Commercial Real Estate in Royal Oak, Michigan

About Royal Oak

Territorial Governor Lewis Cass gave the settlement its name in 1819, after a large oak reminded him of the Royal Oak where King Charles II hid. Royal Oak incorporated as a village in 1891 and reincorporated as a city in 1921. Commuter trains between Pontiac and downtown Detroit stopped here until 1983, and Amtrak's Wolverine serves the station.

Several institutions give it weight beyond its size. Much of the Detroit Zoo lies in the city, and Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital is a major medical campus. The Shrine of the Little Flower, founded in the 1920s by Father Charles Coughlin, became a National Shrine and Minor Basilica. The Royal Oak Farmers Market began in 1925 as a truck market and moved to its building at 11 Mile and Troy Street in 1927. Oakland Community College keeps a campus here too.

Woodward Avenue runs along the west side, I-696 along the south and I-75 along the east. Downtown's old retail strip on Main Street and Washington Avenue was redeveloped in the 2000s into a dining and nightlife district, with mixed-use buildings placing shops and offices on the lower floors. Restaurants, medical offices and small professional offices make up much of the commercial mix.