Location
14 & Coolidge, Royal Oak |
Key Anchor
Kroger grocery + fuel |
Total Investment
$60 Million |
Residential
85 units planned |
When Symmetry acquired the Royal Oak site, the property was a large vacant industrial building which is a familiar problem in an era of obsolete industrial. The default playbook for a site like this would have been straightforward: find an industrial user, with improvements backfill the building, move on. Symmetry saw something different.
The location is at a high-visibility intersection in Royal Oak and had potential well beyond its industrial zoning. Rather than constraining the asset to a single use category, Symmetry made a deliberate choice from the outset: take the site to the entire market and let highest and best use determine the outcome.
| “Most developers would have looked at this site and seen one thing. We looked at it and saw every possibility. So we took it to the entire market and let the best use win.” -Frank Jarbou |
Symmetry brought the site to market broadly considering industrial, retail, storage, and mixed-use proposals and evaluated each on its merits. What the market returned was unexpected: Kroger identified the intersection as a target location for a new store, complete with a fuel station component. Symmetry recognized both the commercial and community value of the proposal and moved to make it work.
The program that emerged is a two-component redevelopment:
Retail anchor104,000 SF Kroger grocery store with fuel station, activating the primary corner of the site |
Residential component85 residential units developed by Symmetry on the parcel’s rear area, with adjacent public greenspace |
A critical moment in the process came when the differing expectations of Kroger and the city threatened to create friction. Symmetry stepped in as the central liaison taking ownership of the city relationship and ensuring the development moved forward with one unified voice. This pivot kept all parties aligned and the project on track.
Securing site plan approval for a project of this complexity required sustained coordination across three distinct stakeholder groups, each with their own priorities and timelines.
Symmetry Management
Developer & project lead |
Kroger
Anchor retail tenant |
City of Royal Oak
Entitlement & approvals |
The redevelopment delivers on multiple fronts for the Royal Oak community: a full-service grocer with a fuel station, 85 new residential units, and activated public greenspace where a dormant industrial building once stood. Symmetry’s decision to resist the path of least resistance and instead bring the site to the full market resulted in a more vibrant, community-serving outcome than a standard industrial backfill ever could have produced.
