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  #141  
Old Posted Feb 4, 2014, 11:56 PM
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Quote:
$80 million streetcar plan for Grand Rapids back in play
Matt Vande Bunte | February 4, 2013

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Proponents of a downtown streetcar line are resurrecting a 6-year-old study and, by this summer, plan to revise the vision and pursue funding.

The Rapid public-transit system is paying HDR Inc. $293,895 to refine the 2008 study, updating what an electric streetcar line would cost and how the money could come together. An advisory committee started meeting last month.

“We’re going to build on that (2008 study),” said John Logie, a former Grand Rapids mayor who is chairman of the committee. “We think the timing is right. The economy is coming back.

“What happens when a local government invests in putting rails in the street is entrepreneurs who are watching this know that the government is making a long-term commitment (and it leverages private investment).”

The original streetcar study envisioned a $79 million, 3-mile route mostly along Monroe Avenue between Rapid Central Station and the Sixth Street Bridge. Logie said “we will look at that (route) again with fresh eyes to see if that still makes sense.”
...
Grand Rapids in the early 1900s had as many as 70 miles of streetcar lines, and Logie is more optimistic than ever that now is the time to bring streetcars back to Grand Rapids. The prime marketing demographic: "young people, some of whom don't own cars and don't want to," Logie said.

“I don’t have any experience with it directly, but in other cities it seems to work," said Sam Cummings, a real estate developer who's part of the advisory committee. "There’s no question that we have to try to skate to where the puck is going. By the same token, we should also make sure that we don’t throw away the automobile because that’s not going anywhere either.”

Streetcar lines are identified along with the coming bus-rapid transit route as key tenets of The Rapid’s long-range plan.

“People our age are moving back into the city and living an urban lifestyle,” Rapid CEO Peter Varga said in the WGVU interview. “Young people want all these mobility options, want to live downtown and they are actually not getting driver’s licenses. They're using public transit. they're walking and bicycling. A street car fits this new demographic change and that’s why this is the right time to start talking about these things.
...
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapi...and_rapid.html
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  #142  
Old Posted Mar 4, 2014, 10:38 PM
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Suburban Grand Rapids news:

Quote:

Studio 28, once 'world's largest movie theater' to be demolished
Shandra Martinez | March 3, 2013

WYOMING, MI — Studio 28, which once was the "world’s largest" movie theater complex will be erased from the Grand Rapids area landscape this month.

The facility’s demolition comes six years after the iconic theater closed its doors, after 43 years. Once the premier theater in the Loeks chain, Studio 28 became too old and too costly to operate.

Although Loeks Theater Inc. doesn’t know what will go up in its place, roof issues made it imperative to take the building down, said Emily Loeks, director of community affairs for the fourth-generation family business that operates movie theaters across the state.

Loeks said she didn’t know the details of the pending demolition, only that it was slated to take place this month. The building was condemned by Wyoming's housing inspector on Dec. 23, according to a notice on the building's door.

She referred calls to J.D. Loeks, company president, and Roger Lubs, vice president of construction and development. Both were unavailable for comment Monday.

The Wyoming property, at 1350 28th St. SW, has been for sale, although it isn’t currently on the market.

“We’ve been waiting for the right alignment of partnerships for a development,” Loeks said.

For decades, the property also has been used as the site for a flea market during the warmer months. That isn't expected to change with the razing of the theater.

The 20-acre site is one of the largest parcels along 28th Street SW, a corridor the city of Wyoming is focusing its attention on revitalizing with a new fast-track zoning code.
...
When the 28th Street cinema opened on Christmas Day in 1965, it featured a 1,000-seat theater. Company founder, Jack Loeks, added a second auditorium two years later.

He is considered a pioneer of the multiplex theater and Studio 28 was his flagship site. His business model changed the industry and was copied by others nationwide.

When the Wyoming theater expanded to 20 screens and more than 6,000 seats in 1988, it became the world's largest multi-screen theater complex, holding that title until 1995.

The theater still owns the record for the most moviegoers on a single day. More than 16,000 people showed up the day after Thanksgiving in 1990 to catch a movie at Studio 28.

