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630 S Division Ave Postal Facility


organsnyder

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I don't have the connections that normally lead to scoops, but I heard some rumors today that might be interesting. Apparently Roosevelt Tillman, a local businessman that owns a lot of property on the SE side has encountered some financial difficulties as of late, and has lost quite a few properties to foreclosure. He owned the Azucar nightclub, which lost its liquor license back in 2010.

He owns/owned quite a few different entities:

  • Medbio Inc
  • Pleasant Street Properties LLC
  • R Tillman, LLC
  • South Division Properties
  • South Division Properties Holding
  • Tillman Entertainment Group
  • Tillman Industries
  • Tillman Industrial Properties
  • Veteran Medical Products

Among the properties that have been foreclosed:

He appears to still own the following properties:

  • 530 S Division Ave (Family Dollar)
  • 1228 Madison Ave SE (Madison Square Plaza)

All of this is factual information gleaned from public records. I am making no claims regarding Mr. Tillman's ethics or business acumen.

Nothing terribly interesting so far. The next part gets into rumor territory.

The 630 S Division property - an industrial building built to house Medbio, but now vacant - is listed for sale for $1.6 million. Apparently, a buyer has made an offer for the building, but the deal is being held up because of a dispute related to the foreclosure. According to my source, that buyer is the USPS, looking for a new home for the main Post Office.

A further component to the rumor is that the USPS has an agreement with a buyer for the Michigan St facility - perhaps the DeVos family, which owns Olds Manor next door - pending the USPS's move to a new location.

These rumors are based on information overheard at a court hearing, and may be incorrect - the plans (if true) are certainly in the early stages.

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Hmmmm.

 

630 S. Division certainly isn't a large property. Nowhere near large enough for even a scaled-down post office. And I could not understand why the USPS would move the main post office to here of all places. Traffic would be a nightmare in and out.

 

Besides, the post office can barely stay open these days, so unless this is an emergency move into the existing structure that is there because they are really broke, there simply isn't a reason I can see how this could happen.

 

 

P.S. Tillman is one of the worst developers in GR. He made really cheap-looking establishments and stuck his name on them like he was some minor league Donald Trump. If he is losing these properties, all I can say is thank goodness!

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The Division property is just under 3 acres, compared with 4.5 acres for the current main Post Office location. If they move more of the processing to a suburban location (no reason to have that many trucks coming in/out of downtown), the Division property might work, perhaps with an addition to the building.

Financially, the USPS could easily come out ahead by selling 4.5 acres of riverfront property and purchasing a foreclosed property on Division - even after accounting for construction and moving costs.

From what I've seen, I'm not too impressed with Tillman either. In fact, there's a web site dedicated to publicizing all of the legal disputes he's been involved with over the years. Looking at his personal web site, he certainly thinks highly of himself.

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The Division property is just under 3 acres, compared with 4.5 acres for the current main Post Office location. If they move more of the processing to a suburban location (no reason to have that many trucks coming in/out of downtown), the Division property might work, perhaps with an addition to the building.

Financially, the USPS could easily come out ahead by selling 4.5 acres of riverfront property and purchasing a foreclosed property on Division - even after accounting for construction and moving costs.

From what I've seen, I'm not too impressed with Tillman either. In fact, there's a web site dedicated to publicizing all of the legal disputes he's been involved with over the years. Looking at his personal web site, he certainly thinks highly of himself.

 

No kidding, sell 4.5 acres at $5Million+ an acre, buy 630 S Division for $1.6 million and build or add on for $10 Million and it seems like they'd come out ahead. Particularly if they get the property basically in foreclosure for even less than $1.6.

 

I don't see the location at 630 being that bad either. It's right on S Division, which branches to every part of the metro area, and very close to 131.

 

post-2672-0-86487400-1367350660_thumb.jp

 

 

This is the central USPS for Lansing, which probably fits on a 3 acre site. I think I remember them building it when I was in high school there.

 

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=lansing+michigan&hl=en&ll=42.685694,-84.499943&spn=0.002995,0.005284&hnear=Lansing,+Ingham,+Michigan&gl=us&t=h&z=18

 

Interesting. I wonder if Devos' is trying to make a blocking move against the new Monroe North hotel...

 

 

 

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The Division property is just under 3 acres, compared with 4.5 acres for the current main Post Office location. If they move more of the processing to a suburban location (no reason to have that many trucks coming in/out of downtown), the Division property might work, perhaps with an addition to the building.

 

I guess two question marks will be how they will accommodate the USPS trucks that will have to make multiple runs in and out of the facility(potential NIMBY problems), and (the infamous) "Where am I going to park!!!!!!111!!!!!!" crowd. The current PO can have a line of cars numbering over a dozen during Christmas or Tax Day. With the Silverline  running right by this location, there could be a real cluster occurring here.

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I guess two question marks will be how they will accommodate the USPS trucks that will have to make multiple runs in and out of the facility(potential NIMBY problems), and (the infamous) "Where am I going to park!!!!!!111!!!!!!" crowd. The current PO can have a line of cars numbering over a dozen during Christmas or Tax Day. With the Silverline  running right by this location, there could be a real cluster occurring here.

