MORTON HOUSE

[GRDadof3]

Excellent pictures! Thank you grdad!

 

Here are the rest of them. It was a dreary day so it made the pictures pretty dark. 

 

 

 

 

 

Doggy amenities!

 

People amenities! (keeping some of the original details)

 

 

 

The studio apartments come with built-in "Urbaneer" systems, which are pretty cool.

http://www.urbaneerspaces.com/wordpress/

Edited October 7, 2015 by GRDadof3

[mpchicago]

Is Urbaneer a Rockford Construction subsidiary?  Their facility address is at "side door" at the Rockford headquarters on the west side.

[GRDadof3]

Is Urbaneer a Rockford Construction subsidiary?  Their facility address is at "side door" at the Rockford headquarters on the west side.

I don't believe so. I think they're just housed in one of those retail/office spaces in their new HQ. 

[GRDadof3]

Is Urbaneer a Rockford Construction subsidiary?  Their facility address is at "side door" at the Rockford headquarters on the west side.

Correction, it apparently was developed at Rockford and they've gone out on their own as an independent company. 

[GRDadof3]

A portion of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors are being built out for a new office tenant. Will be interesting to see who it is..

[mpchicago]

A portion of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors are being built out for a new office tenant. Will be interesting to see who it is..

Yes, they have been telling us for months that they leased out that space to an office tenant, but why the big secret as to who it is? 

[joeDowntown]

A portion of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors are being built out for a new office tenant. Will be interesting to see who it is..

Bank?

Joe

[GRDadof3]

Bank?

Joe

I'd be surprised if a bank (branch) were on 3 floors. 

[getemngo]

This would be such a great corner for a pharmacy, too.

[GRDadof3]

This little corner makeover turned out really nice. 

[joeDowntown]

5 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

This little corner makeover turned out really nice. 

Agreed, it looks great! Are they doing anything with the interior? I looked up into a second or third story window and it still looked like somewhat shoddy office space. 

Joe

[droonus2000]

They are working on the interior as well. I have a friend who works  there, but I can't remember what she told me a few months ago. I know the elevators  and entryways were spruced up. 

[x99]

The improvements in the materials and design are nice.  Admittedly, though, I did a double take after they finished the dark black stone cladding on the first floor.  At first glance, it makes the building look like a big chunk is missing and the whole thing is going to collapse.  If this was intentional, then, well.. Okay.  Weird architectural choice and probably a bad call, but to each his own, I suppose.  If they weren't going for the "building hanging in midair look", then someone really screwed the pooch.  All they really need to do to (mostly) fix the issue is to clad the corner post in limestone, or just paint it.  But maybe I'm the only person who thinks it looks quite odd.

Edited January 7, 2016 by x99

[Allison Slater]

I completely agree with that assessment.  The contrast between the black and the yellow brick is just too much.  Either a corner post matching the masonry, or a different colour, or both.  But aside from that, it's excellent.

[MJLO]

I'm sure my taste is all in my mouth but I think it looks great.

[GR_Urbanist]

I like it personally. Very classy and distinguished. It shows that the developers know that the ground floor is the most important part of the building, and not just some component that has to 100% match the upper floors.

The upper floors are likely "boring" office spaces anyway, but the ground floor is where the building and the everyday pedestrian will likely "interact" the most. If there is some sort of retail establishment there, then it needs to stand out for itself, and not just fade into the rest of the building where people passing by will have a harder time separating it out visually from the rest of the 12 story building.

[GRDadof3]

It may look a little dark in the pictures too because the sun was peering around the corner of the building and could've affected the lighting on my camera. 

[x99]

5 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

It may look a little dark in the pictures too because the sun was peering around the corner of the building and could've affected the lighting on my camera. 

Oh, no.  It isn't your camera.  I pass by this on a regular basis.  Until you're right up on the building, it visually appears that a section of the building is missing.  I agree with GR_Urbanist you want the main floor to be prominent, but usually you don't want to to appear to be visually missing from a distance.  But when you use black surrounded by lighter colors, that's what you get from any sort of distance in less than blinding light.  I don't like to criticize it, because they nailed the first floor cornice, they nailed the lighting, they nailed the corner entrance--all of it.  It's excellent.  That's why I doubt the disappearing first floor was intentional.  My guess is someone forgot what this would look like in dim light or at dusk, rather than in a sketch.  Not that it isn't still a major improvement on what was there.  It just needs to be tied back to the ground a bit.

Edited January 11, 2016 by x99

[ironyisadeadscene]

Compared to what that corner was, looks great!

[arcturus]

Curious what the occupancy is now.  Are stats hard to come by?

[GRDadof3]

An update on this project, mostly talking about the inability to lease a lot of the retail space. Having been in these retail areas, I'm really surprised they expect a retailer to do the build out. 

https://mibiz.com/news/design-build/item/24935-devos-held-firm-gets-loan-deferment-on-gr-facility-amid-struggle-to-fill-retail-space

82 of the 99 apartments are leased. 

 

[GVSUChris]

1 hour ago, GRDadof3 said:

An update on this project, mostly talking about the inability to lease a lot of the retail space. Having been in these retail areas, I'm really surprised they expect a retailer to do the build out. 

https://mibiz.com/news/design-build/item/24935-devos-held-firm-gets-loan-deferment-on-gr-facility-amid-struggle-to-fill-retail-space

82 of the 99 apartments are leased. 

 

• We looked at the spaces in there back when we were searching for a space for our store and the costs were laughable. Even with the prospect of co-tenancy with a popular existing coffee shop in the area it was ridiculous how much build-out would have cost in tandem with the lack of visibility from the street. I am not surprised at all that they have not been able to fill these and it is really disappointing. 

[x99]

9 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

An update on this project, mostly talking about the inability to lease a lot of the retail space. Having been in these retail areas, I'm really surprised they expect a retailer to do the build out. 

82 of the 99 apartments are leased. 

In other words, the residential is still boasting an almost 20% vacancy rate and the commercial is a fiasco.  Funny thing is, when it was a giant Section 8 building, it was waitlisted waaaaay out there.  Lesson: The whole no parking, high density, take transit thing works great.  As long as the tenants don't have money to pay for a car and the rent is next to free.  Probably not the take away anyone was going for...  

[mpchicago]

55 Ionia Partners,  an LLC of RDV Corp,  wants to open high end boutique hotel on 3 floors of The Morton.   I say go for it if it will help fill the empty ground floor space.  

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2019/12/devos-affiliated-company-eyes-32-room-high-end-hotel-in-downtown-grand-rapids.html

https://www.themortongr.com/

[MJLO]

They declined to comment on a brand.  That could be exciting to speculate about