Inside the Pony Ride: From foreclosure to empowerment in Corktown
Published: Tuesday, November 22, 2011, 8:10 AM Updated: Tuesday, November 22, 2011, 10:47 AM
By Jonathan Oosting | MLive.com
Phil Cooley's latest Corktown project, the Pony Ride, has a fun name but a serious mission: To turn the foreclosure crisis on its head.
The Slows Bar BQ owner beat out would-be land speculators in a tax sale this spring, purchasing a 30,000-square-foot building at the corner of Porter and Vermont for a cool $100,000.
Instead of sitting on the property, Cooley is offering cheap or near-free rent to socially conscious entrepreneurs and artists committed to improving the community.
His goal is to break even and, in the process, make the most of a bad situation.
"What we're hoping to do is see how the foreclosure crisis can have a positive impact on our community," Cooley told MLive.com. "I just don't think the situation is going to change on its own, so how can we change it ourselves?"
In addition to two traditional companies already renting space, including long-time tenant Hernandez Printing, Cooley is curating the Pony Ride with with local startups and non-profits who agree to shut down production two Sundays a month and teach local kids about their craft.
When renovation work is complete, he expects to have up to 17 tenants -- including a hip hop dance studio, En Garde! Detroit, Simply Suzanne Granola and Stukenborg letter press -- many paying as little as $250 a month for 2,500 square feet of space.
"Usually, what has happened in the past, is a speculator would buy this for land control and let it deteriorate, and the community would deteriorate around it," Cooley said. "Or a small group of individuals would benefit from it but not the community. This project, specifically, we wanted to see if everyone could benefit."
THE EMPOWERMENT PLAN
Veronika Scott has spent the past several months turning her very own corner of the Pony Ride building -- a 2,000 square-foot space on the second floor she expects to rent for as little as $100 to $200 a month -- into a permanent home for The Empowerment Plan, her company that produces innovative self-heating coats that transform into waterproof sleeping bags for the homeless.
In addition to friends and family, fellow tenants have helped her scrape tile, finish electrical work and power wash ceilings caked with decades-worth of tobacco residue. "We've been working collectively, but we all have to do our own construction work," she said. "If you want your own space, you better be willing to commit a lot of time to actually do it yourself."
Scott began developing her product, the Element Survival Coat, long before she had a business plan.
Two years ago, as a student at the College for Creative Studies, a professor tasked her with creating a design to meet a need. After observing a group of homeless people using their clothing as makeshift housing, Scott met with residents at a local homeless shelter, began formulating plans and eventually created a prototype.
Last year, she handed out around 75 coats in Detroit, San Francisco, New Orleans, New York and Chicago. Thanks to donated materials, along with seed money from a Texas-based manufacturing company west coast philanthropist, Scott hopes to hand out up to 1,000 free coats to homeless outreach groups this fiscal year.
"We've been really lucky that people have reached out to us, and that's why we've been able to move so fast on so many things," she said.
The coats can, quite literally, save lives. But Scott's new headquarters in the Pony Ride building will allow her to focus less on her product and more on the people producing it. Working with Cass Community Social Services, Scott has hired three women from the homeless shelter and is training them as seamstresses.
"As much as I like the product, I think it comes second to everything else," she said. "Eventually we will supplement other things into this system, because I think it's the system that matters. It's where we're hiring from. The way we're giving a chance and a skill set that is dying out in the U.S."
MORE DAN GILBERTS
As city officials continue to plan an ambitious project to reshape Detroit, a handful of business leaders with the resources to turn ideas into action are taking matters into their own hands. Dan Gilbert, for instance, is buying up buildings downtown and offering venture capital to companies interested in relocating.
Cooley is doing something similar in Corktown, albeit on a much smaller scale. And while not everyone in the community is embracing his brand of gentrification, it's certainly a healthy alternative to land speculation, which is slowing down redevelopment efforts across the city.
"We have a lot of empty lots and a lot of empty buildings, but at the same time we have a waiting list for people to move into Corktown," Cooley said, referencing his brother at O'Conner Real Estate.
"There's just no excuse to not develop your buildings. There are some folks that can't afford that, and I understand that, but the majority of people that hold these buildings can. Hopefully, we'll start seeing a little more activity around here. We need more Dan Gilbert's and less... other people. I won't name names."
