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New projects on the West Side


GRDadof3

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35 minutes ago, GR8scott said:

vision might be part of it and also short history but the AD has publically been adamantly against a move to even D1 FCS, wrongly citing an astronmical cost when the facilities at GVSU are already bigger and better than many if not most FCS schools. A reminder that Grand Rapids is the largest city and metro area without a D1 school. Golden opportunity.

 

as for height, I somehow thought Allendale wouldn't have a 4 story limitation since its unincorporated.  Ferris state has a door that's 12 or so floors. IL state has one that's like 25 stories. I would thjnk if the goal is to have a suburban and an urban campuses, keep Allendale under 4 and build everything downtown over 4! But that's not what's happening. especcially student housing downtown should be high density

Selgo (despite all of the good he did for GVSU) really started to make decisions I disagreed with toward the end of his tenure. This and the football coach hire are two of the biggest things. Thankfully he moved on, but someone he mentored filled the job upon his retirement. Keeping it in the family is the GV way unfortunately.

As for Allendale...It's a law that goes back to the founding of GVSU. Allendale was always very hesitant to have a large liberal arts state university in its own backyard and the citizens liked it even less. So they instituted a height restriction to ensure that GV didn't build any towers like the ones you see at the three directionals. As time went on, GV did get get creative by making extra high floors, which explains the new library being as tall as it is. But the law still remains over 50 years later. 

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1 hour ago, GR8scott said:

vision might be part of it and also short history but the AD has publically been adamantly against a move to even D1 FCS, wrongly citing an astronmical cost when the facilities at GVSU are already bigger and better than many if not most FCS schools. A reminder that Grand Rapids is the largest city and metro area without a D1 school. Golden opportunity.

 

as for height, I somehow thought Allendale wouldn't have a 4 story limitation since its unincorporated.  Ferris state has a door that's 12 or so floors. IL state has one that's like 25 stories. I would thjnk if the goal is to have a suburban and an urban campuses, keep Allendale under 4 and build everything downtown over 4! But that's not what's happening. especcially student housing downtown should be high density

Allendale is a charter twp.  Which means it functions as a city but without the city expenses.  One of the laws enacted in Michigan back in the 40's to counter the power the city of Detroit had been gaining.  Also part of the noose around the neck of Michigan's cities during the white flight of the 60's-90's that prevented them from annexing the areas their tax bases were fleeing to.

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6 hours ago, MJLO said:

Allendale is a charter twp.  Which means it functions as a city but without the city expenses.  One of the laws enacted in Michigan back in the 40's to counter the power the city of Detroit had been gaining.  Also part of the noose around the neck of Michigan's cities during the white flight of the 60's-90's that prevented them from annexing the areas their tax bases were fleeing to.

I get it, it's like a city but without the recognition of a city and outside of Michigan no one would know that it exists practically since they are unlisted in many population stats and also prevent cities from being larger and closer to representing a more true size. holland could be twice as big. Kzoo could have over 100k GR over 200k to mention a few. 

 

Back to the west side, it Just seems natural that there SHOULD be several mid rises there and GVSU would be a no brainier to build a few of them

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On 6/26/2017 at 9:40 AM, GRLaker said:

Agreed. My alma mater's lack of vision is honestly embarrassing. I realize that it takes donors to fund a D1 program, but they don't even try to propose the idea to the alumni and region's elite. They just give in to the defeatist mindset of, "not everyone can have the success of North Dakota State when they move up. We'd rather beat up on the likes of Hillsdale, Lake Erie College, Davenport, Tiffin, etc."

Also, I am a bit surprised by GVSU's lack of height downtown. Allendale Township restricts them to four stories on the main campus. You would think that the freedom to go big downtown would result in a building the likes of MSU's School of Medicine, but alas...3-5 stories is all we get. 

State universities are exempt from local zoning in Michigan so Allendale Township has little to do with why GVSU buildings are shorter out there. My understanding is that GVSU leadership wanted a village-like residential campus similar to the likes of Miami University in Ohio and Ohio University in Athens. If you look at the way that GVSU is structured it emulates the Miami model in a lot of ways (undergraduate focus, limited professional graduate programs, large presence of liberal arts in curriculum, theme dorms such as Women in Science and Engineering and the International House).

Their strategy downtown may be similar in philosophy. 3-5 stories is human-scale, and provides a more intimate university setting than towering buildings. Obviously Eberhardt and Cook-DeVos are different; however, one of those is located prominently on the river and the other on the expressway.

I think that all of this is not a lack of vision but an unwillingness to stray from the vision they already have for themselves. 

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Has anyone else noticed that the Westside is starting to turn into the "Bro-side"?  The last few times i've been down on Bridge I have noticed an excess of hot guys traveling in packs or with their equally as attractive girlfriends(not that my gay ass is complaining).  I know it's been mentioned that all of the momentum along Bridge could suck some of the energy out of long surging Uptown.  I'm not sure I agree.  There's a noticeable missing presence of hipsters in the Bridge st corridor.  I'm starting to think the emerging scene on the Westside will be opposite of the tree hugging Uptown folk, and that the neighborhoods will fill different niches.  

