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920 Cherry, ICCF/Blodgett Home and Fairmount Square

joeDowntown

By joeDowntown
in Grand Rapids

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Nitro Burg

Nitro

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Now they need to get the old Old Kent Bank branch that was covered with cinderblock remodeled (corner of Cherry and Diamond). It looks horrific. :)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hopefully soon, that building is an eyesore.

Nitro

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joeDowntown Metropolis

joeDowntown

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City commissioners approved $2 million worth of incentives to build 33 townhouses on the grounds (parking lot) of the DA Blodgett Building.

This is a very good sign for the Cherry/Diamond (Uptown) area.

Does anyone know when they will start work on the DA Blodgett building itself?

Joe

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Nitro Burg

Nitro

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City commissioners approved $2 million worth of incentives to build 33 townhouses on the grounds (parking lot) of the DA Blodgett Building.

This is a very good sign for the Cherry/Diamond (Uptown) area.

Does anyone know when they will start work on the DA Blodgett building itself?

Joe

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Even though the city has approved the incentives it still has to be approved at the state level.

The construction will begin after the state gives the project the final approval.

Nitro

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GRGridGirl Hamlet

GRGridGirl

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On Thursday, June 23rd at 6 pm, there is a 920 Cherry Block Party. You can view the site design and preliminary townhome design. Local First is sponsoring the event with a band and food. Its open to the public. Guy Bazzani will be there to answer questions. I'll be there!

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mpchicago Burg

mpchicago

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That is a great picture of the old lady GRdad! If anyone can bring it back to its former glory Second Story and Bazzani can. Dosen't appear it's going to be an easy job though. To me this whole development is one of the more exciting projects going on around town. Restoration of a beautiful old building and great new town homes in a very cool urban neighborhood.

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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Wondering if anyone affiliated with Bazzani, Second Story or Lighthouse could give us some updates on the Uptown/Wealthy developments (hint, hint). I have not seen any movement on either of these sites :( I would really like to see some renderings/site plans for 920 Cherry/Fairmount Square ;)

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ModSquad Hamlet

ModSquad

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Wondering if anyone affiliated with Bazzani, Second Story or Lighthouse could give us some updates on the Uptown/Wealthy developments (hint, hint).  I have not seen any movement on either of these sites  :(  I would really like to see some renderings/site plans for 920 Cherry/Fairmount Square  ;)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I saw some renderings from 920 Cherry this past week from Cornerstone Architects. I also saw some of their stuff for Midtowne Village. Lighthouse received a grant to do a design charrete in our Madison/Hall Business district. One of the design firms is using Cornerstone and they included the drawings as a part of their RFP.

Anyway, I digress...

Uptown Village update: We will hopefully close on all of the properties by the end of this month, thus prying them out of the cold hands of the absentee landlord that has had them for the past 10 years. It looks like the final couple of financial pieces are coming together. We received our PRD designation from GR Planning, our Brownfield has been approved and is going through the public comment phase. This should be in place within a month or two. Our construction and permanent financing is in place. Finally, in January we submit our tax credit application. We applied in April, but a project in the Heartside area beat us out. The State is working with us to ensure we get our $ in January.

All told it looks very good for a ground breaking in March or April. Rockford Construction is our GC.

On a side note, this past week we submitted our application for La Casa De York at 1600 S Division. Things are looking very good for this project as well. If we get our tax credit we will begin this project possibly in March as well.

Avenue Apartments breaks ground November 1. Needless to say it will be a busy 12 months for the folks at Lighthouse.

