LANSING, Mich. — Bradly’s HG is moving to a new location in Old Town.
In January, owner Bradly Rakowski plans to move into the space that is currently occupied by the Old Town Marquee.
“When the building became available, I mean, I literally jumped out of my chair,” Rakowski said.
Rakowski opened his own version of what he calls a "hometown mom and pop shop” in Old Town eight years ago.
“We do interior design. We have 21 lines of furniture, thousands of light fixtures. We have all this crazy gift wear, the shop flips and we transform it during the holidays,” Rakowski said.
Despite the pandemic, his business has been doing well.
“You know, people have been home and sitting around looking at their house saying, ‘You know, I really want to update this. This is worn out.'”
Now, Rakowski has big plans for the 7,000-square-foot space.
“We have small batch American-made foods, mostly women-owned businesses. We're really proud of that. And we're going to expand into our food lines. We're going to have a full-time demonstration kitchen, and that will be going on a weekly basis with rotating themes," he said. "And then hopefully, in the summer, we would like to turn that into cooking classes. And the other thing that we've expanded into is last February was the menswear line."
Bradly’s HG offers a wide variety of products made in Michigan, but they sell out quickly.
“Bradly's, you know, we really focus on the unique items… You come in three weeks later, you are going to have a whole different inventory to choose from,” Rakowski said.
Lynn Ross, a board member of the Old Town Commercial Association and owner of the Mother and Earth Baby Boutique, said that businesses in Old Town have been doing well.
“I feel like when you come to a historic downtown, you expect to see like that, you know, really wonderful furniture store and I think that the Marquee will be an amazing location for them,” Ross said.
The Old Town Marquee will continue operating until the end of the year.
“As we all know, the pandemic was devastating to small businesses like ours," Marquee owner Bethany Morton said. "We did receive a couple of grants to ease the financial hardship, but sadly it covered only a fraction of our losses...We have concluded it would take approximately two years to recover our pandemic losses and, quite frankly, we’ve lost our passion to do it. We are thrilled that a fellow Old Town business has the opportunity to purchase our historic building and follow their dreams.”
Morton also said the Marquee's owners will be refocusing on their other business, Morton’s Fine Catering.
Once the sale is finalized, Rakowski hopes to have Bradly’s HG up and running at the new spot by the end of February.
For more information about Bradly’s HG, visit their website or Facebook page.
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