Commercial Real Estate in Garden City, Michigan

About Garden City

Garden City owes its name to a planning idea from 19th-century England. Home sites here were laid out mostly as one-acre plots so families could raise their own fruit and vegetables. The land had been part of Nankin Township, and the community became a village in 1927, with Arnold Folker as its president, and a city six years later. Most of those large lots were later split, some down to 40 feet wide, leaving a densely built city.

Its place in retail history is out of proportion to its size. The first Kmart opened here in 1962, the first Little Caesars started on Cherry Hill Road in 1959, and Michigan's first dine-in McDonald's was here as well. That roadside retail pattern still defines the city.

Business runs along Ford and Middlebelt Roads, which meet at what is considered downtown. The gray stone Folker Building at the southeast corner served as the first city hall, and the current one is on Middlebelt between Ford and Warren. Property along both roads is neighborhood scale: storefronts, restaurants and strip centers such as Garden City Town Center. Garden City Hospital on Inkster Road gives the city a medical presence alongside its retail.