Traverse City

[egrguy]

went by there yesterday .. its pretty much a 2-3 story concrete brick wall with holes for windows

That sounds appetizing... kind of sounds like a mini-Icon on Bond. Does it have potential to look good? Or is it going to be fortress looking?

[Ka3kab]

No, there is a board out in front of the building of what it will look like. Pretty standard stuff, Red brick walls and holes for windows. I'll get a shot of that as well.

[dtown]

Does it look cheap? or kind of like Radio Centre?

[Ka3kab]

Cheap, for sure.

[dtown]

How cheap? Like fake brcks?

Does it at least look better than the garage that was there before?

[Ka3kab]

Well a hot dog stand would look better there than that nasty garage. I went downtown today, and holy crap, I actually took some pictures. The sign with what the building should look like was gone, but here is what it looks like so far. Also Dtown, I'm not sure if there going to be the cheap fake bricks or not.

Also took some shots of where Federated wants to put in its new eight story building and parking deck. Sorry there are so few pictures, but my camera was full and I didn't bring an extra card. Go figure, I get off my arsse and I don't even bother to see how many shots I have left. Oh well.

[egrguy]

Thanks for the photos!

So those last two photos are where they want to put the 8 story building? Why is there opposition to that? It looks like nothing is really there at all?

[dtown]

^There really isnt anything there. LOL.

Thanks for the pics. They removed the damn sign! Why would they do that? Now i have to guess what it will look like.

[Ka3kab]

I know, I looked all around the building for it, but with no luck. As for the other post, I'm not sure why there is opposition to it. It will have much needed parking for that side of downtown, it will have four floors of retail and commercial space and it will have four floors of residential space actually moderatley priced ($250,000 for a two bed-room unit). Some people think that it does not fit in with the character of downtown, to which I say bulls&#t. There is a ten story building right next door and another ten story building on the other side of downtown (which is only four blocks long). So, I guess I'm not real clear about why some people don't want it. To me it just seems like they like to beotch about anything and everything in this town.

[egrguy]

I know, I looked all around the building for it, but with no luck. As for the other post, I'm not sure why there is opposition to it. It will have much needed parking for that side of downtown, it will have four floors of retail and commercial space and it will have four floors of residential space actually moderatley priced ($250,000 for a two bed-room unit). Some people think that it does not fit in with the character of downtown, to which I say bulls&#t. There is a ten story building right next door and another ten story building on the other side of downtown (which is only four blocks long). So, I guess I'm not real clear about why some people don't want it. To me it just seems like they like to beotch about anything and everything in this town.

Based on what you said there, it sounds like a great development. Retail and as you said, decently priced units for two-bedroom. You would think people would be all over this?

[dtown]

Like he said, they oppose any development. Claiming that they will disrupt the small town charachter- but a big box store wont. Its BS, really.

[Ka3kab]

Bizarre I know. Maybe this will help. It's lengthy and somewhat confussing (for me anyway because this is not my area of knowledge at all) but it is a market analysis report done for Traverse City, but also includes the rest of Grand Traverse County as well as the 5-County region. It is pretty simple to me that this area loves to build out, but then complain about it when it happens. The most amazing thing that stands out to me is the total area (in sq. feet) of retail/office space in Grand Traverse County and the vacancy rates.

Downtown Traverse City: 458,745 sq.ft with a vacancy rate of 2.4%

Rest of Traverse City : 1,295,095 sq. ft with a vacancy rate of 8.3%

Grand Traverse County : 3,652,696 sq. ft with a vacancy rate of 4.4%

To me it is simple math, too little square feet downtown and to much out in the county (maybe, 4.4% has to be pretty damn good). But a vacancy rate of 2.4% downtown. I can only guess, but I'm thinking most cities would sell their souls to have that kind of rate.

Anyway, if you all want take a look at it and see what you think.

Downtown Traverse City Market Analysis Report

[Ka3kab]

Almost forgot. I went to the hospital today for a little pre-employment checkup and managed to squeeze of a couple (literaly) shots of what is going on over there.

I really have no idea what that top one is but it is connected by a skywalk to the main hospital, so I can only assume that is part of the hospital. The second one is actually going to be all vacant exept for the bottom floor, which is where the new ER is already open, the remaining floors will be occupied when they need the space (wish I had money to build space that I may need, but don't at the moment.)

