Detroit Development News

Hatch Detroit is down to its four finalists, a small group of promising business that have designs for creating jobs across the Motor City.

The four finalists include Detroit River Sports which plans to bring Kayak rentals to the city and offer tours through the canal districts around Belle Isle, downtown and elsewhere; Detroit Vegan Soul Café which plans to open a storefront business selling vegan food with a soul twist in West Village; La Feria which aims to open a Spanish tapas wine bar in Midtown and Rock City Pies, which specializes in unique combinations such as Salty Apple Carmel Pie and Blueberry-Custard Pie.

"We're happy with the diversity of this final four," says Ted Balowski, co-founder of Hatch Detroit. "Not only the diversity of ideas ... but the geographic areas they want to open."

These four contestants are competing for $50,000 in seed capital to open a retail location for their business in Detroit. Balowski and Nick Gorga launched Hatch Detroit last year as a vehicle to champion, support and grow locally-owned retail businesses. The nonprofit accomplishes this through funding its $50,000 contest, education, exposure, and mentoring. The bottom line is providing a stimulus that helps revitalize the city and inspires others in the community to create change.

Source: Ted Balowski, co-founder of Hatch Detroit
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

The third Woodward Tribute statue is up and glowing, this time in Highland Park. It joins similar tall, cylindrical sculptures in Ferndale and Pontiac.

The statues are part of the Woodward Avenue Action Association's Tribute Project, which is installing these sorts of sculptures along Michigan's Main Street as way to promote the corridor's history and culture through public art. The 30-foot-high columns are made mainly of glass and concrete.

The Highland Park Woodward Tribute sits at the intersection of Woodward Avenue and Gerald Street in a median on Gerald. It is framed by a mural on a drug store behind it that depicts the smoke stacks of the Ford plant where the $5 workday was made famous in the early 20th Century. The Woodward Tribute has images of a $5 bill and a dense figure in a top hat that looks like Henry Ford.

"It's (theme is about) what happened in the area," says Heather Carmona, executive director of the Woodward Avenue Action Association. "It's the story of Woodward."

Portions of these sculptures are being paid for by National Scenic Byway grants. The Woodward Avenue Action Association is still making plans to build another Woodward Tribute in Oakland County near the Royal Oak area and in the city of Detroit.

"That's our next target," Carmona says. "Where exactly we don't know."

Source: Heather Carmona, executive director of the Woodward Avenue Action Association
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Work on the Auburn apartment building is wrapping up this fall with the building's first residents set to move in within a few weeks.

Construction on the 58-unit apartment building began about a year ago at the corner of Cass and Canfield avenues in Midtown. The developers, The Roxbury Group, have signed on Center City Detroit to handle leasing and the building is now taking its deposits from its first residents.

"We expect to start moving in people in late October," says Michael Martorelli, sales and leasing manager for the Auburn. He adds that 128 people have put their names on a list to get one of the building's apartments. "We expect to be filled up by the time we start moving people in," he says.

The Auburn is a 3-story apartment building composed of four studios and 54 one-bedroom apartments. Prices at the new construction project range from $700 for a studio to $900 for a one-bedroom apartment.

Construction workers on the project have been plugging away at an accelerated pace over the last few months. Martorelli says they are now painting the units and installing the appliances. The ground-floor retail spaces are set to be ready before December.

"They're in the final stretch to get the units ready," Martorelli says.

Source: Michael Martorelli, sales & leasing manager for the Auburn
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

The final four of this year's Hatch Detroit competition are set to be named on Wednesday.

Voting to determine the four finalists for the second-annual competition finished yesterday. The contestants are competing for $50,000 in seed capital to open a retail location for their business in Detroit. This year's semi-finalists include some familiar names that have been growing their businesses from their homes and hope to leverage the Hatch cash to build a home for their budding businesses.

"There is a lot more experience in this group than what we had last year," says Ted Balowski, co-founder of Hatch Detroit. "A lot of them have worked through Eastern Market or the Rust Belt Market (in downtown Ferndale). They have worked very hard to build up their following."

Balowski and Nick Gorga launched Hatch Detroit last year as a vehicle to champion, support and grow locally owned retail businesses. The nonprofit accomplishes this through funding its $50,000 contest, education, exposure, and mentoring. The bottom line is providing a stimulus that helps revitalize the Motor City and inspires others in the community to create change.

This year's winner will be revealed on Sept. 27. Last year's winner, Joe Posch of HUGH, is close to opening his contemporary mens fashions store in Midtown. "He is going into the Auburn building, which still being built," Balowski says.

