"Big Box" Proposed by Lowes
Business to Business Monthly Magazine
Date -- December, 2001 - By Bill Milliken, CCIM
Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce
Big boxes don't necessarily mean the advent of the holidays. Lowes, the Wilkesboro, North Carolina-based home improvement retailer, is proposing to build a 165,000 square foot," big box" home center on Jackson Road in Scio Township next year. The name comes from the shear size of the building and the enormous, interior clear height that the buildings offer for storage of palletized goods.The site is a 42-acre land parcel just west of Zeeb Road and I-94, across from the Meijer store that opened earlier this year. Lowes opened a store on Carpenter Road in 1999, but the west side store may be a new prototype store for the company. It will include a 35,000 square foot garden center, and enclosed outside storage areas.
Township Approvals PendingAccording to Grubb & Ellis retail broker Max Goldman, discussions about the development first began with Scio Township officials in August, and then in a public hearing in October. The Township planning department has it on its agenda for discussion again this month. Lowes' 2000 sales topped $18 billion. It is the 30th largest retailer in the world, with 730 stores in the U.S., twenty-three of which are in Michigan. On average, the company opens two new stores a week.
Store To Open in 2003Loews reportedly hopes for site plan approval from Scio Township by late next spring. With an approximate one year construction program, it could open for business in mid-2003. Atwell Hicks is doing the preliminary planning and engineering. No architect or contractors for the job have been announced.
University Park Adds TenantsDeveloper Jerry Spears announced that Ann Arbor Annuity Exchange moved into a 6,000 square foot office suite at University Park this month, a 35,000 square foot office park he bought last year at the north end of Main Street in Ann Arbor. A total of 22,000 square feet of the refurbished office park, which is located on Huron View Boulevard, is currently rented. Another 15,000 square foot building on the west end is due to be completed this month, 12,000 square feet of which is already committed to tenants. Spears says construction, site work and landscaping will be completed by next spring. University Park was originally built in the sixties.
Milliken Realty MovesThere is another new face on the N. Main St. corridor. Milliken Realty acquired an office building at 100 Huron View Boulevard last month, located at the corner of N. Main and Huron View. Originally built in 1875, it was the farmhouse for a 200-acre farm that included land on which nearby highway M-14 was built. In addition to Milliken Realty, Minsky the Tailor and M&S Industrial Sales are tenants in the 1,700 square foot, two-story building.
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Bill Milliken, CCIM
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