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Spectrum - Monroe North Campus


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On 4/11/2021 at 4:40 AM, GR_Urbanist said:

The parking lot part I'm not particularly thrilled with, and was precisely what I feared was going to happen. I want to think that the area, which we are told will be "future expansion", will take the same trajectory of facilities on Michigan and Monroe, and will develop quickly.  This is what I hope, so I'm not terribly worried, unless you get the usual saplings, juniper shrubs, and metal fence put up around it, then you will know that Spectrum is planning on that being there for at least a decade. 

Then I'm going to sort of get the impression that this was more a project to create a satellite parking facility with a modest building fronting Monroe to soften what would otherwise have never been approved.

Ottawa between Trowbridge and Newberry will now be fronted by nearly 75% surface parking. How depressing. 

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5 hours ago, MJLO said:

Part of me wishes the city would connect Fairbanks down the hill to Division and complete the connectivity of the neighborhood.

With the grade, it would probably end up being an overpass over Division/Ionia, so I'm not sure if it would really help connectivity that much. 

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2 hours ago, 54equalsunity said:

Wasn't there a plan at some point to construct some kind of zig zagging path across the hill, or am I just dreaming?

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk
 

There was. I don't remember it zigzagging exactly, but a pedestrian walkway from where the Belknap park sign is, wrapping around and heading north down the hill. Wonder what happened to that plan?

Joe

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3 hours ago, Khorasaurus1 said:

With the grade, it would probably end up being an overpass over Division/Ionia, so I'm not sure if it would really help connectivity that much. 

Well I say it more tongue in cheek because I'm sure it would never happen.   Though I've been to hilly places like West Virginia where they carve out large chunks of hills for streets to make them grade navigable.  I think there's enough clearance back to where Fairbanks intersects with Fairview to make it an actually manageable slope.    I am not the resident civil engineer so I'm sure I'll be corrected on it lol. 

51112285666_ed43a3fab0_z.jpg

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I get the impression that Spectrum doesn't know what they want. I forgot to post this yesterday :(

OK the steps are about a 1 on 2, a 50% grade. Going back to Fairview gets you a 1 on 4, a 25% grade. A 6% grade takes 13,000 + feet to get (2+ miles)  to Monroe /  Front St level.  4%,,  20,000 feet , not quite 4 miles.  One could put-in a switch back like Curve St between Granville & Godfrey but it would-only be for small cars.

Signature bridge anyone ?

(The resident civil has spoken):rolleyes:

Edited by Raildude's dad
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22 hours ago, demhem said:

Ottawa between Trowbridge and Newberry will now be fronted by nearly 75% surface parking. How depressing. 

Where do you see that? 

15 hours ago, MJLO said:

Well I say it more tongue in cheek because I'm sure it would never happen.   Though I've been to hilly places like West Virginia where they carve out large chunks of hills for streets to make them grade navigable.  I think there's enough clearance back to where Fairbanks intersects with Fairview to make it an actually manageable slope.    I am not the resident civil engineer so I'm sure I'll be corrected on it lol. 

51112285666_ed43a3fab0_z.jpg

Let's not do anything they're doing in West Virginia. :P

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13 hours ago, Raildude's dad said:

I get the impression that Spectrum doesn't know what they want. I forgot to post this yesterday :(

OK the steps are about a 1 on 2, a 50% grade. Going back to Fairview gets you a 1 on 4, a 25% grade. A 6% grade takes 13,000 + feet to get (2+ miles)  to Monroe /  Front St level.  4%,,  20,000 feet , not quite 4 miles.  One could put-in a switch back like Curve St between Granville & Godfrey but it would-only be for small cars.

Signature bridge anyone ?

(The resident civil has spoken):rolleyes:

image.png.c911190ce517ca8eeb505c07d990c602.png

Let's take the title of curviest road from San Fran! :tw_smirk:

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3 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

Where do you see that? 

