A new brunch house opening at The Village at Grand Traverse Commons is one of several developments underway at the historic property, which is experiencing increased retail growth and event and park traffic – and could soon see the addition of a 70,000 square-foot mixed-use development.

Long-time restaurant veterans and former Green House Café co-workers Chad Hall and Joshua Anderson plan to open the doors to Red Spire Brunch House in Building 50 by the end of the month. The duo will operate in the space previously occupied by Italian restaurant PepeNero, which recently upgraded to expanded digs in The Village’s Kirkbride Hall.

Red Spire Brunch House will offer “classic, high-quality breakfast and lunch items,” according to Hall and Anderson, including “omelets, Benedicts, specialty pancakes and French toasts, fruits and granolas, standard breakfast dishes, fresh salads, soup, deli and grilled sandwiches.” All items will be available either for dine-in or to-go; once the company’s pending liquor license is approved, the eatery will also offer mimosas, Bloody Marys and other alcoholic beverages.

As long-time downtown restaurant employees, Hall says he and Anderson “love downtown, but the Commons is a growing area that was appealing. There’s a lot of foot traffic, a large variety of people who live and work here to pull from, and there wasn’t any kind of breakfast place over in this area.”

Once open, Red Spire will operate Monday-Friday 7am-4pm and Saturday-Sunday 9am-3pm.

The new brunch house is one of several retail changes underway at the Commons. After closing for nearly two months of reconstruction, Elf (eat,learn,frolic) co-owner Ellen Fred says the children’s play center will have a grand reopening Thursday. The reconfigured space will offer a coffee bar and children’s play space; Elf will also start soon offering Saturday “date night” drop-off daycare from 5pm to 9pm. “In this new space, we’ll be able to pursue a daycare license, so we’ll be offering more daycare options to come,” says Fred. An independent leasee will take over Elf’s former café space and open a new standalone café in the coming months, according to Fred.

Elsewhere in the Commons, Taste of Black Star Farms will close at Building 50 at the end of the month, according to Raymond Minervini Jr. of The Minervini Group, redevelopers of The Village. The vacated space will be one of the only available retail spaces at the The Village, which is near 100 percent occupancy within its developed buildings. Around the corner at Left Foot Charley, Minervini says the winery will take over Building 63 this winter – a former root cellar on Yellow Drive previously home to One of a Kind Cycle – for use as a new barrel-aging facility, semi-private tasting room and event space. “It’s a really Old World-style venue that will allow them to have activities and events without monopolizing their (main) tasting room,” Minervini says.

The growth of other Village businesses – as well as adjacent properties – is also contributing to a steady traffic uptick at the property. With the opening of Earthen Ales this month, The Village now has its own craft brewery; PepeNero also opened a wine lounge called Ballaró as part of its recent expansion. On the residential side, on-site senior living facility Cordia at Grand Traverse Commons – which opened in late 2014 – is at 70 percent occupancy of its 110 private residences, drawing additional visitors in the form of families and friends to the site, according to Club Executive Director Linda Price.

After opening in spring 2015, the nearby Cathedral Barn at Historic Barns Park has expanded from weddings and private parties to large-scale community events, including Porterhouse Presents concerts and celebrations for the Michigan Cider Association and Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy. Venue Manager Stephanie Wiitala says the 200-300 capacity space is seeing growth “we weren’t expecting for another year or two…almost all of our Saturdays for peak season next year are already sold.”

Meanwhile, the adjacent Grand Traverse Commons Natural Areas is expected to expand by 40 acres in 2017, bringing the public park’s acreage to 180 total. Garfield Township has plans to develop a world-class biking trail system at the site, adding a skills park, pump track and dirt jump area to its list of amenities.

Minervini says the Village is “working on different arrays of parking” to handle the increased traffic from all of the above sources. “There are areas to the south and west of the power plant, expanded areas by the water tower, and we’re expanding more parking up Yellow Drive,” he says. While a future parking deck is theoretically feasible, it would be a “very large undertaking” that would require a significantly higher visitor load, Minervini says.

The Village is also continuing to explore options for developing other historic buildings on the property. A long-discussed hotel at the site is still a possibility; Minervini says he’s “cautiously optimistic” news about that proposal could be forthcoming in 2017. The Village has also had several inquiries about uses for the old power plant, which Minervini calls a “big box waiting for a great idea.” With parts of the building over 60 feet high, however, Minervini's uncertain if a recently-passed charter amendment requiring a public vote on taller buildings will impact its development. “The Commons could very well be collateral damage for Prop 3…we’re not sure yet how that will all be implemented,” he says.

One project that does have a green light, however, is the redevelopment of the Village’s warehouse building. While Minervini declined to go into specifics, he says the site is targeted to be a 70,000 square-foot mixed-use development with 25 residential condominiums. “That’s the next major project for us,” Minervini says. “We’ll start selling units in 2017."