Farmington Hills-based Phoenix Land Development plans to grant Orion Township the historic Gingell Family home when the company develops condominiums, a restaurant and a bank on the site where the house currently sits.
Phoenix’s $40 million planned unit development (PUD) project will be the topic of a special meeting between the Orion Township Board of Trustees and planning commission, to be held at township hall on Joslyn Road at 7 p.m.
No action will be taken at the special meeting on June 8. The PUD and rezoning is requested for a site on the east side of Baldwin Road and north of Judah Road.
Bruce Michaels, Phoenix’s director of development, said the approximately 20-acre parcel will have a sit-down restaurant, a branch bank and 114 units of ‘brownstone-style town homes.?
‘We also are proposing to preserve the Gingell House located on the property,? Michaels said.
‘The concept of the towne square is something that came from the township, and we’ll discuss with them some alternatives for how that will happen,? he said.
Michaels said Phoenix would like to grant the township Gingell House for $1. He said they are still considering some other uses for the site.
‘We have applied for the PUD and rezoning, and we had one public hearing,? he said. ‘One board member talked about a community center. We’re trying to find out what uses the township is looking for.
‘Nothing’s been approved,? Michaels added. ‘We’ve had some informal sessions with the residents…We didn’t get a lot of people jumping up and down and screaming about this.?
Michaels said there is a wetland between the site and a single-family development.
‘We’ll keep that as a natural buffer,? he said. ‘A lot of the site has already been disturbed, there’s a parking lot there.
‘We’ll move some trees and pave some additional areas,? he said. ‘It’s already a highly disturbed site.?
Michael said Phoenix does not yet know who the tenants will be for the restaurant and bank, but do ‘have some parties interested.?
‘We hope to start construction the first quarter of next year. It’s going to be a two-year project,? he said.
This is Phoenix’s first development in Orion Township, and Michaels said a ‘good, solid market? drove them to this area.
Phoenix originally acquired the property in Orion Township as an alternate site for a church that they were considering buying property from, Michaels said.
‘We’ve done a lot of stuff in Livonia,? he said, adding that Bell Creek Square at Six Mile and Farmington Roads is similar to what is proposed for Gingell Towne Square.
‘We’ve also done work in Lyon Township, Northville and West Bloomfield,? he said.