Source: Ted Balowski, co-founder of Hatch Detroit
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

One of the best parts of living in The Villages area of Detroit is returning this fall, Tashmoo Beirgarten.

The popular community outdoor beer drinking extravaganza launched out of a repurposed vacant lot in West Village last fall. This year it returns, noon to 9 p.m., on the weekend of Oct. 13-14, Oct. 20-21 and Oct. 27-28. Tashmoo Beirgarten, a semi-finalist in this year's Hatch Detroit contest, is participating in the pop-up retail program in The Villages in hopes of helping attract more stores to the collection of high-end neighborhoods on the east side by Belle Isle.

To help do that through the event, organizers are working to offer more options for patron. "There will be a wider variety of local food vendors," says Aaron Wagner, co-founder of Tashmoo Beirgarten. "We will be renting out space to a vegan food vendor. We will have options for people with gluten allergies."

Wagner started Tashmoo Beirgarten last year with his then fiancee, Suzanne Vier. The two hoped to expand the event's footprint this year but got married in August and spent most of this month preparing for the beer-drinking weekends. They hope to expand Tashmoo to other places in the city in the not-too-distant future.

Source: Aaron Wagner, co-founder of Tashmoo Beirgarten
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

What was once Leopold's Books is about about to become Emerald, a pop-up retail spin-off of the Peacock Room.

The recently closed book store in the Park Shelton is leaving a vacant retail space facing Woodward. It won't remain that way for long. Rachel Lutz, proprietriess of the Peacock Room, plans to open a temporary retail operation in the same space.

"I'm in the unique position to open Emerald pretty quickly," Lutz says. "I will be in the space on Oct. 1, and we have ambitions of opening on Oct. 5."

The Peacock Room opened last year just before the holiday season. The gift-shop boutique has thrived since then, expanding its staff to five people. Lutz is in the process of hiring another person to help her and her staff with the transition at Emerald. Emerald will be a gift shop similar to The Peacock Room and will remain open for at least six months. At time time Lutz will revisit the concept and see if she can turn the store into a full-time operation.

Source: Rachel Lutz, proprietriess of The Peacock Room and Emerald
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

The Lentine Group of businesses is making a homecoming of sorts to Detroit, bringing 150 new jobs to Woodbridge and expectations of another 50 hires.

"We just love being in the city," says Anthony Lentine, vice president of LeCom and Golden Dental Plans. "There is a real buzz in the city. It's a fun place to be."

The Lentine Group consists of LeCom Communications, LeCom Utility Contractors, Golden Dental Plans Marketing and UnionCircle.com. It has recently renovated a commercial building on Trumbull Avenue just north of I-94. That building is now the home to 100 jobs that were moved from the suburbs into the Motor City and another 50 hires. Lentine Group expects to hire another 50 people in the coming months.

"There is a lot of room there," Lentine says. "By the end of the year we expect to have 200 people working there."

Lentine's father built the structure on Trumbull in 1986 for an ambulance business the family once owned. Now the Lentine Group has invested $250,000 in renovating the building, including adding new fiberoptic lines in what Lentine describes as a "general upgrade to the property."

"It's really in an excellent location for our business," Lentine says. "It will reduce the travel time for our employees."

Source: Anthony Lentine, vice president of LeCom and Golden Dental Plans
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Whole Foods is putting out a call for artists to create four murals at its new Detroit store in Midtown.

The high-end grocer plans to put up four murals on the exterior of the building on Mack Avenue between Woodward Avenue and John R Street. The murals would be facing John R and will measure 23 feet wide and 14 feet tall. The murals will be attached to the building and Whole Foods is looking for just about any and all ideas.

"That (what kind of murals) is really open at this point," says Amanda Musilli, community liason for Whole Foods' Detroit store. "It can be a mixed-media piece if that is what somebody does. We probably won't do a steel sculpture because of weight restrictions."

Whole Foods is willing to pay for $1,000 in material costs and $7,500 for each of the four murals. Individual artists could win one or multiple or all four commissions for the murals. The funding for the murals is being provided by Midtown Detroit Inc. For information on the mural project, send an email to detroitmural@wholefoods.com. The deadline for submissions is Oct. 15.

Whole Foods is building a grocery store on the north side of Mack, just east of Woodward. Construction is underway and work is largely finished on the structure's parking lot. The store is set to open in late May or early June of next year.

Source: Amanda Musilli, community liason for Whole Foods
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Get ready for the the 2012 edition of the Wayne County Tax Foreclosure Auction. This year's auction is both bigger, more widespread and set to kick off by the end of this week.

