Martin Williams was raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He attended Baldwin-Wallace College and holds a BA in English with a minor in international relations. While there he studied British Theatre in London and worked for two years as a project coordinator in downtown Cleveland for the Urban Artist in Residence Initiative sponsored by the Ohio Arts Council that researched the link between art and economic development.
Since then, he has worked in hospitality and nightlife in Los Angeles for eight years, most recently managing the summer daytime pool scene at Sky Bar in the Mondrian Hotel for Morgans Hotel Group. In 2011 and 2012, he spent a year in Michigan, working as a resident director and property manager at the University of Michigan. He simultaneously participated in the
Michigan Shifting Gears entrepreneur program and was a project intern with
Beal Properties during the renovation of the Broderick Tower in downtown Detroit. He also served as an advisor to the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and the advisor team was named regional advisors of the year.
He is currently enrolled in the master of science in real estate development at New York University, with a concentration in global real estate. He is an active member of the
Urban Land Institute. A lifelong student of cities and explorer, he has visited five continents and 19 countries. He currently resides in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
So Much For the Naysayers
"Everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds," Dr. Pangloss says to Candide towards the end of Voltaire's classic novel after all kinds of calamities befall them both.
"These are all excellent observations, but even so we must cultivate our garden," replies Candide.
Because of
Live Work Detroit, the
Michigan Shifting Gears entrepreneur program, and the team at Beal Properties, I was able to see how Detroiters are cultivating their garden and participate in the excitement of the revitalization at Detroit.
As I write this article, I am sitting at a quiet café, one of the few quiet cafés left in my rapidly changing and increasingly dense Brooklyn neighborhood. It sits tucked away on a side street, across from colorful row houses and brownstones lining the street, a few feet away off Franklin Avenue – a street lined with trendy restaurants intermingled with old school bodegas and barbershops – and a stones throw from the shuttle connecting Crown Heights to Sunset Park. I am thinking of the promise of Detroit as I gaze out the window watching the multicultural crowds go by.
New York is a global, 24-hour, capital city. The entire city, including the outer boroughs, is experiencing a development boom as Mayor Bloomberg prepares for one million new residents by 2030 within his ambitious plan NYC. And yet, I think of Detroit often from here. I wrote an in-depth market analysis of the feasibility of a design hotel within the CBD of Detroit for one of my classes and I compared it to other rising cities in the Midwest.
Before I go any further, I must qualify this by mentioning that I am not nor have I ever been a resident of Detroit proper. It is a sign of the global power of the Detroit brand that I even feel the need to mention this. Yes, I grew up in Michigan. Yes, I have family roots in Detroit. Yet, like many Michigan kids who spent their formative years in the '80s and '90s on the outlying areas of Detroit, I had conflicting ideas of what Detroit meant – and these ideas were shaped from a distance.
One of the largest appeals of living and working in a city is the ability to interact and collaborate with people from a wide variety of cultural and economic backgrounds on a daily basis. The development of large-scale projects like Cobo Convention Center and the Riverfront can provide more opportunities for people to visit downtown. The people at D:hive do an incredible job at making the D more user friendly. They were very helpful to me when I needed to navigate the city.
From 2000 to 2010, in a time when a quarter of the population left Detroit, I would read often of the city from Los Angeles. I read stories of decline, blight, and architectural ruin. Mostly, I read of people leaving this city. We knew it was once great. That rich legacy seemed a thing of the past.
And then the narrative started to change.
I started to read about entrepreneurs, large-scale development projects, and small businesses creating some really cool products. I was back in Ann Arbor and had read about a boutique design bed and breakfast that had recently opened in Corktown. I have spent most of my career working in design hotels so this piqued my interest. I needed to check this out!
By the time I made the drive down Michigan Avenue to arrive for a morning coffee at Astro Coffee in Corktown in the late winter of 2011, I was a tourist to Detroit. I grabbed a mocha and walked a few doors down. Meghan McEwen was gracious enough to show me around the recently opened small-scale inn called
Honor and Folly and I was amazed at the artisanal detail. I then walked across the street and had very touristy thoughts of what could be done with the Old Train Station. By the time the day was done I had walked the downtown area, saw some active development going on and attended a talk on gentrification that was open to the community at the Virgil H. Carr Center.
There was something very alluring to me about what was happening in Detroit but I couldn't define it. I needed to explore more.
