Detroit Experience Factory will close its city welcome center Saturday after a whirlwind fundraising effort didn't produce the $200,000 needed to keep the storefront open.

The nonprofit Detroit Experience Factory, also known as DXF, will continue its other tours and programming from TechTown in Detroit's New Center area starting next week, founder and Executive Director Jeanette Pierce said Wednesday.

DXF runs the city's only welcome center, located at 123 Monroe St. just outside Campus Martius downtown. It needed funding for 2018 by the end of March.

"I don't think it's the last welcome center we're ever gonna have downtown," said Pierce, a 37-year-old Detroit native. "We decided as we talked with partners and possible funders that we can close the physical welcome center, but continue the conversation about what does Detroit need in a welcome center, what does that look like, who should be at the table."

Those actors with a stake could include the city of Detroit, the Downtown Detroit Partnership, the Detroit Regional Chamber, the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau and some from the private sector, but the strategizing is just starting, she said.

Meanwhile, from its new, less costly office in TechTown, DXF will continue offering its paid tours through downtown Detroit and the city's neighborhoods; longer, more high-level tours; custom programming through its DXF Institute; and informational services. It operates those tours separately from its welcome center operations.

The welcome center will still pop up temporarily around the city and neighborhoods, Pierce said.

It has assisted about 21,000 locals and visitors per year with free and low-cost tours, resources and maps since it originally opened in 2008 in the downtown Woodward Avenue space that now is home to Nike.