With more than 70 bars and restaurants, downtown Royal Oak is an entertainment and dining center that rivals downtown Detroit.
That won't change any time soon, Kirk Pinho writes in Crain's Detroit Business. But real estate experts and city downtown development authority officials say a wave of creative and technology companies setting up offices downtown over the past four years continues to diversify the Oakland County hot spot and help chip away at the city's high office vacancy rate.
Nearly 30 creative and technology companies have set up offices downtown since 2010 — some founded there, others expanding or moving from nearby communities like Oak Park, such as RingSide Creative LLC, and Ferndale, like Mercury Studio LLC and others still local offices of national or global companies like Hulu LLC.
Some owners say they considered downtown Detroit, Ann Arbor and Birmingham, but opted for Royal Oak because of issues like safety concerns about Detroit and a central location with better freeway access than Birmingham for quick commutes to business hubs like Southfield, Troy, Auburn Hills and Detroit.
A software and marketing firm is expected to occupy at least some of the space in the Barnes & Noble bookstore on Main Street, which is closing April 5.