Travel challenges perceptions. There are immense benefits for both the visitor and the host destination. In a world where information travels fast, a simple Google search of Detroit can evoke a wide variety of perceptions about Detroit: Is it a symbol of the decline of the great American City and our emphasis on manufacturing? A symbol of American resilience for that same reason? An ode to our industrial past glory? A land of opportunity? A glance into the past? A vision for the future? A case study for sprawl? A case study for attempts at mass transit? A tale of the public sector's decline and private sector's hope?
So what does Detroit mean to you today? I found it to be a sincere city.
This what appealed to me the most about Detroit. There is the accessibility, low cost of living, economic opportunity, thriving cultural and sports scene, and steadily increasing supply of hip places to go. There are larger themes to a place one can't see in the data or in reading the New York Times.
The Live Work Detroit events provide a good glimpse. Sponsored by the MEDC, these events showcase Detroit's appeal to college graduates from around the state by giving cultural tours, and hosting a speaker panel highlighting the people who are contributing to Detroit within a wide variety of industries. I met young people from not only the state but across the country who are looking to Detroit for their next great step. There is also a job fair.
And then there is Michigan Shifting Gears. I participated in this program sponsored by the MEDC to assist former professionals and executives to transition into the new economy. We participated in workshops, seminars, practiced networking, and learned about social media. It is a remarkably supportive environment. Our group met weekly outside of class to share ideas, network, and work on personal branding. We toured Tech Town and met with entrepreneurs from across the state. Shifting Gears connects its participants with internships as well. I met Michiganders from a wide variety of backgrounds looking to build on their skills and create new opportunities for themselves.
While participating in this program, I realized that I really enjoyed hospitality and wanted to build on that by exploring opportunities in real estate development. I was given an extraordinary opportunity by Stewart Beal to intern in marketing for the renovation of the
Broderick Tower. One of my tasks was to cover the city and hand out flyers for a showing to the public on the Tigers' opening day. I travelled all over the D, small business to big businesses, chatting up everyone I saw about the Broderick Tower opening day showing.
I'll never forget walking into one of the old bars in Midtown and a patron glancing at the Broderick Tower flyer and saying: "Huh, you guys are almost done? You guys move quick. So much for the naysayers."
Damn straight. So much for the naysayers.
The Broderick Tower was vacant for nearly 30 years. It was 100% leased and occupied five days after the renovation was complete.
The residential demand within downtown may be unrelated to the feasibility of the hospitality demand. Yet, the area strikes me as well poised for a design hotel that incorporates the rich legacy of Detroit while simultaneously providing cutting-edge design and amenities within a social atmosphere for local residents as well as visitors to Detroit. These small-scale, and sometimes large-scale, projects have proven remarkably successful within transitioning neighborhoods from downtown Los Angeles to the post- industrial commercial zone of Williamsburg to the meatpacking district before the revitalization of the neighboring West Village.
For example, when the Ace Hotel opened on 29th street in 2009 in an area of Manhattan that was mostly limited to small retailers at the time, it helped spur twelve new hotel development projects since to meet the
growing demand. The recent economic growth of car-centric urban areas from downtown Los Angeles to El Paso – a border city well known for sprawl that is currently undergoing rapid change to its downtown – and emergence of added money and political and community participation will create better infrastructure that shows the possibilities in urban development.
Within New York City, tourists spend $9 billion a year, and we had 50 million people visit last year. We act slightly annoyed but we like them here. Now recall that global appeal of the Detroit brand. I can see many benefits for everyone with an increase of density in downtown. I know that a well thought-out hotel would only contribute to that. How many Motor City entrepreneurs would think up the next great idea to capitalize on more people visiting Detroit?
And get that M1 train going! Cars are great but so are choices!
I read a fascinating article in
Foreign Policy that said in 1944, Detroit business and civic leaders dared to invite the newly formed United Nations to host its headquarters on Belle Isle as "a living monument to World Peace". Just a year before, a race riot erupted on the island, causing $2 million in property damage, 34 dead, and hundreds injured. Detroiters pressed on, urging the diplomats to look to the future. The UN landed in New York, and Detroit lost. Yet Detroiters saw even then the possibility of a global city.
I was grateful to see this Detroit. The Detroit of optimism, openness, and opportunity. A place well worth seeing for yourself.