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Uptown Village

GRDadof3

By GRDadof3
in Grand Rapids

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Paris Texas Whistle-Stop

Paris Texas

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We were picked 3rd and it is all good! First was a VERY small project that really has no impact on any of the projects in the lottery. Second was a medium sized project in Jackson, we were third. At this point we are about 99% sure Uptown will go forward as there will be enough funding when nit gets to our project.

All the other pieces of the project are in place, and have been so for a long time.

I will let you all know when the bull dozers are scheduled to roll, maybe we will have a ceremony at the site when the first building comes down a'la Extreme Home Makeover...who could play Ty Pennington?

Oh and BTW, I will be looking at the new elevations for the town homes on Sigsbee street tomorrow AM.

Congratulations, Dave! :yahoo::yahoo::yahoo:

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  • 3 weeks later...
gr49503 Unincorporated Area

gr49503

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I agree that the townhouse renderings are an improvement over previous iterations. I drive through this corridor frequently and am hopeful that this project will be a tipping point for Wealthy St. from downtown to Eastown. Wealthy seems to be lively in the immediate Wealthy Theatre District but then it seems very empty until you get west of Eastern. And then it is spotty at best, only offering a handful decent shops. Bazzani has done a great job in the neighborhood thus far, and I am optimistic that this project will add more buzz to the corner of Wealthy and Diamond and inspire more redevelopment. It is already happening with the Lott3Metz infill condos.

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GR_Urbanist Burg

GR_Urbanist

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Can you guys hardly stand it that in the not too distant future Wealthy Street and Division Ave will be THE hotspot corridors in town. True "Greenwich Village" type areas. Am I the only one that thinks so?

Isnt that somthing to see how far its come?

I remember when that corner of Wealthy and Fuller was just a mess. When I used to ride my bike from my parents house by Ottawa Hills to the DT area in high school, I would go through Eastown just to avoid the area. Now I sometimes stop on the same corner to use the ATM at night.

Everyone who has put time and money into that street is a true hero. :thumbsup:

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GRGridGirl Hamlet

GRGridGirl

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Can you guys hardly stand it that in the not too distant future Wealthy Street and Division Ave will be THE hotspot corridors in town. True "Greenwich Village" type areas. Am I the only one that thinks so?

It's the urban circle. Both of these areas were originally developed as vibrant corridors, experienced a time of neglect, and now have returned vibrant. The East Hills business district (Cherry, Lake, Diamond area) today has a 99.5% occupancy rate. Eastown & East Fulton, same circle.

Just one reason why I love living, working, shopping, and playing in Uptown.

Side note: the Uptown District includes the business districts of East Fulton, East Hills, Eastown, and Wealthy Street & the five surrounding neighborhoods.

Wait till you see the new Uptown bike racks that will be in all four of Uptown's business districts. Oh, and if you have a chance, check out the new street signs on the ornamental traffic poles at the Cherry, Lake, Diamond intersection. The block numbers are displayed next to the street names.

Daddy, the future is now.

-Uptown Girl

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twoshort Town

twoshort

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From another thread:

Yesterday, as a matter of fact we got our first communication from the State for our tax credit reservation for Uptown Village. We are having to re-structure our financing and construction package a bit right now. However, it is all good news. Ultimately we have been awarded a $3.5 million tax credit from the State. It still appears as though the project will break ground sometime early summer.

Uptown Village includes the car lot on Wealthy and all of the residential properties (5) behind the car lot. It totals 1 Acre.

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ModSquad Hamlet

ModSquad

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Just a quick update. We finally heard from the State regarding our tax credit. They are invoking what is called the 45% rule whereby only 45% of a total allocation can go to one entity. The Metropolitan Park project in Heartside got funded for ANOTHER $20,000 this round. This plus the 45% rule reduced our award to about $400,000, which brings a $1,000,000 shortfall to the project.

But not to worry, we spent most of last week reworking the finances on our project and have come up with a solution that is very workable. I will give more details on this later.

We do hope to have our confirmation letter in hand by the end of next week. This will authorize Isaac Norris our architect to move forward with full blown construction drawings, Rockford Construction to move forward with plan review from the City.

If everything comes together, we should break ground July 1. More later.

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ModSquad Hamlet

ModSquad

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I'm looking forward to a very noisy summer in that neck of the woods. :thumbsup:

Well twoshort...LET THE NOISE BEGIN!

Today we received our tax credit reservation from MSHDA. It is all official. Here is the timeline as we know it along with small changes to the project:

Break ground by July 1, 2006. This is basically bulldozing all of the existing structures and beginning site work.

Construction will take about 12 months. So...cut the ribbon July 1 2007. Actually we are hoping to build either the town homes or the 3 story building first, get full occupancy then move on to the next building...but we will see.

There is 6,500 square feet of comercial space in the building. This space will be "condoed" and sold off as either 1 space or smaller retail/office suites. We will see where the interest is. We will begin meeting with our commercial real estate broker in the coming month to look at the market.

Tomorrow I will have final plans and elevations...if I can I will post them here.

Let's roll people!

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twoshort Town

twoshort

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Well twoshort...LET THE NOISE BEGIN!

Today we received our tax credit reservation from MSHDA. It is all official. Here is the timeline as we know it along with small changes to the project:

Great, I can't wait to watch this all take shape. Congrats Dave and Lighthouse! :thumbsup:

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grcitydog Whistle-Stop

grcitydog

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It is really going to be exciting watching that corner come together. BTW, I know this is slightly off topic, but does anyone know what is happening with that little building on the northeast corner of Diamond and Wealthy, the one with the tile roof that was recently rehabbed. It looks great, and now it looks occupied.

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Nitro Burg

Nitro

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It is really going to be exciting watching that corner come together. BTW, I know this is slightly off topic, but does anyone know what is happening with that little building on the northeast corner of Diamond and Wealthy, the one with the tile roof that was recently rehabbed. It looks great, and now it looks occupied.

The building was sold to The Image Shoppe and it is now their office. They do graphic design, web design, etc.

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