Businesses eying old Farmer Jack site

White Lake Township may be the new home of a couple new businesses moving into the building that used to house Farmer Jack on the northeast corner of M-59 and Fisk Road.

“The owner of the building told us that they are pursuing leases with at least two different regional and national tenants,” said White Lake Planning Director Sean O’Neil. “We don’t know who the tenants are at this point, but our hope is that in the next month or so they will have the leases done so that we can share with public who the next tenants will be.”

In July of 2007, A&P — the parent company of Farmer Jack — decided to close many of its Farmer Jack stores.

While 41 locations were acquired by Kroger and assorted independent grocers collectively, A&P still retained 25 stores. In June 2010, the company stopped making lease payments at its vacant Farmer Jack locations before filing for bankruptcy in December 2010.

Meanwhile, during that time, the Farmer Jack store in White Lake has been unoccupied. The lease between A&P and the property owner, Farmington Hills-based Gershenson Realty & Investments, was set to expire in 2019.

While some other Farmer Jack locations had subleases, the one in White Lake did not.

However, with A&P filing for bankruptcy, the lease between the company and Gershenson Realty & Investments was broken.

Now, Gershenson Realty is seeking new tenants to fill the vacant store area, which could occur within the next several months.

“Nothing is finalized yet, but from my understanding they are in negotiations with two different tenants,” O’Neil said. “Obviously, it’s going to take a few months to get the interior retro-fitted from a grocery store to another use. We’re anxious to have them working, upgrading, and retro-fitting the building for new tenants so that the building will be viable and occupied soon. We’re really excited about it.”