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Area 4/Area 5 Development


joeDowntown

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I'm sure you are right, Meijer wouldn't take risks blindly. I think you answered the question of why there isn't one downtown -- there isn't a market to justify. If a downtown Meijer's would cost double a suburban store for a smaller market and extended time in turn over I don't know if that would be a sound business decision. Having a Meijer downtown would be a new frontier. I don't know what the concept would do for our downtown. Would it drive business out by attacking various industry? If there's plenty of workers and living bodies downtown to drive a mega store, then there should also be plenty of business for other various retail outfits lesser in size.

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There aren't enough bodies downtown to drive a mega store. It would have to draw from the West side, Heritage Hill, East Hills, near NE side, etc., which Meijer can do moreso than a small retailer can. And I don't think Meijer would hurt any of the downtown retailers, because they're all so specialized (and so few). The one downside would be people would drive in to Meijer, shop, and probably leave downtown afterward.
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I'm sure it would draw from the west side and Heritage Hill areas. From the west side the Alpine Meijer is closest, and from the Hill I sometimes went to the 28th and Kalamazoo Meijer, but neither was particularly conveniently located. So yes, I think they would capture that business. I doubt a downtown store would have much draw beyond that and would require a more significant downtown population or daytime workers. But even with increased population downtown Meijer may figure those people will just make the drive up to Alpine.

-nb

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Just read about a new theater/retail/residential complex in downtown Kalamazoo. Theater looks pretty impressive - 14 screens, state of the art audio/video. Google "The Rave - Kalamazoo" for details. Am planning on avoiding the malls this Friday and taking a road trip to K'zoo to check it out. I attended WMU and have always loved returning to Kalamazoo - they always seem to be a couple steps ahead of us here in GR. Will report back after Friday's trip - maybe the original concept for Area 4/5 would be best.

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Just read about a new theater/retail/residential complex in downtown Kalamazoo. Theater looks pretty impressive - 14 screens, state of the art audio/video. Google "The Rave - Kalamazoo" for details. Am planning on avoiding the malls this Friday and taking a road trip to K'zoo to check it out. I attended WMU and have always loved returning to Kalamazoo - they always seem to be a couple steps ahead of us here in GR. Will report back after Friday's trip - maybe the original concept for Area 4/5 would be best.
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Another Theater in Orchard Park?! :shok: Holly Blockbusters Batman! :w00t: The GR Area is already saturated with theaters. Plus movie theaters are not doing well at this time. All these theaters are way too much. The urban Meijer idea is sounding better and better as this thread evolves.

It is actually the same developers (Gershenson) that did the project in Kalamazoo that are looking at Area 4/5. One advantage Kzoo has: only one other full-screen theater in town left, Crossroads Cinemas, out behind Crossroads Mall. Not that big of a risk to put a theater downtown and close to WMU. In contrast, GR has 2 Cinemarks, 2 Celebration Cinemas, Studio 28, Star Theater and a planned theater at Orchard Park. According to the articles I've read, Gershenson is apparently having a hard time finding a theater operator, and RAVE has said they are not interested.

Sometimes there are advantages to being small. I wouldn't mind the downtown theater option. I was just thinking of alternatives before this thing becomes vaportecture.

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It is actually the same developers (Gershenson) that did the project in Kalamazoo that are looking at Area 4/5. One advantage Kzoo has: only one other full-screen theater in town left, Crossroads Cinemas, out behind Crossroads Mall. Not that big of a risk to put a theater downtown and close to WMU. In contrast, GR has 2 Cinemarks, 2 Celebration Cinemas, Studio 28, Star Theater and a planned theater at Orchard Park. According to the articles I've read, Gershenson is apparently having a hard time finding a theater operator, and RAVE has said they are not interested.

Sometimes there are advantages to being small. I wouldn't mind the downtown theater option. I was just thinking of alternatives before this thing becomes vaportecture.

