Popular Oak Park clothing store gutted by early morning fire

OAK PARK, Mich. (FOX 2) - An early morning store fire broke out at 4 a.m. in Oak Park Thursday. The blaze tore through The Wealthy Store, located in a strip mall on Nine Mile, just west of Pinecrest.

"I’m sunk, you know I don’t know how to process it yet," said Jon Berz. "You know I’m kind of like, I guess I’m in shock."

Berz is the owner of Woodshed Studio which records indie music next to the Wealthy Store, which was the only other mall store that suffered significant damage.

"It looks like we’re going to be closed for a while because the ceiling collapsed, there’s water damage, smoke damage, and all that," said Berz.

The Wealthy Store, which was a clothing shop, had been at that location for years, residents say.

"Yeah I’ve been inside there before, it’s been there since 2016, 2018 I think," said Qordell Hunter.

However, the cause of the fire is under investigation.

"It seems like it’s really weird it caught on fire in the middle of the night, you know what I’m saying?" Hunter said.

Authorities have not yet discovered the cause of the fire despite working late into the day to figure it out.

FOX 2: "It's hard to preserve the creativity with insurance?"

"You're right, that can only cover the material things you know, but there’s all the music that got made here that maybe we don’t have anymore. We don’t know yet."

And in a statement on Facebook by the owner of The Wealthy Store- it says:

" Despite this devastating setback, we are committed to moving forward. For anyone with current orders, please note that we are working hard to process them and get them delivered.  And we are continuing to take new orders on our website, www.thewealthybrand.com but please be aware there will be delays."
Rashad, Owner, The Wealthy Brand