Ada Village Reimagined: A Conversation with Liz Hahn of Baton Collective Owner of Croft Haus

Join us for an inspiring journey through the evolution of Ada Village with Liz Haan, Marketing Director of Baton Collective and the creative force and owner behind Croft Haus. In this podcast episode, Liz shares the captivating story of how Ada Village transformed into a vibrant community of elegance and style. From her role in Baton Collective to the creation of Croft Haus, a retail haven catering to the adventurous, the modern, the old-country charm enthusiasts, and the trendsetters, Liz unveils the vision and collaboration that shaped Ada Village into the thriving hub it is today. Whether you're a resident, a fashion enthusiast, or intrigued by urban development, this podcast offers a fascinating exploration into the making of Ada Village, guided by Liz Haan's expertise and passion. 

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;26;08
Unknown
Welcome to the Max and Chris Show. We have a special guest here today and talk about what's happening in the kind of cool part of West Michigan. So just like to welcome Liz Hahn from Baton Collective. Right. Yes. Correct. Correct. Correct. Director of Marketing in Philanthropy. So, yes. Thanks for joining us. Yes, thanks for having me, guys. Appreciate it.

00;00;26;11 - 00;00;48;00
Unknown
I was just telling I'm just telling everyone I'm a little nervous about this episode. I'm a bit nervous for an episode until this one. But I don't know. I know Ada, obviously, being in commercial real estate. I know what you guys have been doing, the bigger stuff, but I don't know the nuances in those little intricacies. And as a real estate is so everyone's like, Aaron says, real estate so local.

00;00;48;00 - 00;01;06;12
Unknown
And that has not been a hyper focus. Yeah. In my area. So yeah, I'm, yeah, I'm all nervous about this one. I want to say something stupid. It's kind of right. Yeah. You'll get to know Ada after this. I know everything about it. Well, I think it's fun to. Just because there's so much been happening over in such a small, concentrated area over the last five years.

00;01;06;12 - 00;01;28;03
Unknown
Yeah, there has been some new construction standpoint, new businesses coming in, and just a lot of excitement. Yeah, it's been crazy. Yeah, definitely five years has grown. I think we're at like 48 businesses now in like downtown Ada Village. Wow. Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah. So take us back to the first couple of days, or let's go even back, like now.

00;01;28;03 - 00;01;54;21
Unknown
Let's go back to how your relationship to ADA or West Michigan and how you came to this position even now. Okay. Yeah. So let's go. We'll start at like, where Discover Ada started. So in 2015, the new development started to be built. Spaces were open. We were looking for people to bring in retail, restaurant offices, and it wasn't really getting marketed.

00;01;54;21 - 00;02;20;27
Unknown
And we weren't really like finding people to fit into ADA, you know, It was so new before Ada was just a strip mall lining the river. It was nothing, nothing extravagant. Still homey, but nothing extravagant. So we started this marketing campaign called Discover Ada, which is what I started in 2020 to fill the spaces. So it was really just a marketing ADA and like, what's to come?

00;02;20;27 - 00;02;46;24
Unknown
Because so many of the community members didn't even know what was coming. They didn't see the future of Ada. They didn't really see, you know, the prints, all that kind of stuff. So yeah, and 2020 at the whole marketing campaign for ADA started. But way prior to that in 2006, Amway and a few just community members, like large community members, started in Vision ADA.

00;02;46;26 - 00;03;10;12
Unknown
So it was getting the big stakeholders in ADA, just the community members, to envision a new ADA. And that's kind of where all of this started to snowball. And then Sheri De Vos Ammon stepped in and she kind of really put her vision out there into Ada. And you know, if you go to Ada now, you see the new buildings, but they look old.

00;03;10;18 - 00;03;32;02
Unknown
They don't look modern and they don't look out of place. And that was really a lot of Sheri's vision and it was the small businesses and creating a community and an atmosphere that you could walk, play, stay, all that kind of stuff. Especially, I'm sure, for the all the Amway employees and everything too. You have such a with main campus being there and okay, what's what's the draw for kind of being there.

00;03;32;02 - 00;03;58;26
Unknown
You need businesses, you need retailers and other office space and stuff. Exactly. Well, then COVID hit. So they kind of slow things down a little bit. But yeah, everybody adjusted. And luckily we had the marketing campaign start when COVID hit and we brought in different community events and just really we filled the spaces quick. And still today we have a list of people wanting to come into ADA and we're, we're just, we're very picky about who we want to bring in.

00;03;58;26 - 00;04;21;24
Unknown
Then we definitely listen to the community and what they want. So yeah, that's awesome. So going back though, even for the moment and maybe, maybe you don't know either but or maybe you do like how long's Amway been in ADA and what brought them? Was it originally planned to be there in the part of it, or was it brought there because of the families were living there?

00;04;21;25 - 00;04;51;25
Unknown
What's the story behind that? So I think I, as always, been an ADA, not to the size and capacities today, obviously, but I think, you know, and we started in the garage. I think it's always been an ADA. So Amway really grew and developed all in ADA. Mm hmm. So it started in the garage and Ada and then up and has always stayed in it essentially, too.

00;04;51;27 - 00;05;14;22
Unknown
So and I've heard like, I've heard conversation of like them moving it like office corporate offices downtown and everything like that. And I know they do have some office space downtown, but I mean they're yeah they're heart and soul of Amway is all in in right across the street from downtown Ada Ray Russell and yeah so take us back to even like 26.

00;05;14;22 - 00;05;32;27
Unknown
So when you said everyone kind of gets together and kind of put together this vision, what does something like that look like from, like private and public partnership opportunities? I mean, because you can't just take over and say, okay, we're going to develop this what we want. Most municipalities are going to say, okay, we want some stake of what's being developed around our area, too.

00;05;32;27 - 00;05;53;23
Unknown
So what what did that look like? Yeah, so private and obviously the township got involved in that sort where that campaign of Envision ADA started from just they saw that there was a need. They saw what they could do with it. You know, if you guys remember Ada, it was just like a strip mall. You couldn't even see the river.

00;05;53;23 - 00;06;12;08
Unknown
I mean, the dumpsters were like in the other strip mall. It just, it wasn't attractive. And you had a massive parking lot. You had such great opportunity. And Ada and I saw I think so many people saw it, and the township wanted it. And I think they all just kind of got together and said, Hey, let's change this together.

00;06;12;12 - 00;06;38;13
Unknown
Yeah. You know who owned the land, though? When this vision started, was it local community members or did Sheri or do you own a lot of this land or the city owned this land or. Yeah, it was a mix of like the township, Amway, private investors, just a whole mix. And then when they all got together and this plan came to fruition, it was it was a no brainer for them to come together to either one, sell the property or to develop it.

00;06;38;19 - 00;06;54;06
Unknown
Mm hmm. Now it's good. And then how much feedback did you guys take to from that 2000 index, maybe from some of the community members to some of the surrounding neighbors neighborhoods? Yeah, it's kind of what what the vision they wanted to see happen there. I think so much of Ada is from the community. I mean, even today.

00;06;54;06 - 00;07;20;17
Unknown
So Ada Village General Store is now becoming O'Brien's deli. So they're closing their doors and becoming O'Briens Deli. And the reason is the community is like, we need faster food. Like good fast food. And I think oh six is where that all started, as the community kind of spoke up and said, We have this beautiful, beautiful, historic ADA, and then we have this massive parking lot, a strip mall like what can we do with it?

00;07;20;19 - 00;07;40;06
Unknown
And then like with the businesses coming in, they wanted small business. And that's exactly what the new development of ADA is, is just small businesses. Mm. That's cool. Yeah. Well that's I think that's good to always be able to listen to some outside voices, especially because they're going to be the ones at the end of the day who shop there, who have an office space there, who work.

