Bieri, Stokas Merge to Boost Detroit Retail

DETROIT-Two retail brokerage firms have merged in Motor City. Detroit-based Bieri Co., led by Jim Bieri, has joined with Southfield-based Stokas Realty Advisors to form Stokas Bieri Real Estate. Stokas is led by Jim Stokas, formerly of CB Richard Ellis and Trammell Crow Cos.

Bieri opened his retail consultancy firm in 1976, and represents tenants such as Small Plates Restaurant Group, Fire & Ice, Dean & Deluca and Yankee Candle, and owners such as CBL & Associates Properties Inc. Stokas represents clients such as the proposed Shoppes at Detroit’s Gateway Park at Eight Mile Road, east of Woodward Avenue. Stokas also belonged to the X Team, an alliance of real estate advisors, and brings that relationship to the merger.

The move wasn’t a takeover by either company, Bieri tells GlobeSt.com, and the two Jims will likely keep their separate offices. “Lots of businesses have two locations,” Bieri says.

He says he hopes the move can help bring more retail attention and expertise to Detroit, especially the downtown area. Bieri is one of the brokers involved in the retail space at the popular Campus Martius area, where Quicken just moved its headquarters to the Compuware building. “There’s momentum gathering in Detroit for real leasing to occur. We were starting to gain momentum before the recession, and then former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick imploded, and the car companies died. But the last couple of years we’ve been gathering steam, with a new, business-friendly Mayor Dave Bing, the Quicken move and the planned light-rail along Woodward Avenue. We’ve hit bottom, and we’re starting to move up,” he tells GlobeSt.com.

However, it still remains to be seen whether issues such as crime and blight can be overcome for retail to flourish in the city. Bieri says he believes it can happen, with an amount of public participation through activism, foundations and public-private partnerships. He says he’s even working on a deal for a chain grocery story to open in the city, the first since a Kroger’s closed a couple years ago. “It might be a while, but I think we’ll start to see grocery interest in the city again,” he says.