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New Construction and Renovations in the Heartside District


MJLO

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I am not sure that the first floor is retail. The zoning for this portion of the city does not require first floor retail on these ramps. I seem to remember that when this was before HPC, that the designers and developers were having trouble making retail fit in this particular ramp, with grade and car manuevering.

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Can I make a motion to amend the zoning ordinace for parking ramps that requires at least, transparent ground floor retail space.

I mean talk about an immediate client base....

I would also like to encourage mixed-use ramps for any future parking ramp developments, and that this becomes a condition for approval from all City departments and Commissions.

I'm tired of surface parking lots and one-use ramps.

"And the building was razed for a parking ramp...."

-My least favorite quote in any history of GR book.

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I will second that motion and add that ramps should be built with flat decks in lieu of sloped decks, so if the day ever comes that there is no longer a need to store cars, the ramps can be adapted to some other use, which is not possible if the decks are sloped.

On paper it sounds like a great idea, though I agree with Kayak1 that unless there is a little slope we would have problems with water/rain runoff. One fix would be to put drains in all the floors, but I dont think developers would like the added costs. On a side note, I don't always like having to drive to so many places, but I think that this structure may be torn down before the majority of people won't have a use for parking structures. :dontknow:

Edited by DwntwnGeo
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On paper it sounds like a great idea, though I agree with Kayak1 that unless there is a little slope we would have problems with water/rain runoff. On a side note, I don't always like having to drive to so many places, but I think that this structure may be torn down before the majority of people won't have a use for parking structures. :dontknow:

It's certainly do-able. You just place the ramps between floors at the ends of the building, instead of sloping the whole d**n thing like the Amway Grand ramp. You add a little bit of a low spot in the center for rain runoff (which shouldn't be that great since each floor is covered and 75% closed in) and the rest of the water will evaporate off. Then you can easily convert the building to other uses since it's primarily flat floors.

Although like you said, if a parking ramp lifespan is 30 - 40 years, I can guarantee cars will still be here then, even if they are running on pig-crap or something else non-petroleum based.

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Has a parking garage ever been converted to other uses. I have never heard of that. It does sound good on paper, but has it ever been done? Usually, parking garage are built with less of a shelf-life than say and office building or residential building, and are almost always torn down at the end of their lives. In that regard, I don't think it makes much of a difference if the floors are sloped or not.

Edited by Lmichigan
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It's certainly do-able. You just place the ramps between floors at the ends of the building, instead of sloping the whole d**n thing like the Amway Grand ramp. You add a little bit of a low spot in the center for rain runoff (which shouldn't be that great since each floor is covered and 75% closed in) and the rest of the water will evaporate off. Then you can easily convert the building to other uses since it's primarily flat floors.

Although like you said, if a parking ramp lifespan is 30 - 40 years, I can guarantee cars will still be here then, even if they are running on pig-crap or something else non-petroleum based.

I like how you censor damn, but completely are oblivious to "pig-sh!t" :lol:

weird it shows up in your post... ah well

It looks like a nice ramp.

Edited by snoogit
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I think an increase in the number of people living downtown will help out the retail, and while there are a bunch of those either in the works or under construction right now, there aren't enough people living here. I would venture to say when some of these condos are finished we might see an increased demand, and therefore more retail spaces fill up.

I also agree that the parking ramp is not too bad, and that retail would be awesome there. They should do what GGG said.

Edited by torgo
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I have no regrets saying pig-crap. The way it smells when I drive by that pig factory on I-96 near Ionia, it deserves a word worse than that. "Crap" just does not suffice. :P

Actually if you are talking about the "factories" on the South side of I-96 at the Ionia (M-66) exit I think they are really Chicken (or possibly Turkey) farms. But either way they (Chickens, Turkeys & Pigs) all smell. When my Father went to build some pig barns on our farm in Northern Michigan it opened a large can of worms for some people in the county.

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I have no regrets saying pig-crap. The way it smells when I drive by that pig factory on I-96 near Ionia, it deserves a word worse than that. "Crap" just does not suffice. :P

Thats a chicken factory, not a pig factory (I used to work for a company that helped design those big buildings, one day I had to VISIT them :sick:) Straight chicken, nothing else is produced there. infact its only for egg laying hens. I would say 90% of the area's eggs come from that farm.

Edited by snoogit
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Thats a chicken factory, not a pig factory (I used to work for a company that helped design those big buildings, one day I had to VISIT them :sick:) Straight chicken, nothing else is produced there. infact its only for egg laying hens. I would say 90% of the area's eggs come from that farm.

So it's chicken-crap. :sick: OK, I'll stop with the s**t if you guys are getting offended.

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