Small businesses continue to flock to the Russell Industrial Center and Bazaar, making the old Rustbelt factory turned creative enclave arguably the most successful business incubator in Michigan.
Today more than 285 fledgling firms call the structure home. Six new tenants joined the complex in May, including a photographer, artist and lighting company. So far another four have signed up for space in June, including a web and graphic design firms.
The
Russell Bazaar, a flea-market-style retail center, continues to attract more clients, too. Occupied by independent retailers, the Bazaar's tenants range from clothing makers to computer repair shops. With 125 businesses, it is now
70 percent full and continues to grow.
"We're seeing people coming in asking for more square footage," says Eric Novak, the
Russell Industrial Center's leasing agent, adding that recent square footage requests he has seen have started at 10,000 square feet and up.
The Russell Industrial Center is a circa-1915 factory sprawling over several levels, wings and acres on the northeast corner of I-75 and I-94. It originally made chassis for the Murray Body Company and wings for B-29 bombers during World War II. It had shrunk to about 10 businesses and artists when Boydell Development Co. (the Nikki's Pizza folks) took it over in 2003.
Boydell decided to continue to rent out 600-1,000-square-foot spaces to artists and small business at rock-bottom prices instead of going after quickly vanishing industrial tenants. Now large, growing sections of the factory are occupied by these artists in a beehive of eclecticism and creativity allowed to flourish with low costs and a few, basic rules of respecting the building and each other.
Source: Eric Novack, leasing agent for the Russell Industrial Center
Writer: Jon Zemke
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