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The DNR Globe Building Outdoor Adventure & Discovery Center

(DNR website)

DETROIT, MI - The state's Department of Natural Resources is opening its new service center in the Outdoor Adventure Center along Detroit's riverfront Monday, the Associated Press reports.

With the move, the DNR's service center in Southfield will reportedly close. The move is part of a $13 million state project that has been transforming the 50,000-square-foot, 19th century Globe Building into the so-called Outdoor Adventure Center.

The DNR service center will offer access to conservationists and wildlife specialists.

Meanwhile, work continues on several major exhibits coming to the site, and those features should be complete early next year. Kayaking-themed exhibits will feature some of the state’s winding rivers. Fishing simulators will allow people to feel what it’s like to reel in a bluegill, or fight to land a steelhead. A hunting display will have a deer blind and a variety of pelts.

Already installed is a Cessna airplane that will be suspended from the ceiling, and that visitors can climb into.

The DNR expects about 1 million visitors each year to come and check it all out when the project is complete. There will be an admission cost, which a DNR spokesman told MLive last month still has not been determined. A representative of the DNR could not immediately be reached Monday morning.



The redevelopment of the 50,000-square-foot, 19th century Globe Building, which is also known as the Detroit Dry Docks Engine Works, is seen as a key piece of the ongoing revival of Detroit's riverfront by the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy.

David Muller is the business reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit. Email him at dmuller@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter