2700 Gratiot Avenue
Marsh-Zindler Company, Frederick K. Marsh Company, Crown Furniture, International Store Fixtures Incorporated
2700 Gratiot was built around the turn of the century. I'm not sure whom it was built for or its original purpose, but I believe it was probably a furniture store.
The first record of a business at this location that I've found is the Marsh-Zindler Company in 1922. They sold furniture for homes and changed names to become the Frederick K. Marsh Company before 1928. I'm not certain when the shop closed its doors for good.
In 1937 a 28-year-old named Arthur F. Leebove opened a new furniture store at 2700 Gratiot called Crown Furniture with two of his friends. Leebove's company would eventually grow to nearly 20 locations in the Metro Detroit area.
Leebove moved to Michigan in 1917 from Pennsylvania, co-founded the Detroit Furniture Club, and served as its president for two terms. He passed away in 1997. At one time, the Crown Furniture store in the Belmont Shopping Center was the largest single-floor furniture store in the country.
In the 1940s, a few ads listed Cook Furniture as having a space at 2700 Gratiot. I'm not sure if they were located inside the Crown location or had a deal with them, but Crown lasted through the 40s and into the 1950s. I'm not certain when they finally left the property, but it was by at least 1962.
That year International Store Fixtures Incorporated began running ads in the newspaper. They marketed themselves as Michigan's largest dealers in used store fixtures. At the time, this section of Gratiot had a few retailers selling to restaurants and other hospitality businesses.
To my knowledge, International Store Fixtures was the last public business to operate out of 2700 Gratiot. At some point, the large windows were cinderblock shut, and small windows were placed in the center of each. By 2007, those windows were covered with plywood.
Records show that the last sale of the building was in 2007 to Metro Building Group LLC. If I gave you three guesses about who the registered agent for that generic-sounding LLC is, you'd probably get it.
Dan Gilbert? Nope—he didn't start purchasing properties in Detroit until a few years later.
A member of the Ilitch family? Getting closer—but they don't typically buy this far away from their pizza kingdom.
It comes down to this—your last guess. The correct answer is Dennis Kefallinos.
Kefallinos owns an extensive portfolio of properties in Detroit—most of which I would call, to play nicely, underutilized.
Early in 2022, the cinder block windows were removed—leaving large gaping holes in the side of the building. The city slapped Kefallinos with a legal notice to stop work because the proper permits had not been filed. Since then, nothing else has been done on the property's exterior, and the windows remain wide open.
The back side of the structure has newer windows that I would guess were installed in the early 2000s. It's an odd transition from the front of the building to the back. From Gratiot, it looks as if it could be demolished any day. From the rear, it looks like a swanky loft space that costs $2,000 per month to rent.
2700 Gratiot is on the outskirts of an ever-expanding Eastern Market. Although the structure appears a bit grim due to the loss of its concrete windows, it seems in good shape, and much of its ornament remains. The tall ceilings would transition well into several businesses well-suited to entertain a brand of new Detroit that continues to expand, albeit at a snail's pace, outside of downtown.
Towards downtown from the structure is a small smokeshop in a building that Dennis Kefallinos also owns. Towards the suburbs are a small vacant lot and a small converted-apartment complex run by Traveler's Aid, a local non-profit that helps at-risk communities in Detroit. Before that, the building was a motel. It's currently empty and for sale.
In the right hands, this block could transition into something special.
