A former casting producer for NBC's The Voice has traded Hollywood soundstages for a storefront on Fisher Freeway, opening a coffee shop that turns into a hi-fi listening bar once the sun goes down. Rent Free Haus, co-owned by Detroit native Lamont Leak and Everett Moore, opened last month in Eastern Market at 1347 E. Fisher Freeway, and its full coffee shop side is set to launch on October 20.
Leak moved to Los Angeles in 2014 and spent almost a decade there before returning to Detroit in 2023, according to BridgeDetroit. During his time on the coast, he worked as a casting producer for The Voice for four seasons, cast singers for the show, and produced RuPaul's Drag Race, the Netflix music shows Building the Band and Hitmakers, and the 2016 MTV series Wonderland, which was co-hosted by fellow Detroit native Lizzo. A Cass Technical High School graduate who attended Tennessee State University, Leak even brought his Hollywood work home in 2023, holding auditions for The Voice at the Motown Museum in Detroit.
That blend of entertainment pedigree and hometown roots now defines Rent Free Haus. “This is a place for those who love culture, Black music, who care about good coffee and community,” Leak said, per the same account. He envisions the venue growing into a culture and music staple with room for future brand expansion, telling the outlet simply, “The opportunity is here.”
From an East Village Grant to a Fisher Freeway Storefront
Rent Free Haus's path to Eastern Market started somewhere else entirely. In January 2024, the city's Motor City Match program awarded the venture a $50,000 Round 25 grant to open a specialty coffee shop and social club at 10103 Kercheval in Detroit's East Village, according to the City of Detroit. When those initial real estate plans fell through, Leak pivoted to the Fisher Freeway space instead. The business later received additional funding from the Detroit Development Fund, Invest Detroit, and Prosperus Detroit, though Leak declined to disclose the amount of those additional grants.
The Round 25 cohort that included Rent Free Haus skewed heavily toward local and minority entrepreneurs: 81% of the 23 awarded businesses were minority-owned, 71% were women-owned, and 68% were owned by Detroit residents, the city noted. Through 30 rounds of funding by late 2026, Motor City Match has awarded $20.5 million in cash grants to 2,236 small businesses, helping launch more than 200 permanent brick-and-mortar locations citywide, according to Motor City Match.
The Fisher Freeway building itself carries its own local significance. Century Partners, the Black-led real estate development firm co-founded by David Alade, owns the building and operates its corporate headquarters there, according to Century Partners. The firm focuses on neighborhood-level equity real estate investments across Detroit, putting a Black-led developer and a Black-owned hospitality venture under the same roof in Eastern Market.
A Team Built for Late Nights and Vinyl Grooves
Rent Free Haus's buildout and programming rest on a small team of specialists. General contractor Michael Reese, bar consultant Devin Arnold, sound designer Charles Murdoch, and events manager Takeisha Pack round out the group behind the venue, per BridgeDetroit's reporting. Pack, who manages private-event bookings, spent about 10 years in Detroit's hospitality industry and previously worked as general manager for Chartreuse.
“Rent Free Haus will provide a different experience every time and serve as a third space,” Pack said. The venue's weekly lineup backs that up: vinyl nights on Wednesdays, Haus Calls live music on Thursdays, Rotation Fridays featuring local DJs, and Plastic Sofa Sundays spotlighting artists. During its inaugural weekend, the space featured Detroit artists DJ Jamea and DJ Sincerely, along with a listening event for Sky Jetta.
The physical space itself leans into the concept, with a bar area built around a marble countertop and liquor shelves, a mini DJ station, and open room for mingling. Vinyl records and albums from Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross, and Sheefy McFly line the shelves, giving the space its sonic identity even before the turntables spin.
Joining a Shifting Local Nightlife Scene
Rent Free Haus's fall opening lands amid real turnover in Detroit's listening bar and DJ culture. The east-side music venue Spot Lite and Corktown's UFO Bar both closed in June 2026, while Southwest Detroit's hi-fi listening bar Tigris launched that same month, according to The Michigan Chronicle. Spot Lite and UFO Bar had been influential centers for local DJ culture, and their closures shifted nightlife activity toward newer venues in the sound-focused space.
The concept also fits into a broader national trend. Rent Free Haus's dual coffee-by-day, hi-fi listening bar-by-night format echoes Japanese kissa-inspired venues opening in mid-sized U.S. markets this year, including Salt Lake City's Mono Tape Club, Cleveland's Harmony Hi-Fi, and Hoboken's Below SRO. The jazz kissa model has been adapted across several American cities as a quieter alternative to traditional nightclubs.
Rent Free Haus also arrives as Detroit pushes a broader wave of small-business support. Between July and October 2026, the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation and the City of Detroit launched more than $1 million in combined small-business grants across five specialized programs, including Motor City Match and the Detroit Legacy Business Project, under Mayor Mary Sheffield's administration, per the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation. Michigan recorded 152,060 new business applications in 2025, a 13% increase over 2024, even as a February 2026 survey from the Small Business Association of Michigan found that 87% of local small-business owners faced higher operating costs than in previous years, the same agency reported.
The Eastern Market Partnership has already folded the new venue into its own community programming, selecting Rent Free Haus as a host site for its Happy Hour in the Market series in August and September 2026, an event designed to connect local food entrepreneurs, farmers, and community members. With its coffee shop side still set to open October 20, Rent Free Haus is positioning itself as both a daytime gathering spot and a nighttime fixture in a neighborhood already reshaping itself around sound, culture, and community.