Annual ticket sales hit 1.7 million in 1996, but had fallen by 75 percent by 2008, as a result of shifting consumer habits, technological advances and newer, spiffier theaters that took a toll on business.
http://www.mlive.com/business/west-m...l#incart_river

While this is kind of sad, as I had gone to this theater a few times as a kid, it is neither a shock or a terrible loss at this point. The demolition is certainly another major blow in what has been a wholesale abandonment by the Grand Rapids metro population of the 28th Street corridor in Wyoming (once the second busiest street in Michigan). Most of the business has gone to outer regions of Wyoming and other suburban townships.
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  #143  
Old Posted Mar 5, 2014, 3:56 AM
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Thanks for that great Studio 28 history lesson. I spent a lot of Saturdays there as a kid growing up in Grand Rapids.
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  #144  
Old Posted Mar 31, 2014, 12:04 AM
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I see these buildings fairly frequently and have often wondered about their status...Ideally, it would be nice to see both buildings saved and redeveloped. However, I would be content with 41 S Division being saved provided that the site of 35 S Division produces a development similar in style to something like the currently under-construction Cherry Street Apartments.

Quote:

Structural concerns with slumping Heartside buildings force sidewalk barricade
Garret Ellison | March 30, 2014

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — City officials are taking steps to force rehabilitation or demolition of a couple deteriorating commercial buildings downtown.

The city blocked the sidewalk this week in front of 35 S. Division Ave. and part of 41 S. Division Ave., where Grand Rapids officials are worried a crumbling façade may pose a danger to pedestrians.

Action was taken by the City Engineering and Code Enforcement departments, which determined both buildings require significant investment to recover their structural integrity, said Suzanne Schulz, city planning director.

Load bearing elements of the buildings are weakening, she said. An interior stairwell is pulling on the structures, causing a sag. Evidence of the stress is clearly visible from the street, where doors and windows are noticeably crooked.

35 S. Division, which occupies the southwest corner of Division Avenue and Weston Street SW, appears to be vacant and used primarily for storage. Next door, 41 S. Division houses Pub 43, a gay bar on the ground floor.

Citations have been issued to property owners this week. The city is treating both 41 S. Division and 35 S. Division as one case, Schulz said.
...
Schulz said if the owners cannot bring the buildings up to code, the city could place one or both of them under a demolition by neglect order.

Once that occurs, the city could order repairs billed as a property lien, or if the structure is deemed unsalvageable, order it razed. Any public funds spent on preservation would require City Commission approval.

“There’s two possible scenarios,” she said. “Either this action will result in saving the building and some significant investment to preserve it, or it could result in demolition and redevelopment of the site.”

The city prefers to see them reused, said Schulz. Both are located in the Heartside Historic District amid other structures built around the same era. City records show 35 S. Division was built in 1890, and 41 S. Division built in 1905.

They are among the last downtown that have yet to be rehabilitated, wholly or in part.
...
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapi..._river_default
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  #145  
Old Posted Mar 31, 2014, 12:20 AM
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That's a gnarly slump. Really hope the buildings can be saved.
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  #146  
Old Posted Apr 1, 2014, 1:38 AM
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Yeah, me too--at least the inner building would be nice (41 S Division). The other one looks, especially in person, as way too far gone. It is nice that the city is trying to enforce upkeep though.

Here's the opposite side of the issue:

Quote:
'Imminent' collapse feared at slumping Heartside buildings; owners may sue city
Garret Ellison | March 31, 2014

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — It might be a quite a while before people can walk the sidewalk again in front of two slumping Division Avenue buildings downtown.

Legal action against the city may be filed, say property owners cited in March by officials, who are concerned that years of freeze-thaw damage exacerbated by a harsh winter could cause an “imminent” façade collapse at 37 and 41 S. Division Ave.

Last week, officials blocked the sidewalk in front of both buildings, citing concerns that deteriorating structural integrity could injure pedestrians with falling bricks.

“It is my professional opinion that the buildings… are unsafe and dangerous,” City Engineer Mark De Clercq wrote in a March 4 letter to building owners Richard and William M. VanGessel and Jim Heeringa.

