If you drive the stretch of Woodward Avenue near Square Lake Road with any regularity, you've had the same view for about two years now: a dark Rite Aid sign at 42931 Woodward, and a few doors down, a shuttered Zoup! at 42983 Woodward that closed with barely a trace. Both sat empty long enough that most people stopped clocking them as "coming soon" and started treating them as permanent gaps in the block.
That's about to change, and the way it's changing tells you something about this particular corner of the township that a quick drive-by wouldn't.
The grocery space isn't going to a first-timer
Bloomfield Township's Board of Trustees approved a site plan and special land use request on February 23, 2026, clearing the way for Nourish Western Market to take over the old Rite Aid space. The operator behind it isn't testing the waters here. Steven Selvaggio and his son, also named Steven, have run Western Market in downtown Ferndale since 1983, and Nourish is described on the company's own site as the next generation of that same family business, not a new concept looking for a foothold.
What's coming is a full remodel of the 13,880-square-foot building, with locally sourced groceries, prepared foods, and a beer, wine, and liquor license. During the township hearing, the Selvaggios told trustees they'd already been working with neighboring residents on details like redesigning the outdoor lighting so it doesn't spill into the adjacent residential streets, the kind of groundwork a company puts in when it plans to be there a while, not when it's chasing a short-term discount on rent. Township Director of Planning, Building and Ordinances Andrea Bibby also noted something that adds a nice bit of history to the site: before it was a drugstore, that same shopping center space held a grocery store years earlier. Nourish isn't introducing something new to that corner so much as returning it to what it used to be.
The company's own site lists the opening as this fall, though it hasn't published an exact date yet.
The burger spot already has proof just down Woodward
The former Zoup! space is going to Patty & Press, a smashburger concept from G&B Hospitality, the company built by Goran Dimic and Brandon Gorgies. The pair signed the lease at 42983 Woodward with Keystone Commercial Real Estate's Norman Abro and Devon Campbell handling the deal, and they've told local reporters they're aiming for a September or October 2026 opening.
Here's the detail that matters more than the menu: this won't be Patty & Press's first stop on this stretch of Woodward. An existing location has been open since 2023 at 42767 Woodward Avenue, just south of Square Lake Road, near the Bloomfield Hills side of the corridor. Dimic and Gorgies aren't rolling the dice on an unproven road. They're doubling down on one they already have a read on. Before settling on the old Zoup! space, the team had also looked at the storefront currently occupied by Middle Eats nearby, which suggests they were specifically scouting this intersection rather than taking whatever came open first. Dimic has said plainly that the traffic at Woodward and Square Lake is what made the location worth it.
The rest of the company's track record backs up the pattern. Dimic and Gorgies started with Naked Burger in Clinton Township in 2017, expanded to Rochester, took over the gastropub Berkley Common, and opened a Patty & Press location in Shelby Township that held its formal grand opening this past March, with a Chesterfield location also in the pipeline. The brand's throughline across every location has been the same: grass-fed beef, hand-cut fries, and a "better-for-you" pitch aimed at people who want a smashburger without feeling like they cheated on lunch. Their Shelby Township opening leaned on some specific sourcing that's worth knowing if you end up ordering here too: beef from Fairway Packing Co. at Eastern Market, buns from Rising Stars Academy, a nonprofit that runs vocational training for adults with disabilities, and ice cream for the milkshakes from Guernsey Farms Dairy.
What two operators betting on the same block actually tells you
Here's the part that's easy to miss if you only think about this as "a grocery store and a burger place are opening." Bloomfield Township's heaviest retail gravity has typically sat a few miles over, at Telegraph and Square Lake Roads, where Bloomfield Town Square anchors Dick's Sporting Goods, TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, and a neighboring Costco pull in enough traffic that Telegraph Road there carries roughly 47,248 vehicles a day. That's the corridor that's always done the heavy lifting for the township's shopping habits.
The Woodward and Square Lake stretch is a different animal. It's smaller, more residential in feel, and it just spent two years with its two most visible commercial spaces sitting dark. When a family-run grocery brand with more than four decades of Ferndale history and a burger company that already has a working location just down the same road both choose to plant a second flag here in the same year, that's not two unrelated leases. That's two operators independently deciding this particular block has enough foot traffic and enough rooftops nearby to be worth the investment, backed by the kind of due diligence that comes from already knowing the territory rather than guessing at it.
For anyone who's spent two years wondering what was going to happen to that stretch of road, that's the actual answer. It's not filling in because a landlord finally got desperate. It's filling in because the people taking the leases already had reasons to believe in it.
What to watch for this fall
A quick rundown of what's actually changing, and where:
- 42931 Woodward Avenue (the old Rite Aid): Nourish Western Market, a rebranded expansion of the Selvaggio family's Ferndale grocery business, targeting a fall 2026 opening with a full grocery remodel plus beer, wine, and liquor.
- 42983 Woodward Avenue (the old Zoup!): a second Patty & Press location, targeting September or October 2026, joining the existing location just south on Woodward near Square Lake Road.
- Nearby for context: the new Patty & Press will share its building with a FedEx Office Print & Ship Center, with Chicken Shack, Jimmy John's, and Cold Stone Creamery already in the immediate vicinity, and downtown Pontiac just north of the intersection.
Neither opening has a confirmed calendar date yet, so if you're the type who likes to be first through the door, keep an eye on Nourish Western Market's own updates and Patty & Press's social accounts as the fall rolls on.
It's a small stretch of road, but small stretches of road are where you actually notice a neighborhood changing. Two years of dark storefronts on Woodward are about to become a grocery counter and a griddle, run by people who already had reason to bet on this exact block. That's worth knowing whether you've lived here for twenty years or you're still learning which strip malls have the good parking.
If you're curious what else is shifting around Bloomfield Township, or you want a neighbor's read on how a corner like this one fits into the bigger picture of the area, Paul Wolfert has been tracking this market for years and is always glad to talk through what's changing and why. Reach out any time for a free home valuation and a marketing plan built around what's actually happening on the ground here, not just what the comps say.
