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Medical Mile/Michigan Street Developments


joeDowntown

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On 11/11/2020 at 8:33 AM, whitemice said:

Same.
Think: Tap room in the front, laundry in the back.   Try our Tumble Dry Stout!


It seems like a good location for a laundromat, it is next to a lot of housing.
Laundromats are under appreciated neighborhood assets.

Would not be surprised if this business is temporary.

temporary?  why do you say that?  what if it's the permanent home of the laundromat on Michigan and College because it's getting torn down to make way for new development?

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On 11/12/2020 at 11:30 PM, grandrollerz said:

temporary?  why do you say that?

It seems small for a laundromat on a valuable corner lot. 

On 11/12/2020 at 11:30 PM, grandrollerz said:

temporary?  why do you say that?  what if it's the permanent home of the laundromat on Michigan and College because it's getting torn down to make way for new development?

That would be great! First, anything that reduces the number of curb cuts at that terrible intersection. Also, it can't be worse than the low sprawly-style  stuff that exists at that intersection today.
I haven't seen any news though.

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On 11/14/2020 at 6:57 AM, whitemice said:

It seems small for a laundromat on a valuable corner lot.
I haven't seen any news though.

They've torn out the wall to the car wash to open the space up some more.  Kent County parcel mapper has it listed as  being owned by "TC 755 LLC" .  A little googling and that's the name for Leo Schlesinger Holdings, who according to this article is the owner of Tacos El Cunado.

So, more tacos??

Also, the Al Tamminga Garage has fencing around it and a CopperRock sign out front.  Any ideas what would go in there?  According to FB, the son took over the business and moved it to 1550 Rupert, so nice to see they are staying in  business.  It was definitely a relic from Michigan St past.

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23 hours ago, grandrollerz said:

They've torn out the wall to the car wash to open the space up some more.  Kent County parcel mapper has it listed as  being owned by "TC 755 LLC" .  A little googling and that's the name for Leo Schlesinger Holdings, who according to this article is the owner of Tacos El Cunado.

So, more tacos??

Also, the Al Tamminga Garage has fencing around it and a CopperRock sign out front.  Any ideas what would go in there?  According to FB, the son took over the business and moved it to 1550 Rupert, so nice to see they are staying in  business.  It was definitely a relic from Michigan St past.

Mark Wiley isn't Al Tamminga's son. I went to school with his 2 son's and daughter. They are all retirement age or close to it by by now.  1550 Rupert was Ham's Auto's according to google earth. Mark may have bought Ham's and merged the 2 auto repair shops. 

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On 1/3/2021 at 1:48 PM, grandrollerz said:

They've torn out the wall to the car wash to open the space up some more.  Kent County parcel mapper has it listed as  being owned by "TC 755 LLC" .  A little googling and that's the name for Leo Schlesinger Holdings, who according to this article is the owner of Tacos El Cunado.

So, more tacos??

Schlesinger has been in the car wash business for the past few years as well.

https://grbj.com/news/the-works-can-include-the-dog-too/

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I took my wife to the Belknap Hill area a week ago last night.  I had to show her 607 Livingston  which was my grand fathers (on my dad's side) grocery store in the late 20's . He and my grandmother lived  on Emerald and Spencer  - Kent Hills School area - with 7 kids. He walked back and forth to the store. They didn't own a car or even a horse. He had the flu and collapsed walking home in 1929. So my grandmother raised 7 kids on her own during the depression.  Kids ranged in age from 20 to a baby, my dad was 10. He was driving truck to Elkhart IN with the man across the street at age 14 :) .

Anyways, my post is about the "The Gateway at Belknap". It looks fairly well occupied by the lights but not one tenant that i saw in the 1st floor retail (I was driving :) ) Why do the planners insist on the 1st floor retail?  It's pretty much vacant in all the new developments around town. 

Edited by Raildude's dad
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3 hours ago, Raildude's dad said:

Mark Wiley isn't Al Tamminga's son. I went to school with his 2 son's and daughter. They are all retirement age or close to it by by now.  1550 Rupert was Ham's Auto's according to google earth. Mark may have bought Ham's and merged the 2 auto repair shops. 

