New projects on the West Side

[thebeerqueer]

2 hours ago, JoeSchmo said:

Match this with the idea of Bridge St going to a curbless "shared" street .

I loved that idea when it came out (maybe out of GR Forward or some other planning project). Now that we're seeing Bridge St. mature into a mostly-fully functioning neighborhood, it's hard to imagine parts of the street being closed, even on the weekends for any portion of time. 

[TheLonesomeHobo]

Dave and Paul (owners of Butchers Union) own the two buildings behind Butchers. (I believe that front in the alley?) They’re planning to develop them into two different concepts in the next 1 - 3 years. 

[GRDadof3]

1 hour ago, TheLonesomeHobo said:

Dave and Paul (owners of Butchers Union) own the two buildings behind Butchers. (I believe that front in the alley?) They’re planning to develop them into two different concepts in the next 1 - 3 years. 

I saw that the Reinarts owned that one building on the North side of Douglas. Walt owns the building right behind Butcher's Union. A couple of small manufacturers own the buildings mixed into the middle. My goal is to get these people all together in the near future. 

[TheLonesomeHobo]

2 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

I saw that the Reinarts owned that one building on the North side of Douglas. Walt owns the building right behind Butcher's Union. A couple of small manufacturers own the buildings mixed into the middle. My goal is to get these people all together in the near future. 

I I just took a stroll through those blocks and realized my first statement was in fact incorrect, you’re right about the north side Douglas properties, when you’re wrong you’re wrong ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

[GRDadof3]

9 hours ago, TheLonesomeHobo said:

I I just took a stroll through those blocks and realized my first statement was in fact incorrect, you’re right about the north side Douglas properties, when you’re wrong you’re wrong ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

No worries, there are a lot of little buildings strewn throughout that area. 

Sort of reminds me of the Midtown Detroit area where the Shinola store and Jolly Pumpkin are. 

 

https://goo.gl/maps/PnoGMbgbcUE2

[GRDadof3]

Gettin taller.

[joeDowntown]

10 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

Gettin taller.

Noticed it today from the expressway. Looks like this building will be taller than Bridge St. Market down the street?

Joe

[walker]

On 1/8/2019 at 8:57 AM, GRDadof3 said:

No worries, there are a lot of little buildings strewn throughout that area. 

Sort of reminds me of the Midtown Detroit area where the Shinola store and Jolly Pumpkin are. 

 

The BEFORE image below from  Google 2009 (when this was considered part of the slummy Cass Corridor neighborhood rather than hip Midtown) looks a lot like the west side does now with all the low-rise small manufacturing buildings.  I slid the image over a little to include the front door of one of my favorite Detroit restaurants, Traffic Jam & Snug.  It's been there since 1965.  I started going there in 1978 when I lived a few blocks to the north.  Still go there every time I am in Detroit.  I guess I was an early trend setter.  

 

I recommend this place if you are looking for  a good place to eat or drink.  They say they were the first brewpub in Michigan.  Here's their website:

traffic jam detroit

Edited January 22, 2019 by walker

[GRDadof3]

8 hours ago, walker said:

The BEFORE image below from  Google 2009 (when this was considered part of the slummy Cass Corridor neighborhood rather than hip Midtown) looks a lot like the west side does now with all the low-rise small manufacturing buildings.  I slid the image over a little to include the front door of one of my favorite Detroit restaurants, Traffic Jam & Snug.  It's been there since 1965.  I started going there in 1978 when I lived a few blocks to the north.  Still go there every time I am in Detroit.  I guess I was an early trend setter.  

 

I recommend this place if you are looking for  a good place to eat or drink.  They say they were the first brewpub in Michigan.  Here's their website:

traffic jam detroit

That was my thought too.  Avalon Bakery around the corner from there I also highly recommend, which is also in a low slung industrial building. 

[joeDowntown]

“Circuit West” on the west side has been completed. Pretty cool. It’ll be interesting to see if it is expanded when Consumers builds their building  

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2019/01/5m-solar-project-on-grand-rapids-west-side-completed.html

Joe

[mpchicago]

16 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

“Circuit West” on the west side has been completed. Pretty cool. It’ll be interesting to see if it is expanded when Consumers builds their building  

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2019/01/5m-solar-project-on-grand-rapids-west-side-completed.html

Joe

I'm told that the Consumer Energy regional headquarters start date has been delayed, again, to the 4th quarter of 2019.  Wonder why?  

