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STERLING HEIGHTS, MI-Pursuit Development, which recently relocated its office to Shelby Township from Florida, has completed its first project in Michigan. This week, a Panera Bread restaurant opened on Van Dyke, just south of Metro Parkway, in a 10,000-sf outlot development in the parking lot of a Meijer's store.

The center here also includes a Countrywide Home Loans location and a third store is expected to open soon. Bill Chalmers, who owns Pursuit, says the development is part of a couple of trends. "This is the first Panera in Sterling Heights and among the first anywhere to open using their complete new design, inside and out," he said over a bowl of piping hot soup at the restaurant. And, he adds, it's only been in the last few years that Meijer's has gotten onboard with the idea of developing outlot properties at its stores. In the past, Meijer's was hesitant to allow outlot development, prefering higher visibility instead.

Both Chalmers and his wife are natives of metropolitan Detroit and wanted to return to this area after they began having children. Chalmers began his career in property development with the Detroit office of Trammel Crow Co. and eventually was relocated to Florida by TCC. After several years in the Sunshine State working for TCC, he launched his own development company and now has about $50 million worth of properties.