Deadline approaching for proposals to save historic Belle Isle Boathouse
The structure faces demolition if no letters of intent for potential redevelopment are filed before the DNR’s deadline this Friday, March 29.
An interior shot of the ballroom inside the Belle Isle Boathouse.
Preservationists are fighting to save the historic Belle Isle Boathouse in Detroit.
The 40,000-square-foot building, constructed by the Detroit Boat Club in 1902, faces demolition by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources if no letters of intent for potential redevelopment are filed before the agency’s deadline this Friday, March 29.
The DNR took over the facility’s lease when it assumed management of the island in 2014. It had previously been overseen and maintained by the Friends of Detroit Rowing since the mid-1990s. The city of Detroit held the lease briefly before it was transferred to the DNR.
In August 2022, the boathouse was deemed structurally unsound due to significant deterioration, including a collapsed floor, a caved-in roof, peeling exterior stucco and other structural needs, according to the DNR.
With limited funds to dedicate to the facility’s upkeep, DNR Parks and Recreation Chief Ron Olson said in a statement last month that the department “has to make the tough choice of investing in a portion of the necessary structural repairs with no lasting fix or demolishing and reimagining the space. We are open to partnering with the private sector to rehabilitate the boathouse; however, no viable parties have yet come forward.”
The department condemned the building last summer after an exterior porch collapsed. However, those who want to save the building believe it’s structurally sound.
Lis Knibbe, an architectural historian who is leading the effort to save the Belle Isle Boathouse, says the building has immense historic significance, but Friday’s deadline for redevelopment proposals leaves little time to save the building.
“We should care about it because there will never be a building of equal architectural quality right at the entrance to the island where it sits, and it has the potential to be an asset to the island in the future,” she said.
According to the DNR, it would cost approximately $43 million to rehabilitate the building, or roughly $2 million to demolish it.
More information about the Belle Isle Boathouse project can be found on the DNR’s website.
WDET’s Jenny Sherman contributed to this report.
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