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GRLaker

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3 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

I don't think 10 Ionia was ever planned to have office space, as mpchicago said. Plus where would you carve out 670 parking spaces nearby? Or even 300.

I am surprised that it's a rather bland office building for a HQ, but the narrative says the company will be leasing the building, which is unusual.

They say "professional firm" and not "tech company" or "global manufacturer's HQ." So that leaves insurance? Mortgage? Financial services? 

 

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When I think a professional firm, I think consulting, law firms, etc.   670 people for a professional services firm headquarters is pretty large.  Top 10 for those industries is pretty large.

Most professional services are pretty disbursed to branch/regional offices.   Whoever it is, they probably already have an existing presence.  

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44 minutes ago, Sparty97 said:

When I think a professional firm, I think consulting, law firms, etc.   670 people for a professional services firm headquarters is pretty large.  Top 10 for those industries is pretty large.

Most professional services are pretty disbursed to branch/regional offices.   Whoever it is, they probably already have an existing presence.  

I think it depends on how they were intending to use "professional firm".  They look like they are being as vague as possible in the description so a professional firm may not be specifying professional services.

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15 hours ago, Sparty97 said:

When I think a professional firm, I think consulting, law firms, etc.   670 people for a professional services firm headquarters is pretty large.  Top 10 for those industries is pretty large.

Most professional services are pretty disbursed to branch/regional offices.   Whoever it is, they probably already have an existing presence.  

I go back to LMCU. They're probably Top 10 in credit union mortgage lenders in the country. They're definitely the largest mortgage writer here locally, and one of their mortgage sales guys is in the top 10 in the country apparently.  And they have offices far flung all over the metro area. And I had heard a few years ago they were building a new HQ's over by Metro Health that suddenly fell off the radar. 

You could probably make a stretch and say they're "global" since hypothetically anyone online can use their services. :) 

Otherwise it's a big national accounting firm looking to add a "Midwest HQ" ? 

Got a tip.

 

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41 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

I go back to LMCU. They're probably Top 10 in credit union mortgage lenders in the country. They're definitely the largest mortgage writer here locally, and one of their mortgage sales guys is in the top 10 in the country apparently.  And they have offices far flung all over the metro area. And I had heard a few years ago they were building a new HQ's over by Metro Health that suddenly fell off the radar. 

You could probably make a stretch and say they're "global" since hypothetically anyone online can use their services. :) 

Otherwise it's a big national accounting firm looking to add a "Midwest HQ" ? 

Got a tip: Acrisure. 

The only thing that I don’t get under this scenario is why the heavily shrouded secrecy?  What could possibly be so tenuous about LMCU moving literally across the freeway when they are already in Cascade Twp?  Rockford’s letter said it’s bringing jobs to the twp.  That wouldn’t be much of a job gain.  

To that end Acrisure moving from Caledonia to support their growth doesn’t seem like it would need that much sensitivity either. Local firms make moves like this all the time and it doesn’t require this much confidentiality. The only scenario where it makes sense to me is if it’s a big firm exiting downtown that wanted to avoid the bad press.  

One company moving from one part of the suburbs to another part is yawnworthy and both Rockford and Hinman facilitate that stuff all the time.

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36 minutes ago, MJLO said:

The only thing that I don’t get under this scenario is why the heavily shrouded secrecy?  What could possibly be so tenuous about LMCU moving literally across the freeway when they are already in Cascade Twp?  Rockford’s letter said it’s bringing jobs to the twp.  That wouldn’t be much of a job gain.  

To that end Acrisure moving from Caledonia to support their growth doesn’t seem like it would need that much sensitivity either. Local firms make moves like this all the time and it doesn’t require this much confidentiality. The only scenario where it makes sense to me is if it’s a big firm exiting downtown that wanted to avoid the bad press.  

One company moving from one part of the suburbs to another part is yawnworthy and both Rockford and Hinman facilitate that stuff all the time.

Well there may be several other local commercial real estate brokerages trying to lure them to another site(s). Commercial RE is very hush hush. I worked with a group on acquiring a building on the West Side that was in foreclosure. As soon as we put our offer in (the building had been on the market for over a year), they mysteriously got 3 other offers on the building. 

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Honestly I think this is a non story right now.  I'm not sure how much any of us would really care about  a firm in the suburbs moving to a new location in the suburbs.  We might have a few barbs about it once the full plans were announced,  then would forget just as quick. The business journal is reporting the story from "just the facts" position, speaking of the site only (per the language in the letter to the township).

https://www.grbj.com/articles/92776-company-plans-suburban-hq-with-670-employees

This tripped our radar due to some seriously sloppy reporting out of Mlive.  I've gone back and checked their story a few more times they clearly state it's "An effort to bring a global company to the area", a vastly different connotation.  So either they know something that's not captured in the letter to the twp, or they are engaging in a bit of "fake news" (please understand as I type this I am asking for everyone's forgiveness in using that plebeian term).

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2019/02/efforts-underway-to-bring-global-corporation-670-jobs-to-grand-rapids-area.html

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24 minutes ago, MJLO said:

Honestly I think this is a non story right now.  I'm not sure how much any of us would really care about  a firm in the suburbs moving to a new location in the suburbs.  We might have a few barbs about it once the full plans were announced,  then would forget just as quick. The business journal is reporting the story from "just the facts" position, speaking of the site only (per the language in the letter to the township).

https://www.grbj.com/articles/92776-company-plans-suburban-hq-with-670-employees

This tripped our radar due to some seriously sloppy reporting out of Mlive.  I've gone back and checked their story a few more times they clearly state it's "An effort to bring a global company to the area", a vastly different connotation.  So either they know something that's not captured in the letter to the twp, or they are engaging in a bit of "fake news" (please understand as I type this I am asking for everyone's forgiveness in using that plebeian term).

