DETROIT (WXYZ) — Brian Perrone remembers what Michigan Central Station and Roosevelt Park used to look like well.
"It was totally abandoned and just a mess, the windows were all broken, weeds everywhere," said Perrone.
He's been across the street from the landmarks since 2003 when he started working with his business partner to open Slows Bar BQ.
He said, "When we started this project here, these buildings were all abandoned and boarded up."
However the most recent years across the street have been filled with extensive construction as Roosevelt Park and Michigan Central Station were being renovated by Ford Motor Company who bought the property in 2018.
Now we're just days away from the grand re-opening of Michigan Central Station.
"It’s going to be huge," said Perrone.
Patrick Droze is a project manager at OHM Advisors and helped to design the 13-acres of Roosevelt Park which is going to be the "red carpet" for the celebration.
Droze said there is no park like it next to a Detroit landmark.
It is planned to be the perfect setting for next weeks grand re-opening.
"You have some smaller corners with more walk-able spaces and benches, and then you have more broad open spaces right in front of the station that allows for large stages," said Droze.
Speaking of, work was being done to build a stage while we interviewed with Droze Wednesday morning.
The stage will likely be used for opening night of the station's grand re-opening which is promised to have a star-studded line up.
After the highly anticipated night, the opening will continue for 10 days which will offer tours of the first floor of the station.
People across all our communities will travel in town to take part in the festivities, meanwhile Perrone will have a front row street from Slows, still across the street, now with quite the view.
"Everybody thought we were crazy," said Perrone. "And now we’re the center of all this attention, and it’s great. It’s been just 20 years to get it going."
