AKRON Ohio (WJW) – The LeBron James Family Foundation used March 30, also known as 330 Day, to reveal some of its newest major undertaking to the general public.
House 330 is a complete transformation of the old Tangier into a space that provides entertainment facilities, snack shops, a coffee bar and more, including a one-of-a kind LeBron James museum.
Although most of the eventual site remains under construction, hundreds took advantage of Wednesday’s tours to see first hand what is happening inside one of Akron’s most iconic buildings.
“Just a lot of hard work in here and just to bring people in to see the transformation, really exciting,” said Michele Campbell, the foundation’s executive director.
Campbell expects the site to eventually become a destination, not only for residents of the Akron vicinity but for visitors from throughout the country.
“It’s a way for us to open our doors to the community and make this a destination in Akron, our hometown, that our whole city can be proud of and people can come here and see those ‘we are family’ philosophies in action,” said Campbell.
The philosophy involves providing jobs and job training for students and families of the foundation’s I PROMISE program in areas from hospitality to food service, to entertainment and even finance.
House 330 will also include a bank, a large banquet hall, a sports bar and a wine bar.
Employees will have space to gather and to help them become the best version of themselves near the completely updated and renovated kitchen.
“This area is actually the employee area, barber shop beautician, braiding station, a place for gaming, a place to do homework in between if you come to work early,” said Campbell.
Partners including J.P. Morgan Chase, The J.M. Smucker Company and Mitchell’s Ice Cream are all-in with the vision.
“There’s something about ice cream and sweets… It adds to somebody’s day and somebody’s life and you can have nice memories centered around getting a scoop of ice cream or having any of those other treats too,” said Pete Mitchell, a co-founder of Mitchell’s Ice Cream.
“This idea about how to bring the families together to have a space that’s big enough to accommodate them all, that’s the vision of hometown hall,” said Tamara Fynan of J.M. Smucker.
The museum is expected to house many never before seen items of Lebron James life and career from youth trophies to a re-construction of his high school locker room, memoirs from his youth playing basketball at the salvation army gym, a massive collection of shoes which will encompass the ceiling of one of the rooms, a room that displays his achievements in the entertainment industry and another area that pays tribute to his work over the past 11 years in the Akron community through his Lebron James Foundation.
While the building will be different than it was through generations that enjoyed visiting it as the Tangier, some items inside have been retained to help preserve those memories.
The cabaret, with its Las Vegas style atmosphere, will be upgraded but will remain almost exactly the atmosphere it held when some of the nation’s top entertainers would grace its stage.
It will eventually be used for new performers and for I PROMISE school activities.
“Back in the day, I know this was one of the ten highest revenue generating event centers in our country and we want to bring that back. We want to have a wedding going on there, hundreds of people in the sports bar, a group downstairs in the museum,” said Campbell, who said she could think of no other venue like House 330 in the country. “I think there’s pieces and parts, but I feel like the LeBron James Family Foundation is building that template here in Akron, Ohio for the rest of the country to come see and learn.”