Starbucks

Persistence really paid of in this development.  In 2000, I sold a .75 acre parcel of land at the main entrance to HCCP to Michigan National Bank around which we proceeded to design the first phases of the HCOC I-V buildings.  The bank was acquired by Standard Federal Bank, which already had two branches nearby.  They backed out of the purchase based on a technicality:  Our parcel's description was off by 4 feet on the western side and they did not want to go to ZBA for a variance for the drive-through overhang.  (Ah, the stories we could tell.  The parcel's property line was defined as beginning 90' from the center line of the high power lines built by Detroit Edison (now owned by ITC).  Through this process, we discovered that the towers were built in the wrong location and our land was incorrectly described for almost one mile. Needles to say, we made a claim under our title insurance policy.)

We were left with a ¾ acre piece of land that was now too small for a modern bank branch or credit union. Alternatives?  Retail was not permitted under the Office Service Technology Ordinance. OST did allow a restaurant use, but only if connected to an office building of 50,000 s.f. or greater, which did not work for that site. A zoning change of some kind was in order, a virtually impossible task in Novi.  Many bets were laid against my attempt to get the City to approve such a change. My efforts began in 2007. The planning commission would not budge. Over five years and one large recession we were denied requests for a simple zoning text amendment, a larger change to the OST zoning ordinance, a Planned Rezoning Overlay within the OST ordinance,  a special land use permit and finally a rezoning of the parcel itself to B-3. 

The breakthrough:   During the course of Novi's multi-year consideration of their Master Plan (a process in which I participated) and a change in administration to more development friendly leadership, a nearby hospital development with similar zoning (OSC) was granted a retail service overlay in their development.  I latched onto to that concept and persuaded the City that our request was no different than theirs.  After months of wrangling with verbiage, a retail service overlay district was approved within the OST ordinance, which included the specifically defined "coffee house with drive-thru" that we were looking for. 

Starbucks became lukewarm on this location during the Great Recession. They were closing locations nationwide and not opening any new stores. When the idea to restart their US expansion plans began brewing again, they expressed concerned that our location would have no weekend traffic.  I convinced them otherwise:  150 letters from our tenants were sent to Starbucks expressing a desire for a location in HCCP.   I noted that our other buildings in HCCP included the 130,000 s.f. Henry Ford medical building next door which is open on weekends. In addition, the 800 coffee-starved students at the Art Institute of Michigan at HCOC V and the thousand high tech/engineering employees know only late nights and work weekends.  Plus, traffic patterns proved that the location was on the right side of the road for weekend morning Twelve Oaks Mall traffic.  I suggested that these might be demand indicators that they had overlooked and that this was the perfect location for a Starbucks. They finally agreed.

A Starbucks was born. It is now their best performing store in the region.

Why was this store so important?  Every professional business park needs amenities.  We had hotels and restaurants nearby, a student run restaurant by the Art Institute located in our park and walking paths – all wonderful amenities. We still needed the one attraction that would be the beacon of all beacons – the one where people would say: "Take a right at the Starbucks." We got it.  And I won the bets.

I was responsible for leasing, financing, and the development of the Starbucks project.