Klingman's Sold to Israel's

[joeDowntown]

The press has an article about Klingman's being sold and moving out of the Centerpointe location to a smaller (50,000sf) building.

The bummer is that Bob Israel lost out in an 11th hour deal to J.C. Huizenga (National Heritage Academies). Israel had planned to move Klingman's back downtown into 100,000 sq. ft. of space (presumably on his campus).

It would have been nice to have the store return to its roots, but I'm sure it will end up on 28th Street.

http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/01/klin..._mall_by_e.html

Joe

[tamias6]

I think it makes allot of sense to move Klingman's into a smaller space. As it is, much of the basement and second floor of their current location stood relatively unused. My prediction is they will stay on 28th street but will move closer to Cascade to be where the money is at.

As for the fate of the current location, I hope the Centrepointe Mall Owners will be able to attract some big retail names to get that Mall going. The mall is very idle compared to Woodland and Rivertown. With Menard's thinking about moving out as well, Something has got to happen or its going to be trouble for CentrePointe.

[GRDadof3]

It also says that the Centerpointe "lifestyle center" has been shelved, and that they are already in heavy talks with several more "traditional" national retailers to move into Klingman's spot (I would imagine they'll tear down Klingman's building?).

I think Bob Israel's was trying to recreate a Grand Rapids Furniture Market on the West Side where all of his work is going on. That would have been pretty cool if he had put it all together.

[joeDowntown]

I agree. It will be interesting to see what JC Huizenga does with it, but I kind of feel bad about what could have been on the west side. I do agree that Klingman's building was oversized. They had so much extra space, it couldn't have been too cost effective. My dad worked there several years ago and I think a smaller, more cohesive store is what most of the sales people wanted.

Also, I don't know if they'll knock down the building (they should, it was always leaking). From the article, they said they were "mothballing" the second floor. Kind of reminds me of the Montgomery Wards building on plainfield that has groundfloor retail bays, but a huge second story that is inaccessible and completely empty.

Joe

[houseofdon]

Israels said he had no idea Huizenga was the new bidder until Monday, when he called to congratulate his new competitor.

[joeDowntown]

Interesting. Chris Knape said that the 100,000 sq. ft. building *WOULDN'T* have been in Israel's campus on the west side. This leads to much depression on my part about what could have been:

http://blog.mlive.com/knapescorner/2008/01...d_other_no.html

Sell it to Bob, JC. Downtown needs him.

Joe

[GRDadof3]

Wow, he's a one man army!

) "I've been doing pretty good with finding people who want to move to Grand Rapids and, without overestimating, I feel pretty comfortable that we're going to be able to bring quite a few jobs here, not a few jobs, but a lot of jobs," he said.

) Kmart? I think he had Google in his sights at one time Chris, didn't he?

) Sounds like the Aslan Buildings upper floors are going to be commercial space instead of residential. That'd be cool to have an office with a balcony.

) 501 3rd Street sounds like it's going to be retail

) 528 5th Street sounds like it might be the new home of a small clothing manufacturer (?)

) He's financing all these projects with his own dough

[GRguy]

Could someone get some photos of these other buildings (I have seen the Aslan)?

[GRDadof3]

Could someone get some photos of these other buildings (I have seen the Aslan)?

[joeDowntown]

Would be interesting, though you'd think they would buy their own building. I think they have the cash.

As for Kmart / Google. Rumors popped up about both companies at some point. The logic behind Kmart moving to GR was that we had a lot of industry folk here (with Spartan and Meijer), as well as a large design community.

Joe

I wonder if the clothing manufacturer is Pam Devos' company?

[Yankee Fan]

Not so fast... check the GR Press.

Way to go Bob!!!!!!!!!!

[GRDadof3]

Not so fast... check the GR Press.

Way to go Bob!!!!!!!!!!

[jbr12]

Linky not working

Not Found

The requested URL /grpress/2008/01/press_photochris_pottertheres.html was not found on this server.

Apache/2.0.52 (CentOS) Server at blog.mlive.com Port 80

I even tried going through the mlive site...

[GRDadof3]

Linky not working

Not Found

The requested URL /grpress/2008/01/press_photochris_pottertheres.html was not found on this server.

Apache/2.0.52 (CentOS) Server at blog.mlive.com Port 80

I even tried going through the mlive site...

[joeDowntown]

So what did it say? I can't find it anywhere?

Joe

Yeah, it's gone. They might be moving it over the Press' front page. It was under "latest news" a few minutes ago.

[GRDadof3]

Maybe Chris jumped the gun on the article. But essentially it said that at the last minute, the California company that owns Klingman's stated that the deal with Huizinga was not going to go through, and that Bob was the winning bidder. They were even in the process of wiring money over to the owners to seal the deal. They were planning to move Klingman's to the old Drueke Toy Co. bldg and that they hoped to have renovations complete by June.

The biggest puzzler for me is that that old Drueke Bldg is NO WAY 100,000 square feet. It's only about 60' x 100' and three stories tall, so more like 18,000 square feet. Something's missing here.

Here is a compilation map of Israel's growing reach on the West Side:

[joeDowntown]

Bob loves to add on to buildings. Maybe he'll go up and out?

Joe

[rivegauche]

Maybe Chris jumped the gun on the article. But essentially it said that at the last minute, the California company that owns Klingman's stated that the deal with Huizinga was not going to go through, and that Bob was the winning bidder. They were even in the process of wiring money over to the owners to seal the deal. They were planning to move Klingman's to the old Drueke Toy Co. bldg and that they hoped to have renovations complete by June.

The biggest puzzler for me is that that old Drueke Bldg is NO WAY 100,000 square feet. It's only about 60' x 100' and three stories tall, so more like 18,000 square feet. Something's missing here.

Here is a compilation map of Israel's growing reach on the West Side:

[GRDadof3]

Just wondering why the property in orange (old scrap yard)on 4th street has a 5th street address. Was it part of the bigger development on 5th?

[walker]

Linky not working

Not Found

The requested URL /grpress/2008/01/press_photochris_pottertheres.html was not found on this server.

Apache/2.0.52 (CentOS) Server at blog.mlive.com Port 80

I even tried going through the mlive site...

[Veloise]

No, because "yours truly" labeled it with the ownership address instead of the actual address, which is 528 4th St. ...

[Eridony]

This link works for me:

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/0...ttertheres.html

[tamias6]

Thanks for the link. The article still doesn't mention how they will get a floor area of 100,000 square feet out of that building. I don't think they have time to build an addition by June so unless that building has like 7 basement levels the number seems off.

[GRDadof3]

The article did mention a renovation to be made to the building. I would assume that renovation would include an addition.

[tamias6]

Yes, but they also will need parking for a retail store like that. Something doesn't add up. I will also say that early on, it said that Klingman's was looking for 50,000 square feet to move into, not 100,000. It was Mr. Israels that mentioned 100,000.