(bright music) (slide whooshing) (bright music) (slide whooshing) - [Host] As 2023 starts in Downtown Detroit, I wanted to take a look ahead to see what some may think the future holds.

I talked to three entrepreneurs in hospitality and retail about their experiences.

A huge impact is the shift to working from home.

- We just this morning had a meeting at one of my companies talking about what will be the 2023 kind of hybrid model.

How many days in the office, what are those days?

So everyone's trying to figure it out to manage through what is a unpredictable and unforecastable number of bodies coming through our door every day at the lunch hour.

Fridays and Saturdays and Sundays have been phenomenal.

Our Sunday brunch numbers are probably 50 to 60% higher now than pre-pandemic.

I don't know why.

- [Host] Dennis Archer Jr.

's Central Kitchen is just off Woodward next to campus Marsha's.

Over in the financial district, a coffee shop, Coffee Down Under.

- And it's palpably obvious down here.

You can sit on Shelby Street and not see a person walk by for 10 minutes in the middle of a day on a Wednesday, right?

And I think that's kind of, you know, we're hoping that changes.

- [Host] The coffee shop down the steps, also a front for a speakeasy Behind the Blue Door featuring custom libations and what was one time a bank fault, the place hopping on a cold January Saturday night.

- I understand the merit of flexible work and I'm supportive of that, but Detroit is actually more emblematic of the rest of the country than a lot of big cities like, you know, New York or LA, for example, which are more, you know, they're their own thing.

We need commuter traffic.

You need people from the suburbs coming down here and spending time.

These businesses are predicated upon that.

We don't have enough residential density in the city to support the amount of, you know, restaurants that we have.

We need people to come back at least a few days a week and really encourage patronizing local businesses to help them succeed because we can't just succeed on Friday, Saturday.

You know, that's just not enough.

- Throwbacks Home launched in Downtown Detroit after the pandemic.

They're a furniture retailer and interior design showroom.

- It's been great.

I mean, like I said, there's no furniture stores down here.

And so I think the response has been extremely positive.

The first week we were open, I wanna say 50% of the people who were coming in knew about us and wanted to see it support us.

And the other half, you know, were just people who are curious.

Now we're get teetering into more of the 70% of the people have never heard of our brand, which is amazing because we've been around since 2014.

So it's a blessing and I'm just really excited to be down here.

- As you can see, sometimes a story has multiple sides, but for those experiencing challenges, what are some possible solutions?

What do you think of some of the plans to increase more residential?

There's even been talk of converting some buildings that were offices into residential.

Do you think that would benefit you?

- Yeah, I mean, the more people that are living downtown, I think they're better.

If you look at, for instance, what happened in Downtown Birmingham versus in Downtown Detroit, Downtown Birmingham, as soon as all those places could open, they were open.

They were back open with their same exact hours because there's a density of people living.

And so there where you have people that are living and maybe they're not going to work, that actually helps the restaurants that are in Downtown Birmingham because those people are staying at home, but they wanna get out to go to lunch, they want to go to happy hour, they want to go to brunch.

And so the more people that live Downtown accompanied by more people on a regular basis coming back to the workplace, I think it's gonna enure to the benefit of all of us that are in hospitality and retail.

- So one I feel very strongly that we should rethink the zoning in this city.

I think zoning creates a lot of challenges for development and inhibits development that, you know, is frankly unnecessary in my mind.

- Expand on that a little bit more actually.

- Yeah, I, you know, I just, the idea that the city dictates what type of activity, I think it stems from a, yes, I would not like to have a nuclear power plant across the street from my residence, but it doesn't mean that, you know, there should be such specificity around like, what type of retail business can be at this corner versus another corner.

Can I build a single family home or a 4-unit, you know, North Corktown, for example, I've invested a fair bit.

There's a lot of vacant lots.

I'd like to see something there and I don't really think we should be that particular.

If it's gonna be residential, let's just allow it to be any form of residential.

- [Narrator] I ask these three whose opinions I all value immensely.

What about the future?

- What is my hope?

Oh, God.

I mean, I just hope that we can keep evolving.

I feel like since we started, all I've been doing is evolving.

You know, we have some really exciting collections that we wanna launch out that I honestly think we can only really launch down here.

I'm looking forward to the unknown.

That's what I could say.

- Really excited for the train station development and kind of that greater vision for Corktown.

I really hope we get it right.

You know, I know in a lot of money's being put into it, a lot of great people are working on the project.

You know, I hope Ford is able to actually get people into the the space.

Right now the property values reflect a vibrant community there, which doesn't exist yet because, you know, these buildings aren't occupied.

And that's a big one.

I think for 2023 in Detroit, I really hope that one lands.

- I don't wanna start with business.

I would say that people should spend time with and be thankful for family and friends.

We've seen a number of losses over the last year, so I would put that ahead of business.

And what I would say as a wish is just for those who have not endeavored down here to give it a shot.

Because anytime someone comes down here, either, A, for the first time or they haven't been here for a long time, they're wowed.

My wish would be to give us a shot and come on down.