42 (now 14) story building coming to downtown GR

[mielsonwheels 114]

4 hours ago, x99 said:

So here's an interesting thought... What do we think will happen first -- Constructing the building or enlarging the parking ramp?  I wonder if that will get the ramp enlarged first to create some additional parking and staging space for the construction activities.  

Maybe knock down the parking garage and use that area as the staging space?

Then when the tower's structure is up and they are doing inside finish work they could rebuild a new parking ramp and use Louis St. as the staging area.  I seem to recall the parking garage looked like it had some changes to the ground floor (adding retail) in some earlier renditions.  It might be simpler to just start from scratch on the parking ramp then investigate into possible reinforcements and then do the potential reinforcements.

[ironyisadeadscene 153]

That garage is pretty bad anyways. Just start from scratch. 

 

And tomorrow 

[joeDowntown 786]

9 minutes ago, ironyisadeadscene said:

That garage is pretty bad anyways. Just start from scratch. 

 

And tomorrow 

I actually like the retro look of it but it's horribly inefficient and you feel like you're going to scrape the roof of your vehicle, even in a sedan. 

Joe

[kevin8gr 59]

Here is that ramp from 1966 from a slide my grandpa took. It has been around for awhile.

[GRDadof3 2255]

11 minutes ago, kevin8gr said:

Here is that ramp from 1966 from a slide my grandpa took. It has been around for awhile.

 

Did it have a small drive up bank branch in the ground floor corner? Or am I just imagining things? 

[kevin8gr 59]

It does say Michigan National Bank on the ramp but I can't tell if it was a drive thru or not.

[GRDadof3 2255]

8 minutes ago, kevin8gr said:

It does say Michigan National Bank on the ramp but I can't tell if it was a drive thru or not.

I actually meant from my memory. Seems like there was something there maybe 20 years ago? 

[mpchicago 237]

10 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

I actually meant from my memory. Seems like there was something there maybe 20 years ago? 

I feel like there was a drive thru their too.  

I know there was a drive thru at the "Old Kent" bank parking lot north of their headquarters at Vandenberg Center.  

[GRDadof3 2255]

1 hour ago, mpchicago said:

I feel like there was a drive thru their too.  

I know there was a drive thru at the "Old Kent" bank parking lot north of their headquarters at Vandenberg Center.  

Maybe it was just a parking attendant booth and the Michigan National Bank sign made me think it was a drive up teller. 

[joeDowntown 786]

5 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

Maybe it was just a parking attendant booth and the Michigan National Bank sign made me think it was a drive up teller. 

I don't remember a drive up teller (it may have been gone by the time I started obsessing about downtown), but they did have a drive up ATM in the not so distant past. I think they got rid of it, but there was definitely an area where you could drive through.

Joe

[RegalTDP 310]

13 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

I actually meant from my memory. Seems like there was something there maybe 20 years ago? 

Probably jarring a memory from this forum a few months ago: 

 

[walker 192]

9 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

I don't remember a drive up teller (it may have been gone by the time I started obsessing about downtown), but they did have a drive up ATM in the not so distant past. I think they got rid of it, but there was definitely an area where you could drive through.

Joe

I see RegalTDP found my shorter reply from awhile ago.  Here's a longer reply I started before he replied:  

It had been a drive-in window originally but I think you are right that later it had been closed when banking regulations loosened up.  The way I understand it, when Michigan National Bank was first chartered in the depression it was made up of five or six banks.  They were all more or less failing banks and I think the the idea was to save them by making one huge bank.  But the banking rules were such in Michigan at the time that a national bank could not have a branch in a city that already had a bank headquartered within it.  So this new bank could not have any new branches.  Conversely local banks such as Old Kent couldn't have branches further than twenty-five miles from their headquarters or in cities that had the headquarters of another bank .   Back then people thought big banks were evil so they tried to limit them, of course we now know that isn't true.  So when drive-in banking started up in the fifties, Michigan National couldn't have a drive-in because it would be considered a branch.  So to get around the regulation they built a tunnel underneath Ionia to connect the main bank with the new parking-ramp/drive-in bank.  When banking regulations loosened and they were allowed to branch they probably didn't need the parking ramp bank anymore. 

