11/25/2025
What a beautiful story! We are excited to see all of the chapters unfold. Thank you for choosing Brooklyn and bringing that building back to life!
“I grew up about 20 minutes from here in Addison. My dad is a farmer and lawyer—we're the seventh generation on the farm, since 1864, I believe. My husband and I have lived all over, and we spent the last five years in the Netherlands until his job was moved to Chicago. We started looking for a house there, and while I was on my lunch break browsing a beautiful ‘old homes’ website, I found a GORGEOUS Victorian house.
I looked to see where it was—Brooklyn, Michigan!
It was so close to where I grew up—and the housing here is much, much cheaper than it is in Chicago—so I sent my parents over to go look at the house for us.
We bought the house without seeing it for ourselves, so later I flew over from Europe to see it in person. I loved it…and I fell in love with Brooklyn. I actually sat in Callaghan’s Coffee Cafe with The Brooklyn Exponent and read the whole thing, cover to cover. We were nervous, of course, about jumping with both feet into a house we hadn’t seen and into this new phase of life, but after reading that newspaper, it made me want to get even more involved in the community after we moved.
When I walked out of the coffee shop, I saw this big, old, beautiful but empty and hurting building, and thought, ‘Oh, how awesome would it be if someone did something with that?’
Then I thought…maybe that ‘someone’ could be us? It’s just a tiny little corner of the world, but doing something with the building could make it a better part of the world.
I remember my first time inside, especially when we got up here to the ballroom floor. There was debris and bird p**p and all the plaster was crumbling—but I got goosebumps. I fell in love with the building and what it could be.
I walked out and said, ‘I want to buy it.’ But I didn’t know anything about being a developer—I worked in tech, in operations. My bread and butter has been in call centers and digital advertising and those types of things. I'm a Christian, and I do think there was a God nudge here. I really felt that. At the time, I was not fulfilled in my work, and this was this opportunity that I saw where some of my skills could be used and that we could actually help.
This building and what it could mean for the community was important enough to learn something new, so for the past year, I’ve been learning how to be a developer. I’ve benefited so much from talking to people—brilliant people who have been so incredibly generous with their time. I’ve asked a lot of questions, and people have been willing to meet with me and answer them all, talk to me, help and give advice. I told my husband that in the past, I’ve had glitzy jobs with big titles, but I've never had more fun working.
Originally, it was a hotel called the Beehive Hotel. It burned down, and then was rebuilt, becoming a hardware store, a tin shop, a barber shop, and a few different things. But in the 1950s, a diner opened here called The Spot, and that’s what a lot of local people know it as—The Spot. Then, when that went out of business, a series of different retail establishments moved in and out. The last 30 years have brought the deterioration of the building—these upper floors have been abandoned since the late 1920s.
That means that now it’s hurting and leaking and there is a lot of work ahead. That being said, the original builders put so much beautiful workmanship and love into it. Every contractor I bring through here just stands in awe in the basement, looking at all the locally sawn timber. All the wood’s in great shape. The brick—it's a triple-layer brick. The people that originally built this put so much love into it, and I’m so excited to honor that and bring it back and put love and investment into it.
When the project is complete, there will be six apartments on the upper two floors—three apartments on each level. On the ground floor will be commercial space. We’re reaching out to entrepreneurs and folks that want to bring a small, locally-owned business to Brooklyn. We really want a business that contributes to the fabric of the square—the culture—and really engages the community. My hope is that it really becomes a contributing, active part of Brooklyn.
I have to give hats off to MEDC for this. This project wouldn’t be possible without them. We are the recipients of a RAP grant—Revitalization and Placemaking Grant—and that will fund 50% of our construction costs. Without that, the project just isn’t financially feasible, so I’m very grateful for their help.
I grew up going for Sunday dinners to the house where my grandfather was born. I learned early on that you put down roots and invest back into the community. And in that investment, this building has been a blessing to me because it's been a vehicle to meet so many people in the community and become invested and rooted more quickly than without it.
This work is not without its rainy days, of course. It’s also terrifying—putting our life savings and pouring all of our energy into a tiny building. But I’m excited, and this building deserves to be an important part of this community again.
I think what this project just underlines for me is: everyone can help make their community better.
This is obviously a big project, but even little things—whether it's just volunteering for a committee or picking up some trash—we all have a part to play.
I fell in love with the community of this place and felt like I was being embraced by the community very quickly and the feeling of being part of something bigger. I think, for me, the love for the community came first, and then the building became a vehicle to show that love. I wanted to be a part of something. I lived in a foreign place for five years, and I never fully felt like I fit in. There are beautiful things about the experience—it stretches you, it grows you. We loved the Netherlands.
But Brooklyn felt like coming home."
—Bea Nester, Atwood Development
