Grand Action - Convention Ctr Expansion/Stadium/Hotel

[GRLaker]

6 minutes ago, GR_Urbanist said:

Their expansion options are a post office that refuses to move and....city hall? Oh give me a break! This is a nonstarter.

They have a gigantic parking lot over on Fulton and Market that they need to fill in. And anything there will be automatically connected to the Skywalk system.

If DeVos wants that Post Office, he'll get it.

[ctpgr34]

1 hour ago, ant33 said:

Hopefully the possibility if for a potential professional team not minor league. I have no idea how they would find space for something of that stature though.

Does anyone know if this land is able to be built on?

 

[GR_Urbanist]

5 minutes ago, ctpgr34 said:

Expand DeVos Place to the Fulton/Market lot??????

A 2nd satellite location.

Anything else is going to be a long shot at best, or may take years to even get off the ground.

[ctpgr34]

2 minutes ago, GR_Urbanist said:

A 2nd satellite location.

Anything else is going to be a long shot at best, or may take years to even get off the ground.

All of these were presented as 5-10 yr out from even breaking ground IF they even happen

[ant33]

So we're going to make a stadium specifically for the usl at about 8,000 seats? Idk if it's just me, but that's not that exciting seeing that we are virtually building another minor league stadium/arena. But it's better than nothing..

[ctpgr34]

Poor quality took from back of the room

[GRLaker]

2 minutes ago, ant33 said:

So we're going to make a stadium specifically for the usl at about 8,000 seats? Idk if it's just me, but that's not that exciting seeing that we are virtually building another minor league stadium/arena. But it's better than nothing..

I highly doubt that Grand Rapids will ever host a top level professional team.

[Pattmost20]

2 minutes ago, ant33 said:

So we're going to make a stadium specifically for the usl at about 8,000 seats? Idk if it's just me, but that's not that exciting seeing that we are virtually building another minor league stadium/arena. But it's better than nothing..

On twitter they were reporting 8k seats, but the grbj article stated 8k was the average size of USL stadiums. I'd bet they would build bigger than 8k.

[GRLaker]

11 minutes ago, ctpgr34 said:

Does anyone know if this land is able to be built on?

 

That's a filled-in garbage dump. Last I heard, they're going to put a solar farm on it.

[Pattmost20]

12 minutes ago, ctpgr34 said:

Does anyone know if this land is able to be built on?

 

Yes but you can't break through the clay cap. So basically anything would have to be built on a concrete slab and would have to be creative regarding water and sewer. 

[ironyisadeadscene]

1 hour ago, Pattmost20 said:

On twitter they were reporting 8k seats, but the grbj article stated 8k was the average size of USL stadiums. I'd bet they would build bigger than 8k.

Also figure it would take over high school football games and maybe just maybe,  if GVSU ever wants to make the leap to d1 football.... 

[ctpgr34]

1 hour ago, ctpgr34 said:

Poor quality took from back of the room

Here's the full study- http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2016/12/destination_asset_study_urges.html#incart_river_home

[GRLaker]

14 minutes ago, ctpgr34 said:

Here's the full study- http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2016/12/destination_asset_study_urges.html#incart_river_home

I'm confused by this part: "Build a USL professional soccer stadium and recruit a team for the league, which plans to expand from 29 teams to 40 teams by 2020. Kaatz estimated a stadium could cost up to $40 million."

Wouldn't it make more sense for GRFC to move up into the USL? Why would we recruit a team for the league?

[Pattmost20]

16 minutes ago, GRLaker said:

I'm confused by this part: "Build a USL professional soccer stadium and recruit a team for the league, which plans to expand from 29 teams to 40 teams by 2020. Kaatz estimated a stadium could cost up to $40 million."

Wouldn't it make more sense for GRFC to move up into the USL? Why would we recruit a team for the league?

It is just vague language they are putting out there. The USL requires owners to be worth a lot of money, the owner of GRFC is not worth a lot of money (at least not the Millions that USL requires). So if it is GRFC that is going to be the USL franchise, they would technically have to restructure it and create a new organization with wealthy owners.

