Something is brewing for Henry the Hatter.

Since Paul Wasserman announced last week that he would close the shop on Broadway Street, where the hat retailer has been serving customers for the past 65 years, the 70-year-old businessman said he has received "an unbelievable outpouring of support."

Wasserman said several real estate brokers have reached out to offer space to lease for the 124-year-old retailer, which claims to be the oldest hat retailer in the country. Some prospective locations he is looking into include Corktown and a "very promising" location in Eastern Market.

Before news broke on Friday, Wasserman said he had found few leads since he began his new location search in April. He said he received a letter from his landlord, the Detroit-based Sterling Group, that his lease at 1307 Broadway would be terminated this August after Wasserman requested to discuss extending his lease.

"I haven't been able to breathe the last few days, which is not necessarily a bad thing right now. I've had contacts about spaces far east and the Avenue of Fashion," Wasserman said. "But my goal is to be as close physically to this location as possible and something that is a good fit for both the landlord and myself."

Southfield-based Farbman Group is one firm that has offered space to Henry the Hatter in its New Center One building in Midtown. President Andy Gutman said he called Wasserman immediately after hearing the Broadway Street store was closing.

Some have said the institution's closing downtown is an example of a tale of two cities where existing businesses that rent space are seeing prices rise with Detroit's resurgence downtown.

Gutman said one of the company's best brokers in the city of Detroit is working to find a number of options for Henry the Hatter. Farbman represents nearly 500 properties across metro Detroit, he said.

"It's a good problem that we have right now. There's so much demand for retail in the city, but that does mean rising rent," Gutman said. "But there are still a lot of areas in Detroit to backfill. ... Hopefully the inflow of people shows that there is more business that ... can afford the higher rents. It's what comes with the population resurgence and business resurgence."

Wasserman told Crain's he is looking for something in the neighborhood of $20 a square foot, although he knows it would be tough to land a prime downtown location on Woodward Avenue at that rate. He said most downtown rents he came across before news broke about the store's closure were around $35 per square foot. The downtown store is a 1,200-square-foot storefront.

Wasserman said Henry the Hatter will shut down Aug. 5 and will have until the end of the month to move 65 years worth of stuff, many things that he did not know he still had.

"I'm hopeful by the time I'm shuttered here, I'll know where I'm going and when I'm going there. I think it's physically impossible to close here Aug 5 and reopen Sept. 1," he said. "There's going to have to be some downtime."

If, and when, Wasserman moves the store into a new Detroit location, he is confident business will do just fine.

"I heard over and over again from my customer base, 'Wherever you are moving, we are coming to you,' " he said. "It really validates what we've done for the last 65 years."