GRAND RAPIDS, MI — As Mark Secchia walks through the former Riverfront Fitness Center, whose century-old cavernous rooms once housed a swimming pool, basketball courts and workout areas, he talks enthusiastically about his plan to rejuvenate the long-vacant building just north of downtown.

Bocce ball courts, 60 feet long and built by a group of Italian craftsmen, are planned for the first floor, he says. A lounge and restaurant with sliding garage-style doors, outdoor seating, darts, and other games is envisioned for the northern edge of the building, 975 Ottawa Ave. NW.

Upstairs, a large gymnasium, which once housed film screenings and events for the Berkey and Gay Furniture company, is being eyed as an event space. It could house weddings, banquets, concerts and more.

“Selling my last business afforded me the opportunity to retire,” said Secchia, 50, a retail entrepreneur and son of the late philanthropist and U.S. Ambassador to Italy Peter Secchia. “I would much rather do this. This is exciting. It’s fun. It’s risky. But it’s also rewarding.”

Secchia, who spent two decades in China and seven years in Silicon Valley before returning to Grand Rapids in 2021, calls the concept The Rec Room. There’s lots of details to finalize, including nailing down construction plans, bidding the project, and finalizing the restaurant concept and name. But Secchia says he’s confident he’ll be ready for customers next year.

“We’ll be open within the next calendar year without a doubt,” he said, noting he expects the overall building to have capacity for between 1,500 and 2,000 people, making it an appealing space for large, corporate events. “If we have to, we’ll open in phases.”

The former Riverfront Fitness Center building, which Secchia says he bought for $2.5 million earlier this year, is located amid an industrial stretch of Ottawa Avenue NW in the burgeoning Monroe North neighborhood.

The area, just east of the Grand River, has seen lots of development over the past five years. That includes a 250-room Embassy Suites hotel, and a 16-floor apartment building with a restaurant and coffee shop at 601 Bond Ave. NW. In addition, an eight-story Corewell Health office building with capacity for more than 1,000 administrative employees is under construction now.

Downtown Grand Rapids Inc., a nonprofit that coordinates development in the urban core, has also worked to activate the area with the Return to the River festival and other events.

Secchia hopes to tap into that energy.

While his building is located next door to two manufacturing buildings on a street with little foot traffic, he hopes to draw people in by creating a “destination.”

“We just feel this history, we feel this energy, and we kind of get so much good feedback from people visiting it that we feel like if we fail, we’ve really effed this up,” he said. “I feel like it’s been handed to us on a platter. We just have to make it a destination, because it’s not a very high foot traffic area.”

He’s confident about his chance for success.

As he spoke with business and community leaders about his idea, he said he was told that “what Grand Rapids is really lacking is a place to do a corporate function for more than 200 people.”

“Anybody can find a place for 60,” he said. “But when you want to get to that 250-person spot, right now you’re stuck in a ballroom with no windows, listening to speeches. It’s just that same old party. What we want to do is bring those kinds of parties here.”

Those parties could revolve around an activity Secchia grew up playing with his father.

On a recent morning, as Secchia walks through the aging, torn-up building, he shows off a first-floor room with more than 20-foot-tall ceiling and balcony that hosts the remnants of the Riverfront Fitness Center’s swimming pool.

If he gets his way, the space would be transformed into an activity room with professional-grade bocci ball courts, as well as a renovated second-story balcony where guests could sit at tables or bar stools and watch the action unfold below.

The idea, Secchia says, is to create a fun but “rowdy” atmosphere.

“Each court will have a suspended scoreboard over it so you watch if your boss is playing somebody or if you’re next you can know when you’ve got to get down there,” he said, describing the Italian bowling game that’s played using eight weighted balls that are rolled along a court.

Secchia, who went to high school in Rome for two years when his father was the U.S. ambassador, said bocce ball is the perfect game for events and socializing. He grew up playing the game with his father at the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America, a fraternal group, and says bocce ball can be enjoyed over a beer or bite to eat.

“It’s a sport where you’ll need one hand to play it so you can have that drink or have that appetizer,” he said. “Because that’s how we’re going to survive is by food and drink.”

Creating the courts is an intricate process.

The floor will be prepared using a laser monitor, and the 60-foot-long courts cannot “vary in elevation more than the width of a dime,” Secchia said, because then “your balls will start to do funny things.” He says he plans to fly a group of five to seven Italian craftsmen to Grand Rapids to make the courts, a process he expects will take about two weeks.

He said he believes the game will be a hit with customers.

“You can spin the ball and it will go around other balls, you can hit it off the wall,” Secchia said. “It’s just a really amazing experience.”

The Rec Room, which Secchia is calling the project, represents a new venture for the businessman.

For more than two decades, his primary area of focus has been retail development. He’s owned shares in restaurants before, and in 1999 in China he launched Sherpa’s. Secchia says the company was China’s first food delivery service, and it had almost 500 employees when he sold it in 2013.

“My family’s done a lot of development, but I’m not a developer,” he said. “I’ve never found real estate sexy. It just wasn’t something that I was attracted to. I’ve never been an active decision maker or project manager. So that kind of scared me. I’m a retail entrepreneur.”

But he says he’s excited about The Rec Room. He likes the opportunity to bring something new to Grand Rapids.

“I like to find something a little different, a little unique,” he said. “Let’s not do what everyone else is doing. So kind of intentionally, around Grand Rapids, I haven’t visited any other concepts. We’re just going to do what we think is the right thing to do and price it the way we want to price it.”

He’s getting a helping hand from Sarah Andro.

Andro, a restaurant industry veteran who owned Saburba in Ada and helped open The Chop House and Bar Divani in Grand Rapids, says she and Secchia bonded over their love of Tootsie Van Kelly’s. The energetic, saloon-style restaurant was opened by Secchia’s father at the Amway Grand hotel from 1981 through 1995.

She hopes to help bring that same energy, creative spirt and good food to The Rec Room.

“It’s nice to have someone that embraces that creative uniqueness,” she said of Secchia. The menu and concept is still being developed, but she said the restaurant will “exceed people’s expectation.”

“I think when you go to a place like this you, have an expectation of like chicken wings in a basket,” she said. “It’s not going to be that or popping pre-made mozzarella sticks in the fryer. I think people are going to be delighted by the menu.”

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