ECONOMY

PROFESSIONALS

HOME BREW

NYC-based Real Estate Networking
Group Drives Business to Detroit

By Jackie Headapohl

College Grad Tailors
Passion into Proceeds

Custom clothier shoots out the
gate riding his clotheshorse.

By Stefani Barner

S. Marine Corps Sgt. Adam Luckwaldt had a
problem. The 28-year-old New Yorker was at
the end of his enlistment and needed to swap
his uniform blues for a professional, civilian ward-
robe. That's when he first heard about Joshua
Breshgold, a Michigan-based clothier who spe-
cializes in made-to-measure, custom menswear.
"In any situation where I've left him a free hand
to make choices for me, the results have always
been a pleasant surprise," Luckwaldt explains.
"Josh's expertise, his improvisation and his innate
understanding of what I am going for has really
enhanced my personal style."
Breshgold, a 23-year-old Farmington Hills na-
tive, says his clients value his precision, attention
to detail and customer service.
"I see clients in their office or home and take
care of their overall clothing needs for them,
everything from suits to shoes, with an overall
goal of making their lives easier;' Breshgold says.
"Most guys don't like to shop, whereas I've always
had a passion for clothing. So I will go through
their clothing with them and create a system that
shows what pieces work well together."
The self-professed clotheshorse got his start in
the industry when he convinced a family friend
in Singapore to take him on as an apprentice. He
moved to Asia at age 19 and spent six months
learning the trade from a tailor his father had
met while traveling through the country 15 years
earlier.
After returning to the States, and completing
his degree in sales and marketing at Western
Michigan University, his company, Joshua Gold

U

JOSHUA GOLD SEE PAGE 14

very six weeks, a group of up-and-coming real estate
professionals meet in New York City to learn from one
another and make the contacts they need to expand
their business. And, every time they meet, they get a
pep talk on the opportunities available in Michigan from
Bloomfield Hills native Justin Stewart.
Justin Stewart, 29, moved to New York six years ago
and built a successful career in real estate and venture
capital, but his heart never left Detroit. Three years ago,
he founded the Specialized Real Estate Investment
Group in New York as a free networking group, tailored
for the needs of younger professionals in the real estate
industry.
At first, Stewart was struck by the attitude many of
the group members had about Michigan."They had no
insight into what a beautiful place it is to live or the real
estate opportunities it had to offer;' he said. "I set out
to change that. Every time we meet, I tell people good
things about Michigan!'
SREIG also gave other transplanted Michiganders work-
ing in New York's real estate scene the chance to learn
from one another. Many of the earliest members, such
as Daniel Matz, who went to Andover High School with
Stewart, also double as ambassadors.
"If it weren't for what they learn about Michigan from
our group, these people would have no idea about the
potential opportunities there;' Matz said.
Bloomfield Hills native Ethan Orley also has been
a member of SREIG since its inception."Regardless of
whether we return to our hometown, the experience we
get in the nation's most dynamic city will eventually filter
back to Detroit in the form of ideas, support and potential
projects," he said.
Together, these expats have sought to eliminate the
negative perceptions many of New York's young profes-
sionals believe about Detroit, many of them associated
with the implosion of the auto industry.
Since an Indiana University internship at the Late Show

"Detroiters-in-Exile" Ethan Orley (left) and Justin Stewart
funnel business back to Michigan.

with David Letter-
man brought him
to Manhattan,
Stewart knew it
was the place he
wanted to be.
Although first
interested in the entertainment industry, he soon realized
that business was his passion.
He started his first real estate company — helping col-
lege students find apartments in the city — back in 2005,
then earned a master's degree in real estate from New
York University and began work at a real estate commer-
cial debt fund.
After several years living in the nation's financial
capital, he's built up a number of contacts and resources.
And, last November, Stewart took a job with Farmington,
Mich.-based venture capital firm Envy Capital, where he
can capitalize on his dual city citizenship.
According to Sanford Aaron, an Envy Capital principal,
the firm's deal flow, or the rate at which new proposals
are flowing to the underwriters of an investment bank,
required them to look outside the neighborhood for
funding.
Aaron had met Stewart several years earlier on a real
estate project and liked his work ethic. He brought him
on to help with several projects, including a joint venture
with Windham China, which brings Chinese investors to
the United States to purchase real estate.
"We educate the team in China about real estate op-
portunities and then set up investment tours in cities
such as New York, L.A., Miami, Seattle, San Francisco and
Las Vegas;' Stewart said. "Eventually we hope to incorpo-
rate Michigan tours as well!'
The tours were thought to be a loss leader, Aaron said,
but Stewart has managed to turn a profit on them and
provide a higher-quality product for tour participants to
see.
Stewart also is working on raising capital for Royal Oak,
Mich.-based digital media company Pixofactor Entertain-
ment, which is developing a video game and other digital
media based on American golfer Ben Hogan.
"Justin has played an integral role with his New York
connections to raise funds for the development;' Aaron
said. "He has played a similar role with Envy's Watercolors
Project, an adult autism campus!'
Although the first Watercolors Project will be located
in Atlanta, the second will be developed in suburban
Detroit, Aaron said. "Clearly the resources in New York
are plenty, and Justin has proven his ability to tap them;'
Aaron added.
Working for a Michigan-based company is another way
Stewart says he maintains his Michigan roots."' love using
my New York resources to benefit the state, and I love to
educate people about Michigan," he said."I'm eager to
convince people to invest in the state to build it up even
more:' HT

