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Old Sprint Nextel HQ Building


EEKris

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Davenport University was situated downtown, mostly along Fulton. They acquired land out in the boonies and rebuilt their campus far away from students, affordable student housing, student amenities, and all the fun stuff that students enjoy doing besides studying. They then realized that they really needed a presence downtown, so they moved their management (hah!) school into the building behind GRAM.

Their marketing, statistics, and demographic advisors might have made a blunder in helping them decide to move to the beltline. Yes, the land was cheap (IIRC some of it was donated). But if it decimates your enrollment, and then you have to backtrack...

(For extra fun, look up the testimony presented to the BZA when they asked for permission to install additional signage on the DT building. I think it was the November 2011 meeting.)

The comparison, to go overboard in explaining this: it would seem that AK Rikks has swallowed someone's advice regarding GRCC and Kendall students. Last time I checked, both of those schools were downtown. The AK Rikks location is not. As I attempted to point out a couple posts back, the store is well beyond the fringe of Rapid service. "They can just ride the bus," well, no, they can't.

The forthcoming Bob Gibbs presentation will cover concepts such as retail magnets. On this forum we've discussed our DT "food court." The Nextel building is all by itself; no additional reason to go there.

Hope that this clarifies sufficiently.

I do think that with AK Rikks specialized offerings, they could really set up a huge store like this anywhere and have customers drive from all over to get there (as long as parking was convenient and cheap/free). At the press conference, they cited the fact that they had tried being downtown twice and just didn't have the traffic they wanted. But it seems both of those stores were way smaller than even their current store is on 28th. The one they set up in 38 Commerce really didn't have a huge amount of inventory.

I highly doubt their customers are Cascade demographics, unless its high school kids from Forest Hills Central with Dad's credit card.

It does also seem logical that they would be downtown, with their thoughts of partnering with local schools like Kendall's new fashion design program.

I think there are more reasons for them not wanting to be downtown, but I don't know what those are.

I know several people who work there, and highly respect what they are doing. But at the press conference, it did seem like someone sucked all the air out of the room when they announced that their new store was even further out on 28th. I already knew it because of information here at UP, lol.

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I hoped they would be DT, but as pointed out above, didn't make sense for AK Rikks (twice). The pop up store traffic wasn't there (understanding less selection etc). They would have to put all their chips on black and pray it works. As opposed to a model that is flourishing now. I believe for DT to be a shopping HUB, a large retailer would have to take a chance. Someone like Macy’s has a diverse customer mix, will drive critical mass, and can weather the storm if it takes 2 years to take off. Yes, AK Rikks is a destination shopping experience, and is being further advanced by this new location. But there are reasons for the location.

AKs loyal following led to bricks and mortar, and obviously, will not be supported by a nonprofit portion of the building. They cannot relocate to accommodate a cost to the store (i.e. revenue -20% to be closer to students). They can only cater to a certain degree. Many students have or can get access to a vehicle. Who knows, maybe they’ll have a shuttle service on certain days.

Further down 28th is .8 miles from the current location. That would amount to less than a 1 min. drive (in current traffic). The proximity to the old location is a non issue for those who currently shop the store. And the students won’t be walking.

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I think we are going to have to realize that no matter how "hip" the company is or how much lip-service they give to urban this or green that, when it comes down to it most will gladly stick their shop on some mega street, sandwiched between the BP station and Arby's behind a parking lot, if it will get them 10 more customers and save them a couple grand in rent. GB Russo would get more visits from me if I didnt have to go to that horrible box of a store they have on 29th street.

I do find it odd that they didnt aim for Breton Village Mall or the Gaslight Village area though. Lots of traffic, upscale locations, on the bus line for the students, and plenty of parking.

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GR_Urbansit, you beat me to it! Those are the two exact locations I was thinking when reading the posts. Breton is becoming the fashion cluster and would have been the most logical place to invest-- fairly suburban but an infill location in the more affluent corridor with similar higher-end stores.

Like Rogers Dept store and the furniture store to follow, I am not entirely confident that the any-location-will-due-because-of-who-we-are will drive the sustained traffic they desire (in this case the downtown core [unfortunately] and suburban fringe are both second-rate locations). Yes, they will continue to attract their destination shoppers, but smack in the "favored corridor" would have been a better fit (east downtown/East Hills/East Grand Rapids / Forest Hills).

As for attracting students, the location is a silo. There is little opportunity to create any synergy there. Economic clusters of any stripe achieve critical mass through bunching in close proximity. I commend their efforts and the service they hope to offer the community, but I don't foresee many multiplier impacts. Consider if their location was closer to downtown, I could easily see a niche graphic t-shirt shop, a student-created fast fashion-type boutique etc beginning to pop up around the destination.

