The building that formerly housed Michigan Works! Southeast, at 332 Harriet St. in Ypsilanti, was mostly vacant for several months after the employment agency moved to new digs last summer. However, three local businesses are now revitalizing it. Property management firm Beal Properties has moved its offices into the eastern portion of the space, and two other parts of the building are now occupied by Professional Youth Theatre of Michigan (PYTMI) and a second location for The Mix Fitness Studios, whose original studio is located in Depot Town.

Youth Theatre finds a permanent home

Meagan Wright, founder of PYTMI, says a Beal agent originally offered her the spot on the far west side of the building that stretches along a block of Harriet Street. However, Wright says she had a feeling the layout of the middle part of the building would better accommodate her plans.

Wright started her youth theatre during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, offering summer camp programming in a local park, but with no brick-and-mortar space. In 2021, she moved PYTMI to Ann Arbor and was glad to have a more permanent home, but her clientele was a bit much for the mix of massage therapists and other, quieter tenants in the building. 
Doug CoombeMegan Wright at the new home of the Professional Youth Theatre of Michigan on Harriet St. in Ypsilanti.
"We were way loud," she says. Less than a year later, she says she and her colleagues decided the space wasn't working for them.

Moving to the Harriet Street space in January, Wright says the troupe has been "making it [their] own" ever since. Wright says her portion of the building was a long, very open space when she took the lease. It took some imagination, adding a few walls, and lots of paint to make the space workable for a stage, multiple classrooms, a dance studio, storage areas, a lobby, and all the other facilities her theatre needed to thrive.
Doug CoombeSummer camp at PYTMI on Harriet St..
Wright is also glad to be back in Ypsilanti because her vision was always for PYTMI to have its own rehearsal space but to perform regularly at Riverside Arts Center's theater. The troupe draws so many friends and family members that it always sells out both weekends of performances, and Wright says the company is considering a double cast and four weekends of shows to accommodate that. 

Wright says that The Mix Studios is "a perfect neighbor" since neither one is bothered by any noises coming from the other business.

The Mix Studios adds a location

When Sarah Kreiner first started pursuing fitness by running in her 20s, it was a way to force herself to quit her two-packs-a-day cigarette-smoking habit. 

"I could only run 30 seconds without coughing at first," she says. 

That original interest in running blossomed into a passion for, and finally a career in, personal fitness training in 2008. She previously owned Momentum Fitness, and then opened The Mix in 2016. Her husband, Gerry Kreiner, originally had another full-time job and helped out with Sarah Kreiner's business part-time, including helping with design and construction of each studio. He came on board as marketing help for the business about two years ago.

The idea behind the name, Sarah Kreiner says, is that if you hate one type of exercise, you can keep "mixing it up" until you find one you like. 
Doug CoombeGery and Sarah Kreiner at The Mix Fitness Studios Harriet St. location.
The studio has also been mixing it up, experiencing changes in classes, personnel, and physical locations through the years, finally landing at 301 N. River St. in Ypsi two years ago. That location has become popular and doesn't have enough space for some classes, so the couple considered several potential locations before landing on the far west side of the building.

The Kreiners held a grand opening for their new location June 2. It includes private showers and massage services that can be reserved in advance, amenities not available at the original location. The extra space also allows for an expanded schedule of more than 50 fitness classes each week, from strength training and yoga to cardio drumming.

Adding a second location will let the Kreiners serve more clients and offer more options than before. Clients who love group classes or personal training at the first location can keep going to River Street. 

"That Depot Town location is ours for the long term," Gerry Kreiner says.
Doug CoombeOne of the exercise spaces at The Mix Fitness Studios Harriet St. location.
Clients seeking showers, massage services, or just a location closer to their side of town are finding their way to Harriet Street. Gerry Kreiner says repeatedly moving the business allowed the couple to refine their model each time.

"Every time we open a new studio, we improve what we want to do with that space," he says. 

For example, Sarah Kreiner says the new space allows them to offer strength training to larger classes.

"We busted out a wall so that we could have a bigger strength class specifically because strength training is what has grown, and what we grew out of at River Street," she says. 
Doug CoombeSarah and Gerry Kreiner at The Mix Fitness Studios Harriet St. location.
Because exercisers need room to move with weight training gear, the largest class they could accommodate at River Street was six, while Sarah Kreiner believes 12 would fit comfortably in their new location's strength training classroom.

Sarah Kreiner says that, as a former runner with some sore joints, she most enjoys teaching bounce classes on mini-trampolines, which offer a chance to overcome some clients' fears.

"A lot of people tell me they're worried they'll fall off," she says. "There's a balance bar. You won't fall off."

Sarah Rigg is a freelance writer and editor in Ypsilanti Township and the project manager of On the Ground Ypsilanti. She joined Concentrate as a news writer in early 2017 and is an occasional contributor to other Issue Media Group publications. You may reach her at sarahrigg1@gmail.com.

All photos by Doug Coombe.