Detroit set to open 3 new rec centers, thanks to “unprecedented” funding influx

This story is part of a series exploring how parks serve as engines of exploration, education, play, and equity. It is made possible with support from Huron-Clinton Metroparks and the City of Detroit.

The city of Detroit recently opened a new recreation center, will open another soon, and is about to break ground on a third. Given that the city opened just one rec center in the entire preceding decade, that’s a big deal, according to Juliana Fulton, the city’s deputy chief parks planner.

“Having three all at the same time is huge,” she says. “… It’s not ever, ever three simultaneously.”

The $14 million Chandler Park Fieldhouse opened at Chandler Park this month. The city has purchased the former Dexter-Elmhurst Community Center and anticipates completing an $8.5 million renovation of the facility, which will be renamed the Helen Moore Community Center, this fall. And the $20 million Brennan Recreation Facility in Rouge Park will break ground this fall. The centers are the result of what Fulton describes as an “unprecedented phase for funding.” The Chandler Park Fieldhouse and Helen Moore Community Center are funded by federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars, and the Brennan Recreation Facility is funded entirely by Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores’ Family Foundation. 

Fulton says the ARPA-funded centers were inspired by feedback gathered from 30 community meetings on how to spend the federal funds. The buildings will also help to address a goal in the city’s master plan to have a city-owned rec center within a mile and a half of every home in Detroit. Fulton notes that the new facilities help to close “rec center gaps” in two Detroit City Council districts – District 4 and District 7 – where there were no city-owned rec centers. She describes rec centers as “crucial” for Detroiters to exercise, socialize, and learn together.

“They really are kind of the lifeblood of the neighborhoods that they serve,” Fulton says. “When there’s not a rec center in the community, but there was one in the past, maybe 30 years ago, we always hear about it and what it meant to the community and those memories that are lasting. I feel like the impact is really lasting too.”

Chandler Park Fieldhouse a long-awaited community dream

For residents of the communities surrounding Chandler Park, the 130,000-square-foot Chandler Park Fieldhouse is the result of over a decade of planning. Alex Allen, president and CEO of the Chandler Park Conservancy, says the Warren Conner Development Coalition (now Eastside Community Network) held community planning exercises 10 to 12 years ago to seek community input on what amenities should be added to the park. One of the priorities participants identified was a domed recreation center.

“They wanted it to be … a community center that people could use year-round, all day,” Allen says.

The Fieldhouse will fulfill that vision, with a domed facility housing a multi-use sports court, football field, track, and multi-purpose rooms. Allen casts the Fieldhouse as just the latest chapter in Chandler Park’s comeback story, recalling decades past when the park was in “disarray” and lacked programming. The new facility certainly provides an antithesis to the heartbreak many residents felt when the Salvation Army canceled plans to build a $40 million community center in the park in 2008.

“We did a lot to set the foundation, meaning making Chandler Park a place that residents want to come to have a good time, kind of changing the image of Chandler Park with the programming we do and the amenities we were helped to bring to the park,” Allen says. “So I think our work is just trying to create, for lack of a better word, a perfect storm when monies came available. We had a park that could handle it, we already had a field in place, and we had a place that was open and nice for the community.”

Allen says he thinks the new facility will have a “big impact” both for residents of the surrounding community and the visitors the center will draw from across the Detroit region. He anticipates it will be heavily used both for sports programming and a variety of events, ranging from movie nights to receptions.

“Now our young people don’t always have to go out to the suburbs to have a facility like this,” Allen says. “The folks who are in the community, in the city, can have a home where they can participate in those things.”

Helen Moore Community Center honors resident’s service

The Dexter-Elmhurst Community Center has always been deeply important to Helen Moore. She says she first became president of the center in the early ’80s, having spent years before that “helping out, doing what I could” at the facility. Since then, she’s helped form a nonprofit to run the center and has served multiple terms as the center’s president over the years.

So when Moore learned that the city of Detroit was to buy the center, renovate it, and rename it the Helen Moore Community Center, she says she “rejoiced.” She had personally lobbied Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan to tour the facility and help fix it up to serve neighborhood residents for years to come. In Duggan’s State of the City address last year, as he announced that the renovated center would bear Moore’s name, he called Moore his “number one critic” but added, “Every time she brings me something, she’s right.”

Moore says she checks in regularly on the renovation, which she describes as “magnificent.” When it reopens, the facility will include a gymnasium, a community room, a weight room, a dance studio, a children’s STEM programming room, a children’s art room, a game room, and a kitchen. The project also involves transforming the center’s parking lot into a new park, Dexter-Elmhurst Park, which will feature a multi-sports court, a playground, fitness equipment, and a picnic area. Tuxedo Street, which lies between the center and the new park, will be closed to create a plaza allowing for more greenspace and public events. Fulton says it’s important to have a park adjacent to rec centers so that programming can easily be held either indoors or outdoors.

Fulton says the project is a win-win both for the neighborhood and the city. 

“By putting a rec center where we already have an existing facility and staff, you’re able to reduce the cost of staffing it and operating it while providing a lot more amenities and having it open year-round, which it currently is not,” she says.

Moore says the project is already positively impacting the broader neighborhood. She notes that nearby streets have been repaired since the renovation began, and anticipates new businesses locating in the area once the project is complete. She says residents are eager for the center to reopen.

“Every day, if I go over there and I stand out in front and talk to some of the people, they always ask me, especially the children, ‘How long do we have to wait?'” she says.

Brennan Recreation Center builds upon Rouge Park pool

The Brennan Recreation Center is waiting to break ground until this fall so that the adjacent Brennan Pool can finish out its season uninterrupted. When the new center is complete, it will complement the pool with a wide array of new recreation opportunities including a multi-use sports court, community rooms, and kitchen space. 

“It really fills a need for the community to have access to quality recreation,” says Lindsay Pielack, executive director of Friends of Rouge Park. “… Having an indoor recreation space to complement the vast 1,200-acre park is really kind of giving Rouge Park the boost to infrastructure that it needs to really serve the community well.”

Pielack says she foresees an “incredible opportunity to leverage the center as a hub of activity and connection.” As a facilitator for the many organizations that organize programming in the park, she hopes to see new programming and new connections between organizers arise as a result of the center. For example, she hopes that a summer camp held in the park might be “anchored” at the rec center in the future, while connecting to organizations like Friends of Rouge Park that provide outdoor nature programming in the park.

“I think Rouge Park is a gem, and I think investing in these important pieces of infrastructure that will really make the park an asset for the community is just such an important part of quality of life for Detroiters,” Pielack says.

What’s next for Detroit rec centers?

Fulton says the city is unlikely to build any additional rec centers anytime soon. Stressing the unprecedented nature of the influx of ARPA funds, she says the city is “not anticipating that’s going to happen in this presidential term.”

However, Fulton says the city will likely focus next on improving existing rec centers, and seeking opportunities to partner with schools and nonprofits to expand recreation opportunities at their sites.

“We’re always up for more,” she says. “There’s still some gaps to fill.”