00;07;40;06 - 00;08;03;06
Unknown
I would live in that atmosphere. Yeah. Yep. And, and it's always when you see other communities go through like the this reimagined process or whatever you want to call it, master planning process. It's always hard because it's like an an, especially in this situation where it's like, hey, we're going to be putting up buildings and filling it with businesses and they're going to have to pay rent and retail businesses.

00;08;03;06 - 00;08;39;00
Unknown
Second floor office space, making sure that the the community is using actually coming in, supporting those businesses and spending dollars there so these people can pay rent and whatnot. I mean, that's really it's super important. But then it's also like chicken and the egg type thing, like which comes first and, you know, and that's I'm kind of curious like how much how much philanthropy has really driven the development versus like, like long term vision versus like market where it's like, hey, the market's ready for this or isn't even ready for it yet?

00;08;39;00 - 00;09;02;29
Unknown
Or are you are the tenants down there successful? Are they. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it a lot of people talk about Ada and it's so unique because the community is so supportive and I think the philanthropy side as a community is giving back to these businesses. You know, it's easy to order online, it's easy to order Amazon because it comes the next day, but you don't see the faces in the small business behind it.

00;09;03;05 - 00;09;21;03
Unknown
And I think the ADA community is so good at that, so good at supporting those people that are there now and hopefully stay, you know, like if you want them to stay, you got to support them. Yeah, I've talked to a couple of the business owners too down there and like, I feel like there's such a collaboration between business owners too, down there to make sure, okay, we're all successful.

00;09;21;11 - 00;09;40;07
Unknown
I think they did like a little trick or treating for all the kids and stuff too, and set out candy. And then they have other like holiday events too, just to get everyone kind of working together. And they're all kind of on this like one project together, which is fun to see. Yeah, exactly. And I think to even not even that, like the stores all grouped together and they support each other.

00;09;40;07 - 00;10;04;21
Unknown
But also what's so unique about Ada is you have a marketing campaign, Discover Ada, you had an ADA business association and you have the township and all three of us work parallel all the time and it's super unheard of, is what we've heard for all three entities to be consistently working together. And I think as we work together, we create the community, feel and support for the businesses.

00;10;04;21 - 00;10;28;22
Unknown
And yeah, the trick or treat event was pumpkin prowl, which it was insane. I think it was like 7000 people in ADA. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So like even was the growth like that as we put on events like that, it's, you know, the, the flip side is like, okay, and how are you catering? Well to 7000 people for a city that was built for, you know, 1700 at a time.

00;10;28;23 - 00;10;50;00
Unknown
Yeah. So that's where like partnerships with Amway and working with them and their parking lot and that kind of stuff is coming into play. I was going to say, because I feel like that's a little bit of the struggle, like everyone kind of likes a downtown kind of urban environment feel, but I feel like why retail hasn't necessarily stuck in downtown Grand Rapids is a little bit parking concern, too, where I feel like downtown Ada you guys have done a good job.

00;10;50;00 - 00;11;12;23
Unknown
In my opinion, at least I've offering enough accessibility parking lot opportunities to just people can park their car, go grab a bite to eat, go do some shopping or swing by the office. Yeah, most definitely. We really talk about walkability like there is walkability. And the hard thing with like downtown GR is it's so spacious. Yeah. Is the walkability is much far lower than what it is.

00;11;12;25 - 00;11;37;15
Unknown
You know, you can hear every store within half a mile. Mm hmm. It's funny because I work in mostly retail and restaurant and do a handful like nationals and they've always said about downtown Grand Rapids, like, we love the city. It's really cool. But where do you go? Do you go in Monroe? Do you go on, Foltz? And do you on Bridge Street, Monroe Center Like they're like you guys just have such a spread out retail district that I don't know where to position myself to give it out to wealthy right now.

00;11;37;15 - 00;11;55;18
Unknown
Are we a wealthy business or refrigerator? Anything in between. And they keep changing too. Yeah. Well, and even just wealthy and cherry, you know, they're a mile from each other, but it feels like different world. It's a different world. Exactly. Yeah. So going back, though, I mean, what where how did you get involved in all of this? Yeah.

00;11;55;18 - 00;12;26;10
Unknown
So when I started a what's now Baton Collective, it was said to be five properties at the time, be five C, d, v kd Okay, obviously you've got to be five. Yep. I saw the need for a marketing campaign for Ada, so how I got involved in ADA is pretty much starting a marketing campaign for ADA, which is Discover Ada And then are you in that world already like in the marketing world or so I was not to like this extent.

00;12;26;10 - 00;12;52;02
Unknown
So I guess backtrack a little bit to my past, please. So I owned a store called Marie La Mode, did a ton of marketing through that, got into to be five. I was the executive assistant and then started the whole marketing group at CDB five, which is now Baton Collective. And kind of we just didn't have a marketing team.

00;12;52;04 - 00;13;14;04
Unknown
So today it's just me actually, which is growing now. But so we just, we didn't have that and we have a lot of entity is under our umbrella and we needed that marketing support. Yeah. So I just kind of started it and now it's kind of become a much larger body than I thought. You know, it started out as like, let's fill the spaces and see what happens.

00;13;14;04 - 00;13;40;03
Unknown
And now, like I said, we're running parallel with the business association and the township and all marketing strategies. So, so it was, it was starting out. It's not just like going out and hiring a commercial broker that's going to list us because you have a whole new city basically to fill. So you need to you are setting up the marketing to sell the vision of what ADA has been is going to become.

00;13;40;06 - 00;13;59;06
Unknown
Yeah, pretty much fair. Pretty much, Yeah. And just like the community that we were going to build together, I think it's yeah, like you said, it's so easy to put up a building and have like an open space and a sign at that, you know, 1200 square feet rent it, It's like, okay, well if I rent it, what am I getting out of it as a business?

00;13;59;09 - 00;14;28;12
Unknown
Where's my support coming from? You know? Do you guys want small business. Are you. There's so much to it. Just like filling a space and we presented that to these small businesses is like we have a marketing campaign your US, the marketing campaign and we own the building. We're going to support you in any way we can. And I think so many of those businesses saw that and it was a lot easier to sell the space.

00;14;28;12 - 00;14;54;05
Unknown
We didn't have to sell a space. There's a lot easier to present in the space because they saw the support that we were giving them. Is that I mean, is it all the way down to like, hey, we're going to make sure that we're not going to sign to bakers in different even though different buildings, you know, in a in a normal market, there might be two different landlords that both are willing to sign a baker and let the let the better win.

00;14;54;05 - 00;15;11;13
Unknown
But are you guys kind of helping because you sprinkles in an example, you're not going to sign sprinkles into one space and then put Dunkin Donuts and then are you guys limiting it even on the national brands like we don't want Uncle Dunkin Donuts, We want sprinkles? And is that the kind of decisions you're making down there? Yeah, very much so.

00;15;11;13 - 00;15;35;10
Unknown
Like every business I went in was saw through and strategic like even the retail stores, we don't have like the exact same retail store. You know, you have pursuit, which is like more gifts. You have to tell us which is kids jeans, which is just women's clothing Laurel and Jack, which is women's clothing and gifts. And then you have craft house, which is home decor and clothing.

00;15;35;14 - 00;15;59;14
Unknown
So they're all different. So every single business that we brought in was strategically planned and there was no almost no overlapping. And even like in the coffee world, right, you can have 30 coffee spaces and there they just is oversaturated where you've got mud penny, which is like a little bit more of that, like higher end coffee they have like, I don't know what they do.

