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MOUNT CLEMENS — Between the dazzling lights of Walnut Street and the bustling thoroughfare of Southbound Gratiot, those who have recently perused Mount Clemens’ downtown might have noticed something new: an opened Macomb Place.
“We will be opening the street this week (of Dec. 8), but we had to wait for DTE to put in the lampposts, which is going on right now in the snow and everything else,” said Michelle Weiss, coordinator of the Mount Clemens Downtown Development Authority.
On the evening Dec. 9, much of Macomb Place appeared to be ready, minus barriers at the ends and obstruction rocks and seating placed throughout the roadway on pallets. Janice Trimpe’s sculpture “Apple of my Eye” was back on the sidewalk while signage for drivers was placed along the expected right of way. Additional touches including an archway near the Pine Street Red parking lot, street striping and parking kiosks are expected to be installed over the rest of the winter. Streetlights specifically for the stage are expected to come in later.
Weiss, in light of the Downtown Revitalization Project’s progress and what it has taken to get here, has only thanks for its supporters.
“We were very blessed … to get the kind of money we were able to get from grants,” Weiss said. “As we were going after grants, they were looking at how we were spending our grant dollars, and I think that’s why they wanted to give us more opportunity. And certainly, we know how tired our downtown was. It had been a long, long time and it may be again a long, long time before we can do it again.”
The near completion of the Downtown Revitalization Project comes amid one of the busiest trafficked downtown shopping seasons in recent years, according to Placer.ai tracking data provided to Weiss by Macomb County. The Mount Clemens Santa Parade on Nov. 22 was the busiest event on record according to Weiss with the data showing people spending three to five hours in the city, with some people sticking around until about 4:30 p.m. While Weiss has a hand in the parade’s success as both an organizer and the DDA coordinator, she gives credit to the day’s favorable 50-degree weather for making it easier for people to stick around.
Following the Santa Parade was the week of Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Record Store Day and Small Business Saturday, a commercial weekend for the local businesses. Diane Kubik, owner of Max & Ollie’s Vintage Boutique located on Macomb Place, felt positive about the weekend.
“Small Business Saturday is always one of the better days of the year — always,” Kubik said. “This year, Black Friday was great, too. It was a wonderful weekend.”
Weiss says shoppers stayed in the city for around two hours on the weekend with more than 20,000 people passing through the city over the combined Santa Parade and holiday shopping weekends.
“My data showed that here on Cherry Street we had several thousands of people coming and shopping down there as well,” Weiss said. “I can’t speak for every business, but the audience was here. If you had a product that they might be looking for or wanting to just check out for future Christmases, we definitely had them here.”
One business, Bohemian Goat on the corner of North Walnut and New streets, reported a slower shopping season than expected.
“So far it’s been a little slow,” Bohemian Goat co-owner Giselle Godin said. “Black Friday and Small Business Saturday did better than most days. They were good days. Last year and this year they were a little slower than what they’ve been in the past. Overall Black Friday and Small Business Saturday were pretty good. It’s the rest of the time that we have been really struggling ... I think a lot of it is the economy. I think a lot of it is people are shopping online. Maybe even that there’s still some construction happening in Mount Clemens that might be scaring people away a little bit.”
Kubik believes many one-time shoppers are changing their gift-giving behaviors.
“I think people are being more conscious of how they’re spending their money,” Kubik said. “I don’t think that it’s become such a gift thing anymore. I think people are being more thoughtful about what they’re giving.”
The owners also reflected on their experiences during the peak of construction in the summer. Max & Ollie’s was one of the few businesses to completely close during the peak construction months, but it was for a flood caused by plumbing issues rather than anything tied to the Macomb Place work. The vintage reseller had to move their items off-site and closed until October, but fellow businesses teamed up to build the “Max & Ollie’s Treasure Hunt” to keep the shop’s goods flowing throughout the town.
“Thrivent, which is a financial adviser group, put together ‘Max & Ollie’s Treasure Hunt,’” Kubik said. “Local businesses took five treasures, some of them took a rack of clothes of our stuff (and) put them in their stores. They were for sale, but there was also a treasure map that people checked off, and you got entered into a drawing when you checked so many. That was a really wonderful way to connect the whole community and get people to walk around and sell a little bit of our treasures because we went four months without income.”
Meanwhile, Godin found the temporary closure of the New Street parking lot as the source of a parking access issue.
“All of the street parking in our area was completely taken up, mainly by the courts,” Godin said. “Parking was a big issue. We weren’t really anticipating that … It’s getting better (with the lot reopened). So far, the holiday season isn’t what we had hoped it to be, unfortunately.”
As for the data, Weiss says that overall traffic to the downtown was down by less than 1% compared to 2024’s data over the duration of the project.
What kept so many people coming through the area, despite the noise and dust?
“I think a lot of people were curious right from the very beginning, and even the construction guys … were shocked how many people were coming down,” Weiss said. “You have a lot of people who lived here most of their life, if not all of their life, and they just wanted to see what we’re doing. The fountain was an icon. It was built in 1982. A lot of our downtown was tired and so they were curious.”
The data also shows visitors have increased household incomes. Weiss points to the steady traffic as a sign that Mount Clemens’ downtown is a “destination” for shoppers looking to buy and experience what the city has to offer.
The future
As Macomb Place moves closer to reopening and the warmer weather still feels so soon departed, Weiss and the downtown business owners have their sights firmly set on plans for 2026.
“I’m already working on May and June,” Weiss said. “We are starting to book our bands for our Uptown Friday Night concerts … We hope to have everything back to normal. I can tell you, having had to move (the) Made in Michigan (event) this past summer and cutting it in half, it did not hinder the numbers. The numbers were the greatest numbers we had ever had and most of my artists said it was the best show they’ve ever done.”
Many events for 2025 were moved to Main Street due to Macomb Place being closed. One thing complicating repeating that relocation is the looming Main Street Revitalization Project, which is set to take place over 2026 and 2027. Kubik welcomes the possible return of events to Macomb Place.
“(Events are) crucial,” Kubik said. “We have the everyday bread and butter, but then that’s like, ‘Okay, let’s eat steak’ … They’re all very significant and you just never can tell (which event will be the best.) It’s weather. It’s a lot of different factors that can go into an event being great. Most of them are very, very good for us.”
Godin finds the prospects of the Main Street project to be “scary.”
“That’s a little scary,” Godin said. “That’s right outside our front door … The Bohemian Goat hosts the Urban Street Fair, and we do that on Main Street, so it’s a little scary. I think that a lot of our traffic comes from main street, so I don’t really know what to expect and I don’t know if they plan on shutting the road down completely or what that’s going to look like or exactly when the timetable for that is, so it’s all a little intimidating.”
In a way, Godin’s fears about the project amount to another potential challenge in what the co-owner calls a “hard city” to do business in.
“It feels like a hard city. It’s a hard city compared to other downtowns,” Godin said. “I do think the DDA does what it can, and the businesses really join together and support each other. I think we all have ideas on what we think would make things better, and the good news is that part of it does seem to be improving all of the time.”
Despite concerns for the coming projects and what roughness they may entail, Godin maintains a positive outlook on the city’s future.
“Overall, I think that Mount Clemens is heading in a great direction,” Godin said. “It’s been a long, long, long time coming, so I just really want people to give Mount Clemens a chance and come check out and see what we have going on. I know we don’t have a ton of retail businesses at the moment, but we’re working on it. I think it’s worth checking out.”
