On August 5, The Bowery Grille & Pub posted its last-night announcement on Facebook: "Tonight, after 27 years, we pour our final round at The Bowery." The building at 41275 Ford Road started as a Palace restaurant in the 1970s. A previous owner added a bar and the Bowery name in 1984, and the current owner bought it in 1999.
The Bowery didn't close because no one wanted the spot. The owner sold it to a developer who plans to tear down the building and put up a multi-tenant building with a Bayt al Mocha coffee shop on one side, according to hometownlife.com's report on the closing.
A string of closures like this can look like a corridor in decline. On Ford Road in Canton it points the other way. Businesses want to be here so badly that the usual way in is to take over a space someone else has held for decades.
The Land Ran Out First
According to a June 2026 hometownlife.com look at the corridor, few undeveloped parcels with Ford Road frontage are left between I-275 and Canton Center Road. The open land that does remain mostly comes with a problem:
- East of Morton Taylor Road near OfficeMax, a wooded stretch is mostly wetlands protected by a state conservation easement. Canton Community Planning Manager Patrick Sloan said, "We've had a lot of calls about that one," and the township wants to keep the easement in place.
- The south side of Ford Road east of I-275 still has some undeveloped land, but floodplains limit what can go there.
- West of Canton Center Road near Belle Tire, vacant commercial land has drawn developer interest. About five years ago, an LA Fitness planned for that area fell through because the existing stormwater system couldn't handle it.
- Near I-275, the Topgolf, Chick-fil-A and Portillo's project stalled after the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy denied a wetlands permit tied to it.
Demand hasn't slowed. Jordan Jabbori of CMP Real Estate Group told the paper, "Ford Road is one of the strongest retail corridors in the state," and called IKEA "a regional pull." He named Cava and Raising Cane's as recent arrivals and said finding the right space keeps getting harder. Over the 12 months covered by recent visitor data, the Canton Township Downtown Development Authority shopping district recorded about 10.7 million visits.
So vacancies don't stay open long. Jabbori said he was searching for space for a jeweler who could find cheaper rent elsewhere but didn't want it: "they want to be upfront and seen." When a longtime business closes, a buyer is usually already waiting.
Address by Address, As of Early October
Here's where each familiar Ford Road spot stands, based on the most recent reporting and township records available as of October 10, 2026. "Pending" means just that. None of these is confirmed open unless the table says so.
| Address | What was there | What's planned | Latest status found |
|---|---|---|---|
| 41190 Ford Rd | Bob Evans, closed Nov. 2025 after 47 years | Chick-fil-A drive-through | Application filed; listed "for reference only" on the Aug. 17 Planning Commission agenda |
| 41275 Ford Rd | The Bowery Grille & Pub, closed Aug. 5, 2026 | Bayt al Mocha drive-through plus a second tenant | Planning Commission recommended approval with conditions on June 1 |
| 41601 Ford Rd | Black Rock Bar & Grill, closed Dec. 2025 | Not announced | Several offers reported in June on the 3.3-acre site |
| 42089 Ford Rd | BD's Mongolian Grill, closed early 2026 | Fire Bowl Mongolian Stir-Fry & Ramen | Appeared to be setting up in June; opening not confirmed |
| 39707 Ford Rd | JL Hudson Bistro | Middle Eats, halal Mediterranean bowls, wraps and salads | Expected before the end of summer; opening not confirmed |
| 42433 Ford Rd | CVS | A grocery store | "Lease pending"; tenant not named |
| 42595 Ford Rd | Value City Furniture | Not announced | Listed as the only available space in Canton Corners |
| 42645 Ford Rd | New location | Beyond Juicery + Eatery | Company page lists hours and online ordering |
About the grocery at the old CVS, a lot of people have guessed Trader Joe's. In June, the company told hometownlife.com, "At this time, we do have plans for a store in Canton in the next couple of years, but we do not have a location to confirm." For now, that's all that's public.
The Value City space is large. In Canton Corners, only the neighboring Hobby Lobby is bigger. It opened up when Value City closed all its locations earlier this year.
Why So Many Replacements Have a Drive-Through Lane
Both of the furthest-along plans on the list swap a sit-down restaurant for drive-through service.
