Sligh Furniture Block Redevelopment

[joeDowntown]

10 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

700 is massive. Only place I can think of would be the church and its parking lot. And it would have to be pretty tall to hit that number. Otherwise Wealthy and Division but isn't there already a retirement community going there? 

I was thinking one of the surface lots that Mercy Health owns (which I doubt they'd part with). 700 apartments is *A LOT* of apartments. It's either a typo (seems likely), or someone is putting up a pretty massive building on Wealthy, which I think would exclude anything between Eastown and Heritage Hill. So either St. Mary's property, or somewhere west of US131 (which there aren't a lot of spots that make sense to me). 

If I were a betting  man, I'd venture it's the old Kregel building, with a lot less units (even if they added an addition, less than 100 units).

Joe

[HomePortSupplyCo]

Is 700 units possible in the warehouses on Century just off Wealthy?   How many units are in the Boardwalk building?

[Ted]

Prolly coser to 70...

[Guest]

There is a Wealthy SW too, ya know!  

[GR_Urbanist]

But is there anywhere on Wealthy SW even remotely fitting as a place for 700 residential units? Everything west of Division is active industrial or adjacent to the old Butterworth landfill 

[ModSquad]

What about the corner of Wealthy and Division on all the land owned by ICCF?

[GRDadof3]

20 hours ago, Onekama said:

Is 700 units possible in the warehouses on Century just off Wealthy?   How many units are in the Boardwalk building?

I think that's the answer: the big warehouse along Grandville, Century and Wealthy. Well I don't think it's technically on Wealthy but close enough.

Only about 240 in the Boardwalk I believe. 

[GRDadof3]

20 hours ago, Floyd_Z said:

There is a Wealthy SW too, ya know!  

Based on this and your post in the Predictions thread, I'd say it's the Century warehouse. Wasn't this and a number of other warehouses purchased not long ago by some out-of-town investment group?

Edit: Yes, out of West Bloomfield. They own a bunch of properties, and the LLC's all start with CGFH:

https://cofs.lara.state.mi.us/SearchApi/Search/Search

It will be good to see that building finally brought back to life. 

 

[Cookin_peacocks]

2 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

Based on this and your post in the Predictions thread, I'd say it's the Century warehouse. Wasn't this and a number of other warehouses purchased not long ago by some out-of-town investment group?

Edit: Yes, out of West Bloomfield. They own a bunch of properties, and the LLC's all start with CGFH:

https://cofs.lara.state.mi.us/SearchApi/Search/Search

It will be good to see that building finally brought back to life. 

 

One would have to assume 700 units wouldn't fit in that building alone, though. Right?

 

Either way, huge

[GR_Urbanist]

I like this location for a project of this size because I cringe at the fact that people coming to GR via the train are disembarking in an area that is a bit of a mess as it looks now. Basically a lifeless edge area of the central city. A really bad first impression.  A 700 person (at least) residential building, with hopefully a standard ground floor with more activity and transparency will be a bit more welcoming and feel safer to be around at night. 

And this might result in those ugly utility poles in front being moved, and an actual sidewalk being put in. That side of Century desperately needs the facelift.

[GRDadof3]

4 hours ago, GR_Urbanist said:

I like this location for a project of this size because I cringe at the fact that people coming to GR via the train are disembarking in an area that is a bit of a mess as it looks now. Basically a lifeless edge area of the central city. A really bad first impression.  A 700 person (at least) residential building, with hopefully a standard ground floor with more activity and transparency will be a bit more welcoming and feel safer to be around at night. 

And this might result in those ugly utility poles in front being moved, and an actual sidewalk being put in. That side of Century desperately needs the facelift.

Usually a project like this would get some kind of TIF benefits that would help rebuild the street there. Most of Century has been redone except this segment, I believe. 

5 hours ago, Cookin_peacocks said:

One would have to assume 700 units wouldn't fit in that building alone, though. Right?

 

Either way, huge

It's 584,000 square feet, which would work out to 834 square feet per unit. Take out hallways and you'd probably be around 700 sf per unit. It's definitely do-able. 

Maybe they'll add a couple of floors. It's not a registered historic building nor in an historic district. 

[Guest]

Yes reno exisisting warehouse, demolish 1950's era addition, add two buildings (6-7 stories) with parking. -  one on the corner of Wealthy/Grandville and the other on Grandville.  I think a majority of the units will be "micro" units, hence the high number,

[GRDadof3]

4 hours ago, Floyd_Z said:

Yes reno exisisting warehouse, demolish 1950's era addition, add two buildings (6-7 stories) with parking. -  one on the corner of Wealthy/Grandville and the other on Grandville.  I think a majority of the units will be "micro" units, hence the high number,

Dang! That's pretty large. 

