Seventh Street Reopens

For Immediate release: City Open Seventh Street and New Parking Lot
Contact: Donald Johnson, Interim City Manager, Ph.(248) 246-3200
July 10 2009

Royal Oak, Mich. – After being closed for 25 years, Seventh Street is open again! The portion between Main Street and Center Street was closed in 1984 at the request of Bill Greig Buick-Opel. Over the years, the dealership changed owners and names, but the street remained closed until this week.

In addition to opening Seventh Street, a new 217 space parking lot at Main and Seventh Streets will open next week. The lot was built on the former dealership property which the City acquired earlier this year

with help from the Downtown Development Authority. “The new lot brings much needed parking to the southern part of downtown” said Royal Oak Mayor Jim Ellison. “The lot has been paved and striped and DPS crews are installing meters now. It could be open by Wednesday.”

Additional parking is available on the newly opened Seventh Street. The section from Main to Washington is now one-way westbound and features diagonal parking. The direction of traffic has been reversed between Center Street and Washington.

The City is working with a developer who is interested in building a hotel on the site of the new parking lot. That will not result in a loss of parking, however. “We will require a developer to include a public parking structure as part of any development on this property” noted Planning Director Tim Thwing.

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