New Retail Building to Be Constructed in Fountain Walk

A new 60,000 square foot retail building will soon be constructed in in Novi.

The Novi City Council approved the preliminary site plan for the building at its meeting Monday night.

The 57,793 square foot retail building will include the following:

• A 30,000 square foot tenant space
• A restaurant tenant space
• Six smaller general retail tenant spaces

Approximately 224 parking spaces will also be added to the development.

"This is another positive sign for that area," said Novi City Manager Clay Pearson at the meeting.

The building will be constructed in the vacant land behind and

According to the Council action item, the owner plans to get the construction done as soon as possible, but doesn't want to overcommit on the building until he can get some leases in place.

Novi Economic Development Director Ara Topouzian told Novi Patch that the city has seen more interest from potential future tenants in Fountain Walk these days.

"That's part of the enhancements to Fountain Walk that we've been hoping for for a while," he said. "That's an integral part of that property - to see that part get developed."

The construction is part of the long-planned redesign of the mall, which was originally built in 2001. In 2006, a 60,000 square foot building shell that had never been leased was demolished by the mall's previous owners as part of the redesign.

Since then, some of the roads around the mall have been opened up, and the sidewalk running through the south side of the mall was converted into a road to allow for better traffic flow.

Council member Andrew Mutch is the only one who voted against the plan, stating that he had a concern with having parking lanes open up to a main access drive of the site.