Old Niles Packaging warehouse gets new business
NILES, Mich. - Thursday morning Cliff Seyfried stands in the middle of his newest business venture, Sports Warehouse. It’s an indoor sports facility located in the old Niles Packaging facility on Terminal Drive on Niles' north side.
Seyfried admits he's in uncharted territory. "It's one of those things. We’re just going to find out as we go, because I don't really have a clue to what I'm doing."
Sports Warehouse is 20,000 square-feet. It is an indoor complex with a basketball court, a baseball infield and batting cages.
Seyfried isn't a huge sports buff. "There's more demand than there is supply," he says. He's a business man.
He owned what used to be in the building, the Niles Packaging Company. Seyfried sold it, it moved out and he still had the building.
"He wanted something to do, and found we didn't have an indoor sports facility like that, so he said 'we got the space let’s do it,'" says Shelley Klug with the Southwestern Michigan Economic Growth Alliance.
Klug helped Seyfried show the building to other manufacturers while it sat empty. There wasn't much interest so Seyfried did something different. "Of all the buildings, I've not seen anything other than manufacturing to manufacturing, so it's kind of unique," says Klug.
You can still see what it used to be. When you make a three-pointer from the basketball court you can still see the old industrial doors in the background.
"In my mind, it'll always be Niles Packaging," says Seyfried. "That's what we did yesterday, and now it's a new challenge and I'm looking forward to it."