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Diamond Place at the Proos Site


GVSUChris

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59 minutes ago, Raildude's dad said:

Do I personally like all the architecture of all the new developments, no. But it's encouraging to see all the construction going on after a lost decade of nothing. I just hope it's not a bubble about to burst.

At least it doesn’t look like anyone is investing too much into these projects. :lol:

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11 hours ago, WMrapids said:

At least it doesn’t look like anyone is investing too much into these projects. :lol:

I may not have any taste, but to me it still seems like a vast improvement to the neighborhood, and a vast improvement over what was there before. 

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I wouldn't disagree that it's better than what was there (although what was there provided jobs), but if/when the apartment market starts to hit the rocks, and it will because everything is cyclical, I'll bet this is the first one to start dropping rent. This one and the 616 right up the street. Michigan Street is still a hodgepodge of 28th Street esque businesses surrounded by low income neighborhoods. That part anyway. 

Compare this  to say... Fulton Square which borders a really nice neighborhood, walk to Eastown, in a cute little business district. Or any of the projects on Wealthy. Or the West Side projects that are chocked full of restaurants and within walking distance of downtown. 

This project overlooks a taco bell and a check cashing place. 

 

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^^^  very valid points GRDAD.   The slight evolution that has happened so far on Michigan St. is more of a lipstick on pig solution.

With all of the other trendy areas in the Grand Rapids area, is there enough to sustain this area...at this point in time?  It may be baby steps for this area...it may have to wait for the next boom.

But that is no excuse for crappy building.  What was that one quote I heard somewhere on here..."Building tomorrow's ghetto today"??

 

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53 minutes ago, john_denver said:

^^^  very valid points GRDAD.   The slight evolution that has happened so far on Michigan St. is more of a lipstick on pig solution.

With all of the other trendy areas in the Grand Rapids area, is there enough to sustain this area...at this point in time?  It may be baby steps for this area...it may have to wait for the next boom.

But that is no excuse for crappy building.  What was that one quote I heard somewhere on here..."Building tomorrow's ghetto today"??

 

Exactly, if it were a stellar design with actual balconies, I might be singing a different tune. Everyone who has been to a city (especially European cities or Toronto) that have a ton of high density residential projects, there are always a couple projects snuck in there that are really bland and look like housing projects. 

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Michigan street is at a crossroads (pun?). Projects like this, while not masterpieces, will at least get the ball rolling on the idea that Michigan St. can be a walkable, urban extension of DT, that may stand a better chance of having the retail that the central core simply cannot, and that it can be done with a strong residential component.

Right now it is a bit schizo, as GRDad pointed out, with the other side of the street being firmly rooted in the 1990s Michigan St. vision of a mini 28th St. running parallel to the highway.  We can only hope that enough of these spots are bought-out, and new developments arise, that complement at least the vision that people are pushing for of a more urban corridor, and that the current owners don't cement into place the car-oriented nature of the street, like the Wendy's (not the worse example), McDonalds,  Goodwill, KFC, and that Sprint store have done for the foreseeable future on their plots.

This building at least defines the eastern-most we can expect infill to really take over. It is also a fair distance from the top of the hill, and it is impressive enough that it may bring some momentum to continue to build back towards the west if it sells well, hopefully. I'm hoping that the strip mall with the Ritz Kony is the next one to get a rebuild because of developments like this.

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4 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

Exactly, if it were a stellar design with actual balconies, I might be singing a different tune. Everyone who has been to a city (especially European cities or Toronto) that have a ton of high density residential projects, there are always a couple projects snuck in there that are really bland and look like housing projects. 

Just want to make an observation about Glendale, CA (where I live).   Over here we're in a housing boom right now too, and a lot of the new buildings remind me of the stuff going vertical in GR.  Some examples of the new buildings around Glendale's Central Ave:

59c554b43c2cc_ScreenShot2017-09-22at11_13_12AM.png.4aa91c7d520ce1f5b306a91f41b39daa.png

Link: https://goo.gl/maps/55cnMtQ2tcU2

59c554c5b6800_ScreenShot2017-09-22at11_15_58AM.png.d588a4a7478a1eb4e906ef5945674903.png

Link: https://goo.gl/maps/BqHiHbjMhQt

59c555298da3c_ScreenShot2017-09-22at11_16_55AM.png.44d8f79a4a42357bea7d2a5f6ce07ce8.png

Link: https://goo.gl/maps/GWYXxMoWu5v

I threw in the links in case you feel like swiveling the camera around - it's block after block of this stuff, and they've all been built within the past four years.  A few of them have balconies, at least.

