Nike Puts Anchor In Revitalizing Downtown Detroit By Opening 'Community Store' on Woodward

Nike NKE -0.27% has become the latest big brand willing to put a stake in the renaissance of downtown Detroit, with the opening today of its Nike Detroit Community Store in one of the old iconic retail buildings of the Motor City.

The Oregon-based athletic and lifestyle brand means to pitch into the reinvigoration of central Detroit with the opening of a 20,000-square-foot space in the former F.W. Woolworth Co. building on Woodward WWD +0.03% Avenue, smack inside the corridor that is being redeveloped by money men such as Dan Gilbert and Michael Ilitch — and within a Ruthian home-run ball’s distance of Comerica CMA -0.38% Park, Ford Field and the new Red Wings arena.

Nike’s only owned outlet in the greater area has been a “factory store” in an outlet mall in suburban Auburn Hills, Mich., 35 miles away from downtown. It was time for the company known for a strong corporate-responsibility streak to do right by Detroit.

“As we looked at timing and availability and the economics of putting in a store, we’re looking at and anticipating future growth and traffic and what we think the demographics are going to be,” Christiana Shi, president of Nike Global Direct-to-Consumer, told me. “We’d rather come a little early or right on time than a little late. And we felt the time was right in Nike Air Max soldes.”

As a Community Store, the new Nike outlet will have a few more bottom lines than just generating sales and profits for the company. The downtown Detroit store also is intended to serve as a significant employer and as another catalyst to a regeneration of the surrounding area through involvement with local schools and the contribution of many hours of volunteer time by Nike employees. It’s also meant to spur athletic involvement of the citizenry and will explore relationships with the many professional and collegiate sports teams in the immediate vicinity and throughout Michigan.

“It serves a particular role in our [store] portfolio and in our communities,” Shi explained. “We develop sport, and provide employment opportunities, in given communities and serve consumers by giving them access to Nike products and services. So we don’t locate these stores in outlet malls, which are hard to get to with cars. Or in traditional power-retailing centers. We put them right in communities, and we’re pretty selective about where we do it. Typically we’ll be one of the earliest movers in an area where retail is accelerating; we are part of that.”