Pinball Pete’s will close its South U. arcade in late November, as construction remains ongoing at its next home in the Carver-Gunn Building at 500 E. Liberty.
Owner Ted Arnold says they have until December 2 to vacate their longtime space in Galleria Mall, which Landmark Properties will demolish for an eighteen-story apartment building, one of several high-rises mushrooming in the student-centered district in recent years.
“There’s a reason there’s five sky cranes down there all the time. The town is definitely changing,” Arnold says. “It’s a different game. It’s not Ann Arbor, the quaint, cute, hip little town that it used to be.”
He had hoped the bigger space on the ground floor and previously unused lower level of the Carver-Gunn Building would make for a seamless transition, but given the complications—asbestos removal, adding an elevator shaft, permit issues—he could not project a date for the relaunch.
“I ask my general contractor that same question every day,” he says. “It’s gonna be nice. I just gotta get it across the finish line.”
Pinball Pete’s, 1214 South University. (734) 213–2502. Through late Nov.: Sun.–Thurs. noon–midnight, Fri. & Sat. noon–2 a.m. pinballpetes.org
Related: Pinball Rescue
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University Towers has chosen not to renew the lease for Champion’s Party Store, so it will close by year’s end after fifteen years there.
Robert Kesto, owner of the campus-area liquor outlet, says the decision follows complaints about the Israeli flag he’s long hung from the front window.
“It’s 100 percent anti-Semitism, because if I would have kept the flag in my drawer and not put it on my front window, all these problems would have not happened, and I would have got to renew my lease,” he says. “But I’m not a coward, and I am proud of what I stand for.”
In response, University Towers general manager Bill Spencer emails that the non-renewal “has nothing to do with the Israeli flag in the window or any anti-Semitism. The space has been leased to a new tenant under terms more beneficial to the landlord.” His statement did not identify the incoming business, but a “major remodel” is planned.
In hopes of reopening nearby on South U., Kesto launched a GoFundMe appeal with a $750,000 goal, but has been disappointed by its results—182 donations totaling almost $17,000 by press time. “Without these funds, I won’t be able to do it,” he says.
Champion’s had previously been located on S. Forest, where Landmark Apartments now stands. Kesto’s other liquor store closed in 2023 after thirty years at 340 S. State.
Champion’s Party Store, 1227 South University. Through Dec.: Daily 8 a.m.–4 a.m.
Related: A Liquor Store Takes a Hiatus
Eddie Alasad says he spent $1.2 million building out Turkish Village Cafe, but soon realized it wasn’t a fit for downtown Ann Arbor. Less than two months after opening at E. Liberty and Fourth Ave., the second iteration of the concept begun in Dearborn has closed.
Related: From Coney Islands to Turkish Cuisine
“Four out of ten customers come in and they would say ‘You guys don’t have any alcohol?’ So that was a problem,” he says. (Predecessor Avalon Cafe and Kitchen moved to S. Main alongside Pretzel Bell, and its liquor license went to another Mission Restaurant Group entity, Jolly Pumpkin.)
As for the cuisine, “people did not welcome it, I guess, the way Dearborn did,” Alasad says. He had hoped to pivot to an Americanized brunch concept operated by his son, but he couldn’t come to financial terms with partner Jon Carlson, who runs Mission and still leases the prominent corner space.
“Jon’s a great guy, and business is business and friendship is friendship,” he says. “We just couldn’t come to an agreement to continue that part of the business.”
Carlson emails that a “[n]ew tenant will be announced soon. It [is] up for lease.”
Campus Student Bike Shop, the rental, sales, and repair shop on the ground floor of Tower Plaza since 1999, wound down operations in October. Owner Bill Loy passed away the previous month at age eighty-four. Loy first opened on Catherine St. in 1968 and also had a longtime location on S. Forest.
Related: Passages on South U
“He came from nothing, back in the day,” says Bob Goetz, a family friend who was helping liquidate the remaining stock. “He was just real passionate about Ann Arbor and downtown. … He also would put pinball machines in restaurants and stuff like that. So he kept busy in this area all his life.”
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