Business & Tech

Group, 'Voice of the Village,' Forms to Create Awareness

A group composed of property owners and business owners in the Village of Grosse Pointe have created a new organization to create awareness and generate discussion within the community about business development.

The property owners and many of the store owners in the Village have formed an organization they've named the "Voice of the Village." So far the organization has a Facebook page but it will eventually have a website too, according to one of the founders James V. Bellanca Jr.

Bellanca manages 18 properties in the Village on behalf of a family trust.

The objective of the group is to provide information to the community about business development in the Village and to raise awareness about what is actually happening in the Village, he said.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

Based on his interaction with people from the community who know he manages properties there, he said there is a lot of misperception and inaccurate information floating around about the Village, the vacancies and the property owners.

The hope is to quel those misperceptions and to get the community more involved, or at least knowledgeable, about the Village and the business development, Bellanca said.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

The property owners banned together late last year while the City of Grosse Pointe was revising its master plan to seek changes to the zoning requirements for storefronts in the Village. None were made so they submitted a letter earlier this year formally asking for changes, Bellanca said, noting he received notice that no changes will be made. 

The zoning of the storefronts in the Village requires all businesses to be retail with the exception of restaurants and salons.

Bellanca said the changes in the retail industry as a whole throughout the country support the need for changing the Village from an all retail business district to more varied uses. The Hill in Grosse Pointe Farms, he said, is a great example of making the transition from all retail to mixed use.

With office spaces, retail and service-based businesses, the Hill is nearly full occupied and has made a come back, Bellanca said.

The creation of the Voice of the Village organization is not intended to pick a fight with the City, Bellanca emphasized, explaining the group really wants it to be a focus on communicating business development and ideas within the community.

Up to now, information about development in the Village has been pretty much remained behind-the-scenes for the public and has remained a topic between city officials and business and property owners in the Village. The idea of the Voice of the Village is to open that door to the community.

The group's first formal event is scheduled for Thursday April 18 and features Robert Gibbs, a well-known urban planner who has worked on several small community downtowns such as Birmingham, the Hill and more. The event is open to the public at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial and will begin at 6:30 p.m.

This story was altered to reflect the new time of the presentation by Robert Gibbs.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here