A Midtown development that marked a major corporate signal of Detroit’s rebound has new ownership following a sale in mid-April.  

According to land records, the retail component of The Ellington at the corners of Woodward and Mack avenues has sold to an entity called Midtown Resource LLC, which is registered to Karam “Kevin” Bahnam, who founded the USA 2 Go chain of convenience stores. 

The Ellington, previously owned by Detroit developer Peter Cummings and others, is anchored by the city’s only Whole Foods Inc. grocery store. It went up for sale in December with an unlisted asking price.

Crain’s estimates that the sale, which closed in two separate transactions in April, was for about $5.77 million, based on property transfer taxes paid.

In all, the property includes about 34,400 square feet of retail space, about 21,500 square feet of which are occupied by Whole Foods and the majority of the rest of the spaces front Woodward Avenue. 

The property also includes the lease of 254 of 954 spaces in the adjacent parking structure, which expires in 2102. The property sale does not include The Ellington apartments.

A message was left with Bahnam, the new owner of the property, on Monday. 

Bahnam’s USA 2 Go convenience store has locations in the far western suburban Detroit area in New Hudson, Howell, Novi, Commerce Township, Plymouth Township, Ann Arbor, Brighton, Hartland and Fowlerville, according to its website.

A profile of Bahnam in Bottom Line, the publication sponsored by the Midwest Independent Retailers Association, last year says Bahnam got into the gas and convenience store business after working in the movie rental industry. 

In 2013, CSP Magazine described Bahnam as an Iraqi immigrant who ended up in Michigan in 1994. He had run an antique store in Iraq and, upon arrival in Michigan, teamed up with his brother-in-law, Mike Koza, and became part-owner of five Mammoth Video locations, but exited that business around 2000 when they realized it was a business model that wouldn’t survive much longer. 

Through a spokesperson, The Platform, which was started by Cummings, declined to comment. 

Marketing materials by Mid-America Real Estate’s Bloomfield office, which had the listing, say the Whole Foods location tracks the highest in the state in terms of visits per square foot, according to data the brokerage firm compiled from Placer.ai.

The Whole Foods opened during a perilous time for Detroit. When it saw its first customers in June 2013, the city was under the thumb of a state-appointed emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, and was just a month away from filing the largest municipal bankruptcy case in history. 

“It has been an amazing transformation of Midtown since hundreds of people from across the city of Detroit gathered to break bread in celebration of the opening of Whole Foods in June 2013,” Cummings said in a previous statement to Crain’s about the store when its building went up for sale. 

Cummings’ The Platform has been selling off many of its assets in recent years, including a chunk of west Detroit riverfront land to the Sterling Group last year for $5.5 million; the 1.1-acre site of a former Big Boy restaurant at East Jefferson Avenue and East Grand Boulevard in the Islandview neighborhood across from Belle Isle for $537,000; and the 4.34-acre former Joe Muer restaurant site between Gratiot Avenue and St. Aubin next to the Dequindre Cut.