The Wayne County Tax Foreclosure Auction has traditionally been held in real-time until 2010 when the vast number of properties up for sale forced its move to online sales. The 2010 auction set records with thousands of tax foreclosed properties for sale. Then last year's auctions beat those records with more than 10,000 properties up for auction. And now this year's auction is set of shatter those with just over 22,000 properties up for sale, and about 20,000 of those are in Detroit.

"It quite literally touches every single neighborhood in Detroit," says Jerry Paffendorf, co-founder of Loveland Technologies, which debuted a website last year (WhyDontWeOwnThis.com) that mapped all of those properties in Detroit. He adds that every Detroit resident will more than likely know of a tax foreclosed property near them or someone buying one because the auction is so far reaching.

He adds that auction could represent the largest change of hands of property in the city in one small time period (about one month) to date. To him it speaks to the challenges the city is facing in regards to land use, neighborhood stabilization and bevy of other issues impacting local citizens.

Paffendorf says the situation has interest in this year's auction has risen considerably. He wouldn't be surprised if larger investors descend on the auction and alter the playing field in a sale process that has traditionally been dominated by smaller investors.

"Don't be surprised if somebody buys everything," Paffendorf says, referencing one investor who bought every tax foreclosed property for sale in Macomb County last summer for a few million dollars. "I have to assume this will be the biggest auctions ever in terms of sales."

For information on the Wayne County Tax Foreclosure Auction, click here.

Source: Jerry Paffendorf, co-founder of Loveland Technologies
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Reclaim Detroit is starting to make multiple visible impacts across the Motor City.

The deconstruction/recycling program run by the WARM Training Center finds a new use for just about all of the materials from buildings that would normally be razed and sent to a landfill. It used century-old wood recycled from a deconstructed home in Hamtramck to build out the interior of Great Lakes Coffee Roasting House in Midtown. Reclaim Detroit has been hired to renovate the Stella International Cafe in the Fisher Building in a similar way.

"It will use reclaimed materials but if will have our own unique style," says Kevin Borsay, co-owner of Stella International Cafe. "Wood can have many different looks."

Work has begun on the small coffee house in New Center and is expected to be wrapped up by October. Reclaim Detroit will use a wide variety of recycled building materials and unearth the space's original terrazzo flooring.

"It's going to look more modern, more design-centric," Borsay says.

Stella International Cafe employs five people and plans to hire two more when it reopens in October. It is also looking at making some upgrades with Reclaim Detroit to its Guardian Building location in downtown.

Source: Kevin Borsay, co-owner of Stella International Cafe
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

A large group of young people with creative ideas to re-imagine Detroit gathered for the [de-fine] Detroit event in M@dison Building last week.

The event is the culmination of a creative competition a few dozen young people from Quicken Loans, Rock Ventures and ROSSETTI, along with students from Lawrence Technological University and the University of Detroit Mercy. The 20-plus participants created a variety of plans they see to re-imagine empty spaces in downtown Detroit and redefine how the Motor City is perceived.

Kelly Deines, Principal and Design Director at ROSSETTI, says the bottom line is to begin a conversation that will take Detroit into its future where young people repopulate its urban core and work to revitalize the city.

"You have got to dream to begin with," Deines says. "Every city that anyone cares about started with a dream."

The [de-fine] Detroit competition encouraged its participants to express their vision and experiences of the city through art. That creative process included a rap performance, architectural drawings with new proposals for old buildings and a number of other creative expressions on how to redefine Detroit.

"The question becomes what's the next phase?" Deines says. "We're not done."

Source: Kelly Deines, Principal and Design Director at ROSSETTI
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Momentum appears to be building for the M-1 Rail proposal that would bring a streetcar line to Woodward Avenue in the greater downtown Detroit area.

Matt Cullen, CEO of M-1 Rail, bubbled with confidence about the project while speaking to a group of young people at the presentation of [de-fine] Detroit competition last week. To him, M-1 Rail is a matter of when, and he expects to get the green light for it soon.

"M-1 Rail is going to happen," Cullen says. "We're going to get that done."

This coincides with a number of other reports in local media that the proposed streetcar line is close getting federal approval. The Detroit News reported earlier this month that U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood expects to a very good announcement regarding funding the project soon. Other local news reports have a regional transportation authority to run the streetcar line also in the offing.

