Crossings Plan Includes Retail, Condos

ANN ARBOR, MI-Developer David Kwan wants to bring a village feel to one of the few remaining vacant commercial sites on Plymouth Road at Green Road. Kwan’s plans include construction of five buildingstotaling about 70,000 sf on a seven-acre site on the northwest corner of Plymouth and Green, just east of the Plymouth Park office complex.

The proposed project, dubbed Ann Arbor Crossings, will be submitted to the city planning department by early September, Kwan says. He hopes to start site work by early 2005.

The proposal includes plans for a bank next to Plymouth Road, a restaurant just north of the bank and three buildings with ground-floor retail and a combined 23 condos on upper levels.

The property had been listed for $2.5 million by Levi F. Smith Real Estate of Southfield. Kwan did not disclose the purchase price.

Damian Farrell of Hobbs + Black in Ann Arbor designed the project. Atwell-Hicks Inc. and Midwestern Consulting also worked on it. JS Vig Construction Co., based in Taylor, will be the general contractor.

Retail leasing will be handled by Lakritz-Weber & Co. of Southfield. The company specializes in representing regional and national retailers. Among their clients new to the local marketplace: Noodles & Co. and Beauty First, both with stores in Arborland, and Zoup!, which opened in 2003 in Traver Village.

The site already has a detention area at the corner of Plymouth and Green. That will be expanded to improve storage capacity and water flow, while creating a view for the residences that border it.

The property, which had been split from nearby acreage that houses Ave Maria University, is zoned for research use. However, the city’s Northeast Area Plan says it’s appropriate for a pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use center that includes office, residential and restaurant uses.

The condos will be “soft lofts,” ranging from 1,100 sf to 1,600 sf with undetermined prices.