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New projects in East Hills


GRGridGirl

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On 8/28/2018 at 4:03 PM, walker said:

 

This is more than you want to know but just for my own curiosity and to verify my memory, I stopped at the downtown library and did some quick research.  The 1957 Polk Directory shows the building’s address as 11 Fuller SE and its name is the Fuller Building.  There are some insurance agencies listed as tenants but not John Hancock.  I know John Hancock eventually was in there because in the mid-sixties I used to mail in premiums to that building for a whole life policy my parents talked me into buying.  Back then there were not big computers in some centralized main office to process payments, you mailed your premiums to a local office.

The 1954 Polk Directory shows it as a vacant building but with the address 1163 Baldwin (the side street.)  The 1951 Polk Directory shows it as Baldwin Christian School.  I turned five in late 1951 and I was eight in 1954 when it was listed as vacant.  That means I was pretty young when I remembered this, specially considering the Polk Directories tended to be a year out of date by the time they were published.

So armed with that, I Googled “Baldwin Christian School Grand Rapids” and among other things, turned up the recent Mlive article in the link below that tells about converting the old Eastern Elementary School and this building to apartments.  It mentions a little more history of the building including when it was built:

The building has been vacant since last December, when the church moved out after using it as an office building since the late 1960s.  The property was originally developed in 1905 as the Coade Avenue Christian School and later renamed Baldwin Christian School [when the street was renamed.] It closed in the mid-1950s.

Former school buildings approved for conversions into apartments

I can’t find an early picture of it on the interweb to verify it was an all wood structure, but digging deeper into Google I think there might be an image in the restricted Calvin College archives.  Short of converting to Christian Reformed, I don’t think I’d be given access.  I suppose I could do that but what would happen if they didn't have an image or it turned out I was remembering wrong?

Your parents talked you into buying a whole life insurance policy?? :) Ahhh times were different back then. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I dont understand! How is this happening?!

Quote

It has been my privilege to uphold my mother’s legacy over the years, but after much careful thought and consideration I have decided that now is the time to start the next chapter in my life

Well can someone else take over the operations? Dont just let this part of her vanish. It really meant a lot to people here.

 

First Georgina's, and now this? It feels like a major gut-punch to East Hills.

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1 hour ago, GR_Urbanist said:

I dont understand! How is this happening?!

Well can someone else take over the operations? Dont just let this part of her vanish. It really meant a lot to people here.

 

First Georgina's, and now this? It feels like a major gut-punch to East Hills.

 

Except Georgina's was owned by an alleged sexual harassment complainant. 

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6 hours ago, TheLonesomeHobo said:

https://m.facebook.com/notes/marie-catribs-of-grand-rapids/we-love-you-pass-it-on/10155733736481127/

The owners of Early Bird / Little Bird will be taking it over, it’s worth noting it was sold for 900k, he took the first offer he received.

Leave it to UP to have the info...it sounded like he sold it in the note but I felt like no one picked that up and no media looked into to who bought it. That seems like a big deal. Hopefully the new owners bought recipes and things won’t change too much. Plus, East Hills isn’t  losing a restaurant per se. 

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1 hour ago, mgreven said:

Leave it to UP to have the info...it sounded like he sold it in the note but I felt like no one picked that up and no media looked into to who bought it. That seems like a big deal. Hopefully the new owners bought recipes and things won’t change too much. Plus, East Hills isn’t  losing a restaurant per se. 

I’m not a big fan of Early Bird in Eastown, but Little Bird has incredible food. If they follow the Little Bird concept, I think it’ll continue to do well. 

Joe

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3 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

I’m not a big fan of Early Bird in Eastown, but Little Bird has incredible food. If they follow the Little Bird concept, I think it’ll continue to do well. 

Joe

I think they'd be a fool to change the concept from Marie's middle eastern food to the Little/Early Bird concept. The food and atmosphere they've developed at Marie's is unique and seems to be a gold mine. 

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6 minutes ago, thebeerqueer said:

I think they'd be a fool to change the concept from Marie's middle eastern food to the Little/Early Bird concept. The food and atmosphere they've developed at Marie's is unique and seems to be a gold mine. 

I would say the business is finished and the concept is changing, if this thread is at all accurate.  Marie Catrib's appears to own their building and does not rent.  So the supposed $900k was probably for the building.  If you're also buying a business, you don't coordinate the sale so terribly that you have half a dozen news articles all saying the place you just bought is closing.  

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28 minutes ago, x99 said:

I would say the business is finished and the concept is changing, if this thread is at all accurate.  Marie Catrib's appears to own their building and does not rent.  So the supposed $900k was probably for the building.  If you're also buying a business, you don't coordinate the sale so terribly that you have half a dozen news articles all saying the place you just bought is closing.  

They may even stick with a middle eastern concept, but I'm sure the family would be pretty hesitant to sell their mother's namesake business to non-family.

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On 10/25/2018 at 12:50 PM, GR_Urbanist said:

I overheard this a few days back, so make of it what you will, but the antique store on E. Fulton that is closing is to become a "Gaming center", similar to the old Grand LAN.

 

Ok, I was a little off. It is games-related, but I'm not sure the whole deal from what I could see from the street.

20190104_180944-01.thumb.jpeg.189cc3cc46f416f2cc7f6a20c9295c89.jpeg

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On 7/26/2017 at 10:08 AM, GRCentro said:

Interestingly, there is little to no automatic protection for a resource listed on a national or state historic register. The "teeth" of preservation enforcement is almost always at the local level. What a national historic designation can do is prevent the use of federal funds to harm a listed resource (1966 National Historic Preservation Act). The saving of Heritage Hill from wholesale demolition in the late 60's was a classic use of this mechanism. 

Regarding the church building at Diamond and Hermitage, don't expect big changes anytime soon. A demo by neglect hearing simply opens a legal process that will eventually allow city contractors to enter the property and provide stabilizing repairs if the building owner is unwilling or unable to do so. I expect they'll end up patching the roof, but little more will change until there is a building owner with the resources to do so. The increasing stack of fines and liens tends to force out owners who don't have the will or means to keep up. There are several other active demo by neglect cases in the neighborhood, but they're still eyesores. It's a long process.

This church is apparently now being turned into a community/arts/music events space called the Hermitage. Being renovated by Carol Moore. 

Hermitage.thumb.JPG.e9983038d75359aa961e2efd9bf1a299.JPG

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