Detroit Development News

Detroit’s neighborhoods are popping with new business and shopping this holiday season. 

Like the Historic Hubbard Winter Market in Southwest Detroit, Dec. 9, where Tashhmoo Biergarten, 555 Gallery, Detroit Farm and Garden join a stellar line-up of your favorite purveyors of fine food, retail and art at the newest celebration of a historic neighborhood. The Historic Hubbard Winter Market will take place at 1759 20th St. from noon to 8 p.m.

The Historic Hubbard Winter Market is a collaboration between Southwest Housing Solutions, Southwest Detroit Business Association, COMPAS, REVOLVE and many others.
 
"The Historic Hubbard Winter Market is a great chance to support our local businesses, celebrate our historic Hubbard Farms and Hubbard Richard communities, and welcome new retailers and shoppers to our neighborhood this holiday season," says Rachel Perschetz, Real Estate Development Project Manager at Southwest Housing Solutions who’s leading the charge for Winter Market. "We can’t wait to show the rest of the city what this wonderful area has to offer."

Visit the event on its Facebook page for all the latest information on vendors, music, holiday cheers and -- of course -- bier.  

Plan another stop at Always Brewing Detroit Coffee Shop and performance venue in Grandmont Rosedale. Warm up over a fresh cup of coffee and listen to some great music with Detroit retail revolutionary Amanda Brewington. Always Brewing teamed up with Grandmont Rosedale Community Development Corporation to provide residents and a vacant space with a much needed caffeine fix. 

"We want to provide a space where you can have lunch with a co-worker, settle in with an amazing cup of coffee and a good book or perform your new song at our open mic," says Brewington. "We're getting to know the neighborhood and making sure we are what they want and need. Nearly 90 percent of our customers are from the area. We're always asking for feedback."

Located at 19180 Grand River Avenue, Always Brewing is open seven days a week, and open Thursday nights until 10 p.m. for special events. They serve locally sourced fair trade & organic coffee and tea and also feature locally made baked goods, sandwiches and salads. Check out Always Brewing for all the latest information on shows and hours. The pop-up is open now through Dec. 23 -- but hopefully much longer. 
 
Another holiday stop should be at Maison LaFleur in West Village. Maison LaFleur is a pop-up gallery specializing in contemporary culture. The gallery exhibits contemporary art, design, and limited editions.
 
"After being home for the past year, I am very excited to have my first pop-up in Detroit in this charming neighborhood. Detroiters have been so supportive and embracing making this wonderful opportunity an even better experience," says founder and director Ingrid LaFleur.

Maison LaFleur is popping up in the future home of the Red Hook at 8025 Agnes St. The pop-up is open now and will be open until Jan. 13. After you stop by Maison LaFleur don’t forget to pick up apparel from your favorite Detroit designers at PRAMU and place your holiday pie order at Coffee And (__).

Thanks to Michael Forsyth of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp for this report.

Avalon International Breads has long been a staple of the Cass Corridor but it's now becoming a staple in other Detroit neighborhoods.

The artisanal bakery launched in 1997 and steadily built itself into the anchor business near the corner of Cass Avenue and West Willis Street in Midtown. It has since garnered national attention for its breads and goodies made of organic and sometimes vegan-friendly ingredients. Its small storefront at 422 W. Willis is routinely packed with customers and employees making food 24 hours a day to meet demand.

That success prompted Avalon to begin searching for a new space to facilitate its expansion a few years ago. It has now opened a retail outlet at Henry Ford Hospital in New Center, is looking to expand its Midtown presence and is in the process of opening a much bigger production facility on the Near East Side not far from the Packard Plant.

"We have been over capacity for quite some time, at least since 2008," says Ann Perrault, co-owner & CEO of Avalon.

The new production facility is Avalon City Ovens, a $2.2 million project turning a dilapidated industrial building into a state-of-the-art bakery. Avalon bought the old warehouse at 6555 E. Forrest Ave. (near Bellevue Street) at the 2010 Wayne County Tax Foreclosure Auction. The 50,000-square-foot building is a major upgrade from its 3,000 square-foot-storefront in Midtown. Perrault expects to open the new facility in January.

That project comes not long after Avalon opened its second retail location last summer in the West Grand Boulevard building of Henry Ford Hospital. That space offers all of the foods Avalon is known for and employs six workers. Avalon now employs 55 people after hiring 14 since February.