De Clercq, who walked through both structures with building official Mark Fleet on Dec. 12, believes the obvious façade distortion is being caused by a cavity under the load-bearing stairwell inside 35 S. Division, the worse of the two buildings.

The cavity is due to “a loss of soil from very old pipes that may be broken beneath the slab, carrying soil particles away when water is discharged over an extended period of time,” he wrote.

However, Heeringa suggested city infrastructure might instead be to blame.

“We believe and have maintained it has to do with the utilities in front of the building washing out the foundation,” said Heeringa, who believes the utility issues contributed to an areaway collapse several years ago under the sidewalk.

“We maintain it’s the catch basins out front.”

He and the VanGessels may file suit against the city depending on the results of a planned soil survey, said Heeringa, co-owner of E&R Sales, a billiards supplier located inside 41 S. Division, next to tenant Pub 43.

...
De Clercq's correspondence indicates the building owners have inquired about replacing the buildings with surface parking, which would require city planning and zoning approvals.

He said bringing the buildings up to code would take a lot of money.

“There’s enough deterioration and settlement that has occurred that it would take a sizable investment to rectify the situation, even if it could be rectified,” he said.

“The first floor looks like it’s twisting,” he said. “That’s just not normal.”
...
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapi..._division.html
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  #147  
Old Posted Apr 1, 2014, 7:20 AM
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Well, that's unfortunate to hear. I can understand why each side is doing what they feel they need to do to protect their interests, but it seems to me the city has the moral high-ground, here, unless Heeringa can produce proof that this is the result of the city's infrastructure. I'd imagine if this is about poorly maintained catch basins, you'd probably have buildings near collapse all over the city.
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Last edited by LMich; Apr 2, 2014 at 7:16 AM.
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  #148  
Old Posted Apr 1, 2014, 10:36 PM
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I imagine both sides probably have at least some merit to their claims.

In other news, the Morton Hotel (to become the Morton House) is undergoing preliminary demolition/clearing in preparation for the upcoming renovation. The building is the last major renovation left for Monroe Center (GR's main street), so it will be nice to see this progress:

Quote:

Demolition crews uncover lost reminders of former downtown hotel's elegance
Jim Harger | April 1, 2014

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Demolition crews for Rockford Construction are uncovering reminders of the day when the Morton Hotel was the hot spot for business travelers and socialites in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids.

Lobbies with elaborate alfresco ceilings, long oaken bars, travertine marble-floors, sweeping staircases with art deco railings and a massive steel bank vault are being uncovered for the first time in decades as workers prepare the 91-year-old building for its next life as a downtown apartment building.

“This is the last major renovation project on Monroe Center,” said Mike Mraz, vice president of real estate development for Rockford Construction, which purchased the building in 2011 after the former owners ended a 40-year run as Morton House, a low-income housing development.

On Tuesday, April 1, Mraz opened up the building’s ground floor and lower levels to reporters to show what they have uncovered in recent months as they prepare the building for a $25 million makeover.

“We wanted to showcase what we found as we embark on our journey with this building,” said Mraz, who will market the 30,000 square feet of space on the lower level and first and second floors for retail stores and restaurants. “We’re still just understanding what we have.”

Plans for about 100 market rate one- and two-bedroom apartments are still being developed. A model unit should be ready for prospective tenants in September, according to a Rockford news release.

The Morton Hotel was designed by Holabird and Roche, Chicago architects who also designed the Palmer House in Chicago. It was built for $1.5 million on the site of two earlier hotels, the first of which opened as the Hinsdale House in 1835.

When the “new” 400-room Morton Hotel was built in 1922, it was designed to accommodate business travelers who came to Furniture City to view and place orders for the latest in residential furniture. Each guest room included its own bathroom, a luxury for the time.
...
http://www.mlive.com/business/west-m...ml#incart_2box
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  #149  
Old Posted Apr 4, 2014, 10:50 PM
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More pieces are falling into place in regards to MSU's medical research plan:

Quote:

MSU plans to demolish former Grand Rapids Press headquarters to build biomedical research center
Angie Jackson | April 4, 2014

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Michigan State University plans to demolish the former Grand Rapids Press headquarters to build its biomedical research center, a move the city's planning director said will represent "a whole new era for downtown."

