200+ ground-up developments

Find the dirt.
Deliver the store.

Site selection. Approvals. Construction.
One assignment, all the way to opening day.

Later Family Video prototype with stepped brick frontage and a glass-block tower
More than a storefront. A completed development assignment.
200+Ground-up developments

Southwest Michigan. Ohio. Minnesota. Illinois.
New York. Pennsylvania. Kentucky.

How we made our bones

The whole project.
Not just the property.

More than 200 ground-up developments across seven states. From the first look at a site to the day operations took the keys.

The Family Video years meant finding the dirt, resolving environmental issues, securing approvals, clearing existing buildings and overseeing construction. Then came the shelves, the movies and the handoff to operations.

That experience shapes how we build project teams today. We connect brokers, architects, contractors and specialists around the same goal: making the real estate, the construction and the operating business work together.

From dirt to opening day

From opportunity to opening day.

01 / Find it

Find the dirt.

Identify the location, evaluate the property and put the real estate together.

02 / Work it out

Get beneath the surface.

Work through environmental conditions and the issues that affect whether a site can be developed.

03 / Get it approved

Earn the green light.

Coordinate plans and carry the project through the required approvals.

04 / Clear it

Make room for what’s next.

Oversee demolition where needed and prepare the site for construction.

05 / Build it

Stay close to the work.

Oversee construction, resolve the details and keep the project moving toward completion.

06 / Open it

Movies on the shelves.
Keys in hand.

Take the store through setup, stocking and the handoff to operations.

Attendees at the Family Video 500-store celebration
Family Video’s 500-store celebration.

The Family Video years

A milestone.
And the work behind it.

The company’s 500-store celebration was a moment to stop and take stock. Behind every opening were the people and decisions that turned a site into a working store.

Our part in that story was built one development at a time.

A little history

Before the glass towers.

Charles Hoogland launched The Video Movie Club of Springfield in 1978. Rather than rely on leased stores, the company bought real estate, giving the business a foundation beyond the rental counter.

Even the glass-block towers had a personal origin: according to Keith Hoogland, they were inspired by a glass-block bar in the family home.

Early Video Movies Inc. storefront with a covered driveway in winter
An earlier storefront
The Video Movie Club of Champaign storefront in winter
The Video Movie Club of Champaign
Archival newspaper advertisement for The Video Movie Club of Petoskey at 501 W. Mitchell, offering movie rentals and video equipment
“We rent video movies!”
Explore the historical metro Detroit map · 21 properties
Historical map and address list of 21 Family Video parent-company properties in metro Detroit
Historical metro Detroit properties.

The handoff

The job was finished
when operations had the keys.

That is the perspective we bring to an assignment today. Understand the business the property needs to support, work through the details, and see it through.

Talk with us about your project

Eastwood Chalmers

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