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158 Weston SW - Arena Place Mixed-Use Development


John E

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I like the height. The office building is decent, with modern design cues. Overall the project looks worse than first proposed.

 

The residential is not great, and will probably not age well. It needs an additional color/material or more glass. The windows need more depth, and overall the residential building needs more articulation. It looks/feels like a box. Overall, a development that spans a full block but is comprised of two buildings, should really be designed with distinct colors for each building. 

 

The garage needs help. At minimum, I would pull more of the vertical architectural elements from the habitable floors down the garage. Or a more Chicago-podium style with a distinct architecturally-attractive wrap of the garage. Vehicles on upper floors should never be visible from the street.

 

Ideally, they would add an additional floor of garage, and use the first 20 feet of each garage floor as lined habitable space -- large enough for studios or potentially condos with front door parking. Economically this is more costly, but is essentially what they did with 38 Commerce. 

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I’m surprised by the main tenant; it seems kind of out of the way for a law firm.  I’d think that their current location in the Calder Building - close to the federal building and courts, the county clerk, and the county court house would be ideal.  Miller Johnson I suppose isn’t the type of law firm where the attorneys spend a lot of time hanging out at the courthouse.  Maybe the partners just want to be closer to the breweries for lunch. 

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I’m surprised by the main tenant; it seems kind of out of the way for a law firm.  I’d think that their current location in the Calder Building - close to the federal building and courts, the county clerk, and the county court house would be ideal.  Miller Johnson I suppose isn’t the type of law firm where the attorneys spend a lot of time hanging out at the courthouse.  Maybe the partners just want to be closer to the breweries for lunch. 

 

Most of the big law firms downtown do corporate law, not trial law or civil case law. It's nothing like "The Good Wife." :)

 

Does anyone have an image of that ridiculous project that Tol proposed next to the JA building? It was the same, a ridiculous looking set of parking levels on the upper floors between the ground floor retail and the upper floor active space.

I like the height. The office building is decent, with modern design cues. Overall the project looks worse than first proposed.

 

The residential is not great, and will probably not age well. It needs an additional color/material or more glass. The windows need more depth, and overall the residential building needs more articulation. It looks/feels like a box. Overall, a development that spans a full block but is comprised of two buildings, should really be designed with distinct colors for each building. 

 

The garage needs help. At minimum, I would pull more of the vertical architectural elements from the habitable floors down the garage. Or a more Chicago-podium style with a distinct architecturally-attractive wrap of the garage. Vehicles on upper floors should never be visible from the street.

 

Ideally, they would add an additional floor of garage, and use the first 20 feet of each garage floor as lined habitable space -- large enough for studios or potentially condos with front door parking. Economically this is more costly, but is essentially what they did with 38 Commerce. 

 

Exactamundo.

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I know everyone hates parking, but speaking as someone who has a business in that area and has employees parking in that lot, I don't know where we, or anyone else currently using that lot is going to park once this gets going.  The Ellis lot on Grandville across from 44 Grandville has no additional monthly parking available.  I don't know status on the other lots in the area, but I imagine they are pretty full as well.  250 spaces is likely not enough for Miller Johnson alone considering their attorneys and staff will all need to park and they also need convenient parking for clients who visit their offices.  

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I know everyone hates parking, but speaking as someone who has a business in that area and has employees parking in that lot, I don't know where we, or anyone else currently using that lot is going to park once this gets going.  The Ellis lot on Grandville across from 44 Grandville has no additional monthly parking available.  I don't know status on the other lots in the area, but I imagine they are pretty full as well.  250 spaces is likely not enough for Miller Johnson alone considering their attorneys and staff will all need to park and they also need convenient parking for clients who visit their offices.  

 

You should look at the DASH system. It makes 3 stops right near your building. You pay for the parking, the shuttle ride is free.

 

http://grcity.us/enterprise-services/Parking-Services/Pages/DASH-Downtown-Area-Shuttle.aspx

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Does the project include 1st floor retail?  it looks like there are a row of windows on the first story.  if so it would be nice if they could wrap it around the north side of the building. 

 

Yes, 15,000 square feet. I believe they've signed on a restaurant, most likely a Meritage brand since it will occupy part of the commercial space.

 

Franklin Partners bought 25 Ottawa next door so it will be insteresting to see if they dress up the ground floor better.

 

Here's that Meridian Apartments with the same layer cake look. Yuk.

 

11836381434_cce4bfd0a4_o.jpg

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Yes, 15,000 square feet. I believe they've signed on a restaurant, most likely a Meritage brand since it will occupy part of the commercial space.