Avalon is also looking at expanding its Midtown presence in 2013. Perrault says her firm is looking at moving its storefront from its existing space on Willis to a newer space on West Canfield Street next to Traffic Jam & Snug. That move is set to move forward next spring after the Avalon City Ovens project is complete. The new space will be consistent with Avalon's longstanding pledge to remaining a part of the Cass Corridor/Midtown community.

"This is definitely important to us," Perrault says.

Source: Ann Perrault, co-owner & CEO of Avalon International Breads
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

The renovation of 1444 Michigan Ave. is moving forward in earnest, helping activate another storefront in Corktown.

The century-old storefront near the corner of Michigan and Trumbull avenues has been undergoing a slow renovation in recent years as its owner, Anthony O'Donnell, used his own resources to put on a new roof and make other structural improvements. He has now secured a six-figure loan from the Detroit Development Fund along with some other state and national tax credits, allowing him to completely rehab the structure.

O'Donnell lives on the second floor and small set-back third floor of the building. He plans to turn the ground floor into a eatery and is in talks with a local microbrewer, Batch Brewing Co, to open up a nano-brewery in the ground floor.

"We have been talking about that for a few months now," O'Donnell says.

The plan is to complete the facade restoration of the building before the end of the year and white-box the first-floor commercial space by mid-2013. O'Donnell plans to renovate the entire building and the garage behind it, which comes to about 14,000 square feet of space.

Source:Anthony O'Donnell, owner of 1444 Michigan Avenue
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Now that work is finished at the Detroit Historical Museum, construction is about to begin at the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle.

The Detroit Historic Society, which manages both museums, plans to begin renovations at Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Dec. 9. The project will preserve the popular aspects of the museum, such as the Gothic Room at the museum's entrance, and add a few new exhibits that focus on the Detroit River and how it and the city connect to the Great Lakes.

"There will be much more interactivity," says Bob Bury, executive director of Detroit Historical Society. "There will be an exhibit about what it was like to pilot a freighter on the Great Lakes."

The Detroit Historical Society recently finished a renovation of is principal attraction, the Detroit Historical Museum, opening it to the public last weekend. The newly-redone space attracted 15,000 visitors in three days, shattering its attendance record.

The Detroit Historical Museum, located at the corner of Woodward Avenue and Ferry Street in Midtown, has added a Sander's store and a number of new exhibits, including the Kid Rock Music Lab (which traces Detroit's music history) and Gallery of Innovation, which features the works of local innovators both old (Henry Ford) and new (Josh Linkner). The museum has also refreshed some of its popular existing exhibits, like its Streets of Detroit exhibit.

"They can take a deep dive to see what life was like in the 1850s," Bury says.

Both museums will be open to the public for free. The work on the Dossin Great Lakes Museum is expected to be finished on May 17.

Source: Bob Bury, executive director of Detroit Historical Society
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Public lighting has consistently been a problem in Highland Park for years. Struggles to keep the streetlights lit and paying the electric bill for those lights was followed by DTE Energy removing several hundred streetlights from the inner-city suburb last year.

That problem gave birth to a new solution. Souladarity, a grass-roots group of local stakeholders, installed the city's first solar-powered streetlight last week and is making plans to bring another 200 to the city within the next five years.

"In the back of a lot of people's minds is what are we going to do about the streetlights around here," says A.J. O'Neil, one of the organizers of Souladarity.

The Souladarity streetlight was installed at 150 Victor Street, between John R and Oakland, and is shining down on the street now. The Michigan-made product utilizes super-energy-efficient LED lights which last longer than traditional streetlights. It also has a solar panel on top of the pole and its batteries are only a few feet below it, making the streetlight self-sufficient.

"It's completely self-contained," O'Neil says. "It's very theft proof because the batteries are locked away up high."

Souladarity is raising $6,000 to acquire and install the lights through a crowd-funding campaign. A little more than $5,000 of that has been raised as of Monday afternoon. For information on Highland Park's solar-powered-streetlight initiative, click here.

Source: A.J. O'Neil, one of the organizers of Souladarity
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

The Hamtramck Recycling & Transfer Center is getting close to opening and expects to create a few dozen jobs when it begins operations in 2013.

The green business is refurbishing an old waste-transfer building at the corner of Hamtramck Drive and Denton Street. The 32,000-square-foot building will pick out a number of recyclable materials from industrial waste, such as metal, cardboard, paper and plastics. The idea is to profit off of the wasted commodities that too often end up in the garbage.

"There is not really anybody who specializes in industrial waste," says Seth Kruger, president of Hamtramck Recycling & Transfer Center. "A lot of manufacturers are looking for ways to find less of their material end up in a landfill."

