If you live inside the box formed by West Outer Drive, Wyoming, McNichols, and Livernois, you already know the shape of a good Bagley Saturday. Coffee at Detroit Sip, a walk that ends somewhere on the Avenue, a stop at Bagley Playfield on the way home. That shape is about to change, and not because a single new restaurant opened.
For most of the last decade, the story of daily life here has been told on Livernois. This fall, the more interesting story is on the other side of the neighborhood. The southern edge, along McNichols and the Marygrove campus, is turning into something residents will spend real time on, and the money and construction behind that shift are already scheduled.
The Avenue Isn't the Only Thing Moving
The Livernois you walk today is largely the Livernois that came out of the 2019 to 2020 streetscape project: wider sidewalks and bike lanes between 7 and 8 Mile, festival-friendly curbs, and a slow build of new tenants filling the storefronts vacated in the 2010s.
That work isn't finished. In January 2026, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation awarded the City of Detroit a $4.3 million Michigan Talent Partnership grant to support the Livernois Streetscape Extension, which is meant to push the corridor's design language further and improve connections to the institutions and jobs nearby. For a resident, the practical read is that the sidewalk you cross to get to Kuzzo's is going to keep getting worked on, and the eastern edge of the neighborhood will stay a construction zone in places into next year.
What's Actually New Between Six and Eight Mile
Skip the general "Avenue of Fashion is thriving" summary you've read elsewhere. Here is the specific shape of the food and retail block right now, so you can plan a walk that doesn't waste a Saturday.
- LYV Detroit, 20238 Livernois. American with a Southern lean, with a connected cocktail lounge that runs later than most of the strip.
- Good Times on the Ave, 19416 Livernois. Wednesday through Sunday only, closed Monday and Tuesday, so it's a weekend and midweek-evening play, not a lunch stop.
- Three Thirteen, 19495 Livernois. Clement "Fame" Brown Jr.'s streetwear shop, which carries his own Three Thirteen line along with local brands like Detroit Hustles Harder.
- Detroit Dye House, 18981 Livernois. Tie-dye and studio space that also books classes, useful when you have out-of-town family visiting.
- Detroit Sip, on the McNichols end, still the anchor coffee stop for the south half of the walk.
The one to watch is the rumored return of food journalist Starex Smith, who runs The Hungry Black Man and, according to his own Facebook post, told followers "Somebody Said Hungry Black Man Opening a Restaurant Over Here Spring 2026," with the caption suggesting it would land on the Avenue of Fashion. Smith has been reviewing Black-owned restaurants since 2016 and already runs Smith & Williams in Toledo. Treat it as unconfirmed until a lease shows up, but keep an eye on the vacant storefronts south of 8 Mile if you're the kind of neighbor who likes to be first through the door.
McNichols Was the Back Door. It Isn't Anymore.
For years, McNichols has been the road you took to get somewhere else. That framing is ending, and the reason is Marygrove.
The Marygrove Conservancy, established in 2018, is a nonprofit that manages a 53-acre campus in northwest Detroit, the site of the former Marygrove College, which operated from 1905 until 2019. The campus sits at 8425 W. McNichols, three blocks south of the Bagley line. What used to be a shuttered college is now an active K-12 campus, an early childhood center, and a rotating calendar of community events on the grounds.
The bigger news came in September 2025. The Kresge Foundation announced a $180 million investment in the neighborhoods of Detroit, including the foundation's decision to move its headquarters from Troy to the Marygrove Conservancy Campus in Northwest Detroit. Kresge is not a small tenant. The $4 billion national private philanthropy will bring 130 staff and is planning a 70,000 square foot facility with public meeting spaces for partners and neighbors. The Marygrove headquarters is planned to open in 2028, and pre-design work has been running through 2026.
"The fact that we're able to be here today at Marygrove is possible only because of The Kresge Foundation's vision and the commitment Rip Rapson made seven years ago to this campus and to the people of Detroit," Mayor Mike Duggan said at the announcement. "This is where Kresge belongs, in the heart of the community it is doing so much to uplift and build."
The reason this matters for a Bagley resident, and not just for a philanthropy trade publication, is that Kresge is naming the neighborhoods it plans to spend in. Kresge will invest the funds over the next five years in housing stabilization, home ownership, commercial corridor revitalization, public space enhancements, and financial support to residents and businesses in the Fitzgerald, Bagley, University District, and Martin Park neighborhoods. If you live here, your ZIP code is on that list.
