Vineyard Place

[GRDadof3]

Anyone in the Wyoming/Grandville area know anything about this project?:

Vineyard Place

It's another townhome/multi-family project in the Rivertown Crossings area, but what's interesting is the consulting company that is marketing it, Garrison Partners, which is a national real estate firm with a lot of experience in more urban projects:

http://www.garrisonpartners.com/projects_results.php

(click on Construction Type and choose adaptive re-use or new construction)

Especially in Chicago.

They're handling the sales for One Water Place in St. Clair Shores:

http://www.garrisonpartners.com/images/pro...large_image.jpg

edit: didn't want people thinking they're building a high-rise in Grandville

[wyoming_mi]

I know that people who live in that part of Wyoming were irate. (it is located in the panhandle of Wyoming which extends all the way to Kenowa and the county line between about the 5000 block and 60th street) The main problem people were having was the smaller urban lots bringing in more homes and more people. The reasoning was that Ivanrest, 52nd Street, and part of Wilson are all still two-lane roads built for the pre-1990's traffic load- not the busy residential area it has blown up in to. Many complained that traffic can be bad enough as it is, even before the development is added. Originally, the development proposed quite a bit of apartments in a section, and you can imagine the attitude many of the 200-300,000 dollar home owners about having any kind of apartments in their great area.

What is interesting is how close this project is going to sit to Rivertown Crossings. If any of you guys are familiar with the back entrance to Best Buy and Home Depot from where Younkers is, they're building right by that property line. There is no kind of blockage in the form of trees or a berm at this point- it's just an open prairie looking right at the mall.

I haven't paid much attention recently, so the houses may be out all together. The project, though, went under a ton of scrutiny in the past year to year and a half.

[GRDadof3]

Thanks wyoming_mi. You know, I saw that development going up when we were out there last week, and I didn't put two and two together. The entrance must be off of 52nd? Yikes!

At least with a presence in GR, maybe Garrison is scoping out other opportunities.

[Mark Miller]

Vineyard Place is a project that has been in design and planning for a very long time. Years.

It was originally proposed as a traditional type neighborhood, beginning to approach New Urbanism. It had a mix of residential, including townhouses, single family homes, and apartments. There was also some retail and office, along with some decent civic spaces in the forms of parks. These parks were defined by the buildings and not simply left over open space.

During the planning stages, it went through various iterations, due to a variety of real world issues, including politics, wetland issues, NIMBYs, BANANAs, and market dynamics. There were probably 16 or 17 different iterations of the plan. The developer even created a computer animation of the project showing what it would look like as it was driven through.

In its current status it has apartments, "townhouses" (these may have been removed), detached condos and single family lots. It is distinctly suburban. Most of these elements are podded off, most of the "open space" is ill defined and the architecture will be more suburban than urban. The lots are an astounding 60 foot wide, which is bigger than what was originally proposed. It has been an unfortunate transition, but one that represents our current state of affairs within the suburban context.

The project is within walking distance of the mall, but has no pedestrian connection. One of the requirements was that the sidewalk stops at the property edge, so any potential customer of the mall is really forced to drive to the mall. Suburban irony.

[evac311]

Vineyard Place is a project that has been in design and planning for a very long time. Years.

It was originally proposed as a traditional type neighborhood, beginning to approach New Urbanism. It had a mix of residential, including townhouses, single family homes, and apartments. There was also some retail and office, along with some decent civic spaces in the forms of parks. These parks were defined by the buildings and not simply left over open space.

During the planning stages, it went through various iterations, due to a variety of real world issues, including politics, wetland issues, NIMBYs, BANANAs, and market dynamics. There were probably 16 or 17 different iterations of the plan. The developer even created a computer animation of the project showing what it would look like as it was driven through.

In its current status it has apartments, "townhouses" (these may have been removed), detached condos and single family lots. It is distinctly suburban. Most of these elements are podded off, most of the "open space" is ill defined and the architecture will be more suburban than urban. The lots are an astounding 60 foot wide, which is bigger than what was originally proposed. It has been an unfortunate transition, but one that represents our current state of affairs within the suburban context.

The project is within walking distance of the mall, but has no pedestrian connection. One of the requirements was that the sidewalk stops at the property edge, so any potential customer of the mall is really forced to drive to the mall. Suburban irony.

What does "BANANA" stand for?

[Mark Miller]

It is akin to NIMBY...

BANANA

Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone

[GR_Urbanist]

Many complained that traffic can be bad enough as it is, even before the development is added. Originally, the development proposed quite a bit of apartments in a section, and you can imagine the attitude many of the 200-300,000 dollar home owners about having any kind of apartments in their great area.

Yeah, because we all know how apartments are filled with low-life scum that will bring drugs and all other assorted sin into their holy utopia. Those rotton apartment people need to be kept out!

[PBJ]

Yeah, because we all know how apartments are filled with low-life scum that will bring drugs and all other assorted sin into their holy utopia. Those rotton apartment people need to be kept out!

Worthless renters

Errmmm.. wait.. n/m that includes me..