50 Monroe to get de-skinned?

[RegalTDP]

3 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

A surface parking lot is worse than a 16 story statue of Obama and Trump making out? 

I'd be curious to see how it turns out.  It'd be a sight to see, that's for sure.

Edited November 30, 2016 by RegalTDP

[GRDadof3]

24 minutes ago, RegalTDP said:

I'd be curious to see how it turns out.  It'd be a sight to see, that's for sure.

Seek.help. 

[ironyisadeadscene]

4 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

A surface parking lot is worse than a 16 story statue of Obama and Trump making out? 

What if it gets knocked down to 12?

[Allison Slater]

Even a 12 storey statue of that... maybe for next ArtPrize.  The big junk has to go somewhere now that the BOB lot is taken.

[wingbert]

14 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

A surface parking lot is worse than a 16 story statue of Obama and Trump making out? 

Maybe it's not as much fun to throw eggs at a surface parking lot?

[sparky05]

There's no accounting for taste.

[organsnyder]

There's no taste in accounting.

[GVSUChris]

So the mystery continues - 

Elliot's Newsstand has posted that they are to vacate 50 Monroe by January 15. When are we going to get some more concrete details on what is happening at this address?  

[joeDowntown]

2 hours ago, GVSUChris said:

So the mystery continues - 

Elliot's Newsstand has posted that they are to vacate 50 Monroe by January 15. When are we going to get some more concrete details on what is happening at this address?  

Are they moving or closing? I still think there's a need for a good newsstand downtown. Would be a shame if they went out of business. 

Joe

[SupercityGR]

I feel like both cigarettes and newspapers are a thing of the pas! .02

[ctpgr34]

On 12/3/2016 at 5:45 PM, joeDowntown said:

Are they moving or closing? I still think there's a need for a good newsstand downtown. Would be a shame if they went out of business. 

Joe

Looks to be permanent- Nearly 50 yrs, that is too bad. 

From their FB page- 

To our family of customers and friends,

It is with great difficulty and a heavy heart that we are notifying you that we have been told to vacate the building on:

Sunday, January 15, 2017

It has been our pleasure to serve you for nearly 50 years. We would like to thank you so very much for your patronage and loyalty.

Elliott's News

[Prankster]

Really interested in seeing what they have planned for this building. If they were willing to run out a 50 year old business and TGI Friday's, they must have something big planned. 

Say what you want about TGI's, they were a viable option for the suburban crowd. 

[walker]

10 hours ago, ctpgr34 said:

Looks to be permanent- Nearly 50 yrs, that is too bad. 

From their FB page- 

To our family of customers and friends,

It is with great difficulty and a heavy heart that we are notifying you that we have been told to vacate the building on:

Sunday, January 15, 2017

It has been our pleasure to serve you for nearly 50 years. We would like to thank you so very much for your patronage and loyalty.

Elliott's News

Actually the business is much older than that.  I think Bill Bennett, the current owner, is only referring to how long his family has owned it.   Not sure exactly when it started but it started out as a cigar store in the old Cody Hotel (where UICA is now) owned by Don Elliott.  When I was first aware of it, Elliott’s was across Monroe from the Pantlind Hotel.  Besides the newspapers and magazines and tobacco products, they were also a liquor store, which made it quite popular with the hotel guests who didn’t want to pay hotel prices for their liquor.  Besides Mr. Elliott, there were a couple of other old employees that worked there, one was an old prize fighter and the other was a big bald old guy named Red because at one time supposedly he had red hair.  Because it had the largest selection of magazines and out of town newspapers in town, not to mention cigars; you’d see a wide selection of people browsing in the store.  You’d also see a few known gamblers in the store buying the Daily Racing Form.  

Back in the late sixties or early seventies, Bill Bennett’s father, Don Bennett, came to town to run a franchise restaurant called “Mr. Ham and Mr. Beef.”  His store was the only one I ever saw of that franchise.  It was right next door to Elliott’s.  A couple of years later, Elliott wanted to retire and Don Bennett bought him out and closed the restaurant.  The store moved a couple of time after that before it settled in at the 50 Monroe Building.  When they took the parking meters off Monroe in front of the store, they moved to a store front on Monroe Center and then to the Greyhound Bus Terminal that was roughly across the street from the BOB.  I think the bus station ambiance was just right for a cigar / newsstand.  Don Elliott apparently didn’t like retirement because for a few years after he sold the store, he ran a bingo supply store over on West Leonard.  

