For more than a year, the Will Leather Goods Detroit team has thought about how to turn the former Tomboy Market into a high-end retail destination. The team brought together longtime Detroit architects McIntosh Poris Associates along with Adler and his daughter Shane, who worked together to find the best of this lifestyle brand and bring it to Detroit.
They also brought in Architectural Salvage Detroit to find great pieces of city history into this new remodel. That way, the heavy farm beams from Will Leather’s beloved Oregon that show off the building’s high ceilings could be matched with the natural beauty of the wood recovered from some of Detroit’s reclaimed houses.
Will Leather Goods has eight other locations nationwide, and it is expanding in population-heavy spots such as New York, San Francisco and Portland. You can find something to buy within the store no matter what your income level. And, not to sell the stuff, but it is guaranteed for life, so if you need a replacement, Will Leather is going to make it very easy on you to keep its goods in your closet.
Beyond that, there is the Robert Adler Community Art Gallery – a large meeting space with a separate entrance onto a parking lot. That means there is room for art, for conversation, for meetings. Detroiters can come in, sit in the well-appointed leather chairs, within the sizable tee-pee in the middle or in the gallery to talk, to collaborate, to discuss next steps. These spaces are open to the public both to enjoy and to use as needed, Adler said, hopeful that his old hometown will not only buy his goods but accept his hospitality.
Architect Michael Porris agrees. “It’s the kind of space where you want to sit, relax and take it all in,” said Porris, whose office also is behind Detroit landmarks including the Garden Theater, Hop Cat and Townhouse restaurant. “It’s an experience where you come and stay a while.”