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Parking problem downtown - too much of it? Not enough?


GRDadof3

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1 hour ago, MJLO said:

My impression has been that CWD has their hands full with their current portfolio.  Doesn't appear as if they are in growth mode at the moment, mostly focusing on bringing the buildings they own to current standards and filling them up?

I would tend to agree with that.  I guess we will see what happens.  

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  • 3 weeks later...

Someone asked about parking availability with the Studio Park ramp open. This map shows what's available. Green lots/ramps have available MONTHLY permits, the purple/pinkish color lots are full and do not have any MONTHLY PERMITS available. There are still spots open in those lots/ramps for visitors but not really available for people who work downtown every day. 

Studio Park has 300 permits available at $150/month (pretty steep). West Side has 84 spots and the new lot by the Downtown Market has 82 spots.  There's also the Mason lot way up in Monroe North that has 27 spots. The inventory seems to have stayed the same since the last time I looked at this, other than Studio Park being open now. Not a lot of shifting around it seems.

541874875_GRParkingavailability.thumb.jpg.571944f72b140d5b6a04ac94f1c59fb1.jpg

 

https://grandrapids.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=40fdfbad356e4aed844099351c75bb00

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  • 1 month later...
2 hours ago, ironyisadeadscene said:

I had just heard that the Campau Ramp was found to be structurally unsound and will be coming down, replaced by a mixed use building with a parking base (like the new office attached to the Hyatt)

 

Has anyone heard anything more concrete outside of this?

It would be a good opportunity to go big!

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45 minutes ago, ironyisadeadscene said:

I believe the plan isnt some rinky dink building.  But again, just what I heard. Of anyone else has info, spill it!

That would be amazing if true. That’s a perfect spot for development, and one that has never been on my “radar” for redevelopment.

Hopefully if they do redevelop, they activate the street level on all three sides. 

Joe

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6 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

That would be amazing if true. That’s a perfect spot for development, and one that has never been on my “radar” for redevelopment.

Hopefully if they do redevelop, they activate the street level on all three sides. 

Joe

Heard street level retail along Monroe.

I asked someone who worked for the city, and they said they have no knowledge of anything before they left, just that the city was aware of the garage was obsolete and at the end of its life cycle. But that was it.

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14 hours ago, ironyisadeadscene said:

Heard street level retail along Monroe.

I asked someone who worked for the city, and they said they have no knowledge of anything before they left, just that the city was aware of the garage was obsolete and at the end of its life cycle. But that was it.

I too heard it was at the end of its life cycle. That was a few years ago too. 

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1 hour ago, ironyisadeadscene said:

It's too good a spot to sit on. I'd put it up for sale and let developers bid and propose.

I wouldn't get too excited to see anything super tall there. That ramp serves 99 Monroe , the PNC bank building (171 Monroe) and 161 Monroe, so all of that parking would need to be replaced. Then add on the parking you'd need for the building above. Unless the city starts moving on adding ramps further out. 

I think I heard the Amway ramp was also getting toward the end of its life. Is that thing 40 years old now? Did it get built when the tower was built in the 80's? 

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16 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

I wouldn't get too excited to see anything super tall there. That ramp serves 99 Monroe , the PNC bank building (171 Monroe) and 161 Monroe, so all of that parking would need to be replaced. Then add on the parking you'd need for the building above. Unless the city starts moving on adding ramps further out. 

I think I heard the Amway ramp was also getting toward the end of its life. Is that thing 40 years old now? Did it get built when the tower was built in the 80's? 

I believe so. It's small, ugly, and I believed being repaired now. But that seems like a band aid at this point. Wouldnt be shocked to see that replaced in the not to distant future. 

 

And for Campau, I wouldnt expect anything super tall, but maybe 20 stories? If anything moves on this at all.

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On 12/16/2019 at 10:24 AM, ironyisadeadscene said:

I believe so. It's small, ugly, and I believed being repaired now. But that seems like a band aid at this point. Wouldnt be shocked to see that replaced in the not to distant future. 

