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Non-Tech : SLJB - Sulja Brothers Building Supply, Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Done, gone. who wrote (179)	10/3/2006 8:46:36 AM
From: scion	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1681

Kore International is assembling land in the village for a more than $20- million development it describes as quaint and European, said Kore's director general Peter Vucicevich. Fame knocks on Colchester's door Sharon Hill Star County Reporter Friday, September 29, 2006 COLCHESTER - Detroit's Kronk Gym, famous for training champion boxers Thomas Hearns, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis, is coming to sleepy Colchester. "This quiet town is going to become a kind of famous town once we come here," Boxing Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward said Thursday. Steward and two of the Kronk fighters carrying their championship belts arrived in a white limousine at the Colchester marina to announce that Kore International plans to build a US$1-million Kronk Gym in the village on Lake Erie. Kore International is assembling land in the village for a more than $20- million development it describes as quaint and European, said Kore's director general Peter Vucicevich. The company is looking for about 20 acres of land for the gym, which it hopes to open in six months, he said. There aren't many limos driving down Colchester's main drag, which boasts two restaurants and an Esso gas station. Steward said the Colchester gym would be the first Kronk Gym in Canada and a "major landmark" that could serve as a tranquil training camp for pros. The original Kronk Gym in the steamy basement of a City of Detroit recreation centre closed in January. Detroit's budget woes and the theft of copper pipes that supplied the gym's water could mean the end of boxing at that site, but Steward said Kore is talking of buying another spot in Detroit for the legendary gym, which has also spawned a gym in Ireland. Steward said he would come over to the Colchester gym once a week. The gym could have two or three rings and accommodate 30 fighters. Josh Canty, president of the Border City Boxing Club in Windsor, said the gym would be great for Essex County. Border City boxers already head over to the Dearborn Kronk Gym once a week to spar with fighters. A Kronk Gym could put Colchester on the map and draw people, said 18-year-old Amanda Pedro, a waitress at Kervin's Restaurant on the road into the village. Steve Nykiforuk, a 61-year-old Colchester resident since 1979, said it's a great idea as long as the seedier side of life doesn't arrive with the boxers. He said he was surprised by the announcement in a bedroom community he estimated has 600 residents in the winter. "To come here, it's certainly going to change a lot of things." © The Windsor Star 2006 canada.com Kronk gym's future on ropes as financial difficulties mount BY MIKE HOUSEHOLDER \| THE ASSOCIATED PRESS news.cincinnati.com Last Updated: 8:37 am \| Saturday, September 23, 2006 DETROIT - Emanuel Steward covered his face with his hands - the same hands that made him an amateur champion and later a tutor to some of the world's top fighters. "I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet," he said softly. The Kronk - the dingy, overheated basement gym that has produced champions such as Thomas Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard and Lennox Lewis - is nearly down for the count, and Steward isn't sure whether to throw in the towel. The 62-year-old Hall of Fame trainer has been reaching into his own pocket to keep the Kronk running in the eight months since Detroit shut down the recreation center that houses it because of a major budget shortfall. But the potential knockout blow came last weekend, when thieves made off with copper pipes from the basement boiler room, cutting off the gym's water supply. Steward has been told it will cost between $20,000 and $40,000 to fix the damage to the gym he has run for more than three decades. "I don't have that kind of money," he said. He has two options: find money to get the gym running or open a new Kronk elsewhere. Ideally, Steward would like to repair the damage at the Kronk, but he worries about the likelihood of another robbery. In the meantime, Steward is renting space at a gym in Dearborn so his young fighters can train. The best of the Kronk's amateurs are scheduled to compete in two weeks in the National PAL Championships in Oxnard, Calif., and in October, several Kronk professionals are to appear on a card at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. But the uncertainty about the Kronk's future and the prospect of scraping together enough money to send his young fighters across the country is wearing on Steward. "This man is a legend. He doesn't deserve to have all this going down," said Bobby Bostick, a Florida fight promoter who is trying to line up corporate sponsorship for the Kronk to ease the financial burden on Steward, who says it costs him about $2,000 a week to run the gym. Steward says the gym and rec center are a benefit to the depressed southwestern Detroit neighborhood as well as the city. For one, it keeps at-risk kids out of trouble, Steward says, citing a recent attempted car theft in front of the building that was thwarted by Kronk fighter Johnathon Banks. "A lot of these kids would be in the streets" were it not for the Kronk, Steward said. "They live for this." news.cincinnati.com