What new retail business idea for Detroit is going to be funded with a $50,000 prize?
Hatch Detroit has narrowed the possible winner of its retail idea contest to 10 semifinalists after accepting more than 200 submissions throughout the summer.
Hatch Detroit is a nonprofit set up by Nick Gorga, a lawyer at Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP in Detroit, and Ted Balowski, an account executive at CareTech Solutions Inc. in Troy, to encourage economic revitalization in Detroit.
Gorga and Balowski selected 20-25 candidates that had more thoroughly developed plans and presented them to a board of 12 entrepreneurs and supporters of entrepreneurial endeavors in the city. They include Claire Nelson, owner of Bureau of Urban Living; Liz Blondy, owner of Canine to Five; Slows Bar BQ owners Phil and Ryan Cooley; Rishi and Anuja Jaitly, founders of Michigan Corps; and Kerry Doman, founder and CEO of After5 LLC.
Profiles of the semifinalists were posted today at hatchdetroit.com, where visitors can vote on the 10 ideas. That voting will winnow the ideas to four finalists, who will face a panel of three judges for a "Hatch Off" question-and-answer session Oct. 21 as part of Model D's Next Big Thing event.
The 10 semifinalists are:
• Alley Wine: Plan to turn a garage in Midtown that's facing an alley into a wine café. Three partners — Lynne Savino, David Knapp and Kurt Cieszkowski — already own the brick 19th century structure and are awaiting zoning approval and a liquor license.
• Hugh: Plan by furniture retailer, interior designer and local blogger Joe Posch to give a permanent home to a downtown pop-up store called Hugh, which Posch has operated in the past, selling 1950s- and '60s-inspired accessories and household goods targeted at men.
• Workroom: Eastern Market-based fashion designer Fotoula Lambros plans to sell her line of clothing and accessories as well as those of other local designers in a storefront that would showcase clothing and the actual production of the clothing as it's made. The store would go into the Capitol Park area of downtown with the intent of serving as the beginnings of a future garment district.
• Pot & Box Detroit: Existing Ann Arbor garden and flower shop would open its second location, in Detroit.
• Woodbridge Gypsy Den and Tea Room: A vegan café and tearoom that would open in the Woodbridge neighborhood, west of Midtown.
• Detroit Institute of Bagels: Brothers Dan and Ben Newman have been making bagels out of their Corktown home and selling them in Eastern Market, as well as delivering them to customers. The prize money would go toward a retail storefront.
• Anthology Coffee: Experienced coffee roasters Josh and Annie Longsdorf would open a café with a communal seating arrangement for customers to enjoy the pair's coffee. The married couple moved from California to Fenton, where in their home they roast the coffee they sell to local coffee shops. Josh is a roaster for Commonwealth in Birmingham.
• Bubble Love: Lift Designer Toys & Gallery, a specialty toy store in Royal Oak, would open a bubble tea bar in Detroit that also would sell toys.
• Little Dove Bakeshop: Bethany Young and Taurus Burns are baked-goods caterers based in Ferndale. They would use the prize money to open a storefront.
• Art=Life: Erik and Israel Nordin, brothers who run a furniture-making business called Detroit Design Center, would open a store with this name to sell their products.
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...-semifinalists
http://hatchdetroit.com/
They all sound like cool ideas I haven't decided which one I would pick.