The Hamtramck Recycling & Transfer Center is a family owned business that has been in the works for the last year. It currently employs 11 people and expects to employ as many as 42 when its going full steam. The company hopes to begin operations in early 2013 and is looking to hire primarily local residents. So far about 50 percent of the firm's current workforce calls Hamtramck home.

"We're ramping up our employment to operate our system," Kruger says. "We will be hiring as the intake of material increases."

The project received $470,000 in brownfield tax credits last year from the state of Michigan. When the project began, the building had been vacant for several years and had fallen into significant disrepair.

Source: Seth Kruger, president Hamtramck Recycling & Transfer Center
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

The Imagination Station continues to grow in the shadow of the Michigan Central Station, adding a miniature golf course last weekend.

A sculpture class from Lawrence Technological University spear-headed the project, creating what's being billed as an "Urban Put Put : Detroit Mini Golf" course on the corner of 14th and Dalzelle streets overlooking Roosevelt Park. The Imagination Station is a public-art project taking place in two blighted houses turned into art between the miniature golf course and the Roosevelt Hotel.

"We were thinking in terms of functional sculptures," says Steve Coy, assistant professor of art & design at Lawrence Technological University who helped organize the project. "It's fun to have and fun to play on."

The Lawrence Tech class started a Kickstarter campaign to raise $2,000 to build the miniature golf course. It has raised $2,725 as of Monday afternoon and there are still two weeks left to collect donations. Coy expects to need those extra days to finish covering the costs of the project.

"We're definitely going to need more money," Coy says. "We're hoping the Kickstarter will continue to grow."

For information on the project, click here.

Source: Steve Coy, assistant professor of art & design at Lawrence Technological University
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Educational and entrepreneurial options are moving around and into Detroit this fall.

Eastern Michigan University is opening a new off-campus center on the city's northwest side at 7800 W. Outer Drive across the street from Wayne County Community College District's northwest campus. The 10,983-square-foot facility consists of space for faculty offices, classrooms, a computer lab and a student lounge.

EMU offers a wide range of courses and degrees in the new space, including nursing, social work and education sectors. The new office replaces a smaller location in the Northwest Activities Center.

The Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center, commonly known as MI-SBTDC, is also moving its offices from TechTown to the former Barden Communications building in downtown Detroit. Grand Valley State University purchased the building earlier this year and MI-SBTDC, which helps grow tech entrepreneurs and start-ups, moving into the space to be closer to Grand Valley State, which also is the home to MI-SBTDC headquarters.

"It's really about creating some synergies between Grand Valley State University and the Detroit office of MI-SBTDC," says Wendy Thomas, associate regional director of MI-SBTDC.

MI-SBTDC will move six employees into 1,500 square feet of space in the former Barden building, which overlooks Comerica Park.

Source: Eastern Michigan University and Wendy Thomas, associate regional director of Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Pop-up retailers have become "the new black" for holiday shopping in downtown Detroit, and more retail is on the way.

CityLoft, an assortment of more than 40 stores from The Somerset Collection in Troy, will open up a string of pop-up stores on Woodward just north of Campus Martius. It will join a number of other temporary retailers on the entire 1200 block of Woodward, which is the line of storefronts across from the site of the old Hudson Department Store.

"We want to engage and create a great retail destination in downtown Detroit," says Dan Mullen, director of real-estate development for Bedrock Real Estate Services, which is spearheading the effort to bring more retailers to the Motor City's Central Business District. "Because of Somerset's CityLoft success (from brief stints earlier this year and last year) we were able to attract Moosejaw to come to downtown Detroit."

Among the other pop-up retailers in the lower Woodward corridor this holiday season are, The Detroit Shoppe (a store with all Detroit merchandise), Santa’s Wonderland (a shop where kids can buy inexpensive gifts for the family), Detroit Art Shoppe (a market featuring original work from Detroit artists), Spinergy (a fitness studio with stationary bikes), and Papa Joe's Snack Rack (a mini-market with a sampling of products from Papa Joe's).

These stores are the latest in an effort by Bedrock Real Estate Services, the real-estate arm of the Quicken Loans family of companies, to create a retail destination in downtown Detroit. The idea is to create a unique retail experience through a combination of national retailers and boutique shops and restaurants.

The people behind these efforts are not only looking at filling vacant storefronts on Woodward but turning alleyways into dynamic spaces for pedestrians.

"Part of our plan is to take these alleys and create a very cool place where you can enter the building with great art and cafe tables," Mullen says. "It's all about street activity."

