CityFARM is a business that specializes in designing and building urban gardens so it's no wonder the Ann Arbor-based social entrepreneurial venture has spread to Detroit in its first few months of doing business.
Beal Inc. launched
CityFARM last spring with the idea of helping bring more urban gardens into southeast Michigan by creating places for urban agriculture that are both well-designed and sustainable. The company has gotten off to a fast start taking in 35 clients in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area primarily through social media promotion and handing out fliers. Those fliers have now added two more projects this summer in Detroit's Indian Village neighborhood.
"We got a flood of calls from people asking what we do and the services we offer," says Stewart Beal, owner of
CityFARM. "Now we have two jobs in Detroit."
CityFARM currently employs three full-time employees and an intern but can have as many as 20 construction workers at a site depending on the project size. Most of its urban garden projects range in price from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. Beal sees a growing demand for this work as the business become more well known.
"It's really unlimited," Beal says. "In Ann Arbor we have 35 clients. We could have as many as 100 in Detroit in the next two years."
Source: Stewart Beal, owner of CityFARM
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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