Ann Arbor isn't flat. That's obvious. Walk through its downtown and you'll quickly realize that all the cafes and restaurants, bars and boutiques you frequent have neighbors stacked on top of them. What isn't obvious is exactly who those neighbors are and what they're doing. No, this isn't a story to invoke paranoia and fear. We're not Fox News. And this isn't meant to turn into a
Rear Window scenario. But what's going on up there?
Ann Arbor's second story (and above) is a whole other world, like the canopy in the rainforest. And by no means is this story comprehensive. It's just a sampling, a little taste of the city's diverse business community that lives ten feet or higher above street level.
"The street level is one type of atmosphere but it's completely different above that level," says Christopher Cook, founder and president of Metrocom International, a video production company that specializes in corporate and institutional productions. Cook came here as a print journalist on a University of Michigan journalism fellowship and worked at
The Detroit News from 1984 until the strike. That's when he branched out to video documentaries. His stuff has been on PBS and he was the main documentary producer for the show
Michigan At Risk from 1998 to 2007. You also might recognize Cook's name from the wine and restaurant column in
Hour Detroit Magazine.
Metrocom is on East Liberty Street, above the Cloverleaf Restaurant.
"This atmosphere is conducive to a small business," he says. "It enhances our business to be here. Somehow they enhance the jobs we get and it helps to keep the clients we have. We're not out at Briarworld" (he said that on purpose) "or in some office park … It's not only a business choice [to be downtown], it's a lifestyle choice. They just go together."
And he adds, of course: "There are ten to 15 places to eat lunch every day."
The epicenter of downtown is Main Street and the blocks surrounding it. There is some density traveling east toward State Street but Tom Heywood, executive director of the State Street Area Association, says most of the second floor there is professors and a few non-profits.
"So much runs under the radar, though, that it's hard to keep track of," he says. "We've had a lot of companies that became successful and needed to expand beyond our space. They loved the coolness of downtown but they moved up and out." When he says out, he's not necessarily saying out of Ann Arbor, just out of the small one or two room spaces available on his side of town.
An hour-long canvassing of the second floor spaces along streets like Liberty, Main, Washington, 4th and 5th, gives you a good idea of what you're working with. Of course it's hard to spit in this town without hitting something involved with the University. It has a heavy presence along East Liberty. The UM Musical Society, the UM Tech Arb -- which shares a building with heavy hitters like Google and Ann Arbor SPARK -- the University's Institute for Research, Labor, Employment, and Economy, just to name a few. There is also an enormous amount of MDs and shrinks. For instance, one building on East Liberty has more than a half dozen psychologists. (Everyone in that building better be well-adjusted, that's for sure.)
So, lop off the MDs and those in the medical field, 'cause we know what they do, and subtract the UM players, and what do you have? Well, a lot of creatives, interesting non-profits, and the odd retail space.
Scott Pryor runs a five person branding studio at 303 South Main Street, suite 205. Pryor's space is a bit different than some of the other companies in the second story. Instead of renting their space, they own. There are a dozen units in Pryor's building, 11 of them are residential space, and the 12th is Pryor Design.
"We've been on State Street, Liberty, Main Street," Pryor says. "But this block, I think, is the epicenter of town." Prior grew up in Chelsea. He went to Eastern Michigan University and has been working in Ann Arbor since his 1990 graduation. Their clients range from Pryor's alma mater to a Calgary hiking and skiing company. He says 60 percent is local and the rest of their biz is regional, national, or international.
"There's a lot of cachet and style attached to what we do," says Pryor. "And that translates to our space. We have exposed brick, high ceilings. It's a neat space in a great part of town."
At 255 East Liberty, in suite 281, is Hook, a commercial art and interactive studio. They do a lot of flash work – Flash, the program. "We work 100 percent with ad agencies," says partner Aaron Schwartz. Their clients include big ad names like Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Saatchi & Saatchi. The company is in its fourth year and has ten employees.
Schwartz, along with three brothers, started Hook. "I'm not a brother," he says. They were all U-M grads. "We've always been in Ann Arbor. It wasn't a conscious decision; we just liked the city. We started looking for an office and they were all in Ann Arbor."
Hook started out with 600-square-feet and as the offices around them became available, they grabbed them and knocked down the walls. They're currently at 4,000-square-feet, and looking to grow.
"The urban environment is definitely nice. Being in a city is great," Schwartz says. "The restaurants are a huge draw and the only bad part is the parking." There are those who believe, however, that a city isn't great unless the parking is horrible.
You can find a little retail above street level as well. Take Michal Slaughter's Earth Arts Gallery. He's relatively new to A2's second story. He spent his first seven months in Ypsilanti before moving the gallery six weeks ago to 116 Washington, suite 240. The Earth Arts Gallery specializes in nature-oriented art. Slaughter says it's "beautiful and affordable art form nature."
Slaughter moved with the hopes of siphoning a portion of the large amount of foot traffic downtown Ann Arbor sees in a day. The weather hasn't been very conducive for foot traffic up until recently. Slaughter says he's waiting. "When the weather gets warmer I'll do some more broad scale marketing." He says it's just a matter of time.
"Ann Arbor itself is a well known place for interesting and unique experiences. Having a space upstairs in Jackson, Michigan, and nothing against Jackson, but it just isn't the same," Slaughter explains.
At 220 Main St., above Elmo's, Scott Berry runs the Phoenix Center, a multi-use, rent-a-room type of business. So, for instance, a teacher of Tai Chi, salsa dancing, or some form of yoga, can call up Berry, rent a space, a weekly time slot, and get right to it. Non-teachers can also join current classes at anytime.
Berry says he looked all around, from warehouses to glorified office spaces, but they just didn't seem to fit. Then he saw a sign in the second floor window of a space on Main Street for a space for rent. And the Phoenix Center was born. "Every day of the week something is going on," Berry says. "I'm happy where it is. It's grown by word of mouth with zero paid advertisement."
Non-profits also have a place in Ann Arbor's second story. Case in point: the Fair Food Network. Its mission is to improve food systems in under-served communities. In most cases that means bringing healthier eating options to schoolchildren. The non-profit works with a lot of Southeastern Michigan organizations, with a strong focus on Detroit. One such program is a double-value dollar system piloted last year in Eastern Market.
"It allowed those using a bridge card... formerly called food stamps... to double up the value of one dollar when purchasing healthy food at Eastern Market. They get double money to buy healthy food," Fair Food Network Director of operations Jean Chorazyczewski says. "The next step is to make this [program] statewide."
The Network is also planning to put together "food hubs". Essentially they give farmers who don't have the means a way to distribute their fare. It is still in its infancy.
To bring it back to street level, Chorazyczewski says this is their second space in Ann Arbor's second story. "We used to be above Vinology. It was a really nice space," she says. "But we needed a smaller office space." The landlord also rents out the buildings where the Jolly Pumpkin and the Blue Tractor call home. "The landlord was very generous and interested in helping us out. And so now we're above the Blue Tractor."
"Being downtown helps in attracting the community to our work," she says. "Ann Arbor has a great community, especially downtown. And they are aware of the privilege we have here."
Chorazyczewkski says that the downtown community really embraces its neighbor organizations and businesses. "We're all supporting each other," she explains.
Terry Parris Jr. is a regular contributor
to Concentrate, Metromode and Model D. His previous article was Ann Arbor Companies, Global Markets.
All Photos By Dave Lewinski
Photos:
View from Pryor Design-Main Street
Pryor Design Office
Scott Pryor
Pryor Design
Oran of the Fair Food Network
The View From Fair Food Network
Exterior of Fair Food Network