Liberty & 5th Ave.

oh no! what a shame. they seemed to hold out the longest of the recent tenants. seems like it’s a hard retail space to keep filled.

According to a building maintenance person, there will be a new tenant soon. I don’t know what “soon” means, though.

Oh no!!!! Best hazelnut latte in town :-(

I stopped by for the tied-for-best red-eye in town, and a black-suited man in a white shirt identifying himself (when asked) as the building owner said Primo was “temporarily closed”. I hope they return!!!

Primo recently opened what I thought
was just a branch in the MITC Building
at 314 South State Street, just south
of Howard-Cooper. That’s no help to
downtowners, though. Downtowners might
consider switching to Comet Coffee in
Nickels Arcade.

News this morning that AnnArbor.com is moving into the location formerly occupied by Primo. (Here’s a link to their posting on it.) Someone just the other day told me the location had been cursed by owners of an Indian restaurant located there in the 1970s. It has definitely been a revolving door of businesses over at least the past decade or so.

An Indian Restaurant in the 70s? My memory is a gas station, converted to the Sunshine Bakery, which closed in 1982 I believe. That’s when the owner, Bob Cantelone, moved to Washington. He and his family have been back in town for many years and he is manager of Arbor Farms. That building was torn down to create this overbuilt current building. If there was an Indian restaurant in the 70s it was before Sunshine, which did well and had amazing pizza, treats, and really well done vegan options as well.
Unless I’m thinking of the wrong corner?

The biggest problem with that building in terms of promoting a successful retail establishment on the “first” floor is that the retail space is up several stairs and set way back under a dark overhang, with tinted glass to boot.

As much as I dislike shopping malls, what they have long understood is that retail storefronts need to be right there on the sidewalk, with big clear windows and accessible entrances that draw people in. There are at least a dozen examples like this in Ann Arbor, where the retail space was split up or down from the street. Take a look and you will see that most of these have now converted to non-retail, inactive uses like offices or banks. Peter Allen’s real estate development class at the UM B-School takes an annual bus tour of these failures (many), as well as others that got it right (few), every year. Very enlightening.

This particular configuration is just one the many “curses” that have plagued Ann Arbor’s commercial developments over the past 30 years and a case study on why we need design guidelines. Who needs a metaphysical explanation when the physical explanation is right there in front of us all? We need continuous, active, street-level uses to make the downtown a more desirable place to visit, linger and stroll, and shop.

Here’s a 1976 photo of the Sun Bakery, courtesy of the Ann Arbor District Library’s “Ann Arbor Signs” collection:

link

Note that it was in a building that was built out all the way to the corner of the lot.

I had a housemate that worked there just before it closed. She used to bring home their harvest bread. Funny, I would often pass her on the street on my way home from my job at Joe’s Star Lounge, as she was on her way to Sun Bakery to knead the dough.

I think Afternoon Delight used that bread for sandwiches and continued making it on their own after the Sun Bakery closed.

Sun Bakery, on the NE corner of Fifth and Liberty, renovated a former dry cleaners into a traditional bakery, one with the production in the back of the house and retail in the front. Oh the stories that I could tell, working there from 1974 thru 1977. Nick! Bob! Ian! The chapati wagon. Walnut Wonderfuls. Whole wheat bread to die for, and only 99 cents a loaf.