Entrepreneurship : Development News

The Grosse Pointe Athletic Club is adding 2,000 square feet of space and introducing classes at the 18-year-old business that maintains a loyal following of locals who gravitate toward hometown entrepreneurs.

Dr. Carlos Borrego, a lifelong Grosse Pointer who left radiation oncology several years ago to earn an MBA and become a consultant, was first an investing partner in the private club. In 2006 he took over as owner operator.

"I was between jobs and took over the job of streamlining the club, making it paperless, building in efficiencies," he says. "I was enjoying it so much."

It gave him the opportunity to offer trainers who could specialize in clients' needs, depending on age, activities, and injuries, as well as tie their training and workout to healthy lifestyles.

"This was never really on my radar," he says, "but it's been a wonderful thing. The thing about GPAC is it's really a neighborhood business and with a very loyal customer base who see it as a part of the community, which was all the more reason to expand and become a bigger part of the community."

The club at the corner of Fisher Road and Maumee in the Fisher Road shops will increase from 3,500 to 5,500 feet by taking over a former hair salon.

Borrego is replacing most equipment with new models in the the current space and using the new space for classes, most likely spinning, yoga, zumba and pilots, he says. The new club will open Sept. 1. There will be additional trainers and instructors in the new space, a former hair salon.

The building's owners are redoing the facade, the streetscape and landscape and there will be more parking and free parking in front and in back.

"It will be new inside and outside," he says.

Writer: Kim North Shine
Source: Dr. Carlos Borrego, owner/operator, Grosse Pointe Athletic Club

A new self-serve, self-top ice cream bar with a smorgasbord of choices has opened on Fisher Road in Grosse Pointe Farms.

Serving your own ice cream from a wall of different flavors and picking out the toppings, from cookies to fruit to sauces and nuts, is trendy but not so new.

Snogo, however, is taking some of the bite out of the concept, which usually has consumers paying by weight and paying a pretty penny for it. At Snogo there is no weighing, just a set price per cup, to keep it more affordable and fun, says owner David Cracchiolo.

Snogo seems to be in an ideal location, across from a high school with a swimming pool and athletic facilities that go seven days a week at all hours.

Snogo opened a few weeks ago and has been so busy more employees are already being hired.

Writer: Kim North Shine
Source: David Cracchiolo, owner, Snogo

A former professional dancer and classically-trained dance teacher is opening a studio this month in downtown Rochester with hopes of replacing the competitive, reality TV twist of some dance studios with one that's focused on classical education and performance.

Cindy Raffel, 27, will bring her experience as a dancer and choreographer with companies around the country and as a certified K-12 dance instructor to her 2nd Street Studio of Dance. It will open with a ribbon-cutting on May 17th, with three days of free classes that day through the 19th. By July, classes for ballet, tap, jazz, modern dance and hip hop and other forms of dance will begins.

The studio at 100 E. 2nd Street is 5,600 square feet of space with three dance studios and classes for children and adults.

She plans to keep prices low, partly by eliminating the competitive dance aspect that can come with so many costs. Classes themselves will be affordable, she says.

Raffel, who's danced with ballet and theater companies in places such as Virginia, where she is from, and Florida, where she was with the Tampa Ballet, moved to Michigan in September after her husband, Tom, received a tenure-track position at Oakland University. They bought their home in Rochester and really dug downtown, she says. They loved Rochester and after hearing about the vacant RARA building -- Rochester Avon Recreation Authority -- she decided to open the studio she's dreamed about for years.

"Obviously with dance I started as a kid and I always wanted to have a dance studio…As an elementary schooler I was making up a show, picking out a costumes and showing my parents my choreography," she says. "It was always in the back of mind because I didn't know how far my professional career would go. When we decided to move here, we bought a house really quickly. I thought, this is going to be where we're settling down. I should for it. Lo and behold there was this vacant building waiting for me.

The studio "is literally steps away from Main Street," she says. "For me it's a great location only because it is a great area…but for all that's going on. You can walk out the door and be at a parade. Amazingly enough the house that we bought in August is exactly halfway between the university and the studio."

