What's New, What's Next, and What Matters in Metro Detroit

Why Ford’s Plan To Uprade Its Dearborn HQ Is Great News For The Detroit Region

Ford Motor Company made a major statement with its announcement that it plans an ambitious redevelopment of its Dearborn headquarters and product development campuses into walkable, environmentally friendly hubs to better encourage collaboration and innovation. It signals its commitment to Michigan, but it’s also a smart bid to lure top talent and remain competitive amid rapidly intensifying competition from Silicon Valley. The project involves a mind-boggling 7.5 million square feet of new co...

1902 Apartment Building On Market For $11.9 Million

Opportunity Fair Designed To Connect Minority Contractors to Projects

The city’s blight removal program, already the largest in the nation, is going to expand by at least 50 percent over the next two years. Additionally, several neighborhood-focused programs have resulted in a rise in home rehabilitation across Detroit. But that increase in the blight removal program and home rehab projects has created a shortage of available demolition and home repair contractors. To help meet this need, Mayor Mike Duggan, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and leaders of Detroit’s faith-...

Car Sharing Service Zipcar Is Coming To Ferndale

In Metro Detroit, car ownership is practically a necessity considering our lack of workable mass transit. It’s common to see two, three, sometimes even four cars to a household in our region. But what if you could get a car on-demand? If most of your life is within a walkable distance, and you could affordably pick up a car when you need it, maybe you wouldn’t need that extra vehicle. In some denser areas of the region, that might just work for some people. Zipcar is busy expanding their pre...

9 Things To Know About The (Very Urbanist) Future Of Eastern Market

Eastern Market already occupies near-mythic status in the fabric of Detroit’s civic life. But if you want to ponder some fascinating ideas about the future vision for the district (or you’re a wonk who loves urban planning studies, like me), then you’re in for a treat reading “Eastern Market 2025 Strategy.” I went through the whole 114-page report, which was done by Philadelphia- and Los Angeles-based urban planners Olin, and compiled these takeaways. 1. Even as consumers embrace smaller-sca...

Lego Computers, Erika And Elyse From Detroit Labs, Organic Dating On IT in The D

Does Carrying A Pistol Make You Safer?

Detroit’s Police Chief: “What concerns me, more than anything else, is guns in the hands of criminals, guns in the hands of terror suspects. That’s what keeps me up at night. Not armed citizens.”...

Kickstarter Funded Restaurant Gather To Open This Year In Eastern Market

The Eastern Market neighborhood will soon welcome a new addition to its unique food scene. Gather, a restaurant conceptualized by friends Nate Vogeli and Kyle Hunt, along with Kyle’s wife, Lea, is expecting to make its debut in late Summer or early Fall, thanks to its success on Kickstarter. So far, the trio has raised $23,885, surpassing their goal of $20,000. If you still want to help support Gather, you can. Funding for the project will close on Saturday, April 16. Click here to check out h...

For Women-Owned Businesses, Metro Detroit Is In The Top Ten

Metro Detroit and Michigan are among the top metropolitan areas and states when it comes to seeing growth in the number of women-owned businesses. According to a report by American Express OPEN, the number of women-owned firms grew dramatically after the recession – by 45 percent from 2007 to 2016, to be exact. Compare that to a nine percent increase in all businesses, and women-owned firms are becoming a larger factor in the business sector. Currently, Michigan ranks eighth in the nation in...

Get a Free Grilled Cheese at Batch Brewing Company Tuesday, April 12

Attention grilled cheese lovers: Mark your calendars! Tuesday, April 12, is National Grilled Cheese Day, and to celebrate, Batch Brewing Company has teamed up with Arla. For every Feelgood Tap purchased at Batch Brewing Company (1400 Porter St.) customers will get a free Arla grilled cheese. Additionally, for every Feelgood Tap purchased, two dollars will be donated to the Multiple Sclerosis Society, Michigan Chapter. To snag your free Arla grilled cheese, head to Batch Brewing Company betwe...

