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The State of Downtown Grand Rapids Retail


GRDadof3

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21 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

Brush! the place where you can paint with your friends and drink wine, is seeking a liquor license to open in 50 Louis, probably where Lee and Birch used to be. 

I saw a place like this in Seattle a couple of years back.

It literally is just that! long tables where you have a tiny easels and canvas, and you are all engaging in group painting (watercolor, I believe). When I walked by their window, I thought it was just some goofy thing a restaurant was doing as a one-off. But apparently this is an actual restaurant concept that has filtered down to GR. Glad to see unique idea like this make it here.

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39 minutes ago, GR_Urbanist said:

I saw a place like this in Seattle a couple of years back.

It literally is just that! long tables where you have a tiny easels and canvas, and you are all engaging in group painting (watercolor, I believe). When I walked by their window, I thought it was just some goofy thing a restaurant was doing as a one-off. But apparently this is an actual restaurant concept that has filtered down to GR. Glad to see unique idea like this make it here.

There's been one in EGR for a couple of years. This will be their second location here:

https://www.brushgr.com/

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  • 4 weeks later...
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On Sunday, February 28, 2016 at 6:31 PM, WMrapids said:

Well Dead Solez didn't last long. They said they have officially closed the Monroe location and moved all of their stock back to their Alpine location.

I was in there on Saturday afternoon and it was pretty sparse. Seemed like an odd location, no windows facing the street, long hallway to actual store, $350 for a pair of used sneakers .... just odd.

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21 hours ago, lighthousedave said:

I am sad to report that Jim Azzar has purchased this building.  He had a crew in there cleaning it out.  Not sure what his plan is with it, but we can pretty much surmise based on past performance.

 

Demolish by neglect coming to a building near you. great!  

Joe

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On 3/24/2016 at 3:13 PM, lighthousedave said:

I am sad to report that Jim Azzar has purchased this building.  He had a crew in there cleaning it out.  Not sure what his plan is with it, but we can pretty much surmise based on past performance.

 

Doesn't make a lot of sense to purchase that little building, but I thought I heard the previous owner was a real a-hole of a landlord. Stopped a muralists work on the front right in the middle of the project? 

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13 minutes ago, GR_Urbanist said:

Well that's too bad. But it's a terrible location that seems to be dying in terms of retail.

There are some empty spaces on Cherry St.. Hope they are just looking for a new location.

Not sure how to react to their response.

"

It saddens us to say that Propaganda has officially closed its doors as of last Sunday. Thank you to everyone who supported us the past 2 1/2 years.

Unfortunately, we were unable to find answers and overcome the problem of the increasing amount of homeless and disadvantaged people who now frequent the street in front of our location. It was too much to ask our customers to accept being harassed and approached by panhandlers. Customers were also having to walk past intoxicated and passed out people on the sidewalks and in the doorways. Some customers were approached and panhandled even before getting out of their vehicles. The street is also having an increasing problem of the doorways and other areas being used as sleeping areas and bathrooms. This area is no longer acceptable for customers who just want to stop in and get some great doughnuts and coffee. 

We tried various solutions including closing in the afternoons and evenings when the homeless and transient population move from the east side of Division to the west side in order to stay out of the Sun. Each morning when we came to open up the donut shop we would never know what problems we would face at our entrance. It became apparent that at this time and until solutions are found to manage the recent influx of homeless to Grand Rapids from other cities in Michigan and even other areas of the country that we would be unable to maintain a successful food establishment on the 100 block of South Division.

Again we would like to thank all of our customers who came to visit us at Propaganda and hopefully we will find some solutions that will allow us to soon reopen our business."

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18 minutes ago, EastownLeo said:

Not sure how to react to their response.

"

It saddens us to say that Propaganda has officially closed its doors as of last Sunday. Thank you to everyone who supported us the past 2 1/2 years.

Unfortunately, we were unable to find answers and overcome the problem of the increasing amount of homeless and disadvantaged people who now frequent the street in front of our location. It was too much to ask our customers to accept being harassed and approached by panhandlers. Customers were also having to walk past intoxicated and passed out people on the sidewalks and in the doorways. Some customers were approached and panhandled even before getting out of their vehicles. The street is also having an increasing problem of the doorways and other areas being used as sleeping areas and bathrooms. This area is no longer acceptable for customers who just want to stop in and get some great doughnuts and coffee. 

We tried various solutions including closing in the afternoons and evenings when the homeless and transient population move from the east side of Division to the west side in order to stay out of the Sun. Each morning when we came to open up the donut shop we would never know what problems we would face at our entrance. It became apparent that at this time and until solutions are found to manage the recent influx of homeless to Grand Rapids from other cities in Michigan and even other areas of the country that we would be unable to maintain a successful food establishment on the 100 block of South Division.

Again we would like to thank all of our customers who came to visit us at Propaganda and hopefully we will find some solutions that will allow us to soon reopen our business."

Well that sucks.  I wasn't a frequent visitor there but I did get approached once.  I just write it off as life.  That's a pretty bold statement for Propaganda to put out there and will probably get some attention.

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1 hour ago, EastownLeo said:

 

Unfortunately, we were unable to find answers and overcome the problem of the increasing amount of homeless and disadvantaged people who now frequent the street in front of our location. It was too much to ask our customers to accept being harassed and approached by panhandlers. Customers were also having to walk past intoxicated and passed out people on the sidewalks and in the doorways. Some customers were approached and panhandled even before getting out of their vehicles. The street is also having an increasing problem of the doorways and other areas being used as sleeping areas and bathrooms. This area is no longer acceptable for customers who just want to stop in and get some great doughnuts and coffee. 

We tried various solutions including closing in the afternoons and evenings when the homeless and transient population move from the east side of Division to the west side in order to stay out of the Sun. Each morning when we came to open up the donut shop we would never know what problems we would face at our entrance. It became apparent that at this time and until solutions are found to manage the recent influx of homeless to Grand Rapids from other cities in Michigan and even other areas of the country that we would be unable to maintain a successful food establishment on the 100 block of South Division.

Again we would like to thank all of our customers who came to visit us at Propaganda and hopefully we will find some solutions that will allow us to soon reopen our business."

shocked-smiley-face.gif

'Nuf said.  

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I applaud their honesty. Far too many people have made it their mission to cover up these problems and expect retail to somehow thrive in the same space.

With the entrenched homeless industry down there not even willing to take responsibility for this absurd situation, that I can see now is only getting worse, we can only expect even more to evacuate the area until all of the work put into revitalizing that street will have been for nothing.

 

The good news is that they have lots of new districts that they can move to where they can come back stronger than ever. Michigan St. Bridge St. Cherry or Wealthy too!

Edited by GR_Urbanist
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