Royal Oak Splits With Developer on City Center Project

ROYAL OAK, MI — Royal Oak has taken control of the city center project. More than a year after the Central Park Development Group agreed to partner with the city on a $100 million project, city officials have decided to go it alone on their plans to build a downtown park, parking deck and a new city hall and police station.

The last remaining piece of the development is a seven-story office building, that would be constructed in the parking lot of Royal Oak’s current city hall. CPDG will be in front of the city commission on Monday seeking an extension on its agreement with the city for development of the office building.

Royal Oak was originally going to move city hall into two floors of CPDG’s office building, but backed out of that arrangement several months ago, according to a Royal Oak Daily Tribune report. The developer “would solely be responsible for their office building,” Todd Fenton, the city’s economic development manager, told the newspaper. “The city would be in charge of its own buildings.”

Royal Oak is waiting for design drawings of the new city hall and police station to be finalized, the Daily Tribune reported. The facilities would be located on parking lot space around the Farmer’s Market, which sits south of 11 Mile Road between Troy Street and Kayser Avenue.

The city also has requested proposals from landscape architects for a new downtown park and another at the former Normandy Oaks golf course, the newspaper reported. Consultants told city officials they could save about about $500,000 by building their own stand-alone city hall.

Original plans had city hall being located in the first two floors of CDPG’s office building. That move further reduced the long-term uncertainties of having a public city hall in a privately owned building.

“We wanted to make sure there weren’t any co-mingling of expenses” in the partnership, Fenton told the Daily Tribune. “We also wanted to make sure we were taking care of the city’s goals first, and not necessarily the developer’s.”

The city projects have are estimated at $58 million. CPPG is seeking the extension with Royal Oak for it’s office building until Aug. 14. The agreement would bar the city from marketing the property to another developer until it expires, the Daily Tribune reported.

Photo courtesy of the city of Royal Oak