Is the New Jeff Daniels Restaurant Destroying This Chelsea Pub?

Chelsea — You might know that actor and musician Jeff Daniels is from Michigan. If you’re in Metro Detroit, you might be aware that he’s very active in his hometown directing performances at the Purple Rose Theater he opened in 1991.

If you live near Chelsea, you might have seen that Daniels has partnered with local developers on the recently opened JDs Stage Bistro on Main Street. You may have even seen him perform live in August.

But few have heard or seen the damage done to Cleary’s Irish Pub next door. Over the past two years, pub owner Pat Cleary has seen his livelihood crumble from the foundation up.

Literally.

It started a few years ago when Daniels sat down with Cleary and asked for his blessing on the project next door. Cleary says he gave it freely without any reservations—it would be great for Main Street.

But then in 2024, construction crews started digging down 16 feet to create a deeper basement for JDs Stage Bistro. They botched the excavation—collapsing a portion of Cleary’s foundation, according to an August court filing.

The kicker? Cleary alleges construction crews tried to cover up the cave-in by filling in dirt and trying to repair the shared foundation wall without telling Cleary or the Chelsea Area Building Department.

Cleary knew something was wrong when the back door stopped closing and cracks appeared in the basement. The door is still broken, hanging open several inches at all times.

Cleary has to use a chain with a padlock to secure his restaurant at night. The other door behind it is a temporary one to try to keep the cold out during the winter. Cleary had to shave the new one so it could shut on a sloped surface.

The court documents allege the work underground at JDs Stage Bistro has caused “extensive ongoing structural damage.” Anyone can see and feel how bad it is walking through the building.

Above the back doors, a crack has appeared in the corner of the wall. Everything seems to be slanting to the right. A vent in the main dining room can be seen bending out of the wall, which seems to have shifted around it.

The busted floor in the basement turns your stomach: The cement has cracked all the way up the wall closest to the stairs and runs down into the floor. The side closest to the common wall now slopes towards where crews were digging.

The crack runs through the storage room, underneath the beer cooler, all the way back to an office. According to court filings, it’s 60-70 feet long.

Also in the basement is the workaround for the sewer, which was damaged shortly after construction started in 2024. Cleary has had to reroute all the sewer lines in his building out a different line using special equipment.

His old sewer line is out of commission right now because things are still settling. The dirt settles under these historic buildings and protects the old things that are buried. When you move it, problems bubble up everywhere.

Cleary has had a structural engineer monitoring the cracks in his building since March. The engineer reported that the basement crack has gotten wider and part of the slab has actually lifted up.

The engineer also found that most of the 32 monitoring locations on the main floor “have progressively worsened and structural cracks and gaps have formed most pronounced along the common wall.”

The cracks in the second-floor apartment above the restaurant are much the same. They’re getting worse near the wall by the ongoing excavation next door, according to the engineer’s affidavit.

The worst part is that it seems the project managers knew they were up to no good. In a recorded video meeting, Cleary asked project managers if they were digging underneath his building. Astonishingly, they said, “Yes.”

Digging under someone else’s property without permission? That's trespassing, right?

While Cleary’s structure is the most obviously altered for the worse, other buildings in town have suffered the consequences of the construction. On April 15, another wall collapse cut off power to Cleary’s Pub and everyone on the block.

Cleary said an accountant down the street had to use a generator to access her customers’ filings on Tax Day.

A few weeks later, another wall collapsed and cut the power to Cleary’s Pub again. Legal documents allege these power outages hurt Cleary’s HVAC and electrical components, pizza oven, and stereo equipment.

The documents also say construction crews destroyed Cleary’s cable box in June, which wiped out their point-of-sale software for credit and debit card payments.

There are also questions about whether they were even allowed to dig so deep near a state highway—Main Street is also M-52.

Such a long string of missteps begs the question: How did construction crews get away with this for so long? And did authorities overlook issues in hopes of appeasing Chelsea’s most prominent person?

The patrons still come to Cleary’s Pub. After trying the reuben sandwich, I understand why. It’s super hot, crispy, and loaded with corned beef that they make in-house.

The Irish atmosphere is authentic in an age where most venues are trying to manufacture vibes through cheap gimmicks. Pat Cleary is a first-generation American. He opened his bar 35 years ago (the same year as the Purple Rose) and grew it into what it is today.

When I visited, construction crews were still busily working on JDs Stage Bistro. Trucks and vans took up much of the parking lot behind the restaurants. Workers appeared and disappeared in the shrouded void of the basement next to Cleary’s.

The building issues weigh on Pat Cleary. They have for years now. He worries about the future of his building and for the safety of his employees. He’s angry about all of it: the trespassing, the concealment, the negligence.

But in talking with him, I think he’s most upset about the way his concerns and interests have been repeatedly cast aside by people hyperfixated on doing whatever it takes to fashion a restaurant-venue named after Jeff Daniels.

As construction continues, the cracks in the facade of the small-town celebrity doing something great for Main Street grow wider by the day.