 

Franklin Partners bought 25 Ottawa next door so it will be insteresting to see if they dress up the ground floor better.

 

Here's that Meridian Apartments with the same layer cake look. Yuk.

 

11836381434_cce4bfd0a4_o.jpg

 

Can we put fruit or buttercream filling in there instead of cars?  :)

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"The multi-use building in downtown Grand Rapids will now house 60,000 sq. ft. of commercial office space, 101 market-rate residential units, 15,000 sq. ft. of ground-floor active use space and 250 parking spaces, for a total price tag of $44M. That's an increase of 20,000 sq. ft. of commercial space, 18 more residential units, 5,000 sq. ft. of street level space, and an additional 168 parking spaces that was priced at $30M in the initial plan."

http://events.grnow.com/events/index.php?com=detail&eID=240780

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Fair to peg this in the growing list of recent architectural flops?  I think so.  The stuff out on the Beltline looks better than this dreck.  Too bad we apparently either have a dearth of architectural talent or an unwillingness to build something that isn't warehouse-level cheap.  At least they seen to be leaving the corrugated aluminum siding off of this one.

 

As for Miller Johnson's moving out there--wow is that ever a move that seems to make no sense at all (perhaps).  Talk about moving to the outskirts of nowhere.  That building is going to be an island.  Downtown, but not downtown, but probably still with the high rent.  That last one is an interesting question.  There is plenty of office space in the "real" downtown CBD area--vacancies are high from what I've seen.  Some major tenants have recent left behind a lot of empty space.  And with Miller Johnson moving, this isn't getting any better.  They consume a lot of space.  So why move from an economic perspective?  And what of some of the other recent major move-outs?  Ponder that.  A few landlords have been holding out and trying to push up rents.  Miller Johnson's abandoning downtown for this awful location suggests to me that CBD landlords may have overplayed their collective hand... 

 

If you look at occupancy in the major downtown buildings right now, it's looking pretty grim.  It will be interesting to see what happens.  If they are doing PR on this, with tenant announcements, it seems pretty certain this is happening, and Miller Johnson is out of the CBD... Ouch.

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Fair to peg this in the growing list of recent architectural flops?  I think so.  The stuff out on the Beltline looks better than this dreck.  Too bad we apparently either have a dearth of architectural talent or an unwillingness to build something that isn't warehouse-level cheap.  At least they seen to be leaving the corrugated aluminum siding off of this one.

 

As for Miller Johnson's moving out there--wow is that ever a move that seems to make no sense at all (perhaps).  Talk about moving to the outskirts of nowhere.  That building is going to be an island.  Downtown, but not downtown, but probably still with the high rent.  That last one is an interesting question.  There is plenty of office space in the "real" downtown CBD area--vacancies are high from what I've seen.  Some major tenants have recent left behind a lot of empty space.  And with Miller Johnson moving, this isn't getting any better.  They consume a lot of space.  So why move from an economic perspective?  And what of some of the other recent major move-outs?  Ponder that.  A few landlords have been holding out and trying to push up rents.  Miller Johnson's abandoning downtown for this awful location suggests to me that CBD landlords may have overplayed their collective hand... 

 

If you look at occupancy in the major downtown buildings right now, it's looking pretty grim.  It will be interesting to see what happens.  If they are doing PR on this, with tenant announcements, it seems pretty certain this is happening, and Miller Johnson is out of the CBD... Ouch.

 

I dont know. It seems nice enough. I try to never expect the stuff you see in Metropolis, Dwell, or Architectural Digest. This is far decent enough for a much needed infill development.

 

I just hope they do a better job screening off the parking decks. Both the UICA and Catholic Central had designed theirs to be covered with a "green wall", but the plants never seem to be able to do well enough to really cover it .

 

This, from the current drawings at least, does not look like that idea is part of the plan.

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The continued redevelopment of Heartside is pulling downtown's center of gravity southward. Add brand new Class A space, convenient highway access, naming rights to the building visible from the highway and it is a no brainer why they moved. The only thing that will stop the redevelopment momentum is a couple of butt ugly buildings. This building certainly doesn't have the design to create spin-off development.  

Edited by Jippy
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Yes, 15,000 square feet. I believe they've signed on a restaurant, most likely a Meritage brand since it will occupy part of the commercial space.

 

Franklin Partners bought 25 Ottawa next door so it will be insteresting to see if they dress up the ground floor better.

 

Here's that Meridian Apartments with the same layer cake look. Yuk.

 

11836381434_cce4bfd0a4_o.jpg

see, i dont hate that much. maybe its because i grew up near flint, and well, genesee towers.

