Posts tagged Retail
Moe’s Southwest Grill Coming to West Michigan
Aug 17th
Article by QSR.
“Welcome to Moe’s!” will soon be heard throughout St. Joseph, Michigan, when Moe’s Southwest Grill opens at 3260 Niles Rd. on Thursday, August 16.
The new restaurant marks the first of 25 new locations that local restaurateur Joyce Lunsford, owner of Trigo Hospitality, will open throughout the Midwest. Moe’s Southwest Grill serves fresh made-to-order burritos and Southwestern fare in a fun and laidback environment.
All meals, including signature items like the Homewrecker burrito, Close Talker salad, and John Coctostan quesadilla, are served with free chips and unlimited salsa from Moe’s fresh salsa bar.
While Moe’s Southwest Grill is best known for its burritos packed with a choice of more than 20 fresh ingredients, the menu also features kids’, vegetarian, and low-calorie options.
At the same time, the menu boasts a wide variety of vegetarian and vegan offerings, many of which feature organic tofu. Moe’s also offers all-natural, cage-free chicken; grain-fed steroid-free pulled pork (both with no hormones added); and 100 percent grass-fed steak.
After eating at a Moe’s in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Lunsford and her team at Trigo Hospitality enjoyed the food so much that they wanted to be the first to bring Moe’s to St. Joe.
In January 2012, Lunsford signed an agreement that will bring 25 new restaurants—and hundreds of jobs—to Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio by 2020. She will operate the restaurants with business partner and local resident Greg Molter.
As part of the development agreement, new Moe’s Southwest Grill restaurants will also open throughout Michigan in Grand Rapids, Battle Creek, Holland, Kalamazoo, Muskegon, Midland, Mt. Pleasant, Saginaw, and Big Rapids.
Trigo Hospitality currently operates 32 Pizza Hut locations in Southwest Michigan and five Sonic Drive-In restaurants. Her franchise group recently sold the 22 Panera Bread restaurants it operated in Michigan and Ohio.
NAI Wisinski’s Retail Team Recaps ICSC Event
Aug 2nd
Dick Jasinski (left) and Tim Platt (right) by the NAI Wisinski booth at the ICSC Michigan Idea Exchange
During NAI Wisinski’s bi-weekly retail meeting on Tuesday, a few of the retail associates reported on the ICSC Michigan Idea Exchange which took place in Dearborn, MI last week. Doug Taatjes and Rod Alderink both felt a positive vibe buzzing around the conference. There was a feeling that optimism is high and the attendance, up 20% this year, backed that sense.
Rod went to the conference specifically to get a feel for how shopping centers would fare in the near future, particularly Class B & C centers. He reported that these types of centers, described as neighborhood centers built at least fifteen years ago, still have a tough road ahead. He didn’t see as much interest in these from retailers.
Part of this might be because of all the development going on. Doug noted a large focus on developments that seemed to be 10,000 SF or less. These smaller retail developments, Doug explained, all have one thing in common: food. There are a lot of entrepreneurs out there right now taking big risks to become franchisees of familiar chains. Just this week, he leased space in Goodwill’s new retail center at 2700 Kraft Ave SE to a first time franchisee of Biggby Coffee.
The next ICSC event is in Chicago in October. Stay tuned as NAI Wisinski will be reporting from that event as well.
Jeremy Droge: 1973-2012
Jul 25th
NAI Wisinski of West Michigan is saddened by the loss of one of our team members. Jeremy Droge passed away unexpectedly yesterday morning at the age of 39. Jeremy was part of our retail team and focused on construction management. Jeremy is survived by his wife and daughter. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Droge family during this difficult time. Arrangements are pending and updates may be available at: http://obits.mlive.com/obituaries/grandrapids/
Recent Transactions
Mar 23rd
Office
Jason Makowski and Mary Anne Wisinski-Rosely teamed up to bring Jeffrey Behm of Real Hair, LLC to a 2,000 SF vacant suite at 330 E. Beltline. The landlord is Rich Craig of 330 East Beltline, LLC. They agreed to a 10 year lease with options at $18.00/SF plus electric.
Retail
Jason Makowski and Dick Jasinski but together a deal that brought Osaka Sushi & Steak House to the former Carlos O’Kelly’s location at 4977 28th Street SE. Devtex Properties is the owner of the 1,640 SF stand alone building. It is a 42 month lease at $12.00/SF (NNN). The tenant is also performing improvements their own expense.
Dick Jasinski also closed on a lease of the former Famous Dave’s building at 5710 Harvey Street in Muskegon.
Industrial
Kurt Kunst sold a 23,000 SF industrial building at 4438 Remembrance. He represented both sides of the transaction. Along with Rod Alderink, Kurt also sold the vacant land across from the Gun Lake Casino.
Also, Jim Badaluco sold the building at 2735 West River and Stu Kingma sold the building at 3711 Dykstra.
In total, there were 19 transactions in the past two weeks not including lease renewals. In addition, Jeremy Veenstra completed his first transaction as a member of NAI Wisinski of West Michigan. Congratulations Jeremy!
This Weeks Featured Agent: Rod Alderink
Apr 11th
Rod Alderink
Birthplace: Grand Rapids, MI
Family: Married; Two daughters
CRE Experience: 24 years
Area(s) of Commercial Real Estate that you specializes in:
Rod specializes in the Retail, Office, and Investment Commercial Real Estate sectors.
What business/professional organizations do you belong to?
He is currently the president of the Commercial Alliance of Realtors (CAR) and is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). In addition, Rod is on the Board of Trustees at Calvin College. On a personal level, Rod is a volunteer with the Big Brothers Big Sisters Organization.
Describe a personal interest:
Over the past few years, Rod has become involved with running and participating in triathlons. This year, he is running in the Fifth Third Riverbank 25K for the third time, and plans to participate in two to three triathlons over the course of the summer.
Describe a career highlight:
One of his career highlights is bringing Walgreens to the Holland and Grand Rapids area in the 1990’s.
Favorite thing about working in Commercial Real Estate?
Rod’s favorite thing about working in Commercial Real Estate is cultivating long-term relationships and working with a loyal, fantastic group of clients over many years.
Lessons learned in the past 18 months?
There is business to be done, even in a rough economy and down market, if you execute the fundamentals of good real estate consistently.
