DETROIT, MI- Tom Sullivan, founder of  Lumber Liquidators and Cabinets To-Go, has taken ownership of 8 Mile Trade Center in Detroit.  The 100,000 square foot indoor Trade Center marketplace will feature over 200 vendors, including a franchise outlet of Sullivan's Cabinets To-Go. The 8 Mile Trade Center is designed to give hundreds of Detroit area small businesses the opportunity to grow their enterprises. Shoppers can find deals on a variety of items including jewelry, electronics, clothing, accessories and furniture.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for local small business. I think it's the shot in the arm that the city needs in terms of promoting its small business community," says Arthur Rosen, Bel-Air new property manager. "Companies that are used to seeing 50-100 customers a month can be exposed to 10,000 in a single weekend."

The Trade Center is the brain child its property manager Rosen, who says it has received support and encouragement  from its new owner, Sullivan. Rosen says Sullivan built his own businesses, Lumber Liquidators and Cabinets To-Go, from similar beginnings. "Tom has really invested in this city, he believes in Detroit, and knows that businesses can thrive in this marketplace. I'm glad he believed in this idea," says Rosen.

A Cabinets To-Go franchise, which already operates out of the West Corner of the Bel-Air Centre, is one of the franchise's top grossing locations, Rosen says.

Lumber Liquidators reported third quarter net sales increased 4.7% to $147.2 million with net income of $4.3 million. Publicly traded Lumber Liquidators (NYSE: LL) began in 1993 when Tom Sullivan, a building contractor, began purchasing excess wood that other companies didn't need and reselling it from the back of a trucking firms yard in Stoughton, MA. Eventually the company found a niche market in hardwood flooring, opening its first store that year in West Roxbury, MA.

Over the past 10 years Lumber Liquidators has established 200 stores in 46 states and has over 1,000 employees.To be closer to  ports it moved headquarters from Boston to an 80,000 square-foot warehouse in Colonial Heights, VA in 1999; then to its current 306,000 square-foot distribution center in Toano, VA, its where Lumber Liquidators is now headquartered.