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mpchicago Burg

mpchicago

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Dave -

With regards to your great development at Wealthy and Diamond it looks like you have a bit of retail space to fill. How do you go about that? Do you hire a broker or do you just put for rent signs in the windows. Take us through how you handle. Also, I assume you are looking for neighborhood type businesses to fill space, i.e., coffee shops, cleaners, etc. I imagine you would prefer local businesses, but are you apposed to Starbuck

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ModSquad Hamlet

ModSquad

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Dave -

With regards to your great development at Wealthy and Diamond it looks like you have a bit of retail space to fill. How do you go about that? Do you hire a broker or do you just put for rent signs in the windows. Take us through how you handle. Also, I assume you are looking for neighborhood type businesses to fill space, i.e., coffee shops, cleaners, etc. I imagine you would prefer local businesses, but are you apposed to Starbuck

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mpchicago Burg

mpchicago

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There is no set formula for this. We are meeting currently with a local bank (I cannot tell you who... ;). We are hoping they will anchor the corner. As far as filling the rest of the space, word of mouth, early marketing, and staying connected with local entities will help. For us, we believe that it is VERY important to find tenants early so we can design and build to suit. We would love a restaurant at this site. Guy Bazzani has expressed his interest in this as well. We are toying with the idea of a broker for this site and have actually met with one yesterday.

Sounds like you guys are really making some progress there! A restaurant is a great idea. I ate at this great dim sum restaurant last night, LuLu's. Cool, hip, reasonably priced and good food to boot! It

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PBJ Burg

PBJ

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I'm not totally familiar with each development, but are any of the above green stand-alone townhouses? I heard something from Bazzani/Second Story Properties quite a while ago about townhouses but nothing since...

I'm going to beat GRDad to it and say welcome to the forum..

as for your question.. I got nothing

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ModSquad Hamlet

ModSquad

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I'm not totally familiar with each development, but are any of the above green stand-alone townhouses? I heard something from Bazzani/Second Story Properties quite a while ago about townhouses but nothing since...

I am not sure I understand your question. In regard to Uptown Village, there will be 6 town houses built in a chicago brownstone style. They will run along Sigsbee Street.

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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I am not sure I understand your question. In regard to Uptown Village, there will be 6 town houses built in a chicago brownstone style. They will run along Sigsbee Street.

aheights must mean green as in LEED built, but I don't know what a stand alone townhouse is? Isn't that an oxymoron :huh:

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ModSquad Hamlet

ModSquad

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Lighthouse took a huge step on Friday towards starting Uptown Village. We closed on all 7 properties. Yep that is right, Lighthouse is now the proud owner of 7 complete dumps worthy of nothing more than a bull doser.

The thing that REALLY grinds me is that the scum bag landlord walked away with a load of money. But we had no choice...no land...no project.

In the next week we are going to fence off some of the property to try and keep kids and vagrants away. On Monday, we went through the properties and interupted a prostitute and her john that had taken residence in one of the abandoned buildings...it was gross.

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mpchicago Burg

mpchicago

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Lighthouse took a huge step on Friday towards starting Uptown Village. We closed on all 7 properties. Yep that is right, Lighthouse is now the proud owner of 7 complete dumps worthy of nothing more than a bull doser.

The thing that REALLY grinds me is that the scum bag landlord walked away with a load of money. But we had no choice...no land...no project.

In the next week we are going to fence off some of the property to try and keep kids and vagrants away. On Monday, we went through the properties and interupted a prostitute and her john that had taken residence in one of the abandoned buildings...it was gross.

I think this project is one of the most important in the continuing transformation of the Wealthy Theatre area. If the good design principles shown in your drawings, and the quality of the materials used remain high, you shouldn

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Nitro Burg

Nitro

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The thing that REALLY grinds me is that the scum bag landlord walked away with a load of money. But we had no choice...no land...no project.

Did he take it back to support the economy of his personal island in the carribbean? What a scum, I'm glad he's gone. Hope you break ground soon. I'm tired of looking at that dump.

Nitro

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ModSquad Hamlet

ModSquad

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Did he take it back to support the economy of his personal island in the carribbean? What a scum, I'm glad he's gone. Hope you break ground soon. I'm tired of looking at that dump.

Nitro

I have one thing to say about the money this scum bag walked away with...moeny is good for nothing in hell.

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Nitro Burg

Nitro

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I have one thing to say about the money this scum bag walked away with...moeny is good for nothing in hell.

You got that right. Everytime I've been around him I feel like I need a shower afterward just to wash the smarmyness off of me.

Congrats on moving forward.

Nitro

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