Plans for the long-awaited Gateway Plaza in Royal Oak are not final and are still being developed, despite recent speculation to the contrary on the DetroitYES! forum.
"There is nothing that is final," says Bob Schostak, president of Schostak Brothers & Company, the developer behind the project. "Nothing has been submitted."
Architectural renderings of the proposed 4-acre development at Woodward Avenue and I-696 appeared on the Schostak Brothers & Company's web site. The drawings, stamped preliminary, showed an exurban-style development with one large building surrounded by acres of surface parking lot bordered by Woodward Avenue, Main Street and the I-696 Service Drive. Schostak says those drawings are "a preliminary idea" for the project and his company is still looking for a tenant for the development.
The site is on the southern edge of Royal Oak's downtown. The project is described as a "mixed-use, multi-story retail/residential/office/hotel development." However, the designs only depict a single-story building with a sign for LA Fitness on the side.
The Gateway Plaza project has been stalled for more than a decade. Originally the site of a car dealership, it was cleared to make room for a more urban development with mixed-use buildings built up to the lot, like those in traditional downtowns.
Source: Bob Schostak, president of Schostak Brothers & Company
Writer: Jon Zemke
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