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8 minutes ago, MJLO said:

Has anyone else noticed that the Westside is starting to turn into the "Bro-side"?  The last few times i've been down on Bridge I have noticed an excess of hot guys traveling in packs or with their equally as attractive girlfriends(not that my gay ass is complaining).  I know it's been mentioned that all of the momentum along Bridge could suck some of the energy out of long surging Uptown.  I'm not sure I agree.  There's a noticeable missing presence of hipsters in the Bridge st corridor.  I'm starting to think the emerging scene on the Westside will be opposite of the tree hugging Uptown folk, and that the neighborhoods will fill different niches.  

Yes, I've noticed this phenomenon. Downtown has become a haven for bachelorette parties and young-uns, uptown has its fill of hipsters but you also get the East Grand Rapids types who don't like to cross 131, and the West Side is pretty much all Forest Hills and Rockford gen-xers. 

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On 7/7/2017 at 10:24 PM, MJLO said:

Has anyone else noticed that the Westside is starting to turn into the "Bro-side"?  The last few times i've been down on Bridge I have noticed an excess of hot guys traveling in packs or with their equally as attractive girlfriends(not that my gay ass is complaining).  I know it's been mentioned that all of the momentum along Bridge could suck some of the energy out of long surging Uptown.  I'm not sure I agree.  There's a noticeable missing presence of hipsters in the Bridge st corridor.  I'm starting to think the emerging scene on the Westside will be opposite of the tree hugging Uptown folk, and that the neighborhoods will fill different niches.  

Spot on! I feel like the Bro-side phenomenon has always existed and is on full display, attracting other Brahs from places like Byron Center and Rockford. The other clientele that some of the new developments attract are far Westside (i.e. Walker) aging, baby boomers. This is fully evident on the weekends. That being said, during the week and before 3 PM on the weekends, it seems that Bridge St is still serving the needs of some of the folks that live around there and hipsters that avoid crowds and daylight at all costs. 

I predict that as soon as the newness of Bridge St wears off and a new darling neighborhood (North Monroe) emerges as the place to be, the Bro-side image will tame itself. 

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2 hours ago, GVSUChris said:

http://woodtv.com/2017/07/18/west-side-duthlers-grocery-store-shutting-down/

this really is of no surprise and yet it still feels a bit surreal to see the rapid change along bridge. I'm hopefully that this opens up more room along bridge for better frontage developments. 

Is this a precursor to them moving down (up) the road on Michigan Street? Kind of a bummer to see a neighborhood store get pushed out. However, I used to work in that neighborhood when it was complete Shitsville (back when Big O's was on Bridge). It was a dirty, crappy store 20 years ago.

Joe

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13 hours ago, GVSUChris said:

http://woodtv.com/2017/07/18/west-side-duthlers-grocery-store-shutting-down/

this really is of no surprise and yet it still feels a bit surreal to see the rapid change along bridge. I'm hopefully that this opens up more room along bridge for better frontage developments. 

This should surprise exactly no one, the store was rapidly deteriorating and the products they offered were also declining. I can't imagine that they'll relocate on Bridge/Michigan. They vacated from Michigan and Fuller to make room for the CVS and I don't believe they relocated (just kept the Madison Ave store) and I don't think there's another spot on the Bridge St corridor for another grocery store. It will be interesting to see what moves take place on that large of a parcel.

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5 hours ago, thebeerqueer said:

This should surprise exactly no one, the store was rapidly deteriorating and the products they offered were also declining. I can't imagine that they'll relocate on Bridge/Michigan. They vacated from Michigan and Fuller to make room for the CVS and I don't believe they relocated (just kept the Madison Ave store) and I don't think there's another spot on the Bridge St corridor for another grocery store. It will be interesting to see what moves take place on that large of a parcel.

I thought the rumors was they were the grocer going into the development on Michigan street. 

Joe

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16 hours ago, thebeerqueer said:

This should surprise exactly no one, the store was rapidly deteriorating and the products they offered were also declining. I can't imagine that they'll relocate on Bridge/Michigan. They vacated from Michigan and Fuller to make room for the CVS and I don't believe they relocated (just kept the Madison Ave store) and I don't think there's another spot on the Bridge St corridor for another grocery store. It will be interesting to see what moves take place on that large of a parcel.

The store on Madison is a relocation of the store at Michigan & Fuller. Duthler and Spartan struck a deal - Duthler's took over the Family Fare on Madison, and Michigan/Fuller was going to become a D&W. We all know how that turned out.

Not that Duthler's is doing well. They lost their Muskegon location a few years back, followed by their 28th St location by Rogers Plaza (which is now a Ken's Fruit Market). This closure means there will be just two locations left, Madison and 4 Mile/Alpine.

Edited by getemngo
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On 7/19/2017 at 3:06 PM, joeDowntown said:

I thought the rumors was they were the grocer going into the development on Michigan street. 

Joe

That was the last I heard too but I can't imagine it would be Duthler's. 

On 7/20/2017 at 1:38 AM, getemngo said:

The store on Madison is a relocation of the store at Michigan & Fuller. Duthler and Spartan struck a deal - Duthler's took over the Family Fare on Madison, and Michigan/Fuller was going to become a D&W. We all know how that turned out.

That's right! Thank you for sorting out the details of that deal. 

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2 hours ago, thebeerqueer said:

That was the last I heard too but I can't imagine it would be Duthler's. 

That's right! Thank you for sorting out the details of that deal. 

I too heard that Duthler's was going into the Proos project on Michigan St, from a pretty reliable source. 

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