Grand Rapids does (continue) to have one of the lowest rental vacancy rates in the country, at 2.8%:

https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/data/rates.html

https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/data/rates/tab4_msa_15_20_rvr.xlsx

[MJLO]

On 2/26/2021 at 4:30 PM, GRDadof3 said:

It's 584,000 square feet, which would work out to 834 square feet per unit. Take out hallways and you'd probably be around 700 sf per unit. It's definitely do-able. 

Most new units that have come on the market in the core over the last 10 years are in the 450-600sf range.  700 units are more than doable at that site as it currently sits without additions.  I think you're probably spot on.  That would be a game changer for the SW side of downtown on that side of the river. 

[arcturus]

Infrastructure improvements need to be in place first including the ability of the current 131-Wealthy St interchange to handle the increased traffic which is already stretched.  Franklin would need to be scrutinized also.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, arcturus said:

Infrastructure improvements need to be in place first including the ability of the current 131-Wealthy St interchange to handle the increased traffic which is already stretched.  Franklin would need to be scrutinized also.

I believe Wealthy interchange redesign is slated to be one of the next projects for City of GR/MDOT.  One of the big ideas being floated is to put it back at grade with 131 passing over it.  I would think 131 would have to be rebuilt to accomplish this though?

[MJLO]

2 hours ago, Floyd_Z said:

I believe Wealthy interchange redesign is slated to be one of the next projects for City of GR/MDOT.  One of the big ideas being floated is to put it back at grade with 131 passing over it.  I would think 131 would have to be rebuilt to accomplish this though?

In the 30+ years i've been in W. Michigan I've only ever seen that part  US-131 between 28th St. and Wealthy  get minor repairs and patchwork.  I wouldn't be surprised if some of that infrastructure is part of the original design that is 60ish years old at this point. They've redone several of the overpasses, but not Wealthy St.  I've got to think that stretch of road is slated for an overhaul soon.  Including the worn out and archaic Wealthy St. Interchange.   

[GRDadof3]

18 hours ago, arcturus said:

Infrastructure improvements need to be in place first including the ability of the current 131-Wealthy St interchange to handle the increased traffic which is already stretched.  Franklin would need to be scrutinized also.

I don't think they'll let the rebuilding of the Wealthy interchange hold up this project. Especially since over 5000 residential units have been added to downtown with only minor changes to all of the other interchanges (except those that serve Michigan Street Medical Mile). 

[GRDadof3]

Looking at the images I obtained through nefarious means ( ), it looks like the Century Warehouse project and the new buildings being added totals close to 1 Million square feet. That's gotta be the largest redevelopment project in downtown history. 

[Prankster]

1 hour ago, GRDadof3 said:

Looking at the images I obtained through nefarious means ( ), it looks like the Century Warehouse project and the new buildings being added totals close to 1 Million square feet. That's gotta be the largest redevelopment project in downtown history. 

Can you share if it will have anything with some height to it?

[HomePortSupplyCo]

2 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

Looking at the images I obtained through nefarious means ( ), it looks like the Century Warehouse project and the new buildings being added totals close to 1 Million square feet. That's gotta be the largest redevelopment project in downtown history. 

All the more reason for a better way for pedestrians to cross the freeway at Wealthy.  With an easier crossing, this could be great for the Downtown Market and possibly jump start South Division.   

Bonus material: Stumbled upon a fresh accident scene on the awful Wealthy overpass.

[HomePortSupplyCo]

4 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

Looking at the images I obtained through nefarious means ( ), it looks like the Century Warehouse project and the new buildings being added totals close to 1 Million square feet. That's gotta be the largest redevelopment project in downtown history. 

Here's my proposal for a crossing assuming there are no plans to update the interchange.  Could be a signature gateway bridge into the city.  Takes advantage of the dip in the freeway grade.  Seems like an overpass makes more sense here than next to the river as shown in the Market property proposal.   Could make it Calder Red.

[uncus]

Looking at the images I obtained through nefarious means ( [emoji4] ), it looks like the Century Warehouse project and the new buildings being added totals close to 1 Million square feet. That's gotta be the largest redevelopment project in downtown history. 

Yep

Story just posted to MLive.com. It’s behind the paywall, so I’m not sure how to share it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[HomePortSupplyCo]

Can you share images now that it's public info GRDad?

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2021/03/historic-sligh-furniture-building-in-grand-rapids-eyed-for-753-unit-micro-apartment-project.html

use ctrl A/C/V to read behind the paywall.

[GVSUChris]

There are some interesting things in this packet if you go deep enough.