Michigan is a state of tremendous natural beauty. Our forests and lakes shift through natural cycles of birth, growth, decay, and renewal. But these rural areas aren’t the only ones refreshing themselves through this process. Detroit is in the middle of its own renewal, and two longtime Michigan outdoor staples are investing in that rebirth in an important way.

Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources manages most of the state’s outdoor resources, including state parks. In July, they opened the doors of the Outdoor Adventure Center. Located downtown on the Riverfront, across from Milliken State Park, this hands on natural science center talks about all of Michigan’s wonderful features and shows visitors what lies just outside the city’s limits. It is a dynamic learning environment, but what makes the space really unique is the building where it resides.

The Outdoor Adventure Center lives inside The Globe Building; a building that long served several manufacturing companies producing components for ships. But like so many buildings in the Detroit area, it was left vacant for a long time and wallowed in a state of disrepair. Several photos throughout the Outdoor Adventure Center showed the dire state the building had been in. It was very much in contrast to the vibrant interior that now inhabits the space.

Sitting vacant for 25 years, old silos needed to be ripped out and a total overhaul of the building, which lacked a roof in some areas, were necessary to reboot the site. The DNR cited over three years of work and many local sponsors to get the renovations done to open the center. They wanted to give people a chance to have a new experience of “up north, downtown” but also to make sure that they were preserving part of Detroit’s history as well. The Outdoor Adventure Center is a great example of that.

Another business making their home in a historic Detroit building is Carhartt, who recently opened their flagship store in the Midtown area of Detroit. Carhartt, based in Dearborn, is a longtime Michigan business specializing in outdoor and work clothing and supplies. On Cass Avenue, they’ve made their home in the building that housed Cass Motor Sales in the late 1920s. The building was designed by Charles Agree, an architect who designed many buildings in Detroit in a classic art deco style, and is in the U.S. Register of National Historic Places. Carhartt renovated the space using all Michigan based businesses and has painted the side of the building facing I-94 with a large mural of the type of people who work, live, and play in Detroit.

These two businesses understand that these historic buildings in Detroit are a wonderful asset and their efforts to preserve them help to strengthen the city as it moves forward in its renewal. Hopefully more business will see how these places can be reborn a new, and make similar choices when shopping for new homes for their storefronts. This economic support from businesses like these is one more step forward on the path to Detroit’s revival.