Detroit's Stock Exchange to reopen for business

With a plethora of space and opportunity, the Motor City is booming again. In the case of one young entrepreneur, he's now leasing a bit of Detroit's history. 

A hidden gem in the Motor City, and Philip Lauri could not believe it was available for lease. It's not exactly easy to find: up a vertigo-inducing staircase and after an elevator ride, there it sits - forgotten and available -  the former home of the Detroit Stock Exchange. 

Operating out of this room in the Penobsoct Annex, 200 feet above the street, this hidden gem for Laurie was all his.

"A lot of people don't realize that there was, in fact, a stock exchange in Detroit. It had it's advantages over the stock Exchange in New York for a variety of reasons and it was a thing at one point," Laurie said.

Philip was looking for a new space to house Detroit Lives, his multimedia studio. 

"We're a film production studio. (We've) been in the city for five years and we'll be moving into this space probably in the fall," Laurie said.

Marcus Mullins is from a related firm called Space Camp Design that will also move into this soon to be renovated office.

"(The view) is incredible. We've got the riverfront, we've got Joe Louis Arena, Cobo, everything. You can really see the life of the city coming out here," Mullins said.

Between the tenants and the landlord, $150,000 will be spent giving the old stock exchange a makeover, while preserving cool features like their very own vault door.

"Obviously when this space was the stock exchange, the plan wasn't to have a video production studio. This is our way of nodding to the past and part of a lot of the activity that's going on in the city today," Laurie said.

With skyscraping views on three sides of the building, it's easy to see why young creatives would be drawn here, and why they would spend their own money fixing it up.

The Detroit Stock Exchange may have closed almost 40 years ago, but Laurie is confident about the city's future.