What’s being built off Lake Michigan Drive? Hundreds of residential units are planned.
MLive.com | Audra Gamble | March 16, 2023
WALKER, MI — A large-scale development is in the works in Walker off Lake Michigan Drive, near Lincoln Lawns Neighborhood Park.
Workers are using heavy construction equipment to prepare the site for infrastructure, including installation of pipes and the building a road running through the site.
Construction on the apartment complex, called Savannah at Waterford Village, has begun.
Savannah at Waterford Village will include 250 luxury apartments, all of which are in one-story buildings similar to condominiums. Each apartment will have an attached two-car garage and will range from 905 to 1,617 square feet.
In total, the apartment complex will comprise of 39 buildings with four to eight homes per building. The 105-acre property at 3485 Lake Michigan Drive NW was formerly home to a bowling alley and the Lincoln Country Club, which was demolished in 2021.
The apartments will have amenities like 9-foot vaulted ceilings, quartz countertops, shaker-style cabinets and stainless steel appliances. Along with the 39 apartment buildings, a 5,255-square-foot private “residence club” is being built.
The clubhouse will have a fitness studio, community room, TV and billiards lounge, business center and an outdoor terrace with fire pits and barbecue grills. The apartment complex will also have walking trails along multiple ponds on the property.
In order to control the added traffic on Lake Michigan Drive due to the apartment complex, a new traffic signal will be installed at Lake Michigan Drive and Waterford Village Drive, the new public road servicing the apartment complex.
Savannah at Waterford Village is being developed by Stoneleigh Companies, based near Chicago. This will be the first apartment complex in Michigan for the company, but it has other apartment complexes in Ohio, Colorado, Minnesota, Texas and Illinois.
Stoneleigh Companies President Rick Cavenaugh told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press in 2022 he hopes for construction to be completed on Savannah at Waterford Village by the summer of 2024.
Cavenaugh originally estimated rent for the Walker apartments to range from $1,600-$2,500, depending on the size of the apartment. A Stoneleigh Companies apartment complex in Cleveland with similar amenities, however, shows rent rates a bit higher. At that apartment complex, a 704-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment rents for $1,905 per month and a 1,055-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment goes for $3,135 per month.