Prince Concepts

Mack Twins: the purchase, renovation, and activation of kitty-corner garages in Detroit’s Indian Village. 8700 Mack was built as SANTO/SANTO yoga studio and 8635 Mack Ave was built as Detroit Body Garage. The projects were completed in May of 2020.

We purchased kitty-corner properties at Mack Ave and Fischer intending to create another destination development.

No surprise, these purchases continued to communicate Prince's fascination with renovating old garages. We love garages: simple, strong and always come with land. Their conversion offers creative opportunities.

We felt OK venturing beyond Core City. With two corners and extra land, we could make a place and not just renovate a building.

March of 2020 changed our plans, but we still realized the renovation of both buildings.

8700 Mack Ave, a 1,100 SF abandoned car wash on a 5,000 SF lot.

We oversaw the design, renovation, concept creation and conversion of the building into SANTO/SANTO, our own yoga studio. We worked with architect, Ishtiaq Rafiuddin.

The project was completed in January of 2020. Due to covid, SANTO/SANTO never opened, but the renovated garage was successfully sold in May of 2020 to a photographer who has used the building as a creative studio.

We left the exterior, for the most part, as-is, but clean white walls, a pristine linoleum studio floor, and thoughtful lighting created a serene, perfectly proportioned studio space. Two small rooms in the front offered additional services.

Ahh, such a perfect little project!

The position of the front door led us right across the street over to 8635 Mack Ave....

8635 Mack Ave was originally purchased as an operating 2,200 SF auto shop on 8,233 SF of land. We bought the building from the operator and leased the garage back to the seller for 18 months.

During that time, Prince Concepts purchased an additional 10,300 SF of adjacent land and sourced a tenant. Today, the property is a fully renovated gym, Detroit Body Garage, across 18,500 SF of developable land. Detroit Body Garage hired their own architect and Prince Concepts oversaw the renovation.

The Gym opened June 2020 and has been in operation since. Prince Concepts still owns the property.

After 2020, we started to fully focus in Core City, but 8635 Mack Ave offers an eventual development opportunity around the existing tenant.

There is an interesting project that could happen here. A new sort of study, but with our attention fully focused on Core City, we probably won't be doing it.