Kyle Young and Bobby Rosenberger

Chefs and business partners Kyle Young (left) and Bobby Rosenberger bought 1027 Broadway on the condition that they would preserve the historic building. They intend to turn it into “a dive bar with a fine dining aspect” called the Old Loon. | Mark Bialek

On March 16, 2020, Eunice Choi, Realtor and owner of the Broadway Party Store, confirmed a permanent closure of her business with a handwritten sign stating “We are closed … Covid 19.” Beyond the sign, sun-bleached bags of chips sat on shelves, and stocked display refrigerators stood dark.

The solid-brick Italianiate structure at 1027 Broadway St., built in 1874, is one of Ann Arbor’s oldest commercial buildings. Named the August Herz Building, it was sold to Hisok Hi Lee and Jong Ok in 1992. Nearly three decades later, the property, operating as a party store, was sold to Hi Lee’s daughter, Eunice Choi. And then, on that mid-March day in 2020, the sign appeared. There it sat, a party store from an earlier time, preserved in metaphorical amber.

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On Broadway: At the corner of Broadway and Moore, three closed storefronts have shown little visible signs of life, save for the overgrown weeds, since 2020.

Chefs and Carrozza Pizza co-owners Kyle Young and Bobby Rosenberger had been eyeing the property and contemplating a new restaurant concept. Enter family friend and Realtor Stephanie Savarino, who, coincidentally, was one of the few people Choi would speak to about the property.

“I mentioned that the building had been sitting for a while, and if [Savarino] ever heard anything, to let me know. Stephanie called the next day,” says Young. “Eunice was really intimidated and stressed by all the developers, so she invited us to walk through the building.”

It wasn’t pretty. Before closing, the Choi family had lost their certificate of occupancy, and Young says the building appeared to have been untouched from the moment they departed—there were unopened cases of beer and cans with expiration dates from the 1990s.

“I think condemned is probably not the right word,” he says. “They were not legally allowed to occupy the building until there was some work on the chimney and stairs.”

Choi agreed to sell Young the property under the condition that he worked to preserve the historic building rather than demolish it. “We told her we did not want to change a thing, and we would keep it as close to the same as we could,” says Young. Lowertown Ventures LLC acquired the property in February 2023 for $2.1 million.

But the promise to preserve is easier made than kept.

As Young tells it, years of unpermitted work have taken their toll on the building. An AC unit was forced into place. An exterior staircase built without city oversight needed to be demolished. Two dusty refrigerators that were never properly installed caused occasional water leakage through the main-level floorboards into the basement, corroding the lower-level foundation. The ceiling and basement walls are both threatening collapse. Young estimates that bringing the property to code will cost upward of $1 million.

“There are floor joists fully hanging off the wall,” he says. “The building has eight inches of lean in the floor. It is a ton of structural work that needs to be finished. From there,” he continues, undeterred, “we will start building it out into a restaurant.”

Their vision for the property is to open a bar and grill—“a dive bar with a fine dining aspect. It will be well-executed food with an approachable atmosphere”—that they’ll call the Old Loon. The name change will mark the first time since 1958 that the property will be known as anything other than Broadway Party Store.

Of course, there’s much to be done before the Old Loon opens its doors. Young says their work is in its infancy. They’re currently doing a round of code review and figuring out a plan for renovations, which he says could start in “around six months.” From start to finish, the renovations could take a year, and maybe two.

“We are working hard to deliver something cool to that neighborhood, and we want to make sure we are doing it the right way,” says Young. “If I could snap my fingers and get it done now, I would.”