Windsor-based app company Red Piston has jumped the river.
It now has a small sales office in the Michigan Building on Bagley St, just west of downtown's Grand Circus Park.
The three-year-old business has built over 80 apps for clients like Lowe's, Dodge, Puma, and Chrysler. Recently, Red Piston built the Dave and Chuck The Freak game and an augmented reality app for Mercedes.
The company motto is simple: "We build apps." Red Piston co-founder Jakub Koter says as long as the app is for "a screen," they'll build it.
The actual app making will still be done by their 17 Windsor employees, in the aptly named Canada Building, while the Michigan Building will house a stateside sales rep.
They hope a Detroit office will make it easier for American companies to work with them.
"We see that there are so many opportunities and we want to be part of all that," say Koter. "Windsor is similar economically, but Detroit has a bigger scale. We're the only app company around here. In Detroit, though, things are happening and it drives people, it's a different perception. People like to work with local companies, so we want to be a part of that scene."
The Michigan Building is actually their second attempt at moving to Detroit. Red Piston used to rent a desk at the Madison Building and left to find a more suitable home. "But we're back!" he adds.
Examples of empty offices in the Michigan Building
Although Koter says the new office is “just a white blank office with white desks,” the Michigan Building is far from boring.
Built in 1925, the 13-story office was built alongside the lavish Michigan Theater. theater. The spent time as a movie theater, concert venue, and club before being closed for good in the 1970’s.
Plans to raze it and build a parking lot were thwarted by physics – tearing down the theater would cause structural damage to integral parts of the office building, so the parking lot was built inside of it.
Above: Remains of the balcony and projection booth.
“It’s got a charm,” says Koter.