BTW: Another WMU grad here! :yahoo:

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Actually, the developer in Kalamazoo was Meyer C. Weiner, of Portage, not Gershenson, who is based in the Detroit area. Kalamazoo had three first run theaters before Rave: Loeks Celebration Crossroads (formerly UA) in Portage, Goodrich's Kalamazoo 10 on the city's west side and the 5-screen Gull Road Cinema (former Eastown Mall). The connection between the Grand Rapids project and the one in Kalamazoo was a theater consultant, Neal Berkowitz, that both Weiner and Gershenson used. Berkowitz is not a developer, though.
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

OK, I'll start off by apologizing if this is in some other thread...there have just been so many on different topics that I can't keep them all straight. :)

I was thinkin' about this development (Area 4/5), the discussion we had on the Day's Inn purchase and subsequent hotel/water-park ideas, etc., and it got me thinking. What is going to be done on the sw corner of Market and Fulton? A lot of people park there, but it is so ugly and seems to be a good location for something. The land I'm refering to are parcels 41-13-25-401-001, -006, and -011 through -017. It looks like Amway Hotels Corp. owns all those parsels. Do they have plans for that land? Seems to be the best use would be to have a parking ramp next to Charlie's Crab (se corner of property) with a street-level resturant. on the NE corner keep the pedestrian bridges and tie it into a multi-use building. That building would have a street level resturant or store (maybe an Urban Outfitters or the like) and a parking ramp. And then above and behind it would be an 8-10 screen movie theater with IMAX or something else to help make it a little more unique, a bowling alley, rock climbing, video arcade, etc... And a top floor bar/club/resturant. Then that building would tie into a hotel/condo development on the NW corner (ie on the river and Fulton.) The sw corner could have more condos or be left for future development or even a small park/boat launch, etc. This whole thing seems like it would fit in well...hotel, condos, and movie theater close to a growing GVSU campus, tied into the pedestrian walkway for convention go-ers, close to the arena to draw in people after events for food or further recreational activies. People could go to places like the BOB and others for food/fun and then go bowling or see a movie or something..... Thoughts? I know that some claim the market won't support this yet, and perhaps that's true (but I doubt it) but does Amway or someone have a plan like this someday?

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The Amway owners do own the the property on the SW corner of Fulton and Market. To my knowledge they haven't announced any plans for the site. There are rumors that it may be the site of the new PAC (Performing Arts Center) they want to build downtown, but nothing has been announced.

The same owners I believe own the property on the NW corner of Monroe and Michigan/Bridge. Again nothing has been announced for the site, but rumors are they are waiting for the US Post office to possibly move elsewhere.

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well that's the inhibitor of the site. I'm pretty sure that's the original location they wanted to build the JW. When they bought Olds Manor like five years ago, there was all that talk about the relocation of the post office. But it ultimately proved to expensive for them to purchase the post office, it would have cost millions upon millions, as the postal service would have wanted another building to be built. As it stands right now the post office is to close to the old Rowe Hotel, the lot is akward and ugly once you get off the street, it remains impractical for anythign to be truly done about the site. They could turn it into some kind of residential, it's always been residential. However parking would be a huge problem since there's nowhere to accomodate that much onsite parking, residents would potentially have to park blocks away. The last residents to occupy the building didn't need cars, they were retirees. It was an "old folks home".

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well that's the inhibitor of the site. I'm pretty sure that's the original location they wanted to build the JW. When they bought Olds Manor like five years ago, there was all that talk about the relocation of the post office. But it ultimately proved to expensive for them to purchase the post office, it would have cost millions upon millions, as the postal service would have wanted another building to be built. As it stands right now the post office is to close to the old Rowe Hotel, the lot is akward and ugly once you get off the street, it remains impractical for anythign to be truly done about the site. They could turn it into some kind of residential, it's always been residential. However parking would be a huge problem since there's nowhere to accomodate that much onsite parking, residents would potentially have to park blocks away. The last residents to occupy the building didn't need cars, they were retirees. It was an "old folks home".
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  • 2 months later...

Ok, this topic went on to be so off topic and talk about just about everything ever discussed in the GR forum, but I was wondering if I could take the opportunity to bring it BACK on track.

Any updates on what's going on with Area 4/5? Not speculative guesses, or what would be cool, but solid information would be great. We were just talking (friends and I) the other day about the original plan, and wondered what happened with it.

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Ok, this topic went on to be so off topic and talk about just about everything ever discussed in the GR forum, but I was wondering if I could take the opportunity to bring it BACK on track.

Any updates on what's going on with Area 4/5? Not speculative guesses, or what would be cool, but solid information would be great. We were just talking (friends and I) the other day about the original plan, and wondered what happened with it.

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