The Money Behind the Fall
Most residents don't need the full budget, but a few line items are worth knowing because you'll see them on the ground this season.
The foundation plans to spend $50 million starting in 2026 to help stabilize nearby neighborhoods, including home repair, property tax relief, renter support, commercial corridor improvements and park upgrades. This program launched in early 2026 and initially prioritizes stewardship and beautification of vacant land, supporting residents to activate side lots, and supports for homeowners through property tax relief and home repair.
Two public-space pieces will show up in your walking route.
First, the greenway. Kresge will invest in public spaces by completing the Ella Fitzgerald Greenway by extending it east to Livernois Avenue and by making enhancements at Ella Fitzgerald Park. The foundation will also provide support to small businesses on the McNichols commercial corridor for interior and façade improvements, and for marketing support. That extension is the piece that connects the two edges of Bagley for a pedestrian in a way they haven't been connected before.
Second, the McNichols storefronts themselves. Façade dollars usually mean signs, paint, windows, and awnings in a compressed timeline, which is what turns a corridor from a drive-through into a walkable one. Watch for scaffolding on McNichols between Livernois and Wyoming through fall and winter.
A Fall Loop That Uses Both Edges
If you want a Saturday route that uses what the neighborhood actually offers this season, without inventing a "day trip" your out-of-town cousin needs, try this order.
- Start with coffee at Detroit Sip near Livernois and McNichols, on the south end.
- Walk north on Livernois. Pause at Three Thirteen at 19495 and Detroit Dye House at 18981. If you're picking up a gift, this is the block.
- Lunch or a late brunch at Kuzzo's Chicken & Waffles, or hold out for dinner at Good Times on the Ave at 19416 if you're going out later.
- Cut west into the neighborhood. Take a residential loop through the block clubs between Wyoming and Livernois. This is the part that looks nothing like the commercial spine, and it's why people move here.
- End at the Marygrove campus at 8425 W. McNichols. Check what's on the Conservancy's public calendar. During the cooler months, its buildings host most of the programming that used to live outdoors.
- If Baker's Keyboard Lounge has a set you care about that night, close there. It's one of the oldest jazz clubs, not just in Detroit but the world, and it counts as a Bagley-edge institution rather than a destination you have to drive to.
That loop uses both commercial edges the neighborhood has, in the order that makes sense given how the sun moves and when the restaurants open. It's also the loop that will change the most between now and next fall, because both edges are being physically rebuilt.
What to Watch Between Now and December
A few concrete things to keep on your radar as the calendar tightens.
The Bagley Community Council still meets monthly at Neighborhood Home Base, 7426 W. McNichols, also known as the Live6 building. That address is worth memorizing this fall, because the Livernois + McNichols Neighborhoods Action Agenda process is being convened by Kresge, Live6 Alliance and the Marygrove Conservancy, with more than 100 neighborhood and civic leaders informing the longer-term vision, and residents are being invited into that process through block clubs, District 2 meetings, and neighborhood association meetings over the coming year. If you have a view on how the $50 million ought to land on your street, this is the room.
On Livernois, expect the retail mix to keep churning. The new $14.2 million mixed-use building planned at 20201 Livernois, just south of 8 Mile, would add 50 apartments plus about 4,000 square feet of restaurant space and another 3,000 square feet of commercial space, with completion targeted for 2027. Between now and then, the vacant storefront count on that end of the Avenue will drop.
The through-line for fall 2026 is that Bagley is no longer a neighborhood bordered by one active commercial street and one sleepy one. Both edges are moving. The Livernois you walk in November will still be the Livernois you know, with a few more open doors than it had in the spring. The McNichols you walk will look different than the McNichols you knew in 2023, and by the time Kresge's building opens in 2028, the south side of the neighborhood will be the side you route out-of-town guests through first.
That's the shift worth knowing about now, while the sidewalks are still going in.
If you own a home in Bagley and want to talk through what the Kresge-era investment cycle, the streetscape work, and the Ella Fitzgerald Greenway extension mean for your block specifically, City Living Detroit is happy to sit down over coffee on Livernois and walk through it. Schedule a consultation.
