KALAMAZOO, MI -- A prime site near downtown previously home to a popular brewery and restaurant is getting ready to open with a new business.
Activities associated with opening a new restaurant and bar -- hiring employees and filing a menu with the health officials -- are in process for the former Arcadia Ales facility along the Kalamazoo River.
Named ThunderBird, the restaurant and bar has “now hiring” signs posted on the building and filed preliminary paperwork with Kalamazoo County and the state. MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette filed a Freedom of Information request to secure the documents from Kalamazoo County.
KRIP LLC owns the site and the company is listed on public documents as responsible for the water bill at the address. Peter D. Cronk is listed as the registered agent for the LLC. Cronk is an attorney and managing partner of Plunkett Cooney’s Lansing office.
Cronk told MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette on Dec. 5 that he forwarded a media inquiry on to the owner of the property and restaurant. No response has been received in the days since.
ThunderBird did not respond to a message seeking comment submitted through its online employment application form. Others associated with the property, Urban Feast and Kris Elliot, could not be reached for comment.
Communications Manager Mike Smith said city officials have no information at this time on the owner’s plans for the site.
Large “now hiring” banners were seen hanging at the building at 701 E. Michigan Ave. in December, and smaller hiring signs were posted on the windows, along with “no trespassing” signs.
The signs direct people to visit tbirdkzoo.com to apply for “all positions,” including general manager, kitchen manager, cooks, bartenders, servers, hosts, and door staff. The site and the hiring flyers feature a logo with the name and little other details.
The website says “coming soon” above the ThunderBird logo that features a bird head and wings.
The former Arcadia Ales restaurant and beer production facility is located east of the Kalamazoo River and, when it was open, offered outdoor seating with firepits and a stage for music and performances. The space was dog friendly with views of the Kalamazoo River.
Arcadia Ales founder and former CEO Tim Suprise opened the Kalamazoo location of Arcadia Ales in 2014.
In 2016, Arcadia Ales partnered with the Lansing-area restaurant group Urban Feast, founded by developer Kris Elliott, to open Arcadia Smokehouse in Lansing’s East Side neighborhood. The space currently operates as Arcadia Restaurant Brewpub. Urban Feast also owns The Grand Woods in Grand Rapids, among other restaurants.
In 2019, then Arcadia Brewing CEO and founder Tim Suprise transferred ownership of the Kalamazoo brewery property to First National Bank of Michigan. The brewing company stopped producing beer and the Kalamazoo facility closed its doors.
Elliot’s Urban Feast would direct the brewpub’s transformation into a full-service restaurant, the bank said in 2019. The bank no longer has any involvement in the deal and had no information about the new business, a spokesman told MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette in December.
The site at 701 E. Michigan Ave. now has two active license through the Michigan Liquor Control Commission under the name Kalamazoo Ales LLC. The licenses are for on-premises and off-premises sales. They were issued in October 2020 and expire in April 2023.
Matthew Elliot is listed as member on the license. Cronk is listed as the agent for Kalamazoo Ales LLC.
An official at the Kalamazoo County Environmental Health Department said plan review documents were recently summited to the county, and restaurant inspections had not occurred as of Dec. 7. Both names, Kalamazoo Ales LLC and ThunderBird, appear on the documents.
A Freedom of Information Act request to the county for 701 E. Michigan Ave. returned a menu and several other documents.
The ThunderBird menu shows appetizers including honey tossed Brussels sprouts, steak bites and waffle fries. It lists salads, flatbreads, a smash burger, a buffalo chicken sandwich, chicken tenders, macaroni and cheese and “thunder chili.”
Thunder Bird opening menu by fredcranberry on Scribd
A food service license application from Kalamazoo Ales LLC to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development was included in the plan review documents for 701 E. Michigan Ave. that MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette received from the county. The county redacted some information from the document, which is an application for a new owner at a fixed establishment.
A plan review application to the state agency lists Kalamazoo Ales LLC as the name for a new establishment, with an opening date listed as Nov. 16. Seating capacity including outdoor seating and bar is 668, and the facility is 5,436 square feet, the planning document states.
Several of the KRIP LLC documents filed with the state in previous years are signed, “Peter Cronk for Kris Elliott.”
Elliot previously announced plans to open Grand Woods Lounge at the former Arcadia Ales site in Kalamazoo, but the plans did not come to fruition. The latest KRIP LLC document, filed on Nov. 17, 2022, does not include Elliot’s name.
The property was formerly a Brownfield site that was cleaned up before the new construction. Developers received a number of incentives, including $1 million in state grants and a $200,000 low-interest loan through the local Brownfield Redevelopment Authority.
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