Source: Dan Mullen, director of real-estate development for Bedrock Real Estate Services
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

When the new Buffalo Wild Wings opens in a few weeks in downtown Detroit it will create 100 jobs with the potential of bringing even more to Detroit.

Diversified Restaurant Holdings, which owns the Buffalo Wild Wings and Bagger Dave's franchises, began renovating the Odd Fellows building at the edge of Greektown early this year. The first two stories of the 4-story building at Monroe and Randolph streets will house a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant and bar. That space will be able to seat 380 people. The whole operation will employ 100 people. The Buffalo Wild Wings is set to open on Dec. 8 and hiring staff has already begun in earnest.

Diversified Restaurant Holdings is renovating the upper two stories of the building into office space. The Southfield-based company is seriously considering moving its headquarters to the 7,500 square feet of space, a move that could bring another 18 jobs to downtown.

"That is still to be determined," says Michael Ansley, president & CEO of Diversified Restaurant Holdings. "We're still thinking about it."

A decision is expected to be made by the new year. He adds that even if his company doesn't make the move the upper floors will be gutted and ready to be leased to someone else.

Diversified Restaurant Holdings has 11 Bagger Dave's, a hamburger restaurant franchise, across the Midwest. It also has 31 Buffalo Wild Wings franchises across the U.S. The downtown Detroit restaurant will be No. 32. Two more are expected to open elsewhere in the U.S. later this year.

Source: Michael Ansley, president & CEO of Diversified Restaurant Holdings
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

The biggest retail store of the current trend of pop-up retailers has surfaced downtown. Detroit, say hello to Moosejaw.

The offbeat outdoor outfitter has opened a temporary location, commonly known as a pop-up store, at the corner of Woodward and Grand River avenues last week. The 1,800-square-foot space is smaller than the average Moosejaw store but will still carry most of popular and namesake brands. The Madison Heights-based retailer will operate the store during weekends through at least Dec. 22.

"It's probably the most permanent-looking pop-up you will see," says Bryan Lively, vice president of retail for Moosejaw. "The goal is to make it permanent."

He adds that initial traffic from last weekend is encouraging. Moosejaw officials expect to make that decision by early December, which could keep newly created jobs in downtown Detroit. If that happens, Lively expects it could be a sign of bigger retail things to come in the Motor City's center. "We think we can lead the momentum because of our quirkiness and our retail acumen," Lively says.

The trademark Moosejaw quirkiness is definitely there. The downtown Detroit store employs a living habitat in its front store window, such as a man making food while camping. The store also offers shoppers a chance to leave their mark/tag at the back of the shop. "It's the same quirkiness (shoppers would see at our normal store)," Lively says.

Source: Bryan Lively, vice president of retail for Moosejaw
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

The first residents began moving into the Broderick Tower and the Auburn apartment building last weekend, making room for dozens of new residents in the greater downtown Detroit area.

The Broderick Tower is welcoming the most residents. The high-rise renovation at the cover of Woodward Avenue and Witherell Street overlooking Grand Circus Park is fully leased except for one of its units. That means at least 124 new homes will be coming online over the next few weeks. The last available unit is a 1,030-square-foot apartment on the ninth floor with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The asking price is $1,450 per month.

"It looks down the Woodward corridor," says Eric Novack, a spokesman for Motown Construction Partners. "It's a fantastic unit. It's one of my favorites, personally."

The Broderick Tower opened in 1927 as the Eaton Tower. The 34-story building, designed by Louis Kamper of the Book-Cadillac Hotel fame, became the Broderick Tower in 1944 and spent most of its life as office space for professionals, such as dentists. It went vacant in 1985 and became a signature haunt for urban spelunkers in the 1990s and 2000s. Over the last two years, Motown Construction Partners have been working to rehab the historic building into restaurant and bar spaces on the first two floors, offices on the third, fourth and fifth floors and luxury apartments in the rest of the building.

Contrast that with the Auburn. The 58-unit apartment building is a piece of new construction at the corner of Cass Avenue and Canfield Street in Midtown. The Roxbury Group began construction on the mixed-use structure last year, creating a space for eight small retailers on the ground floor and 54 one bedroom and four studio apartments one the second and third floors. The Auburn replaces a blighted vacant lot and derelict commercial building.

Leasing on the Auburn began a few weeks ago and the building's apartments are now 60 percent leased with only one-bedrooms left. All of the retail spaces are spoken for except one. The developers are hinting that the last space will be occupied by a coffee shop. They add that the Auburn has created 100 construction jobs over the last year and will be the home to another 15 jobs when all of the businesses are opened and the new residents are moved in.