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This would be a pretty awesome view.  Wonder if this photo was taken with a "drone" camera?  Can't think of how else they would get a shot from that angle, other than an old fashioned helium balloon. :)

 

I think the design is pretty serviceable.  I did mention in the Salon group that I hope some sort of thoughtful effort through the building design can make use of the cool mural on the side of the GR Community Foundation's building that will be mostly blocked.  If that area could be used for a pedestrian walkway or outdoor seating/plaza, it might make for a cool little public space.

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Fair to peg this in the growing list of recent architectural flops?  I think so.  The stuff out on the Beltline looks better than this dreck.  Too bad we apparently either have a dearth of architectural talent or an unwillingness to build something that isn't warehouse-level cheap.  At least they seen to be leaving the corrugated aluminum siding off of this one.

 

As for Miller Johnson's moving out there--wow is that ever a move that seems to make no sense at all (perhaps).  Talk about moving to the outskirts of nowhere.  That building is going to be an island.  Downtown, but not downtown, but probably still with the high rent.  That last one is an interesting question.  There is plenty of office space in the "real" downtown CBD area--vacancies are high from what I've seen.  Some major tenants have recent left behind a lot of empty space.  And with Miller Johnson moving, this isn't getting any better.  They consume a lot of space.  So why move from an economic perspective?  And what of some of the other recent major move-outs?  Ponder that.  A few landlords have been holding out and trying to push up rents.  Miller Johnson's abandoning downtown for this awful location suggests to me that CBD landlords may have overplayed their collective hand... 

 

If you look at occupancy in the major downtown buildings right now, it's looking pretty grim.  It will be interesting to see what happens.  If they are doing PR on this, with tenant announcements, it seems pretty certain this is happening, and Miller Johnson is out of the CBD... Ouch.

 

It's the whole "North of Fulton", "South of Fulton" thing. I'm telling you, it's a thing. :)

 

(i.e. it's not cool to be North of Fulton anymore.)

 

A lot of these law firms are trying to attract the best and brightest, who are generally younger professionals who don't want to be in a stale circa 1980's cubicle tower.

 

I agree, when I heard the news, I thought of the 27% vacancy rate for downtown office buildings right now.

 

Some really simple design changes to emphasize the vertical lines from top to bottom would do a lot to tie the whole 3 layers together. Who is the design architect? At the first announcement press conference back in the Fall, I believe Concept Design Group was there. I assume it's still them.

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Nothing left really for me to pile on, but some things I DO like...

 

I DO like the height.

I DO like how it appears as one building when seen from the east, and two buildings when seen from the west.

I DO like that a downtown project actually got bigger over time.  How often does that happen?

 

 

A lot of these law firms are trying to attract the best and brightest, who are generally younger professionals who don't want to be in a stale circa 1980's cubicle tower.

 

I agree, when I heard the news, I thought of the 27% vacancy rate for downtown office buildings right now.

 

My first reaction, too, was that it's a bit of a blow to Calder Plaza.  If law firms don't see that area as prime real estate, than who else would?  I wonder if we will eventually reach a point where those buildings get so outdated that people start talking about redesigning the whole south end of the plaza.

Edited by RegalTDP
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Nothing left really for me to pile on, but some things I DO like...

 

I DO like the height.

I DO like how it appears as one building when seen from the east, and two buildings when seen from the west.

I DO like that a downtown project actually got bigger over time.  How often does that happen?

 

 

My first reaction, too, was that it's a bit of a blow to Calder Plaza.  If law firms don't see that area as prime real estate, than who else would?  I wonder if we will eventually reach a point where those buildings get so outdated that people start talking about redesigning the whole south end of the plaza.

 

If demand for market rate housing continues to outstrip supply, then I think we will see a repurposing of those buildings around Calder Plaza into residential. The options for buildings to renovate into housing are getting few and far between in the City Center.

 

Maybe we'll actually see a housing project built at the South end of Calder Plaza next to 5/3 Bank. Or at Lyon and Ottawa.

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If demand for market rate housing continues to outstrip supply, then I think we will see a repurposing of those buildings around Calder Plaza into residential. The options for buildings to renovate into housing are getting few and far between in the City Center.

 

Maybe we'll actually see a housing project built at the South end of Calder Plaza next to 5/3 Bank. Or at Lyon and Ottawa.

I'm surprised a developer hasn't bought the Ellis Parking lot on Ionia where the old downtown transit used to be. Would be a great location for a Medical Mile Residential Tower with a ground floor gym facility and health food center.

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