Derrick Coleman was a basketball star at Northern High School and Syracuse University. His 15-season professional career was spent in New Jersey for the most part, although he retired after a brief stint as a Piston.
Coleman is now entering a new phase in his life as a developer and entrepreneur. He opened Snyx Sneaker Bar on October 27 in a 1,400-square-foot retail plaza on Detroit's west side on Linwood at Clairmount.
The shop will sell exclusive Nikes ranging in price from $75 to $280 including the signature shoes of LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Rasheed Wallace. There are also Snyx locations in Chicago and Compton that are owned by friends of Coleman.
Other tenants will be The Barber Lounge, Hungry Howie's Pizza & Subs and a bill payment center. The $1 million project was financed by Coleman, Comerica Bank and the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation and it received a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
"Mr. Coleman's investment signals the return of neighborhood retail to underserved areas throughout our city," says DEGC's Olga Savic. "This retail plaza will capitalize on the untapped purchasing power that
Social Compact's Detroit DrillDown illustrated."
Coleman grew up in the area and still maintains a home nearby. He has plenty more planned for the neighborhood, including a catering hall and Sunday brunch restaurant in a former Urban League Building as well as a cleaners, farmer's market, car wash, laundry facility and a non-profit that will teach inner city youth how to become business people. He has purchased two blocks of property to this end and will invest up to $6 million in the vision.
Source: Olga Savic, DEGC
Writer: Kelli B. Kavnaugh
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