Before finding a place to open, she had been researching what was missing in the local dance scene.

"It's kind of hard as an outsider looking in…The dance world is so much word of mouth," she says, "But I think people are looking for something kind of different. something that's not competitive…I want dance to be a fun, happy experience. I want it to be enjoyable for everyone, including the parents."

Writer: Kim North Shine
Source: Cindy Raffel, owner/instructor, 2nd Street Studio of Dance

Painting With a Twist, where customers are encouraged to BYOB and pick up a brush to learn from artists how to paint, is expanding, moving into a new space in downtown Ferndale.

The move down the road on 9 Mile will almost double the space for Painting With a Twist Ferndale, which is a franchise of Corks n Canvas.

The new 3,000-square-foot space is being renovated inside the former Dollar Castle on 9 Mile. Dollar Castle closed in October and is being divided for three tenants. Modern Natural Baby is moving is moving into 5,000 square feet of the building, adding to its inventory and building parts of the business it previously didn't have the space to do.

At Painting With A Twist Ferndale, birthday parties are celebrated, charity events are held, and girls' nights out are common, as are outings for artists just wanting to paint.

Writer: Kim North Shine
Source: Chris Hughes, Ferndale Downtown Development Authority

A metro Detroit distributor of craft beers and other alcoholic beverages is hosting a Craft Beer Expo May 15 as a celebration of American Craft Beer Week and Michigan's standing as a state that's home to accomplished craft brewers.

The hope is to make the expo an annual event. Host Power Distributors, an Orion Township company that employs over 200 people, will feature beers from 17 breweries, including six from Michigan, as well as a strolling dinner and raffles at the expo, which runs from 6 - 9 p.m. at Canterbury Village in Lake Orion.

“Craft beer is exploding in popularity,” says Gary Thompson, chief operating officer of Powers Distributing. “Michigan is the fifth-largest craft beer state in the country. Our breweries are experiencing fantastic development and the state offers an amazing selection of both local and national beers to craft beer drinkers. To celebrate this, we created a local beer event. American Craft Beer Week seemed to be the perfect time to invite the public to learn more about this 4,000-year-old beverage and how wonderfully it pairs with cuisine.”

The expo also has a philanthropic angle with $5 of each $15 ticket purchased going to Rock STAR Warriors, a Michigan nonprofit that helps Michigan veterans find work and land careers. The STAR in the name stands for Sustainable Talent And Retention.

The breweries represented at the expo: Cheboygan Brewing Company, Dragonmead Brewing Company, Kuhnhenn Brewing Company, North Peak Brewing Company, Saugatuck Brewing Company, Uncle John's Cider, Oskar Blues Brewery, Blue Moon Brewing Company, Tenth & Blake Beer Company, Samuel Adams – The Boston Beer Company, Magic Hat Brewing Company, Vermont Hard Cider Company (Woodchuck), Brooklyn Brewery, Boulder Beer Company, Tommyknocker Brewing Company, Spoetzl Brewery (Shiner), and Anchor Brewing Company.

Writer: Kim North Shine
Source: Jim Miller, publicist, Franco Public Relations Group; and Gary Thompson, COO, Powers Distributing

Oakland County is trying to make starting a business or taking it to the next level easier for entrepreneurs by offering free, walk-in business counseling.

The One Stop Shop Business Center at the Oakland County Executive Office building, 2100 Pontiac Lake Road, in Waterford will open May 9 and offer regular walk-in hours after that. The hours for May 9 are 9:30-noon and 1:30-4:30. The business center is on the first floor of Building 41W.

“We usually operate on an appointment-only basis but many entrepreneurs walk into our One Stop Shop with questions on how to get started with their business idea,” says Greg Doyle, supervisor of the One Stop Shop Business Center. “By designating special walk-in days, we hope to reach more entrepreneurs and help them understand their next steps as well as present the resources we can make available to them. Our aim is to get them started quickly in a way that makes the most sense to their unique situation.”

