What would it actually take to get the lights back on at the old Chili's at 12800 Hall Road?
On paper, the answer looked close in early September. A developer had a plan, the Planning Commission had recommended it, and the city's planning staff supported it. Then City Council postponed the vote on September 1, 2026. The next step on the city calendar is a Planning Commission public hearing on October 14 for a new hookah ordinance. As the public notice describes it, that ordinance would allow hookah lounges in one zoning district, and the Chili's building isn't in that district.
The future of this building is being settled through zoning categories, and the menu has little to do with it.
What 12800 Hall Rd., LLC Wants to Build
The applicant, 12800 Hall Rd., LLC, wants to turn the vacant restaurant into a $1.5 million upscale steak-and-sushi spot. The menu would focus on "top-of-the-line steak, chicken and seafood, along with a variety of popular sushi selections," according to the Macomb Daily's September 7 report.
The September 1 council minutes add the details that matter for anyone who drives past the building every day:
- The existing building is 5,400 square feet on about 1.16 acres. It sits on the south side of Hall Road, east of Oleander Drive.
- The restaurant would serve lunch and dinner from noon to 2 a.m.
- A cigar lounge inside would serve restaurant patrons.
- A separate hookah lounge next door would have its own entrance.
- The applicant would bring the parking lot, barrier-free spaces and landscaping up to code. Most of the remaining work is expected to be inside.
Attorney Phil Ruggeri, one of the partners, told the council the developers have already spent $150,000 on landscaping and the crumbling parking lot. So if the lot has looked better lately even though the building hasn't changed, that's the reason.
Why the Hookah Lounge Is the Sticking Point
Under city rules, the restaurant and the cigar lounge are the easy parts. Assistant City Planner Shawn Keenan told council that a restaurant with a cigar lounge is a Special Approval Land Use in the O-3 district. He added that the city has traditionally treated cigar lounges as an allowed part of a restaurant.
The hookah lounge is harder, and state law is part of the reason. According to the minutes, a hookah lounge can't be treated as an accessory to a restaurant. More than 75 percent of its gross annual revenue must come from tobacco products and smoking paraphernalia, and it can't sell prepared food or drinks. That rule explains the separate entrance in the plan, which state law requires. It also explains why the hookah lounge has to be a separate business sharing the building.
Sterling Heights' zoning ordinance doesn't allow hookah lounges at all. The applicant tried to solve that with a Planned Unit Development, or PUD, which lets the city approve uses the zoning ordinance doesn't otherwise allow. Council members told the Macomb Daily they support the restaurant. They also said a PUD wasn't designed to cloak an illegal business, and they wanted a legal path for the hookah portion instead. Mayor Michael Taylor's comment from the dais suggests the hesitation wasn't about smoke:
"Cigar smoke to be is more obnoxious than hookah — it's not even close."
The vote to postpone was unanimous. Before that, the Planning Commission had recommended approval 7 to 2.
The Ordinance on the October 14 Agenda
The city has since moved on the hookah question. A Planning Commission notice published in the Sterling Sentry on September 23, 2026, lists case PZ26-0005, "Hookah Ordinance," for public hearing at the October 14 meeting.
According to the notice, the proposed text amendments to Zoning Ordinance No. 278 would:
- Define a "Hookah Lounge" as a land use in the city's zoning code.
- Allow hookah lounges as a special land use in the C-2 Planned Comparison District.
- Ban hookah lounges in the Van Dyke Mixed Use District and in the Neighborhood and District Node Overlay District.
The parcel at 12800 Hall Road is zoned O-3, High-Rise Office Commercial Service, and so are the parcels around it. The notice doesn't mention O-3. The full ordinance text is due in the meeting packet on the city's Agenda Center, and the notice says it can also be reviewed at the Office of Planning. Until that text is posted, the public summary describes a rule that would make hookah lounges legal elsewhere in Sterling Heights. It doesn't make them legal on this parcel.