[dtown]

oThanks for those hospitol pics. Ive never been over that way, but i did see the crane a while ago, so i was curious about it.

[dtown]

TCLP Talks about a wind farm

[Ka3kab]

TCLP Talks about a wind farm

This, in theory, is a great idea. To be honest, I am not an environmentalist of any sort (for god sake, I don't even recycle ) but to me this is a no brainer. Put a farm on top of these hills around town and it may as well be free energy. I have to wonder if it will happen though. By now most people know how I feel about the majority of my fellow Traverse Cityens. By that I mean they don't like new things. But for this project, it makes me wonder because there is such a huge group of environmentalists around here. I can only imagine that any opposition to this will come from, and this will be quite ironic, from developers. These farms are huge and will take up a whole lot of acerage. It will be interensting to see how this pans out.

[dtown]

I bet that some will say that they look bad. I think they look cool, though. Plus, how could you turn down free energy? TC is indeed a pretty windy place, you know?

[Ka3kab]

Check out this picture from the Record-Eagle website.

It is of a Northwest Airlines jet that skid off the runway early today (about 12:30 am). This is the second time in four years that a NWA jet has skid off this runway. Todays was because of an apparent brake problem. Pretty scary stuff, I imagine, for those on board.

[dtown]

Holy crap. Did it skid into one of those collapsable areas that they have at some airports? (Not sure what there called)

[Ka3kab]

Its not a collapsable area and it eventually ended up on the field. There is a 200 ft. blast area off of the main runway that is paved but this plane stopped 55 ft. off of that. The word now is that the front landing gear came clean off and the brakes were not working. So, that must have been pretty damn freaky.

[dtown]

Wow. Just curious, you seem to know a lot about airlines (from this and also from other posts), do you work at the airport or something?

[Ka3kab]

I used to, for five years I worked at Cherry Capital airport. Even though I did not work for any airline, you can still pick up a lot of stuff from just being there and working with the airline employees. I worked for the TSA, you know, the jackasses that rumage through your luggage and make you take your shoes and coat off. God, I hated that place.

[egrguy]

Check out this picture from the Record-Eagle website.

It is of a Northwest Airlines jet that skid off the runway early today (about 12:30 am). This is the second time in four years that a NWA jet has skid off this runway. Todays was because of an apparent brake problem. Pretty scary stuff, I imagine, for those on board.

Wow, that is my worst nightmare! I hate to fly and I always imagine that will happen to me when Im flying. By the looks of it the plane looks in decent shape, Im assuming no one as injured?

[Ka3kab]

No, nobody was. There were three crew and 46 passengers. On the news, some of the passengers said they felt like the plane was coming in too fast. It was snowing hard and apparently there was a tailwind, which from what I've heard from some pilots is that it is the worst way to land. Back to your comment about that being you're worst fear, I hear you.

[Ka3kab]

These are terrible pictures and I may not be able to really do this, but here are some pictures that I found in a book and scanned into my computer (hope it's not illegal ) that I thought I would share here. They were taken from around 1880 to the mid 1980's.

This first one is of a factory on West Bay (the open space now) Can you imagine this being in place today. Oh my god.

Lumber Mill from around the turn of the century.

Park Place Hotel as it originally looked in the 1890's.

A more modern Park Place in the 1950's. There are still some things missing from the hotel in this picture from the one you would see today. On the 9th Floor their are balconies on the four setbacks.

Munson Hospital in the 1950's. Obviousley this building is long gone. That is obvious if you have been to the hospital in the past 20 years.

This house today is a funeral home (I posted a shot of it a few pages ago) but this is when it was still a home to Perry Hannah, one of Traverse City's founders.

Hannah, Lay and Co. building from a shot taken in 1886.

A picture of the old and new courthouse taken in the mid 1980's.

One of two fires that destroyed the city in the late 1800's.

Downtown street scene from the 1880's.

Ariel view of downtown from the 1970's.

Street scene downtown in the 1920's.

Building 50 when it was still part of the State Psyciatric Hospital.

Ariel view of downtown in the 1980's.

A picture of what today is 5/3 bank (formerly, in this picture, Traverse City State Bank and then Old Kent Bank.) during construction in the 1920's.