[JonathanGRR]

Here's what is sure to be a great restoration project in the very heart of Downtown Grand Rapids:

Plans underway to convert downtown's vacant Morton House into 'market-rate' apartments
Jim Harger | February 08, 2013

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The new owners of the vacant 13-story Morton House building are asking the city for help in their $27 million plan to bring more than 100 market-rate apartments into the former hotel.

The plan by Rockford Construction and its partner, the DeVos family's RDV Corp., would bring new residents into the 91-year building, which has been vacant since 2011, when its previous owners ended the building’s 40-year run as federally subsidized housing for more than 200 low-income residents.

Built in 1922 by J. Boyd Pantlind, the Morton House was the last big downtown hotel to be built before the Great Depression. The ground floor was the original home of Kent State Bank, which became Old Kent Bank & Trust, now part of Fifth Third Bank Corp.

The new owners want to redevelop the 170,000-square-foot building for retail on the ground floor and “at least 100 market-rate residential apartments” on the upper floors, according to an agenda item that will come before the Downtown Development Authority next week.

http://www.mlive.com/business/west-m...l#incart_river

...And in less-exciting news, another standard infill project:

New apartment project and restaurant will go up in the Heartside neighborhood, developer says
Jim Harger | February 07, 2013

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Developer Karl Chew said he hopes to begin breaking ground this spring on a $15 million, 7-story mixed-used apartment building in the city’s Heartside neighborhood.

The project at 240 Ionia Ave. SW will include street level space for a restaurant and incorporate a 2½ -story parking ramp with up to 80 parking spaces, said Chew, whose Midland-based Brookstone Capital LLC has been one of the city’s most active housing developers since arriving on the scene in 2005.

When completed in late summer of 2014, the building will include 40 “workforce” rental apartments and eight market rate apartments. Chew said he has not yet found a tenant for the restaurant space.

The new building will be across the street from Heartside Park at the corner of Ionia Avenue and Williams Street SW. Chew said the project will include “fabulous” views of the downtown and U.S. 131.

On Thursday, Feb. 7, the city’s Brownfield Redevelopment Authority gave its blessing to Brookstone’s application for tax breaks of up to $2.5 million to help him clean up and improve the site, which currently is fenced off and used as a parking lot.

http://www.mlive.com/business/west-m...l#incart_river