A number of local corporate and philanthropic leaders have come together to raise more than $100 million to fund the 3-mile streetcar line. The proposal calls for building a light rail system along Woodward Avenue between Jefferson Avenue and Grand Boulevard. The privately raised money will act as the local match to leverage public funds from the federal government for the streetcar line and a regional bus rapid transit system.

M-1 Rail has been several years in the making and has come close to breaking ground a few times in recent years before suffering minor setbacks. Cullen believes those setbacks are behind the project and M-1 Rail's efforts is close to coming to fruition.

"You would have thought it would easier to hand somebody a $125 million check," Cullen says.

Source: Matt Cullen, CEO of M-1 Rail
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Conventional wisdom in Detroit dictates that The Villages is one of the ripest areas for retail success in the Motor City. A small group of local stakeholders has come up with a plan to help make that happen through a pop-up retail pilot program.

The Villages is a conglomeration of high-end neighborhoods (Indian, Islandview and West Village) on Detroit's East Side near Belle Isle. The new program seeks proposals to create retail and restaurant/bar businesses along Agnes Street between Van Dyke and Parker streets in West Village.

"The Villages are very dense neighborhoods," says Brian Hurttienne, executive director of The Villages Community Development Corp. "We are just lacking a commercial component to make it a very vibrant neighborhood, like bars, coffee shops, ice cream parlors. It's those sorts of things that raise the quality of life."

To make that happen, The Villages Community Development Corp is teaming up with the Detroit Economic Growth Corp, West Village Manor Apartments and Parkstone Apartments to solicit proposals to create full-time and temporary (commonly known as pop-up retail) businesses this fall and winter. The businesses would utilize vacant ground floor retail space in the apartment buildings.

"The pop-ups are expected to be a bit of an infill," Hurttienne says. "They could turn into a long-term tenant or be something quick, like an art gallery."

This pilot project is the first phase of a larger retail initiative for The Villages. The goal is to attract stable, long-term businesses to The Villages and other similar neighborhoods in the city. Participants in the program will have access to help to create innovative marketing and engagement strategies, real estate matchmaking services, and the suite of implementation resources that will be made available.

The DEGC is heading up the pilot program and is working to spread it to other local neighborhoods. For information, email Michael Forsyth here. The deadline for proposals is 10 a.m. on Sept. 10.

Source: Brian Hurttienne, executive director of The Villages Community Development Corp
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

U-Haul is staking a claim in Detroit by opening an office in one of the city's most visible buildings.

U-Haul bought the former Nabisco Building in New Center, which stands vigil next to the Lodge Freeway just south of West Grand Boulevard. The moving company is renovating the seven-story structure at 899 W. Baltimore St. so it can become a full-service moving and storage center.

"There is a lot of work internally that needs to be done," says Stuart Shoen, executive vice president of U-Haul. "For instance, we need to get water and power throughout the building."

U-Haul expects to have the space ready for truck, trailer and moving supplies by this winter. It has a long-term ambition of turning the entire building into a full-service station that offers both trailer and truck rentals and storage space in the structure's 250,000 square feet. The U-Haul office will employ about 10 people when it opens later this year. That staff has the potential to grow exponentially as it continues to build out the storage portion of the building.

The circa-1920 building was originally built as a bakery for the National Biscuit Co, which is now Nabisco. The building has been vacant for several years before U-Haul purchased it this summer and began renovations. U-Haul is taking on the project with long-term intentions to take advantage of the burgeoning growth in the greater downtown Detroit area.

"We know that we're going to be there for a long time," Shoen says. "We want to fulfill our obligation to the community."

Source: Stuart Shoen, executive vice president of U-Haul International
Writer: Jon Zemke

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

Cadillac Urban Gardens, a new urban garden in Southwest Detroit, is turning old industrial shipping crates into new planting boxes.

The community project is using 250 shipping grates from the General Motors' Orion Assembly Plant and turning them into containers for raised bed urban gardens. The raised beds are installed in what was an abandoned parking lot on Merritt Street. The food grown in the garden will be consumed by local residents.

"We were looking for options for these containers compared to traditional recycling," says John Bradburn, manager of waste reduction efforts for General Motors. "They are often shredded and end up in the steel industry. That's good but we wanted to do better."

GM also partners with a number of local companies and organizations, including Ideal Group, Detroit Dirt (which provided the top soil), the Detroit Zoo (animal manure), Astro Coffee (coffee grounds), Marriott Hotel at the Renaissance and GM's Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant (composted food scraps).

"It has really become a multi-functional group effort," Bradburn says.

Source: John Bradburn, manager of waste reduction efforts for General Motors
Writer: Jon Zemke

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