00;15;59;14 - 00;16;20;08
Unknown
It's like a clean, clean roasting. It's some kind of like air roasting. I don't really know. But then you have Starbucks and you've got Brody Be, which is like a nonprofit, and they hire people with disabilities. So you have three coffee shops there, but also different. Yeah. And then like something like a donuts or something. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

00;16;20;11 - 00;16;40;14
Unknown
Yeah. And then you have the historic side of Ada that's been there for a long time and like known as and known as Pantry. And the idea after and I mean they, they've been there for years and years and years. Yeah. Well, and it's got to be when you're doing that, when you're putting I mean you're essentially which is pretty cool actually in a way, if you think about it, you get to create your own setting.

00;16;40;14 - 00;17;03;28
Unknown
You're playing SimCity in real Jamie not even Monopoly. It's SIM City at that point. Yeah. And you get to make those decisions. But then you also don't want, you want people like you were talking about earlier, even the businesses that are there to not be resentful of like completely changing the culture of this area and making it something that you're not.

00;17;04;01 - 00;17;32;10
Unknown
And it's got to be a balance because I'm sure you hear from other sides of it too that like that hate that it redevelopment or whatever it might be, too. Yeah, for sure. I mean you hear a little bit sometimes that older generation they like loved the idea was which is it's great and I get that is change can be hard sometimes but now they're realizing what it is and how amazing it is into like on that national side where we don't have national brands.

00;17;32;13 - 00;17;52;05
Unknown
So we've kind of seen like some of the areas around here. They bring in a national brand and it kind of they're like, Little city doesn't become community based and we don't want to lose that. So we're going to always focus on that community base. And and you got to have a ton of pressure from nationals that want to be in the market.

00;17;52;05 - 00;18;11;02
Unknown
I know before we were talking that some of the nationals that are they're extremely successful. Yeah, there's high net worth, there's enough population base is a ton of traffic up and down fall and you got to have a ton of pressure for, for those national brands to be knocking on the door and is it just. Yeah. But that's what's so nice as we we get to pick.

00;18;11;05 - 00;18;36;11
Unknown
Yeah sure we get like I said we've kind of seen areas around here bring in national brands and it just didn't go well. You lost that community base and that's exactly what we don't want to do. So we're going to stay strong and just it's it's small business or, you know, you do have Starbucks and that kind of stuff, but that's in the grocery store and it's it's small and it's not competing with the other coffee areas.

00;18;36;13 - 00;18;52;23
Unknown
Sure. Yeah. And it's it's hard, too, because you start obviously like the banks and stuff. It's like you're not going to compete against Chase Bank. But that's that's just it is what it is. But I agree with Max, like every corporate America, like, you know, a national chain that I work with always has these heatmaps for areas they want to target.

00;18;52;23 - 00;19;15;27
Unknown
And it's always just one of those. And it's like a discussion of like, okay, you can go to Beltline, a napkin or you can go to war. You just can't. You really can't. You can't go to work like, yeah, I've got a gas station. Chris Maybe a gas station too. Yeah. Well, and to like this small business is all the events that we do, they jump on in, you know, they're on the committees they're sponsoring, they're supporting.

00;19;15;27 - 00;19;33;24
Unknown
These national chains are not going to do that. Yeah. I also think it makes a difference to see the owner inside the shop with a lot of these small businesses. You get to know the person that owns the company and puts their blood, sweat and tears in. But yeah, they're bought into. Yeah, well you said there's 48 businesses downtown right now.

00;19;33;24 - 00;20;08;22
Unknown
Roughly. How many do you have any idea where that started or what the, the original was that ten five one. Oh no. I mean, you know, maybe this is just totally thing, but maybe like 1516 in the historic site. And then I'm guessing like three or four in that like strip mall. Okay. So much smaller. And how has so a lot of that's retail that we've talked about what about the office space and you had mentioned COVID earlier and coming out of COVID, you're in the middle of this giant redevelopment was second third storey office.

00;20;08;29 - 00;20;28;20
Unknown
And how how is that space filling is are people staying in that space? And yeah, we've actually had I don't know if you guys know Michigan software labs, but they started there and one of our office spaces and now they have like one of the biggest buildings in ADA. So they have ground that much In the midst of six years.

00;20;28;23 - 00;20;51;12
Unknown
All the offices have saved. They, I mean, depending on their company, are growing or shrinking or some actually went to just, you know, completely at home or working, I think at that word remote. Remote you hear a lot. They went completely remote. The amount of times I can't come up with a word or like I hit, Oh no, now I'm going to mess it up again.

00;20;51;12 - 00;21;08;25
Unknown
Philanthropy. I hit it earlier, but there was one episode I couldn't say the word. I tried like six times. And then finally Chris had to like, did just for me. Yeah, There's those words that sometimes you're just like, How can I not think of this? But yes, I'm up on like completely remote. And then obviously they left, but we have new offices coming in.

00;21;08;26 - 00;21;24;27
Unknown
So yeah, I mean, it's like I've said, there's a list of people wanting to come in and it's just it's been very strategic planning on who's coming in and yeah, all that. So it gets a fun place to work too, because I mean, look at it. You're so close to the river. Like we're looking at Google Maps right now and just there's, there's so much to do.

00;21;24;27 - 00;21;38;27
Unknown
I feel like in downtown from an employer standpoint, it's like, okay, you can go grab a lunch, you can go to your shopping, you can go if you want, do some quick grocery shopping, go to the grocery store and just give everything that you need in that small compacted area. Yeah. Oh, go ahead. No, I was just going to say.

00;21;38;27 - 00;22;02;06
Unknown
Yeah, exactly. It's quick, it's easy. And sometimes too, it's just like offices will call the store. So I actually own craft house also, which is in the village. But sometimes I call the the store and be like, Hey, we need a gift real quick. Can you wrap a candle and run it upstairs and like, Yeah, for sure, you know, so you have that community kind of stuff too.

00;22;02;08 - 00;22;24;06
Unknown
But yeah, having the Oh yeah, this is you. That is me. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Well, you know, that's just a side gig. Are you guys So, you guys, is this, are you making this? Are you going out, finding it and then like. Yeah. So those are all brands. Okay. Yeah, very cool. Yeah. Yeah. So we're women's clothing, men's clothing.

00;22;24;06 - 00;22;50;13
Unknown
I think I could rack this one or get a tank gas. Yeah, I think that there's a girl on it, but I think I would. I mean, Santa, you know, so this is this is your business that you own and started in. Very cool. Awesome. How long have you been doing this? So we've been about ten months. I must be your husband as my husband and my three dogs.

00;22;50;13 - 00;23;14;01
Unknown
Yeah, Three dogs? Yes. It's wrong with you. Oh, I don't have kids. I love dogs. Three. Good night. Yeah. So it's super helpful to owning a business because I get to see, you know, my marketing work either play out or not play out and share. Like, how is this working and am I am I seeing more foot traffic downtown and whatnot?

00;23;14;04 - 00;23;33;12
Unknown
Yeah, Yeah. How many people do you have working for you, Zachary? Oh, my goodness, Yes. So. So you're doing how many hours are you doing the marketing and four button collaborative like. Yeah, full time. So that's a full time. And then this is all I mean, three employees. I don't care. It's full time. Yeah, it's full time. Yeah.

00;23;33;12 - 00;23;55;25
Unknown
This is like my last wake up at 530 in the morning and, and then hammer out this craft stuff and then work full time and then come home and do a little bit of this stuff. Yeah. So everybody thinks I'm crazy, but, you know what? Let's talk about craft for a minute at least. Like what? What is craft house and the idea behind it and what are you guys?

00;23;55;27 - 00;24;21;27
Unknown
I mean, mostly fashion, obviously, it looks like on this first page, but what do you sell? What do you what's in there? So craft is actually a small, cozy dwelling in Scotland and my dogs are Sheltie sourced the Shetland Islands, which is off of Scotland. So that's kind of where the craft came from. And Tomb Raider or Tomb Raider, I thought about that.

