DETROIT – Priced out, high rent, a slowing economy, and steep competition have some Detroit small businesses making the difficult decision to move or shut down.
Oftentimes small businesses can signal a turn-around in neighborhoods. They also became the first to get squeezed out when times got tough, and that’s what’s playing out in some of the city’s hotspots.
The City of Detroit has been for generations trying to create neighborhoods like the one at Van Dyke and Agnes Street. There’s a coffee shop, a high-end florist, and an ethnic foods restaurant, along with the live cycle delight exercise studio. But they’re learning it’s easier to build than keep them.
Detroit native Amila Daniels gave it her all. She offered spinning, pilates, and yoga for five and a half years. In a great start, she opened a second hot yoga studio around the corner.
“People from the community have left,” said Daniels. “There have been more locations that have opened since I’ve opened. Big retailers have come.”
Though she’s hung on and gone into debt, Daniels said the pandemic did her in.
“They also like to say that small businesses are the backbone of our country,” Daniels said. “However, in a pandemic, when we needed you most, we didn’t get that support. I was mandated to be closed for six months. I still had to pay rent during those six months.”
Nora is a few short miles away in the Cass Corridor, a boutique known for its simply designed sundries. Owner Liz Boone and her husband opened a decade ago.
“We chose this spot when the building was built, and the floor was dirt,” said Boone. “The promise of this neighborhood was that it was going to be a lot of shops coming, restaurants, investment.”
Yet, post COVID, the neighborhood thinned.
“It’s disappointing,” Boone said. “We love our customers, they’re a great group of core customers that come to see the store, but there are just not enough, not enough density.”