Can Detroit become a great city again? There is hope, as the once-thriving Motor City is attracting investors, entrepreneurs, and artists since its emergence from bankruptcy in 2014.
Philip Kafka, a young entrepreneur from New York, thinks Detroit is a comeback story and offers a unique opportunity to do business.
“I needed to go somewhere that is intrinsically great and has a great brand. I understood how valuable the brand of Detroit is,” Kafka said.
Kafka, originally from Dallas, moved to New York City after graduating from Northwestern University in 2009 with a degree in philosophy.
While in New York for job interviews, he realized he could use the knowledge from his family’s billboard business. He started to explore the Big Apple by walking and biking in the neighborhoods of Manhattan and Brooklyn.
He started calling the owners of buildings for outdoor advertisement space. After countless calls and trials, he eventually signed his first lease and sold the sign to Corona Beer.
“Immediately, I had the confidence to go and get another deal. I got the second sign on Prince Street, and I sold that to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). So I had two signs, and I was in business,” Kafka said.
Kafka founded his New York-based outdoor advertisement company Prince Media and started spending most of his time out on the streets looking for new locations. He focused on untapped areas in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, leading him to success.
By 2015, Prince Media had 60 leases and was the second-largest billboard company in New York City. In July 2015, Kafka exited the billboard business and turned his focus to Detroit, where he had been investing in real estate for the past four years.
“Every fun ride comes to an end in New York. It was so much fun to get to know the streets. It is magical, and I love this city. But it does not allow me to be creative as I’d like,” Kafka said.
Investing in ‘Broke City’
Instead of investing in New York, Kafka turned his attention to Detroit. He first visited Detroit in 2012, and since then, he has been investing in properties in the Motor City.
“In New York, once you start driving in a lane, you have to stay in your lane. You cannot change what you are doing. The cost of living is high, and there is too much competition,” he said. “I started to really see the value in Detroit. It had an amazing story.”
He was not worried when the city filed for bankruptcy in 2013, the biggest urban bankruptcy in U.S. history.
Kafka currently owns six acres of land and six buildings, all contiguous. He says he will convert his properties to creative projects.
One of the buildings was an old auto garage with no roof. He hired an architect from New York and transformed the place into a Thai restaurant called Katoi. Now he is a partner in the restaurant with two other partners.
“The business is better than we could have ever imagined,” Kafka said. He is now working on additional projects.
“I used the restaurant project to take the temperature of Detroit, and the temperature was hot. That inspired me to really push forward all my other projects,” he said.