[deja vu]

Three development updates from today's headlines...

Holiday Inns will be part of $100M shopping center by U.S. 131
By Al Jones, via MLive
April 18, 2017

KALAMAZOO, MI -- A Holiday Inn & Suites and a Holiday Inn Express will be the first two hotels to become established at the Westgate development, the 140-acre retail, commercial and residential area that is under development along U.S. 131 north of West Main Street.

"We are projecting three hotels and four restaurants," the developer of the huge new development said.

Kalamazoo approves $3M sale of downtown parking ramp to local developer
By Malachi Barrett, via MLive
April 17, 2017, updated April 18, 2017

KALAMAZOO, MI -- With a $3-million deal to sell an underused Kalamazoo-owned parking ramp comes the promise of a large-scale hotel development in the northwest section of the city's downtown. 

The Kalamazoo City Commission unanimously approved an agreement to sell Arcadia Parking Ramp No. 4 to PlazaCorp Tuesday. The deal is the latest in a series of land moves in Arcadia Commons West, part of larger plans to complement a new hotel and mixed use development there.

Portage board OKs bids for new North Middle School
By Tom Haroldson, via MLive
April 18, 2017

PORTAGE, MI - Construction is in full swing on the first projects involving the Portage Public Schools $144 million construction program, and the latest news on bids continues to be good.

Bids totaling more than $27 million for the new North Middle School were approved Monday by the school board, coming in more than $2 million under the district's estimate of nearly $30 million for the three-story building near the intersection of West Milham Avenue and Constitution Boulevard.

The $2.2 million difference in the project's estimate and the bids awarded couples with the more than $3 million potential savings on the other projects also going on - the Northern athletic-event stadium, Northern multi-purpose fields and the Central High pool complex.