"We will be staggering the move-ins over the next few weeks," says Michael Martorelli, sales and leasing manager for the Auburn.

Architects from downtown Detroit's Kraemer Design Group are engaged on both projects. 

Source: Eric Novack, spokesman for the Broderick Tower and Michael Martorelli, sales and leasing manager for the Auburn
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Rock Ventures, the real-estate arm of the Quicken Loans family of companies, is breaking ground this week on parking garage/retail development in downtown Detroit on what project organizers are calling the Z Lot.

The parking garage will replace two large surface parking lots on the block surrounded by Broadway and Library streets and East Grand River and Gratiot avenues. The two lots share an alleyway in the middle of the block, creating a Z-shape when combined and viewed from above.

The 9-story structure will measure in at 535,000 square feet. That includes space for 1,300 parking spaces and 33,000-square-feet of retail space on the ground floor.

"No matter what we do we will always do ground-floor retail," says Jim Ketai, managing partner with Bedrock Real Estate Services, which is quarterbacking the project. "We feel it's important to create that sort of urban vitality."

The project will employ a contemporary design that camouflages the parking-deck portion of the building. "It's not just a parking deck," Ketai says. "We challenged out architects."

The parking space will accommodate the growing number of downtown Detroit-based workers for the Quicken Loans family of companies. Many workers are currently being shuttled from other not-so-nearby structures to the Quicken offices in the Compuware, First National, Chase and M@dison buildings. Rock Ventures also has the option to develop the former Hudson Building site nearby, but Ketai says the parking spaces will not be a part of any proposal to develop that site. Work on the parking structure is expected to wrap up by late next year.

Source: Jim Ketai, managing partner with Bedrock Real Estate Services
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Workers have broken ground on the project that will turn the former Dalgleish Cadillac car dealership into Wayne State University's new Multidisciplinary Biomedical Research Building.

The $93 million project is turning the longtime car dealership at Cass Avenue and Amsterdam Street into 200,000 square feet of research space geared toward life sciences. When the project is done it will become the home of 500 researchers and 68 principal investigators for the university.

While the project is Wayne State University's most expensive to date, it will be less expensive than building a brand new building from a vacant lot.

"That's the primary reason we're refurbishing Dalgleish," says Jim Sears, associate vice president for facilities management at Wayne State University. "It's nice not to start from scratch every time."

Wayne State University is going for LEED silver rating for the Multidisciplinary Biomedical Research Building. One of the green features will include replacing the car ramps with a 3-story atrium.

The Multidisciplinary Biomedical Research Building will have space for both wet and dry laboratories, faculty offices and common areas, as well as clinical space. Faculty members from across the university's School of Medicine, College of Engineering, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, School of Social Work, and Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences will conduct research at the facility. Ninety-three percent of the structure will be occupied by Wayne State University, with the remaining 7 percent housing partners from the Henry Ford Health System, including its bone and joint research program and biomechanics motion laboratory.

Researchers will work on a number of thematic areas, such as cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders such as diabetes, hypertension & obesity, systems biology, biomedical engineering, bioinformatics and computational biology, and translational behavioral science.

Source: Jim Sears, associate vice president for facilities at Wayne State University
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Cass Community Social Services broke ground on a $10 million rehab on the city's near west side last week, breathing new life into a classic art deco apartment building.

The Arthur Antisdel Apartments is the latest addition to Cass Community Social Services' campus, which now covers a roughly four block area just west of the Lodge Freeway and several blocks south of the Davidson.

"We're trying to build on what we have started," says Faith Fowler, executive director of Cass Community Social Services.

The $10 million project will turn the 4-story apartment building at 1584 Elmhurst St. into 41 units of permanent supportive housing for homeless people. The project's goal is to provide homeless men and women with safe, secure, attractive and affordable housing that is within easy walking distance of Cass Community Social Services' headquarters and other services, such as educational and 12-step programs.

The project will thoughly rehab the entire building using a number of sustainable practices, such as finding a new use for an existing structure. The Arthur Antisdel Apartments will also incorporate a geothermal heating and cooling system, which is the gold star of green-building practices. The Arthur Antisdel Apartments will be the first homeless housing project in Michigan to utilize a geothermal system, according to Cass Community Social Services.

Construction is expected to begin in earnest in November.

Source: Faith Fowler, executive director of Cass Community Social Services
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.