John and Mary Canfield owned a farm at Milford Road and I-96 that had been in their family for over 100 years. Over years working along the I-96 corridor, Mark Szerlag would call John and Mary every so often to check in and see what their plans were for the property and if they were ready to have it formally marketed for sale. After some time, John and Mary determined it was in their and their family’s best interest to begin entertaining offers. The story that followed the Canfield’s decision to move to the market would involve over a million square feet of new retail space, 300 new apartments, a Target sign being hoisted up over I-96 to no avail, and ultimately- changing the entire landscape of the community in which their farm resided.
Mark determined that the best course of action for a highly visible, 180 acre piece of prime land located at a freeway exit would not be the typical offering memorandum and mass mailings. Instead he and the Canfield family met and interviewed about a dozen developers with experience putting together large scale multi big-box retail developments in the region, and did not quote an asking price but rather asked that the terms be provided to them by the prospective developers. Kojaian Management Company out of Bloomfield Hills interviewed the best and put forward the most favorable offer to the Canfields, and so they won the day. From there, Mark presented Kojaian with offers from Wal-Mart and Lowe’s to anchor the development. Kojaian designed a ring road around the two anchors and Mark began the process of marketing the outlots along I-96 to smaller fast-food, financial institutions and sit down restaurants.
Lyon Towne Center was a massive success. The development generated a ton of activity- so much so that Kojaian asked Mark to reach out to the 60 acre property owner across the street in an attempt to further develop the Milford Road corridor. They were able to make another match and acquired that property as well and began the process of a development called Lyon Crossing.
Lyon Towne Center was completely developed. The two big boxes were joined by McDonalds, Community Choice Credit Union, Sherwin Williams, Applebees, Feldman Automotive, a multi-tenant retail center and other uses. Lyon Crossing followed suit with Belle Tire, Flagstar Bank, and Tractor Supply Company but the two largest pieces of that development, earmarked for big box users, were slow. A glut of vacant big box space had hit the market in the early 2010’s, which created a competition element for retailers to consider the cost of new development versus the alternative of leasing second generation space for much less money. Mark and Eric had to put their thinking caps on to consider alternative uses to close out the Lyon Crossing development.
Multi-family development had hit a fever pitch by the mid-2010’s. Watermark, a well known multi-family developer, had expanded into the region and had interest in the Lyon Crossing project. Unfortunately the property was developed according to a Planned Unit Development agreement between the developer and Lyon Township, which did not include multi-family uses as being permitted. Watermark was willing to fight the rezoning battle, and the developer was willing to give the time to do so. The community agreed that the use would be a benefit, and we ultimately sold +/- 15 acres to Watermark to develop a luxury multi-family community now called The Crossings.
As the several month Watermark rezoning and site plan approval process was playing out, we were also able to generate interest from Szott Chrysler to develop a car dealership on the remaining “anchor” piece of property still existing within Lyon Crossing. When this process began, 20 years ago, no one would have thought that through creative marketing and considering alternative uses, one of the two big box developments at Milford Road and I-96 would now be anchored by a 300 unit apartment complex and a car dealership. We sold the two large parcels, leaving three 1+/- acre outlots as the last piece of the puzzle. After securing the two anchors, we quickly sold all three to a credit union, medical user and retail center developer, and the saga of Lyon Towne Center and Lyon Crossing was complete.
Mark and Eric have had a hand in selling land for development all along the I-96 corridor, with very few exits of the freeway that we have not been involved with to some extent. The Lyon Towne Center and Lyon Crossing development is something that we are very proud of, and the multitude of transactions we completed here are community defining. If you would like more information on these developments please contact Mark Szerlag or Eric Szerlag as we’d be more than happy to talk about them.
