Northern cycle shop named Michigan’s best

McLain Cycle and Fitness, with locations in Traverse City and Cadillac, was named the #1 Specialized Bike dealer in Michigan by Specialized Bicycle Components, a major manufacturer of bicycles and equipment, based in California. It competed for top honors with 50 other dealers who sell Specialized bikes.

The store, owned by Bob McLain, has been one of the top 100 Specialized dealers nationally for the past five years. It carries a large selection of bikes, fitness equipment, kayaks, outdoor gear and accessories.

Warren-based Art Van Furniture is offering a Michigan-inspired furniture collection.

The Michigan H.O.M.E.S. line includes the Copper Harbor collection and the newly released Grand Shores collection. Designed by Muskegon native Dan Yates, it seeks to capture the feeling of lake living in Michigan with lighthouse-shaped furniture legs and corners and beach colors.

Art Van plans to donate partial proceeds from sales of the Grand Shores collection to the Water Quality Protection Fund under the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. Art Van spokesperson Chris Morrisroe said the company would donate at least $10,000.

Patrick Heller, owner of Liberty Coin Service in Lansing, has been elected to the Professional Numismatists Guild. Heller is the first Michigan coin dealer outside Detroit and only the fourth in the state to attain membership in the elite guild, a nonprofit organization composed of the world’s top rare coin and paper money experts.

Also, Liberty Coins service has expanded its foreign currency exchange services to 11 different currencies.

In addition to its stock of Euro and Canadian and British currencies, LCS now regularly stocks currencies for Australia, Denmark, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand , Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. Heller believes his store is the only one in mid-Michigan to carry these 11 currencies.

All 67 locations of the Detroit-based Farmer Jack supermarket chain have been closed or sold by its parent company, the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A & P), as of July 7.

Cincinnati-based Kroger, Inc. bought 20 of the defunct stores and the remaining were sold to independent grocers or are still on the market. Hollywood Market and Hiller’s Market, two independent chains that have bought former Farmer Jack stores, both plan to rehire as many former Farmer Jack employees as possible.

At Kroger, however, a labor agreement with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union may keep some former Farmer Jack workers from being rehired.

The agreement stipulates that Kroger match employee wages and benefits of any Farmer Jack employees it hires at the newly acquired stores. It does not, however, state that Kroger must hire Farmer Jack employees.

Roger Robinson, president of UFCW local 876, said that the union was trying to avoid workers being hired as completely new employees, which would have delayed their insurance and pension benefits and started them at a lower pay rate.

More than 30 retail developments representing more than $1 billion in investment are in the works in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. Overall, 14 retail developments in Wayne County, 11 in Oakland County and nine in Macomb County are set to open this year or next or are in the preliminary stages.

The list of budding developments, expansions and redevelopment projects was released in mid-July at the 2007 Michigan Idea Exchange in Novi. The event was hosted by the International Council of Shopping Centers.

More than two dozen additional retailers signed to open at the Mall at Partridge Creek in Clinton Township, according to developer Taubman Centers. The open-air shopping center, which will be anchored by Nordstrom and Parisian, will open Oct. 18.

Nearly half of the just-announced stores and eateries will be unique to Macomb County, and six of them will be Michigan firsts. The retailers include Sur La Table, Calvin Klein, the Territory Ahead, Pizza Rustica, Cacique, Shi by Journeys, Moonstruck Chocolate Café, Forever 21 and Bebe Sport.

The building boom along Bear Creek Township’s Anderson Road corridor in Petoskey is expected to continue this year with an expansion of the Bear Creek Plaza shopping center. Ohio-based RG Properties plans to add five new retail spaces to Bear Creek Plaza. Construction is expected to start this fall, with an opening planned for spring 2008.