24G Facebook photo
The classic Thunderbird Lanes on Maple Road in Troy, built in 1957, was host to many birthday parties and the TV show “Beat the Champ."
In 2015, it closed.
Shortly after, Scott Wiemels, CEO of 24G, a digital marketing firm with a client list that includes Volkswagen, Google, Nike and Microsoft, spotted the vacant bowling alley in a real estate listing and decided to make it his new headquarters, the Detroit Free Press reports.
He consolidated the firm's three offices in Clawson and Troy into a central office.
The bowling alley is now a hip working space.
Wiemels, 42, grew up in Rochester and had bowled at Thunderbird dozens of times. He bought the building for $1.95 million in January 2016 and turned it into "one of Oakland County's more creative building reuses of recent years," writes JC Reindl of the Detroit Free Press.
He also kept 10 of Thunderbird's 46 bowling lanes in working order for 24G's employees and visitors to enjoy.
As part of the renovation, wood from dismantled lanes was incorporated into the redesigned building's new wall paneling, conference room tables and employee workstations, Reindl reports.
Wiemels tells Terry Oparka of CG Newspapers that he started the business in the basement of his Royal Oak home 10 years ago, then expanded and renovated a former feed store on 14 Mile in Clawson. He later expanded from there.
“The character and history (of the buildings) become part of the (company) culture,” he told the publication.