Big Downtown Scavenger Hunt Coming This Saturday, April 16

Ready to scour downtown Detroit for the chance to win two suite tickets to the Detroit Grand Prix (plus other awesome prizes)? Here’s your chance. At 10:00 a.m. on April 16, Shell and the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau will host a scavenger hunt in downtown. The grand prize will be hidden downtown, and all you have to do is follow a series of clues leading to Detroit landmarks and be the first person to open the car and grab the certificate located inside it to win. The scaveng...

Three New Pure Michigan TV Commercials Are Out Featuring Metro Detroit

Pure Michigan rolled out new TV commercials, this time with three featuring Metro Detroit. They’re supposedly more “visually edgy” but if this is closer to the edge, the creators still have a good few miles to go before being near the cliff. There’s the requisite hot spots featured from St. Andrew’s Hall to Rose’s Fine Foods to the Fox Theatre, to someone painting a wall to an urban farm. All the things you’d expect. You can find the one minute spot above called Detroit Soul, and the thirty...

Muralists How and Nosm Are Coming To Detroit; Here Are 8 Pics Of Their Work

Internationally recognized, Spanish-born and currently residing in New York City, graffiti artists and twin brothers How and Nosm (Raoul and Davide Perre) are coming to Detroit. Work should start, according to the AP, sometime next week on a 186 foot by 40 foot wall on the side of Quicken Loans headquarters in downtown Detroit. It’ll be next to another notable mural recently completed by Shepherd Fairey. Previous reports have the pair doing an even larger, 354-foot tall mural on the side of...

Downtown Detroit Advocacy Group Has A New Hype Video Voiced By Devin Scillian

It’s clear if you just spend a few minutes downtown there have been a lot of changes in the last few years in downtown Detroit. A video that originally showed at the Downtown Detroit Partnership Annual Meeting, funnily enough clocking in at 3 minutes and 13 seconds long and narrated by WDIV anchor Devin Scillian, was posted online. The piece features lots of beautiful shots and time lapse segments as well as outlines their belief that “this is our moment” when it comes to making things happen...

Report Says Ford To Move Into Part Of Fairlane Town Center

Malls, for the most part, just aren’t the retail centers they used to be. Online shopping has eaten into department stores, and many malls in the country are struggling to find tenants. One way these properties have been able to continue their useful life is through conversion. Malls throughout the country are becoming everything from apartments to corporate offices. Crain’s Detroit Business is reporting that the word is Ford Motor Company is going to take up 220,000 square feet of the mall,...

See The Detroit Of 1908 Come Alive With New Animation

The video above is nothing short of amazing. Russian designer Alexey Zakharov has created an animated short called “The Old New World” composed of old Shorpy historical photographs and some amazing artistic skill. The reel includes New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore – as well as a view of Detroit in 1908, right after the two minute mark. It’s of the old Morgan & Wright Rubber Company on the riverfront. It became the Uniroyal Tire plant next to the bridge to Belle Isle. Although...

Drinking Underground: 5 Basement Bars You’ll Love

If you like a good bar in a unique setting you’ve found the right place. Here’s a list of good bars that also happen to be in the basement – a rarity in metro Detroit. This list has bars that are fancy, bars that are historic, but they’re all unique and fun – and below ground. So let’s head downstairs for a drink and knock every one out on the list! 1. The Keep Meet the newest bar on the list. The owner (and often bartender) has served up fun in New Orleans, so he knows how to party....

WATCH: The Detroit Zoo Rolls Out The Blue Carpet For New Penguins

Here’s some video of the Gentoo penguins (we’ve written before about them) making their way to their new home, the Polk Penguin Conservation Center. [fb_pe url=”https://www.facebook.com/detroitzoo/videos/vb.110727905632283/1046010298770701/” bottom=”30″] But if video isn’t enough and you want to see them in person, it turns out that membership does indeed have its privileges. The opening to the public is less than two weeks away (April 18) but the Detroit Zoological Society is planning a s...