Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores’ Family Foundation is committing $20 million to build a new community center in Rouge Park, the team announced Wednesday morning.
The 25,000 square foot facility will sit adjacent to Brennan Pool and will serve a need in the Cody-Rouge neighborhood, a community that mayor Mike Duggan said currently lacks indoor recreational facilities. Gores’ $20 million commitment will also fund renovations for the current pool and locker room facilities at Rouge Park, and the project is slated to be completed in 2024.
“The facility itself will be the best of its kind and provide residents with a safe space to learn, play and grow,” Gores said in a press release. “But more than just a building, we will create a hub that brings together people from the neighborhood and throughout the city who want to make a difference in this community.”
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Phase two of the plan, which does not yet have a completion time frame, includes an enclosed structure around one of the two Olympic-sized pools at the Brennan site.
Gores said this initiative spawns from conversations across the Pistons organization, both on the business and basketball side, about areas where he could help influence social change in Detroit. Gores is collaborating with Detroit Parks & Recreation to build the new facility.
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“When you look at a map of community center locations throughout the city of Detroit, we have known for a long time that there was a big hole in the Cody-Rouge neighborhood,” Duggan added in a release. “Now, thanks to Tom Gores and the Detroit Pistons, that hole is being filled and the residents of Cody-Rouge will have a new first-class indoor facility providing a wide range of activity and engagement space. The new facility and Brennan Pool enhancements will make this community center one of the finest in Detroit and the region.”
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Pistons’ Tom Gores to fund new Rouge Park rec center