Love Trader Joes but dont love the fact that I have to drive to Rochester Hills to go to one. They have a great variety of healthy foods and fun specialty items. Great place!

Running a B&B and am told many times how can a town the size of Fenton not have a movie theater?.

I think Trader Joes is way over priced. Our Library is in dire need of replacement, and a movie theatre would be nice so as not to have to go to GB. I would love to have a Billard Room/Pub.

We have plenty of bars around already. Movie theater would be nice. I do miss Fenton Cinema

Living in California for many years I had both Trader Joes and Whole foods near. For health, you can't beat trader Joes. Slightly higher prices than the supermarket, but well work it. And the two buck Chuck (which I understand is no longer two bucks) is great. As for Whole foods - I found that to have interesting things, but value for the buck is not there.

There is a huge movie theater in Grand Blanc that is just 15 minutes away. You have to drive at least 45 minutes to get to a Trader Joes or Whole Foods,. We need a store closer where you can get fresh organic produce at a decent price. Not to replace anything that we already have in Fenton, but to add to it. I also agree though that the library needs to be renovated at least, with more of a variety of newer books, specially for the kids. We specifically go to Springfield Township Library because they have so much more to offer. I would love to just walk to my local library instead and get what we need.

Not quite sure how Trader Joes is over priced, you can get a 3 lb bag of organic apples or pears for $2.50. Have you priced those out at Kroger or VG's? They are $4.99 to $6.99 and the quality is horrible.

I havent noticed Traders being pricey either. Hey we all know about 3 buck Chuck LOL!. I do like their produce and cheese selections.

I would love to see a satellite University program housed in the downtown Fenton area. Eastern Michigan University could bring in a "Teacher readiness/certification" program. The benefit of bringing such a program to the Flint area and it's surrounding communities would spur economic growth across the board.

Trader Joes or whole foods would be great.
I am also wondering if anyone knows what is going in the Old Papa Johns. I see they are doing something....

I really liked Papa Murphys take and bake pizza's and was always amazed when someone would come in to pick one up and be mad as a hornet because they had to bake it. I watched one woman make a worker cry over it. Take and bake it pretty self explanatory. I ran home and came back with card and some pansies for the poor kid.

I don't think Trader Joes wouldn't take business away from anywhere else. If it did, it would just be VG's, and really, we don't need two of the same store. Crust is just fine because they are a bakery, and specialize in breads and baked goods you can not get anywhere else around here, or from Trader Joes. The Gluten Free Pantry would be fine, granted you can get gluten free pasta and packaged foods at Trader Joes, they do not carry the types of vitamins and supplements, and as many of the other items you can get from Marjie's. It would bring more people shopping to the area from Grand Blanc, Linden, Holly, really all around because there is not a Trader Joes anywhere near here. It would bring more business to the small stores, and local restaurants.

Trader Joes most definitely. As for where, I think the location that used to be farmer jacks on Silver pkwy is still empty?

I agree that we need a movie theater and a Trader's would be nice...however there is no space big enough for a theater in downtown Fenton. A Trader's or new library would fit the foot print in the former Topp's location. All it takes is money and/or an investor. I suspect The Friends of the Library would be happy to accept your donations toward a new library and also for volunteers to help raise funding for new digs. Patch is asking specifically for suggestions for DOWNTOWN where space is limited. A satellite university would bring foot traffic, we need businesses to attract those students to linger a while and buy products and use services in town.
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I vote for a new library, or infrastructure changes like a path following the Shi from Strom Park to Torrey Rd then back to meet up with the existing path that goes to silver lk parkway. Or update the wooden playground at the gazeebo. Or make a nicer connection between the south end of bush park to the community center's park (go between Tim Hortons and the eyeglass place, for example). In any case, I'd personally rather have a nice place to live than a nice place to just shop. If I wanted that I'd just move to one of the rat races south east of here. I'd be curious what the reaction would be to the village players securing some space downtown (maybe take up two spaces in the dibbleville buildings?).

So many great ideas. Glad to see so many of you are so passionate about your community! Keep the conversation going!

