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SPRINKLES OF HOPE ALONG MICHIGAN AVENUE

Looking out over the vast expanse of fresh asphalt at the newly-opened Fairlane Green shopping center in Allen Park, the contrast of what is taking place on this former industrial waste hill and what is unfolding in the heart of west Dearborn couldn’t be more stark.

If you believe the buzz around the breakfast counter at places such as the Mercury or Little Cafe, this new development is going to provide an avalanche of trouble for Dearborn retail. It’s not a new conversation but it is one that is again heating up with the Christmas shopping season in full swing.

As we all reminisce about the good old days of downtown gift buying, we also have to remember that we welcomed new malls as the next convenient way of shopping. In some communities, such as Plymouth and Northville, there has been a return to the hometown shopping areas that once thrived in Dearborn. While big boxes might offer selection, these small business shops offer uniqueness, customer service and friendliness. This is why I am so upbeat about what I see happening in patches along sections of Michigan Avenue.

Sure the new shops in Allen Park could cause some heartache for some national chain stores, but not west Dearborn. The hard truth is that the area along Michigan Avenue never really fit the big box retail store business model.

What you can’t see from atop Allen Park’s sediment mountain is a different kind of retail development slowly taking hold along small sections of Michigan Avenue.

It’s happening because of people such as Steve Adelson, owner of Steven Bernard Jewelers, Oscar Agius and his soon-to-open Agiuson Jewelers store in what was the former Little Professor’s book store, Nancy Roden, who is days away from opening the Nucker’s Nook boutique, and a host of other small business owners who have laid big bets, not on a chainstore formula shop, but rather their own entrepreneurial retail taking root in west Dearborn.

Take a drive down Warren Avenue on the east side and you’ll witness the kind of business development that can take hold when confidence mushrooms.

And the pace at which others might join these entrepreneurs could quicken if city leaders help break the bureaucratic madness some business owners say they face in trying to open a store. Dearborn Council President John B. O’Reilly Jr. says he has heard similar complaints from new business owners.

“We need to do something to fix that if we want to build our downtowns, both east and west.” O’Reilly says. “We must ensure we have high quality establishments, but we also need to find a way to accommodate them, too.”

Roden is aiming to open Nucker’s Nook, a boutique that specializes in unique gifts and home accents, on Dec. 10. Until then, she is directing people to her website, www.nuckersnook.com

Located at 22707 Michigan Ave., Roden’s store will be a welcome addition to the current short supply of retail shops along Michigan Avenue.

A Dearborn resident, Roden began her search for a location for her store last summer. She settled on west Dearborn because she says she was inspired by the growth of the area’s entertainment and restaurant business and believes the city has a real opportunity to model its downtown to something similar to Northville or Plymouth.

Just a few blocks east of Nucker’s Nook, where a Jacobson’s department store once stood, is the Burton-Katzman development. It is the latest construction taking place along Michigan Avenue that gives hope to the possibility of a quaint old fashion downtown. The first phase of West Village Commons, as the new development will be known, will include two, two-story buildings offering retail and restaurants.

Some West Village Commons tenants, as you’ve read in this paper before, are said to include Cold Stone Creamery, Au Bon Pain, Southwest Grill, Caribou Coffee, La Cigar and Rocky Mountain Chocolate.

That’s not exactly the missing business links for the retail we need, but these businesses could provide some additional foot traffic.

Combine that with the townhouses along West Village Road, condos on Garrison Street, and the new 48-unit condominium project underway (behind the city’s two new parking decks) and you have the ingredients that could lure more small retail business to west Dearborn.

I’ll take that over the big box stores any day.