A new development in Novi is turning a stretch of suburbia into a hub for Asian-inspired retail.
Why it matters: Sakura Novi reflects a shift in suburban retail that blends housing, dining and shopping to serve a growing Asian population and draw visitors from across the region.
- The project is testing whether a concept more common on the coasts can work in Metro Detroit.
š Axios Detroit took a field trip to Sakura Novi this month.
- Before going, we’d seen online chatter questioning if the development is a true walkable destination or just a glorified strip mall ā and whether it’s really built for Asian American Metro Detroiters.
Zoom in: The mix of uses stood out during our visit.
š° We started at Paris Baguette, a South Korean bakery-cafe chain.
- QR codes inside the shop advertised Sakura’s residences ā a telling sign of the development’s interconnectedness.
- We split a meal-in-one pastry: hash brown bread with ham, mozzarella and a drizzle of ketchup.
š§ø From there, we checked out Klawsome!, a claw machine arcade with cute plushy prizes.
- Joe nabbed a toy on his first-ever try, while Annalise devastatingly missed time after time in her mission for a stuffed capybara.
š BookOff was next, a Japanese resale chain that opened earlier this year with a nostalgic mix of secondhand video games, anime figurines, graphic novels, CDs, DVDs, books and records…