Redevelopment includes Detroit location for Balkan House
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Döner kebabs are coming to 3700 Third Ave. Photo: Annalise Frank/Axios
Döner kebab eatery Balkan House is planning to come to Detroit as part of a new multirestaurant site from the creators of Detroit Shipping Co.
Driving the news: Developer Detroit Rising will renovate a vacant 1947 building for about $2 million at 3700 Third Ave. — about four blocks from its Cass Corridor food hall that features multiple restaurant purveyors, events, art and retail.
- The new spot will include four restaurant bays and a bar on its ground floor, in a collective model similar to Shipping Co. It'll have 10 one-bedroom apartments on the second floor.
State of play: The Five and Dime building's ownership group bought the Third Avenue property in 2016, according to Crain's, and planned a mixed-use development before being hit by the pandemic, says Detroit Rising founding partner Jon Hartzell.
- The redevelopment process is now on its way, he adds, with its restaurants expected to open between June and August.
- Following the success of Detroit Shipping Co., Detroit Rising also planned a companion shipping container hotel project next door that was later sidelined due to funding challenges.
Zoom in: Balkan House is the first officially signed restaurant tenant for Five and Dime, according to Hartzell.
- The popular eatery gained massive traction for being the only local spot for German-style Döner kebabs around 2019, but closed its original location in Hamtramck in September.
- Its Ferndale restaurant is still thriving, owner Juma Ekic tells Axios, as well as its food truck.
Context: Ekic is originally from Bosnia, in the former Yugoslavia, then lived and studied in Germany, where she loved Döner kebab shops.
- She moved to the Detroit area in 1999 at age 19, eventually working in the restaurant and bar business for more than a decade before opening her restaurant with the goal of introducing Eastern European-slash-German food "to everybody," she says.
What they're saying: Of leaving Hamtramck and moving into Detroit, Ekic says: "It was time for me for a change … but I always wanted to expand."
- "I'm so excited. I always wanted to be in Detroit, and this opportunity came up, and I'm super excited there is going to be a bar in that building as well. The food that I serve … they go great with beers."