob Allen, director of communications for the DAC, in a Monday afternoon email.

He said that if that’s the direction decided upon, “that likely would be something akin to adding to” the Albert Kahn-designed building at 241 Madison Ave.

Rossetti Associates declined to comment Monday.

The DAC News story says that in 2012, a new master planning process began with the first phase focusing on member experience, resulting in things like its new rooftop with a restaurant, a new entry to the atrium, the Madison Shop and Cafe, and Centennial Park. The Pavilion was also added in that first phase of the master planning.

The second phase, which began in 2017, is focusing on athletics and wellness.

The club is undergoing a leadership change in the coming months as longtime Executive Manager Ted Gillary is retiring after 25 years in that position and 29 years with the club overall. He will be replaced effective Feb. 1 by Assistant General Manager Charles Johnson.

Crain’s reported last week in a story about the leadership change that when Gillary became executive manager in 1994, the club had 3,466 members but it has since risen to 5,247 with a waiting list of 369.

The DAC has been at its location at 241 Madison Ave. downtown since 1915. The building is nearly 104,000 square feet across seven stories, according to CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service.

Posted By: Crain’s Detroit Business on December 2, 2019.  For more information, please click here to read the source article.

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