Trader Joe’s Is ‘Taking Over the Project to Finish It’; May Open Next Summer
The long-stalled local Trader Joe’s project is on track to see the finish line with a possible opening next summer.
Meridian Township’s Director of Community Planning and Development Tim Schmitt let ELi know this morning (Sept. 7) he is now able to confirm Trader Joe’s has bought the property.
The property had been held by a subsidiary of Strathmore Real Estate Group, a company owned by members of the Chappelle family. Strathmore had been engaged to build the store, but the project has long been stalled.
Now, “Strathmore no longer has a real estate interest in the property,” according to Schmitt. Trader Joe’s has hired their own general contractor to finish the project.
The site falls in a geographic borderland on Grand River Avenue – within the East Lansing zip code of 48823 but in an area governed by Meridian Township.
Don’t expect Meridian Township to be calling it “Trader Joe’s” anytime soon. As detailed below, the company doesn’t like to announce a new store until it is close to opening. As a consequence, Meridian’s planning staff has agreed to “scrub” the township’s site of mentions of Trader Joe’s.
Until Trader Joe’s corporate office announces the store, Meridian Township will simply be calling this a “specialty grocery” project to be located at 2755 Grand River Ave., the southeast corner of Grand River Avenue and Northwind Drive, across from Whole Foods.
The project stalled as a long-time local developer who signed the construction loan went to prison.
The original developer of the project was Strathmore Real Estate Group and, as is typical for development projects, Strathmore created a limited liability company (LLC) for business related to the redevelopment. Strathmore called the LLC “SH G2755.”
Answering a reader’s questions about the apparent stalling of the project, ELi reported in November 2022 that, publicly, Sam Chappelle and Jacob Chappelle were named as developers of the project.
But behind the scenes, their father Scott Chappelle had signed the construction mortgage on the property in November 2021, while he was under a federal indictment that included eight counts of alleged financial crimes.
Scott Chappelle subsequently pled guilty in April 2022 to one count, tax evasion, and was sentenced to federal prison for 38 months and charged over $1.3 million in restitution and fines. He is now in prison. (Disclosure: Scott Chappelle sued ELi and this reporter for defamation and tortious interference and lost.)

Public records don’t make clear whether Scott Chappelle’s troubles contributed to the delays on the Trader Joe’s project. Strathmore has said the delays have been due to supply chain issues.
But communications just released under FOIA show that, by March of this year, Meridian’s planning director Schmitt was expressing apparent skepticism about that claim.
“Almost all of our other [construction] projects worked through the winter, due to the mildness,” Schmitt wrote on March 31 to Strathmore’s general contractor on the project. “What does the new schedule look like? I want this project to happen as much as the next guy, but we’re stretching it here on not forcing a new permit” to be applied for.
A month later, on April 27, Schmitt wrote to the general contractor again by email to tell them he was assuming the project was dead.
“April ends this weekend,” Schmitt wrote, “and no work has commenced on the site. Additionally, the Mechanical and Plumbing contractors have both sought and received refunds for their permitted work on hydrants, ruts, and exhaust fans. At this point, we [are] assuming the project has been canceled by corporate, so I need a plan for restoration of the site and removal of the construction materials. I don’t know if your team will be handling that or if it will fall to Strathmore, but we’re starting to get pressure to get it taken care of, since people assume the project is abandoned. Please advise.”
In response, the general contractor wrote back on May 5, “The project has not been canceled or abandoned! I have been dealing with herding cats to get this project back in gear. We had to hire a new plumber, who is in the process of pulling their permit. I expect to have them on site next week, along with a crew to uncover the [foundation] footings that were covered over the winter.”
On May 10, Ron Calhoun, Director of Development for Strathmore Real Estate Group, asked Schmitt for a meeting the following Monday, May 15.
Schmitt answered that he was happy to meet then, but “The permit extension expires on Friday [May 12]. At this point, there does not appear to be any construction activity on the site and we haven’t gotten a new schedule requesting an extension, so the permit will expire on Friday.”
Meanwhile, Younes Ishraidi, Chief Engineer for Meridian Township, let Schmitt know the developer was not allowed to restart construction until they had dealt with an important issue with water service at the site.
“We need a progress meeting before any construction can begin on that site!” Ishraidi wrote to Schmitt. “We need them to complete a key water related item as the first activity on the site!”
On May 15, Schmitt let his boss, Meridian Township Manager Frank Walsh, know that the state of the project was unclear.
“The Trader Joe’s building permit officially expired on Friday,” Schmitt said. “I met with the developer today and they are under a pretty ironclad NDA [non-disclosure agreement] and can’t share a whole lot [of] details, for fear of spooking Trader Joe’s. This includes not being able to provide me with a timeline. The project is not dead, but it is clearly in hibernation. Reinstituting the permit is relatively simple, since not much has changed and the code hasn’t changed, but it is dollars out of their pocket. And I am not willing to reinstitute it until we have a schedule.”
At the time, Schmitt was having to deal with regular inquiries from local reporters.
“At this point,” Schmitt told Walsh,” both LSJ [Lansing State Journal] and WLNS are looking for details/comment and my response to both is going to be that the permit is expired and the developer can reinstate it once they are ready to restart construction. The developer has given us every indication that they intend to proceed, but are unwilling to share any more details.”
Then things changed, as Trader Joe’s moved to buy out Strathmore’s interests and get the project done.
In June, Schmitt got looped into communications including Calhoun (the Director of Development for Strathmore) and Shane Morrison, Trader Joe’s Senior Director of Construction and Facilities.
Writing on June 20 and copying Morrison, Strathmore’s Calhoun told Schmitt, “As we discussed, we have a tentative agreement in place for Trader Joe’s to take over the project and finish it. They will most likely be hiring a new General Contractor but will be using the same Architect and Engineer of Record. It is their intent to NOT ‘redesign’ the building but to build what has already been approved. Shane [Morrison of Trader Joe’s] indicated that they would ramp up construction as soon as a building permit was issued, with an expected duration from issuance of the building permit of some 9-10 months to open.”
A week later, Morrison told Schmitt, “We are continuing to make progress.”
Still, the site showed no progress. On July 11, Schmitt wrote to Calhoun, “If the sale is starting to drag out a bit, someone needs to get out and weed whack the site. It’s gotten very raggedy. I’m talking inside the fence. If we aren’t pushing dirt around, the site needs to be maintained.
Calhoun answered the next day.
“We jumped on the weeds yesterday,” he said. “We are in a full court press to get the transaction completed. There are, however, a few more hurdles to clear before the transaction can close….They are really trying to understand the permitting risk in taking over the project…. While both parties are making material strides to move this project forward, TJ is not gearing up for construction until it closes.”

