BUSINESS
REVITALIZE
Oak Park has a new shopping
plaza in its future, but the
flavor of Dexter-Davison may
be the price of progress
The shopping center will be tripled in
size ...
KIMBERLY LIFTON
Staff Writer
0
ak Park may be losing
a bit of Jewish ambi-
ance as developers and
government officials
make way for one of the
city's loftiest redevelopment projects
in 15 years.
Plans are under way to tear down
the four-acre Farmer Jack/Dexter-
Davison supermarket plaza at
Coolidge Highway and 10 Mile Road,
expanding it to a massive 13-acre
shopping complex that will run
eastward along 10 Mile. Singer-Gorge
Inc., developers of the complex, pur-
chased the eight homes east of the
plaza for undisclosed prices to make
way for the expansion project.
A preliminary site plan calls for
a 56,000-square-foot grocery store —
double the size of the current
building. The plan does not specify
areas for the plaza's longtime tenants,
which include Sara's, Detroit's only
kosher delicatessen, and Mertz's
kosher bakery.
Existing tenants said they are
concerned that they may not be able
to afford leases in the expanded shop-
ping center. Sara's owner Morris
Goodman said he. is negotiating a
move to another site in the Oak Park
area, but said he might be forced to
close the business. He said the
business has been operating at a loss
since he purchased the deli a year ago
. . . but some of the Jewish flavor may have to move aside.
and converted it into a kosher
restaurant.
Developer Allen Singer said he
would not discuss the project pending
City Council approval, expected this
month. City planners said the ex-
panded plaza, approved in concept
last month, will be completed within
a year.
The project comes amid plans to
revitalize the 5.5-square- mile city,
which has been decreasing in popula-
tion since the 1970s when it peaked
at 37,000 residents. Oak Park Mayor
Charlotte Rothstein expects new
development and completion of In-
terstate 696 to help boost the city's
population of 31,500 to 34,000.
Rothstein said the city's ethnic
breakdown is 12 percent black, 40
percent Jewish and 10 percent Chal-
dean. The remaining 38 percent is
mixed with Europeans and Asians,
she said.
"Having a diverse community is
our strength, not our weakness," she
said.
The shopping center project spans
east and west along the final highway
link of 1-696, also expected to open
next year.
The $10 million Coolidge-10 Mile
shopping center project is expected to
increase the city's $290 million tax
base by at least $200,000. Also ex-
pected to generate income for the ci-
ty is a K-mart store next to the Lin-
coln Center shopping plaza and an In
& Out food store at 9 Mile and Scotia.
The Jewish Welfare Federation is
building an additional 150 apart-
ments at the Jewish Community
Center's Jimmy Prentis Morris
building in Oak Park. Next on Roths-
tein's drawing board is a plan to lure
developers into the city to build high-
rise condominiums.
"We are not without problems,
but we are not afraid to face them,"
Rothstein said. "Now everything is
happening at once — it's great."
❑
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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