Above: A design rendering shows the planned look of Punch Bowl Social in downtown Detroit.
It took just a week for probably to become definitely. David Hall of Crain's reports on downtown Detroit's next hangout choice -- a big one with room for at least 1,200 people.
Punch Bowl Social and Bedrock Real Estate Services made official today [Wednesday] plans to open in downtown Detroit. . . .
Punch Bowl Social will move into 24,000 square feet to fill the entire Broadway street-level side of The Z, the new garage that zigzags the corners of Broadway and East Grand River, and Library and Gratiot. . . .
Robert Cornog, Punch Bowl CFO and principal, said the $5 million build-out at 1331 Broadway St. should be done by October, in time for a planned November opening.
Original article, March 26:
This sounds like summer camp for over-21s or a vacation cruise for compulsive recreation buffs. It's actually a hangout that's been popular in Denver since 2012 and in Portland since last summer:
Mix a downtown bar-restaurant with bowling, ping pong, darts, marbles tables, shuffleboard, karaoke, Foosball, pinball, plus sports on huge TVs and retro 1980s video games.
Detroit is "a great American story we want to be part of,” says CEO Robert Thompson. "It's a comeback, and everyone loves a comeback."
It's called Punch Bowl Social and location No. 3 opens in Austin this July. The fourth apparently will be here, Sherri Welch blogs at Crain's after speaking with an owner.
Sources say Punch Bowl Social is eyeing a spot in Bedrock Real Estate Services’ new 10-story parking garage known as The Z in Detroit’s central business district. . . .
Punch Bowl CEO Robert Thompson . . . said he and business partner and CFO Rob Cornog are definitely interested in Detroit.
“There’s no secret about why we would want to come there. . . . It’s a great American story we want to be part of,” Thompson told me. “It’s a comeback, and everyone loves a comeback.”
“There’s some empirical forces and confirmable data about what’s happening in Detroit."
Even though he plays coy about confirming a Detroit deal, Thompson makes it sounds likely when the conversation turns to craft beers:
“We try to emphasize the local market when we come into a city. The Michigan-area breweries will get first stab at draft lines.”
See what he did there? Will, not would.
The Z garage, named for its shape, zigzags from the corner of Broadway and East Grand River to the corner of Library and Gratiot. It opened in January.
Bedrock is Dan Glbert's property company. You knew that, right?
Here's a reaction to the news from the founding partner of Curve Detroit, a creative strategy and design agency:
I would love to see a Punch Bowl Social in Detroit: http://t.co/LrTT3jnOMq Make it happen, @PunchBowlDenver.
— Charlie Wollborg (@CharlieCurve) March 26, 2014
-- Alan Stamm
Related coverage at Deadline Detroit:
Downtown Ping Pong Club Bounces to a Larger Home in Penobscot Building, March 1, 2014
