June 26, 2006
TasteFest offers vision for Detroit retail
Comerica TasteFest, a five-day celebration of music, food and shops, begins Friday and is New Center Council Inc.’s vision of an ideal city.
This year TasteFest includes more than 40 restaurants from across metro Detroit, nearly 60 musical acts on four stages and 24 retailers in an area called 2nd Avenue Street Market.
“The requirement to be in the street market section is to be an actual retail store versus a vendor that just does a lot of festivals,” said Randall Fogelman, director of marketing of Comerica TasteFest for New Center Council. “So the street market is our idea of ideal retail that could go into the Woodward Gateway district.”
Retailers include Detroit-based Pure Detroit, Royal Oak-based Modern Skate & Surf, Dragonfly Boutique in Ferndale and Detroit-based D’jenne Beads & Art.
The council is working along Woodward Avenue to reinvigorate retail through a facade-improvement program. The council uses TasteFest proceeds to support development, and estimates more than $130 million has been invested in New Center neighborhood projects since the late 1990s.
Debuting at TasteFest are Asian Village, Centaur Bar, Clubhouse Tavern, Grand City Grille, La Pita Fresh, Lola’s, Louie’s Buscemi’s, Louisiana Creole Gumbo, Sticky Fingers and Sweet Lorraine’s, event organizers said.
Fogelman said New Center charges restaurants and retailers a flat fee for space at TasteFest and charges a 17.5 percent commission on total sales.