Help Transform Highland Park with Sepia Coffee

Sepia Coffee Project (SCP) is more than just a specialty coffee roaster and cafe. We are a local-meets-global community space anchored in the rich history of Detroit’s historically black neighborhoods and communities. Coffee for the people, by the people.

The Sepia story is intertwined with the story of Detroit. While the city of Detroit is experiencing a renaissance, with massive urban development underway in many neighborhoods, CEO and Head roaster Martell Mason’s hometown of Highland Park had not experienced these same developments. Upon returning home to Detroit after years of living abroad working in international coffee trading, he knew he needed to bring a transformative coffee space to his beloved Highland Park neighborhood.

Why Highland Park?

Despite the purchasing power of Highland Park residents, there is a dearth of cafes, restaurants and grocery stores in this neighborhood. Sepia would fill an ever-present gap in services in this area. With nearly 60% of its population(est. 9,000) aged between 19-59, with a median household income around $30,000, Census data showed Highland Parkers spent $24 million on food and beverage in 2020. This does not include an influx of new residents since 2020 that now call Highland Park home. Market research has shown that it is not money Highland Park residents lack but rather access to quality goods and services.

Highland Park deserves a cafe and community space that is worthy of its history and significance as a prominent historically black Detroit neighborhood.

Why a Cafe?

Cafes are more than just lattes and cappuccinos. They are gathering spaces, anchoring the surrounding community in a physical place, offering its residents respite, relaxation and connection. This is what cafes do best, and this is what Sepia Coffee Project will bring to Highland Park, with your help.

Currently, Sepia operates a cafe and roasting operations in our East Grand Boulevard location. In order to scale up our roasting production, which is an important source of revenue, we need to upgrade our equipment, and we need more space to accommodate expanded operations.

The building we purchased at 261 Pilgrim St. in Highland Park will provide the much-need space that allows us to scale up our roasting production while also maintaining a community cafe space. The first of three phases of development focuses on roastery operations.

Our Ask

Phase One of our development includes:

Rehabbing our property in Highland Park for roastery operations. This includes weatherizing the 1,300 sq ft structure and completing all mechanical/structural upgrades by the end of 2025. Our goal is to move all roasting operations to this facility by the end of Q1 2026.

Upgrading our roasting equipment from Stronghold Technology's S7x model to the S9x model will allow us to produce 8 times the volume of roasted coffee in a fraction of the time. Currently, our capacity using the S7x is 1.5 lb of roasted coffee per batch whereas the S9x will allow us to roast up to 12 lb per batch with an average roasting time of 8mins 30secs. Our machine is a fully-automated, electric hybrid roaster using patented technology to apply convective, radiant and conductive heat to roast. Once programmed, we can replicate profiles with the tap of a button reducing overall labor costs and increasing profit margins. The result is a consistent, high-quality product.

Adding the Sovda Precision Fill Mini in our new roasting facility will allow for a quick and consistent packaging system. The Sovda PFM has a maximum packing speed of 154 lb(70kg) per hour allowing us to process a week's worth of roasted coffee in less than 8 hours. This includes bag sizes from 340g(12oz) to 2.2kg(5lb). With a small footprint, the Sovda PFM can fit on any commercial countertop space making packing much more effective.

Acquiring a Compact Cargo Van will allow us to deliver roasted coffee, equipment and oat milk more effectively to our partners across SE Michigan. We offer free shipping/deliveries to our wholesale accounts. So having a cargo van will improve our efficiency to get bulk orders to wholesale customers while reducing operational costs(third party courier fees).

With your contribution, we get one step closer to making this happen!

Thank you,

Martell Mason

CEO - Sepia Coffee