[GRDadof3]

My take on this whole thing is that Grand Action is just getting it out there that they're working on projects, as we've even asking here over the last few years if they're working on anything. 

Doug Small of ExpGR recently told me those exact numbers, downtown needs 500 more rooms and an expanded convention center (either attached to a new hotel or attached to Devos Place). Their success and the low hotel occupancy rates has apparently meant that they're missing out on conventions that would've been a shoe in for them. 

 

 

[EastownLeo]

Would a soccer stadium fit on this lot?  I have heard there is going to be a Soccer field here.  Not sure if its a GVSU field or could be a "Stadium".

[GRDadof3]

Here's the post office site, easily large enough for 120,000 sf of convention space and a hotel tower. 

 

 

What's weird though is that they also highlighted the Calder Plaza area, meaning the actual city and county buildings and Calder Plaza. AKA bringing back the Jack Buchanan plan?

[GVSUChris]

6 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

Here's the post office site, easily large enough for 120,000 sf of convention space and a hotel tower. 

 

 

What's weird though is that they also highlighted the Calder Plaza area, meaning the actual city and county buildings and Calder Plaza. AKA bringing back the Jack Buchanan plan?

Also noteworthy is that in the mlive article it says they'd prefer to go east and allow the post office site to be used for residential and retail. 

[GRDadof3]

10 minutes ago, EastownLeo said:

Would a soccer stadium fit on this lot?  I have heard there is going to be a Soccer field here.  Not sure if its a GVSU field or could be a "Stadium".

Certainly, with room for a sea of parking.

 

[ironyisadeadscene]

I also saw they want to move up a class or two for baseball.  This is needed,  as single A ball for GR is too small. If this happens,  hopefully a new park comes with it. 

[GRDadof3]

8 minutes ago, GVSUChris said:

Also noteworthy is that in the mlive article it says they'd prefer to go east and allow the post office site to be used for residential and retail. 

I hope they don't plan to tear down city hall and the county building. What about on the 5/3 parking lot? 

They even talked about a major soccer facility for youth soccer. I swear I think more people read this site than we realize.  

FYI, Trump will be here Friday night apparently. I fully expect him to take credit for all of this.

 

[Pattmost20]

7 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

I hope they don't plan to tear down city hall and the county building. What about on the 5/3 parking lot? 

They even talked about a major soccer facility for youth soccer. I swear I think more people read this site than we realize.  

 

A youth soccer facility would be awesome. I really want to keep this momentum going and turn West Michigan into a premier soccer destination in the Midwest.

[GRDadof3]

Here's an idea that a friend of mine had: add on to the convention center on the river side, cantilevered over the river with partial glass floors to watch the new rapids underneath. I then thought, what about bringing it out around the Lyon Square amphitheather? You're then adding valuable conv center space without eating up valuable riverfront or downtown property. 

You could even add retail on the ground floor of the conv center expansion on the Lyon Square side, creating a little promenade area. 

Obviously this is just a box for massing, but make the architecture so dramatic that it would stun visitors coming into downtown. 

 

 

 

 

[GRLaker]

39 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

Certainly, with room for a sea of parking.

 

Parking? Strike that from your statement. That's not the Grand Rapids way.

7 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

Here's an idea that a friend of mine had: add on to the convention center on the river side, cantilevered over the river with partial glass floors to watch the new rapids underneath. I then thought, what about bringing it out around the Lyon Square amphitheather? You're then adding valuable conv center space without eating up valuable riverfront or downtown property. 

You could even add retail on the ground floor of the conv center expansion on the Lyon Square side, creating a little promenade area. 

 

This is actually a really cool idea that would set DeVos Place apart from the rest. Glass floors along with balconies right over the water. Then a river entry point and entertainment area attached to the center and the trail. I love it. 

[egrguy]

For GVSU to be FCS they would need to average 15,000 paid attendance over a rolling two year period. Realistically if you had a FCS college team/USL soccer team, building a 25,000 person stadium is going to cost a lot more then $40 million unless that's very bare bones type of facility.

I think having a large soccer field complex so you can have regional tournaments would have the highest boost for the cost.