Grosse Pointe's most noticeably empty storefront, the former Borders bookstore in the Village shopping district, is coming back as a
Scott Shuptrine Interiors and St. John Health System medical center.
The St. John Medical Center Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Campus opened this week, and Royal Oak-based Scott Shuptrine will open in March inside the nearly 20,000-square-foot property, 7,600 of it for Shuptrine's store and design center.
Grosse Pointe is the birthplace of Scott Shuptrine, and the new Grosse Pointe store will emphasize community education in art and design. It will be the company's only freestanding location. Other Scott Shuptrines are adjacent to Art Van Furniture stores. Scott Shuptrine is in the midst of an expansion that will add a Novi store, which will pilot a design lab, and the first out-of-state location with a 10,000-square-foot store in Downers Grove, IL.
St. John Health System spearheaded the $5-million renovation of the building at 17141 Kercheval Ave. in Grosse Pointe, and it found the major retail tenant to occupy the front side of the building along Kercheval. That portion of the building goes to Scott Shuptrine. The back portion, with an alley entrance and new parking lot, is for St. John's.
Until this week, St. John had not released information on the retailer that would occupy the property, which city officials required be mixed use rather than completely medical.
Both tenants of the building have deep Grosse Pointe connections. Wilson, the medical center's namesake, was a longtime Grosse Pointer and former owner of the Buffalo Bills NFL franchise. He died in March, and the foundation named after him donated $1 million to St. John to build a medical center that combines doctors' offices and other medical services in one spot in the center of the community.
Besides opening its first store in Grosse Pointe, Scott Shuptrine, which was acquired by Art Van Furniture in 1987, is owned by Art Van Elslander. He raised his family locally and built one of the largest homes in the Pointes.
The rebirth of the former Borders is the largest piece in an overall revitalization of the Village, a three-block-long area where at least seven new businesses have opened in the last year and at least three more are soon to open.
Source: St. John Health System & Scott Shuptrine Interiors
Writer: Kim North Shine
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