Coffee, groceries and high-end condos: Regional development news round-up for August

It's been another busy month for development news in metropolitan Detroit. Let's catch up on some more development stories from the past four weeks.

The Red Dot Coffee Company, a family-owned coffee shop, celebrated its grand opening in Northville this month. Located in an old house at 505 N. Center St., Red Dot buys its coffee beans from Mad Cap Roasting Company in Grand Rapids. Co-owner Arlita Ibach tells the Observer & Eccentric newspaper, "We weigh out our beans and grind them at specific settings based on the type of coffee and amount of humidity throughout the day to make sure that we consistently have high-quality coffee."

The historic Rochester Elevator Co. building has stood in the same spot in downtown Rochester for 136 years but that all could change soon as developers seek to build a new condominium building on its site. 42 condominiums priced between roughly $500,000 and $1 million make up the Residences at Water Street development, which would replace the Elevator building. The team of developers has been in talks with the city to disassemble and reassemble the historic building at a site of the city's choosing. The developers would pay for the project.

Westborn Market opened its fourth grocery store, this one in an old post office building in downtown Plymouth. The repurposing of the old post office preserves the building, which dates back to 1935. Westborn is a Michigan-based grocer and is big on Michigan-based products, purchasing its produce from Eastern Market nearly every day of the week. Among the historic building features preserved include original wood and terrazzo flooring, post-office boxes, woodwork, and the Plymouth History mural by Carlos Lopez.

Got a development news story to share? Email MJ Galbraith here or send him a tweet @mikegalbraith.
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