New Embassy Suites - Monroe North

[Rhino6885]

Put together the first letter of every paragraph. Pretty funny Chris .

I'll be honest Twoshort...I didn't see that until you said something

[Rhino6885]

Man...I was way off. Still, this will be interesting to see as it becomes (or doesn't become) reality. Does anybody know if they own the property yet?

[AlexPKeaton]

Now this gets me a little more excited about a potential Monroe North streetcar line. If Monroe becomes a wall of stores, hotels, restaurants, and residences between Leonard and Wealthy a streetcar would really tie it all together.

[MAU]

I'm confused - haven't we already discussed this? Maybe i had heard rumblings of it someplace else, but i didn't think it was new news.

[joeDowntown]

Nope. This is new. There have been several proposals for this property, but never this developer, and I don't it was ever considered for a hotel.

Other than the fact that you'd have to walk past the void that is the GR Press, Post office and back-end of DeVos Place, I think this is a great location for a hotel. With the park across the street, it'll never have a blocked view and is fairly close to the convention center.

Joe

I'm confused - haven't we already discussed this? Maybe i had heard rumblings of it someplace else, but i didn't think it was new news.

[tamias6]

The article and this thread seems to place the new hotel somewhere on Monroe Ave. in the north Monroe area. Does anybody know exactly where its going the be located (i.e. Monroe ave. and Xyz street) ?

[Rizzo]

Per Dad on WAM thread:

720 Monroe,

Edited September 8, 2007 by Rizzo

[GRDadof3]

Nope. This is new. There have been several proposals for this property, but never this developer, and I don't it was ever considered for a hotel.

Other than the fact that you'd have to walk past the void that is the GR Press, Post office and back-end of DeVos Place, I think this is a great location for a hotel. With the park across the street, it'll never have a blocked view and is fairly close to the convention center.

Joe

It's a much better spot than the ICON II spot, that's for sure.

tamias6, it's this site here:

This would sit strategically right at the Northern end of the new streetcar line, if that gets built.

Oops, sorry Rizzo.

[Budgie Frisket]

Who is this "oracle" anyway?

I consulted the one at:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6838510816767423993

but she spoke in riddles far more complex than the conservative GR Oracle. Delphi vapors have that effect.

So, who is building the hotel?

[NorthEnder]

It's a much better spot than the ICON II spot, that's for sure.

tamias6, it's this site here:

This would sit strategically right at the Northern end of the new streetcar line, if that gets built.

Oops, sorry Rizzo.

Is that the old blue bridge ventures proposed site?

[tamias6]

I'm glad that's the new spot as the new hotel would replace some ratty looking buildings there now. Hopefully it will also infill allot of those nasty looking surface lots on that block as well.

Edited September 8, 2007 by tamias6

[torgo]

Put together the first letter of every paragraph. Pretty funny Chris .

Hah! Next time maybe Chris should just go to RSA to make it even more challenging for the UP detectives.

This sounds great (so far). More retail along Monroe and a mid-level hotel would be excellent additions to Monroe North.

[Rhino6885]

Is that the old blue bridge ventures proposed site?

Sure is. Awhile back, they were losing it to the bank. I don't know if they sold it or let it go.

So, Joe and Golscorer, were you guys right? Admit it...did you see HOTELATWAM?

[joeDowntown]

Honestly, no. I quickly targeted in on the site, and just had to get over the Breakfast hurdle (which was easy once I thought about the fact that it would be used to throw us off the scent).

I don't think it was mentioned in the article yesterday, but there were many references to Second Story Properties. Do they own the land right now, or do you think they're involved.

I still think this will be a Workstage project. I was out at their building the other day and they are doing some pretty cool stuff. This would make me think if they are involved in the design/construction, it will be a LEED building.

Joe

[inside joke: Link added for search engine optimization ].

Sure is. Awhile back, they were losing it to the bank. I don't know if they sold it or let it go.

So, Joe and Golscorer, were you guys right? Admit it...did you see HOTELATWAM?

[GRDadof3]

I thought the sentence structure was a bit weird, but I never thought that Chris would do a sentence "acronym".

According to the article, the Rockford Developer working on this was also proposing this Hilton Garden Inn on the East Beltline near Burton, but scrapped the idea (competing licensing issue or something).

But I feel pretty confident the new hotel won't look anything like this, based on their description of underground parking and on the 1st and 2nd floors behind ground level retail. Maybe they could look at incorporating part of the current WAM building into the design. Not all those buildings are "ratty" tamias6.

In case the developers may be reading this thread, here are a few ways that the old can be successfully incorporated into the new. I would just flip if something like this were built there:

This one has an Urban Outfitters.

[Prankster]

GRDad,

Is that DC? If so, what part? Would love to see Monroe Norht have that kind of street wall density.

[GRDadof3]

GRDad,

Is that DC? If so, what part? Would love to see Monroe Norht have that kind of street wall density.

Yes, it's an area they call Penn Quarter in D.C., and those projects are around 6th and 7th Streets. They remind me a lot of photos I've seen of the Pearl District. Rows of 9 - 12 story mixed use projects with a continuous wall of ground-floor retail for blocks and blocks.

[tamias6]

I thought the sentence structure was a bit weird, but I never thought that Chris would do a sentence "acronym".

According to the article, the Rockford Developer working on this was also proposing this Hilton Garden Inn on the East Beltline near Burton, but scrapped the idea (competing licensing issue or something).

...

But I feel pretty confident the new hotel won't look anything like this, based on their description of underground parking and on the 1st and 2nd floors behind ground level retail. Maybe they could look at incorporating part of the current WAM building into the design. Not all those buildings are "ratty" tamias6.

.....

I forgot about the fancier facade of the building in the first image's center and in the second image. Maybe with a little sandblasting to remove that nasty white paint, that facade would be great for incorporating into a new structure.

Edited September 9, 2007 by tamias6

[GRDadof3]

Here's another one from that same area, called Jefferson at Penn Quarter. It actually won awards for historic preservation. The facades of the shorter portion are many of the historic buildings. So cooool.

(not my image, my night shots of this building did not turn out so well )

Hard to believe that complex has 2 or 3 floors of parking buried in there somewhere, isn't it?

A historic photo of the same corner:

Renovation Background Info - Urban Land Institute

[Veloise]

I bet Chris is a Will Shortz fan.

[GRguy]

Either that or he just read the DaVinci Code

[GRDadof3]

Article and rendering in today's Press about the hotel. It's not on the regular MLive page, but the PDF is available HERE. The city responded warmly to a request to extend the Ren Zone for that site for another 15 years, due to the number of jobs that would be produced. The $28 Million hotel would include a rooftop restaurant (on top of the 3 story lower portion) and retail shops fronting Monroe.

Sorry for the poor quality, but you get the general idea. Not bad at all. Looks like many of the hotel rooms have balconies, which is pretty unusual for a hotel (except maybe in Florida).

[Rhino6885]

Sorry for the poor quality, but you get the general idea. Not bad at all. Looks like many of the hotel rooms have balconies, which is pretty unusual for a hotel (except maybe in Florida).

...and another green roof!

[numstead]

Based on the rendering style, I'm guessing that Integrated is the architect. Some of the design cues are similar to the Northpointe Bank building on the Beltline.

[cheshireguy]

Hooray!!!!!! If that is the product that will be followed through on, what a huge boost to that area! I love that design!!!! I was thinking that we would get a boxy-generic look that really resembled a hotel, but this is a huge, wonderful surprise!

Sorry for all the exclamations! I can't help it! Talk to ya later! Crap!

Edited September 12, 2007 by cheshireguy