Work continues to transform a closed golf course into a public nature park with stormwater management features to prevent flooding.
Salenbein Trucking and Excavating was awarded a $121,148 contract to demolish maintenance buildings on the former Rogell Golf Course.
It first opened in 1914 as a nine-hole course at the former Phoenix Country Club. The site was later sold to the city of Redford, which hired famed Scottish golf course architect Donald Ross to redesign and expand the course to a full 18 holes. Ross was considered one of the top course designers of all time.
The course was operated by the city of Detroit from 1946 to 2007 and renamed for former Detroit Tigers shortstop and City Council member William G. Rogell. Greater Grace Temple bought the golf course for $2.5 million, making it one of only a handful of Black-owned courses in the U.S. until it closed in 2013.
The city denied a request to rezone the site in 2017 so it could be turned into a cemetery.
A city plan for the surrounding neighborhood and master plan for the course were created around the same time. Both documents identified the golf course as an important green space that should be purchased by the city, upgraded with nature paths, event spaces, stormwater management features and real estate for development opportunities.
Detroit purchased the 120-acre Rogell Golf Course in 2018 for $1.9 million using a federal grant meant to address disaster recovery activities. Roughly 6,000 homes were flooded in 2014 during a large rain storm and a quarter of the site falls within a 100-year floodplain that drains into the Rouge River.
The site is located along Seven Mile and Lahser on Detroit’s northwest side in President Pro Tem James Tate’s district.