Grosse Pointe Park officials celebrate grand opening of new DPW building on Mack Avenue

GROSSE POINTE PARK — Civic leaders and members of the public got to see Grosse Pointe Park’s new Department of Public Works building at 15000 Mack Ave. — between Maryland Street and Alter Road — during a grand opening May 22.

Although the building has already been in use for the last several months, the event marked a chance for Park leaders to share a project that had been in the discussion phase for years before it finally came to fruition.

“This is a big day for the city of Grosse Pointe Park and our residents,” City Manager Nick Sizeland said as he introduced the local and state leaders and organizations present for the grand opening.

The roughly $4 million project is being paid for with a 15-year bond using money raised by the Tax Increment Financing Authority, Sizeland said previously.

“This won’t raise any taxes,” Sizeland said in 2021. “There’s no special assessment.”

Mayor Michele Hodges said it was only fitting that the city would have the best DPW facility for its DPW crew. She also said it was important that the city be “good partners” with its neighbors in this process.

“You have to invest in your community if it’s going to thrive,” Hodges said. “And that’s what we did.”

DPW Supervisor Tom Jenny thanked city leaders.

“We are very appreciative of the new digs,” Jenny said.

The DPW had operated out of the former Ted Ewald Chevrolet dealership, adjacent to City Hall, for about 30 years.

With its half-moon upper windows, limestone and brick details, the front façade of the DPW doesn’t have the industrial appearance one might expect of a structure where function is more important than form.

“It was important, once we settled on this site, to make it look attractive,” said Robert Denner, who was mayor when ground was broken for the new DPW in October 2021. “It needed to look like it belonged in Grosse Pointe Park but still be functional.”

Denner noted that redevelopment in this part of Mack has been in the works for years, with the city acquiring parcels of land — including the site of the new DPW and the site where a relatively new neighboring Huntington Bank now sits — for that purpose. The Huntington Bank branch is partially located in the Park and partially located in Detroit.

The DPW site was once home to iconic businesses in the community, including the original Tom’s Oyster Bar and Grumpy’s Pub, Denner said. Most recently, it was occupied by Verdonckt’s Franco Belge Bakery, which had an address of 15046 Mack Ave.

City Councilman Vikas Relan, who was on hand for the opening, said the building is long overdue for the city’s DPW.

“Our team definitely deserved a new building 15 to 20 years ago,” Relan said. “I’m not proud of the process we went through, but I’m glad our team has a shiny new building.”

Relan felt the building should have been funded by the city, not the use of TIFA dollars, which he said could have been used to make improvements in the whole neighborhood that the district covers.

Former Park Planning Commission chairs Dave Gaskin and Malik Goodwin both praised the new building.

“It’s a great addition to the Mack Avenue corridor,” Goodwin said.

Gaskin called the building “fabulous.”

“It looks a lot better than what was the previous DPW on Jefferson,” Gaskin continued.

Former longtime City Councilman Jim Robson said he’s lived in the Park for the last 45 years and is close enough to the new DPW that he walked there for the opening. He said he used to call the area “the block of blight” because of all the empty buildings. Not anymore.

“Every time I drive by, I just have a nice feeling in my heart,” Robson said of the revitalization on Mack.

Community and business leaders also lauded the new development.

“It’s a wonderful addition to the Park, and it’ll be great to have all of the Public Works trucks and facilities housed in one place, in a state-of-the-art facility that will offer great services to residents,” said Abigail Turnbull, membership and events coordinator for the Grosse Pointe Chamber of Commerce.

The DPW building had originally been slated to open in spring or summer of 2022, but the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain issues and shortages of materials such as concrete and asphalt delayed the process. DPW staffers said they started working in the building in late December 2022.

While the new building is roughly 17,000 square feet — about the same size as the old DPW — the layout has been substantially improved.

“We’re getting the bugs worked out, but it’s been working really well for us,” Jenny said of working from the new building. “(Having this new facility) can make our jobs 10 times easier. It’s functionally easier to work out of here.”

City officials said Jenny and his predecessor, Pat Thomas, played a key role in designing the layout of the building so that it would better serve the department’s needs and those of its personnel now and in the future.