Plymouth Elks Lodge finds new home despite seller’s market
The unenviable job of searching for a new household for the duration of the coronary heart of a seller’s current market and through a relentless pandemic turned out remarkably perfectly for the Plymouth-Ann Arbor Elks Lodge 325.
Operating without having a facility to phone its very own due to the fact it closed on the sale of its former longtime house on Ann Arbor Highway in February, the Plymouth-centered Elks officially acquired a 4,000-square-foot creating around the intersection of Ann Arbor Trail and Lilley Street last thirty day period.
“It is an enjoyable time for us,” stated Lodge 325 Exalted Ruler Charley Dawson. “It truly is like Xmas arrived early for our customers.
“With every thing likely on with COVID, I originally assumed there would be a large amount of properties out there for sale immediately after we marketed our Ann Arbor Street residence. But it looks like a lot of the businesses that were being in the shutdown phase ended up leasing, so when a home grew to become vacant, one more tenant would shift in.”
When the residence at 110 Ann Arbor Trail — the former web site of an Airgas Keep — went on the marketplace in June, the Elks jumped on it, Dawson claimed.
“The initial time we walked in here and appeared around, we knew it was best,” Dawson explained. “We were being on the lookout for a developing concerning 4,000 and 5,000 square ft, and this is 4,000 correct on the dot. As well as, we’re in Plymouth, which is suitable. Almost everything worked out excellent.”
Dawson stated the lodge has ongoing to do business enterprise throughout its time devoid of a house foundation thanks to the generosity of fellow services groups in the Plymouth place.
“The Masonic Lodge in Aged Village (Plymouth) enable us use their lodge for our conferences, so we could continue to carry out business enterprise,” Dawson stated. “And the VFW Put up 6695 — just up the road from here — was kind ample to permit us use their facility each other 7 days or so to give our customers an opportunity to come collectively.
“When the Masonic Lodge was wanting for a new facility decades back again, we gave them the use of our lodge till they relocated from Penniman Avenue in downtown Plymouth to their latest locale. That’s how the fraternal companies do the job around here: We support each and every other.”
The likely for Lodge 325’s roster of 339 members to increase at its new residence is encouraging, Dawson stated.
“Our intentions are to be more visible to the public in our new area as opposed to in which we were being,” Dawson mentioned. “I think we are going to see far more persons just going for walks in our door and inquiring what we are all about.”
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Dawson mentioned the organization’s major concentrate is on encouraging veterans and family members of disabled children — a mission it will go on to embrace in its new headquarters.
The Elks program to renovate the former Airgas Keep area to make it much more practical for its purposes. The renovation will involve knocking down several partitions to give the building an open up flooring system really feel.
Dawson reported the timeline for formally relocating into the constructing is continue to fuzzy, “but I’m hoping we are up and running in below by early summer of 2022.”
In October, Toll Brothers and Pomeroy Living unveiled a strategy draft prepare for a 373-unit enhancement with apartments, townhouses and clubhouse on the house.
Speak to reporter Ed Wright at [email protected] or 517-375-1113.
