11/19/08 Once a hotspot for leaders, hall is being reborn

By Terry Parris, Jr.

Citizen Staffwriter

The former Holbrook Café building is getting a makeover.

Hamtramckan Mohammed Dueic is converting the old café at 3201 Holbrook into two new enterprises.

“I’ve lived in Hamtramck since ‘87,” Dueic said. “I know what people want and I have an idea of success.”

According to Dueic the people want a copy/fax shop and a grocery store. That’s what Dueic, in addition to two office spaces, is developing at the old café.

He said he started about a month ago renovating the old Holbrook Cafe and expects it to be completed in the next three months, as long as construction goes according to plan. He said, so far, he plans to pump about $100,000 into fixing up the vacant building.

Dueic said he’s new to the developing game but has owned and fixed houses in Hamtramck since he moved here. He saw this opportunity and jumped on it.

“I have an idea of success for that spot,” he said. “And I’ll be successful with it. It’s all I’ve ever been since I got to Hamtramck.”

The Café was formerly called the Polish American Century Club where the city’s movers and shakers once partied and networked. Hamtramck’s Rotary Club used to hold court in the back hall every Thursday.

Ronald Reagan made a lunch stop there in 1980 while attending the Republican Convention in Detroit.

It has been long rumored that it was here that Reagan selected George Bush, the elder, as his vice presidential running mate.

Several years later, Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis held a rally there. Unlike Reagan, Dukakis’s visit to Hamtramck didn’t lead to winning the election.