Let's not do anything they're doing in West Virginia. :P

Based on the first phase (and until the future development will be built as indicated), the red and blue boxes show surface parking on Ottawa between Trowbridge and Newberry.  

image.png.5204e3e9f115fbcfdbdbb98551708908.png

 

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I agree. It’s not like what’s currently there is spectacular. My only concern is they’ve locked up so much of the area. There’s not a ton of space available for other developments to feed off the growth in the area. I’d love to see Spectrum partner with (or sell to) a developer for the liner buildings. Would be great to see some residential/mixed use space   In this development. 

Joe

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On 4/12/2021 at 4:16 PM, MJLO said:

Well I say it more tongue in cheek because I'm sure it would never happen.   Though I've been to hilly places like West Virginia where they carve out large chunks of hills for streets to make them grade navigable.  I think there's enough clearance back to where Fairbanks intersects with Fairview to make it an actually manageable slope.    I am not the resident civil engineer so I'm sure I'll be corrected on it lol. 

51112285666_ed43a3fab0_z.jpg

Those 5 or 6 houses on Fairbanks between the stairs and Fairview might object to the lowering of the road.  ☺️

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On 4/12/2021 at 1:47 PM, 54equalsunity said:

Wasn't there a plan at some point to construct some kind of zig zagging path across the hill, or am I just dreaming?

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk
 

Somewhat timely. In Downtown GR's FY22 budget, they call out:

- Designing “Switchback Park” to better connect Belknap Hill, Monroe North, the Grand River and Downtown.

There's a couple of interesting initiatives, including adding a second "Portland Loo" near Van Andel Arena (keeps the bar goers from peeing in the alleys?). :)

https://downtowngr.org/announcements/2021/04/dda-budget-recommendation

Joe

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

https://www.freep.com/story/news/health/2021/06/17/beaumont-hospital-spectrum-health-merger/7722296002/

Probably not the best long term place for this topic, but it was just announced that Spectrum and Beaumont are planning on merging to form Michigan's largest healthcare system with the intention of having two headquarters in Grand Rapids and Southfield. My gut reaction to this is concern. Beaumont's reputation has been declining since it began it's wave of merges a few years ago. 

 

https://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/28213/starkman_beaumont_ceo_john_fox_s_final_fu_to_detroit_merger_with_spectrum_health

Edited by Matchetes
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I wouldn't be concerned.  I wouldn't expect anything questionable happening in the Beaumont system to somehow trickle into Spectrum.  I don't think they have any overlapping territory, and Beaumont has been trying to merge itself into another org for almost 10 years now.  Their revenue is almost half that of Spectrum and I would imagine they are probably not in the best financial position.   My guess is this is going to be more of  Spectrum absorbing Beaumont based on the revenues and the fact that Tina Freese is going to be the CEO of the combined organization.  I would expect the Southfield headquarters to be slowly de-emphasized over time with the GR facilities being the main anchor.  

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1 hour ago, MJLO said:

I wouldn't be concerned.  I wouldn't expect anything questionable happening in the Beaumont system to somehow trickle into Spectrum.  I don't think they have any overlapping territory, and Beaumont has been trying to merge itself into another org for almost 10 years now.  Their revenue is almost half that of Spectrum and I would imagine they are probably not in the best financial position.   My guess is this is going to be more of  Spectrum absorbing Beaumont based on the revenues and the fact that Tina Freese is going to be the CEO of the combined organization.  I would expect the Southfield headquarters to be slowly de-emphasized over time with the GR facilities being the main anchor.  

Interesting. Reading through a few articles, it definitely doesn't sound like a merger of equals. It sounds more like Spectrum is buying "distressed properties". Wonder if it'll become Spectrum Health, with individual hospitals keeping their names (Similar to Spectrum Blodgett, Spectrum Butterworth, etc.). 

Also seems like a good opportunity for Priority Health to grow. 

Joe

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1 hour ago, joeDowntown said:

Also seems like a good opportunity for Priority Health to grow. 

Joe

I was thinking the same thing.  I know there are some folks in the Metro D area with Priority, but I think it's customer base has largely been limited to west of Lansing.  That's an additional 4 million+  person market for them to expand into. 

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