Main Street Retail Project to Change Face of Royal Oak

A three-phase residential and retail main street project has passed the site approval stage and is heading toward approval by the Royal Oak City Council.The project, called Main Place, will spread retail stores and 84 condominiums over a 2.5-acre site. Development costs are expected to be $50 million.

Two square blocks of the popular Royal Oak Main Street will be rebuilt, says Tim Blum, senior vice president of HSA Commercial Inc. of Chicago. The company is building the project as a joint venture with the Morningstar Group.

The companies will tear down a National City Bank and renovate warehouses to create the project, Blum says. Phase one will feature the construction of a five-story building, with two levels of retail anchored by a Barnes & Noble bookstore, and three levels of offices above. “The office part will stay if we can get preleasing. We’ve retained Colliers International as our office broker. We have interested parties, but if we can’t get preleased in time we’ll have to drop the three floors of office from the project,” says Blum.