By Jim Newell

Review Editor

Orion residents have eagerly been waiting for the new Menards to open on Brown Road, so they could “Save Big Money” when they shop.

Orion Township officials, however, hope the opening of the mega store brings in big money and new development, and is the realization of a lot of effort and planning to enhance the Brown Road corridor.

“Menards is a big, big deal. It’s a $12 million project,” said Orion Twp. Supervisor Chris Barnett. “It’s like the first domino on Brown Road has tipped. Now Aldi has submitted. Aldi is going to go in front of Menards. Hyatt House hotel has been submitted (for development).

The new Menards Mega Store opened yesterday at 465 Brown Rd. on a 32-acre site.

“People are really excited about Menards. I can’t go anywhere without people asking me ‘When is Menards opening?’” Barnett said. “We’re so excited because they literally picked the most difficult site to develop on the Brown Road corridor.”

“This beautiful new store is in a great location. We are really looking forward to being a part of this wonderful community,” said Brian Oswill, general manager of the Lake Orion Menards.

We hired a hard-working group of Team Members who are your friends and neighbors. We can’t wait to open the doors on Tuesday to show everyone what we’ve been working on!”

Menards is known for its “complete selection of name brand merchandise, tools for any job and state-of-the-art computers to help guests design their special projects,” according to a Menards news release about the grand opening.

Menards carries materials and supplies for customers’ home improvement projects, and, according to the news release, the Lake Orion Menards store will carry “name brand appliances, pet and wildlife products, lawn and garden supplies and even a line of convenience groceries as a one-stop shopping experience” for customers.

To encourage Menards and other businesses to develop the vacant lots along the north side of Brown Road, Orion Twp. created a Corridor Improvement Authority District.

The CIA, as it’s called by officials, invested $5 million to widen Brown Road. The money came from tax captures on the increases in property taxes in the corridor and did not constitute an additional tax to businesses.

“So, it’s working. The dream we had four years ago to create a welcoming corridor is really working, and we have calls every single day from people that are interested in coming to Brown Road, coming to Baldwin Road, coming to Orion Twp.,” Barnett said.

“The neat thing is all the calls aren’t retail. We’re getting a lot of mixed-use inquiries. Which is kind of our desire, to not be all big-box retail.”

“When we dreamed about the Corridor Improvement Authority, for years we had people like Menards interested in trying to do something on Brown Road, and other businesses as well. And they would get to the point where they would do a traffic study and we lost them – every single time. Every single person, business, that was ready (to develop) except for Checker’s (restaurant),” Barnett said.

Widening Brown Road – which was completed in 2017 – was a necessary infrastructure improvement to encourage businesses to develop. Businesses interested in coming to Orion Twp. backed away once seeing the two-lane road.

“The road just wouldn’t support additional car counts, especially during high-retail time around the holidays. The second we announced that we were widening the road, Menards had already been interested, but then they were buying property,” Barnett said.

Lake Orion Menards store hours are 6:30 a.m. – 10 p.m. Monday – Saturday and 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. Sunday.

Menards is a family-owned Wisconsin-based company that started in 1958 and currently operates 314 stores throughout the Midwest. The chain is known “as the low-price leader” and for its jingle, “Save big money at Menards.”

“The tough one is done and they’re opening. We have a Hyatt hotel coming, we have an Aldi grocery store and we have several other exciting businesses looking but have not formally submitted that will be a really good mix on Brown Road,” Barnett said.

See next week’s Lake Orion Review for more information on economic development in the Brown and Baldwin roads corridors.