Avalon bakery plans $2.2m development

[gthomas]

Avalon bakery plans $2.2M development

By Michael Martinez | The Detroit News

November 15, 2012

“The quick success [[of Avalon’s café inside Henry Ford Hospital on West Grand Boulevard) and growing demand for Avalon products in suburban Detroit and Ann Arbor has prompted our expansion,” co-owner Ann Perrault, right, said in a statement. Co-owner Jackie Victor is shown on the left. [[Clarence Tabb, Jr./The Detroit News)

Detroit — Avalon International Breads, a Midtown fixture since 1997, will open a substantially larger bakery and retail facility in early 2013 that will more than double its workforce, the company is set to announce today.

Avalon City Ovens, a 50,000-square-foot facility, will open at 6555 E. Forrest next year as part of a $2.2 million economic growth project, said co-owner Ann Perrault. The building, with an Italian-made artisan deck oven, will be used for all of the organic bakery's food production and help it expand its product line.

As part of its growth, the company's flagship store at 422 W. Willis will relocate to 441 Canfield next spring, Perrault said.

"The quick success [[of Avalon's café inside Henry Ford Hospital on West Grand Boulevard) and growing demand for Avalon products in suburban Detroit and Ann Arbor has prompted our expansion," Perrault said in a statement.

...

The new facility will employ 100 bakers, drivers, sales and customer service workers. Avalon has a tradition of hiring locally, paying workers above market rates and providing health care benefits.

"Not only do we employ people in Detroit, we try to talk others into moving here," she said. "This is how we need to rebuild our city."

[RickBeall]

You always feel sorry when the cozy, old site is abandoned. And you worry that the new, huge site will make you feel like you are eating in a strip mall somewhere.

[Django]

As far as I can tell this is the new building for Avalon, anyone know if this is right? Its directly behind their current location. Now Im gonna have to walk 3 blocks to get my bread lol.

They didnt say West or East Canfield. The East Canfield adress reads as the hospital. Hope Im right so I can grab a beer across the street at the brewery.
I hope Avalon adds bagels to the chalkboard, Id love to get a decent fresh bagel in the Corridor.

[michimoby]

As far as I can tell this is the new building for Avalon, anyone know if this is right? Its directly behind their current location. Now Im gonna have to walk 3 blocks to get my bread lol.

They didnt say West or East Canfield. The East Canfield adress reads as the hospital. Hope Im right so I can grab a beer across the street at the brewery.
I hope Avalon adds bagels to the chalkboard, Id love to get a decent fresh bagel in the Corridor.

Yep, that's the spot. It's the commercial space being developed by Demattia [[part of the Willys complex).

[southen]

i assumed they were going into willy's. that place pictured would be an interesting location. i always thought it was a storage space for mcbw.

[michimoby]

i assumed they were going into willy's. that place pictured would be an interesting location. i always thought it was a storage space for mcbw.

AFAIK, it's completely vacant. Demattia has hosted some corporate events in the vacant space in the past, but from what I understand most of the commercial space has been leased for future tenants -- which I think includes these guys:

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...ts-in-midtown#

[DetroitPlanner]

The real news here is not the moving of the retail store, but the expansion of the wholesale business. One hundred new jobs is nothing to sneeze at. This expansion brings new money into the city each time a delivery is made in some far off exurb. The new money then can be recirculated in the local economy.

Definitely good news. Much better for the economy than buying a loaf of Wonderbread.

[Django]

No more Twinkies.

[Lowell]

No more Twinkies.

Ya never know. With Hostess going into bankruptcy liquidation, maybe Avalon will acquire Twinkies.

This is certainly a credit to the founders of Avalon, their hard work, great products, and guts for starting out in what many would have written off as an insane location. Instead they made lemonade out of lemons,elevated the neighborhood and are now reaping the rewards. Good for them.

[Strong]

This is huge.Congrats to the Avalon people. I really like their cookies.
I think the old Avalon spot would be ideal for a vegan restaurant or health food/vitamin store. I don't believe that someone will let that great location be vacate for long.

[marshamusic]

Avalon bakery plans $2.2M development

By Michael Martinez | The Detroit News

November 15, 2012

“The quick success [[of Avalon’s café inside Henry Ford Hospital on West Grand Boulevard) and growing demand for Avalon products in suburban Detroit and Ann Arbor has prompted our expansion,” co-owner Ann Perrault, right, said in a statement. Co-owner Jackie Victor is shown on the left. [[Clarence Tabb, Jr./The Detroit News)

Detroit — Avalon International Breads, a Midtown fixture since 1997, will open a substantially larger bakery and retail facility in early 2013 that will more than double its workforce, the company is set to announce today.

Avalon City Ovens, a 50,000-square-foot facility, will open at 6555 E. Forrest next year as part of a $2.2 million economic growth project, said co-owner Ann Perrault. The building, with an Italian-made artisan deck oven, will be used for all of the organic bakery's food production and help it expand its product line.

As part of its growth, the company's flagship store at 422 W. Willis will relocate to 441 Canfield next spring, Perrault said.

"The quick success [[of Avalon's café inside Henry Ford Hospital on West Grand Boulevard) and growing demand for Avalon products in suburban Detroit and Ann Arbor has prompted our expansion," Perrault said in a statement.

...

The new facility will employ 100 bakers, drivers, sales and customer service workers. Avalon has a tradition of hiring locally, paying workers above market rates and providing health care benefits.

