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Who moves first?

snoogit

By snoogit
in Grand Rapids

Big and large, going downtown.  

86 members have voted

  1. 1. Which company is most likely to move DT?

    • Meijer
      16
    • Alticor
      25
    • Perrigo
      16
    • Gerber
      2
    • Steelcase
      3
    • Haworth
      0
    • Gentex
      1
    • Wolverine WW
      5
    • X-rite
      6
    • Other
      12

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snoogit Town

snoogit

Posted
Posted

I'm personally leaning towards Meijer, Inc. My reasoning?

Its not because Fred feels philanthropic, but its because of location. If the Cabella's in Walker does go through (All indications say yes it is) That is going to put a HUGE burden on Meijer's HQ in terms of traffic, retail development, and road construction. Granted Meijer could just as easily build a sprawling complex on the golf course Fred bought for his zoo, and if Cabella's does happen the economic impact of Meijer leaving the area wouldn't be as bad as it would if there was no Cabella's. It would also open the door to turning the Meijer complex into something much more dynamic, or both buildings could come down in a sea of ugly brown glory. (Truth be told going down 3 mile while passing Walker is like driving between two piles of dung)

Meijer desperately needs to redo that distribution center as well, and taking down the old distribution center, and moving it into the nearby Grooters sterilized white industrial park would also help Meijer modernize a little bit.

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PBJ Burg

PBJ

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I can promise you it won't be Haworth. Buldozers will be here at Global Corp Headquarters June 1st tearing up our building and rebuilding it's whole office area over the next 36 months. They are dumping mega millions into the whole project, and I can't see them up and leaving the community they've been a part of for over 50 years.

BTW it will be sweet when it's done.

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snoogit Town

snoogit

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I can promise you it won't be Haworth. Buldozers will be here at Global Corp Headquarters June 1st tearing up our building and rebuilding it's whole office area over the next 36 months. They are dumping mega millions into the whole project, and I can't see them up and leaving the community they've been a part of for over 50 years.

BTW it will be sweet when it's done.

I just put names out there, I didnt know haworth was dumping money into bigger and better digs.

edit: I know a lot of you are going to say Alticor, but think of this, Alticor is right on top of its manufacturing center, comapanies arent leaving their factories if they dont have to. Since Meijer is in the retail business, its not a big stretch to see Meijer move first :P

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Greedo Whistle-Stop

Greedo

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It won't be Alticor. They have GOBS of land, tax incentives and free parking for 4K people three minutes from DT. Not to mention that sweet employee store across the street. Not going to happen.

WWW is a Rockford institution, going back more than 100 years. They have more land than they know what to do with and tax incentives. Plus they just expanded their corporate HQ on Courtland ten years ago.

Same with Gerber, except Gerber is owned by Novartis, a Swiss pharmaceutical company. So maybe they would prefer to be in an urban area.

Meijer is a possibility, but I don't see the company making a major investment in a new corporate HQ with the retail industry as competitive as it is.

I say Perrigo. With the recent growth of that company they will need a stronger foothold in an urban area committed to healthcare to attract talent. And there's no way Pfizer is going to let them into Kalamazoo or Holland.

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PBJ Burg

PBJ

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I would love to see Foremost have a tower downtown. I don't know if they will leave their posh digs out in Apspen lakes or whatever they name of that office park is? Has anyone ever been there? It is a very nice office.

I've done consulting work there, it is VERY nice in a VERY nice setting. Where else do you see deer blocking your way to the parking lot so they can eat grass. Not downtown :rofl:

They also recently built a new call center there so they've got recent money invested

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snoogit Town

snoogit

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I hadn't though of Perrigo. You might be onto something there, especially with the push to bring the medical research into the market. Can I change mine to Perrigo?

I just took this list from the one I think rizzo made about how much Sq ft per company offices

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egrguy Burg

egrguy

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foremost continues to grow and add employees but i don't know if a dt location makes sense for them with their nice location and distance to the airport.

i also voted perrigo, it makes sense for their hq's would be downtown much closer to medical research activity. allegan county doesn't make longterm sense.

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superNOVA Whistle-Stop

superNOVA

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Steelcase for sure.

Almost all of their major manufacturing will be outsourced either locally or out of State by the end of the decade. This will leave what, an office building on land surrounded by ex-factories. Not a very condusive environment for a corporate HQ.

They would have the least to lose and the most to gain. The creative aspects of the company could clearly excel and being close to office buildings could give them a unique test environment. Without the direct tie to production, they have no reason to maintain their 44th St site.

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