00;24;21;29 - 00;24;58;07
Unknown
You playing. I'm tarnishing your brand. I think that was so nice. And my sophistication, like Lara Croft, Tomb Raider. But Croft So it's unique to each owner. So like, we try to bring in unique pieces. So like, if you go into our store, we actually have, like, all our yeah, we've got Shinola, we've got like gold, which is an England brand, we've got NPG, which is Canada, we've got perfect tee, which is California.

00;24;58;14 - 00;25;23;03
Unknown
So definitely UNICEF, but just different like we really and it's more of like that comfy cozy vibe as you guys can tell, like what I'm wearing and we got like a Sherpa sweatshirt on just more of the easy chill life, but still like, put together and then like, gift stuff. So like candles and so are you are you going out and sourcing all of everything that comes in the store?

00;25;23;05 - 00;25;51;05
Unknown
The then the other employees, I'm sure, helping you as well. But yeah I did. 190, you do? I do, yeah. So we do like Vegas, Detroit, Chicago all so I do like Vegas twice a year, which is like a huge buying trip. Yeah, it's like the largest convention center, and it's just packed full of stuff. And then Detroit is more of that, like local setting, and then Chicago is more of that, like United States based.

00;25;51;07 - 00;26;16;18
Unknown
I mean, there's there's others, but yeah. And you're and you're just going out and picking things that you think would you're obviously I mean, you're just gut feel like hey this would this would sell and yeah yeah I definitely go off of my style like I would love this so sure other people would And then kind of just obviously that easy like the the easy throw on and go kind of stuff.

00;26;16;21 - 00;26;35;09
Unknown
That's awesome. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, it's fun. What do you So what are the other employees that are working there? What, they're just working the retail floor and, and any other responsibilities? Are you running all of it? Do you have a partner in it or. Yeah, no partner. So I'm running at Psycho. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

00;26;35;12 - 00;27;00;08
Unknown
So they pretty much run the floor. They actually I mean, without them, I obviously couldn't do this at all. So I owe more of them than me. But yeah, that's my family. We're looking at the website right now. That's my whole family. But so they pretty much run the floor and they, you know, knows of like who's buying what, what customers are saying.

00;27;00;10 - 00;27;29;16
Unknown
They run the website in the way of like pull inventory or highlight inventory. We're actually working on hiring a marketing person right now, even though I'm in marketing, I can't do all of it just because marketing is a beast. But yeah, they, they pretty much they run the day to day. I run the, the overhead stuff, the emails, the finances, the well, what's before you get back into the what's the vision for Kratos?

00;27;29;16 - 00;27;48;03
Unknown
I mean, are you going to do other. I would love to have. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like this to do well like downtown Holland. Yes. So. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would love to. Oh. Open others. I just, I think the vibe and you know, like through your life we've all had kind of like that. Not great boss.

00;27;48;05 - 00;28;12;21
Unknown
And I just, my husband and I always talk about like, we want to open businesses or craft out that we're great bosses. Like we give them opportunities. We you know it's funny button where button collector but like pass the baton to our employees and say like, Hey, you run with this. Like you guys have ideas and talent and we want you guys around with this kind of stuff where before, like when we were growing up, we just don't really have that, as you know.

00;28;12;22 - 00;28;29;21
Unknown
So it's funny, we just had a couple of Chick-Fil-A franchisees out here who talked about that, just the whole employee and like the way they train their employees. It's very much like we want to help you grow. And both of them start out working for Chick-Fil-A like guys behind the counter and just work their way up. And now they own one.

00;28;29;21 - 00;28;50;13
Unknown
So yeah, and that and that's the way to do it because you learn so much coming from the bottom line. Yes. And even though the bottom I always say this, like without my bottom person, we wouldn't we wouldn't work, you know, but to be open storm Yeah, yeah. You have to have them but like work that Bonham person up to help run the whole thing or open a new store yeah.

00;28;50;17 - 00;29;08;21
Unknown
Colin Royal So that type of vision for it. Yeah. Northern Michigan. Yeah. Traverse City. Yeah. Oh yeah. Very cool. Yeah that's exciting. And then how long has it been open? Ten months. Oh, my gosh. So you're on your first Black Friday, right? We had our first one. How did it go? It was good. It was really good. Yeah.

00;29;08;23 - 00;29;34;05
Unknown
It's just learning like, you know. Did you do the target? Do you see that video on target? Were there like $299 for this item? And then they pulled the tag off and it's like Black Friday sale, $299. It was just under the other. Yeah. I don't even know if it is really for who knows. I probably get exactly that.

00;29;34;05 - 00;29;52;18
Unknown
So how'd it go? Good. Yeah, it was really good. It's just like we really push that small business because Amazon kind of taking over the world and it's super hard to compete with them. But know it went really well. I mean, like I said with the ADA, the community is focused on the small businesses in ADA and obviously we're one of them.

00;29;52;18 - 00;30;16;11
Unknown
So they came down, they supported and yeah, yeah. And it's just great to like I work to both Black Friday and Small Business Saturday and just to get to know the customers and chit chat with them and yeah, like get to know their dogs names cause they bring them in all the time, you know. So there's been, there's been a massive shift across all retail, right, online or to like mega super stores.

00;30;16;13 - 00;30;41;08
Unknown
But then like you have seen signs of like transitioning back away from that back into that more local all the way from grocery to craft house style businesses where it is like pushing back into like, hey, we want to know who we do business with and people that are willing to do that. Yeah. Are you feeling that trend continue or push back or.

00;30;41;09 - 00;31;03;05
Unknown
Yeah, I mean, I think it's getting there. I think the, like coming from the marketing world, like the biggest thing is marketing and people remembering that we're the ones that support the yearbook, We're the ones that support these events. We're the ones that, you know, sponsor your kids baseball team. And I think sometimes, I guess forgotten because it's easy to buy something that's $10 cheaper.

00;31;03;05 - 00;31;25;07
Unknown
I was going to say convenience and and then also cost. And so you have to deliver something that's a completely different experience, right? Yeah. If you can't beat them on cost and delivery next day, which is sometimes terrifying or same day, but it's like so then you have to create the you need to know who their dogs are and Yeah, yeah, exactly.

00;31;25;07 - 00;31;38;22
Unknown
Yeah, yeah. It's just create and really spend money for that. Yeah. Yeah they do. And too like we're going to be honest, you know, we're not this big brand. It's like, oh yeah, everything looks great on you. Or like, No, we're going to be honest and really help you. We're not going to push a sale to push a sale.

00;31;38;22 - 00;31;57;12
Unknown
We're actually there to help. Yeah. And I feel like that that goes back to the people in the surrounding area. They want to see those businesses succeed. They don't want to see you guys go in. And then six months later, there's a vacant storefront. And then, okay, now we need to backfill with something else. Exactly. Like, I feel like they have such a passionate energy for what's happening down there.

00;31;57;15 - 00;32;25;29
Unknown
It's very, very unique. It is. It is. I mean, people talk about like Ada is like something they've never seen before, and it really is, but it didn't come from nothing, you know, like we had to treat it that way. And it comes from the community. The community started this whole thing and they continue to support it. Yeah, it's funny because I feel like we are starting to see more municipalities trying to do something similar to what it has done, and I'm sure you're probably there trying to pick your brain or like you were like, We own three acres.

00;32;25;29 - 00;32;47;14
Unknown
Can you guys develop this here? Like, yeah. Is that ever an idea? You gimme give me just show me your boss. I mean, yeah, well, I think you have to be honest about that too, though. Like that. You can't without the philanthropy, without the passion for Ada, without the person that's willing to give back. And the same thing happen in downtown Howlin.