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I still think it is very easy for us to sit back and be armchair developers/business owners with no skin in the game. I'd love that EXACT store right in the center of downtown, but as they said, with two failed attempts downtown, I'm sure they are not going to go all-in if they a) have a formula that works (current location) and b) their business is on the line if the experiment fails.

I think you'll continue to see MoDiv and Pop-up type stores until someone cracks the riddle of retail.

Veloise - I'm well versed in the Davenport saga. I thought it was almost criminal to take Glen Steil's money and run to the suburbs. My issue is that think you're comparing apples and oranges. Agree to disagree I guess. :)

Joe

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I still think it is very easy for us to sit back and be armchair developers/business owners with no skin in the game.

Isn't this the point of Urban Planet -- to provide a forum for all of us to critique what we recognize as the the good and bad of urban development in Grand Rapids -- regardless of if we have any financial stake in the project? Ultimately everyone that writes on this forum is passionate about G.R., and desires the best for the community. Sometimes we champion, sometimes we criticize, and sometimes we do both! There would be no point in singing universal praises to all projects. That would get a bit mundane.

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Isn't this the point of Urban Planet -- to provide a forum for all of us to critique what we recognize as the the good and bad of urban development in Grand Rapids -- regardless of if we have any financial stake in the project? Ultimately everyone that writes on this forum is passionate about G.R., and desires the best for the community. Sometimes we champion, sometimes we criticize, and sometimes we do both! There would be no point in singing universal praises to all projects. That would get a bit mundane.

Certainly agree, but at the same time I think we're being unfairly harsh on a local business just for making what appears to be a sensible business decision. Or, anyone consider the possibility that maybe they just happen to like Cascade?

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Certainly agree, but at the same time I think we're being unfairly harsh on a local business just for making what appears to be a sensible business decision. Or, anyone consider the possibility that maybe they just happen to like Cascade?

Plenty of other outlets around GR to celebrate business expansions out in the burbs (Business Journal, MiBiz, GRNow, Facebook pages, MLive). UrbanPlanet has built a niche covering more urban redevelopment. Some exceptions have been made, particularly when it's a development project that has regional significance. But primarily, most of the fans to this site appreciate the challenges and rewards of urban issues.

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Don't know if this is a totally accurate assessment. Yes, the focus is on urban development but we pop out into the burbs every once in a while (Cabela's, The "lifestyle" centers on the Beltline, etc). I would much rather see everything be built downtown, but think it is unfair when a viable business puts significant risk into their current neighborhood, and people complain that it isn't downtown, therefore it is irrelevant (or won't work because one college moved from the core to the burbs).

Personally, If we want the downtown retail that everyone envisions, a national retailer would help provide that (name recognition, they aren't dependent on one store for success/failure). I'm sure this is blasphemous to some, but downtown needs a "tent-post" retailer, and I think that would be too risky/costly for a local business (and for the record, I'm very "pro-local first").

Joe

Plenty of other outlets around GR to celebrate business expansions out in the burbs (Business Journal, MiBiz, GRNow, Facebook pages, MLive). UrbanPlanet has built a niche covering more urban redevelopment. Some exceptions have been made, particularly when it's a development project that has regional significance. But primarily, most of the fans to this site appreciate the challenges and rewards of urban issues.

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Should we start a new website called Suburbanplanet.org or does that already exist? :)

It already exists, in multitudes. :) (see my previous post)

Don't know if this is a totally accurate assessment. Yes, the focus is on urban development but we pop out into the burbs every once in a while (Cabela's, The "lifestyle" centers on the Beltline, etc). I would much rather see everything be built downtown, but think it is unfair when a viable business puts significant risk into their current neighborhood, and people complain that it isn't downtown, therefore it is irrelevant (or won't work because one college moved from the core to the burbs).

Personally, If we want the downtown retail that everyone envisions, a national retailer would help provide that (name recognition, they aren't dependent on one store for success/failure). I'm sure this is blasphemous to some, but downtown needs a "tent-post" retailer, and I think that would be too risky/costly for a local business (and for the record, I'm very "pro-local first").

Joe

Fair enough Joe, but think only those other developments were covered because they had significant regional impact on the Grand Rapids area.

I personally don't think every business should be downtown or in the urban neighborhoods in GR. But I also don't generally "celebrate" the ones opening on 28th Street. I think that's what people are saying.

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