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83 Monroe Center - City Flats Hotel

Prankster

By Prankster
in Grand Rapids

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  • 1 month later...

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Veloise City

Veloise

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The black plywood is gone, and the display windows now feature condo design elements, pricing, and some general DDA-speak. "Drive less, walk more." A list of features includes BotM, and Schuler's (sic) Books, local colleges, other attractions with which we are all familiar. Seems to be slanted towards the Monroe Center pedestrian who might be visiting for a conference or specifal event.

Looks nice in that lobby. All lit up and inviting.

(sorry no pic; I was on an ice cream run)

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  • 11 months later...
Veloise City

Veloise

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Bad news for downtown! What a day.

Chris Knape has declared this project officially dead. The space is back on the market for $725,000.

The Kendell building deal fell through as well.

I'd bet that this has something to do with the appraisal rules changing; both the Freep and GRPress had articles about that on Sunday.

For those not attempting to borrow money, appraisals are now done by interns in Gary Ind., or Southfield, rather than locals who understand the market. In my case, the computer appraisal took into account the fact that house two doors down from me sold for $10k. (And they've put that much into it already. The place looks great.) No one visited Chez Veloise to see the extensive improvements I have made.

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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I'd bet that this has something to do with the appraisal rules changing; both the Freep and GRPress had articles about that on Sunday.

For those not attempting to borrow money, appraisals are now done by interns in Gary Ind., or Southfield, rather than locals who understand the market. In my case, the compurer appraisal took into account the fact the a house two doors down from me sold for $10k. (And they've put that much into it already. The place looks great.) No one visited Chez Veloise to see the extensive improvements I have made.

We just had a refinance appraisal done and the guy was local.

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x99 Burg

x99

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Price paid in 2003: $475,000.00

Current asking price per article/CARWM: $725,000.00

My question: What has been done to this building in the last six years to increase its value by approximately 7.5% per annum where commercial rents are down dramatically over that same period? Food for thought.

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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Price paid in 2003: $475,000.00

Current asking price per article/CARWM: $725,000.00

My question: What has been done to this building in the last six years to increase its value by approximately 7.5% per annum where commercial rents are down dramatically over that same period? Food for thought.

I too was wondering where that overinflated $725,000 price came from. No wonder this and the Kendall are still vacant.

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x99 Burg

x99

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I too was wondering where that overinflated $725,000 price came from. No wonder this and the Kendall are still vacant.

It wouldn't be that bad, if the building were in serviceable shape. From the sound of things, it is not. Overall square footage is listed as 22000 IIRC. It looks like, with a bit of wrangling, they can eek out a little less 3000 usable square feet per floor over the top 4 floors. The whole premise of this project was that they could manage to find enough suckers to buy apartment-grade condos for 2x their rental value. Given that condos failed, apartments are the only real option. FMV rental cost per unit can be reasonably estimated at $800 unit, if that. Brickway rents out for $900/unit for much larger units. Best case, the building is worth $1.5 million, give or take, in finished condition as 16 apartments plus a 3500 square foot ground floor at $10/sqft. Good luck with a $700k acquisition cost.

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  • 9 months later...
OneSweetWorld Whistle-Stop

OneSweetWorld

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This is awesome. On my rare visits to GR, I've spent all my time taking in Wealthy, Division, and Ionia streets that I've completely forgotten about Monroe Center. That street has sooo much potential, it's about time a nice (check that--AWESOME) boutique hotel moves in there! Hopefully some more small businesses will follow!

Now if only the Police Department would move out of there, and that building by the fountain/children's museum would get renovated, along with the sidewalk in front of it, Monroe Center could finally TRULY be connected to Heartside!!

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andrew.w Hamlet

andrew.w

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Probably put a deal together with the parking ramp immediately behind it. They could probably connect them together somehow because only a few feet seperate them.

Fox Lofts had planned to connect the building to the parking ramp; its definitely possible. Of course, 28 rooms would need more parking than 12-16 apartments.

I'd be interested to see how the hotel rooms get laid out. Twelve rooms could probably face Monroe Center (unless they can squeeze four across each floor and split two of the windows). Each of the light wells could have 3 rooms facing in on them per floor. That makes 36 rooms, so it's definitely possible to get each room a window...but like the apartment layouts that came before, some units won't have any view (or rather will have a view of another room).

(Is it time to ponder the fate of the "FOX'S" sign again?)

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  • 2 weeks later...
RenZone Whistle-Stop

RenZone

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Cost prohibitive?? It just looks like it needs a little spit-n-polish. :huh: Maybe it's not structurally sound.

I'm all for saving cool exterior signs, but I don't see how keeping the sign where it is would make sense. It's going to be called the City Flat's Hotel, so they'll want to have that sign front and center. Can't really envision their sign and the big red Fox sign working well together. Maybe if they took out the "s" and just called it the Fox Building? To me, though, "Fox's" implies the name of the establishment, like "Pistachios". Perhaps they could name the restaurant "Fox's" and then it would make sense to light it up. Or, perhaps they can relocate it inside in the lobby as part of a historical wall?

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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I'm all for saving cool exterior signs, but I don't see how keeping the sign where it is would make sense. It's going to be called the City Flat's Hotel, so they'll want to have that sign front and center. Can't really envision their sign and the big red Fox sign working well together. Maybe if they took out the "s" and just called it the Fox Building? To me, though, "Fox's" implies the name of the establishment, like "Pistachios". Perhaps they could name the restaurant "Fox's" and then it would make sense to light it up. Or, perhaps they can relocate it inside in the lobby as part of a historical wall?

Are you sure it's going to be called City Flats? I don't think they've chosen a name yet, officially.

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  • 5 months later...

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