Counselors at the business center can answer specific questions, suggest planning tools and give direction on where to go to solve problems or achieve goals. All sessions are confidential. The counselors have expertise in business development, community planning, financing and market research.

Writer: Kim North Shine
Source: Greg Doyle, supervisor, One Stop Shop Business Center

The Bozeman Watch Company's speciality, limited edition watches and accessories will soon fill a downtown Birmingham store, importing a Michigan native's high-end goods from the Montana and Wyoming showrooms where they're now sold.

Its handmade time pieces are known for their rugged styling -- the B1 Hellcat, Smokejumper GMT and Sidewinder are a few styles that convey manly man adventure. The company is also known for its hand-tooled leather luggage and handbags.

Christopher Wardle, a former Michigan resident started the company in Montana and is expanding from three stores in Bozeman and Whitefish, Montana and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

The Birmingham store opens May 1 on Pierce Street in the spot formerly occupied by Stacy Leuliette home accessories, says Ed Nakfoor, spokesman for the Birmingham Principal Shopping District.

Writer: Kim North Shine
Source: Ed Nakfoor, spokesman, Birmingham Principal Shopping District

The menu at a new restaurant in Royal Oak is striving to show that what it serves can come from close to home and not from a box.

Local 212 -- the 212 comes from its address on Fifth Avenue in downtown Royal Oak -- opened just over a week ago and the reception to the shrimp from Okemos (there's a farm there), the Northern Michigan boar, Michigan chestnuts on a baby spinach salad and grilled cheese on Detroit Avalon bread has been hearty.

When the Royal Oak Farmers Market opens veggies will come from there and other farmers. All the sausage and bacon is made in house at Local 212 and the slider patties are ground in the kitchen too.

The meats served at Local 212 come from local farmers through Sparrow's Market in Ann Arbor. Local 212 also serves beer and wine, many made locally and around the state, as well as from places around the world.

While there are plenty of ingredients not from Michigan, none are processed.

Writer: Kim North Shine
Source: Jenna Goudrea, general manager, Local 212

The fifth-generation recipe for Holy Cannoli's cream-filled pastries has caught on so much that the downtown Rochester business has opened a second location in Berkley.

The new store is at 2752 Coolidge Highway. The first, which opened about a year ago, is at 415 South Main St. in Rochester. The business has been in the making since at least 2010, when owners Nicole Franey, her mother Cathy Schulte and grandmother Sharon Beheler decided to sell to friends, to their friends' friends, and at festivals and farmers markets, and then make the jump from family service to anonymous consumers.

Franey calls the expansion "an anniversary gift to ouselves."

Holy Cannoli's cannolis come filled with traditional creams and specialties such as key lime, pistachio, Michigan cherry, cookies and cream, and revolving choices. The creams are piped in after customers order.

Holy Cannoli's is also known for baked goods like its cassata cake.

Although it's moved into retail spaces, Holy Cannoli's hasn't abandoned farmer's markets. Every Saturday, Eastern Market shoppers will find Holy Cannoli's at Shed #5 in Eastern Market.

Writer: Kim North Shine
Source: Nicole Franey, co-owner, Holy Cannoli's

After spending its infancy as an online business, moving into toddlerhood as a brick and mortar store in Ferndale and then another store, Modern Natural Baby is moving again, this time to a larger space and with bigger plans.

Emily Murray, who started Modern Natural Baby with her husband, John Murray, in August 2009, says the move from Modern Natural Baby's store at 224 W. 9 Mile Road -- it once was on Woodward Avenue -- will let the new store at 200 W. 9 Mile offer more products and bigger ones such as strollers and car seats and high chairs. There wasn't enough room to display such items in the prior location.

At about double the size, the new Modern Natural Baby will not only sell more products but also seek out and sell those that keep with its organic, earth-friendly, socially-responsible business model.

"It'll be nice because we have a ton of gift registries, but before they had to register at other places for the strollers and car seats and larger items. Now they can register for everything here," Murray says.

