Proposed Downtown Amphitheater

[Khorasaurus1]

1 hour ago, GR8scott said:

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

I figured that the reason that building is a 12 story blob is so the rest of the skyline (including Charley's Crab/Fulton-Market, please!) will be visible. 

[Jonesey]

I noticed today that AHC acquired a portion of MDOT right-of-way (used to be in red).  They paid $1.4 million for it.  They're definitely planning something!

[Cookin_peacocks]

24 minutes ago, Jonesey said:

I noticed today that AHC acquired a portion of MDOT right-of-way (used to be in red).  They paid $1.4 million for it.  They're definitely planning something!

God, look at all that parking. That triangle lot could be something really cool. Ground floor retail and apartments above it. Create a better street level vibe, especially on event nights...

[Jonesey]

4 minutes ago, Cookin_peacocks said:

God, look at all that parking. That triangle lot could be something really cool. Ground floor retail and apartments above it. Create a better street level vibe, especially on event nights...

Yeah, that's an Ellis lot, but I heard his sons are taking over the business, so maybe they'll be more keen to sell the surface lots.... we can only hope.  I'm sure once the amphitheater and mystery development get build, that lot will be gone

[Cookin_peacocks]

1 hour ago, Jonesey said:

Yeah, that's an Ellis lot, but I heard his sons are taking over the business, so maybe they'll be more keen to sell the surface lots.... we can only hope.  I'm sure once the amphitheater and mystery development get build, that lot will be gone

I once heard that Ellis retains parking rights to projects that take over their lots. Like you HAVE to add parking and it has to be controlled by them. 

[Jonesey]

10 minutes ago, Cookin_peacocks said:

I once heard that Ellis retains parking rights to projects that take over their lots. Like you HAVE to add parking and it has to be controlled by them. 

ahhh that makes sense, I know Arena place is run by them and I'm pretty sure the Warner/Norcross is too.  I would love to see that lot across the street from the Amway be developed

[Cookin_peacocks]

50 minutes ago, Jonesey said:

ahhh that makes sense, I know Arena place is run by them and I'm pretty sure the Warner/Norcross is too.  I would love to see that lot across the street from the Amway be developed

The small lot? I'd love to see a small footprint, but tall residential tower built there. Just expand the parking garage to make the lower floors to compensate for the additional parking needs.

[GRDadof3]

Finally an image of the amphitheater on the correct side of 131/s-curve. 

 

 

[joeDowntown]

1 hour ago, GRDadof3 said:

Finally an image of the amphitheater on the correct side of 131/s-curve. 

 

 

It’s interesting to see the scale of the amphitheater on the Market Street side. It looks slightly shorter than 234 Market across the street. Interested to see what it’ll look like from the back. 

and welcome back, GRDad.

[joeDowntown]

Some interesting updates from this MIBiz article:

1. 6,000 fixed seats, 6,000 lawn seats

2. About 10-12 months of design work left, but they started on schematics

3. They're trying to create a site that can be activated in the winter months, including a sledding hill on site plus a park the size of Rosa Parks that can be used for winter events (I'd imagine a lot of the winter festival events currently held in the parking lots in Monroe North could move here)

4. They are pushing to start some work this year (probably demolition once the city starts moving).

Joe

[Cookin_peacocks]

I saw what is certainly a soil sampling rig at the site today. 

 

Don't know how big this is, but it certainly seems like that's a positive 

[joeDowntown]

One (small) step forward in the Amphitheater progress:

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2023/05/new-agreement-stipulates-how-30m-grand-rapids-amphitheater-grant-will-be-doled-out.html

Joe

[RiversideGR]

 

Firm hired to design riverfront walkway near proposed downtown Grand Rapids amphitheater - mlive.com

Quote

The project also ties into the Grand River Greenway, a push to connect pedestrian trails from Grand Rapids to Lake Michigan in Ottawa County. In the Grand Rapids area, the focus of the greenway work is to fill in gaps in the trail network between Riverside Park and Millennium Park. The Market Avenue linear park and trail is part of that effort.

Quote

“It will look at the whole site in terms of how does this riverwalk mesh with the amphitheater for instance,” Miller said. “We obviously want to make sure those two things are communicating so it doesn’t look like it was just plopped in.”

 

 

 

[joeDowntown]

Really hope they include a pedestrian bridge that crosses the River. Access to the island would make it even better. 

Joe

[Zads]

An update from Crain's has new renderings, more details and a change of how the amphitheater will sit on the property.

https://www.crainsgrandrapids.com/news/economic-development/new-details-emerge-for-downtown-grand-rapids-amphitheater/

"The planning application also details how the venue would be used to draw about 300,000 visitors per season from April to October. Events would include a mix of community events and concerts totaling about 50 events every season, according to the planning memo. The amphitheater would operate seven days a week, with part of the development open to the public, including a park area north of the amphitheater, a lawn area and walkways that access the riverwalk.

The 85,000-square-foot venue would include 7,000 fixed seats and 5,000 lawn seats, a main stage, concessions, and a pedestrian and entrance plaza along Market Avenue, per the planning documents. Updated renderings show the amphitheater stage facing north toward the downtown skyline, compared to previous versions in which the stage faced south."