I'd definitely Ok with a taco shop in Midtown!  Sure beats a car wash.

43 minutes ago, Raildude's dad said:

Anyways, my post is about the "The Gateway at Belknap". It looks fairly well occupied by the lights but not one tenant that i saw in the 1st floor retail (I was driving :) ) Why do the planners inside on the 1st floor retail?  It's pretty much vacant in all the new developments around town. 

There is a proposal to remove the first-floor retail requirement.
But as to why Planners come up with this stuff?  Without ludicrously complex Zoning nonsense they'd be unemployed?  Cynical maybe, yet, honestly, I no longer believe they provide much of any value.

Edited by whitemice
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On 1/4/2021 at 4:31 PM, whitemice said:

 

I'd definitely Ok with a taco shop in Midtown!  Sure beats a car wash.

There is a proposal to remove the first-floor retail requirement.
But as to why Planners come up with this stuff?  Without ludicrously complex Zoning nonsense they'd be unemployed?  Cynical maybe, yet, honestly, I no longer believe they provide much of any value.

These kind of requirements have been adopted quite a bit in the last 20 years all over the country. It's from a chorus of planners who are/were trying to provide more "pedestrian level activity" with all of these new developments going up in urban areas, instead of just blank walls facing the sidewalks. The principle is good, but you can't use it on every project on every block. Retail tends to band together and do better in clusters. 

I think the city has actually gotten away from it and doesn't require it quite as much anymore. 

 

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Proposed Recreational Marijuana Shop on Michigan St seems to include plans for a new mixed use development. It would replace two homes along Michigan St, just west of Bob's Bar.

The company is going in front of the Michigan Street Corridor team and the Midtown Neighborhood association today. 

Mich St 2.PNG

Mich St 1.PNG

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36 minutes ago, Pattmost20 said:

Proposed Recreational Marijuana Shop on Michigan St seems to include plans for a new mixed use development. It would replace two homes along Michigan St, just west of Bob's Bar.

The company is going in front of the Michigan Street Corridor team and the Midtown Neighborhood association today. 

Mich St 2.PNG

Mich St 1.PNG

I was looking at the Planning Commission agenda, and it looks like 90% of the meeting will be weed related. :)

This building looks nice. I thought the first proposal showed the two homes being renovated / merged together. I like this development much better. 

Joe

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1 hour ago, joeDowntown said:

I was looking at the Planning Commission agenda, and it looks like 90% of the meeting will be weed related. :)

I feel like quite a few of the meetings over the last 6 months have been mostly weed related lol.

I do remember seeing that old rendering. Those houses are in real rough shape, so it makes sense to get rid of them and start fresh.

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16 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

I listened to part of the City Commission meeting and Perrigo / Rockford Construction was presenting (to get tax breaks). They said they'd start building in February (in a month) and be done next May. 

There was also an interesting conversation about 1601 Madison Ave. near Cottage grove. Sounds like a multi-phased development but they discussed bringing a "technology company" (90+ people) into the city, using local contractors (down to the zipcode).

@ModSquad, am I making this up, or at one point did you try to develop this land, only to get screwed by Azzar?  Or was that someone else/some other property? :)

Joe

Yep, that was us, ended up in court with Assar like almost everyone else that has attempted to do business with him.

So happy to see this area get some much needed love and attention .  
 

There have been some rumors about a redevelopment of the former PB Gast building as well that will really give this neighborhood a shot in the arm.

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On 1/7/2021 at 9:40 AM, GRDadof3 said:

These kind of requirements have been adopted quite a bit in the last 20 years all over the country. It's from a chorus of planners who are/were trying to provide more "pedestrian level activity" with all of these new developments going up in urban areas, instead of just blank walls facing the sidewalks. The principle is good, but you can't use it on every project on every block. Retail tends to band together and do better in clusters. 

I think the city has actually gotten away from it and doesn't require it quite as much anymore. 