The new 5,300 sq. ft. store is replacing Dollar Castle and will be the anchor of the 12,000-plus sq. ft. space that will soon be occupied by three tenants. The owner is renovating the building inside and out.

"The owner is putting a ton of money into it," Murray says. "Three businesses will be there instead of one. It's going to be one of the nicest buildings in Ferndale. This is really good for the city."

She expects to move into the new spot a few doors down from the current shop in August and be open later that month or in early September.

Though customers come from across metro Detroit and even from Canada, Murray attributes the success that started with an online business run from a home basement to a retail store to busting at the seams to Ferndale's way with attracting families and fostering progressive attitudes.

"Ferndale is definitely a place where there's a lot of nightlife…We've come from a time where families did kind of leave Ferndale…they're coming back…a lot of my customers are Ferndale customers. It's a great place for us because there are so many families, and it's a green area, it's such a hip area. It's perfect for our business."

Writer: Kim North Shine
Source: Emily Murray, co-owner, Modern Natural Baby

A start-up with the goal of producing an easy-riding bike with an automatic shifter that will appeal to recreational and casual bike riders has moved into a 7,000-square-foot warehouse and production facility in Troy as the company prepares to enter the mainstream marketplace.

There, AutoBike, which formed about two years ago, will build its bikes and in the process the work to carry out the motto to "Evolve the Bike." Shipping is expected to begin in late April to early May, says CEO and co-founder Sean Simpson.

The company will also work on designing and building a new commuter-style bike to complement its cruiser/comfort bikes, he says. Employees at AutoBike are re-applying their auto industry experience and engineering backgrounds to AutoBike.

Like all bikes, the AutoBike is pedal-powered but unlike others it shifts on its own so that the gear is always where it should be, whether going up a hill or riding fast. No clinking, clacking, missing gears or ignoring gears, something that makes bike riding less fun and more exhausting.

While automatic bikes have been tried before, Simpson and company have invented a promising continuous shifter, something they're refining. It's apparently catching on as sales are reaching the many states that AutoBike travels to for bike shows and special events.

AutoBike is getting a lot of press in the bike world. It was selected as one of the coolest products at the Seattle Bike Show and it took the $10,000 top prize at the University of Michigan Victors' Challenge -- a contest for the best entrepreneurial ideas -- just one of several pieces of funding it's received to get off the ground.


Writer: Kim North Shine
Source: Sean Simpson, CEO, AutoBike

The owners of Bastone Brewery and its offshoot restaurants and bars at the corner of Fifth and Main Streets in Royal Oak are changing up, opening a new restaurant, adding a patio and reworking the nightclub -- all part of focusing on their success with Euro-inspired eats and Belgian craft beer.

The first to change will be Cafe Habana, a 40-seat Cuban spot connected to Bastone. It will become Monk: A Belgian Beer Abbey. The club, Commune, downstairs will be reworked into Craft and focus on fresh-made, home-spun spirits.

Bastone, the mostly Belgian-flavored restaurant with favorites such as mussels and frites washed down with house-made Belgian suds, will grow in size, adding a space with high top tables and TVs. It will be more of a true bar space, with spots for a quick meal and a waiting area for tables. A lounge, extra tables and a private room will be added above the bar and an extra seating area will be added to the first floor. Outside on the sidewalk along Fifth Street, 36 seats will be added.

Vinotecca, the intimate wine bar also connected to Bastone, will remain the same.

"With a concept like ours where we have moveable parts, we can keep it fresh, change it up," says David Ritchie, operating partner. "People have asked if sales were good. They don't believe sales were good if we're closing Cafe Habana. For us, this suits us so we streamline and focus on our core business, the European aspect of what we do. And we have a beer guy right here who's won many awards."

The changes will happen in phases, but quickly, and lead to at least five new full-time jobs, Ritchie says. All parts of the latest iteration are expected to be complete by mid-May and open slowly and completely by June 1 so that kinks can be worked out, he says.

Café Habana has already closed and is under construction. As Monk, it will have about five more tables and open by about April 15, Ritchie says.

