New $30 Million Kroc Community Center

[GRDadof3]

The Salvation Army is looking for a 10 - 12 acre site in the city for a new $30 Million Ray & Joan Kroc Community Center, so says the Biz Journal:

http://www.grbj.com/GRBJ/Nav/Login.htm?Art...A-438B83A68F60}

Aimed toward underprivelaged kids, the Kroc Center in San Diego includes aquatics, indoor skate park, fitness area, ice arena and other family recreational activities. Grand Rapids is one of 10 Midwestern cities chosen for a new center. They are looking for community members of diverse backgrounds to help with the planning of the new center.

[GR_Urbanist]

The Salvation Army is looking for a 10 - 12 acre site in the city for a new $30 Million Ray & Joan Kroc Community Center, so says the Biz Journal:

http://www.grbj.com/GRBJ/Nav/Login.htm?Art...A-438B83A68F60}

Aimed toward underprivelaged kids, the Kroc Center in San Diego includes aquatics, indoor skate park, fitness area, ice arena and other family recreational activities. Grand Rapids is one of 10 Midwestern cities chosen for a new center. They are looking for community members of diverse backgrounds to help with the planning of the new center.

I wonder if there is a large enough site DT for this? This seems be a good fit for one of the city owned parking lots south of the arena or in the area north of Wealthy and east of Division. Even the personal fifedom of his royal slumloard highness, Azzar, just west of the bus station on Grandville might also be a good place.

[GRDadof3]

I wonder if there is a large enough site DT for this? This seems be a good fit for one of the city owned parking lots south of the arena or in the area north of Wealthy and east of Division. Even the personal fifedom of his royal slumloard highness, Azzar, just west of the bus station on Grandville might also be a good place.

I thought about that site when I read the article, but that Sheister wants 2.5 Mil for that lot, and it's only 2.25 acres. 10 - 12 acres is going to be tough.

The only thing I found listed that is even close is the old auto parts property near the Ann Street exit and 131, on Turner. Good visibility.

[GRDadof3]

Salvation Army selects GR site for Kroc Center

Sounds like it's a done deal, (edit: if the City Commission approves the land sale.)

Here's the property returned as 2500 Horton:

[snoogit]

This is probably better then in Wyoming. Although I imagine they wanted to have the park too.

[francishsu]

Glad they found a suitable location for it. It seemed from previous media reports that the Salvation Army had some concerns with the Horton site, but I guess they were just waiting to see if they could get something better.

[numstead]

Sweet. I think that location will work great. Now someone just needs to go in and develop the rest of the gravel pit to the east and make a nice connection between the Kroc Center and Brookside Elementary (I'm a Brookside alum btw)

[MAU]

What is that big round white thing with all the empty land around it? I noticed that thing for the first time last week.

[Rizzo]

Water tank

[numstead]

UFO

[GRGyp]

UFO

World's largest Mongolian BBQ grill.

[Josh]

Where exactly would the driveway come from S. Divistion? They have to acquire more property to put an access in. I'm glad they found this site so it is actually in GR, and it has the Rapid route running near it.

[evac311]

Me and my friends used to play down in that gravel pit like every day. We'd ride our bikes, shoot fireworks and just basically do all the things we couldn't let people see us doing. If we ever wanted to test somethings durability, there were plenty of places to drop/launch from. There used to be a big grain silo down there untill about 3 years ago, as well as a little house that started on fire around the same time. Early on, before it burned, my friends and I wanted to go inside it, but the doors and windows were sealed with cement. We ended up climbing onto the roof where we found a trap door that we used to drop down into it. This was freaky, because we didn't know what or who was inside. We found some wierd stuff in there, including a little tarp shanty that looked like it had been lived in at one time. The name of the company that used to be there was Jensen Block Company. By the time we discovered the place, Jensen was long gone, but it was still being used to store giant pvc pipes which worked great for launching bottle rockets. There was also a time when we came across somebody's personal belongings that had been buried. It was a little freaky.