00;32;47;16 - 00;33;09;21
Unknown
Without those key people, you can't. The market doesn't support this. Not today. It will. And it'll I'll get there and it'll raise home values and it'll bring people there from people will stay in the hotel specifically because it's native and they can go walk instead of downtown. There will be things like that. But the market day one wasn't there for that.

00;33;09;21 - 00;33;35;23
Unknown
No, no. And that's where Sherri's vision was. I mean, it's unbelievable, you know, like she did this because she knew Ada needed it and she knew that we the there's those entrepreneurs in Grand Rapids that wanted to open. And Ada, there was space available and she saw the vision and she acted on it. And I mean, none of us would be here today.

00;33;35;23 - 00;33;59;19
Unknown
We wouldn't even be talking about this right now if she didn't do that. So I was wondering, like and I don't know, I don't know the the bosses at all and or any or, you know, most of these philanthropic families that we were so blessed. I mean, you can go through a whole list. Yeah. From Meyers to people that you wouldn't even know that give so much money they created like what drives when is Sheri care about this?

00;33;59;21 - 00;34;21;23
Unknown
She grew up there? Yep. Yeah. So, like, why does she care? Because that's who she is. Like, Sheri is one of those people that she has a vision in and she's going to move on it and I think why her vision in ADA was one. She grew up there too. Her family was growing up there. And three, her, you know, Generation four is going to be growing up there.

00;34;21;23 - 00;34;44;16
Unknown
So she wanted to create this for the community, for the people that she sees at the grocery store, that she sees at the stores while she shopping like she wanted to create this community for everybody. And yeah, I think Ada is just where her heart is. So how did you and then you've been there since 15 years, 2000, Five years.

00;34;44;22 - 00;35;05;03
Unknown
Okay. So 18, 19. And how did you I mean, how does the process of like going out and because obviously she can't do this by herself. She wouldn't want I wouldn't want to. But how does she find somebody like you that is as passionate, like family relations member? What's your tie? How did how did you end up at?

00;35;05;07 - 00;35;33;14
Unknown
Was it baton collaborative then or collective? Collective Collective. Yeah, no, it was CDB five back then and I actually got hired in to be the executive officer. And then I just like saw the vision that Sheri had. And I just, yeah, with my marketing background kind of wanted to run with it. And that's another amazing thing was Jerry is like our big thing with Baton Collective too is like we focus on good people who have great ideas and invest in them.

00;35;33;17 - 00;35;56;17
Unknown
And that's exactly what they did to me. They saw I was a good person work ethic and like, let's invest in her and let's let's create this. Let's move forward and start this marketing chapter with CDB five. And and that's exactly how that all came to fruition. It's pretty exciting when a popular business moves to a new location, especially when they come to your city.

00;35;56;17 - 00;36;20;12
Unknown
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00;36;20;16 - 00;36;44;04
Unknown
Yeah, I feel like most to go back to it, but like most developers are in it for such a short mindset. We're like Sherry and the entire family has such a long term vision for all these projects, whether it is like Ada or even like downtown Grand Rapids. What I look at like when Rich did the hotel way back in the day and like, okay, and then they bring the convention center and like everyone's probably telling him he's the craziest person in the world, but why would you dump money into this?

00;36;44;04 - 00;37;01;03
Unknown
But it's like Arena Soccer Stadium. I'm sure they're part of the answer. They're a part of the the ampitheater in some way. And it's such a long term vision of, okay, we may not see it, but our future generations will see it. And it's going to make a rippling kind of effect on the rest of the West Michigan community.

00;37;01;03 - 00;37;16;22
Unknown
And now what it's done is just it's special. Watch. Yeah, it's it's amazing. And it's all done just for the community. Yeah. I mean, because like you said, I mean, they might not see it, but it's all of us. We get to enjoy it. We get to create family memories there. And I think that's what they're all about.

00;37;16;22 - 00;37;35;16
Unknown
Yeah, I always wonder too, like when, you know, when you're doing stuff like that and making the investments like that because there's always a people that are like, Oh, they're too this or that or that or I can't believe they would do this. And you're like, Yeah, but like, they don't have to. Like, it's pretty cool that they are.

00;37;35;16 - 00;37;54;25
Unknown
Yeah. And the like how do you deal with the like it would be hard not to get cynical in a way where you're like, are you like, All right, screw you. Get that money here? Yeah. I mean, it's yeah, there's always going to be negativity around. Oh, yes. It's proving that this is for the good, it's for the community.

00;37;54;25 - 00;38;24;17
Unknown
And I mean, you're not going to change those people's minds if they're negative and they're whatever about it, then be negative. Don't enjoy it. But everybody else is. So they're kind of the ones missing out. So most of development and like I said, I don't know, eight of that well, but most of development's been down off of for the eight Fulton in a drive in Fulton Right down into that corridor where the grocery store is hotel the sprinkles Dixon all these beautiful buildings that have gone up.

00;38;24;19 - 00;38;44;25
Unknown
Is there anywhere outside of this pocket right here that I'm I guess there's a library area library and I haven't been. I heard. It's amazing. It's beautiful. Yeah. You need to go. Yeah. I mean, there's definitely future plans. They did like a master plan with Ada Township, and there's future plans to come, which is going to be wonderful.

00;38;44;25 - 00;39;07;13
Unknown
Like, one of the big things that's now public knowledge is there's going to be a big park going in. So we're actually going out. So do you see where that Leonard Park baseball? Yes, right there. You're going to expand that? Yep. So it's actually going to be yeah, there's going to be a lot of new things added to assuming a dog park.

00;39;07;15 - 00;39;31;27
Unknown
Got it checked. Yeah. Same city. Maybe. So then you have the ADA covered bridge. So what's going to be super great? Oh, cool. And this is another Sherrie vision. More greenspace for Ada. So right now or in the past, there was two houses that were not in great condition, so they ended up getting knocked down. There was going to be more development there.

00;39;31;29 - 00;39;54;16
Unknown
But Sherrie saw the vision of more greenspace. So purchase that property and actually donate it back to the township. And so now it will become a full blown park. So that those two. So right now we're looking at Google Maps again. But there are two houses that were on the Thorne Apple River right across from Leonard Park. Those were knocked down and now it's green space.

00;39;54;19 - 00;40;16;17
Unknown
So the two parks will actually connect with the bridge. So now they're breakwall. Yeah, because right now is it's a great piece of Ada, but it's not utilized as much as it could be. And now is being park and greenspace. It will be. It'll be another highlight to Ada for sure. It'll be cool to go from the park in the new transition office to right to like that downtown.

00;40;16;24 - 00;40;39;16
Unknown
Yeah. Environment. Yep. Just walkable. Yeah. And that's the thing too, is we're looking at the walkability to cross over. So an apple for safety reasons. So that's coming in. And then a pedestrian bridge. So actually right across from Leonard Park is a new home home development going out. Oh yeah. So there'll be a pedestrian bridge across thorn apple over into.

00;40;39;22 - 00;41;01;29
Unknown
Yeah. Where all the trees are right now. Yeah. Yep, yep, yep. Yeah. So yeah, I mean it is growing and like, like we've said, you know, it's, it sometimes change is hard but this is all, it's all great and to just the change of Ada. So when I first started Discover Ada, the average age was between 50 and 60 years old and we're at 34.

00;41;02;02 - 00;41;25;05
Unknown
Wow. Today that's five years. So that's how much the age of kids in Asia. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you have to cater to that too, right? You can't, like, just have a huge age change and then still have things for fifties and say, yeah, the same businesses. I mean there's got to be new businesses coming out. Yeah. Which we do have things for that generation obviously, but Yeah.

