Client representatives have insisted on visiting their new office to check out what they did with the old bowling alley, Wiemels said. The bowling alley headquarters has proved a big hit with 24G's clients, which include multinational companies such as Google, IBM, Volkswagen, Audi, Nike and Under Armour. "Through the years there's been a lot of them" closing, said Imhoff, who was unaware of many adaptive reuses similar to the old Thunderbird Lanes. Historical figures were not immediately available on Friday, although the number of bowling alleys in the state has been declining. There are roughly 300 bowling alleys still open in Michigan, according to Jerry Imhoff, director and treasurer of the Bowling Centers Association of Michigan. "He was really disappointed that his beloved old bowling place wasn't coming back to life. "He said, 'Hey, can I bowl a game? Is it open right now?'" Polaski said. And then for others - they can't bowl."ĭevin Polaski, 28, the firm's creative director, recalled how during 24G's first week in the building, an older gentleman wandered in and interrupted a meeting with a big client in a conference room. "They really respect how (we) kept the integrity and what it meant. "You still have people coming in with their bowling bag, and you get two kinds of reactions," he said. Still, a few hardcore Thunderbird patrons apparently wanted the building to reopen this year not as an office, but a back-in-business bowling alley. Wiemels said that each week two or three people will walk up to the building, ready to bowl. View Gallery: Photos: Thunderbird Lanes reborn as marketing firm headquarters The marketing firm also bought the bowling alley's business out of receivership, gaining ownership to hundreds of Thunderbird bowling pins, dozens of bowling balls and nearly 1,000 pairs of bowling shoes, "from kid's size all the way up to size 22," Wiemels said. "We wanted to repurpose as much as we could," Wiemels said last week during a building tour. And the teal blue Thunderbird Lanes lettering and thunderbird that fronted the building is also set up inside near the preserved bowling lanes. Thunderbird Lanes' neon sign was saved and mounted inside near the main entrance. Wood from the dismantled lanes was preserved and incorporated into the redesigned building's new wall paneling, conference room tables and employee workstations. The $1 million in renovations, completed this May, kept 10 of Thunderbird's 46 bowling lanes in working order for 24G's employees and visitors to enjoy. "We wanted something with more heart and soul." "We didn't want to end up in a standard industrial complex," Wiemels said. Having grown up in nearby Rochester, he had bowled at Thunderbird dozens of times. "This place was a bit of the heart of Troy in the '80s and '90s," he said.Ģ4G bought the bowling alley for $1.95 million in January 2016 and proceeded with one of Oakland County's more creative building reuses of recent years. Wiemels, 42, also felt a personal connection.
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