Proposed Downtown Amphitheater

[GRDadof3]

10 hours ago, droonus2000 said:

One question.... they had the street torn up for the better part of a year and knew what the site was likely to become and no one thought they should bury all those power lines? 

I was looking at that picture and thinking the same. I'm sure they'll get buried. I think a lot of burying of powerlines gets funded by TIF/DDA funds. 

[joeDowntown]

3 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

I was looking at that picture and thinking the same. I'm sure they'll get buried. I think a lot of burying of powerlines gets funded by TIF/DDA funds. 

Why do everything at once when you can just dig it up and do it over again?!

[Allison Slater]

On 9/9/2022 at 12:29 PM, joeDowntown said:

Why do everything at once when you can just dig it up and do it over again?!

Wasn't that a goal of Whitmer's, to better synchronize road and utility work to happen in one shot instead of one after the other? Or was that someone else? (Granted this road isn't even a state project anyway, but still something worth learning from, I'd think.)

[RiversideGR]

Grand Rapids amphitheater proposal remains on track | WOODTV.com

“As the city starts to move off that site, we can really be intentional about the portion of the site we’re moving off from. But I think we’ll see active development happening end of 2023, 2024.” - Mayor Bliss

[Jonesey]

As far as burying the power lines, It's very expensive and the city would have foot a majority of the bill I think.  Don't get me wrong, I think all lines should be buried, but sometimes it's just not economically feasible.

Regarding the city moving operations, I think they're basically waiting for the county to complete their new building in Walker, correct?  That has to be close to done I would think.

Edited November 16, 2022 by Jonesey
Posted in wrong thread

[organsnyder]

On 11/16/2022 at 4:03 PM, Jonesey said:

As far as burying the power lines, It's very expensive and the city would have foot a majority of the bill I think.  Don't get me wrong, I think all lines should be buried, but sometimes it's just not economically feasible.

Regarding the city moving operations, I think they're basically waiting for the county to complete their new building in Walker, correct?  That has to be close to done I would think.

The CEO of Consumers Energy is on record saying that the cost-benefit calculus for burying power lines is changing. Still probably not true in this case (unlike my house, where we’ve had multiple-day outages each year for the past three years due to trees), but I am hopeful that this becomes a trend.

[Cookin_peacocks]

Probably nothing, but the grass area west of the old Charlie's Crab is torn up. Is something up, or just related to the the Market St reconfig?

Maybe the staged equipment there and I missed it?

 

Edited November 29, 2022 by Cookin_peacocks

[Jonesey]

5 hours ago, Cookin_peacocks said:

Probably nothing, but the grass area west of the old Charlie's Crab is torn up. Is something up, or just related to the the Market St reconfig?

Maybe the staged equipment there and I missed it?

 

That property is actually part of MDOT's right-of-way.  It's no longer needed by them.  Last I heard, persons owning the adjacent property were trying to acquire it for a future project.

[GRDadof3]

On 11/29/2022 at 12:00 PM, Cookin_peacocks said:

Probably nothing, but the grass area west of the old Charlie's Crab is torn up. Is something up, or just related to the the Market St reconfig?

Maybe the staged equipment there and I missed it?

 

Interesting that you posted this. I saw street cleaners out the other day on Market and it actually looks like they're almost ready to reopen it. 

[Cookin_peacocks]

1 hour ago, GRDadof3 said:

Interesting that you posted this. I saw street cleaners out the other day on Market and it actually looks like they're almost ready to reopen it. 

It's open as of today. I saw cars driving down it today while i was walking the sidewalk. The road diet looks good.

[Cookin_peacocks]

https://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mlive.com%2Fnews%2Fgrand-rapids%2F2023%2F02%2hagreement-to-develop-property-near-grand-rapids-amphitheater-approved-by-arena-board.html%3Futm_campaign%3Dgrandrapidspress_sf%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dfacebook&h=AT3GYU5G9LrTv63uMTcSdfymfFRp1B5HsiD3Y1i3HSQx5N0QqkeJH4rMpfVsHy7U55zBv0G-vBJw4HKvIGqQDnuhAYsTnH2SQstHmOW7oLfqoJD6cRw-IdKbStrSlukHWz0rSXPMWIBiDEapzA

 

The amphitheater continues to move forward, albeit at a snails pace

[cstonesparty]

3 hours ago, Cookin_peacocks said:

https://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mlive.com%2Fnews%2Fgrand-rapids%2F2023%2F02%2hagreement-to-develop-property-near-grand-rapids-amphitheater-approved-by-arena-board.html%3Futm_campaign%3Dgrandrapidspress_sf%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dfacebook&h=AT3GYU5G9LrTv63uMTcSdfymfFRp1B5HsiD3Y1i3HSQx5N0QqkeJH4rMpfVsHy7U55zBv0G-vBJw4HKvIGqQDnuhAYsTnH2SQstHmOW7oLfqoJD6cRw-IdKbStrSlukHWz0rSXPMWIBiDEapzA

 

The amphitheater continues to move forward, albeit at a snails pace

wow, that was hard to read.  where have all the writers gone...

[joeDowntown]

3 hours ago, Cookin_peacocks said:

https://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mlive.com%2Fnews%2Fgrand-rapids%2F2023%2F02%2hagreement-to-develop-property-near-grand-rapids-amphitheater-approved-by-arena-board.html%3Futm_campaign%3Dgrandrapidspress_sf%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dfacebook&h=AT3GYU5G9LrTv63uMTcSdfymfFRp1B5HsiD3Y1i3HSQx5N0QqkeJH4rMpfVsHy7U55zBv0G-vBJw4HKvIGqQDnuhAYsTnH2SQstHmOW7oLfqoJD6cRw-IdKbStrSlukHWz0rSXPMWIBiDEapzA

 

The amphitheater continues to move forward, albeit at a snails pace

Is it at a snails pace? The article says they hope to open for the 2025 season (which I think is pretty fast considering the logistics involved with this property:

Quote

 

In addition, officials said they hope to have the amphitheater open by 2025.

