Rust Belt Market Gets Closer; Web Presence Up, Still Need to Finalize Lease

Forget Charlie Sheen—the most important entity new to Twitter last week was the Rust Belt Market, an incubator for artists to control their art and sales that could be coming soon to Ferndale.

Chris and Tiffany Best of Oxford have been developing the market for a year, planning 5,000 square feet of space in the vacant building at 22801 Woodward Ave. The market will include 50 spaces available for rent.

The Bests’ venture would allow artists to rent 5-by-7 spaces from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. weekends for $60 a day or $100 for the weekend.

The couple hopes to sign a lease within the next three weeks to make it official, Tiffany Best said, but for now, they’re focusing on establishing an online presence. Along with a Twitter account, the market now has an official site and a Facebook fan page.

“I feel like social media is taking over my life,” she said as she tried to figure out how to create a Facebook ad.

Since the launch of their website, they’ve received a steady stream of applications from artists wanting space. “It’s very encouraging,” she said. The Facebook page has more than 300 "likes."

The couple still has to set up direct link to allow artists and vendors to pay for space, Best said, but it’s encouraging to see people showing their support online.

“We are reading all the mail we’ve been getting and working on responding to all of them,” she added.

They’ve sent newsletters to people who’ve contacted them, keeping them up to date with the whole process, which they plan to continue to do.

When the time is right, the Bests would like to involve the community creatively in the build-out process—once they find out what they can and can’t do, permit-wise.

After the lease is signed, Tiffany Best said there will be at least a month of building improvement work necessary, then another month to completely finish the raw space.

"We feel pretty strong about this one," Director Cristina Sheppard-Decius said. "This works well with (Ferndale's) style.

Sheppard-Decius added that the Rust Belt Market could be the anchor for that building, which has been vacant since 2007, breaking up its 15,000 total square feet and making the remaining 10,000 more "palatable."

"The challenge has been the size. It's too big for a restaurant and too small for a big box store," she said. "This will break (the square footage) down."