The Bob Evans site shows the pattern most clearly. A concept plan and rezoning request call for tearing down the building and putting up a double drive-through. At the June 1 Planning Commission meeting, commissioners voted 8-0 to recommend the rezoning. The applicant said there was no signed lease yet, though commissioners noted Chick-fil-A on the plans. Jabbori, who was marketing the property, said, "There's a deal in the works. And I'd like to believe everyone that lives around that area will be very excited." By mid-August, a Chick-fil-A drive-through application for 41190 Ford Road had reached the township's Planning Services Division, Social House News reported.
Chick-fil-A's path here ties back to the land shortage. The chain lost its first Canton site when the Topgolf project stalled. Supervisor Anne Marie Graham-Hudak said the township told the company it could do well on Michigan Avenue or Canton Center Road: "they're insistent on being on Ford Road. It's the place to be." With so little open frontage left, Chick-fil-A turned to an existing restaurant site that changed hands.
The Bowery site follows the same path. In front of the Planning Commission, the applicant said demolition would start only after approvals. At that point no second tenant had been named.
Parking Lots Are the Next Frontier
With little land left and turnover limited by how often old businesses close, the township is pointing developers at the asphalt in front of existing stores. "We have encouraged commercial developers to look at the large parking lots along Ford Road," Sloan said. He added that many shopping centers were built with more parking than they need, and those unused paved surfaces add to stormwater runoff.
You've probably driven past this already without noticing. According to Sloan, the Culver's near Meijer sits on what used to be underused parking, and so does a newer multi-tenant retail center near Home Depot, east of I-275. The proposed Shoppes on Ford, a four-tenant retail building on the north side of Ford Road between Lilley and Haggerty roads near IKEA, would follow the same model. It hasn't broken ground. The June article also named the oversized lots in front of Kohl's and Target as possible future infill sites.
Target already has something on the township calendar. The October 5 Planning Commission agenda included a site plan amendment for façade and signage changes at 43670 Ford Road.
Some of the Growth Is Spilling Off Ford Road
With Ford Road this crowded, some of the projects Canton residents will notice next sit just off it. Patel Brothers, the grocery chain focused on foods from India and the Middle East, is preparing a 20,000-square-foot store at 6310 North Canton Center Road, between Ford and Hanford roads. It's on the former Canton Computers site, and that building has been torn down. As of mid-September, the township said landscaping was coming soon, proposed building changes were still under review, and the company hadn't given an opening date. Its closest Michigan stores are in Garden City, Farmington Hills, Ann Arbor and Troy.
Michigan Avenue is drawing interest too. The same October 5 agenda included a public hearing on rezoning a vacant parcel on the south side of Michigan Avenue between Lilley and Haggerty roads from General Industrial to C-4, Interchange Service.
On Ford Road's east end, a proposed Sheetz at Ford and Lotz roads would have a 6,139-square-foot building and eight multi-pump fuel dispensers. As of June, Sloan said the township was waiting on more information about traffic and circulation around that busy intersection.
What Changes the Road Itself
All of this turnover is happening ahead of a bigger change. The Michigan Department of Transportation's boulevard project, budgeted at $65 million, will rebuild 2.27 miles of Ford Road, also known as M-153, between I-275 and Sheldon Road starting in 2028. Sloan said the cross-access drives the township has pushed between shopping centers, which let drivers move between businesses without pulling back onto Ford Road, will matter even more during that construction.
The township is also working through the DDA on a Ford Road District brand. A new logo is already on banners along the corridor. "People judge Canton by Ford Road," Graham-Hudak said. "The people who live in Canton say, 'I don't even have to go anywhere. Everything's on Ford Road.'"
The next Canton Township Board of Trustees meeting is October 13. Neither drive-through appeared on the posted August 25 or September 22 board agendas, so those plans still have approval steps ahead of them.
If you're wondering what's going into a particular building on Ford Road, or what a new business nearby could mean for your street, I'm happy to look through the township records with you. I'm Dan Fortin with Dan At Your Doorstep, and I keep an eye on Canton's planning agendas all year. Let's Connect.