11111111.MOP

HERE AND NOW

Girlie Gear for Urbane Living;
Knock Back Some Liquid Candy

New local boutiques, businesses and brands
you may not know — but should.

By Lynne Konstantin

BIG BAG THEORY

Sherrie Singer and Leslie Moskowitz have
two great passions in common — they love
crafting and they love shopping. As hap-
penstance often does, both women were
smitten with the same fantastic, handmade
bags during a boutique excursion in Zions-
ville, Ind., last summer. And, just like practi-
cally everything else about their friendship,
they knew it was serendipity.
For years, Singer had been telling Mos-
kowitz, who knits and makes jewelry, that
she should sell her own creations. When
they came across the bags, Moskowitz
knew it was time to start their own busi-
ness; both have backgrounds in marketing
and retail — as well as keen eyes for what's
unique.
Last fall, the friends launched Girlie
Goodz, selling the bags they handpick from
that Indiana artisan, along with Moskowitz's
jewels — necklaces, earrings, bracelets
studded with one-of-a-kind beads, semi-

12 April 2011 I

RN) TilltrAD

precious stones, antique buttons and other
vintage finds. "We found these handbags
and fell in love," says Singer. "They incorpo-
rate so many special details, and each one
is truly a work of art."Combining vintage
fabrics and embellishments that have been
"up-cycled" with new pieces, each bag is
unique in its colors, textures and details.
Moskowitz and Singer work with the

artist to invent new designs, as well as scour
local rummage sales and resale shops and
frequently haunt Troy's Michigan Design
Center for designer fabric samples, too;
they package their booty up and send it to
Indiana for use in future designs.
In a nod to their artisan, who began craft-
ing the bags as a fundraiser for a friend with
breast cancer, proceeds from each sale, with
prices ranging from $25-$175, goes toward
breast cancer research.
"We've already had such a fantastic
response to the bags;' says Singer."Every-
where we go, people ask us where we got
our bags. Last week, I sold five bags out of
my trunk at Target."
Moskowitz recalls a funny story of when
she and Singer were stopped at a linen
store by a woman who loved the bag she
was carrying so much, she was willing to
buy it right off her back. "I dumped all of my
stuff on the front seat of my car;' Moskowitz
says.
Find your own at Todd's Room in Birming-
ham (248-594-0003); girliegoodz.com .

SPIRITS OF DETROIT

Add this to the list of imported from
Detroit.
Friends Mike Mouyianis, Chris George
and Rob Nicholl were having a few drinks
at the Hard Luck Lounge, the Grosse Pointe
Park bar owned by Mouyianis' wife, when

they started kicking
around the idea of
creating their
own flavored
vodka.
The candy-
flavored concoc-
tions they devel-
,
OKA
oped were tested
BEER
and approved
BARREL
by Hard Luck pa-
trons — and the
overwhelmingly
positive response
led to the creation
AIVI DEM
FUSDRID 11ID1C1
of Hard Luck
Candy, bottled, of
course, in Temper-
ance, Mich.
The 70-proof
vodka debuted
last summer with
two sweet, old-
fashioned treats made for grownup palates:
Red Fish and Root Beer Barrel. Both taste
like candy, tinged with vodka, rather than
the other way around.
Says Mouyianis, "We hoped that sitting
around drinking would lead to something!'
(Amen and L'Chaim!)
Log onto hardluckcandy.com to find a bar
or retailer in Michigan that carries Hard Luck
Candy vodka. kr

itoor

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