Grosse Pointe's Greatest Garage Sale, a tradition in the Village shopping district since the late 1970s, won't be happening this year.

The Village Association fund-raiser, which had been scheduled for May 28 and 29, fell victim to possible redevelopment of the city-owned parking deck that houses it, said Village Association spokesman John Denomme.

"We could not have the garage sale and possibly stand in the way of any shovels that go in the ground," he said.

"And we had no way of knowing when that would happen."

The parking deck, located near Kercheval between Cadieux and Neff, has been tied to several different redevelopment possibilities for the old Jacobson's building, which is now being renovated as the Kercheval Place retail, office, restaurant and condo project. The garage's future remains up in the air.

Another glitch in holding the garage sale is the repaving of a nearby surface parking lot, which is scheduled around the same time as the sale.

Because most patrons of the garage sale parked there, Denomme said, holding the sale while the lot was under construction would have created parking problems.

The cancellation of an eagerly awaited annual event that accounted for as much as 40% of the Village Association budget leaves the merchants group mulling new ways to raise funds, Denomme said.

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