I can't believe they found something to do with that land. For anyone who knows this property, it seems to me that it won't be very visable. The land sits like 50 feet below Alger and behind that resivour and all the businesses on Division.

[tringr]

Quote from Mlive article " There also is a lack of recreation facilities in the area, they said.

well... not according to evac. The place seemed to provide tons of fun.

[buzzkill]

This is probably better then in Wyoming. Although I imagine they wanted to have the park too.

Uh...this decision defies logic. The land in Wyoming was vastly superior, the GR site is litterally a hole in the ground and will require extensive work just to get it suitable to build. The demographics between the two sites are virtually the same, the wyoming site is connected to a park and wouldn't have its driveway coming out onto the area with the highest prostitute activity in Kent County.

A huge waste of money and opportunity. Terrible, terrible choice.

[Rizzo]

Do you have numbers about the highest prostitute activity in Kent County?

[twoshort]

Do you have numbers about the highest prostitute activity in Kent County?

I too would like to see this.

[TheCityGuy]

A huge waste of money and opportunity. Terrible, terrible choice.

All things being considered, I applaud them for wanting to keep the site in the central city and not in a suburb.

[the03avenger]

Maybe by the center being built in this area the police will clean the area up more i mean since there will be kids and familys at this center it can only do good for the area. Not that wyoming doesnt have disavantaged kids Gr has a few more and both will benefit from the center so i see it as a win win.

[DwntwnGeo]

I do agree that an adjacent park would be nice, but in the end I think this would be a good spot. The city has done some and are continuing more approvments along Division between Burton and 28th Street. Also if the LTR or mass transit gets the go ahead, one of the frist lines will run along Division between downtown and Cutlerville. This would expose the center to a large area of people that might not have driven there.

As far as the prositution population, I did hear a report on the new that Burton/Division area was a higher area. This was a couple of years ago and before the city started any improvements. I have not facts to support this, I just seem to remember hearing something about it on the local news.

[Veloise]

Where exactly would the driveway come from S. Divistion? They have to acquire more property to put an access in. I'm glad they found this site so it is actually in GR, and it has the Rapid route running near it.

Southview SE connects Division and the site.

Wonder how soon lot -007 will be on the market? Assembling a few more properties would make a nice wide entrance.

Not much point in typing my opinion on the convenient access to the forthcoming Plaster Creek Trail extension (see avatar).

[Rizzo]

Well, I can say this is money well spent, buzzkill. It will shoe the whores and Johns away because they won't like the increase in activity.

[GRDadof3]

More than 11,000 kids within 1 mile radius of proposed community center

..Nauta said Thursday his eyes were opened to the property's potential after Brian Prevost, a Garfield Park neighborhood resident and real estate agent, convinced him they could transform the site by acquiring the Division Avenue businesses that backed up to the city land...

So one person with vision can make a difference

[buzzkill]

Well, I can say this is money well spent, buzzkill. It will shoe the whores and Johns away because they won't like the increase in activity.

Yes they are so descretely tucked away now, a block from the 2nd busiest street in Michigan.

There is no reason to think they'll be shooed away by this driveway.

That's not really the major point anyway. To me it's how inferier this site is in virtually all aspects compared to Lamar park.

All things being considered, I applaud them for wanting to keep the site in the central city and not in a suburb.

They give up an awful lot to place it literally accross the street from the city of Wyoming on the far southwest corner of Grand Rapids.

[TheCityGuy]

Yes they are so descretely tucked away now, a block from the 2nd busiest street in Michigan.

There is no reason to think they'll be shooed away by this driveway

So the answer then is to never do anything there because of the johns/prostitutes? Talk about giving up.

To me, the only way in which the Lamar Park site was better was that it was free. What this proves is that sometimes money isn't the only factor. Kudos to them for wanting to fit into the urban fabric that currently exists.