Eric Novack often describes the
Russell Industrial Center as if it were its own city. The old factory turned
business incubator
is a virtual beehive of activity with people coming and going from
every corner of the 2.2 million-square-foot facility at all hours.
A
typical day for the leasing agent for the Russell means driving in
while dodging traffic coming in and out of the parking lot. Someone
usually stops as he heads into his office a few feet from the main
entrance — tenants, his boss and whoever else happens to be in the
Russell that day. Before Novack knows it, an hour of his day has
slipped by him.
About 150 or so businesses rent space at the Russell. And now there is the
Russell Bazaar,
an eclectic market that promises to more than double the number of
tenants in the building when it opens this weekend during the
People's Art Festival on Sunday, Sept. 21. (Note: The festival had been scheduled for last week but was moved to this weekend because of rain.)
"We went from a slop drip to a stream," Novack says of the flow of tenants. "Now we're about to see some flash floods."
The
Bazaar will feature a wide variety of small businesses. They'll range
from an artist gallery to a golf retailer to a hair salon, all in rows
of side-by-side booths. Tables for even smaller retailers will line the
middle of these hallways.
"When Dennis (Kefallinos, the owner of the Russell Industrial Center) put in all of that money, I was shaking. But the response has been phenomenal," Novack says. "I call them gut businesses because they have the guts to do it."
Tiffany
Lake is one of the retailers moving into the Bazaar. Her store,
Privileged Circumstances Footwear, has a small boutique in Southfield,
but she wanted the diversity offered not only in the Bazaar but in the
city of Detroit.
It only cost $300 to set up her shop in the
Bazaar. While other retailers have spent thousands (the hair salon
looks like a real hair salon found in a regular storefront), some just
want the ability to set up shop cheaply and efficiently.
"There
hasn't been retail like this in Detroit for a long time," Lake says. "I
think it's going to be a unique shopping experience in the city."
Not so bizarre bazaarThe
concept for the Russell Bazaar is pretty simple. Provide cheap spaces
for small retailers to set up shop and cram as many of them as possible
into an already vibrant facility and, ta-da, you have created a unique
shopping destination.
The easy comparison is to a mall but the
owners believe it will more closely resemble an open-air market in
Europe or the Middle East.
About 160 spaces for retailers
(most of which are taken) are squeezed into 45,000 square feet of space
on the ground floor of Building 3, the southernmost section of the old
plant. Another 140 spaces are set to be built in 35,000 square feet for
Phase II of the project later this year. That sort of density of
retailers certainly accomplishes the desired bazaar effect.
On
the other hand, the new cage dividers that will hold the stores and the
clean, bright colors definitely give it that mall feel. There's even a
"food court" made up of satellite restaurants of Greektown staples
Nikki's and
Loco.
The
products will help separate the Russell Bazaar from other retail
Meccas. This is not Twelve Oaks or Somerset. Many of the tenants are
independent artists, who have made the Russell Industrial Center what
it is today.
"We're looking for the unique buyers, not the mall buyers -- the people who want the original," Novack says.
Now
that $1.5 million has been spent to build the bazaar, Novack expects
the people to come, in droves. As of today about 1,000 people pass
through the Russell Industrial Center each day. Novack conservatively estimates that number to jump to 5,000 people from Friday through Sunday with a full Bazaar.
From dust to ducketsMost
of those people will go through a section of the sprawling facility
that was largely abandoned from the 1950s until six months ago.
The
wing of the 1915 Albert Kahn-designed factory originally made chassis
for the Murray Body Company. It also made wings for B-29 bombers during
World War II before largely going dormant for the later half of the
20th Century.
A few small industrial companies and a handful of
artists occupied small corners of the buildings when Boydell Group took
it over two years ago. Most of the space was a raw, open, empty, Rust
Belt stereotype, including the halls that now house the Bazaar.
"The only reason we're still here, the only reason we're growing, is a few artists who hung on," Novack says.
Before
Boydell construction crews attack them, the halls stand blanketed with
about half an inch of dust and chipped paint, littered with empty food
containers and fliers from raves held nearly 20 years ago. Broken
fluorescent tube lights dot the cave-like landscape while fragments of
old signs hang not far from rusted pipes that stick out of the floor.
It's
no wonder why the Detroit Police Department's SWAT team uses these
spaces for training; and it's a wonder why Hollywood crews aren't
filming
Saw sequels in them yet.
After
clean-up, after the utilities are turned on, broken panes of glass are
replaced, what was once an empty open space becomes a corridor so
packed with studios and offices that the Russell Industrial Center's
hermit artists have to move to a new quiet place.
It's all
part of the Russell Industrial Center's brand of manifest destiny. "For
us it's real simple," Novack says. "All we do is make it as clean as
possible and section it off so businesses can come in and stake their
claim."
From there, what they make and sell is their own business. And that's the beauty of it.
Hear
more about the Russell Industrial Center's story at the Model D Speaker
Series, at 5 p.m. Sept. 25. You must sign up to attend.
Click here to do so.The Second Annual People's Art Festival
will be open to the public from 11 a.m. until midnight on Sunday, Sept. 21.
The Russell Industrial Center and the Bazaar are at 1600 Clay St. For directions go
here. The Bazaar's regular hours will be 10 a.m. till 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sundays.
Jon Zemke is a Detroit resident and the editor for Model D's
Innovation & Jobs News section. He is also the News Editor for
metromode and
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Photos:
South entrance to the Russell Bazaar
Leasing agent, Eric Novac
Detroit's Lovely Cuts Salon
Food court
Vendors setup their booths while curious shoppers roam the Bazaar
Raw space space awaits renovation at the Russell Industrial Center
All photographs by Marvin Shaouni
Marvin Shaouni is the managing photographer for Metromode & Model D.