Duffield Dentistry approved to build new office building in Royal Oak

ROYAL OAK — A site plan was unanimously approved by the Planning Commission on July 9 to build a new dentist office building on the vacant corner of Crooks Road and West Windemere Avenue.

Duffield Dentistry will be moving into the spot and building a modern-looking office designed for customer comfort and accessibility, according to the petitioner, Michael Gordon, of Moiseev/Gordon Associates Inc.

The team working to build this project is the engineering company Kalabat Engineering and architecture firm Moiseev/Gordon Associates Inc.

The site plan includes a 4,354-square-foot office with a 44-space parking lot, according to the initial proposal document written by Dr. Kamil Abraham, of Duffield Dentistry.

There is an existing license agreement on the property that was approved by the city commission in 2009 that was never terminated that says the property must share its parking with the adjacent Worden Park.

The Duffield Dentistry site plan followed this agreement, and the lot will be used for Duffield Dentistry from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. The parking lot will be used for public parking following the working hours.

“We want a building that will provide and present a unique identity that represents our dental practice,” it says. “The height of the building has been minimized to blend with the scale of the adjourning residential neighborhood and commercial zones.”

The proposed floor plan includes 10 treatment rooms, an X-ray room, a waiting room, reception space, a staff area and office space. It includes two individual-use bathrooms, and one private bathroom for employees.

Generated renditions provided by Kalabat Engineering show that the plan is to have plenty of windows for visual appeal and customer enjoyment, according to Gordon.

“If you are familiar with a lot of dentist offices, they have lots of windows now, because sometimes you are laying there for a while and you get to enjoy nature (looking out the window),” he said.

Abraham addressed the commission and said that he is excited to expand Duffield Dentistry to this location and continue to serve the Royal Oak community.

Duffield Dentistry is currently operating out of its office at 2009 Crooks Road in Royal Oak. Abraham said the proposed location is perfect, given it is only a mile away from the current office.

“I just want to be able to offer everyone in the community great dental services, and state-of-the-art technology,” Abraham said. “Compared to what we have right now, we have patients who are unfortunately being scheduled out six months or longer because we are pretty confined to our current space.”

The Planning Commission had questions regarding landscaping, with Sharlan Douglas asking about the silver maple trees proposed to be put onto the property.

“Given the track record of silver maples as we have seen throughout Royal Oak, you might consider planting something a little more long-lived than silver maples,” she said.

Gordon stated he was unaware of the longevity of silver maples, and they would consider looking into a different breed of tree.

The proposed site plan has a section stating that there will be a generator placed on the top of the building. Planning Commission member Woody Gontina questioned if the developers had considered a more eco-friendly option.

“Two years ago, the city adopted a sustainability and climate action plan. Part of that is to encourage more sustainable building and development practices,” Gontina said. “Was there any consideration given to instead of going with the generator, which I am assuming is natural gas, going with renewables and battery storage?”

Gordon said that his team and the engineering team are “constantly talking about infrastructure.” However, a battery-driven generator would not be the right fit for this particular building.

“The battery storage and the draw this would have I think would add a tremendous amount of storage space and capacity to the building, and I don’t think the technology is there yet,” he said. “But we would be happy to talk to the engineering department to see if there was anything that could be accomplished.”

Gontina said that he does hope sustainable infrastructure changes can be made and/or talked about by the development team, but he does believe that the dental office site plan is a “good project.”

Following this approval, the petitioner will be applying for a building permit from the city of Royal Oak. At the moment, there is no particular date that building will begin.