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Business & Tech

Demolition Begins at Grosse Pointe's Neighborhood Club

Heavy machinery tears into Grosse Pointe fixture on Monday, making way for new community fitness center.

Demolition of the began Monday morning, bringing down a building that holds many memories for decades of Grosse Pointers.

As rain trickled--and occasionally downpoured--the giant arm of an excavator grabbed parts of the building on Waterloo and St. Clair, taking it piece by piece in preparation for the new role awaiting the corner spot behind The Village business district.

Demolition could end today or tomorrow and --will run for at least a year.

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Opening day of the new Neighborhood Club Wellness and Community Center will come sometime in January of 2013.

The a five-lane, warm water lap pool, a children's pool, a workout area. It will be opened to the public. There will also be a preschool there--one part of the current building that carries so many memories and connections--as well as physical therapies and other therapies for athletes, rehab patients and special needs children.

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The Neighborhood Club offices will also be located there, and the organization has decided to make use of the basement as well. That use is still being determined.

It will also offer physical therapy, speech therapy and other forms of therapy to adults and to children. Trainers and therapists will also offer sports medicine and athletic enhancement training.

Beaumont's Center for Human Development will also be a part of the center and will be named after John A. and Marlene L. Boll, whose own experience with special needs children and ongoing generosity with the community combined to provide a major contribution to the project.

The Neighborhood Club's sports and recreation programming and other enrichment activities will remain. The SOC----is relocating. 

The building that fell on Monday has long been a place for seniors to maintain friendships and stay busy. The Neighborhood Club will operate 75 percent of the of the new facility while Beaumont will control 25 percent.

During construction the administrative offices have moved to 240 Chalfonte in Grosse Pointe Farms. Much of the administrative staff came to the demolition site Monday to celebrate the movement of the project. 

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