Sorry moderators, I know this isn't the California forum, but I thought it was relevant.  It's not just GR that's doing this.  Maybe cheap design is just indicative of the boom times we live in?  Some of the new buildings in LA are really nice, but most of them just look like these.  And somehow Glendale ended up with all the bland stuff.

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7 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

Michigan Street is still a hodgepodge of 28th Street esque businesses surrounded by low income neighborhoods. That part anyway. 

Midtown home values sit just below East Hills and Eastown. My neighbor's modest 3-bedroom house just sold for $180,000 (anecdotal, I'll admit, but I do work in real estate and their's isn't an outlier). Even Midtown between Michigan and 196 has seen prices go from high 5-digit to low and medium 100s. 

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1 minute ago, Pattmost20 said:

 

 

1 hour ago, RegalTDP said:

Just want to make an observation about Glendale, CA (where I live).   Over here we're in a housing boom right now too, and a lot of the new buildings remind me of the stuff going vertical in GR.  Some examples of the new buildings around Glendale's Central Ave:

59c554b43c2cc_ScreenShot2017-09-22at11_13_12AM.png.4aa91c7d520ce1f5b306a91f41b39daa.png

Link: https://goo.gl/maps/55cnMtQ2tcU2

59c554c5b6800_ScreenShot2017-09-22at11_15_58AM.png.d588a4a7478a1eb4e906ef5945674903.png

Link: https://goo.gl/maps/BqHiHbjMhQt

59c555298da3c_ScreenShot2017-09-22at11_16_55AM.png.44d8f79a4a42357bea7d2a5f6ce07ce8.png

Link: https://goo.gl/maps/GWYXxMoWu5v

I threw in the links in case you feel like swiveling the camera around - it's block after block of this stuff, and they've all been built within the past four years.  A few of them have balconies, at least.

Sorry moderators, I know this isn't the California forum, but I thought it was relevant.  It's not just GR that's doing this.  Maybe cheap design is just indicative of the boom times we live in?  Some of the new buildings in LA are really nice, but most of them just look like these.  And somehow Glendale ended up with all the bland stuff.

As a moderator I think it's applicable. I know it's sort of a sign of the times, with an insatiable appetite for housing and a low inventory of available land. Combined with increasing labor and material costs, it's bound to happen. But me personally I would not want to live in a project like this, or in a lot of the streetview neighborhoods you posted. Where the heck is the green space, would be my big question? :) 

 

 

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33 minutes ago, Pattmost20 said:

Midtown home values sit just below East Hills and Eastown. My neighbor's modest 3-bedroom house just sold for $180,000 (anecdotal, I'll admit, but I do work in real estate and their's isn't an outlier). Even Midtown between Michigan and 196 has seen prices go from high 5-digit to low and medium 100s. 

I would still consider that area a low income neighborhood, at least the blocks to the North and South, despite the recent surge in housing prices (albeit a low $100's house is not even really a starter home anymore, more like a "transitional" neighborhood home). Compared to the people who will be able to afford the rents there. The median household income for that census tract is something like $18,000 a year. Just jumping over 196 it goes up to $40,000ish. 

Honestly I'd say the same thing about dropping $2/sf apartments in Creston, except that Creston at least has a traditional business district, unlike Michigan St. 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Went in to the party cooler next to this site and they are in the middle of remodelling the inside. The layout has completly changed and they are putting in new flooring. I was also told that they are looking to add a decent wine selection too. Glad to see this business trying to improve its apperance after all these years.

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  • 2 weeks later...
18 hours ago, mjak68 said:

I think the headline is misleading. The problem is when you run into these unforeseen site costs, a lot of times you can't roll it into the financing, so you (as the developer) have to pay for it out-of-pocket. That's a big chunk of change no matter how successful of a developer you are. 

I thought this grocery store was going to be a Duthler's? 

57 minutes ago, SupercityGR said:

A Kingmas Market would be a good fit 

Kingma's just dropped a HUGE sum of money in Ada, I don't think they're going to be expanding for a while. 

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