The rapid expansion of Lee Padgett's Busted Bra Shop company
continues as the specialty bra shop last month moved its New Center area store
to the Lofts of Merchant Row building in downtown Detroit.Padgett relocated in early December from her
original space at 15 E. Kirby St. in the Cadillac Place building, which opened in late 2013, to
a space on the ground floor at 1247 Woodward Ave. The new location is near a
cafe Padgett operated, Cafe de Troit, from 2003-06.
Lee Padgett
Padgett on Tuesday told Crain's that the move
is partly related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"When
the state building (Cadillac Place) shut down for the pandemic, it locked
everybody. Nobody has come back," said Padgett, who has opened six Busted
Bra retail locations since 2013. "The state workers haven't come back.
There's not really enough business to make it worthwhile being there. Our
employees were bored. We were at the point of our lease where we could exit
gracefully and that's what we did."
The new downtown Busted Bra space is much larger — more than 2,000 square feet vs. the 700 square-foot Cadillac Place space. The move called for Padgett to bring on two additional staffers, giving the downtown Detroit store five employees.
Padgett declined
to disclose terms of her new
lease.
Padgett, who has another store in Detroit at 14401 E. Jefferson
Ave. in the Jefferson-Chalmers area, said she's already seen sales for the
downtown shop increase by 50 percent since the move.
"We just needed to be in a space where people would walk by and see the sign," Padgett said. "We've gotten some new customers, some who used to shop at the Cadillac Place store. We have the store in Jefferson-Chalmers, too, but the people who don't go to the east side for whatever reason — they come here."
