A new 15,000-square-foot event space has opened near Detroit. Britney Hoskins, owner of event management business The Top Pic Collective, says the new Morenas Event Venue Detroit in Redford rounds out the portfolio of services her company is able to offer clients in southeast Michigan.
The Top Pic Collective manages and offers services including planning, decor, photo booths, and coordinating vendors. Hoskins also operates Morenas Event Venue in Grand Rapids, which she opened in 2022 in a shuttered gym facility. Currently hosting about 70 events a year, it can accommodate up to 250 attendees. Her Sterling Heights-based The Luxe Rental Collective provides rentals including seating, tablecloths, backdrops, glassware, decor, and related items that will also be available in Redford.
The new Morenas Event Venue Detroit in Redford is located in the former Karas House banquet facility, which closed about four years ago. “We used to have a strip-mall venue, which is common if you have a smaller capacity like 125 and under,” Hoskins explains. “Metro Detroit has a ton of those.
“We wanted to bring something different—we wanted [the venue] to be stand-alone, we wanted an abundance of parking, and we wanted large capacity so it would be corporate-friendly with multiple ballrooms and [space for] breakout sessions.”
Morenas in Redford can accommodate events for about 325. Like the Grand Rapids location, it offers clients the opportunity to arrange their own catering, beverages, and the like versus being required to use the venue’s services. She says this policy is especially appealing to organizations like a chamber of commerce that can then direct those dollars to member vendors.
“In most larger-scale venues, you use a caterer on-site,” Hoskins says. “Smaller venues might hold up to 100—those places don’t typically have a kitchen, and caterers bring in food prepared already. We married both concepts—we’re a larger venue, but we operate in support of a lot of small businesses. We have a prep kitchen, [but] caterers also bring in chafing dishes, hot boxes, or food already prepared.”
Hoskins is going to launch a Monday happy hour networking event at Morenas Event Venue Detroit by the end of this year to raise money for Black-owned businesses in the area, and is also hoping to start a junior entrepreneurship incubator at the new space. For the incubator, she plans to invite teens interested in event-related jobs like DJing, photography, or event management to hone their skills and connect with mentors.
“When I was their age, a lot of people told me I was too young to start a business, and it was discouraging,” Hoskins says. “I want to be the person who tells teens, ‘You can do this.’”
Morenas Event Venue Detroit in Redford is located at 23632 Plymouth Road. While it has already been hosting events, the official grand opening will be held Monday, Nov. 25, at 7 p.m.