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Solved: The Great Starbucks Debate. CMU Confirms Ventes Coming To Downtown Campus.

August 15, 2013, 4:36 PM

Earlier this week, Curbed Detroit reported speculation that the one and only Starbucks is returning to the central business district after skipping out of its Buhl Building site many moons ago. (Yes, there is a Starbucks inside the Renaissance Center, but the Renaissance Center is a district unto itself.)

But word of the speculation reached Seattle, and Starbucks emailed Curbed this non-denial denial: 

"After receiving a few more reader emails claiming to have heard the same Starbucks chatter, Starbucks emailed us a statement: "At this time, we remain focused on serving the downtown Detroit communities at our existing stores and have no store-opening plans to announce."

Case closed, right?

No.

John Irwin* of the Central Michigan Life student newspaper reports Starbucks will, indeed, be serving grandes and ventes at CMU's downtown Detroit campus, according to Ray Christie, CMU's interim vice president of Global Campus.

"The university will rent out most of the space, with a Starbucks coffee shop and a sandwich shop renting out the rest of it," Christie told Irwin.

Irwin's story reports CMU signed a lease  last week for a 4,000-square foot space on the first floor of the One Kennedy Square building on Woodward and Michigan avenues across the street from Campus Martius Park.

That's the green building on the southwest corner of Woodward and Michigan.

At that location, Starbucks will compete with the Roasting Plant coffee shop across the park, not to mention Tim Horton's, which has a busy outposts inside the Compuware Building. 

The sandwich shop in the CMU space? Potbelly.

But that's a rumor.

*Irwin served as Deadline Detroit's intern this summer.

 


Read more:  Central Michigan Life


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