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Jews in the News
Growing And
Expanding
Avalon International Breads to add warehouse,
move flagship store next year.
A rendering of Avalon City Ovens
HARRY KIRSBAUM I CONTRIBUTING WRITER
I
n an effort to "be bigger to be better,"
Midtown Detroit's Avalon International
Breads will complete a $2.2 million
expansion next year, building a
50,000-square-foot warehouse on the city's
east side, and moving its flagship store a block
away to a larger retail space in a cafe setting.
"We became victims of our own
success," said Jackie Victor, partner and
co-founder of Avalon. "This neighborhood
became so hot that we can't afford to do
the scale of production we want to do in
this neighborhood, which has become a
retail neighborhood."
She and co-founder/CEO Ann Perrault
began the company in 1997 when
Midtown was still called the Cass Corridor.
"The winter before we opened, there were
300 homeless people living outside of a
church in tents," said Victor. "It was a rough
place. The 2,000-square-foot building was
once a speakeasy, once a sporadic art gallery
when we took it over. There was one light
bulb hanging from the ceiling, no windows,
just plywood doors, and one pipe coming out
of the back where a toilet was. It was a cave.
That was 15 years ago. In our wildest dreams,
we never thought it would become this."
Now, Avalon generates annual sales
production in a cafe setting.
in excess of $2.6 million, and this year
Avalon purchased a dilapidated warehouse
was named one of the top "Michigan
for $25,000 in a semi-vacant industrial
Businesses to Watch" by the Michigan
neighborhood on East Forest (at Bellevue), in
Economic Growth Corp.
a neighborhood "with
According to Victor,
plenty of potential."
Perrault and three other
Avalon City Ovens
will open sometime
partners, Avalon's triple
next year, and will give
bottom line is "the right
relationship with the
the company room to
Earth, right relationship
produce its high-quality
with our employees and
baked goods on a larger
the right relationship
scale.
with the community, and
Avalon opened up
the "Eat Well, Do Well"
it's no longer a place
where we can have a
cafe inside Henry Ford
right relationship with
Hospital's West Grand
Boulevard facility in
our employees, because
we're just over capacity,"
July 2012. It was also
said Victor. "Our
i expanded into grocery
overhead is so high,
stores like Whole Foods
Ann Perrault an d Jackie Victor
and Plum Market,
and our efficiency is so
low." She said she wants
restaurants and cafes.
Avalon to be a place where employees make
"We're close to 60 employees now, but
enough money to "stay for life — work and
we could end up with 100 in a few years,"
raise families and buy houses."
Victor said, adding that the company is
The retail space will relocate in the
committed to hiring employees who live
within the city limits.
spring of 2013 to a store with limited
The Legend
Continues
Event
co-chairs
Emily
Pomish
and
Michael
Chosid
Latke Vodka 8 draws
a crowd.
0
I
in
Nearly 1,000
young Jewish
Detroiters
turned out for
Latke Vodka,
the only place
to be on
Thanksgiving
Weekend.
n Saturday, Nov. 24,
everyone knew the reunion
was here at home in
Detroit. An annual event
that once drew only locals to visit and
hang out with their friends has now
grown to the largest social event of the
year — a true reunion for all. This year,
more than 950 Detroiters and Detroiters
home for the weekend came together
at the Royal Oak Music Theatre for
NEXTGen Detroit's largest-ever Latke
Vodka 8. For more photos, visit the
NEXTGen Detroit Facebook page. ❑
30
Getting It Done
The complicated loan that made the
deal possible closed in October after
22 months of work, said Donald Snider,
senior vice president of Urban Economic
Development at the Michigan Economic
Development Corporation (MEDC),
which jumpstarts economic development
and supports businesses dedicated to
employing people, particularly from urban
areas.
"There were too many moving parts,"
he said, citing the retail space, the
warehouse purchase, and the renovation
and equipment purchases.
The collateralized loan also involved
five entities: Main Street Bank in Bingham
Farms, Invest Detroit, the Small Business
Administration, a Whole Foods small
producer loan and the MEDC.
What makes the loan so worthy of all
the work is simple, Snider said. "By being
in Detroit, by the jobs that it would create
and with urban economic development,
we're hoping that once we get them up
and going, we can duplicate this in Flint
and other places as well." ❑
DJs Tom T
and Jenny
La Femme
provided the
entertainment
at this year's
event.
Josh
Diskin,
Rachel
Lachover
and Adam
Kessler
December 13 • 2012
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