CVS left 42433 Ford Road in April 2024, and the 12,309-square-foot building has sat empty since. This summer someone cleared out the interior, and JCS Construction Services posted a building permit inside labeled "Trader Joe's Demo."
Here is what's actually confirmed. Canton Corners/Ford Road LLC, which owns the property, filed a Certificate of Zoning Compliance for a grocery store at the address and listed Trader Joe's as the occupant. The township approved it. Community Planning Manager Patrick Sloan told Hometown Life that the next steps are re-occupancy permits plus approval of the site plan and building plans. He couldn't give a timeline. In June, Trader Joe's said it planned a Canton store "in the next couple of years" but wouldn't confirm a location. As of the story's last update on August 11, the company had no update to share.
So the most talked-about arrival on Canton's busiest road is moving into a vacant pharmacy, and that's the pattern up and down the corridor. Ford Road isn't growing outward anymore. Hometown Life described developers going after "the few remaining properties" on the roughly three-mile stretch. Most of the other activity is about putting new tenants into longtime businesses and empty buildings. The next few years of Ford Road will come down to what goes into buildings you already drive past, and how you'll turn into them after MDOT rebuilds the road.
Address by address, old tenant to new
Every project with real momentum on this list is a second life for an existing address. Statuses are as of the most recent reporting found, and some of it is a few months old.
| Address | What was there | What's planned or open | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|---|
| 42433 Ford Rd. | CVS, closed April 2024 | Grocery store, with Trader Joe's named on the zoning application | Zoning compliance approved; re-occupancy permits and site and building plans still needed as of Aug. 11 |
| 41190 Ford Rd. | Bob Evans, closed November 2025 after 47 years | Double drive-through restaurant; Chick-fil-A appears on plan signage, but the applicant has no signed lease | Township Board approved rezoning on July 14, 2026 |
| 41275 Ford Rd. | The Bowery Grille & Pub, closed in early August 2026 | Bayt Al Mocha drive-through coffee shop plus one more tenant | Planning Commission recommended approval June 1; Township Board approval still required |
| 42089 Ford Rd. | BD's Mongolian Grill, closed earlier in 2026 | Fire Bowl Mongolian Stir-Fry & Ramen | Appeared to be setting up as of late June; opening not confirmed |
| 41601 Ford Rd. | Black Rock Bar & Grill, closed December 2025 | Undecided | Several offers, some to reuse the site and some to redevelop it, as of June |
| 42595 Ford Rd. | Value City Furniture | Undecided | Listed as the only available space in Canton Corners, as of June |
One newcomer has already crossed the finish line. Beyond Juicery + Eatery at 42645 Ford Road now posts store hours and online ordering for its Canton location. The company calls itself a health-focused quick-service spot for juices, smoothies, wraps and salads. At its June 1 meeting, the Planning Commission approved a temporary 16-seat outdoor patio for it.
The Bowery went from proposal to closure in about two months. At the June 1 hearing it was still serving, and the applicant said demolition would start only after approvals and that the land sale depended on the project going forward. The pub announced its final night for August 5, and Hometown Life reported it closed the next day.
The open land is where projects stall
If reuse is the main pattern on Ford Road, the projects stuck on undeveloped ground show why. The best-known one is the proposed Topgolf, Chick-fil-A and Portillo's development. It stalled more than a year ago when the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy denied a wetlands permit tied to it. The developer has said he believes the two restaurants will eventually get built.
There are two other ground-up proposals. The Shoppes on Ford is a planned four-tenant retail building on the north side of Ford Road between Lilley and Haggerty roads, near Ikea. It was being marketed in June but hadn't broken ground. A Sheetz is proposed for the southwest corner of Ford and Lotz roads, with a 6,139-square-foot building, eight multi-pump fuel dispensers and 24-hour food and drink. As of June it was still in review.
Meanwhile, a recycled address picked up the Chick-fil-A thread. Canton Township Supervisor Anne Marie Graham-Hudak had said Chick-fil-A was working with the planning department on another Ford Road location. "They're insistent on being on Ford Road," she said. "It's the place to be." When AMM Canton, LLC brought the former Bob Evans parcel to the Planning Commission, Chair Zuber pointed out that the signs on the submitted plans showed Chick-fil-A. The applicant's representative said he had a contract to buy the property, with the sale expected to close in summer 2026, but no signed lease with that tenant. So a Chick-fil-A at 41190 Ford Road is a strong signal, not a done deal.
