TIL that small business permits in Detroit can take 6 weeks longer than they tell you

I was helping a friend open a coffee shop on Michigan Avenue last month and the city told us 4 weeks for a permit. It ended up taking 10 weeks and we lost the lease because the landlord got tired of waiting. Has anyone else run into this kind of delay with the city permitting process?

2 comments

2 Comments

ryan95217h ago

Man I feel your pain so hard. My wife and I tried to open a little vintage shop in Hamtramck and the city told us the permit would be like 3 weeks max. 8 weeks later we were still waiting while paying rent on an empty storefront. The lady at the counter just shrugged and said "busy season" which apparently lasts all year. I swear Detroit permitting exists just to test how badly you really want to run a business. We ended up pulling out before we went totally broke. Now my wife makes fun of me every time I suggest we try again somewhere else.

lisa_hill2314h agoMost Upvoted

read a news article last month about how Hamtramck's permit office is basically a black hole for paperwork lol. they said the average wait time for a simple retail permit was closer to 11 weeks but the city doesn't wanna admit it. totally sucks that you had to eat all that rent money just to get ghosted by a government desk. my buddy tried to open a food truck in Ferndale and had the same runaround, said the lady literally told him "come back next week" for 6 weeks straight. feels like they make the process painful on purpose to see who gives up first.