00;41;25;08 - 00;42;05;06
Unknown
Yeah. And then the hotel. What, what's the timeline on that. What, what does that look like. Yeah. So we're linking beginning of summer right now 2024. So the there's two restaurants in it, it's 36 room boutique hotel and there's like peloton rooms and it's, it's very cool. Which restaurants. Yeah. So Post Tavern is on the main floor so that's going to be more of that like chill you know sports playing all the time tavern feel and then upstairs is the ricks and that's going to be a little bit more elevated but still like very approachable The whole the whole hotel was built on upon approachability.

00;42;05;08 - 00;42;27;03
Unknown
So like, if who's running the hotel, is it a flag or is it a so it's owned by sharing. Steve And then HHC So am I. Hospitality Group Well they right Yeah yeah, yeah. Is there be a rooftop bar then. Would that there is there asking me. Yeah. It's called direct focus on the peloton right across the rooftop bar.

00;42;27;05 - 00;42;52;13
Unknown
Yeah. So it'll be cool and it's very good. You guys got to rent that room. Jessica And she's coming off Thanksgiving, right? Yeah. Yeah. So be cool because the bar will overlook the river. Oh, it'll be beautiful here. So the the hotel's going right in over here, isn't it? Right along River Street. So obviously Google again at Google Maps right now it is not updated.

00;42;52;13 - 00;43;18;26
Unknown
So if you guys want to email Google along with me to update that, that'd be great. I'll keep. Yeah. So you can kind of see Merce. So if you're standing in front of this to the left. Yep. Where's Mirth? You see Satan's Go Legacy Park? No, go right ahead, Penny. Oh, is on the wrong way. Yeah. So I gotcha.

00;43;18;26 - 00;43;41;17
Unknown
Okay. Yeah, Yeah. So you're going right here at the hotel, right? Other side. This side. So our left. Sorry, Not the map. Left side. Yeah. Gotcha. So right behind mud, Penny and elms here. Yeah. So you've got like, you got mud, Penny. And then it'll be massive. It'll be the parking lot in between and then the hotel. So the hotel literally runs right along River Street.

00;43;41;19 - 00;44;05;14
Unknown
Cool. And then walkability right into the parking lot of the eight of Fresh Market and. Yep. Everything out. Yep. That's awesome. Yeah, it's great. It's going to be amazing once it's all said and done. So when you guys first started because the grocery store was kind of the anchor, right? Like I kicked the project off, Did you guys have like, a list of interested prospects that you were like, Okay, let's be selective on who we want to go to?

00;44;05;14 - 00;44;20;20
Unknown
Or did you to initially reach out to some groups and say, Hey, would you guys want to come be part of this project? To be honest, that was before my time, so I'm not exactly sure I know what that rumor boys will fill it in. I heard that they had to approach stores, but I don't know if that's your goal.

00;44;20;22 - 00;44;41;01
Unknown
So in that, you know, going back to that, like why we started a marketing campaign, it was so like L.A. Just wasn't on the map, so it was hard to say like, hey, bring a huge chain to a massive grocery store, invest all the build out and inventory and build up the employee base and technology and everything it takes to open a store.

00;44;41;07 - 00;45;01;04
Unknown
Yeah, and it's a massive area. So, I mean, I heard it was subsidized. No clue if that's true. I don't know. Yeah, well, into like, Hey, come the first stage. Yeah. You know we're going to be building for the next year with all the construction now afterwards. Yeah. So I mean yeah, make sense. But until like, we had to find the right fit.

00;45;01;04 - 00;45;19;25
Unknown
So obviously the first grocery store didn't work out, wasn't the right fit, and now, I mean, you go into that grocery store in ADA and it is packed. Yeah, that's awesome. What else? I mean, master plan or vision or whatever. It's crazy because a lot of people that listen this are in commercial real estate. What do you guys need down there?

00;45;19;27 - 00;45;43;24
Unknown
What what's like, hey like we would love to have type thing Is there that list or do you have most of that filled out or. Yeah. So right now we're really searching for like sushi. So this is listening to the community. This is community based feedback. I'm right out of the thorn Apple River. I mean, I don't know where you are.

00;45;43;26 - 00;46;07;09
Unknown
Yeah. So, yeah, kind of like sushi or it kind of looking a little bit, like, athletic, you know, like SoulCycle. It's like, what else is going to fit? Like, what else in that term? Like the marketing mindset to like real for real estate reasons, like athletic place every hours, which is over. So every hour you're having new people coming in and out.

00;46;07;11 - 00;46;31;17
Unknown
Would you guys go like, would you do say, like orange theory, which is a national brand or do you want the more boutique like this person's running SoulCycle or like a local a local operator? Yeah, I think, you know, it's all up for conversation. Yeah. If, if they came to us and just said like, this is a perfect fit, here's why, you know, definitely all up for conversation and it has to be the right fit.

00;46;31;19 - 00;46;50;14
Unknown
So I was just going to say, are picky. You guys have again, you have the long term vision. You don't have to just fill someone. Fill space to fill a space that's the right fit though, like and not easier specific brand, but like, okay, somebody wants to come into a space. What's the vetting process? Is it going out to just those three?

00;46;50;14 - 00;47;27;09
Unknown
I can't remember all three that you said are working together. Oh Township eight is an association and discover to thank you. Is that who gonna or is it us? It is baton collective. Yeah. Yeah. For the new development it is us for you to fit in it's it are you fitting? The need that the community wants is pretty much got see need health as far as exercising in that and what we're though kind of looking at that like sushi sushi and that's definitely been a push from the community for a while like people talking like wine bar.

00;47;27;11 - 00;47;54;17
Unknown
What else was the community wanting? I mean, we're filling that gap with O'Brien's like faster food option, but like good, faster food. I'm trying to think of what else. I mean, I think those are like the three top up ones that people are asking. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And to that like kind of athletic or exercise, you want to call it for the hotel too?

00;47;54;18 - 00;48;15;17
Unknown
I mean, we're going to have a fitness center, but if people want to come and they want to test out a one hour class, what do you think, Chris? Planet Fitness, 98%. Planet Fitness, Dropbox. But that is really good orange theory would do well because it's like, okay, you get people flying in there, part of the membership and they get to take class there.

00;48;15;20 - 00;48;43;01
Unknown
Exactly. Exactly. Seeing like our Planet fitness and gas station can be I can tell you, looking at the eight of so do you guys because I know we've been talking a lot about the retail and ground floor space when you continue to build these buildings, are you guys are you still thinking like office above there then or are you guys maybe thinking about like condos, apartments or just things?

00;48;43;01 - 00;49;12;24
Unknown
I don't think office has gone away and suburban offices like some of it. I think it I think it's pushing more out of downtown with parking and being second gen where if you have brand new second story space with elevators and mini camp accessibility, if you can drive 5 minutes, you just saw the age dropped to 34. So if some of these people can drive 5 minutes to work rather than taking a 20 minute drive to downtown, I think they'll take it and say, okay, I want to work here, as opposed to driving to downtown Grand Rapids.

00;49;12;24 - 00;49;41;16
Unknown
Yep. And to, like, extend the floor. Yeah. Can you explain I mean, like, he is a visionary. Yeah, he it again, we're looking at Google Maps. It it just shows you. Oh, that's my. Sure. There we go. Okay. Below that Jones. All right. Yeah, Yeah. He just really saw what Sherri wanted. You know, it's it's that older vibe, but new build, it feels it still feels new, but it's not.

00;49;41;18 - 00;50;04;29
Unknown
It's not modern. Yeah, you know, it fits. Ada into it. Blend in with the historic side. So what about this Chase? Chase. Chase on Chase. No counter, no comeback. Come on. I mean, yeah, there's no. I don't really know. Go. And you said that. You said Keep scrolling over, Max, the break. Go back. Go back to the law school house.

