Wixom’s West End Commons project, launching this Spring is empowering downtown and expanding the city’s social district

A new gathering space is set to reshape downtown Wixom.

This spring, the city’s Downtown Development Authority plans to break ground on West End Commons, a $1.2 million project that will transform a city-owned, underutilized parcel into a public plaza with seating, landscaping, a small entertainment stage, and restrooms. The property, which cannot be developed due to underground utilities, is being reimagined as a flexible community space on the west end of downtown.

For Laura Cloutier, executive director of the Wixom DDA, the project is both strategic and necessary.

“The West End Commons is important for the social district and our community, because it’s an economic development tool,” Cloutier says. “This is a place that will bring people out as we activate it, and it’ll allow people to linger and visit businesses, and really it also serves as a hub in an area of our downtown that doesn’t have anything like that.”

Currently, much of downtown activity centers on the east end near Sibley Park and the fountain plaza. The Commons aims to extend that energy westward, ensuring more businesses benefit from increased foot traffic.

“We have been really focused on trying to activate the west end of our downtown so those businesses see the benefit of people gathering and enjoying that area,” Cloutier says.

West End Commons will be fully integrated into The Junction, Wixom’s social district — the framework that allows visitors to purchase beverages from participating businesses and carry them throughout designated downtown boundaries.

The social district was established in 2022 after Michigan introduced the concept statewide during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was a way to allow businesses to serve customers, but when they couldn’t have them inside,” Cloutier says. “A social district allows a customer to take an alcoholic beverage out of participating social district business and walk around in its downtown community and take it to what are known as common areas…spaces that people could gather safely in.”

What began as a pandemic-era adaptation has since evolved into a long-term placemaking strategy. Today, four businesses participate in The Junction: Drafting Table Brewing Company, El Camino Real Mexican Restaurant, Wixom Station, and Wixom Bar. The district operates year-round from noon to 10 p.m.

Cloutier describes the district as a complement to the city’s existing assets.

“I think The Junction is really an accessory to downtown Wixom,” she says. “So if you think of a good outfit… to really make the outfit you accessorize… the social districts are just that accessory to make it even more inviting and more exciting to come to downtown Wixom.”

In addition to West End Commons, the DDA has invested in other projects that support the district’s growth. Last summer, it transformed a previously overlooked alley into a designed gathering space known as Gillies Alley.

“We activated that space with beautiful planters and benches,” Cloutier says. “We commissioned an artist to put a mural on one wall of the Wixom bar. We put on attractive lighting between the buildings, and that space is part of our social district, and it has really come to life and has allowed people to gather there and take pictures and just kind of hang out and enjoy the space and downtown.”

Sibley Park — home to weekly summer concerts — and the downtown fountain also serve as common areas within the district, reinforcing a culture of gathering that has long existed in Wixom.

Local business owners say they’ve embraced the initiative.

Kristin Rzeznik, co-owner of Drafting Table Brewing Company, says the DDA reached out during the pandemic to businesses with liquor licenses about joining the district.

“Well, so the DDA, they headed that initiative, and I believe it happened during the pandemic times, and so they reached out to the businesses that held liquor licenses… so they reached out to us to see if we want to be a part of it,” Rzeznik says. “And we’ve heard good things from other communities in Michigan during the pandemic… and saw that it was a really neat addition to a downtown.”

For Rzeznik, the difference is visible in daily activity.

“It just allows for a little bit more, like a lively environment. It’s something else to do in downtown. It’s just another layer of attraction, definitely,” she says.

Since opening in 2016, she has seen more pedestrians and cyclists, especially during warmer months.

“It’s definitely changed since when we opened in 2016; it’s a lot more. You see a lot more pedestrians. You see a ton of cyclists during the summer with the bike trail,” Rzeznik says.

Still, she hopes the impact goes deeper than increased traffic.

“I just hope that people will still remember places like ours, and I hope that they remember that there are things outside of their home. Yes, they can. They can go to and connect with people like, connect with people in person again,” Rzeznik says. “So I hope that is what the future holds for everybody… It’s really important to be in person places, and connect with people in person and connect with their community in person.”

As West End Commons prepares to break ground, it represents more than a new plaza. It builds on the foundation The Junction has already laid — creating more room for neighbors to gather, explore, and experience downtown Wixom together.