From skating around a loop to scoring some hoops, or grabbing some snacks to swinging in a twirl, the Monroe Street Midway has brought out the kid in all of us over the past three years. The Monroe Street Midway has become a playground destination, centrally located between Greektown and Campus Martius Park in downtown Detroit.
This weekend, you may want to catch a roll around the outside roller skating rink, or one of may activities at Midway for one last time. The outdoor space which has brought families across Detroit together will conclude its final summer of operations at the location.
The downtown site was initially set to be the future home of the Monroe Blocks, a mixed-use development first announced in 2018. Amid the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the stalled Bedrock project shifted it plans to create a space in which families of all ages have enjoyed all year long. Bedrock announced earlier this year that development plans for the long awaited Monroe site would resume soon as The Development at Cadillac Square.
Bringing outdoor skating to downtown Detroit was something new and innovative when the Monroe Street Midway opened to the public in 2021.
When Bedrock decided on its plans for the vacant site at the time, it tapped Kyle Black, owner of Rollercade, a longtime Detroit roller skating rink. When Bedrock partnered with Black, they did so with someone who is local, embedded into the fabric of Detroit, holding down his family’s generational legacy in a roller skating business still operating on Schaefer near I-75.
It became the prime downtown hangout spot for date nights and recreation, and garnered national attention for the uniqueness of being a playground for all ages located in the center of a booming metropolis.
The downtown destination will no longer serve as the city’s “downtown playground” after the end of December this year, as it shuts down permanently to prepare for the 2024 NFL Draft in April, then construction of new multi-use office, residential, and retail buildings. Construction is slated to begin in the fourth quarter of 2024.
You can enjoy it for one final time over this Labor Day Weekend. Hours are Friday and Saturday from 12 PM – 11 PM (ages 21+ after 7 PM), and Sunday and Monday from 12 PM – 9 PM. To celebrate the closing weekend of the Midway, there will be live DJs, food trucks, and an epic weekend of skating, basketball, and fun. Most activities are free, but skating costs $13, which includes the price of skates.
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