One side of the building is a fire-ravaged home; the other side is a dilapidated-but-intact party store. Still, the property at the intersection of Brush and Woodland streets sparked Eleni Zaharopoulos' imagination.

Soon, it will be the inaugural project for Practice Space, a new business incubator opening in north Corktown.

Zaharopoulos, a New York native, found the building two years ago while scouting properties listed in the Wayne County tax auction. She'd moved to Detroit for a three-month project as a performance artist, and was intrigued with the space she and her housemate were living in. He'd picked up his place at the tax auction and converted it into a creative living/working/performing space; Zaharopoulos thought she could do the same.

"All I really knew about Detroit at that point was the start of Beverly Hills Cop," she said. "But I liked what my housemate was doing, and I decided I wanted to stay. I was like, 'I'll move in and throw Greek dinners out of my home if I have to.'"

She scouted 30 properties in Detroit's 48202 ZIP code. But when Zaharopoulos rode her bike past 11720 Brush St., she knew she'd found the place. She bid $900 and walked away with the building. She didn't know what she wanted to do with it, yet, but she felt the potential.

Two years and $6,000 in improvements later, she's still finding the building's future and construction is ongoing. There have been numerous ideas, iterations and partners. There have been plans for a grocer, a commercial kitchen, a food library, a store, a cafȁ;, all of these things together and none of them at all. One trip to an architect told her rehabbing the space would cost upwards of $200,000.

But Zaharopoulos thinks she's finally landed a good group of collaborators and a strong direction. She is working with Jenile Brooks, founder of Harvest Express, an online grocer that delivers throughout Detroit, to locate Brooks' business in the former party store. A third partner could use the second floor of the house as his live/work space, and they see the first floor as a food library and cafȁ;. Outdoors they'd like to build a public art gallery using recycled Plexiglas from inside the party store.

But even those plans could still change depending on whom the team meets and the ideas that are generated.