An award-winning restaurant with five Detroit-area locations announced plans Friday to expand into downtown Toledo’s redeveloped Fort Industry Square complex on Summit Street.
“This is an exciting move for us as we open our first location in Toledo,” Matt Buskard, the owner of Bobcat Bonnie’s. “There is a momentum of development in Toledo that we want to join, and when we visited your downtown for the first time, we fell in love with the city.”
The restaurant is slated to occupy 3,700 square feet at the Jefferson Avenue end of the complex with a 3,500 square-foot lower level and is scheduled to open in August, in time for the Solheim Cup international golf tournament scheduled to start Aug. 31 at the Inverness Club in Toledo.
Its owner expects the restaurant overlooking the Maumee River to employ between 80 and 100 people.
Bobcat Bonnie’s began in the former O’Blivion’s in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood and now has branches in Wyandotte, Ferndale, Ypsilanti, and Partridge Creek, Mich. It was ranked by Thrillist in 2019 as having one of “The Top 24 Best Brunches in America,” according to its announcement.
“Bobcat Bonnie’s shares a hip and eclectic aesthetic at all locations, each with their own unique twist that is sure to inspire our guests,” its statement said.
“This is another exciting announcement for the Fort Industry Square redevelopment,” said Kevin Prater, one of that project’s co-developers. “We are proud to be a part of the continuous development momentum and the community’s commitment to a sustainable downtown revitalization.”
The Fort Industry Square block on the river side of Summit, opposite the SeaGate Centre, overall is expected to cost $59 million and feature 90 luxury apartments as well as 80,000 square feet of commercial office and retail space.
First Published March 6, 2021, 12:09 a.m.
