In a true New York-style pop up, the Somerset collection is bringing back their CityLoft collection of retailers… and bringing back Downtown Detroit Days, an outdoor market that ran from the 1950’s to the 1980’s. The vendors, invited from across metro Detroit, now sit on top of the old Hudson’s site.
Photo: Karpov the Wrecked Train
This all began after starting the Detroit Shoppe in 2010, where one hundred percent of the profit from the Detroit-themed goods went to city charities.
“We thought ‘we brought Detroit to Somerset, now let’s take Somerset to Detroit,’” says Linda McIntosh, marketing director for the Somerset Collection.
This is the second year Somerset is running their CityLoft collection. “We were amazed and so excited about the response,” McIntosh explains. “Detroit rolled out the red carpet… and it was our retailers that said ‘please tell us we’re going back again!’”
Somerset rehabilitated a second, larger building for this year’s shop, and invested around $300,000 to turn around the former-Wollworth store. “We feel that Somerset is a leader in the community and it’s our responsibility to set an example,” McIntosh says. “We hope that other people will be doing the same thing, because once you come down here you realize this is a great place to do business.”
City Loft and Downtown Detroit Days will take place one weekend a month through August: opening June 28th, 29th and 30th, continuing July 26th, 27th and 28th, and finally August 16th, 17th, and 18th. You can cross your for more shopping dates though. “Last time we said we’d be open for three months,” McIntosh says “and we stayed open for five.”
There will be two shuttle services during these weekends. The first will run from Downtown to Midtown every ten minutes from 11am-2pm, and the second will leave from Somerset and arrive downtown every half hour from 10:30am-7pm.
