Location
4200 Orchard Lake Rd, Orchard Lake Village |
Total Investment
$16 million |
Building Size
24 apartment units and 6,500 sf Retail |
Est. Completion
Spring 2027 |
The site at 4200 Orchard Lake Road in Orchard Lake Village was comprised of two parcels and three buildings that had outlived their usefulness. The anchor tenant of the site was a former dry-cleaning operation that left behind significant soil contamination that had spread to adjacent parcels, making redevelopment not just a market challenge but an environmental one. Surrounding uses included aging, lower-generation office space that no longer met the demands of today’s tenants or the broader corridor.
Without intervention, the site would have remained a drag on one of Oakland County’s most desirable retail corridors, a contaminated, underutilized collection of parcels in a community that deserved better.
| “We felt we could bring something better to the market — something more community driven. We decided to completely knock down the existing buildings and build something that activates this corridor the right way.” -Frank Jarbou |
Rather than attempting to retrofit or partially rehabilitate the existing structures, Symmetry made the decisive call to demolish all three buildings and start fresh. The vision: a fully integrated mixed-use development with ground-floor retail and commercial space topped by 24 new rental apartments bringing both economic activity and much-needed housing supply to Orchard Lake Village.
The project, known as Orchard Shoppes, received site plan approval and is now advancing toward vertical construction. The architect of record is Krieger Klatt Architects, a Royal Oak-based firm with deep regional expertise in multi-story, mixed-use design.
One of the most complex dimensions of this project was the environmental cleanup required before construction could begin. Contamination from the former dry cleaner had affected the soil across multiple parcels, requiring the removal of an estimated 10,000 tons of contaminated soil and the installation of a vapor mitigation system in the new building.
To make this work financially viable, Symmetry secured a $1 million brownfield redevelopment grant from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) — part of a statewide initiative to unlock contaminated sites for productive redevelopment. The city of Orchard Lake Village further supported the project with $500,000 in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and an additional $500,000 committed to infrastructure improvements surrounding the site.
The $16 million redevelopment delivers a multi-layered program designed to serve the community on multiple levels:
Ground Floor |
Upper Floors |
Community Amenities |
| 3 retail / commercial spaces | 24 rental apartments | Pedestrian paths & greenspace |
| Street-level activation | New residential housing | LED streetlighting |
| Est. 20 new jobs | Improved street signage |
Orchard Shoppes represents the kind of transformation that happens when a developer is willing to take on complexity — environmental contamination, multi-parcel assembly, public financing coordination — in service of a vision that benefits the entire community. The project is expected to create approximately 20 new full-time equivalent jobs, introduce 24 new rental housing units to a supply-constrained market, and activate a long-dormant stretch of Orchard Lake Road with pedestrian-friendly public improvements.
Construction is expected to be completed in spring 2027.
