You can tell redeveloping the Georgetown Mall isn't an easy project because a number of developers have shied away from talking about it on the record.
The strip mall (and former home to a Kroger supermarket) on Packard Road just west of Stadium Boulevard is now empty, a relic of mid 20-century suburban thinking. There have been calls to redevelop and raze it in recent months, but the seven-acre site sits foreclosed and abandoned.
"The problem is the financial markets don't work for it today," says Peter Allen, a developer with Ann Arbor-based Peter Allen & Associates.
The site isn't without its physical challenges either. It's a story or two below the road grade for Packard. It's surrounded by residential housing. Oh, and there is that big old shopping center developers don’t want to touch with a 10-foot pole. Raze the building and it becomes more attractive, but that isn't cheap and will probably fall on the taxpayers dime if the building goes into tax foreclosure.
Some of its disadvantages might turn into pluses, though. The building could make the site functionally obsolete, meaning it would be eligible for brownfield redevelopment tax incentives. It being so far below grade takes out the excavation part of the equation to create underground parking for a mid-rise residential development.
Hope isn't lost on the old Georgetown Mall, but it's going to need a lot of patience to make something work.
Source: Peter Allen, a developer with Ann Arbor-based Peter Allen & Associates
Writer: Jon Zemke
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