"Not only do we employ people in Detroit, we try to talk others into moving here," she said. "This is how we need to rebuild our city."

Is it ok to bring up an old post like this? I was poking around in the archives because I hadn't seen any mentions of Avalon Bakery's upcoming development on the East Side in any current discussions. It seems, as well, other than the OP's article itself, in this thread, there is no mention of Avalon's new bakehouse - and its significance. Even the article does not comment on the significance of this new development.

They are not only moving around the corner to a new location, but they are also opening a large bakehouse [[that might also be called a plant) at 6555 E. Forrest. The new facility that is going to "hire 100 workers" refers to this East Side bake house, not the Canfield space.

The Forrest address is in the DEEP hood. Forrest and Bellevue, between Mt. Elliot and The Boulevard. OK? This is no small thing, this penetration of new capital into such an area. I think that this is even more significant than their move onto Willis, for even with it's dereliction at the time, the Cass area did have an arts community for many years.

I was at a preview of Avalon's plans a few months ago and a video was shown regarding their vision. The plan for such a move into such a depressed area - with no "hipster" or arts cachet - is really amazing.

Have you all already had a discussion about this? I keep looking for mentions of this and don't see any. You guys know a lot of what's going on around here, did you sleep this one? :-) I'm interested in what you think about this. This is an important development.

[[if you did have some thread on this and I've missed it. Oh well - Never Mind! Send me a link! LOL!.)

[marshamusic]

The real news here is not the moving of the retail store, but the expansion of the wholesale business. One hundred new jobs is nothing to sneeze at. This expansion brings new money into the city each time a delivery is made in some far off exurb. The new money then can be recirculated in the local economy.

Definitely good news. Much better for the economy than buying a loaf of Wonderbread.

Oops! I missed this post. I see that DetroitPlanner sure sees the significance of this.

[poobert]

No more Twinkies.

The corporate monolith that was Hostess sure could have taken a page from two ladies in the Cass Corridor. Make fresh, natural, delicious, essentially old fashioned baked goods and the world will beat a path to your door, instead of peddling the same midcentury chemical garbage endlessly and then blaming the unions.

[Novine]

Is Avalon getting any tax breaks or incentives for this?

[antongast]

The corporate monolith that was Hostess sure could have taken a page from two ladies in the Cass Corridor. Make fresh, natural, delicious, essentially old fashioned baked goods and the world will beat a path to your door, instead of peddling the same midcentury chemical garbage endlessly and then blaming the unions.

Except the Hostess execs are still orders of magnitude richer than the Avalon owners ever will be. If you want to get filthy rich, taking over big companies and destroying them one after the other a la Bob Nardelli is a much better strategy than starting and growing a successful and socially responsible local business.

Hostess' CEO is getting paid $125,000 a month, the company is paying out $1.8 million in bonuses to its 19 top execs as it liquidates, and the execs have also been legally raiding the pension fund to pay themselves for years while also manipulating their own stock price and profiting from it.

[marshamusic]

Is Avalon getting any tax breaks or incentives for this?

That I don't know. Whether they are or not, it is no small thing that a new bread plant is moving into one of the prairie lands of east side Detroit. There's much talk here on these boards about the minutiae of virtually every new business and endeavor in the areas of Downtown/Midtown/Corktown, but apparently little interest about this very significant turning of these two ladies to the sho'nuff hood to build another business.

There's no comments/curiosity about logistics, neighborhood, demographics? I was looking forward to seeing folks weigh in on this important penetration of this business - that has been solely associated with Midtown - into the deep East Side. I'm sure some of you know this area.

Well, even so, I believe that this will prove to be quite an endeavor.

Regarding the comments in this thread about Hostess, I was very close to their operations here at one time, and I assure you that the current situation had its roots in their operations here long ago; no truer words can be said than poobert's above.

[JVB]

That is awesome news, glad to see them expanding especially since they're moving to the eastside.

[marshamusic]

Except the Hostess execs are still orders of magnitude richer than the Avalon owners ever will be. If you want to get filthy rich, taking over big companies and destroying them one after the other a la Bob Nardelli is a much better strategy than starting and growing a successful and socially responsible local business.



Hostess' CEO is getting paid $125,000 a month, the company is paying out $1.8 million in bonuses to its 19 top execs as it liquidates, and the execs have also been legally raiding the pension fund to pay themselves for years while also manipulating their own stock price and profiting from it.

As I said previously, I was once close to this company; antongast certainly makes good point.

[Novine]

According to this article they are getting a tax break.

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/in...pproves_3.html

Still, the city needs more projects like this than it needs to subsidize the empire building of billionaires.

[marshamusic]

Last week I went to the Grand Opening/Open House of the new Avalon Bakery "bake house". It's on Forest and Bellevue, in a block of bland industrial/commercial buildings tucked off of Gratiot. In the deep 'hood.

It was a shockingly pleasant surprise - a huge building, with huge rooms in great shape, with giant vats and equipment and antiseptic snow white walls thoughout. There's none of that warm, sepia toned, hand bakery look of their Midtown store in this new place. This is clearly going to be a major, commercial bakery. There is indoor parking for the employees which is nice, too. Several hundred people showed up throughout the day for the event.

I was even more convinced, after seeing this, of the significance of a move like this, penetrating past Downtown/Midtown to develop a job creating enterprise in an East Side neighborhood. Very important, very cool.