The original idea for the Rust Belt Market in Ferndale sounded more noble than commercial: Let's give artists, collectors and other creatives a permanent place to set up a shop rather than moving from art fair to art fair, special event to special event or opting for e-sales only. Give them a community to connect with, a way for customers to know where to find them, build on the city's progressive rep.
The business plan said that Rust Belt's vendors would be standouts, originals, and the spaces where they worked would be art themselves, so would the market.
And it is.
What wasn't in the plan for Rust Belt founders Chris and Tiffany Best was making a market out a gargantuan, former big box store. They were originally thinking of a space a third or a half the size. But the opportunity to move into the vacant Old Navy store on the high profile corner of Woodward and 9 Mile was too good to pass up, and when it came with the support of the DDA and the city and locals who believed an artist collective was calling Ferndale's name, the Bests tweaked their plan.
"We wanted an event space for shows, but we never planned on being 15,000 square feet," says Chris Best.
Enter a 4,000-square-foot event space that's being carved right in the center of the artists' booths - a word that doesn't do justice for what showcases their goods. Their shops, which are getting walls as part of the renovations, can be part of an event - a funky amenity that provides the artists more opportunities to reach buyers and the party guests a built-in activity.
For almost two years now the market alone has worked.
It's become an alternative retail destination and a place for atypical, locally-made goods. It also delivers on the root reason for its founding, a launching pad for vendors who are turning into full-time businesses. Henrietta Haus, an on-site coffee roaster with a bar made of organ pieces; SpeedCult, a custom metal fabricator; Tooth & Nail Jewelry & Oddities; and Stay Pressed Records & Vintage Clothing are among them.
"We started getting calls almost right after we opened asking if it could be rented," Tiffany Best says. Security was a concern. Figuring how to operate rentable space in harmony with the artists was key. The market has experience hosting: food truck rallies, concerts.
Even with the success for the artists, the Bests, with two children and one on the way, were realizing it was time to put more emphasis on the business in business plan and do something with all the extra space - something that would take the financial pressure off.
But the conundrum was: "How do you grow in your own space? and do it without affecting the market," she says, touring the space on a day when a mural was being painted, among other work. "As it's turned out the artists and vendors have used this as an opportunity to really step up their own displays, make them more of a shop."
It was a big, stressful investment for the Bests, who have "rock star" volunteers complementing the contractors hired to create an interesting space that's also secure for artists, whose shops open only on weekends. Work started in April after the Bests ran a Kickstarter campaign - "The Rust Belt Shall Not Live By Weekends Alone - and raised $21,000. Until recently the market co-existed with renovations, but it's closed until the work is done the first weekend in May. A mini-market offering the vendors' goods in one spot will open this weekend so that visitors aren't turned away. The bonus is they get a peek at Rust Belt the next phase.
Mike Trombley, owner of Stay Pressed Clothing & Records, says the initial reaction to the Rust Belt's renting party and meeting space to hundreds of outsiders was lukewarm at best.
"Initially a lot of us had concerns. We were a little apprehensive. Seeing what happened in the Kickstarter campaign and how it was such a success, all the support from so many people got people really excited," he says.
Once the redesign took shape excitement intensified, Trombley says.
"They’re doing it right, top-notch quality. It’s going to look good. Chris and Tiffany have a great design aesthetic."
And the truth of the matter is, "they need make money…If they don’t make money I don’t have the opportunity to be there."
So here Rust Belt is with an event space that seems bound to become one of metro Detroit's coolest places to host a party, conference, wedding, show, video backdrop - all of the above are on the schedule already.
The first event, Metro Times Music Blowout musical festival, is May 2-4 at the Rust Belt. The same month, a French International Group hosts a meet & greet and the advertising firm, Doner, will hold its annual portfolio review. A wedding is among several other reservations.
Chris Best believes the market as an event site is in its own class. "It's fair to say there's nothing like it in the country. It sounds kind of grandiose, but there may be nothing like it in the world."
"We've heard from people in France, Switzerland, England," he says. "They've told us this market concept, they have nothing like it. That was the a-ha moment, the realization that it was time to take this to a different level."
And as the market has proved its staying power and started plans for growth, so too have some of the artists and vendors who call it home.
STAY PRESSED CLOTHING & RECORDS
Mike Trombley owned a hot vintage store in South Philladelphia, Sweet Jane Vintage, until his partner got a job in metro Detroit. That was just about the time the Rust Belt was opening.
"After I moved here I heard about Rust Belt. I really liked the whole vibe," he says. "It's not like a lot of the local art markets, It feels edgy and different."
