Livonia bread staple West Fenkell Bakery permanently closed its doors on Middlebelt Road near Five Mile, after owners struggled to make ends meet in the midst of renegotiating a contract for its building.
The bakery first closed its storefront about seven months ago, and officially announced its departure from the location at 15282 Middlebelt Road in Livonia in a Facebook post on Aug. 20.
The bakery, which started on Fenkell Avenue in Detroit and later moved to Livonia, has been around since 1927. Justina and Kevin Chisholm bought the business in 2020 from Doreen and Ryan Loosle, who owned it for 20 years. Their son, Casey Chisholm, has been running the business for the last two years.
The Loosles own the former bakery property and rented it to the Chisholms for $2,500 a month for five years before the contract was up for renewal in January, according to a 16th District Court lawsuit filed in May by the Loosles, claiming the Chisholms had not paid rent or utilities, as were the tenant’s responsibility under the contract, for several months.
The renewal required rent to go up $250 a month, according to court records. The May lawsuit has been resolved, and a second lawsuit filed by the Loosles in June has also been resolved.
Casey Chisholm said the bakery has strong ties to the location and is hard to move because of equipment like the 5,000-pound Ferris wheel-style ovens built there.
The building itself faced a roofing issue and other renovation needs in the last year, causing the storefront’s initial close, Chisholm said. Who should pay for the repairs has been a cause of conflict.
According to the contract included in the lawsuit, the tenant “shall maintain and repair and keep the entire premises in good condition and repair, including but not limited to the exterior windows and the electrical heating, ventilating, plumbing, and air conditioning systems.”
Though West Fenkell Bakery will no longer bake out of its longtime Livonia location, Casey Chisholm said the business hopes to continue its nearly 100-year history of serving loaves of bread in a different location.
Over the summer, the bakery continued to sell bread at its regular stores and pop-ups, including at the Lucky Squirrel craft fair in Garden City and the Camero Superfest in Commerce Township.
West Fenkell Bakery is currently working out of another location, Chisholm said, selling loaves to businesses including Value Center Marketplace in Livonia, Eastern Market of Canton, Heartland Marketplace in Westland, Larry’s Foodland in Livonia, Westborn Market in Livonia and Vintage Market in Westland.
Starting in October, the bread will be available for order at 5 Mile Liquor, next door to West Fenkell Bakery’s longtime location, according to the Aug. 20 Facebook post.
Chisholm said he has been working up to 18 hours a day to keep the bakery, which is not currently earning a profit, afloat.
“We’re slowed down fully, so the bread will be harder to get,” he said. “That’s where a lot of the pain for us has been because people are complaining about not being able to get things, and I have grocery stores contacting me saying, ‘Hey, where are you?’ ‘Why haven’t you been here?’ ”
Chisholm said they are looking at temporarily raising the cost of a loaf from $3.89 to $5-6, similar to what most breads with no preservatives sell for.
“That price has always stayed the same, so we don’t want to change that,” Chisholm said. “But if we have to, it’s something temporary. People always see a price range or price change and don’t think it’s going to ever go back down.”
Because the bread has no preservatives, it can lose shelf life quicker than competitor breads with preservatives that are the same price.
The Loosles said though business won’t continue at the Middlebelt property, they hope the Chisholms are able to find success elsewhere.
“We were married to this place,” Doreen Loosle said. “We were here all the time and devoted.”
Chisholm said the best way people can support the bakery at this time is buying bread.
“I would never ask for money,” he said. “It’s basically how much money do we want to spend to be able to survive. I am not only the plumber, but the electrician and the oven builder, the bread maker, the distribution guy, the whatever else you can think of.”
Contact Natalie Davies: ndavies@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Metro Detroit bakery closes shop, hopes to continue near-century legacy elsewhere
Reporting by Natalie Davies, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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