The Detroit Economic Growth Corporation launched its new retail business program, Detroit REVOLVE, out of West Village last weekend, leveraging the year's first Tashmoo Biergarten weekend as a backdrop.
Detroit REVOLVE allows the
DEGC to partner with neighborhood stakeholders to create pop-retail shops with an eye for establishing permanent stores there in the not-too-distant future.
"Our goal is to help transform vacant storefronts into vibrant spaces," says Michael Forsyth, business development manager for the DEGC. "We want to do that with temporary businesses and art. We want to turn them into full-time businesses."
Detroit REVOLVE works with community leaders, building owners, entrepreneurs, and artists to fill the vacant commercial spaces. In West Village, the program created two spaces for pop-up retailers. Coffee and Donuts (a cafe) and
PRAMU (a store that sells Detroit-centric clothing) are the first temporary businesses to go into vacant storefronts in the ground floor of an apartment building at Van Dyke and Parker streets.
"(These businesses) have all the ingredients for success," Forsyth says. "You have a setting of cohesive, vibrant space. You have high demand from the community and you have great building owners."
Detroit REVOLVE plans to match more aspiring entrepreneurs with more artists and building owners not only in The Villages but throughout the city. The goal is to create a buzz in these commercial districts that will help them support long-term businesses.
Source: Michael Forsyth, business development manager for the Detroit Economic Growth Corp
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.