At least part of the mystery has been solved in Benton Charter Township where wholesale tree removal along Fairplain Drive has baffled passersby for the better part of the past year. Not even the Benton Township Building Inspector, Tom Baldwin, was able to pin down what the land owners were doing or had in mind, as nobody had ever filed any sort of site plan for development one way or the other.
The early stage brush removal nearly a year ago brought no clue, and last summer activity ramped up considerably with a virtual clear-cut of mature trees along that stretch of Fairplain Drive just before it becomes Mall Drive at Mall Place.
Last week, activity resumed again, this time with large bulldozers and other earth-moving equipment advancing onto the property alongside the Orchards Park Shopping Center which is home to Wings, Etc, Travel Leaders, Sprint, Edible Arrangements, the Michigan Secretary of State's office and other enterprises.
Baldwin now confirms that developers of the Orchards Park Shopping Center are adding additional capacity with four new store fronts being planned for construction. The major earth movement currently underway is for a storm water retention area, and the building construction will follow at a later date.
For the moment there are no confirmed businesses for the new space being brought to the market, as Baldwin says they are all spec units that will be available for lease by the developers once completed.
In addition to the businesses mentioned, Arcadia Health, T-Mobile, Approved Cash Advance, and Auto Insurance Agency are also leasing space in the existing Orchards Park Shopping Center. One unit is still vacant in the current strip following the move late last year of Green Harbor Health which moved to space alongside Banner Books-Parable Christian Store in the Southtown neighborhood of St. Joseph, behind Buffalo Wild Wings.
Specific square footages of each of the four units coming on line and the total size of the project is not clear yet. The existing center, built on three acres of land in 2005, has some 21,000 square feet of retail and office space at the confluence of Fairplain Drive and Mall Place in Benton Charter Township. The property has been marketed in recent months by the Coldwell Banker Schmidt Family of Companies of Michigan, Ohio and Florida.
Stay tuned for additional information as it becomes available.
Earth movers work to establish a storm water retention area for expansion of the Orchards Park Shopping Center in Benton Charter Township…