The Stoddard family that owned Michigan National had their own ways to block local banks from branching too.  For example before the City of Wyoming was incorporated, Old Kent opened a branch inside Rogers Plaza that turned out to be inadequate and didn't have a drive-in.  When the City of Wyoming was incorporated, the Stoddard's created a national bank headquartered in Wyoming called something like First National Bank of Wyoming.  Now that there was a bank in Wyoming, none of the other banks were allowed any additional branches other than what they already had.  But Old Kent In order to get around this played the same game as Michigan National.  They built a new branch with a drive-in in the Rogers Plaza parking lot and connected it to the space they leased inside the mall with a tunnel.  When it was completed and the new branch was operational, they closed the part of the bank inside the mall.  I think there was a lot of this stuff going on back then to circumvent the regulations by all the banks, not just Michigan National.  The Stoddard family owned or controlled several banks.  Bank holding companies were against the law back then but their holdings were all in the family and not part of a holding corporation.                

Edited November 10, 2016 by walker
to fix the usual typos

[ironyisadeadscene 153]

Wonder if either of those tunnels still exist in any way. 

[wingbert 593]

Since I've kinda gotten the impression you folks have a fondness for buildings and skyscrapers, I thought I would pass this along just for funsies.  Just think of the possibilities for the next 42 story building in Grand Rapids...

How Do You Imagine The Skyscraper Of The Future?

 

[GR8scott 92]

Sweet old picture with the weather ball!!

[The ATX 618]

This will be an awesome tower, and I'm so happy to see a proposal like this in Grand Rapids.  Maybe I missed it, but is there any information about the financing?  I always withhold some of my enthusiasm until I see that financing is secured.

[MJLO 421]

2 hours ago, The ATX said:

This will be an awesome tower, and I'm so happy to see a proposal like this in Grand Rapids.  Maybe I missed it, but is there any information about the financing?  I always withhold some of my enthusiasm until I see that financing is secured.

I tend to withhold my enthusiasm until earth is moved (except in the case of the Monroe North hotel, then I just withhold my enthusiasm).

[GRDadof3 2255]

Buried in last week's Parking Commission agenda, CWD re-upped their option agreement on this little parcel next door to their office at 22 Ottawa. It only required a $20,000 deposit for another year, but apparently they're still looking at doing something here? I put this in this thread because I had a hard time finding the discussion on that building they were talking about here. 

 

 

 

[walker 192]

5 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

Buried in last week's Parking Commission agenda, CWD re-upped their option agreement on this little parcel next door to their office at 22 Ottawa. It only required a $20,000 deposit for another year, but apparently they're still looking at doing something here? I put this in this thread because I had a hard time finding the discussion on that building they were talking about here. 

I think this is the thread you couldn't find:

development-proposals-for-fulton-ionia-surface-lot

[GRDadof3 2255]

2 hours ago, walker said:

I think this is the thread you couldn't find:

development-proposals-for-fulton-ionia-surface-lot

Yes, that's it! Thanks. 

Now I'm too lazy to move it. 

[GVSUChris 171]

8 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

Buried in last week's Parking Commission agenda, CWD re-upped their option agreement on this little parcel next door to their office at 22 Ottawa. It only required a $20,000 deposit for another year, but apparently they're still looking at doing something here? I put this in this thread because I had a hard time finding the discussion on that building they were talking about here. 

 

 

 

Doesn't this come up every year about this time? I could have sworn that last year or so they were on their last "chance" to option this lot, but honestly it isn't like I'd actually be able to remember something like this. I would love to see something great go there...

[GRDadof3 2255]

19 hours ago, GVSUChris said:

Doesn't this come up every year about this time? I could have sworn that last year or so they were on their last "chance" to option this lot, but honestly it isn't like I'd actually be able to remember something like this. I would love to see something great go there...

Yes, the option agreement comes up every year at this time, which costs $20,000/year for CWD to extend it. The Parking Commission said that no one else has shown interest in the lot so they give CWD extensions. 

[ctpgr34 197]

Doing some drilling today

[GRLaker 305]

There's oil in them there parking spots.

[GRDadof3 2255]

1 hour ago, ctpgr34 said:

Doing some drilling today

Nice!! For a second there I thought he was popping a wheelie.