Detroit Firm Helps Launch Young Entrepreneurs With Rent-Free Space for 'Industry Club'

A new initiative coming to Detroit in September will provide resources for youth interested in retail and fashion merchandising, planners said.

The Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan’s first Industry Club will offer paid after-school and summer experience in various aspects of the retail business development cycle, including stocking merchandise, ordering wholesale and fulfilling online orders., along with mentorship and networking opportunities and job placement.

The store will be co-located with the Détroit is the New Black store at 1430 Woodward Ave. in downtown Detroit, and it is likely to employ up to 200 young people ages 14 and up each year.

Détroit is the New Black has offered retail floor space to other Detroit-based small businesses since it opened its flagship store in 2016, and founder Roslyn Karamoko said the Industry Club will be a new opportunity to fulfill the brand’s mission of uplifting entrepreneurs and minorities in business.

“The Industry Club is a dream manifested for Détroit is the New Black and such a perfect example of community partners coming together to support the future of the city,” Karamoko said.

The Detroit-based real estate firm Bedrock will provide the 2,400 square foot Industry Club space rent-free and will also provide a $25,000 pre-development grant.

The Corktown-based maker space Ponyride, which recently announced a strategic partnership with BGCSM, will offer brick-and-mortar and e-commerce support to local female entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color through an accelerator program.

Bedrock and the other Industry Club partners will also build a long-term skilled volunteer support program for small businesses participating in the Ponyride accelerator.

“It has always been our belief that a sustainable, vibrant retail district is a place where strong local brands thrive beside big national names,” Bedrock CEO Matt Cullen said. “That strategy needs to expand to elevate minority-owned businesses and help strengthen pathways for their growth and contribution to Detroit’s ongoing momentum. The Industry Club will be an important step in that direction.”

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Bedrock has provided three months of rent abatement to small businesses in downtown Detroit and is offering variable rent structure through the end of the year, according to a news release.

Shawn H. Wilson, president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan, thanked Bedrock, Ponyride and Détroit is the New Black in a statement. “True equality can only be achieved through economic and social mobility and the Industry Club is designed to do just that,” Wilson said. “Metro Detroit youth will gain the economic, cultural and social capital needed to become college, career and start up ready.”

A second Industry Club is scheduled to be announced later this year, according to the news release.