Midwest Boxing Champions to occupy former Horvat's Piano Gallery
Boxing club will be located next to bar, will offer after-school youth classes
SHEBOYGAN — Midwest Boxing Champions could be the newest addition to Sheboygan’s Heritage Square.
Hope Community Church Pastor Michael Thomas is proposing to operate the boxing club in the space formerly occupied by Horvat's Piano Gallery at 1503 South 12th Street. The building is owned by Edward Horvat, who lives less than one block away in the city’s Franklin Park Neighborhood.
Horvat's Piano Gallery closed in 2018 and is currently being used for storage according to documents filed with the City of Sheboygan. Constructed in 1888, Baumann's Old Time General Store and J.P. Jensen & Sons was located on the first floor of the building while the second floor was apartment units. Horvat operates a soda machine in front of the building and Shoreline Metro serves the neighborhood with Route 5.1
If the City Plan Commission grants approval, the boxing outfit will be operating next to Sundance Saloon, a bar and grill. After-school youth classes will be held and could last until 9 PM.
Thomas also established Black American Community Outreach,2 a group he started in the wake of social unrest caused by “the injustice of police officers murdering or otherwise harming Black and African American communities.” Midwest Boxing Champions originally had plans to operate in the former Sunnyside Mall which is now Hmong Culture Services. It is unclear why those plans fell through.3
Sources
Route 5 South
Shoreline Metro
RAYS Youth Services Program Coordinator, Michael Thomas, Nominated for Award
Foundations Health & Wholeness