He says he couldn't ask for better landlords or get anywhere near the customer traffic than Rust Belt offers.
"I’ve done much better than I expected, to be honest. They’ve super supportive," he says. "Rust Belt has really become a destination, and the foot traffic is much higher than I could ever get in my own retail space. Honestly, the built-in crowd that the Rust Belt offers is just amazing."
The exposure has grown a clientele that might support a freestanding retail store, but he's not going anywhere just yet.
"I plan on staying there quite awhile," Trombley says "I love the fact that it’s a small business incubator and thery’e fully supportive of vendors who get established and move on.”
TOOTH & NAIL JEWELRY & ODDITIES
Stacy Dumas also ran her her own retail store, this one in Plymouth, making custom jewerly, typically for special events like weddings. She was also doing lots of repair work and felt her inspiration drying up.
"I needed to get back to my creative nature. I closed my business. I had a whole year of floating form art fair to art fair, trying to figure out how I was going to market myself. I heard about Rust Belt, through media, talk in the community kind of thing. I thought I'm gonna take another risk. I really don’t have anything to lose. It’s reasonable enough rent so you don’t feel like you’re going to lose everything," she says.
"I put all my energy into the Rust Belt, left the art fairs. Clients followed me and the community within the Rust Belt just blew my mind. It was everything I was looking for. You'll have an 80-year-old woman standing next to a teenage boy with a mohawk; They’re both looking at things in my booth and enjoying it."
Other than higher priced items she sells on etsy and ebay, mostly because clients in California and New York are her buyers, and pieces stocked at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Rust Belt "is pretty much all I do right now," Dumas says.
"I think I’m in the above average income there. Nowhere near the top vendors. I can’t believe how well some of the vendors at Rust Belt do."
Because of the Rust Belt, Dumas is currenlty designing the jewelry for a film. She expects an event space will lead to more opportunities and income as the Tooth & Nail name gets out to guests coming through, either strolling by or shopping during events that include an open market.
"Even though people were resistant to the idea, you just have to grab it by the balls and make it work," Dumas says. "I think it's gonna be kind of like the best of both worlds. I think more and more every day people are more excited about what's coming."
SPEEDCULT DETROIT
Want something, anything, made out of metal? Speedcult Detroit can do it. Elaborate brass mannequins, a shiny silver shamrock. The business owned by Len Puch, more commonly known as Len von Speedcult, and Tina Casey, celebrates hot rod culture, turning out grills and other customized car parts.
Speedcult will also carve your address out of metal pieces, come up with all kinds of cool containers and signs. Roller coasters, business card hlders. Pendant lighting and chandeliers, those too. Its motto is "Hot Rod your home with custom metalworks fabricated by alcohol fueled mad scientist," and Chris Best sees Speedcult as one of Rust Belt's success stories. Customers are racing to Rust Belt to see Speedcult in action.
It was the Rust Belt that opened up whole new markets for Speedcult, Casey says. "What Rust Belt has brought us is recognition of the custom work we do," she says.
After years of car-focused metal works being made and sold direct at Autorama, Speedcult is now making a name for non auto-related goods.
It's currently building 50 aluminum picnic tables for Comerica Park and working on metal sculptures for a children's garden in Lathrup Village. The garden was a job that came about because of Rust Belt, she says. The booth at Rust Belt is with a bar and bar stools made by Speedcult is run by Brenda and Matthew Pomroy.
The new event space, Casey says, "will just bring in more people, and open us up to more people."
Metromode profiled Speedcult back in November, 2011. Read it
here.
HENRIETTAHAUS
Henriettahaus is a quirky connoisseur of coffee. Amy Duncan is the owner of the small batch coffee roaster that specializes in organic, free trade beans and such, beans that perfume the Rust Belt and are sold from one of the most eye-catching vendor spots - a massive bar made of old organs.
Duncan told Wyandotte Patch that she had looked for a place to house Henriettahaus but kept striking out. When Rust Belt came along, she stopped looking. She's been there since the market's third weekend.
"The best part is that it's an affordable way to grow your business surrounded by 60-70 other unique artists and run by two very amazing people," she's quoted in Patch. "I'm not sure there is another place where I could have built this weird coffee fortress out of antique pump organs and other salvaged bits and pieces."
On her Facebook page, Duncan appealed for support of the Kickstarter campaign to fund the new gathering space.
"Support them ," she says, "and maybe your child can be the first Ferndalien to have their baby shower, sweet sixteen party, graduation party, wedding reception, retirement party, and funeral, all at the corner of Woodward & Nine."
Kim North Shine is a freelance writer and Development News Editor for Metromode.
All Photos by David Lewinski Photography