[thebeerqueer]

18 hours ago, mpchicago said:

I'm told that the Consumer Energy regional headquarters start date has been delayed, again, to the 4th quarter of 2019.  Wonder why?  

That's strange. The site has been prepped for a while and it looks like there's construction trailers on site, although those may have been for the Circuit West project. 

[GRDadof3]

More stair/elevator towers. They're becoming a staple around here. This is next to the Hendrik (name escapes me). 

[thebeerqueer]

59 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

More stair/elevator towers. They're becoming a staple around here. This is next to the Hendrik (name escapes me). 

It's the ICCF mixed income project. Don't remember if it had a name yet. 

[mpchicago]

47 minutes ago, thebeerqueer said:

It's the ICCF mixed income project. Don't remember if it had a name yet. 

Stockbridge Apartments or flats I think.

[Raildude's dad]

On 1/24/2019 at 2:19 PM, mpchicago said:

I'm told that the Consumer Energy regional headquarters start date has been delayed, again, to the 4th quarter of 2019.  Wonder why?  

I attended an engineering group  lunch meeting yesterday. The topic was "Circuit West". The presenters were a couple Consumers engineers and Roger Morganstern their PR guy (he's a hoot when he's not telling how many customers are out of power:) )

They were upfront about the cost. This is an urban  test "center" so to speak where they can experiment with and test solar panels, batteries, inverters, "dead face" switch gear and new technology to bury power cables.  They need someone like Rockford who was willing put the panels on a private development. This is also one of the reasons their new building is located there, so the engineers and R&D people are right at the "test center". There is the potential to add to "Circuit West" if there's demand.

Edited February 14, 2019 by Raildude's dad

[walker]

1 hour ago, Raildude's dad said:

. . . This is an urban  test "center" so to speak where they can experiment with and test solar panels, batteries, inverters, "dead face" switch gear and new technology to bury power cables. 

I'm not too familiar with electrical engineering terms and Google is failing me here.  Is "dead face" essentially the same as "dead front," in that it refers to some kind of interface that keeps the operator from being electrocuted? 

[Raildude's dad]

Well I'm a civil engineer so electrical terms are foreign to me  to me so he may have used  "dead face" lol. But yes, when some one opens the front they can't touch anything that can electrocute them.  I guessing it is set up so you can maintain them w/o being exposed to hot items. it sounded like dead face is the future of switch gear with the live face the current standard technology.  I didn't mention before but they said (and had photos) they installed some experimental vaults to put underground some of the infrastructure that is normally above ground even with the power lines under ground.  The location of their new building was chosen so the engineers are literally steps away from  the "laboratory" and the demonstration projects. 

[GRDadof3]

On 12/13/2018 at 9:24 AM, GRDadof3 said:

 

You're right, not sure what I was thinking. Salt box turned sideways.

The St James School project is moving right along. This is a block off of Bridge St to the North, behind St James Church. New townhouses and the school being converted into housing.

 

 

This school renovation project is getting a solar roof. Part of the Circuit West project? 

[thebeerqueer]

Hmmm, I don't remember that from the original plans, could be a part of the Circuit West. 

Sidebar though, the school renovation/conversion project has turned out quite nice. The south facing side has massive windows to soak up all of that Michigan sunshine. 

[n_wasmiller]

WOOD-TV story has several interior shots of the St. James Apartments and Townhomes - https://www.woodtv.com/news/grand-rapids/catholic-school-turned-affordable-housing-opens-in-gr/1796251171

Article says the building is complete and includes some interesting tidbits ("Developers say the affordable housing community is the first in Grand Rapids to have a solar panel on the rooftop.")

[thebeerqueer]

I really thought a portion of this project was to include senior housing but the story doesn't mention that. Let me see if I can do some digging.

[GRDadof3]

They're steel framing the North mixed-use project on Bridge Street. 

[GRDadof3]

[crinzema]