Grand Valley Sets Dedication For Downtown Detroit Center

DETROIT -- The Grand Valley State University Board of Trustees and university President Thomas J. Haas will host a ribbon cutting ceremony May 8 to celebrate the official opening of the Grand Valley State University Detroit Center.

The GVSU Detroit Center will house classrooms for both the Grand Valley Charter Schools Office and the College of Education, and will serve as a central meeting location for Grand Valley professionals conducting business in southeast Michigan. It will also house the regional office of the Michigan Small Business and Technology Development Center.

The ribbon cutting ceremony will take place from 5 to 5:30 p.m. at the Detroit Center, 163 Madison Street. An opening reception will follow, with remarks at 6:15 p.m.

An alumni-only breakfast reception will take place the morning of Thursday, May 9, at the Detroit Athletic Club from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. Tours of the Detroit Center will be available from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.

Complimentary parking for both events will be available in Olympia Development Lot W.

The historic three-story brick and terra cotta building dates back to 1907, when the Detroit architectural firm of Stratton and Baldwin designed the architecture of the building for the headquarters and city exchange of the Home Telephone Co. The building was sold to Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Co. in 1935, transferred to several other insurance companies, and in 1951 became the home of the Jewish Welfare Federation of Detroit. It was known as the Fred M. Butzel Memorial Building, named after Butzel, a community leader and major contributor to the organization. In February, Grand Valley acquired the building from Barden Companies' Waycor Development Co.