 

Agreed. I'll add: the issue is not necessarily with requiring or encouraging active level ground uses to encourage pedestrian level activity, it is with requiring or encouraging them to be retail everywhere, creating a glut of retail space in certain areas. There are some street segments where offices, gyms, service establishments, or even (properly designed) residential units could be more appropriate if pedestrian level activity is desired.  

 

On 1/4/2021 at 4:31 PM, whitemice said:

There is a proposal to remove the first-floor retail requirement.
But as to why Planners come up with this stuff?  Without ludicrously complex Zoning nonsense they'd be unemployed?  Cynical maybe, yet, honestly, I no longer believe they provide much of any value.

Did that hot take come with a warning?  

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In 2009 Belknap adopted an ASP which envisioned the neighborhood as the Medical Mile's bedroom community, with higher density and retail amenities, so that the resident health care workers in the neighborhood could walk/transit south in the morning and come back in the evening.  The plan deliberately clustered mixed use and retail along Hastings at Coit and Lafayette because those were the entry points to the neighborhood (that's why this building is called "Gateway").  The hope was that a cluster could form there from commuters coming and going.

I mean, hindsight is 20/20, so it's easy to crap on the plan now, but 10 years ago that was the vision and the Gateway is a result of that. And yes, it's also fair to say that "pedestrian-level activity" was a trendier buzzword back then and that influenced the ASP.  But I don't believe there was any blanket city policy or tyrannical committee meddling here. There was an actual plan here in this case.

Edited by RegalTDP
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On 1/13/2021 at 10:54 AM, Pattmost20 said:

Proposed Recreational Marijuana Shop on Michigan St seems to include plans for a new mixed use development. It would replace two homes along Michigan St, just west of Bob's Bar.

The company is going in front of the Michigan Street Corridor team and the Midtown Neighborhood association today. 

Mich St 2.PNG

Mich St 1.PNG

Just an update on this one. I attended the virtual neighborhood meeting (there were like 2 of us lol). 

- The project is going forward no matter what. They were already approved for medical by the city.

- They are just seeking to add a recreational license.

- They will be going in front of the planning commission at the Feb meeting.

- Ground floor will be two retail spaces total, so this store plus available space for another (ground floor residential is not allowed along Michigan St, according to the person leading the meeting).

- Upstairs will be affordable housing, once completed. They are going to white box it at first and allow it to be built out later, so no details on how many units.

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2 hours ago, RegalTDP said:

The plan deliberately clustered mixed use and retail along Hastings at Coit and Lafayette because those were the entry points to the neighborhood (that's why this building is called "Gateway")

The consensus of the meetings I've say in (or Zoom'd in) recently have been that development has not generally followed the plan.  Density has crept south and west of where it hoped it would center; mostly on Lafayette.  Other than GVSU the only development on Lafayette has been the Bazanni building so far.  The most recent proposed apartment building across from Coit School follows the pattern of density growing outside of the planned pattern.
Disclaimer: I'm not saying any of that is a problem.

Screenshot from 2021-01-15 14-47-08.png

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Crain's just did an article on MSU's Innovation Park. It includes a recent aerial view of the campus, with the u/c Doug Meijer Building -

MSU brings research, innovation muscle to Grand Rapids' Medical Mile


Tom Henderson | Crain's Detroit Business
January 17, 2021

2021_01_17_Grand%20Rapids_MSU%20Douglas%
Source: Crain's | Courtesy Rockford Construction / Health Innovation Partners

What a difference with this block, now vs. then. This is an aerial view of the former Grand Rapids Press building, before its demolition to make way for MSU's Innovation Park. It is a quarter-turn from the above photos, but you can still see the difference -

Old%20Grand%20Rapids%20Press%20Building.
Source MLive

Now picture the current photos with Perrigo's new HQ in place (I don't think these night renderings have been posted here yet) -

2020_10_27_Grand%20Rapids_Perrigo%20HQ%2
Source: Wood TV 8 | Courtesy Rockford Construction

2020_10_27_Grand%20Rapids_Perrigo%20HQ%2
Source: Wood TV 8 | Courtesy Rockford Construction

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