On Saturday, Richard Sloan alerted Van Buren Township Supervisor Paul White that officials with Menards home improvement store have signed a purchase agreement for a 31-acre site he owns on the North I-94 Service Drive.
Purchase of the property, which includes the former Farmer Jack building, depends on site plan approval by the township, Sloane said in a phone call to White from California.
Supervisor White said a site plan for the property is expected to be presented to the township soon and Menards has very recently been requesting ordinance information from the township.
“This will be a tremendous boost in our local economy and add value to our tax base,” White said in a letter to the township board this week.
“I am very pleased we have the possibility of them coming here,” he said.
White had announced the pending project to the VBT Downtown Development Authority at its regular meeting on Jan. 24.
“As most of you know, I’ve been working hard for 12 months on getting Menards to come to the township.”
He said he has made numerous phone calls to Eau Claire, WI, which is Menards’ headquarters, and to California. There have been a lot of visits, as well.
“This morning I got a telephone call and later met with Tom O’Neill and Charles Shay for an hour,” he said Jan. 24.
“They made a commitment to me and were very enthusiastic about Menards coming to Van Buren,” White said.
He said this is not the final decision, but the township should be informed of their final decision soon.
Menards had been considering a site in Canton at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Morton Taylor Road. White said there are multiple issues in Canton that they wouldn’t have in VBT.
“If this happens, I’m asking how the DDA can be a kicker for this project and help it,” White said. DDA members said they would be willing to help in any way.
White said the site would be between the hotels and Farmer Jack on the North I-94 Service Drive.
“Nothing is final until the site plan comes in,” White said.
He said Sloan, who has owned the property for 50 years, has been talking to the Wayne County Fair Association to buy a sliver of land needed for the proper setback for a Menards building.
“It’s very, very promising,” White repeated.
He said Menards is a home-improvement store at which he has shopped many times and it caters to the lady of the household, instead of the way Home Depot does it.
White said the closest Menards are in Jackson, Davison, and Toledo. He said the founder started building pole barns while in college and then graduated and went into the home improvement business. Now there are 260-plus stores and they have a racing division, sponsoring four cars, including NASCAR.
White said the vacant Farmer Jack building will have to come down, but the rest of the shopping center would stay.
DDA member Jim Richter agreed the Farmer Jack store has been a big marketable space that is an eyesore.
DDA member Carol Bird said she has shopped at a lot of Menards and they have many home decorations.
“We have to get the site plan,” White repeated, referring to the next step. “They love freeway frontage or major thoroughfares,” he said of Menards.
“We’re holding our fingers crossed,” said DDA Executive Director Susan Ireland.
Later, White said all Menards are alike in layout and the buildings are about 200,000 square feet. It takes nine months from groundbreaking to the ribbon cutting.
The store would be facing Belleville Road, with the lumber pickup area off the North Service Drive. The store would bring 150 jobs, half of them part-time.
Recently Crain’s Communications published a list of a few sites in Southeastern Michigan that Menards has targeted for new stores.
VBT wasn’t on the Crain’s list, so Supervisor White called Menards, who reportedly told him VBT was still on their list, and they shouldn’t believe everything they read. The Crain’s report came from a planning commission meeting in Livonia where a few sites were mentioned, but not all the sites.