It'll be almost nine years to the day since Union Brewery LLC, which operates all the establishments, opened, he says.

Next will come Bastone, and the transition from Commune to Craft will start after that and be complete by the middle to the end of May. The club first opened nine years ago as Cinq. With nightclubs, it's probably wise to change it up at least every five years, he says.

"We want to move away from the mass market drinks and serve craft cocktails," Ritchie says. We'll use fresh ingredients, make our own infusions and syrups. It flows right into the craft beer."

Craft will have a retro look, decorated with big stereo speakers and other details that "give you the feeling you're hanging out in your friend's basement."

Writer: Kim North Shine
Source: David Ritchie, operating partner, Union Brewery LLC

The nearly 100-year-old Chapman House in Rochester is in the process of a renovation that will make the former family home turned longtime home furnishings store into a restaurant and elegant event site.

For now the renovation is overshadowing what the Chapman House as a restaurant will be. Besides the painstaking daily details of preserving the historic structure itself, all sorts of historic keepsakes and fun finds are being uncovered.

A decades old Hershey's candy bar wrapper. A 1917 newspaper. Photographs. Original tile. A 200-plus-year-old gas light fixture.

The grand home was built in 1917 by William Clark Chapman, a prominent business owner and politiican, and remained in the Chapman family until 1973, according to the Rochester-Avon Historical Society. Several businesses operated there, most recently a furniture and interior design store. The home also survived two fires.

The renovation could be complete by spring, but developer Geoff Dancik can't yet announce a date. Historic renovation is an uncertain, windy road.

What is known is that a French-inspired restaurant will take up much of the first floor and most of the second floor of the Italian Renaissance-style mansion.

A terrace overlooking Walnut Street, just a few blocks from downtown Rochester, will offer outdoor seating as will part of the grounds behind the home.

The grounds and formal gardens will be available for private events.

As the renovations inside and outside continue, parts of the home such as the iron balconies have been sent away for proper restoration. A centerpiece of one patio, a five-burner gas fixture that dates back to the reign of King George IV during the mid to early 1830s, is also being restored.

Writer: Kim North Shine
Source: Geoff and Brenden Dancik, Chapman House

Mead may be the next frontier in the world of craft -- craft beer, craft food, craft wine -- and Ferndale will soon be home to two meaderies.

The latest, Schramm's Mead, is under construction at 327 W. 9 Mile and will open in May. It's just a couple of miles from B. Nektar Meadery, which opened a production facility and tasting room several weeks ago.

Schramm's is owned by Ken Schramm, a connoisseur of mead and go-to guy in honey wine circles that are buzzing as mead finds its niche.

Schramm authored The Compleat Meadmaker, the Bible for mead-makers, and founded The Mazer Cup international mead competition.

His meads, often fruity or spiced, will be produced and sold at the new store in downtown Ferndale. There will be a tasting room and food menu. Schramm and his family will run the business and hire several employees.

During a presentation before the Ferndale City Council, when Schramm requested a small winery license, he said he and his family are carrying on a family tradition that goes back to ancestors who came here from Germany, fought for the union in the Civil War, and are still in possession of family farms that go back 100 years in their family.

"The Schramm family has a 160-year history of providing food and drink to metro Detroiters," Schramm says, pointing out that his mother came from Ferndale. "We are thrilled at the opportunity to do business in Ferndale."

Writer: Kim North Shine
Source: Ken Schramm, founder, Schramm's Mead

A metro Detroit sushi chain has added a sixth location, this one in Ferndale.

Toyko Sushi opened several weeks ago on Woodward Heights in place of Pete's Place, a closing that brought disappointment to the neighborhood customers and fans.

Tokyo Sushi's latest location is a dine-in or carry-out and also caters. Chef owner, Chris Sayanthone, serves Japanese, Thai and sushi.

While the opening is not in downtown Ferndale, it is one of several businesses locating on the periphery of downtown, including several that are converting light manufacturing facilities into retail businesses.

Writer: Kim North Shine
Source: Chris Hughes, Ferndale Downtown Development Authority