I would love to see a bike path that connects Fenton and Linden. It would be so nice to be able to walk or bike in the summer. A better grocery store - Whole Foods or Trader Joes would be great. Also upgrade the look of the Leroy area to make it more inviting like Milford or Rochester. Upgrade the old library by buying the building next door for parking. It's a nice historic building and we need to keep every historic one we have. Get rid of those garish blue colored flags on the poles that say Historic Fenton - whoever picked those must be color blind - that blue is way too bright.

Def a Trader Joe's! My sister and I wanted to do this. We are from Holly but would def be there to shop!

I'm pretty sure VG's bought the buildings Farmer Jack used to be in, so good luck trying to get competition there again. Trader Joes would be awesome.

TRADER JOE'S!!!! IT WILL BE A HIT!!! We drive to Ann Arbor and have to pack a cooler with ice on extremely warm days in the summer to bring back meats and frozen foods.

I'm all for a Trader Joe's! I miss living close to one. I like the path idea, too.

I cherish the ability to walk downtown to churches, shops, The Laundry, Crust, Post Office, our gazebo and futures like the Cultural Center, Fire House and Cornerstone project. Only thing missing is a "Trader Joe" type of experience. It would be fantastic to be able to shop, eat and get your grocery shopping done in one quaint downtown area all connected by sidewalks, bike paths and AMPLE parking. What an attraction that would be for Fentonites and visitors.

I agree that a movie house would be convenient but the trend in that industry is toward IMAX and upscale types of viewing experiences to compete with in-home online content delivery. These newer type movie venues require TONS of parking space and that is not in the cards for our downtown area...parking space is precious.

Our biggest shame is a lack of investment in a library facility that reflects the millions of dollars we have spent on school technological and facility improvements. There should be a way/loophole in the current DDA charter to divert some revenues to this critical investment. If we can build a Cultural Center we CAN find a way to offer all of our residents, young and experienced a more state of the art Learning Library Facility. We all deserve that, don't we?

Pete Toriello

Too bad we couldnt get a big enough space where the library was right next to a Trader Joes. Win win

What's wrong with revamping the old Fenton Cinema (which had more parking than in ever used), putting a Trader Joe's at the old Farmer Jack's (even if VG's currently owns it I don't see how they could stop it's purchase for specific uses) and putting a NEW library in downtown? I have HEARD that the Freedom Center bought the old Topp's location for a big project so assuming that is true it isunavailable as well.

I though I had heard that someone bought the old cinema and was going to re open the theater. I doubt VG's would let a Trader Joes in there but then again, VG's is no longer owened by Van Guilders. Spartan may not care.

Trader Joe. For the people who think Trader Joe is expensive: it actually is not, it just feels that way if you have this idea that it is an organic foods store and organic is expensive (first part is wrong, and second part is the case for any grocery store). I have been paying attention to prices and it actually is CHEAPER than big supermarkets, sometimes much cheaper, and beats VGs by a margin. Also, many middle/upper middle class people love Trader Joe's, which means Fenton would be getting more traffic from towns around. Library is also needed, but honestly whenever I am there it is not very busy plus books are becoming available online and most people other than senior citizens already have Kindle or similar devices for reading.

Trader Joes! We do the majority of our grocery shopping there and spend way less than we do at VG's! The drive to Rochester isn't much fun, but it is still worth it.

I want to see a Whole Foods Market here. I'm so tired of our grocery shopping options. I freakin' hate Wally World and VGs is just so over-priced. I avoid shopping there by always stopping at Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Meijer on my way home from work. This would be a great area for a Whole Foods and a Trader Joe's to be. They are usually placed within a couple of miles of each other and I see a lot of shoppers going from one to the other, when stocking up their grocery needs. It's crazy that Whole Foods is actually cheaper (Most items are a lot cheaper!) then VGs.

I so wish a Meijer would have gone into the space Wally World is in, instead.

And I think it is pretty despicable that VGs bought the old Farmer Jacks building, just to ensure that it sits there, unused, so that another grocery store could not go in there. That is what a VGs manager told me was the reason they purchased it. That's just what we need! Another empty, unused building!

Barbara, lets concentrate on the future and the positives not the negatives. WalMart was already built when Meijer chose their M-59 location. If you think a company protecting their livelihood is despicable so be it. Move on and move forward. Negativity gets us no where!

I also think you missed something....the question was "What would you like to see in DOWNTOWN Fenton" not Silver Parkway. DOWNTOWN