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Studio Park - $140 Million Celebration Cinema/mixed use project


joeDowntown

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On 10/30/2018 at 10:17 AM, JoeSchmo said:

Walker has a 1% income tax and they have Meijer and Bissell, among others.  That has not stopped them.

(Side Note) Personally, I am going to say the city income tax is more annoying than anything else.  I've worked in Walker, lived in Grand Rapids, while my wife worked in Ionia (which also has a city income tax).  Thats 3 additional required tax returns.. thats simply just annoying.

Meijer has been in Walker for quite some time, and have a commitment to the city of Walker. They're a huge tax revenue source and would put a major dent in Walker's tax rolls if they up and left. I think that's kind of admirable of them. Many big companies care only about the bottom line. Same with Gordon Food Service and their commitment to the city of Wyoming. We all complained about them not looking at downtown for their new HQ's but again, somewhat admirable and loyal of them and they made a commitment to Wyoming to stay.

I'm with whitemice, having this spot vacant won't detract from the Studio Park project at all. They could even put up decorative fencing around that corner with some lifestyle photos. It won't sit vacant long.

Moving on? Onward and upward? All in favor? :)

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This is not a good time to build IMHO. The City of GR / Founders bio-digester came in 45% over estimate. I know of another 2 story office building to be built by a company bursting at the seams with staff. The project is on hold after coming in 40% over the architects guess. I wouldn't build a building  now and pay a premium w/o committed tenants. 

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21 hours ago, Raildude's dad said:

This is not a good time to build IMHO. The City of GR / Founders bio-digester came in 45% over estimate. I know of another 2 story office building to be built by a company bursting at the seams with staff. The project is on hold after coming in 40% over the architects guess. I wouldn't build a building  now and pay a premium w/o committed tenants. 

Cost of Steel?  Why such an increase in cost?

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19 hours ago, EastownLeo said:

I understand the cost of steel increase. what I am asking is if steel is  the main reason for increases in construction costs, or is there another cause?

Steel increases?  No.   Materials cost increases play a small role.  It's contractors charging whatever they feel like because they all have more work than they know what to do with.  

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On 11/1/2018 at 10:37 AM, EastownLeo said:

Cost of Steel?

Yes, and of everything else.  I am currently building a pretty simple frame construction two story building;  materials are easily 16% over estimated from 6 months ago.  And subcontractors are difficult to schedule.
And GR Planning Department is S-L-O-W which also ends up costing money as you build-and-wait-build-and-wait... making scheduling even worse.

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I've heard that a lot of the big projects, the construction company will actually pay for / lock in the price and warehouse the steel (so they don't get caught in a bind with price fluctuations down the road). I can't imagine that the price of steel isn't jacking up prices, but I definitely think labor shortages, and construction companies having more work than they can handle increase the price. I'm sure when demand is highest, it's probably also the lousiest time to build. :)

Joe

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3 hours ago, whitemice said:

Yes, and of everything else.  I am currently building a pretty simple frame construction two story building;  materials are easily 16% over estimated from 6 months ago.  And subcontractors are difficult to schedule.
And GR Planning Department is S-L-O-W which also ends up costing money as you build-and-wait-build-and-wait... making scheduling even worse.

The comment on the GR Planning Department is unfortunate. The city should be doing everything possible to encourage growth - not slow it down.

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2 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

 is highest, it's probably also the lousiest time to build. :)

Joe

Yup.  I postponed a major project I had planned to do, since it wasn't essential.  Rather than do it myself, I figured I'd wait until everything hits the skids again or I have time to swing my own hammers.  For what some of these guys are charging, it just isn't worth it.  

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2 hours ago, jonrapley said:

No. And the tower in the renderings is speculative. Air rights on the parking ramp will be sold at a late date. 

Joe

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8 hours ago, GVSUChris said:

I walk past this every day and it is actually really surprising how much changes even by the day. They really are moving along with it and I will try to do better about documenting it because it is just starting to get to the point where you can feel the excitement of having several new buildings suddenly here! 

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F262A931-AA71-4340-8FA4-843426E18FF4.jpeg

I noticed that the other day too. Especially with that parking ramp section getting up there. I can't even imagine what the hotel is going to look like with that kind of height in that neighborhood. 

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49 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

I noticed that the other day too. Especially with that parking ramp section getting up there. I can't even imagine what the hotel is going to look like with that kind of height in that neighborhood. 

I am also excited for the infill and the height of the hotel.  It looks the building pictured above (on the corner of Ionia/Oakes) hasn't been worked on in awhile.  Will they start that after the building to the west?  Will it be the same material?

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13 hours ago, Floyd_Z said:

I am also excited for the infill and the height of the hotel.  It looks the building pictured above (on the corner of Ionia/Oakes) hasn't been worked on in awhile.  Will they start that after the building to the west?  Will it be the same material?

I assume there are only so many framing crews around  so they're doing the one residential building first then they'll switch to the other corner.  Just back-of-the-napkin guessing though.  Do you mean will it also be stick-built? 

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48 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

Framing starting on the East residential building. I also saw that the parking ramp elevator tower had a Christmas tree on it, which signifies "topping out" usually. 

45536976384_b2086fe554_b.jpg

Two things - first - I'm so glad you posted this because I took a picture this morning but didn't want to bog this thread down with my own posts every time I saw a change on the site...haha...

Second - they actually decorated the Christmas tree and at night when you're driving through downtown it's actually really cool with it's lights and whatnot. I wasn't surprised to see a tree up there but I was surprised to see that they decorated it. 

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12 hours ago, tSlater said:

Careful now, calling things "crack" is offensive to crack addicts!

I enjoy the pictures, too, and I drive down Ionia there daily.

I had responded to this to discuss Hopcat's decision to rename Crack Fries, but decided to move it to the Beer thread so it didn't muddy the waters here. :)

Joe

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