DETROIT — As Avalon International Breads this week celebrates 10 years of serving baked goods to the denizens of Midtown, the bakery is preparing for a move to a new Midtown site that will allow it to dramatically grow its space but force it to leave the Willis block it’s helped to flourish.
Avalon opened in its current 2,000-square-foot location in 1997, the vision of Detroit residents and couple Ann Perrault and Jackie Victor, neither of whom had a background in either business or baking. It’s now bursting out of its current digs, bringing in $1.5 million in revenues last year and seeing its products sold in Metro Detroit stores like Holiday Market in Royal Oak.
Since Avalon’s opening, the colorful strip where it’s located has become a retail destination, with neighboring stores like Flo Boutique and Spiral Collective helping to contribute to Midtown’s revitalization.
Great news for Avalon, but what will be the new location and what will happen to the old location? Currently it, in many ways, anchors that strip of Willis, supplying it with a place to meet and a place to eat and drink coffee and other delicious beverages. I’m sure a lot of the people moving into the new Willy’s Overland Lofts next-door were expecting it to still be there when they moved in. However the businesses that have sprung up around it will still be there and I’m sure something will come to fill the space Avalon leaves behind. And of course a bigger Avalon in a new location will again incubate new businesses around it so any location would be fortunate to have it as a new tenant.
