Zingerman's Deli expansion gets Historic District nod

Wednesday, September 15, 2010 | Source: Concentrate

With approval from the city's Historic District Commission last week, Zingerman's Deli has cleared one of its biggest hurdles on the way to expanding its Kerrytown location.

"This was the most important step," says Paul Saginaw, co-founder of Zingerman's. "We're elated."

Plans call for renovating most of the Kerrytown buildings and adding a denser structure behind its 2-story commercial operation. That would replace a couple of smaller houses, including one that was burned.

There are still many steps to be taken to complete the project, Saginaw says. Zingerman's next hopes to receive approval for a brownfield plan, which makes the expansion eligible for special financing through the Michigan Economic Development Corp, to receive Michigan business tax credits. The company is set to go to Lansing next month. The construction start date must be deferred until final approval of the tax credits.

"If you want to get tax credits on the Michigan business tax, you cannot start the process until you have a decision from them," Saginaw explains. "So we will wait for that decision, and then we will submit an application for demolition permit, and we hope to start demolition in November."

They're hoping to pull the orange house to a vacant lot, redo the foundation, and move the house back for a rehab. "We would like a lot of work done before January, so November and December should be busy," he says.

Saginaw says that a best-case scenario would be completing the expansion by March of 2012, which will be the deli's 30th anniversary.

Source: Paul Saginaw, co-founder of Zingerman's
Writer: Kristin Lukowski