New vision for Chandler Park: Coalition plans charter school, recreation center
By Sherri Welch
After an unsuccessful campaign to revive plans for the $50 million Kroc community center on Detroit's east side, a coalition of community groups and businesses is launching a new plan for the Chandler Park site.
The Chandler Park Promise Coalition, a 20-member group that includes many members of the former Save Our Kroc Center Coalition, plans a $30 million to $35 million charter school and recreational complex to take the place of the previously planned 100,000-square-foot Kroc center, a project of the Salvation Army Eastern Michigan Division.
Many coalition members tried to revive the Kroc center project for nine months before deciding to move in a new direction.
"There are people who were involved in the Salvation Army campaign who are starting to come back to the table," said Maggie DeSantis, president of the Warren/Conner Development Coalition, which is leading the effort.
"We made a decision to replace what the Salvation Army had promised."
The result is a more realistic and affordable plan with a charter school anchoring it, a large coalition of organizations working on the project and ample time for planning and fundraising, DeSantis said.
"We think over time we can pull this off. ... Once the school is there, it will make the job of doing phase two more realistic."
The Salvation Army's central territory headquarters pulled a $50 million grant from the estate of Joan Kroc from the Eastern Michigan Division two years ago after the division failed to secure a lead gift in its campaign to raise matching funds of $48 million for the center and spent the majority of its budget for the project campaign.
At the time, the Salvation Army said it planned to build a $6 million, 20,000 to 30,000-square-foot center in lieu of the Kroc center, and it remains committed to building a new service center there, Maj. John Turner, general secretary of the Eastern Michigan Division, said in a statement emailed to Crain's last week.
"To ensure that the appropriate location is selected, we are currently working in collaboration with the city of Detroit to identify the most appropriate site based on overall need and the city's changing population trends," he said.
The Salvation Army declined to comment on the Chandler Park plans.
Continued at: http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...charter-school
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