Longtime Ann Arbor builder Joe Grammatico dies

Joe Grammatico was once called in front of the Ann Arbor Planning Commission to answer why he hadn’t followed the city’s landscaping specifications on a building project. It seems Grammatico had included more trees and bushes than the city required. An over-zealous employee wanted to know why.

While Grammatico prevailed and was allowed to go beyond the minimum, the story sums up how the longtime builder and Ann Arbor native operated, said architect J. Bradley Moore. “That was typical for Joe. If he could make a project a little bit better and make a little less money, he was fine with that.”

Grammatico, who spent three decades as an Ann Arbor builder and whose commercial and residential projects dot the four corners of the city, died Thursday in his Ann Arbor home. He was 83.

One of 10 children from an Italian immigrant family, Grammatico was born in 1930 and grew up in a house on Linda Vista Street, which was considered rural countryside at the time. From a tender age, Grammatico would go on jobs with his father, a brick mason. It’s here he began to learn the building trades.

A stint in the Army during the Korean War followed and he later enrolled at Michigan State University. His first building project was a hotel in Lansing. Customs homes and a small shopping center followed.

But Grammatico would find his niche with in-fill projects - building custom homes, small condominiums and commercial developments on smaller tracts of land. It’s a lesson that came after he was left holding too much land when demand withered during a recession during the 1970s, Grammatico’s son, Joe, Jr., said. His father had moved the family to Florida, where Grammatico built large-scale condominium projects. “He had to sell off the land and decided never to go into debt that you couldn’t afford to pay off,” Joe Grammatico Jr. said.

So when he returned to Ann Arbor in 1984, Grammatico had a different policy: To build one project at a time, building on vacant lots and at empty corners. His first Ann Arbor project was the 11-unit Old Walnut Heights condominiums on South Seventh Street on the Old West Side. “I think more than any other builder, he was able to have the foresight to see how to develop the modest size open space in Ann Arbor, and put in high quality but high density residential developments that flew in the face of residential suburban sprawl,” Moore said.

Grammatico also became known for projects that had curb appeal, Moore said. “He was known for projects that had great entrances, a great front gate with good landscape design. And he had a great sense of livability.” His son said he had an eye for design. “He loved to doll things up,” he said. “He’d put gingerbread (trim) on top of gingerbread.”

Grammatico was a builder willing to be different, said Maureen Sloan, CEO of the Builders and Remodelers Association of Greater Ann Arbor. “He was interested in trying to fill a need that wasn’t met,” she said.

He was one of the first builders to offer detached condominiums, his son said. He built Country Village and adjacent Morning Side condominiums on South Maple Street. He built Village Oaks townhouse condominiums off of Ann Arbor-Saline Road. In all, along with his three sons he built 12 condominium projects in Ann Arbor along with hundreds of custom homes. But his crowning glory, Joe Grammtico Jr. said, was Scio Town Center, a mixed-use project that includes condominiums, office space and retail at the corner of Zeeb and Jackson roads.

Grammatico worked until the end. He was in negotiations for a mixed-use project called Sweetwater at State and Textile roads in Pittsfield Township. The proposal includes a retirement home, detached condominiums and retail. Joe Grammatico Jr. said negotiations would continue.

Grammatico had three sons, all builders, and two daughters, who also worked with the family business. He is survived by his five children, 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. His wife, Lynn Ann, died in 2008.

A celebration of Joe’s life will be held on Tuesday, June 4 at 2 p.m. at the Nie Family Funeral Home, Liberty Road Chapel, 3767 W. Liberty Road, in Ann Arbor. The family will receive friends on Tuesday, from noon until time of services. Read his full obituary on the Nie website.

Janet Miller is a freelance reporter. Contact the AnnArbor.com news desk at news@annarbor.com.