"It’s just kind of unique to have a sports facility within a retail space in such a high traffic area," says Joe Williams, owner of The Pickleball Pop-Up in downtown Farmington. "I don’t think that’s too common.”
“We want to see more companies started here and more companies thriving here, so there’s more wealth created and sustained locally. And job creation, obviously, is a big part of that, too,” says April Boyle, Senior Advisor for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Velocity.
Photographer David Lewinski was on the scene at the Velocity Reinvented celebration. Here’s what he saw.
“We’ve seen an increase in foot traffic just in the last 30 days,” says Kelly Freeman, who co-owns All About Women’s Health Boutique & Spa with her cousin Mariam Searcy.
“We’re very excited to be back — it was not fun to make that decision to close in the first place. Farmington was our first full-scale restaurant, so it was not a happy decision to close,” says Browndog co-owner Paul Gabriel. “We’re very happy to reopen and hit the ground running.”
"I think if you do it, and you care about it, why aren't you a writer?" says Kelsey Ronan, the operations director at Room Project. "We support you. You're at the table, same as the person who's in The New York Times this week, same as the person who has this great new essay coming out, or the poet who's a couple of books into her career. We see you. You're a writer too."
“We have to start incubating food businesses more creatively. During COVID-19, it’s still a tough landscape for food entrepreneurs” says Kate Knight, director of the Farmington DDA. “How do you lower those entry costs and pave the way for new food entrepreneurs?”
How can cities better support innovative businesses? We take a closer look at how Sterling Heights is beating out even Silicon Valley in attracting start-ups and changemakers in the tech world.
“The experience will not change, but it will be enhanced,” says co-owner Tony Eckrich.
“I think it's important to support the people that are your neighbors and your friends and live in the same area as you. Then that money stays in the local economy, it stays in the city, and it supports a lot more than just us,” says Lizzie DiMaria, co-founder of The Dearborn Shop.
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