“I continue to be pleased and optimistic and hopeful that we’re looking at a 2025 season in an amphitheater,” said Richard MacKeigan, executive director of the Grand Rapids-Kent County Convention/Arena Authority (CAA), the public authority that would own and operate the amphitheater.

 

To me, that says they would need to start booking acts for the 2025 season in the next year.

And for non-amphitheater projects, they can start pushing for development for the 11 acres not used for riverfront access / amphitheater. I wonder if this means we'll start seeing RFP's for individual plots, or one developer for all?

Quote

With the new agreement in place, Grand Action 2.0 can now begin exploring additional development opportunities on 11.6-acres in and around the site of the proposed venue at 201 Market Ave. SW. 

Should be exciting once they move forward.

Joe

[numstead]

3 hours ago, Cookin_peacocks said:

https://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mlive.com%2Fnews%2Fgrand-rapids%2F2023%2F02%2hagreement-to-develop-property-near-grand-rapids-amphitheater-approved-by-arena-board.html%3Futm_campaign%3Dgrandrapidspress_sf%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dfacebook&h=AT3GYU5G9LrTv63uMTcSdfymfFRp1B5HsiD3Y1i3HSQx5N0QqkeJH4rMpfVsHy7U55zBv0G-vBJw4HKvIGqQDnuhAYsTnH2SQstHmOW7oLfqoJD6cRw-IdKbStrSlukHWz0rSXPMWIBiDEapzA

 

The amphitheater continues to move forward, albeit at a snails pace

“We haven’t actually started the fundraising at this point, but we’re confident that the funding is coming together very nicely,” she said.

What does that even mean?

[joeDowntown]

45 minutes ago, numstead said:

“We haven’t actually started the fundraising at this point, but we’re confident that the funding is coming together very nicely,” she said.

What does that even mean?

LOL. I thought the same thing. Maybe it was taken out of context, or trimmed and left out the "but, we already have commitments from..."

[Jonesey]

1 hour ago, joeDowntown said:

Is it at a snails pace? The article says they hope to open for the 2025 season (which I think is pretty fast considering the logistics involved with this property:

I was pretty surprised by this too.  A 2.5 year construction would be impressive.  It seems like it would simpler than a skyscraper, lots of excavating, building the stage/pavillion, pouring concrete for the seats. installing the seats.  I'm sure there's a lot more to it though.  I wonder if this will involve some kind of ramp too?

My only hope is that we get a new tallest skyscraper out of this project.

[numstead]

4 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

LOL. I thought the same thing. Maybe it was taken out of context, or trimmed and left out the "but, we already have commitments from..."

Thinking about it more, it likely means that they have secured funding from critical sources (private and public) to do the most significant amount of the work, or to at least underwrite the project debt, and that they'll have a more high-profile public fundraising campaign (buy-a-brick style) to pay for the rest.

Edited February 4, 2023 by numstead

[joeDowntown]

I had never seen this rendering before. CAA said the finalized amphitheater plans are coming “soon”

 

[Khorasaurus1]

On 2/3/2023 at 10:16 PM, joeDowntown said:

I had never seen this rendering before. CAA said the finalized amphitheater plans are coming “soon”

 

Slightly odd that they didn't put any conceptual buildings on the Chatlie's Crab/Fulton-Market sites. I would assume those will actually develop before the non-Amphitheater sites at 201 Market given their location and the lack of demo/amphitheater construction needed.

[joeDowntown]

1 hour ago, Khorasaurus1 said:

Slightly odd that they didn't put any conceptual buildings on the Chatlie's Crab/Fulton-Market sites. I would assume those will actually develop before the non-Amphitheater sites at 201 Market given their location and the lack of demo/amphitheater construction needed.

I’m sure there is some sort of knowledge of what’s proposed for the other site, but it’s not their story to tell. 

Based on the rendering (which I’m sure is out of date, just for reference), I wonder if they’ll limit the height on the northern section? It seems like this would be the most desirable piece of property to “build now”. I’ll be interested to see if it takes 5-10 years for the southern portions to be developed. It’s definitely no man’s land right now / not part of the core city (yet). 

Joe

[Prankster]

Is it just me, or does it seam they are already shortening the buildings in the new rendering?

[RiversideGR]

On 2/3/2023 at 10:16 PM, joeDowntown said:

I had never seen this rendering before. CAA said the finalized amphitheater plans are coming “soon”

 

I may be wrong, but this is the first rendering that I remember that includes a new pedestrian bridge over the river. I like that. 

[joeDowntown]

There's a lot to like about this site plan (the pedestrian bridge over the river, what looks to be box seats and commercial space on the south end the walkway that extends over the river, etc.). I hope the amphitheater portion comes together close to this plan. 

Joe 

[Cookin_peacocks]

On 2/5/2023 at 2:21 PM, Prankster said:

Is it just me, or does it seam they are already shortening the buildings in the new rendering?

I think (and this is a guess) you'll see more density north of 131 in the Amway lot. 

 

Even so, I think the focus of that rendering is the amphitheater as the aux buildings are still very much in flux.

[GR8scott]

lets hope its not a 12 story blob building between there and the highway to block out the skyline with generic condos