A year ago, Ann Arbor signed off on a five-story apartment building for a vacant lot next to the Whole Foods on the city's south side. This fall, the plan got taller.
The Ann Arbor Planning Commission voted unanimously on Tuesday night, Oct. 6, to approve a revised version of The Crescent at 2525 Ann Arbor-Saline Road, HERE Ann Arbor reported. The new plan calls for a seven-story building with 287 apartments on six floors above a parking level. That's 25 more units than the 262-unit, five-story version approved in 2025.
What changed
According to the city's project page, City Council rezoned the vacant parcel to R4E multiple-family in October 2025 and approved the original site plan, which called for 262 units, 268 garage spaces and 31 outdoor spaces. In May 2026, the developer submitted a new site plan that raised the height. The city lists the Planning Commission as the approving body for the new plan, which replaces the old one.
HERE Ann Arbor reported the building's footprint shrank in the redesign, with parking moved under the building at ground level.
The new unit mix:
- Studios: 12.
- One-bedrooms: 209.
- Two-bedrooms: 57.
- Three-bedrooms: 9.
The plan includes about 6,500 square feet of indoor amenity space and about 30,000 square feet of outdoor amenity space. Parking drops to 216 garage spaces and 63 surface spaces, and the city's page lists 200 bicycle parking spaces.
Cars will come and go through the existing curb cut on Ann Arbor-Saline Road that the site shares with the Cranbrook Village shopping center, plus a new curb cut on Oakbrook Drive.
The site is vacant and has few natural features and no landmark trees, according to the city. An existing stormwater detention basin will stay, with some regrading. Plans call for 14 new street trees and 18 more trees for screening and buffering.
What the commissioners said
The vote was unanimous, but the discussion wasn't all cheers. Commission Chair Donnell Wyche brought up the city's rule that 40% of a site stay open space, calling it a trade-off between open land and housing. He said the conversation was useful as Ann Arbor starts carrying out its new comprehensive land-use plan.
Commissioner Sara Hammerschmidt said she wished the project went further than baseline sustainability, pointing to all-electric design or rooftop solar as examples.
The city's project page directs questions for the development team to an email address at J. Bradley Moore & Associates Architects, an Ann Arbor firm. Neither the city nor HERE Ann Arbor names the developer's builder, and no general contractor has been made public.
The Crescent has already been through a long review. The city's timeline shows the original plan went to the Planning Commission in August 2025, which recommended approval, and City Council held readings in September and October before approving it on Oct. 20, 2025. The new site plan has been under staff review since May, and neighbors within 500 feet were mailed postcards about it in early June.
A 287-unit building on a vacant lot next to a grocery store and an existing shopping center is classic infill, adding a lot of apartments without tearing anything down. Anyone who wants to follow the paperwork can look up the revised site plan, SP26-0011, in the city's STREAM system; it replaces the earlier plan, SP24-0006.
Also that night, the commission recommended that City Council approve a rezoning to allow another duplex at 530 S. Division St., where an existing rental house would remain.
Why it matters for Contractors
A seven-story, 287-unit building with a ground-level parking deck is a big job for the Ann Arbor market. That's concrete and structural work for the parking level, six floors of residential construction, roofing, a heavy MEP package, elevators, and hundreds of units' worth of drywall, flooring, cabinets and paint, plus site work around the retained detention basin, new curb cuts and landscaping. The commissioners' comments also hint at where Ann Arbor's expectations are heading, with questions about all-electric design and rooftop solar on big projects. Contractors who can price and build electrified systems may find that a selling point here. The next step to watch is when a builder is chosen and the project heads toward permits.