00;50;05;02 - 00;50;27;28
Unknown
You said that's becoming a O'Briens. Yeah. So what's your timeline on that? Which was spring. Spring? Yes. So? So straight down settlers. Yep. All the way down this road. Let me go down. Or if you go down that try. Yeah. So I call this guy Trevor a Google guy. Oh, yeah. I think it's because Google has an updated ETA, so I probably won't draw them now.

00;50;27;28 - 00;50;50;22
Unknown
So the schoolhouse was Ada Village General store for the past five years and then it's getting transferred over to O'Brien's. That's great stuff. Yeah, that's how much. How much vacancy do you guys have in your retail right now, do you? None is full. We have one open space, but it's not open because we can't fill it. It's open because we're waiting for the perfect person, the user.

00;50;50;28 - 00;51;27;03
Unknown
And that's the focus on the health or sushi. How big is it? Oh, great. I think 1200 square feet with the store. Oh, that's cool. For fitness. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right across from the park. Yeah. So. Yeah, yeah. So that's. That's all we have. What about office space availability? Yeah, I think we have one space open was the old It's in the is above like Geno's and Mudd Penney and that is a very large space So there's Mod Penney right there in that corner.

00;51;27;03 - 00;51;45;21
Unknown
So up here. Yeah. It's that whole L that whole entire building. L Yeah, that's, I mean that, that is where office Well there's a hotel, right? Yep. Lasorda Yep. That's where the office space does get harder to fill, is on the bigger floor plates, But somebody will take it. Yeah. Yeah, that's a nice I mean, the window size.

00;51;45;21 - 00;52;02;25
Unknown
Well, you've been successful at leasing this out with the construction going on. I'm like, okay, once you get all the construction equipment, I mean, I'm sure it's a blessing and a curse at the same time. Once you get that out, it's probably to clear it up a little bit more. Yeah, even just like parking construction taking up, we estimate around 52 parking spaces every day.

00;52;03;00 - 00;52;32;15
Unknown
Just because you have construction workers, you have fence up along River Street. So I mean, that takes up a lot of but I'm sure a lot of those subs are going out to Croft House and shopping, too, Right? Sprinkled, yes, definitely. A garage bar. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And in that is not a part of everything or it was the scratch bar.

00;52;32;17 - 00;52;54;16
Unknown
They came in on their own. Yep. Yep. Yeah. If you guys. So we have a podcast. I'll keep up with Liz and Kim, and we actually interviewed Kevin who runs Garage Bar and his story's amazing. It's actually he's such a, he's such a great guy, such a funny character. But he talks about like he ran 27 Panera Breads at one time.

00;52;54;18 - 00;53;18;00
Unknown
Oh, cool. Yeah. And then he's running Garage Bar in Ada and the one downtown. But yeah it's it's a great listen is, is is crazy. 2727. Yeah. We'll send you an invoice for that and way $1. Yeah. Oh is the name again. I'm sorry the podcast. I'll keep up with Liz and Kim. Okay. Very cool. Yeah. Like it.

00;53;18;04 - 00;53;37;21
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. Because the joke is like, Kim and I are pretty high energy and we're always running around downtown Ada and everybody is like, Oh my gosh, you're trying to keep up with you guys. So then we name the podcast again. Yeah, so you touch on all ADA stuff, so event businesses and then we highlight a business owner every episode.

00;53;37;22 - 00;54;01;06
Unknown
What events are going to be going on in December? Yeah. So December 1st we have potential trays and trolleys, which is the largest ADA event. It's, you know, you've got Santa Claus, Grinch, Mrs. Claus trolleys. There's a ton of different stuff going on down there, and then all the businesses participate in their old way. Tinsel treats trolleys. What do you guys have?

00;54;01;06 - 00;54;20;25
Unknown
A big Christmas tree down there? We don't usually like. Like I'm talking like Roc-A-Fella. Yeah, which would. It would be great if I can do it. The part data. So the one thing about Ada, the wind is insane. Oh, true. I mean, it's like, you better someone's going to wake up one morning, Christmas tree is going to be blown over.

00;54;20;25 - 00;54;50;14
Unknown
It's 900 yeah. So like, actually two weeks ago, my sign blew off our sidewalk and went up into a tree, like, full blown sidewalk wind time. Yeah. Yeah, It would be cool. At one point. I think we would love to get to that. But obviously like we're as all of ADA changes, we're growing and developing with it. So coming up with stuff like that and yeah, and then you've got Women's Night December 9th, which that's just like a great women's shopping event.

00;54;50;15 - 00;55;11;06
Unknown
Yeah, I'm trying to think of what else we have. Festival of Trees happening December 1st. So and that time you're putting are you helping and all of this with Yeah. So Tesla trees and trolleys full it ran by the ADA business association but which I'm not sure Yeah yeah I'm the board. Sure it's not on the board. No, no way.

00;55;11;06 - 00;55;29;27
Unknown
I can't. It's too much. That's your line together. I know what's going on. I don't need to be on the. That's your line. Yeah, that's my line. I don't need more things, but yeah. So we obviously all events that happen in Ada is it's all township Discover, Ada and eight of us in association and that we all work together as a team.

00;55;30;00 - 00;56;06;03
Unknown
Wow. So yeah it's very unlikely. It's, it's hard, you know, there's, there's pros and cons, you know, you've got three people working together and just trying to figure it all out and yeah, and a new development. But I also feel like that's kind of every, like vision for like a downtown or like any I understand wealthy street has a wealthy street district and stuff, but besides that, I don't know another part of our town or district that does what you guys are doing with the collaboration of the public and private and bringing everyone together and saying, okay, let's actually do this and let's work together to benefit these businesses.

00;56;06;04 - 00;56;27;07
Unknown
Mm hmm. Yeah. We actually get messages often like, Hey, can we talk to you guys about how you do this? Yeah. Hey, how did you get Ada to be what it is today? Hey, you know, we're kind of like, Yeah, you know, how much do I want everybody? Because took a lot of hard work and a lot of trial and error, and sometimes that's just what you got to do.

00;56;27;09 - 00;56;48;13
Unknown
And it's okay. You. You. Yeah, we're in 2013, almost 2014 or 22,024. But it started back in 2006 with, with that original vision and that mindset of, okay, here's what we want to see from Ada and here's our vision and then share being able to pull it off. Yeah, it's incredible. It's incredible how many people are coming into Amway office every day, do you know, like corporate.

00;56;48;16 - 00;57;16;12
Unknown
So it's dropped a lot. So last we heard, it was like 300 that and I think it's like they're schedule changes. I think it's like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or, you know, something? I don't know what it is, but it's changed a lot. And that's all new people. So I don't know. Can you feel that, though, like with the downtown and everything, do you have you felt that shift of like, hey, like we're slam Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Monday.

00;57;16;12 - 00;57;36;11
Unknown
Friday is light. Like, are you guys feeling that in downtown ADA? Does it have an effect on that or is that kind of its own little cogs? Yeah, not as much as it used to. And I think it's so hard to tell, too, because when COVID hit, you know, is everyone so is it like everyone slowly trickling in or is it just Amway trickling in or.

00;57;36;13 - 00;57;58;03
Unknown
Yeah, it's hard to tell, you know, sometimes to who is Amway and who's not Amway. You know, I think a lot of times they'll come down and like have meetings at Moneypenny or stuff like that. But it's hard to tell. You don't you don't see it in numbers very much, but sometimes you see them like crossing. Fulton now and you're like, Oh, okay, here comes and way into Ada for lunch.

00;57;58;03 - 00;58;22;05
Unknown
Bold move doing that. So I'm Frogger. So everything's everything's full then? Yeah, for the most part. For the most part. So you're doing the part. Mm. Then what? There's got to be more. You're not stopping yet? Um, yeah. I mean, at some point we're going to run out of space, you know, to keep building. Are you, though, um, are you going to run out of space?

