‘Homeland’ Actor Hill Harper Buys Downtown Detroit Coffee Shop

Film and television actor Hill Harper has purchased downtown Detroit’s Roasting Plant Coffee. Harper had previously worked as a brand ambassador and advisor to the company.

Harper, who portrayed Shelden Hawkes on CBS’s CSI: NY and Rob Emmons Homeland, grew up in Iowa but recently purchased a home in Detroit. “Having lived here filming two movies in Detroit over the past four years, I have come to love this city and its people. I believe in Detroit. It is truly a vibrant, unique and great American city,” Harper says in a release.

Harper’s Manifest Your Destiny Foundation, which supports underserved youth, will bring its Summer Empowerment Academy (SEA) to Detroit this summer. Meanwhile, the actor plans to grow the Roasting Plant’s job training program.

Facebook/Roasting Plant Detroit

“We’re so excited to now be partnering with Hill Harper to bring an entrepreneurial approach to empowering young people across the city,” says Roasting Plant founder Mike Caswell.

The New York-based coffee company — known for its proprietary Javabot roasting system that features a flashy arrangement of pneumatic tubes — currently operates four locations including two in New York and one in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Airport. A fifth location was in the works for Birmingham, Michigan, but appeared to be nixed following a legal disagreement among stakeholders.

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