Detroit’s getting another new retail neighbor. Ann Arbor-based comic book and board game shop, Vault of Midnight, today said it will expand its business and open a brand new location at 1226 Library St., between Gratiot and Grand River Avenues in downtown Detroit. That’s in the “Z” garage, and neighbors include 7 Greens, NoJo Kicks, and Citizen Yoga.
The shop will be 2,000 square feet and is expected to open in the spring. There, you’ll be able to get comic books, graphic novels, toys, games, action figures and other cool and comic-y stuff.
“As soon as we saw The Z and The Belt, with their bold artwork and graphics, we knew we’d found the perfect home for our Detroit location,” said Curtis Sullivan, co-owner of Vault of Midnight with partners Nick Yribar and Steve Fodale in a statement. “Vaults of Midnight exist in real, brick and mortar buildings in real, vibrant communities and there is no place more exciting right now than downtown Detroit. We are thrilled to bring something new and completely different to the mix and become part of the city’s historic resurgence.”
This downtown location will be Vault of Midnight’s third Michigan location since their founding in 1996. They also have stores in Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids.
“The Vault of Midnight team built their business around the excitement and vibrancy of visual imagery and that’s exactly what we did with The Z and The Belt,” said Dan Mullen, Executive Vice President of Bedrock Real Estate Services, in a release. “The shop fits perfectly with our vision for Library Street, its innovative retailers and the area’s amazing works of art.”
On the Vault of Midnight Detroit Facebook page, the owners shared some of their story:
We’ve spent the last year and a half traveling all over the city of Detroit looking for the perfect location. We finally found it late last year and have spent the winter working with Bedrock Real Estate to help solidify our plans to create what we hope will be a world-class comic book shop. It’s going to be crazy.
Why did it take so long? Why a year and a half of looking? The answer is (at the risk of sounding cheesy) that we give a tremendous amount of care and spend a lot (a LOT) of time thinking about what kind of comic shop we want to be. It’s not enough to just open our doors and turn on a cash register; we want as many people on planet earth to read comic books as is possible.
To that end, we’ve decided to open shops in the hearts of our favorite communities, in the most vibrant places we can find. The shop has to be situated perfectly, and that’s a lofty and difficult thing to achieve. We think we found just such a location and we can’t wait to share it with you.
The design of the interior for Vault of Midnight Detroit is being put together in partnership with Cantelon Finishers and By The River Carpentry, a group of builders who are absolutely the best we’ve ever worked with. They helped us put together our Grand Rapids location and we couldn’t be happier with the results.
The company plans to hire five new full-time employees.