DETROIT, MI - Detroit Fiber Works co-owner and artist Manisa Smith said her boutique saw a rush of business when it first opened during Detroit Design Festival on the Avenue of Fashion in September.
But since then, traffic has slowed. Smith’s retail concept won REVOLVE Detroit’s “Art + Retail on the Ave” completion last Spring as a pop-up retailer, and she said it is her goal to be permanent.
"I grew up in the neighborhood,” Smith said of the area of Livernois Avenue in Northwest Detroit. “I remember what the Avenue of Fashion used to be like.”
Efforts as of late have focused on attracting more business to the eclectic corridor, home to roughly 100 independent proprietors. Retailers, stylists, gallery owners, wholesalers and restaurants can all be found on this strip of Livernois.
On Saturday, Lori Maher, wife of recently elected Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, shopped a portion of the Avenue to draw attention to one of the city's most underrated independent business districts.
“We’re trying to get visibility up,” Maher said, as she carried several shopping bags after a bite to eat at Good Cakes & Bakes.
In addition to the bakery, Maher’s itinerary included stops at Love Travels Imports, Art in Motion, Voigt’s Soda House, Tender Moments and Detroit Fiber Works.
For the month of the December, the Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC) at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture is hosting the Livernois Community Storefront project at 19410 Livernois Ave. The pop-up includes Voigt’s Soda House, which was a finalist in the 2013 Hatch Detroit $50,000 retail competition, as well as Tender Moments, a specialty gifts and decorations shop.
April Cobb, a Detroit resident who began selling her Tender Moments products online four years ago, said she hopes to open a permanent location either nearby on the Avenue or in the Grandmont Rosedale neighborhood. She said older, established businesses on the Avenue have been supportive of the temporary and permanent newcomers.
“For so long we’ve had to leave the city to shop,” she said while wrapping a gift for a customer. “That tide is changing. And I want to be apart of it.”
David Muller is the business reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit. Email him at dmuller@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
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