That doesn't end the project. The PUD is still the tool the applicant has been using, and a defined, legal hookah use in the code could change how council views it. But anyone expecting the October 14 hearing to settle the old Chili's will probably be disappointed, because the notice doesn't cover that site.
What Could Happen Next, in Order
The Macomb Daily described a likely route the city and the applicant could take. Laid out against the city calendar, it looks like this:
- October 2026. The applicant could ask for approval of just the restaurant and cigar bar through a special land use, since both are legal now.
- October 14, 2026. The Planning Commission holds its public hearing on the hookah ordinance, PZ26-0005.
- October 28 and November 10, 2026. These are the commission's next listed meetings, a supplemental session and a regular one.
- January 2027. If the ordinance is approved, the hookah portion could be approved for the restaurant then, according to the Macomb Daily's account.
One caution about step 1: as of the September 23 notice, the October 14 agenda doesn't list a separate special land use application for 12800 Hall Road. We also haven't found any council action on the project since September 1. The restaurant-first route is a possibility that was reported in September. Nobody has filed it yet.
Why the City Keeps Pushing for a Sit-Down Restaurant
City staff have been clear about what kind of business they want here. Keenan told council the proposal fits the original concept plan for the Sterling Town Center development. He said it would complement the Class A office building, the five-story tower at 12900 Hall Road that wraps around the parcel to the south and east.
This isn't the first proposal for the site. A fast-food restaurant was proposed there a couple of years ago, and staff said a sit-down restaurant fits the area better because the building was a sit-down restaurant before. The Macomb Daily identified that earlier plan as a Raising Cane's, which the developers dropped before the steak-and-sushi plan came along. The Office of Planning also said it doesn't expect the project to cause traffic or circulation problems on the site.
The site's neighbors help explain the city's interest. To the west is the ITC Corridor. Across Hall Road to the north is a Lexus dealership, and that side of the road is in the City of Utica. A restaurant open from noon to 2 a.m. would serve the office tenants at lunch and give that stretch of Hall Road an evening use it doesn't have now.
Hall Road Is Changing Through City Approvals
Down the road, two other projects show how much of this corridor's future depends on city decisions.
Brome Modern Eatery was set to open on Saturday, July 25, at 13800 Lakeside Circle near Lakeside Mall. Metro Times reported it as the Dearborn-based chain's fifth metro Detroit location, after Dearborn, east Dearborn, Westland and Novi. Sam Abbas founded Brome in Dearborn in 2015 and developed the concept with executive chef Zane Makky. The menu covers burgers, salads, shakes and smoothies, with halal-certified proteins and sauces, dressings and fries made in-house. Brome's restaurant is a fast-casual spot in an existing commercial pad, and it opened without any public zoning debate.
The mall site has gone the opposite way, with a long approval process. The city calls the redevelopment Lakeside City Center. The plan calls for about 1,545 homes in nine four- to five-story buildings, 154,000 square feet of retail, and a central park with green space. City Council gave final approval in May, and the Michigan Strategic Fund approved the project's brownfield plan on June 23, 2026, according to C&G Newspapers. ClickOnDetroit reported the plan's value as $270,678,999. The developer is Lakeside OOTB Ventures, a subsidiary of Lionheart Capital. City roads, sidewalks, paths, utilities and sewer work come before construction. Coverage in June projected demolition of the mall for late 2026 or early 2027. We haven't found a newer source confirming progress, so treat that timing as a projection.
Put the three side by side and the pattern is clear. Brome fit the rules that were already in place and opened. Lakeside needed a city vote and state funding before anything could happen. The old Chili's is between those two. Its restaurant fits the current rules, and its hookah lounge depends on an ordinance whose public summary names a different district. That leaves anyone watching the building with a specific thing to check: the full PZ26-0005 text in the October 14 Planning Commission packet, and whether it mentions O-3.
We follow city agendas along Hall Road because what gets approved there shapes how the corridor works day to day, from where you grab lunch near Lakeside to what replaces the mall. If you want to talk through what's changing near your part of Sterling Heights, reach out to The Matti Team. Contact us for a free neighborhood consultation.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