 

They could probably run the drives off of Pleasant or Sycamore instead of S. Division. I'm sure there'll be upteen thousand meetings and hearings about this, if it proves to be true.

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Horrible location for a postal precessing center. As far as I know the USPS has not lifted their ban on new facilities.

I don't get this rumor at all.

 

 

Are you sure that wasn't a rumor? USPS is going down faster than the titanic. Faster than Kodak. I'm sure the federal government will entertain any offer of purchase of their land. And if Devos is involved, he has more than a few connections to get things moving.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/06/postal-service-saturday-mail_n_2629373.html

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Are you sure that wasn't a rumor? USPS is going down faster than the titanic. Faster than Kodak. I'm sure the federal government will entertain any offer of purchase of their land. And if Devos is involved, he has more than a few connections to get things moving.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/06/postal-service-saturday-mail_n_2629373.html

 

I would think that by using the money from sale of the riverfront property to invest in a facility with more modern technology, they might actually be able to come out ahead monetarily AND save money in long-term operating costs by being significantly more efficient with the new machinery and a more energy efficient building.

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This seems like a poor location from a logistics standpoint. And way too small for modern processing needs. 

 

Major logistics carriers like USPS want to be at the intersection of two major highways with easy access to the airport. This location is inconveniently located next to one highway -- 131. The most logical place for them to go is along the Southbeltline -- 131, 96, 196 and the airport all a short hop away. 

 

That said, I am all for them moving out of their current location. Perhaps they hope to consolidate public post office operations to this location, and move the processing facility elsewhere. 

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Why are we assuming that they'd move their Michigan St. operations to a new location in one piece? I agree that they'd be better served with a suburban processing center, but they'd still want to maintain a main office downtown, even if it isn't where the majority of the mail is processed. A smaller property, such as the one on Division, would work well for a central office, while the processing could happen at a big sorting facility - perhaps expanding the one on Patterson Ave near the airport.

Edit: And now I actually read to the end of Jippy's post, and that's exactly what he's saying.

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Why are we assuming that they'd move their Michigan St. operations to a new location in one piece? I agree that they'd be better served with a suburban processing center, but they'd still want to maintain a main office downtown, even if it isn't where the majority of the mail is processed. A smaller property, such as the one on Division, would work well for a central office, while the processing could happen at a big sorting facility - perhaps expanding the one on Patterson Ave near the airport.

Edit: And now I actually read to the end of Jippy's post, and that's exactly what he's saying.

 

As that article stated, the USPS's business has become considerably more commerical package delivery and considerably less letter processing. You're right, they may be splitting them up.

 

And as far as rumors go, this would be a hard one for someone to make up. I always say, the more unlikely a rumor sounds, the more likely it is to be true.

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IF, this were to happen. IF, they were to move. That would open a nice location for a new buildiing, open development for the olds manor, and push MSU to do something worth while to the press building. Do I actually think its going to happen? No, I dont sadly. Seems to out in left field for me. But I guess if Devos really did make a hefty offer you never know. Nothing beats cubic dollars.

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I think it would be smart for the USPS to start selling some of its property. It's probably one of the most valuable assets they still have, and I'm sure they could gain efficiencies in a modern space, built for what they do today (not what they did in the 1960's). 

 

Joe

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He appears to still own the following properties:

  • 530 S Division Ave (Family Dollar)
  • 1228 Madison Ave SE (Madison Square Plaza)

 

Don't forget 1059 Wealthy.   This old McDonald's has been begging for redeveloped for years.  I think its  the most underutilized hunks of land in East Hills and would  probably be more valuable if someone bulldozed the  building.  Last price i heard was $650.000

 

http://goo.gl/maps/XUAzb

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Don't forget 1059 Wealthy.   This old McDonald's has been begging for redeveloped for years.  I think its  the most underutilized hunks of land in East Hills and would  probably be more valuable if someone bulldozed the  building.  Last price i heard was $650.000

 

http://goo.gl/maps/XUAzb

 

According to city records, 1059 Wealthy is now owned by "Green Cane Property LLC." The sale record for that property is strange - if I'm reading it right, Mercantile Bank foreclosed on Tillman in 2006, sold it back to him in 2008, only to foreclose again in 2012, followed by transferring it back to Tillman for him to sell to Green Cane Property.

 

According to the state, Green Cane Property's registered agent is G. Mark McAleenan Jr, 555 Ada Dr SE, Ada MI 49301.

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According to city records, 1059 Wealthy is now owned by "Green Cane Property LLC." The sale record for that property is strange - if I'm reading it right, Mercantile Bank foreclosed on Tillman in 2006, sold it back to him in 2008, only to foreclose again in 2012, followed by transferring it back to Tillman for him to sell to Green Cane Property.

 

According to the state, Green Cane Property's registered agent is G. Mark McAleenan Jr, 555 Ada Dr SE, Ada MI 49301.

Interesting. 

 

I toured the building when Tillman was selling it.  Since then there is a new realty company and the price has gone up 50K. 

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  • 2 months later...

Word.

 

Actually, accesskent shows it's still owned by Mercantile Bank....

When we bought our house in 2007, the purchase showed up on the City's parcel data about 2-3 weeks before it showed up on AccessKent.  I checked. :)

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