• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Detroit Free Press Tom Walsh Column: Shop to Promote Detroit Plans for Waterfront

Posted on: Thursday, 19 January 2006, 06:00 CST

By Tom Walsh, Detroit Free Press

Jan. 19--Patches of the Detroit River shoreline near downtown still resemble an industrial graveyard, but that's not stopping the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy from opening a new retail shop to tout the city's grand vision for a bustling waterfront district of green spaces, recreation and urban living.

The River Store, to be in the Wintergarden of General Motors Corp.'s Renaissance Center headquarters facing the river, will probably open sometime next week. It will sell river-related commemorative merchandise ranging from peppermint-flavored lip balm ($4) to artsy matted photos of the Ambassador Bridge ($40 and $60).

Not coincidentally, the Wintergarden is also the location of the media center for journalists converging on Detroit during the next two weeks to cover the Super Bowl.

The store's opening is timed to tease out-of-town journalists with a vision of what the city's waterfront may look like two or three years from now. By that time a new 31-acre state park will be well under way and a three-mile stretch of the RiverWalk, where people can walk, jog or bike alongside the river's edge from Cobo Center to Belle Isle, should be complete. Right now, GM's $25-million plaza and promenade are about all there is to see for those daring enough to brave the weather outside the RenCen for a look around.

"We have an exciting story to tell," says Faye Alexander Nelson, president and CEO of the conservancy, the group formed to spearhead the RiverWalk project that will anchor $500 million in housing, retail and commercial development. The riverfront transformation was kick-started by a $50-million series of challenge grants launched by the Kresge Foundation in 2002.

Nelson says 80% of the eastern three-mile portion of the RiverWalk, which will include four pavilions with restrooms, food concessions and bike rentals, will be completed this year. Plans are also in the works to extend the RiverWalk to the west from Cobo Center to the Ambassador Bridge.

Nobody expects a massive run right away on River Store merchandise, most of which carries the "Detroit International Riverfront" logo created by the conservancy.

The store is merely a pilot program, intended to promote the city's redevelopment efforts, while testing the appeal of the branded merchandise. It may be closed after the Super Bowl and reopened at a later date, depending on initial sales and how the landlord -- GM -- wants to use the Wintergarden space in the future.

In the meantime, merchandise will also be available for purchase via the conservancy's Web site, www.detroitriverfront.org, once the store opens. Nelson says the store will definitely be open by Jan. 30 and perhaps by the middle of next week.

In a nod to the brisk January weather outside when the store opens, a winter knit cap ($20) embroidered with the words "Detroit International Riverfront" will be among the products on sale. Others will be T-shirts in white and navy blue, umbrellas, postcards, a glass coffee mug and even a $12 disposable camera in casing branded with the riverfront logo.

In Detroit, a place that has seen more revival schemes over the years than real progress, there are many who won't believe the riverfront resurrection is happening until they finally see it.

But in the meantime, step right up and buy your branded souvenirs.

Contact TOM WALSH at 313-223-4430 or twalsh@freepress.com.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, Detroit Free Press

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

NYSE:GM,

Source: Detroit Free Press

More News in this Category