Signature Associates

Old auto shop in Ann Arbor could be demolished for 4-story storage facility

Posted By: mlive on June 4, 2025.  For more information, please click here to read the source article.

 Signature Associates’ Drake Filippis and Jay Chavey are handling the sale and marketing of the property.

A four-story self-storage facility with integrated office space is proposed for development at 1251 N. Main St. in Ann Arbor.

The team behind the project just north of downtown is inviting neighbors to a citizen participation meeting from 6-7 p.m. Wednesday, June 4, to learn more about the plans. The meeting will be at 311 N. Main St. and there’s an opportunity to participate virtually via Microsoft Teams, according to the invitation, which includes a drawing of what’s proposed. The meeting is a chance for the public to ask questions and give feedback ahead of formal plans being submitted to the city for review and approval later in June.

“It’s fairly standard — it’s a by-right development,” said Christopher Rothhaar of Atwell LLC, civil engineer for the project.

But they are running into issues with city infrastructure, he said, saying the water main along North Main Street is undersized. Infrastructure challenges as it relates to the city’s continued growth were a focus of discussion at Tuesday night’s Planning Commission meeting. City staff said there are worries about major water and sewer capacity constraints and the large costs of dealing with them in the years ahead.

The self-storage facility development proposes to demolish the old Hawkins Auto Body building, which sits near an entrance to the Bluffs Nature Area. There were plans in 2019 to transform it into a marijuana dispensary, but that never came to fruition. Jeff Hawkins, longtime owner of the auto repair shop, protested it, saying, “They’re hostile taking me over, running me out of here.”

His father, real estate investor Harry Hawkins, owned the property then and acknowledged he intended to boot his son out to make way for the dispensary. City records show the property changed hands in 2021 after Harry Hawkins died at age 90, with ownership transferring from Harry P. Hawkins LLC to Jeff Hawkins in a $100 sale. A sign posted at the site has since advertised it for sale through Southfield-based Signature Associates as a development opportunity. It’s 1.1 acres and zoned commercial. Additional site improvements proposed with the self-storage facility development include an underground stormwater detention system, parking and landscaping.

“It is becoming more popular and the owner seems to think there’s a need for it,” Rothhaar said of the self-storage concept.

The city has long-envisioned a transformation of the North Main Street corridor that’s been described as a highway ramp controlled by the state. The city for over a decade has wanted to fill sidewalk gaps and make other safety improvements to make it more walkable and bikeable, but it has yet to get the state to do that and is now exploring a city takeover of it. North Main Street is identified in the city’s new proposed land-use plan as an area for increased density, including housing.