North Main Street Makes a Revival in Royal Oak

Click on the red markers on the Google Maps widget above to see where these projects are located, along with "before and after" photos.

With new stores, gyms and offices in place — and a hotel, apartments and more office space on the way — the seemingly once suffering stretch of North Main Street, between 11 Mile and Catalpa/Gardenia, is slowly coming to a revival. 

Royal Radio, Royal Music Center, Harper Furniture and the Fresard dealership are gone, but a comeback is in the works with major renovations and new buildings on the way.

Here are nine changes to the half-mile strip in the past two years that you should know about:

1. Hamlin Corner opened in May at 386 N. Main on the ground level of the Main North Lofts. The space had been vacant since 2006.
2. Developers announced a Hyatt Place is coming to Royal Oak in October. The proposed 8-story hotel complex at 400 N. Main will be built on the site of the former Fresard auto dealership, which has been vacant and deteriorating since 2008.
3. Retailer Co. 512 hopes to open at 512 N. Main before Christmas, according to owner Lorraine Wangler. The renovated building was stripped of its purple paint over the summer. The 1919 building was the was previously home to the Royal Music Center from 1957 to 2009.
4. Developers received approval from the  Planning Commission Tuesday to renovate 520 N. Main and demolish a warehouse and showroom at 528 N. Main to construct a new one-story building for Genisys Credit Union. The buildings were most recently occupied by the Gleason Building Company. The building at 528 N. Main was once used by Shelby Collision before before it was renovated into a showroom for Gleason in 2000.
5. ISCG, which provides design solutions, moved into the former Royal Radio building at 612 N. Main in 2012. Royal Radio closed its doors in February 2008. 
6. Pulse Fitness, a new Main Street gym that provides personal training services, opened in March at 616 N. Main in the former Royal Radio appliance shop.
   
7. DessiS Boutique, which specializes in artistic fashion constructions, moved in at 806 N. Main in 2012. The space was previously home to H & R Block.
8. Nafas Fitness opened at 811 N. Main in May in a space that was previously home to the Arthur Murray Dance Studio for 25 years. (The Arthur Murray studio moved to 30532 Woodward Ave. in Royal Oak in May 2012.)
9. Goodman Property, LLC plans to convert the former Harper Furniture store at 916 N. Main, which has been vacant since 2005, into ground-level business, administrative, or professional offices, medical offices and 12 upper-level multiple-family dwelling units.