BUSINESS MATTERS Outdoors shop opens Lakes Area Bait Shop opened in April at 2600 Benstein Road, south of Glengary in Wolverine Lake. “We are a family business, with more to offer than just live bait,” owner Patti Rentner said. Lakes Area Bait Shop offers fishing, hunting, archery and camping supplies. “We have minnows, crickets, leeches and night crawlers, the most popular being the green night crawlers. We also offer rod repair and reel restringing. We can cut your arrows, refletch them, and also fine tune your bow,” she said. The Rentner family, who has lived in the lakes area since 1980, includes Lee, Patti and their three sons, Wayne, Kevin and Jesse. “All of us take part in the operations of the business. Our family loves the outdoors and all it has to offer. Fishing is at the top of the list,” she said. “We want to provide the community with a clean, friendly store to come get their live bait and tell their fishing stories.” The store is open Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. and on Sunday from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. There is a “big, green worm sky dancer” in front of the Lakes Area Bait Shop on the weekends.
Child care center closed Teddy Bear Junction Inc. at 2405 Benstein Road in Commerce Township closed in June. “We were open for 25 years and we’re closing due to the increase of regulations,” executive director Cindy Smith said. Smith said that she and the owner, Jim Schroader, do not have plans to re-open the child care center, but the building will be for lease. Teddy Bear Junction held a closing sale the week of June 10 and on June 20. “We’re selling all of the equipment from the child care center, which includes tables, chairs, infant and toddler items, toys, crafts and educational items.” Smith said if all of the items did not sell, they were looking to donate them to a non-profit organization.
Bar & Grill in Commerce Blu Nectar is opening this July at 1050 Benstein Road in Suites 4, 5, and 6 in Commerce Township. Owner Omar Ouro, a Southfield resident, has been an employee and the manager of Buscemi’s on Bernstein in Commerce Township since 2008, and decided to open Blu Nectar in Commerce Township. “I’ve worked here for a long time,” he said. “I am opening the restaurant in Commerce to bring business to the city. Why go anywhere else?” The restaurant will be open from westendmonthly.com
8 a.m. until 12 a.m., offering bar food that is made fresh. “What we’re doing is just basically a sports bar and grill. We’re going to have TVs in there and bar food and stuff like that,” Ouro said. The neighborhood bar and grill will seat approximately 80 people and Ouro said he hopes to bring a new kind of dining to the area that has many coney islands and Italian restaurants.
QUALITY SERVICE AND SUPPLIES AT THE MOST REASONABLE PRICES! Great Northern Michigan
HARDWOOD MULCH
Water fitness facilities That’s WasSUP Stand Up Paddleboarding opened at 139 East Walled Lake Drive in Walled Lake and at 3955 Ormond Road in White Lake this past year. “We’re full service. Sales and service,” founder Brandon Gugala said. The company offers boards, accessories and paddles, in addition to paddleboard service and training. “Everybody comes out for the first time and they do a lesson. From there, some people either come back out and do rentals or do sunset yoga or cross training on the boards on the beach. It’s kind of an all-inclusive beach workout.” Gugala opened the company on Walled Lake and White Lake because he lives in the area. His home and fitness studio is located right across the street from the Walled Lake Drive location. Nine people, including six instructors, work for the company and are either a personal trainer or yoga instructor. “We service every lake in Oakland County so we will come out, do a custom experience on the lake of your choice as long as it has public access.” They can also come to private lakes if you live on the lake. “We do birthday parties and large group events. For kids, we do different obstacle type things, relay races and scavenger hunts.” For large parties and groups, the company can have up to 30 boards on a lake at one time. “We come everywhere and we’re mobile because I set these up (two fully enclosed trailers). Last year the first few months were slow, being that not too many people had heard of stand up paddleboarding. We taught 1,200 lessons last year. This year we’re way ahead of where we were last year, even though the weather hasn’t been that great. Now it’s really crazy. The phones are off the hook and we’re all super excited.” That’s WasSUP is open Monday through Friday all day by appointment only, and Saturday and Sunday all day.
2550
$
PER YARD
CEDAR MULCH
30
$
Red / Black / Brown
COLOR ENHANCED MULCH
100%
29
$
50 PER YARD
50
PER YARD
Also Available: Top Soil & Play Sand DELIVERY AND INSTALLATION AVAILABLE
248-366-7980 or 1-866-MULCH2U
Business Matters for the west Oakland area are reported by Hayley Beitman. Send items for consideration to HayleyBeitman@downtownpublications.com. Items should be received three weeks prior to publication.
WESTEND
www.248landscape.com
KEEP IT Westend. The only publication of its kind in the west Oakland lakes area. Quality editorial environment produced by professionals with years of experience covering the communities of Commerce, Walled Lake, Wolverine Lake. Reaching over 24,000 homes by direct mail. Join with the local leaders (over 60 ad supporters to date) in our August issue. Ad deadline Friday, July 26. Contact Jacqueline Galvin (O) 248.792.6464 or (C) 248.818.3018 JacquelineGalvin@downtownpublications.com
LOCAL 61