DETROIT – There's a new plan for Cantrell Funeral Home in Detroit, and residents in the area are more upset than when the state shut down the business.
Right now, the old site of the funeral home is being transformed, and the owner said it's going to be a helpful community asset. But the new business isn't sitting well with neighbors and nearby businesses.
The building at the corner of Mack Avenue and St. Clair Street in Detroit used to be the infamous Cantrell Funeral Home, but now state officials are going after the former owners and making sure the business never opens again.
The building is now being converted into a community center.
Resident Jay Smith said he's worked hard for 30 years to keep his flower shop going as the neighborhood declined. He had high hopes for what would replace Cantrell.
"He was going to have people coming in to do tutoring and just to do exactly what the Salvation Army was doing with the kids after-school programs," Smith said.
Instead, he said he's seeing what appear to be drug addicts in his shop.
Smith said he sees an ambulance for detox patients in front of the Cantrell building every day.
The new owner of the building, Naveed Syed, put up an awning for quality behavioral health. His drug rehab company is just a few blocks away on Mack Avenue.
"Now, if he's going to do a community center, I need for him to do that, not with the drugs, not the rehab," Smith said. "I need him to do a community center. If he doesn't know what the words 'community center' entail, he should ask somebody."
Southeastern High School is just around the corner, and Hutchinson at Howe Elementary School is down the street.
Neighbor Pamela Heags also wants the city to crack down on Syed.
"I don't see anything on the building saying anything about a community center," Heags said. "QBH is a drug rehab facility. either it's going to be a community center or a drug rehab. Which one will it be?"
Local 4's Rod Meloni knocked on the door of the old Cantrell building, but there was no answer. A call was not answered, and there was no reply to the message.
Local 4 asked one of Syed's community supporters, a former Detroit City Council member, to have Syed return the call, but that hasn't happened.
Local 4 is still trying to contact Syed about the situation.