[discgrab21]

Edit: Zads beat me to it! 

Looks fantastic imo

Edited May 31, 2023 by discgrab21

[Pattmost20]

15 minutes ago, Zads said:

An update from Crain's has new renderings, more details and a change of how the amphitheater will sit on the property.

https://www.crainsgrandrapids.com/news/economic-development/new-details-emerge-for-downtown-grand-rapids-amphitheater/

"The planning application also details how the venue would be used to draw about 300,000 visitors per season from April to October. Events would include a mix of community events and concerts totaling about 50 events every season, according to the planning memo. The amphitheater would operate seven days a week, with part of the development open to the public, including a park area north of the amphitheater, a lawn area and walkways that access the riverwalk.

The 85,000-square-foot venue would include 7,000 fixed seats and 5,000 lawn seats, a main stage, concessions, and a pedestrian and entrance plaza along Market Avenue, per the planning documents. Updated renderings show the amphitheater stage facing north toward the downtown skyline, compared to previous versions in which the stage faced south."

I like the new renderings, it'll be cool to see this project move forward. 

[joeDowntown]

Very nice. I thought they oriented it the other way to keep the sun out of the eyes of both the concert goers and the performers. Maybe it's angled slightly to mitigate this, but with our 9:50pm sunsets in the summer, I thought that would be an issue (but maybe the lawn area helps to block the sun earlier in the evening.

Fantastic updates!

[mgreven]

This is looking great...this will be a cool project.  Kind of feeling like a Millenium Park in Chicago vibe in a way.

Now when will they announce something on the lots by the old Charlie's Crab?  That's got to be coming.

[Prankster]

We’ll, this part is disappointing:

The development also calls for a 116-space onsite parking lot, which is above the maximum 86 spaces allowed in the traditional neighborhood — city center zoning (TN-CC) district where the project is proposed.

[GR_Urbanist]

35 minutes ago, Prankster said:

We’ll, this part is disappointing:

The development also calls for a 116-space onsite parking lot, which is above the maximum 86 spaces allowed in the traditional neighborhood — city center zoning (TN-CC) district where the project is proposed.

Yup. Just saw that. That has to go. We already have massive lots north of this. Put a ramp on some of that. This isnt the Beltline or LCMU stadium, and this needs to be built out to the property boundaries, and with a good street front.

And honestly the renderings just give me the impression that these people have no idea what they are going for here because they keep drastically changing from one to the next. Not to mention there are no site plans for the buildings that are supposed to be part of this project, but they DO know they want an 116 space parking lot, and "the anticipated incline at the back of the amphitheater area could serve as a sledding hill" which isnt what people were aiming for with this. 

Absent knowing more, I'm getting a bit nervous that this is getting watered-down (?) with how long it is taking, and it will not be properly integrated into the surrounding area as well as previous renderings have shown.

Edited May 31, 2023 by GR_Urbanist

[GRLaker]

I'm not sure I would call this a step up from the previous design. I get the need to change the direction of it, but I feel like we took a big step back by going away from a structure to an artificial hill with trees. 

[Zads]

27 minutes ago, GR_Urbanist said:

Yup. Just saw that. That has to go. We already have massive lots north of this. Put a ramp on some of that. This isnt the Beltline or LCMU stadium, and this needs to be built out to the property boundaries, and with a good street front.

And honestly the renderings just give me the impression that these people have no idea what they are going for here because they keep drastically changing from one to the next. Not to mention there are no site plans for the buildings that are supposed to be part of this project, but they DO know they want an 116 space parking lot, and "the anticipated incline at the back of the amphitheater area could serve as a sledding hill" which isnt what people were aiming for with this. 

Absent knowing more, I'm getting a bit nervous that this is getting watered-down (?) with how long it is taking, and it will not be properly integrated into the surrounding area as well as previous renderings have shown.

Huh? Look I'm not a fan of parking lots in a downtown area AT ALL. I prefer parking garages to lots. I prefer people using public transit or other means of transportation, but you can't just eliminate parking altogether. It's not logical.

Did you read the paragraph about parking?

"Developers note in the planning documents that the majority of parking needs could be met by the approximately 18,500 parking spaces located within a 15-minute walk of the amphitheater."

Adding a 116-space lot seems like a speck for a 12,000 seat amphitheater.

[GR8scott]

Why not face the other way? away from the sun and with the skyline as a backdrop? Also why not make capacity a little larger? its about the same as VAA which may miss out on some of the larger tours because of the smaller capacity. And with 116 parking spots? why not make a ramp with mixed use or with seating and luxury boxes on top?

[Cookin_peacocks]

1 hour ago, mgreven said:

This is looking great...this will be a cool project.  Kind of feeling like a Millenium Park in Chicago vibe in a way.

Now when will they announce something on the lots by the old Charlie's Crab?  That's got to be coming.

What I had always heard was that was going to come after the amphitheater. How long, I don't know. 

 

But that lot isnt going to remain a lot forever.