EAST DEARBORN

Downtown east Dearborn will look quite different, if it meets the imagination of its Downtown Development Authority Executive Director Michael Boettcher. Storefronts would be filled with a variety of businesses and there would be a waiting list of merchants who want to be downtown. Boettcher talks to Your Community Voice about what’s happening in east Dearborn, including the scheduled medical center groundbreaking in May, what he wants to see happen, and where residents spend most of their time.

• This past year, we did a promotion campaign with the tagline “See the World in One Mile.” Within walking distance, there’s Italian, Chinese, Polish, Arab, Tai, Greek, and all types of different foods. And the Arab American Museum has all different kinds of concerts on Thursdays. There are a lot of opportunities for a lot of cross-cultural experience in the neighborhood, and that’s what we want to tout. It was pretty successful. We heard back from businesses. Someone went into Alcamo’s after hearing one of the radio spots where they were one of the featured businesses and made a huge purchase. And they had never been there before, loved it, and said they’ll be back.

• From our survey, we found a lot of people go to city hall to pay taxes or take care of other city business. The medical center (at 5050 Schaefer) is a big draw. The museum ranks highly in terms of what people like and reasons to come (downtown). We found others like restaurants, ethnic food and shopping. Kroger was another big draw, until they closed at Schaefer and Colson. They didn’t want to operate two stores so close to each other, and Greenfield has better traffic counts than Schaefer. There is specific interest in the Kroger property, but it’s preliminary at this point. I think we need to maintain that as a grocery store. It’s a great anchor.

• The ground breaking for the Oakwood medical building is scheduled for May, and scheduled to be finished at the end of 2010. There will be traffic and some pretty high income medical specialists and administrators on site who have spending money to drop locally. Doctors may attract a local customer base, which is fine. We’re happy wherever they come from.

• Long term, what I see happening is the head of the district moving to the block of Schaefer north of Michigan Avenue. It’s a little less noisy, busy and congested than Michigan Avenue. Schaefer allows for better window shopping. It could be similar to downtown Ferndale at Nine Mile and Woodward, where they narrowed it to two moving lanes, parking on both sides, and managed to bump out the sidewalks to make enough room for outdoor seating.

• We have a functional downtown with a wide variety of business types. But I think we need the kind of businesses where people like to stroll and do window shopping. That’s what I’d like to see happen on Schaefer, where it can happen most naturally. That may mean some of the service businesses moving back to the upper floors or outer storefronts.

• I think this neighborhood has that much potential. This was downtown for decades. We had three department stores, a movie theater, City Hall of course. We had as much commercial use as a shopping mall. People knew this neighborhood, and still do.

INTERVIEW BY RAAD ALAWAN