MSU purchased the property, 155 Michigan St. NW, in 2012 to expand its research initiative in West Michigan after opening the university’s medical school facility, the Secchia Center, located just up the hill, two years prior.

Dick Temple, architect and project manager for MSU's College of Human Medicine, said officials are planning for a 145,000-square-foot building that will be five or six stories tall. He said the Grand Rapids Research Center's design will reflect a gateway to both the Medical Mile and the North Monroe neighborhood.

"We will work with the city to make sure it fits the fabric. It’s a pretty significant site," Temple said.

City Planning Director Suzanne Schulz said MSU has been partnering with the city and conducted analyses to determine whether it would be feasible to renovate the former Press building.

"We did several studies over several years and it’s neither financially or functionally a viable way to create a world-class research center," Temple said.

MSU officials plan to compare proposals for both a traditional university-financed model and a developer-financed model for the upcoming research center. The first step of their evaluation began Friday, April 4, with the issuance of request for qualifications for developers interested in a public-private partnership.
...
MSU's development will be vital for the site that's considered the "gateway corner" to the North Monroe business district and current redevelopment projects, Schulz said.

"I put this site akin to what the (Van Andel) Arena or the B.O.B was for people going south of Fulton. This site is really the key for getting people to go across Michigan and go north," she said. "It really is a crossroads in many ways."
...
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapi..._river_default

Basically, they're looking at development options right now (university-financed vs. developer-financed), and the university is expecting a final decision to be made by December. The research center is slated to open, no matter the option, in late 2017.
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  #150  
Old Posted Apr 15, 2014, 11:49 PM
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Great news for a building that has been heavily under-utilized. Originally built as a furniture exhibition building, it has been rather challenging to fill the building with tenants in its current state.

Quote:

Waters Building will become a Hilton Homewood Suites hotel and 42-unit apartment building
Jim Harger | April 15, 2014

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The Waters Building, the white elephant of downtown’s office market in recent years, will see new life as a 107-room Hilton Homewood Suites hotel, a 42-unit apartment building and a smaller office building.

Mark Finkelstein, whose Edmark Development Co. took ownership of the building with Visser Brothers Inc. in February, said the project will build the extended-stay hotel on the second through sixth floors of the building’s south wing.

Market rate apartments will be built in the top two floors of the north wing of the 115-year-old building, while office tenants will be moved into the lower floors of the north wing.

Current ground-floor tenants - including three banks, the Sundance Grille restaurant, the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, the Broadway Theatre Guild and Grand Action - will remain.

“This building is too great a building with its history to languish at 50 percent occupancy,” said Bill Mast, president of Visser Brothers Inc.. The renovation is expected to be completed by late 2015, he said.

The building’s new life as a mixed-use facility will be the third incarnation for the structure, originally built in 1898 to house furniture showrooms for buyers who came from throughout the U.S. The building was converted to offices in the late 1950s after the residential furniture industry moved to the South.

After two large tenants, a law firm and an insurance company, complete their move out of the building this spring, Mast said they will begin the process of shifting the remaining 50-some office tenants to the north end of the building by November. Some tenants, such as the Right Place economic development program, will keep their offices in the north end of the building, Finkelstein said.

Most of the office suites will be remodeled, Mast said. When the moves are completed, the heavy construction work will begin with the removal of an infill structure above the second floors, which connected the building’s original wings with large lobby areas.

Removing the upper floor lobbies will allow workers to install windows that will cast light on the building’s interior for the hotel to the south and the offices and apartments on the north, Mast said.

While the main entrance on Ottawa Avenue will remain, the main floor lobby will become a two-story atrium lobby with a grand staircase leading up to the hotel lobby on the second floor of the south wing. The second floor also will include a mezzanine area for a bar and restaurant.

“It’s going to have a totally different look when you walk in,” Finkelstein said. While the 280,000 square-foot building will undergo major interior changes, little will change on the exterior of the red brick building. The large windows will match the hotel and apartment layouts without alteration.
...
http://www.mlive.com/business/west-m..._become_a.html
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  #151  
Old Posted Apr 18, 2014, 10:56 PM
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Proposed housing aimed at college students overcomes NIMBY opposition.