00;58;22;07 - 00;58;56;02
Unknown
I mean, although I am going to move out of that stuff now. Do you, I mean, is that a part of the vision in any way that. That. No, not right now, no, no, no. I think, you know, like the township is talking about like a new building because they're old. They're building older. Yeah. And I and I to continue to feel now that it's there and now that it's over the hump, you're going to continue to feel the pressure from the the the less philanthropic in the last local.

00;58;56;04 - 00;59;14;29
Unknown
You're going to continue to feel the pressure from the market that's going to be beating down the door to be here to do yeah. To do projects and follow up and and continue to grow the ADA millage to Yeah, the city. Yeah, yeah. We're not doing that you know because I think if we did do that you would lose that community base again.

00;59;15;01 - 00;59;40;09
Unknown
So I think you know, everybody starting from 26 on they've kept that in the back of their mind. It's like this is community based. This is a small area that, you know, is pocket special pocket. Yeah. Should be strong and mighty and that and I think that's what we want it to do. And I think even like the marketing, you know, marketing is going to continue to change because now we're not growing.

00;59;40;12 - 01;00;04;09
Unknown
Now it's the same places. So how are we going to market the same places continuously to our audience and to the community and all of that? So baton has shifted from filling space to now. How do we keep the community together with these events and that type of thing? Yep, yeah, yeah, yeah. So a lot of now my job isn't filling spaces that, you know, done done.

01;00;04;16 - 01;00;26;01
Unknown
How do you like being a commercial broker was a fine. I mean I didn't do that I marketing, I just got the word out that like eight is going to be awesome. Get down here, be a business. You know, let's let's all start on this fresh concrete together. But you didn't get to be actually like, were you part of like any of the negotiation of like, here's what market rent is.

01;00;26;01 - 01;00;49;24
Unknown
This is what will you do You would like would you stop into their shop then like for someone let's bring up Luna, right? Yeah. Did you help? But were you part of that more? So what happened is like, so we have a team at Baton and they would they got, you know, they talked to Mario, they got Luna in there and then I would meet with Luna and be like, Hey, I'm Liz from Discover Ada.

01;00;49;27 - 01;01;13;05
Unknown
I run the marketing campaign. Like, where can we help you? What can we do? And I mean, Mario runs here. You guys have never met Mario. That man is amazing. Yeah, he is great. But I've really created those, like, personal relationships and, like, what do you guys from us where our other team would be like, Let's get you guys in here.

01;01;13;05 - 01;01;31;29
Unknown
And then I would take it from there and be like, Let's create a personal relationship and let's continue to build that trust. Well, and then back to back to the CROSSFIRE is part of it wins. I mean, you're ten months in. What's you you plan to grow, obviously. But I mean, when when are you going to push on that?

01;01;32;06 - 01;01;51;27
Unknown
Gosh, I don't know. Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah. I think, you know, give me two years. Like, let's really figure out what craft is because it's trial and error to, you know, you bring in things like sell. They don't sell. Oh, I got a question though. But what was your experience like selling your because you had to sell the vision to button.

01;01;51;27 - 01;02;10;13
Unknown
I'm sure they they weren't just like you. You go here's the space for your the what was that like being on the other side of it and going through that process? It was great. So I met with the team, Sheri and Steve included, and just kind of presented my idea and like, this is what craft us is, this is why I want to bring it to Ada.

01;02;10;16 - 01;02;31;10
Unknown
I've been so involved in ADA and I think this is a gap that we need to fill. And like I've said before about sharing Steve, they're like, we if you're a good person and you have a great idea, we're going to support you and we're going to back you. Was it was it all the way down to though, like we want to see a business plan to make sure you can pay rent or like, is it like we believe in the vision?

01;02;31;10 - 01;02;51;01
Unknown
Go and figure it out as you go. Yeah. So I had the business plan for sure. I mean, not a massive business plan. Just a business plan. 2% of like, okay, this is what rent is. This is how much I have to sell. This is costs, all that kind of stuff. And it works out. You know, you just need to make sure that those numbers actually work.

01;02;51;04 - 01;03;11;05
Unknown
But yeah, I mean, and to they're going to ask you the hard questions. Yeah. They're going to say, okay, well, what if it's a bad year? What are you going to do? What if whatever? And you know, the nice thing is like I have a full time income, so I have that to back myself if need be. So but I don't need it right now.

01;03;11;05 - 01;03;31;20
Unknown
But it's awesome. Yeah. I'm curious as far as how staffing down there, like finding employees and stuff, what do you what do you hear from businesses? Is it getting better? Is it stagnant? Is it getting worse? Like it's okay? So we're all like in our thirties. So it's I think it's this struggle between the world is changing in the way of staffing.

01;03;31;22 - 01;03;53;09
Unknown
It's just you're finding that you I don't even know you need to like cater a little bit more and I think that's been hard. I've my, my biggest suggestion is like get to know people and talk to them and they're going to know someone who wants to work for you. And then if that person does, that's a good person.

01;03;53;09 - 01;04;17;18
Unknown
A lot of times it is a good person. That's all three of my employees. All three of my employees are a friend of a friend or, you know, my friend's mom knows so-and-so, and that has been the best thing ever. But you hear from some of them like, yeah, it's hard. Yeah, it's just a different atmosphere. And these like kids getting out of college or just a little bit different than when we did.

01;04;17;21 - 01;04;37;09
Unknown
Yeah. So is it more them? Are you talking more like they have to believe in the vision or are you catering to like, hey, like working less well in your retail but like more remote or something like that? Do you think it's more of those decisions that are happening? Yeah, like quasi remote. You can do this from anywhere.

01;04;37;10 - 01;04;57;01
Unknown
They're more comfortable sitting behind the screen than most or. Yeah, and I think do when you look through Instagram, you know, like everybody's working remote and they're traveling the world and they're it's a false, it's a false lifestyle. Like, yeah, some people can do that. But I think a lot of times these kids see that and they think it's a reality.

01;04;57;03 - 01;05;24;20
Unknown
And you can, you know, like you can you can do that. Like if you work hard, you can do it. But I think to pay when you can get paid 16 to $18 an hour at McDonalds. Sure. And you're a small business starting up an $18 an hour for three employees. I mean, it's it's a lot. Yeah. So I think yeah, I think there's a lot of things that come with kind of that hiring struggle right now.

01;05;24;20 - 01;05;43;05
Unknown
But yeah, I think one of it is remote for sure because I see like that free lifestyle, but I mean remote is still like glued to your computer. Yeah. Is your, is your husband a part of Croft House at all or is he. What's he what's he got going on? So you guys are going to be even more.

01;05;43;08 - 01;06;04;07
Unknown
Yeah. So my husband's actually a full time nurse, but he's in school right now to be a nurse practitioner, so he is working full time and going to school full time. So when we see each other, I think if he comes to the store, yeah, pretty much. No, he works third shift too. So it gets a little tricky.

01;06;04;07 - 01;06;18;15
Unknown
But it's it's a chapter in our life, you know? Yeah, right through it. You're working towards a something. Yeah, exactly. That's awesome. So, yeah, I mean, at some point I think he will love he loves the business world. At some point I think he would love to transfer into Croft House and if it got to a point like that.

01;06;18;15 - 01;06;35;07
Unknown
But right now now he's in the he's in the nursing world. Yeah. They're making good money. Yeah, they are. But is that's a lot of work, though. That's hard. Hard? It's hard work. It's like hard mentally to their salary stuff going on comes home with you too and. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And like, he works third shift, so it's emergency surgery.

01;06;35;07 - 01;18;44;24
Unknown
So it's a lot of like stabbings and gunshot wounds and gang violence. And so, yeah, it's hard. Yeah, not great right now, but it's okay. I mean, working towards something. Yeah. Yeah. What about the, the pub sort of the name.