On July 19, Schmitt provided Trader Joe’s a letter that had been requested, detailing what would be needed to move on the “path forward.” Schmitt noted the plan was Strathmore’s LLC would transfer “ownership of property and project” to Trader Joe’s which would then “complete the project and SH G2755 [Strathmore’s LLC] will no longer be involved.”
A new general contractor, Thomas Grace, would be brought in by Trader Joe’s to finish the work using the “same plans that were previously reviewed” to avoid restarting the formal review process from square one. A fee of $7,139 would have to be paid to the township for the new permits.
On Aug. 16, some good news came in from a hired structural engineer: “The existing installed [foundation] footings are approved to support the proposed building and construction of the building is approved.” That meant the work already done would not have to be torn out and redone.
The next day, Schmitt shared welcome news with his boss, Manager Frank Walsh:
“Yesterday, we officially received the new application and check for the Trader Joe’s project. This is from a new contractor, who is working under contract with Trader Joe’s corporate. My understanding is that the property was sold on Wednesday to corporate, so the previous developer [Strathmore] is out of the picture. My current understanding is that construction will restart on 10/2, but I will confirm that next week.”
Schmitt sounded a note of caution: “I want to stress that we are not at the finish line yet, so I would not widely disseminate this information (in fact corporate has asked that I not use their name), but I can see the finish line and we are only waiting on a couple of things before we can reissue the permit.”
Walsh was happy to hear of the progress, telling Schmitt, “If the project moves forward, this will be a big ‘GET’ for the community. I have no intentions of sharing with anyone. Enjoy your round of 18 today.”
A couple of days later, on Aug. 23, a Meridian Township staffer excitedly let Schmitt know the Trader Joe’s permit had been issued. It was in the name of “Trader Joes East Inc,” suggesting the property had by then changed hands.

Schmitt wrote to his team, “Construction is expected to begin on 10/2, with mobilization occurring over the intervening weeks….Additionally, my understanding (although I can’t confirm yet) is that the property was sold to the end user last week. All of this should ensure that the project is completed quickly now.”
Schmitt’s message continued, “You’ll note I am not using the name of the end user [Trader Joe’s]. Throughout my conversations with them in the past two months, they have been adamant that they are not officially attached to the project yet. They do not like announcing until they are much further along in the development process. So I will be refraining from naming them, until they do so themselves.”
On Aug. 26, Schmitt let Morrison at Trader Joe’s know that “we’ve tried to scrub our website of the [name of the] end user [Trader Joe’s]. The original release was largely due to one [Township] Board member at the time, who had it on Facebook in record time. But regardless, going forward, unless you tell me otherwise, it is just an address and a shell project to us and I’ve directed the leadership team here the same. I will say, we’ve already got an email from the local news outlet, but all we’ve let them know is that a new permit has been issued. Whenever your team would like to officially announce, we’re ready for you.”
The same day, a representative from the new contractor let Schmitt know, “Rough schedule is open summer 2024.”
For now, Trader Joe’s is following its pattern of neither confirming nor denying a store is coming.
Nakia Rohde, Public Relations Manager for Trader Joe’s, told ELi on Sept. 5, “We are actively looking at hundreds of neighborhoods across the country as we hope to open more new neighborhood stores each year. At this time, we do not have a location confirmed in East Lansing.”
But, as we noted at the outset, Schmitt was able to confirm today that the property has now changed hands and the building permit is now in the name of Trader Joe’s.
All that is good news for Trader Joe’s fans who will no longer need to drive to Ann Arbor or Grand Rapids for their favorite products.
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