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2019/02/efforts-underway-to-bring-global-corporation-670-jobs-to-grand-rapids-area.html

+1 rep for the use of the word plebeian. 

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17 hours ago, mpchicago said:

It is a rather bland 1999 office building rendering.  

Call me crazy, but I actually don't mind the vintage '99 look. It blends in with the area. Being someone that hails from the Dutch corridor and typically doesn't go east of East Beltline, the Cascade area architecture has always intrigued me because it seems so foreign from the rest of the region. It's like entering into a completely different far away city.  

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1 hour ago, MJLO said:

Honestly I think this is a non story right now.  I'm not sure how much any of us would really care about  a firm in the suburbs moving to a new location in the suburbs.  We might have a few barbs about it once the full plans were announced,  then would forget just as quick. The business journal is reporting the story from "just the facts" position, speaking of the site only (per the language in the letter to the township).

https://www.grbj.com/articles/92776-company-plans-suburban-hq-with-670-employees

This tripped our radar due to some seriously sloppy reporting out of Mlive.  I've gone back and checked their story a few more times they clearly state it's "An effort to bring a global company to the area", a vastly different connotation.  So either they know something that's not captured in the letter to the twp, or they are engaging in a bit of "fake news" (please understand as I type this I am asking for everyone's forgiveness in using that plebeian term).

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2019/02/efforts-underway-to-bring-global-corporation-670-jobs-to-grand-rapids-area.html

It sounds like it's a pretty big deal but not as big of a deal as Mlive is making it out to be. Headline will probably be, when the news gets out: "Local company with international offices rapidly expanding and opening new HQ's in Cascade Twp."

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2 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

It sounds like it's a pretty big deal but not as big of a deal as Mlive is making it out to be. Headline will probably be, when the news gets out: "Local company with international offices rapidly expanding and opening new HQ's in Cascade Twp."

Yep. It will end up being "company you never knew existed in West Michigan outgrew shared building and is building for future growth". I know who the company is :ph34r:, and I'm a) surprised they're as big as they are, and b) think it isn't glamorous (No Amazon HQ- Take Two), and highly over inflated by Mlive, but could become one of those "next gen" companies that could grow into a major employer in the future. 

Joe

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47 minutes ago, GRLaker said:

Call me crazy, but I actually don't mind the vintage '99 look. It blends in with the area. Being someone that hails from the Dutch corridor and typically doesn't go east of East Beltline, the Cascade area architecture has always intrigued me because it seems so foreign from the rest of the region. It's like entering into a completely different far away city.  

CRAZY!  :lol:

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42 minutes ago, joeDowntown said:

Yep. It will end up being "company you never knew existed in West Michigan outgrew shared building and is building for future growth". I know who the company is :ph34r:, and I'm a) surprised they're as big as they are, and b) think it isn't glamorous (No Amazon HQ- Take Two), and highly over inflated by Mlive, but could become one of those "next gen" companies that could grow into a major employer in the future. 

Joe

oh-do-tell.jpg

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1 hour ago, joeDowntown said:

Yep. It will end up being "company you never knew existed in West Michigan outgrew shared building and is building for future growth". I know who the company is :ph34r:, and I'm a) surprised they're as big as they are, and b) think it isn't glamorous (No Amazon HQ- Take Two), and highly over inflated by Mlive, but could become one of those "next gen" companies that could grow into a major employer in the future. 

Joe

I have no inside information (which is probably obvious from most of the stuff I post) so I don't know if we are thinking of the same entity but I can think of one local organization that is global and professional and in recent years has had a very low profile locally and just happens to have, according to a number I just found, just over 670 local employees.  If it is who I'm guessing it is, maybe the other dozen or so employees don't need regular parking spaces because they are usually on the road or they work from home.  Based on one of the buildings they are in now, they'd feel very comfortable in a nondescript suburban office building.  I don't want to sour the deal and seeing how I'm not always right, I'm not going to say my guess.  But after this settles out, I'll come back and say if my guess was right or wrong, and maybe elaborate.       

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2 hours ago, GRLaker said:

oh-do-tell.jpg

Wish I could. Don't want to blow it in case it is really sensitive to the success of the project. Maybe someone will see the forum, say "uh oh, Urban Planet knows" and release something about the project. It isn't anyone that I thought "oh, I've heard of them". Though when I heard it, the sign popped into my head. :)

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4 hours ago, GR8scott said:

The bland 4 story building looks very underwhelming  and doesn’t scream global headquarters for anyone, definitely not the likes of a Kellogg’s or utility company like consumers as mentioned. Looks more like a call center for telecom sales or it support.

It's not either of those (Kellogg's or Consumers Energy). It's a local firm that is going gang-busters. You won't hear me complain about more professional white-collar jobs to the local workforce though. 

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Hmmm could be something along the lines of LegalZoom.  I heard a story the other day about how big companies like them are becoming and how it's hard for those with law degrees to compete

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1 minute ago, Floyd_Z said:

Hmmm could be something along the lines of LegalZoom.  I heard a story the other day about how big companies like them are becoming and how it's hard for those with law degrees to compete

Not legalzoom. However, I heard a fascinating story that legalzoom is now the largest law firm in the world. Times are a changin’. 

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