On April 1, a group of art students walked through the empty Downtown Home & Garden building at 210 S. Ashley St. with Mark Hodesh. He has owned the building since 1975, and he told them its history. A few weeks later the front windows were covered in their work. There was a champagne bottle, a horse made from one of the building's own cardboard barrels, gold teeth, and an orange cat for Lewis, the store's cat, who died in 2014. Their instructor, Nick Tobier, told MLive that the pieces followed the building's life in order.
That same April story had a less cheerful headline. The art was up, but the building still had no tenant. Hodesh had said for months that the next tenant would probably be a bar or a bar and restaurant. The tenant he signed is Literati. That choice came from what the building can do without being rebuilt, and it leaves this part of Ashley with a retailer on a block that has been filling with places to eat and drink.
Most of the year, everyone expected a bar
Here is how the building went from empty to leased:
| When | What happened at 210 S. Ashley |
|---|---|
| August 2025 | Downtown Home & Garden announces it will close |
| December 23–24, 2025 | Last full day of business, then permanent closure on Christmas Eve |
| December 2025 | Hodesh says he is sorting through several proposals, most likely a bar or a bar and restaurant |
| March 2026 | Still no signed lease |
| April–May 2026 | Student artwork fills the windows |
| Late October 2026 | Literati announces it has leased the building |
In March, MLive reported that Hodesh still thought a bar was the most viable use for the space. His family remembers the decision differently. In an essay for the Ann Arbor Observer, his daughter Jeanne Hodesh wrote that developers and real estate agents started calling after the closing was announced. Suggestions came in for a grocery store, a music venue, a gallery, a nonprofit art space, a new Treasure Mart, and a home for a model train. Her father gave them one answer: "Not condos. Not a bar. Not a restaurant."
When Hodesh spoke to WEMU about the lease, he described the same rule as "not a high rise, not a bar, not a restaurant." He passed on the use he had called the safe bet in favor of the one he actually wanted.
What the building asks of a tenant
The reason starts with the structure. MLive traces the business at this address back to a 19th-century farm-supply operation. The building still has features from its years as a livery stable and farm store, including a drive-through, old grain-handling equipment, and horse stalls. On a historical tour recorded by the Ann Arbor District Library, Hodesh said its old timber floors and frame are unusually strong.
A kitchen and a bar need ventilation, plumbing, and seating. A bookstore needs floor that can carry weight and walls that can hold shelves, and 210 S. Ashley already has both. MLive reported that Literati's owners pointed to the larger floor area, the built-in shelving, and the building's history as their reasons for choosing it. Owner Hilary Gustafson told WEMU the current store at 124 E. Washington St. is "bursting at the seams," and she described the new building like this:
"When we first started talking about this and saw the built-in shelves and the character and heard the history and the stories that Mark has shared with us about the building, it just seemed such a perfect fit for Literati."
Hodesh described the deal from his side the same way. He told WEMU it was "such a perfect fit to get a retail store to rejuvenate, help rejuvenate this part of town and use the building as is." The phrase "as is" explains most of the decision. Hodesh bought the property in 1975. He sold the business in 1981 but kept the building, came back to open Downtown Home & Garden in 1997, and sold that business to Kelly Vore in 2015 while still owning the property. In five decades he never rebuilt it. This lease keeps that going.
A block that already pours drinks
The other reason a retailer matters here is what has opened nearby. Over the past year this short stretch has added several places to eat and drink, and one of them operates in Downtown Home & Garden's own parking lot.
- Aperitivo, 200 S. Ashley. An indoor-outdoor lounge for cocktails and wine. It soft-opened June 11–13, 2026, in a building that once had plans for an eight-story redevelopment called Tierra on Ashley, which was never built.
- Recess Cafe, 208 S. Ashley. A café a few doors down from the old store.
- Bill's Beer Garden. Runs in Downtown Home & Garden's parking lot in the evenings.
- Evergreen Downtown, 208 W. Liberty. Also in a building Hodesh owns. Tobier's students had displayed work in its windows before they moved over to Ashley.
- Purgatory Exchange, 209 S. Ashley. A two-story resale clothing shop run by siblings Elizabeth and Thomas Padgett, across the street from the old store.
Hodesh's hope that a retail store would help rejuvenate "this part of town" fits that list. A bar at 210 S. Ashley would have been one more drinks stop on the block. A bookstore gives the corner a shop, and Purgatory Exchange across the street is working toward becoming a second one. The Padgetts told MLive they planned to start buying clothes from the public in early November. That buy-only period would run four to six weeks, with a grand opening about a week later, and they hope to start retail sales by the end of 2026. Thomas Padgett said the store would carry "a little bit of everything," from modern to vintage to Y2K.
Two stores that ran on events
The match also has a history behind it. In the Observer essay, Jeanne Hodesh remembers the jam contest her father held at the store every fall. She wrote that he loved running that "convivial chaos." She also wrote that the year before the lease, her family went to Literati's annual literary costume contest dressed as Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Afterward she emailed the Gustafsons to say they were carrying on her father's tradition.
Hodesh has also shown before that he will close a format that stops working for him. Mark's Carts, the food-cart court in the courtyard behind the store at 211 W. Washington, ended after six seasons in October 2017. The Observer reported that he cited the work of managing independent vendors. One tenant with its own events calendar asks less of a landlord than a group of separate vendors does.
Gustafson told WEMU she hopes to continue Downtown Home & Garden's legacy, calling it "a place that built community and brought people together." In the Observer, Hodesh said he was proud to hand the building off, and that "Emma Hertler would be too." Hertler is part of the early family history of the business at the site.
What happens at 210 S. Ashley this holiday season
Here is what is planned so far:
- A holiday pop-up in the new space. According to the Observer, the pop-up will sell a selection of Literati's books along with amaryllis bulbs picked out by Mark Hodesh. Downtown Home & Garden shoppers will recognize the bulbs.
- The current store stays open. MLive reports that Literati expects to keep 124 E. Washington open "into next year at least."
- Build-out, then a move in 2027. After the pop-up, Literati will spend several months fitting out the space before it moves in for good in 2027.
Downtown's big December night is Friday, December 4. Midnight Madness runs from 5 to 11 p.m. Its lineup includes late shopping, a Social District Cocktail Crawl, Galens Tag Days, Voices in Harmony, Santa, and the Pioneer High School choirs. The same evening, Kerrytown KindleFest runs from 5 to 10 p.m. with outdoor artisan vendors, food and drinks, children's activities from 5 to 7, and music from 7 to 10.
If you're interested in the history behind Ann Arbor's downtown buildings, from who has owned them to what makes them fit their tenants, that's something we track closely at Charles by Reinhart. If you own an older home with that kind of history and want to know how buyers will value it, schedule a consultation and we'll go through it with you.
