The Kirk Gibson Center for Parkinson's Wellness in Farmington Hills unveiled a new multipurpose gymnasium last Friday, adding badly needed space to a facility that has already drawn more than 1,000 members since it opened less than a year ago. The 2,700-square-foot addition is named the Robert A. Loepp Sr. Multi-Purpose Gymnasium, honoring the late father of Dan Loepp, the former Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan CEO whose family foundation funded the project.
According to The Oakland Press, the Daniel J. Loepp Family Foundation provided a $1 million gift that made the new gym possible, and both Dan and Amy Loepp attended last Friday's unveiling. Dan Loepp's father lived with Parkinson's disease for more than a decade, a fact the family has cited as the reason they chose to back the center's expansion. Dan Loepp said naming the gymnasium for his father will help people living with Parkinson's find strength, while Amy Loepp said her father-in-law's experience with the disease led her family to support the center.
The gym sits inside the existing Kirk Gibson Center, which opened in October 2025 inside a former commercial fitness facility that architectural firm Gensler transformed into a standalone, 32,000-to-40,000-square-foot wellness venue, according to Healthcare Design Magazine. The center is located at 31440 Northwestern Highway, a site the foundation intentionally chose within a 30-minute drive of 70 percent of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb county residents, putting it within reach of an estimated 8,000 Metro Detroiters living with Parkinson's, per SvKMP.
A Facility That Outgrew Itself Almost Immediately
Before the new gym opened, the center was already operating at or near capacity, offering more than 140 classes per week across 38 certified coaches, according to ClickOnDetroit. The $1 million gift was announced in May, and construction on the gymnasium was completed within three months to make Friday's August opening possible, the station reported. The pace reflects how quickly demand outstripped the original footprint after the center's late-2025 launch.
Kirk Gibson, the former Detroit Tigers star who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2015, said the new multipurpose gymnasium will meet the needs of the center's rapidly growing membership. The Kirk Gibson Center offers classes at its facility completely free of charge to members and caregivers, without requiring insurance coverage, according to Gensler's project documentation. Gibson formed his foundation to help fund that model, and the new space is expected to increase the number of classes and programs available to people living with the disease.
How the New Space Will Be Used
The new gymnasium supports the PWR! Moves Parkinson Wellness Recovery program, a method developed by neuroscientist Dr. Becky Farley that targets neuroplasticity through high-effort, large-amplitude exercises addressing rigidity, slowness, and balance deficits, according to the Center for Movement Challenges. The approach relies on functional posture and stepping drills designed to retrain brain-body connections rather than simply build strength.
An estimated 30,000 to 35,000 people live with Parkinson's disease across Michigan, making it the fastest-growing neurodegenerative condition in both the state and the nation, according to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. That scale of need underscores why a center offering no-cost, insurance-free therapy has filled up so fast in its first year, and why organizers moved quickly to add capacity rather than turn new members away.
A Foundation Rooted in Personal Loss
Gibson originally established his foundation in 1996 to award college scholarships to local high school students, honoring his educator parents at Clarkston and Waterford Kettering high schools, before expanding its mission to Parkinson's research and wellness following his own 2015 diagnosis, according to Hour Detroit. The Loepp family's involvement predates Friday's ribbon-cutting by years. Dan and Amy Loepp served as executive co-chairs of the 2019 “Everybody vs. Parkinson's” gala, which raised more than $1 million split between the Kirk Gibson Foundation and the Michigan Parkinson Foundation, according to MIBlueDaily.
Dan Loepp led Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan as president and CEO for nearly two decades before retiring on January 1, 2025, a tenure detailed in a PR Newswire announcement of his succession. With the Robert A. Loepp Sr. Multi-Purpose Gymnasium now open, the center's leaders say the added space is meant to keep pace with a membership base that has grown far faster than anyone anticipated when the doors first opened after Gibson stepped away from broadcasting.
