MSU Biomedical Research Campus - Phase II

[john_denver]

My god, we'll have 3 Whole Foods stores in Grand Rapids by 2020.

[GRDadof3]

Jeff,

I know of several developers right now looking at Burton Heights in the Division/Burton corridor.  There is a HUGE potential here with the Silver Line in place.

 

With an old abandoned theater and a fairly intact block long business district, it's Wealthy St 20 years ago. I've heard the Burton Heights neighborhood business association has struggled to stay together as a cohesive unit lately, but hopefully the existing Hispanic community there is included in the revitalization plans...

[organsnyder]

From what I've heard, the Burton Heights business association has suffered from mismanagement in recent years. The Garfield Park Neighborhoods Association (which extends all the way to 131) is spearheading an effort to develop a master plan for the Burton Heights corridor. I'm not directly involved with that effort, but from what I know of GPNA (I'm on the GPNA board) I'm confident that there will be representation from the Hispanic community, who make up an extremely vital portion of current business activity.

 

This business district has tons of potential. It's also surrounded by incredibly diverse neighborhoods—the GPNA service area is roughly 1/3 Black, 1/3 White, and 1/3 Hispanic, and includes both the least and most expensive single-family residential properties in the 07 zipcode.

[ModSquad]

Chris-It was the Master Plan for the Southtown Business District on Madison and Hall that produced the development we see in our neighborhood today.  MSHDA and MEDC is really encouraging (with funds to help) mass transit related development.  The Burton Heights Business District is ripe for such a thing.

[fotoman311]

My back of the napkin calculations also show a positive impact for City of GR income tax receipts.

150*$90,000 = $13.5 million in estimated payroll

 

0% live in City of GR, 13,500,000*.0075=$101,250

10% live in City of GR, 12,150,000*.0075 + 135,000*.015=$111,375

 

It's a drop in the bucket of a $440 million annual budget, but is a pretty good impact for a single project.  And that doesn't even include any private development opportunities that might be added to the project.  And the 150 number may not include some of the support staff, whose salaries would likely be lower, but for whom there would still be a significant number.

 

Edit: UrbanPlanet didn't preserve my table very well, even though it showed a table in the editor after I pasted it.

Percent live in GR Income Tax revenue

0 101250

10 111375

20 121500

30 131625

40 141750

50 151875

Edited January 7, 2015 by fotoman311

[MJLO]

I've got to think with the population influx in general the cities revenues must be climbing,  I haven't paid much attention from where I am but I haven't heard anything about budget deficits in a while. 

[GRDadof3]

I've got to think with the population influx in general the cities revenues must be climbing,  I haven't paid much attention from where I am but I haven't heard anything about budget deficits in a while. 

 

I believe I saw that Kent County's budget was actually forecast to break even this coming year, without any cuts needed. I think that's a first in a long while.

[GRDadof3]

MSU Board of Trustees meets tomorrow, with one agenda item being to vote to move forward on the 160,000 sf Grand Rapids Research Center. I would imagine renderings will be presented. I'll try to get my hands on them but can't make promises.

 

*The designs are probably not going to be that exciting.

[mpchicago]

My god, we'll have 3 Whole Foods stores in Grand Rapids by 2020.

 

There is something to what you say.   Educated individuals, with higher incomes = Whole Foods.  I live in a town next to Evanston, IL and there are currently 2 Wholes Foods within mile of each other. WF is adding a 3rd Evanston store in 2015-16!!!  This is a town of about 75,000, but home to Northwestern University.

MSU Board of Trustees meets tomorrow, with one agenda item being to vote to move forward on the 160,000 sf Grand Rapids Research Center. I would imagine renderings will be presented. I'll try to get my hands on them but can't make promises.

 

*The designs are probably not going to be that exciting.

 

The rendering has to be better than some of what we have recently seen.

Edited February 5, 2015 by mpchicago

[GVSUChris]

There is something to what you say.   Educated individuals, with higher incomes = Whole Foods.  I live in a town next to Evanston, IL and their are currently 2 Wholes Foods within mile of each other there. WF is adding a 3rd Evanston store in 2015-16!!!  This is a town of about 75,000, but home to Northwestern University.

 

The rendering have to be better than some of what we have recently seen.

 

Hey! My office is between those two Whole Foods! Interestingly enough though, it seemed to take forever for the Trader Joe's to come into Evanston. Whole Foods is expanding rapidly in the Chicago area. There is one opening in my neighborhood in Chicago and it is not far from 2-3 other locations. From what I've heard, they are planning to be pretty bullish in other markets. We'll see.