Quote:
Developers optimistic after planners approve $12.9 million West Side apartment project
April 18, 2014. Jim Harger.



With the unanimous blessing of the city’s Planning Commission in their pocket, developers who hope to build a 63-unit apartment complex near Grand Valley State University’s downtown campus say they are optimistic about their next hurdle, the full City Commission.

“I think historically, the City Commission has taken into account the decision of the Planning Commission,” said Chad Barton, of Cherry Street Capital. “We’re very hopeful.”

Barton said they hope to break ground on the $12.9 million project this fall and complete the project by next summer.

The Planning Commission approved their plans for the housing development on a block-long parcel along Lake Michigan Drive NW between Seward and Lexington avenues earlier this month.

The planners approved the project on a 9-0 vote despite opposition from leaders of the South West Association of Neighbors (SWAN).

“They saw the fact that we worked with the neighborhood and took into account a lot of their comments,” Barton said.

In 2006, city commissioners rejected plans for a larger 69-unit apartment complex on the site. The 4-3 vote came after the Planning Commission deadlocked on the proposal. That project, aimed at college students, was rejected for being too dense and lacking adequate parking.

The latest development calls for two apartment buildings linked by an 83-space underground parking ramp. The larger building at the corner of Seward Avenue and Lake Michigan Drive will be five stories tall while the smaller building at corner of Lexington Avenue will be 2½ stories tall.

....
This area has a history of NIMBY opposition.

Quote:
Neighborhood group opposes $12.9 million apartment complex on Grand Rapids' West Side
March 25, 2014. Jim Harger.

...

Because the project’s building heights and density exceed the neighborhood’s “low density” residential zoning, the proposed development must be rezoned with the blessing of the city’s Planning Commission, which will hold a public hearing on the project April 10.

Barton said their plans were developed after meetings with area neighbors. As a result, they designed the project with on-site parking that exceeds the city’s code requirements and designed the buildings to blend into the surrounding neighborhood, he said.

The developers also reduced the number of units from 70 to 63, Barton said. The latest plan places the development on a larger footprint by including two residential parcels along Lexington Avenue NW.

“We have appreciated the design feedback received from meetings,” said Barton, who said the design by Integrated Architecture is similar to other urban communities in Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and New York City.

Nonetheless, the project is opposed by the South West Association of Neighbors (SWAN). The proposed building heights and density violate an “Area Specific Plan” developed for the neighborhood, said SWAN President Margo Johnson. “They basically are not matching the existing patterns for residential density,” she said.

The proposed development is on a parcel that has been vacant since 2002, when the current owner Jeff Boorsma tore down three older rental houses in the face of neighborhood opposition. Boorsma, who has optioned the property to Cherry Street Capital, was barred by the city from building new duplexes on the property.

In 2006, another proposal to put apartments on the property was rejected, this time by City Commissioners, who rejected the project on a 4-3 vote. That project, aimed at college students, was rejected for being too dense and lacking adequate parking.

Boorsma, who owns a restaurant and several rental properties in the neighborhood, said afterward he would be content to mow the property until another offer came along. Two years later, city officials also rejected Boorsma's proposal to build a 24-unit apartment complex on another parcel along Seward Avenue south of Lake Michigan Drive NW.
The rejected 2006 proposal that was criticized as being "too dense".




Additional renderings of the current proposal. Doesn't look in anyway less dense and looks more like a giant fuck you to the NIMBYs.










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  #152  
Old Posted Apr 18, 2014, 11:07 PM
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I'm glad the NIMBY's lost on this one.
On another note, the word "Rundown" in the title is not as appealing as "Projects" or "Developments."
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  #153  
Old Posted Apr 20, 2014, 10:27 PM
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This approval is definitely a great victory for the area! The neighborhood association, SWAN, generally opposes anything that isn't a return to detached single-family homes. Since that obviously isn't going to happen, this development will be a great fit.

