Two restaurants on either end of the new M-231 highway are going in two different directions.
Business at Turk's Restaurant in Nunica is thriving, according to manager Kendra Holmes.
On the south side of the new highway, the Yellow Jacket in Robinson Township has closed to make way for construction of a 6,000-square-foot gas station and convenience store on that site, according to developer Mike Boes, president of Holland-based Merle Boes Inc.
The seven-mile stretch of new asphalt, which connects M-104 at the I-96 interchange with M-45 to the south, opened Oct. 30, 2015.
“When it first opened, it was crazy,” Holmes said. “We were absolutely booming. We still are feeling an increase. We have a lot of new customers, which is surprising since we've been here since 1933. A lot of those new customers are people from across the river.”
Holmes said many of those customers miss the Yellow Jacket restaurant, which closed late last year.
“We have quite a few customers who come here for happy hour,” Holmes said. “We have people who come in and request the pink drinks that were popular at Yellow Jacket. ... We've done some alternate things to appease that crowd.”
Holmes said Turk's owner is also loving the new highway. She lives near the Embassy Grill on M-45, and what used to be a 30-minute commute now takes only 12 minutes by using M-231.
Turk’s staff members are so enthralled with the new road that they wear shirts with the M-231 logo that state “There's no bypassing Turk's.”
Holmes and another Turk’s manager estimate business is up 40 percent since the two-lane limited-access highway opened.
“We are so busy these days, it's fantastic,” Holmes said. “I don't think we expected this amount. We typically drop down a bit in the winter, but this year we did not. We're loving it.”
Robinson Township Zoning Administrator Kathy Kuck said the Yellow Jacket's last day was Dec. 23.
“There were a lot of locals who went there,” she said. “It was a nice place to go. It was like what Turk's is to Nunica — all the locals go there.”
Kuck said she noticed more traffic at the Yellow Jacket after M-231 opened.
“I noticed right after the bridge opened how many people from Turk's went to Yellow Jacket and how many from Yellow Jacket went to Turk's,” she said. “It was interesting to watch the swap.”
Especially popular were the Yellow Jacket's Friday night seafood buffets.
“Some of our older population went and sat in the restaurant while younger people sat at the bar,” Kuck said. “Some people are sad about it closing — but ... times change.”
Kuck said she has yet to see the plans for the Boes gas station/convenience store, but thinks it will be a popular location.
She said there's been interest from other developers in land near the new highway, but no plans yet.
“We've had people sniffing here and there, but right now the only thing we have for the (M-231) corridor is the Boes project,” she said. “Nothing has come up other than this.”
Kuck said she's a fan of the new highway, even though the last night at the Yellow Jacket was “a tear-jerker.”
“As a citizen of Robinson Township, I like the bypass,” the Robinson Township official said. “I like the availability if I want to head into Spring Lake for something. We're kind of the monkey in the middle here. We always have been. We're 25 minutes to downtown Grand Rapids, 15 to the north end of Holland, 25 to Muskegon and 15 to Grand Haven. We've had the best. We've been OK out here.”
Boes said he hopes to have the new facility open before the end of the year, but has not yet decided which brand of gasoline the station will sell.
He said the new highway helped his company choose the Yellow Jacket location.
“There's not much in that area in the way of gas stations and convenience stores,” Boes said. “I think, with the new M-231, there's a lot of additional traffic.”
Boes’ plans include a Junction Pizza cafe inside the new store.
“We feel the area needs something like that,” he said. “We like the traffic counts there.”
This article originally appeared in the Grand Haven Tribune.
