GVSU Downtown Development

[joeDowntown]

I bet that's a week or so old. When driving west on 197, you can see walls popping up above the expressway. So it has to be a good 12-18 feet tall at this point. 

Joe

[Allison Slater]

17 hours ago, temporary.name said:

Trowbridge Lofts has FIBER INTERNET?! 

Columbus barely has that. Internet here is atrocious compared to what you'd expect.

Portions of Downtown have fiber internet.  I live just a few houses away from the target service area.

[GRDadof3]

The gvsu project in belknap has steel going up now. 

[joeDowntown]

1 minute ago, GRDadof3 said:

The gvsu project in belknap has steel going up now. 

And quick. This development is going vertical fast. 

Joe

[GVSUChris]

This has NOTHING to GVSU but it is on my mind. Target announced today it is building an urban concept target in a 12 story building in downtown East Lansing. I don't know how realistic it is to expect Target to do something like that here, but it gives me hope given that they're trying out such a concept in a smaller city like Lansing/East Lansing. I guess I was just thinking about universities and development. 

Okay back to GVSU downtown. 

[GRDadof3]

10 hours ago, GVSUChris said:

This has NOTHING to GVSU but it is on my mind. Target announced today it is building an urban concept target in a 12 story building in downtown East Lansing. I don't know how realistic it is to expect Target to do something like that here, but it gives me hope given that they're trying out such a concept in a smaller city like Lansing/East Lansing. I guess I was just thinking about universities and development. 

Okay back to GVSU downtown. 

That is interesting. Lansing/EL as a metro area is only about half the size of GR's, but they now have a Whole Foods just down the road too. Meijer and Spartan have less of a stranglehold on their market there I think. There are even Krogers there (there were when I grew up there). 

Wow, this is quite a project for little ol East Lansing:

Looks like we're not the only city that doesn't require the parking levels be blended into the rest of the building visually.

 

[GRLaker]

Michigan State may be located in a smaller town, but it also has 50,000 roaming its halls. If GVSU and MSU continue their investment into downtown GR and bring more students into the city, I could see something like this becoming a reality. Heck, we already have something similar going in with Meijer on the west side. Imagine a two story Target below student housing in Belknap or the parking lot east of CHS. That would be a nice addition. 

[jthrasher]

4 hours ago, GRLaker said:

Michigan State may be located in a smaller town, but it also has 50,000 roaming its halls. If GVSU and MSU continue their investment into downtown GR and bring more students into the city, I could see something like this becoming a reality. Heck, we already have something similar going in with Meijer on the west side. Imagine a two story Target below student housing in Belknap or the parking lot east of CHS. That would be a nice addition. 

I think something like that would be great along that proposed development along the river/Market Ave.  where the "mystery development" was supposed to be. 

[GRLaker]

On 4/13/2017 at 0:31 PM, jthrasher said:

I think something like that would be great along that proposed development along the river/Market Ave.  where the "mystery development" was supposed to be. 

Good point. It would be right across the river from GVSU's downtown main campus and housing.

[gvsusean]

Is that patch of land large enough for a new GVSU/GRFC stadium?

[Pattmost20]

9 hours ago, gvsusean said:

Is that patch of land large enough for a new GVSU/GRFC stadium?

Yes

[GVSUChris]

More details on the addition to the nursing school on Michigan Street...

There might be a better thread for this so feel free to move it. Also...would love to see a better rendering. Is there even a door on this??? hahaha Seriously though...it is terrible. The far right portion looks like they took nuances of the Kirkhof Center on the river...so gross. 

http://www.gvsu.edu/gvnow/article-index.htm?articleId=92B0DC26-A78C-DA43-FBEA016AB2E42121

Edited July 14, 2017 by GVSUChris

[scottythe1nonly]

On 4/13/2017 at 8:08 AM, GRDadof3 said:

That is interesting. Lansing/EL as a metro area is only about half the size of GR's, but they now have a Whole Foods just down the road too. Meijer and Spartan have less of a stranglehold on their market there I think. There are even Krogers there (there were when I grew up there). 

It has nothing to do with the market share of Meijer and Spartan.   Whole Foods has their own set of demographic criteria for their locations.  Very large Universities are targeted for store locations.    When they came into Michigan they went after East Lansing and Ann Arbor (there are two in Ann Arbor only a couple miles apart).  It's likely that they haven't seen any of the GR suburbs as attractive enough yet from a demographic perspective.  It will be interesting to see what happens with their future expansion once they're a subsidiary of Amazon.  

Edited July 14, 2017 by scottythe1nonly

[scottythe1nonly]

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2017/07/gvsu_approves_70-million_healt.html#incart_river_home

 

[GRLaker]

I don't understand why they made the colors of the building such a stark contrast from the one it's connected to. 

[scottythe1nonly]

looks like a typical west michigan beige on beige box

[wingbert]

44 minutes ago, GRLaker said:

I don't understand why they made the colors of the building such a stark contrast from the one it's connected to. 

I was thinking the same thing.  That's just... stupid.

[GRDadof3]

1 hour ago, scottythe1nonly said:

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2017/07/gvsu_approves_70-million_healt.html#incart_river_home

 

Yeah, yuck. Looks like an addition on the Kent County Jail! Are you sure that's not the angle they're showing? 

[joeDowntown]

That's really bad and I typically like GVSU buildings. It's like they didn't even try. Maybe if the buildings were just sitting next to each other it would be ok, but they tried to add some continuity between the two buildingna, and it just doesn't exist. Barf!

Joe

[droonus2000]

Why not simply mirror the existing building with something in the middle to break it up? Not the most exciting option, but better then what's here.

[WMrapids]

Did I ever mention how much I hate asymmetrical windows...

[GRDadof3]

Here's a larger version and nope, doesn't look any better. Maybe 3d version will look better?

 

 

While digging for renderings, I found their most recent NOBL master plan:

http://gvsunoblplanning.org/sites/gvsunoblplanning.org/files/user/documents/2017-04-26 GVSU Belknap Steering Committee and Public Open House_Lowres.pdf

[GRLaker]

22 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

Here's a larger version and nope, doesn't look any better. Maybe 3d version will look better?

 

 

While digging for renderings, I found their most recent NOBL master plan:

http://gvsunoblplanning.org/sites/gvsunoblplanning.org/files/user/documents/2017-04-26 GVSU Belknap Steering Committee and Public Open House_Lowres.pdf

Holy crap...We're taking over downtown.

[joeDowntown]

21 minutes ago, GRLaker said:

Holy crap...We're taking over downtown.

With an emphasis on crap in this case. 

Joe

[GRLaker]

22 minutes ago, joeDowntown said:

With an emphasis on crap in this case. 

Joe

True. GVSU has typically been good at building quality facilities (minus the lack of height), but this one is a dud. It makes absolutely no sense to have two connected building that look completely different from one another.