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	The Manchester Enterprise A Heritage Newspaper Weekly Publication

River Commons still in the works

By Daniel Lai, Editor

PUBLISHED: May 24, 2007

Plans to develop the old Midwest Ford building on Main Street into a retail outlet are still on track according to realtor Joel Elconin.

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"Right now we're in negotiations with several tenants for that space," he said. "We've had some pretty substantial interest in it."

The building, which was purchased by Bob Wozniak in 2006, was originally envisioned to be redeveloped into a lawn and garden supply store specializing in small engine repairs for lawn mowers and other landscaping equipment.

However, in a previous interview, Wozniak said the building was too large for the garden shop and decided to break the property up into smaller retail shops known as the River Raisin Commons.

"Right now it's hard to tell how many shops we'll get in there," Elconin said. "Some might use a bigger space and some might use a smaller space.

"Real Estate negotiations take awhile. We don't have any signed leases yet."

It's estimated that seven spaces will fit in the 8,100 square feet that Wozniak is currently renovating - there are an extra 3,000 square feet in the back of the building that are currently unplanned for.

"It's 100 percent moving forward," Elconin said. "It's going to be a nice center there. It will provide services that are not here right now."

In a previous interview, Wozniak said he would like to see Specialty stores, in particular a deli or meat and fish market, filling the Commons.

"What we want are things we can fill a niche on but will not draw away from the businesses already here. I'm hoping these are the businesses that will come here."

However, Wozniak can only be as selective as the number of offers he receives allows him to be.

"Business wise you can't be selective," he said. "But if we have seven spaces we can afford and there are 14 offers, then you can take different things into consideration."