@Hill Country: Now that the weather is getting nicer, I hope to be able to walk around work one day and take pictures in order to do a comprehensive update of this thread...but I agree; "rundown" does not sound very attractive.
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  #154  
Old Posted Apr 23, 2014, 12:26 AM
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Quote:

Lofts on Michigan rendering

Two housing projects near Grand Rapids' 'Medical Mile' get state financing help
Jim Harger | April 22, 2014

LANSING, MI – The Michigan Strategic Fund will help finance two new Grand Rapids housing developments near the city's “Medical Mile,” according to the Michigan Economic Development Corp., which met on Tuesday, April 22.

The Lofts on Michigan project and the Clancy Lofts project are among three business expansions and three community improvements projects across that state that were approved by the MEDC board. They are expected to generate $49 million in new investment and create 775 new jobs, according to an announcement by the MEDC.

In The Lofts on Michigan project, 616 Development plans to demolish a vacant and obsolete building at 740 and 756 Michigan Street NE and build a new four-story building that will include commercial/retail space on the first floor and 54 apartments on the upper three floors.

The project will generate a total capital investment of approximately $15.2 million and generate 15 permanent jobs. The MEDC awarded the Lofts on Michigan project $2.45 million in Michigan Community Revitalization Program loan participation.
...
For the Lofts on Clancy project, the MEDC approved a plan that will capture $1.38 million in school and local taxes to demolish 12 single family homes in the 600 block of Clancy Street NE in the Belknap Lookout neighborhood. The project will create four new buildings with 66 rental units.

The tax capture will pay for asbestos abatement, site preparation activities and infrastructure improvements. The project is expected to generate a total capital investment of $8 million and create three full time jobs, according to the MEDC.
...
http://www.mlive.com/business/west-m...l#incart_river
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  #155  
Old Posted May 21, 2014, 10:32 AM
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Lots of residential on the way.

Quote:
124-year-old furniture factory near Downtown Market should be ready for residents in 2015
By Jim Harger.



Developer Mike Jacobson says residents could begin moving into the 83-unit “Klingman Lofts” apartment project he is developing in a 124-year-old furniture factory near the Downtown Market by the middle of the summer in 2015

“We should be ready to start construction in the very near future,” Jacobson said on Tuesday, May 20 after the City Commission gave its approval to a series of tax breaks for the $32 million renovation.

Jacobson needed the approvals to begin renovating the four-story factory at 48 and 60 Wealthy St.SW, across the street from the Downtown Market, which opened last year.

Used most recently as a warehouse for Klingman’s Furniture Co., the giant brick building is being renovated into 83 apartments for low-income residents. The project also will include 15,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and a new 40,000-square-foot parking structure for residents.

...
Quote:
The Fulton Group plans to convert vacant office building into market rate apartments


By Jim Harger.

A vacant office building along East Fulton Street will be converted into eight market rate apartments and offices for the building’s owner, The Fulton Group.

Josh Smith, founder and partner of The Fulton Group, said the former Alpha Women’s Center at 1055 E. Fulton will be converted into apartments on the first and second floor while the lower “garden” level will be used as offices.

On Tuesday, May 20, city commissioners set a June 3 public hearing on the Fulton Group’s request to have the property designated as an “Obsolete Property Rehabilitation District”. The designation will give the property owners a 10-year abatement on their property taxes.

The Fulton Group, currently headquartered down the street at 928 E. Fulton Street, owns and manages about 150 apartments in the city of Grand Rapids. Smith said they plan to have the conversions completed by late winter.

...

Quote:
616 Development mum on plans for old West Side building it bought for $1.6 million
By Jim Harger.



John Hyatt, owner of John S. Hyatt & Associates, says he’s not sure what the new owners of 420 Alabama Ave. NW will do with the rambling red brick building he has occupied for the past 15 years.

And the new owners, 616 Development LLC and Rockford Development Group, are not saying, either.

“At this time, we are in the very early stages of planning and as details become finalized we plan to share our vision for this project,” Monica Clark, director of community development for 616 Development, said through a spokesperson.

Hyatt sold the building in February for $1.6 million, according to city records. He is planning to move this summer into a new building at 1765 Alpine Ave. NW that he took in trade as part of the deal.

