A $5 million gift from former Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer will help restore Detroit’s historic St. Cecilia Catholic School and gymnasium into a long-planned youth center, local nonprofit SAY Detroit has announced.
The donation from one of the world’s richest people is part of a $20 million campaign—itself the latest development in a yearslong effort to renovate the former Black sports mecca, which incubated many of the nation’s top basketball talent and benefited thousands of others.
The project, which aims to open the Bea Dworkin SAY Detroit Play Center at St. Cecilia, began in earnest in 2022 and has enlisted supporters ranging from the Detroit Pistons and former NBA players to SAY and its founder, well-known author and journalist Mitch Albom.
The name of the forthcoming center honors the late mother of Ballmer, who was raised in the Detroit area before rising in the business industry to become the second CEO of Microsoft after Bill Gates.
Ballmer’s contribution serves as an anchor gift and was revealed at a press conference on July 16 with Ballmer, Albom, Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield, Michigan State men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo, and St. Cecilia alumni. The latter included former Detroit police chief Isaiah “Ike” McKinnon, and former mayor and NBA star Dave Bing.
“I'm here today… because of my love for Detroit,” said Ballmer inside of the complex, which has been dormant since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My wife and I, we've been very blessed—very, very blessed—financially, and the thing we care about the most is giving every kid in the U.S. the kind of opportunity that we had."
SAY, founded by Albom in 2006 to benefit the city’s underserved population, is leading the redevelopment at St. Cecilia’s, known locally as “The Saint” and revered for its enduring legacy.
Opened in the early 20th century, the parish served the Nardin Park/Russell Woods neighborhood on Detroit’s west side and constructed its church, school, and gymnasium between 1921 and 1930. Originally serving an immigrant European-American population, it became predominantly Black amid White flight in the mid-20th century.
By the 1960s, “The Saint” was hosting a popular summer basketball league under founder Sam Washington Sr., helping to ease tensions in the city following the 1967 Detroit Uprising, which exploded in response to the anti-Black policies of the local government and business sector. The growth of St. Cecilia’s as a haven for the Black community led to its attraction as a breeding ground and showdown site for top basketball talent nationally.
After pronounced demographic shifts in the city and a decline in enrollment, St. Cecilia School was closed in 2010 and the gym was transformed into Ceciliaville, a recreation center for local youth that served the community for the next decade. The gym, which slowly fell into disrepair, became dormant in 2019.
Restoration efforts at the complex were originally spearheaded by the grassroots group Ceciliaville, taking its name from the former rec center and organizing donors and other support. SAY acquired the property in December 2025 from the Archdiocese of Detroit to continue the project in earnest, having previously opened its first SAY Play Center in 2015.
Ballmer’s gift to SAY is the largest in the nonprofit’s history and will help accelerate work on the property, which includes stabilization, roof repairs, and overhaul of the HVAC, electrical, and plumbing systems. Construction is set to begin later this year with a planned opening date in 2028.
Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.
