Village Life Marketplace

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

CEO Gray Granger jokingly admits that his company, The Granger Group, is kind of getting evicted from its current location at 2221 Health Dr. SW.

“[Metro Health-University of Michigan Health] is expanding and growing so much that they really just need this space,” Granger said of his company’s current home during a recent interview. “It is really exciting to see that and to see the hospital continuing to grow and meeting the needs of the residents.”

It is an exciting time at the Metro Health Village, which has been rebranded to The Village, according to Granger. If you have driven by the site located near the corner of 54th Street and Byron Center Avenue, you can not help but notice all the work that has been taking place there.

Site plan for the Village Life Marketplace. The Village Market Place is located on the corner of Byron Center Avenue and Health Drive. (Supplied)

The Granger Group is currently constructing the Village Life Marketplace, located on the northwest corner of Health Drive and Byron Center Avenue, across from the current structure that contains the Starbucks, Posh Nails, and Marcos Pizza.

“We are very focused on health and wellness,” Granger said. “Everything ties together here. There are open site lines. People can see where they want to go to. They know that can get from one point to another point in the village without getting into a car.”

One of the goals of The Granger Group has been to create a sustainable and walkable community, Granger said. The marketplace is about half of the 190-acre Village, totaling 80 acres. Being that Metro Health is the center point to the entire Village, Granger said the company wanted to incorporate as much healthy lifestyle options as possible.

“What we are going to see is just a lot of activity that will build on some neat amenities like the village green,” Granger said. “It is just a fun place.”

The Granger Group has built the first two buildings, totaling about 20 square feet of retail. Last summer, the group broke ground on the construction of four more buildings.

The current project includes a two-story, 20,000-square-foot mixed-use building with first-floor retail and second floor office space, which will be the new home of The Granger Group. The project also includes two single-story retail totaling 10,000 square feet. With that, the project will add more housing to Granger’s First & Main, an assisted-living retirement community. This will be a four-story, 65-unit independent living complex that will face toward Health Drive.

The Granger Group is negotiations with several financial services companies and restaurants. (WKTV)

The Granger Group is currently in negotiations with several financial services companies and restaurants with Granger noting they are hoping to have a restaurant facing out on the current waterfall area at the Village.

“I happen to think this is one of the projects that is going to make a major difference within the city we live and its gonna to be a great addition for those who live within the City of Wyoming,” Granger said.

The project is scheduled to be completed in the fall. It is estimated that the entire Village project is around $2 billion. The project is a partnership between The Granger Group, Metro Health-University of Michigan Health and the City of Wyoming.

Members of the Granger Group and city leaders turn the first soil for the new $3.5 million Village Life Marketplace in the Metro Health Village.

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma

joanne@wktv.org

Dan Burrill admitted that at first, he didn’t think he was going to like all this retail and all the traffic.

“I love it,” said the Wyoming City councilmember at a recent groundbreaking ceremony for a new shoping center in the Metro Health Village. “I love the closeness of everything. I love being able to go to Family Fare and pick up a gallon of ice cream every time I get the urge to mix myself a smoothie or a sundae.”

But mostly, Burrill, who lives in the panhandle area, said he enjoys the walkability of the Metro Health Village community.

Walkability has been a key aspect for the development of the Metro Health Village, which is the first LEED certified medical campus in the United States, according to Ryan Granger, project manager for the Wyoming-based Granger Group.

Granger Group Project Manager Ryan Granger during the ground breaking ceremony for the new Village Life Marketplace

Granger credits his dad, Gary Ganger, for having the vision 15 years ago to partner with the hospital to create a healthy, walkable community and Master Planner James Sharba, who is with a Granger subsidiary SpaceWerks, for bringing “a creative approach to master planning to the remainder of the development.

“The intent is to create walkability so we are going to be creating more dense areas essentially to park more people and then create that walkability approach to couple with the health and wellness of the sustainability approach of the development.”

This past Monday, Granger Group broke ground on the first of several new developments over the next 12 months — a new $3.5 million shopping center in the front of the Metro Health Village, near the waterfall entrance off of Health Drive. The center, which faces Byron Center Avenue, is just south from the Granger Group shopping area that has Starbucks and Great Clips. The general contractor is Caledonia’s FCC Construction, which just completed the ReMax offices located across the street of Byron Center Avenue near Monelli’s. Ann Arbor-based OX Studio is the architect.

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The new Village Life Marketplace project, which is expected to take about 10 months to complete, is a mixed use development with 11,000 square feet on both floors. The bottom floor will have several retail tenants that include a national TexMex chain, a sub shop and a place that offers smoothies with the top floor to be the home of the Granger Group corporate offices with an additional 2,500 square feet of available office space.

The development is part of the overall concept of offering healthy lifestyle options and creating a sense of community within the Metro Village Health.

“As we have seen 2008 bring its struggles with the housing crash and the market crash, what we are seeing now is the emergence of micro markets or micro economies.” Granger said. “RiverTown Crossings is a wonderful place for the big box retailers and we also have Tanger Outlets, but what we have here is a very unique approach.

“We are kind of in the middle between Tanger and RiverTown Crossings and what this will bring is an opportunity to bring slightly elevated users maybe retailers or clothiers that are looking for a very niche market.”

Granger estimated that Granger Group has about 16 acres in the Metro Health Village to develop, which, according to press matierals, are designed to inspire healthier lifestyles.

“We are excited to participate in some living options as well that will bring a closer community feel that once they live on campus here they have all their needs meet with a grocery store, with Starbucks, with all these different needs meet through the partnerships we create through retail options,” Granger said.