Designation 1).„ ‘etr (Oit

Beautifying Woodward

One
Window
At A Time

Virtual retail displays add new life
to vacant Detroit storefronts.

Allan Nahajewski I Contributing Writer

. very little bit helps a city
come back.
Wanting to do his part,
Jeff Freedman proposed
an idea for Detroit. Instead
of covering empty storefront
windows with brown paper,
why not put virtual retail store
displays in those windows?
Freedman's focus was on the
stretch of Woodward between
the Fox Theatre and Hart Plaza.
His inspiration was a story he
read about a grocery store in
South Korea that began adver-
tising and selling food items
through posters in subway
windows. Retail space is at
a premium in South Korea.
Rather than open a new store
or a food stand, the grocer
created posters with photos,
information and prices of select
food items accompanied by a
QR (Quick Response) code that
commuters waiting for the sub-
way can scan with their smart
phones to make purchases. The
groceries are then delivered to
their homes a few hours later.
Freedman, who was born and
raised in Detroit and gradu-
ated Henry Ford High School
in 1968, asked himself: Could
something like that work here?
"I saw all these windows in
Downtown Detroit," he said.
"I've always wondered why any-
one who owns a million-dollar
building would want to use just
brown paper in the windows."
He decided to present his
idea to Dan Gilbert, who has
purchased several buildings in
Downtown Detroit to refurbish
and redevelop. Fortunately,

F4

"I'm having the
best time of my
life."

— Jeff Freedman

Gilbert's team was on the same
wavelength.
"We were already cleaning up
storefronts and putting images
in windows," said Dan Mullen
of Bedrock Real Estate Services,
part of Rock Ventures, which
oversees Gilbert's Downtown
Detroit investments. "We want-
ed to activate the streets and
provide beautiful views while
construction is under way and
until we attract physical retail
tenants. We wanted to make an
impact today. This does that.
Like Somerset Collection's City-
Loft retail pop-up shops, virtual
retail is a catalyst to help get
things started Downtown from
a retail perspective. Everyone
seems to really like it."
Freedman notes that today's
technology makes the virtual
retail concept achievable. One
of the keys is another Gilbert-
owned company — Fathead,
which creates life-size, preci-
sion-cut, high-quality window
and wall graphics affordably.
The first virtual retail win-

Continued on page 3

SPONSORED SECTION BY: Quickentaans

Engineered to Amaze'

The storefront windows at 1520 and 1528
Woodward are the first "virtual retail"
displays on the street. This image of Joe
Louis's arm has 47 different watches from
watchwear.com, each with its own QR code,
providing access to more information, in-
cluding how to buy it.

This virtual retail display highlights an
Equipe wristwatch celebrating Chevy's
100 years. Freedman's company designs
and manufactures the watches.

February 16 • 2012

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