 

RE: MSU...I'm just hopeful that there will be some thoughtful development on the site surrounding the lab in the (near) future!

Edited February 5, 2015 by GVSUChris

[GVSUChris]

 

*The designs are probably not going to be that exciting.

 Nope. Not at all. 

 

http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2015/board-of-trustees-approves-construction-of-grand-rapids-biomedical-research-center/

[GRDadof3]

[GR_Urbanist]

Very nice. It will bring lots of life to that intersection.

 

Wish the Monroe side had some more windows though, but cant get everything, I suppose.

[mpchicago]

Looks like a pretty standard research building, but I like what I think is a lot of glass on the front.  Very strange angle to release, but maybe that's the main entrance at Michigan and Monroe?  Still, they should have angled this rendering a touch more toward the front. Looking forward to the entire process, including the possible private sector development here.

[GRDadof3]

Very nice. It will bring lots of life to that intersection.

 

Wish the Monroe side had some more windows though, but cant get everything, I suppose.

 

Yes, it will be interesting to see what gets built around it. Marks another phase of a new construction boom on Michigan again.

[WMrapids]

Looking at the height of it, it seems it'll be just as tall as the Federal Building across the street. Might be a pretty nice fit.

[GRDadof3]

Looks like a pretty standard research building, but I like what I think is a lot of glass on the front.  Very strange angle to release, but maybe that's the main entrance at Michigan and Monroe?  Still, they should have angled this rendering a touch more toward the front. Looking forward to the entire process, including the possible private sector development here.

 

I'll see if I can get some cleaner versions, and from different angles.

 

This one is a tad clearer, same angle.

 

 

 

Footprint looks similar to what was leaked before.

 

[WMrapids]

It could have been cool if they would have continued the windows down the center with the grey portion in the rendering, like with the glass down the middle of the Secchia building. That would bring both of the buildings together, you can already see similarities in the style.

It could have been cool if they would have continued the windows down the center with the grey portion in the rendering, like with the glass down the middle of the Secchia building. That would bring both of the buildings together, you can already see similarities in the style.

[GRDadof3]

The initial information we saw was 36 research teams, and 5 stories. Now on their Brownfield application they're saying 44 research teams and $88 Million, so it may have grown to 6 floors.

 

$88 Million for 163,000 square feet will be a very nice facility. They don't build high-rise wet labs. You can't beat the impact though. Every mayor in the U.S. would love to get a biomedical campus in his/her downtown (if they don't have one already). Average salary of the 150 or so employees there: $90,000.

 

Probably similar to this in scale:

 

 

I pretty much called the design when I posted this other biomedical center. But really all biomedical facilities are the same: 2/3s of it devoted to labs and classrooms (with very little windows), the other 1/3 devoted to offices.

[joeDowntown]

I'm going to go all X99 on this and say I don't like it so far. Looks like they are trying to tie it into the Secchia Center. Seems like if they are building a campus, they could change up the style (but it's all about the materials, so I reserve judgement to like it later).

 

I bet this is the 'best' angle of the building (and most visible coming across the bridge). I wouldn't imagine anything too spectacular to the north or east with both areas designated as development zones. 

 

Joe

[ironyisadeadscene]

Taller then I thought... I like the added height. Outside that, very meh.

[GRDadof3]

There was some discussion on Mlive about windows on the South side and the Ford building possibly blocking them and it reminded me that driving up Monroe today I noticed that the Ford building is placed quite a bit to the East. You'll almost be able to see the entire MSU building coming North up Monroe.

 

 

 

 

 

[joeDowntown]

You're right. Will be interesting to see how it looks driving north on Monroe (especially at night).

Joe

[jas49503]

I'll see if I can get some cleaner versions, and from different angles.

 

This one is a tad clearer, same angle.

 

 

 

Footprint looks similar to what was leaked before.

 

 

Boring.  makes the design at 35/41 division look like design of the year. if they built this it would be a missed opportunity to say the least.

Edited February 7, 2015 by jas49503

[GRDadof3]

You're right. Will be interesting to see how it looks driving north on Monroe (especially at night).

Joe

 

Once it all gets filled in by 2020, it will look like a whole new section of downtown. Even if they only do 12 - 15 story buildings near MSU and on the Press site...

 

 

 

 

I'm surprised that Granger or Christman hasn't jumped in on the rest of the "campus" yet. Granger particularly is starting to do "healthcare campuses" around the country like Metro Health's.