The township has done its part on zoning. The Board of Trustees approved the second reading on July 14, 2026, as part of a unanimous consent calendar. That rezoned the parcel from C-4, Interchange Service, to C-3, Regional Commercial, with no change to the CBD Overlay. The concept plan calls for demolishing the old restaurant and putting up a double drive-through. Other township approvals were still needed as of June.
A driveway condition that previews the next Ford Road
The Bayt Al Mocha approval is the most interesting document in this batch, and the coffee isn't why. The Planning Commission's 8-0 recommendation for the drive-through at 41275 Ford Road came with three conditions:
- A separating median at the Ford Road entrance, so the driveway is right-in, right-out only.
- A satisfactory MDOT review of that driveway.
- Site plan revisions approved by Canton Municipal Services staff before the plan goes to the Township Board.
Commissioner Foster supported the project but raised concerns about traffic and how it would fit with a future boulevard construction project on Ford Road. That project is MDOT's plan to rebuild M-153 from Sheldon Road to I-275. It covers the same stretch where the Bob Evans, Bowery and Black Rock sites sit, all of them between I-275 and Haggerty.
On its Ford Road Boulevard project site, MDOT says it will reconstruct 2.27 miles of Ford Road. Construction is expected to start in 2028 and finish in 2029. Here's what changes:
- A boulevard will separate eastbound and westbound traffic, with at least two through lanes each way.
- The continuous center turn lane goes away, and crossovers are added.
- Left turns are eliminated except for vehicles turning left onto M-153 at Haggerty Road.
- Passenger-vehicle turnarounds are added along the route, with truck turnarounds at both ends.
- Traffic signals are added.
- Continuous ADA-certified sidewalks are built on both sides of the road.
Put that next to the business list and the timing matters. Fire Bowl, Bayt Al Mocha, a possible Trader Joe's and whatever replaces Bob Evans would all open on today's road, with its center turn lane. A few years later, getting into most of those lots will mean a right turn or a crossover. The right-in, right-out median required at the old Bowery driveway is a small, early version of that change.
MDOT's case for the project rests on its traffic data. The table on its project site shows 45,790 vehicles entering the Ford and Lilley intersection on an average day, based on SEMCOG figures from January 2016. That's the intersection at the corner of Canton Corners, where the Trader Joe's space is. The crash rate there, measured from July 2016 to July 2019, ran 262 percent over the comparable Michigan average. The Ford and Canton Center Road intersection ran 186 percent over. Those figures are several years old, and they're MDOT's own justification for the rebuild, not a current count.
The schedule has also slipped before. A 2023 ClickOnDetroit report described the overhaul as starting in 2024. MDOT now lists 2028 as the expected start. I'm treating that date as MDOT's current plan, not a guarantee.
What to watch between now and the boulevard
Several of these addresses have a specific next step, and each one will show up in public township records before you see it from the road:
- 42433 Ford Road: site plan and building plan approvals for the Trader Joe's space, which come after the zoning compliance certificate the township already approved.
- 41275 Ford Road: Township Board action on Bayt Al Mocha's special land use, and the second tenant for the west side of the building, which hadn't been named.
- 41190 Ford Road: a signed tenant and the remaining approvals for the double drive-through, now that the rezoning is done.
- 41601 Ford Road: which of the offers on the former Black Rock site goes through. Randy Thomas of Insite Commercial said that at 3.3 acres, the property is larger than most sites available on the corridor.
Planning Commission and Township Board agendas and minutes are posted at cantonmi.gov. The July 14 Board minutes are where the Bob Evans rezoning became official, and future decisions on the Bowery and CVS sites will turn up there first.
If you own on or near the Ford Road corridor and want to talk through how these reuse projects and the 2028 boulevard schedule could affect a sale, a lease or a commercial purchase, I'm glad to go over it with you address by address. Sold Buy Eddie LLC follows these planning decisions as closely as the listings. Let's Connect.