The Alabama Avenue building, a three-story brick structure on the western edge of downtown, originally was built in 1910 as a carriage factory, said Hyatt, whose lobby still includes the building’s original tin ceiling and moldings. It then became a furniture factory and was added onto several times, he said.

....

With just under 50,000-square-feet, the building at 420 Alabama creates yet another downtown housing opportunity for 616 Development, which has converted several downtown properties into housing, including the Kendall Building, the Grand Rapids Brewing Co. and the space above Flanagan’s Irish Pub.

616 Development also is in the process of developing apartments in the former Bethlehem Lutheran Church on Prospect Avenue NE and has announced plans to convert the former Sackner Products Co. factory at 820 Monroe Avenue NW into 86 loft-style apartments with ground-floor retail space.

The company also is developing “The Lofts on Michigan,” a 54-unit apartment and retail project on Michigan Street NE at Eastern Avenue, at the eastern edge of downtown's Medical Mile.

In past months, 616 officials have said they have a waiting list of more than 1,200 persons who want to rent their apartments near downtown.
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  #156  
Old Posted May 21, 2014, 10:13 PM
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Even though the Klingman warehouse will be 'low-income' (in a project like this, that usually ends up meaning students or young adults), it will be a great addition if pulled of well. They're serious about saying there's structural issues. When driving by it, one corner of the building is pretty gnarly looking due to the sinking. It'll be nice, too, if something ends up being built in the empty lot between Baker Lofts and the future Klingman Lofts.
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  #157  
Old Posted May 30, 2014, 2:49 PM
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animatedmartian animatedmartian is offline
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Very positive news.

Quote:
Grand Rapids' downtown housing market has reached 'a point of critical mass,' report concludes
By Jim Harger. May 29, 2014.



Grand Rapids’ downtown apartment market has reached “a point of critical mass” that is likely to attract new investors and new developers, a Chicago-based commercial real estate firm concluded in a report published this week.

“Naturally, the rampant construction and re-population of the urban core won’t continue at its current rate forever, but the city has created a solid and positive base from which to work from,” the 20-page report by Triad Real Estate Partners concluded.

The report concluded the success of the downtown housing market is across the board, with new subsidized housing and market rate housing in the pipeline and a resurgent market for downtown condominiums.

....

In the market rate housing sector, the study concluded there are 1,218 market rate apartments in the downtown area that rent for an average of $1.48 per square foot. The study found that market rate housing was 98.77 percent occupied in early April

For the most part, downtown rental rates got more expensive as the apartments got closer to Rosa Parks Circle – downtown’s center, the study concluded.

One exception was the Lofts at 5 Lyon, a former office building that has been converted to student housing. Rents in the building near Grand Rapids Community College are at $2.31 per square foot – the most expensive in the downtown market, thanks to the owners’ ability get $2,480 a month for a 4-bedroom apartment.

The other high-end exception was Plaza Towers, where its 133 rental apartments rent for an average of $2.15 per square foot.

....

No new condominiums have been built downtown since 2008, but the market for downtown’s 1,115 existing condominiums is in a solid position, the report said. In 2013, the average price of a downtown condominium was $205,000 with an average price per square-foot of $157.12.

Looking ahead, the report noted there are nearly 800 apartments under construction or in the planning stages for the downtown market. Of those units, 177 will be income-restricted “workforce” housing with 535 market rate apartments entering the market in 2014 and 2015.

The Rapid’s “Silver Line” Bus Rapid Transit that will being operating later this summer also could become a game-changer for the downtown housing market, the report concluded.

The Silver Line, which will run 10 miles south of downtown along the Division Avenue corridor could bring up to $1 billion in capital investment along the route,’ the study said.
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  #158  
Old Posted Jun 5, 2014, 8:45 PM
JonathanGRR JonathanGRR is offline
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More apartments planned for Michigan Street:

Quote:

New apartments and storefronts proposed near Michigan Street's Mid Towne Village
Jim Harger | June 5, 2014

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Third Coast Development is planning to demolish several buildings and build 24 new market rate apartments with ground floor restaurant space next to its Mid Towne Village project near Michigan Street and College Avenue NE.