 

And for Campau, I wouldnt expect anything super tall, but maybe 20 stories? If anything moves on this at all.

In a city of almost all 12 story and less buildings, 20 sounds super tall to me.

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43 minutes ago, tSlater said:

In a city of almost all 12 story and less buildings, 20 sounds super tall to me.

Well, that's fair. I just want some variation.

Also, I heard this thing is coming down within a year. Perhaps a certain lurker/poster who was with me when we heard this today can at least verify I'm not making this up? 

 

But in seriousness, just what I've heard. It's all second hand knowledge, so please. Huge grain of

 Salt

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Yeah I would take 20 stories there.  I guess I'm a little surprised the useful life of a parking structure is only around 40 years.  It's all reinforced concrete and I would think they should be good for longer.  I guess the average car has changed quite a bit and a lot of the older ramps have a much lower clearance with smaller spaces.  There's probably a point where it becomes a pretty big liability.

It would make sense to go big there and design something that will fill the needs for the next few decades, not just now.  Hell, you could even make it large enough to sell off some of the other parking  monstrosities for development.  I can dream I guess, lol.  A tall double-helix might work there.  Similar to Greektown in Detroit.  pretty quick in and out with space availability indicated as you go up each floor.

I know a couple people over in that department, if I happen to run into them I'll try to get a little more info....

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  • 1 year later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Not sure if there's a better place for this story, but thought it worth noting...  

https://www.grandrapidsmi.gov/Our-City/News-Media/Parking-enforcement-duties-transfer-from-police-dept.-to-Mobile-GR
Hopefully this results in more tickets being issued. Parking enforcement is so hit or miss in this city. This is especially a problem in the winter. Our street constantly had cars parked on the wrong side, making it difficult for the plows.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

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  • 9 months later...
16 hours ago, Cookin_peacocks said:

https://www.woodtv.com/news/grand-rapids/talk-of-downtown-gr-library-parking-structure-ramp-up-again/

 

Ramp in the library lot is getting some press. I'd like to see this be more than just a ramp. Maybe create some life on that street for college kids with some retail.

I always loved this concept.AF7417DA-B342-4841-9EE6-90F247061DBC.thumb.jpeg.9542613edcdc780367ebe86da09857ee.jpeg

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1 hour ago, WMrapids said:

I always loved this concept.AF7417DA-B342-4841-9EE6-90F247061DBC.thumb.jpeg.9542613edcdc780367ebe86da09857ee.jpeg

I just want more street level interaction. Maybe that vision is not realistic for GR because I got it from living in the college area of Kalamazoo as well as visiting East Lansing and Ann Arbor, and those are college towns. But the street level action is amazing and I want something like that for GR.

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On 2/28/2007 at 7:17 PM, dodgeboy11 said:

Grand Rapids does have a parking problem. I had customers in from out of state and they went downtown one night to eat. They said the next morning: "Yeah, it looked like a nice downtown. We couldn't find any place to park,

Sorry, that's total BS.  The correct response to anyone's "I couldn't find parking in downtown Grand Rapids" is "What are you talking about?".  That is it; completely.

There is a parking ramp every three blocks, a frequent free transit service, and vast surface lots.
https://downtowngr.org/get/dash

Edited by whitemice
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3 hours ago, whitemice said:

Sorry, that's total BS.  The correct response to anyone's "I couldn't find parking in downtown Grand Rapids" is "What are you talking about?".  That is it; completely.

There is a parking ramp every three blocks, a frequent free transit service, and vast surface lots.
https://downtowngr.org/get/dash

Nobody visiting from out-of-town is going to try to figure out our transit systems. This isn't DC or Chicago. What they probably meant is they couldn't find any metered spots available. 

Better signage for getting to the ramps might be needed? But actually I find our ramps to be pretty heavily signed, and the number of available spots tickers are helpful. When we're in a city we don't know well to do shopping and go out for food and drinks, we almost immediately look for a ramp to park in. 

But whitemice, you did respond to a statement from 2007, which was 15 years ago. Things have obviously changed a great deal since then. 

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