Westborn Market to open in downtown Plymouth next year

Posted on December 16, 2014

Ten years ago the Plymouth Downtown Development Authority surveyed residents on what they’d like to see downtown. A popular answer: a market or grocery store.

That request is finally about to be fulfilled.

Westborn Market, a family-owned grocer with stores in Dearborn, Livonia and Berkley, is moving into the former Plymouth Post Office building at 860 Penniman Ave. The company signed a lease last week, according to Mark Malcolm, president and CEO of Tower International Inc., who, along with his wife, Patty, bought the historic building from the U.S. Postal Service earlier this year, coinciding with the post office’s relocation to a smaller space nearby.

The nearly 11,000-square-foot building was constructed in 1936. “We wanted to make sure the building had a good purpose,” Mark Malcolm said. Malcolm served on the DDA board when the survey was conducted 10 years ago; he and his wife had shopped at Westborn Market’s Dearborn location and contacted the Anusbigian family, Westborn’s owners.

“With their sense of history and community they are a just an ideal fit for our downtown,” Malcolm said.

The Plymouth location will open next summer, Malcolm said.

The Malcolms also purchased a vacant lot at 870 Penniman that they hope to turn into additional parking for the market.