The $5.1 million project would demolish a vacant two-story building at 555 Michigan St. NE and replace it with a new mixed-use building that would include ground-floor space for a restaurant and six market rate apartments.

On a vacant lot east of Union Avenue at 601 Michigan St. NE, Third Coast is planning to build a four-story building with 18 market rate apartments. The project will include 26-off street parking spaces.

Max Benedict, a partner with Third Coast, said they hope to break ground on the project after Sept. 1 if they can get state approval of low-interest loans or grants from the state’s Community Revitalization Program.

The project was approved for up to $475,750 in local tax breaks by the city’s Brownfield Redevelopment Authority on Thursday, June 5. The tax breaks can be used to help pay for the cleanup and demolition costs associated with the project.

“Third Coast Development is excited to bring this project before city and state officials for consideration. We are hopeful that all approvals will be met, as they have to date, and the project may proceed,” the developers said in a statement after the meeting.

The new buildings are next to the Mid Towne Village project that Third Coast began 12 years ago, when they bought up some 50 older homes north of Michigan Street and east of College Avenue. A spokesman said the new buildings are separate from the Mid Towne Village project.

After razing the homes in 2004 and building the Women’s Health Center, a condominium project and 545 Michigan St. NE, the project lay dormant until this spring, when Third Coast broke ground on a $28 million 142-room five-story hotel project.

The Hampton Inn and Suites hotel, which will include a 200-space parking deck, an indoor swimming pool and fitness center, is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2015.
...
http://www.mlive.com/business/west-m...incart_m-rpt-2
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  #159  
Old Posted Jun 5, 2014, 10:58 PM
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animatedmartian animatedmartian is offline
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Nice design. Almost has a classic look to it with the front corner.
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  #160  
Old Posted Jun 6, 2014, 9:38 PM
JonathanGRR JonathanGRR is offline
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Yeah, I like it too.

Here's a look at the renovation of the old Masonic Temple Building by CWD (Grand Rapid's equivalent of Detroit's Bedrock):

Quote:

Grand Rapids developers revive the grandeur of 118-year-old Masonic Temple Building
Jim Harger | June 5, 2014

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – CWD Real Estate Development is ready to re-introduce Grand Rapids to the grandeur of the 118-year-old office building it has been remodeling over the past two years at the corner of Louis Street and Ionia Avenue NW.

Originally built as the Masonic Temple Building in 1896 by E. Crofton Fox, a 32nd degree mason, the seven-story building has passed through a variety of hands since then and now bears a new name, The CWD Building.

Despite its size and key location between the city’s entertainment district and its central business district, CWD managing partner Sam Cummings likes to say the big brick building was “hidden in plain sight” for years.

Cummings, who has moved his company’s offices into the sixth floor, wants to make sure it is hidden no more.

CWD hosted a ribbon cutting on Thursday, June 5, followed by an open house to show off the upgrades they’ve brought to the building and the historical touches they have revived.

The new and accessible elevator lobby on Louis Street shows off the contrast. A modern white “cloud ceiling” allows visitors to peek through to the original ceiling joists and steel superstructure that made up the building.

The history of the building really comes alive on the sixth floor, where CWD has located its offices in the two-story Lodge Room where the Masons once conducted business and held ceremonies.

The quarter-sawn oak paneling and pocket doors have been revived while the ceiling retains its original “ribbed plaster transept vaults” held up by columns with wooden “volutes” that were hand-carved by craftsmen. The original hardwood flooring remains in use.

To make use of the two-story space, CWD installed a suspended mezzanine deck that is bridged to the balconies that originally overlooked the room. Cummings has installed his glass-enclosed modernistic office on the deck.

The stage in the Lodge Room was converted to an elevated and glass-enclosed conference room with a ramp. Behind the stage, there’s a modern kitchen that offers break space for CWD’s staff of 35 employees.

Other historical touches are found throughout the building, including a fireplace on each floor and arched doorways and windows.

But many of the upgrades remain unseen or transparent and will add to the building’s life, Cummings said.

“This building has stood for 120 years and our goal is to make sure it stands another 120,” he said.
...
http://www.mlive.com/business/west-m...opment_re.html
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