Popular coffee house and bakery join Midtown development

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By: Deborah Johnson Wood

A retail storefront, a garden suite, and a coffee shop with drive-thru are underway a few blocks east of Health Hill, promising to transform a vacant one-story building into a distinctive location with eye-catching arches, a grand front porch, and a two-tiered back deck.

The original plans had three retail storefronts along Michigan Street. It’s a Grind Coffee House and Urban Mill Café have combined two of the spaces, and will operate the drive-thru at the west end of the building.

“Michigan Street is a very busy street, and the growth is just spectacular,” says Keith Cannon of Lacati Group, the project developers. “We think it’s a great place for dining.”

To make way for the drive thru and a bit of green space, the developers demolished a house at 621 Michigan. Cannon says significant landscaping on the corner of the building at Benson Street will create visual appeal and bring vitality to the formerly blighted parcel.

One 1,500-square-foot storefront and a 1,200-square-foot garden level commercial space are still available for lease. All of the stores will have wireless Internet access.

Cannon expects the 14-foot by 60-foot front porch and rear deck dining areas to be favorite places for customers to relax with a meal or beverage.

“We’d like to be serving coffee this August.”

Source: Keith Cannon, Lacati Group

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.