Paul Howard has plans for a new bar and restaurant in downtown Detroit.

Howard, a co-owner of nightclub and restaurant Cliff Bell’s and the Bronx Bar in Midtown, said he plans to open the bar, which will be similar to the Bronx, late this summer in the building at 25-35 E. Grand River Ave. that used to house the Biegas Gallery.

“It’ll be a neighborhood corner bar with a small kitchen and a patio,” Howard said Thursday morning.

The bar, the name of which Howard declined to disclose, is expected to accommodate around 80 people inside and another 40 on the patio.

Howard purchased the 12,000-square-foot building on Grand River at Farmer Street for $685,000, according to CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service.

Howard said the bar will have about 25 full- and part-time employees. Sam Spruill, a former co-manager of Cliff Bell's, will be a co-owner of the new bar, Howard said.

Charles Howard, senior associate in the Farmington Hills office of Transwestern, has the lease listing on the building, which was built in 1948 and also houses the Puppet Art Theater in about 4,000 square feet of space on the first floor.

The bar is expected to be in 1,500-2,000 square feet. The second floor of the building is vacant.

City permitting is in the works, according to Howard.

Cliff Bell’s is at 2030 Park Ave. and the Bronx Bar is at 4476 Second Ave.

Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412, [email protected] Twitter: @kirkpinhoCDB