Strangely, when I first moved to Detroit and went to work for the Detroit Free Press, one of the first people I met was an old union president and union organizer named Fred Randal.  How Fred fits into this story is that he was from Grand Rapids originally and he had worked for Don Elliott.  He told me Don Elliott was like a father to him.  Fred told me that he left Grand Rapids suddenly for Detroit back in the fifties because of something that happened in his organizing days at the old Grand Rapids Herald.  He never explained what that was.  But one of the things that Fred did for Don Elliott was that he helped him run these midway style gambling operations, usually at Catholic churches around West Michigan.  I can remember “carnivals” at Blessed Sacrament Church when I was a kid that I suspect were Elliott operations.  They were held in a big tent and I remember they had bingo and roulette and I think games of chance.   I don’t know how that worked because bingo wasn’t legal back then and roulette certainly wasn’t either.  All I can figure is that instead of calling them bets maybe they were called donations and bingo wasn’t called bingo.  The carnivals we had at my school, Aberdeen, across the playground weren’t nearly as fun.  I’ve got a lot of Fred stories and I won’t tell anymore here.  Even though our views on unions did not correspond and we were decades apart in age, we became pretty good friends when we discovered that I knew his daughter in high school when she lived with his ex-wife in Grand Rapids and that I actually knew a lot of people that he knew from back when I was a mailman.
 

Edited December 6, 2016 by walker

[sparky05]

I think the real news here is that there was once a franchise restaurant called “Mr. Ham and Mr. Beef.” 

[walker]

49 minutes ago, sparky05 said:

I think the real news here is that there was once a franchise restaurant called “Mr. Ham and Mr. Beef.” 

I did a quick Google search on "Mr. Ham and Mr. Beef" and found this article in the Sparta Sentinel-Leader about the opening of what was probably the only one.

Page down to the very bottom of the document:

Mr. Ham - Mr. Beef

Edited December 6, 2016 by walker

[wingbert]

1 hour ago, sparky05 said:

I think the real news here is that there was once a franchise restaurant called “Mr. Ham and Mr. Beef.” 

Those were the nicknames for my friend and I in high school.

[EastownLeo]

38 minutes ago, walker said:

I did a quick Google search on "Mr. Ham and Mr. Beef" and found this article in the Sparta Sentinel-Leader about the opening of what was probably the only one.

Page down to the very bottom of the document:

Mr. Ham - Mr. Beef

Sounds kinda like Russ'

[SEsideguy]

Can anyone say, " End of Life cycle".

[GRDadof3]

18 hours ago, SEsideguy said:

Can anyone say, " End of Life cycle".

Maybe during interior demolition they discovered some really bad structural issues on 50 Monroe? An entire big portion of the East building caved in from a collapsed smokestack when they were first renovating it back in the 80's. Maybe the "fix" back then did not stand the test of time. 

Just speculating I have no idea. 

[Chester Cheeto]

Maybe during interior demolition they discovered some really bad structural issues on 50 Monroe? An entire big portion of the East building caved in from a collapsed smokestack when they were first renovating it back in the 80's. Maybe the "fix" back then did not stand the test of time. 
Just speculating I have no idea. 

Well I heard from a source that worked in the building when the "modern" facade was added they had to run cables in the floors between the two buildings, because the walls were bowing out quite badly, to pull them back together. I walked by this building last night and thought I glimpsed one of the anchors the cables are attached to.

[SEsideguy]

This was a quick but expensive fix to an eyesore of a huge complex.  But not even close to an historically preserved building which now is what is wanted for this building. In 1985 many people wondered "Why" do this. The company I worked for did the interior design work, flooring tile, carpet, etc.  It did employ many trades which was needed. The alternative after demolition would have been a huge vacant dirt property. It was however exciting to see the building transformed.

 

[GVSUChris]

According to some Engineering Department notes it looks like this project will start heavy construction next summer, and they want to separate it into two separate buildings with one being a Marriott AC Hotel and the other being an office building. The parking lot...well...remain a parking lot. 

[GRDadof3]

2 hours ago, GVSUChris said:

According to some Engineering Department notes it looks like this project will start heavy construction next summer, and they want to separate it into two separate buildings with one being a Marriott AC Hotel and the other being an office building. The parking lot...well...remain a parking lot. 

Wow, fascinating. I assume the Westerly building will be the hotel? Just because of visibility?

[joeDowntown]

This article quotes Sam Cummings saying they will try to bring back the historic facade, turning the one building into 3 (I assume common access on the east side, but two separate facades). Only the radio stations will remain (interesting as it seems like it'll get a bit noisy). 

http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2016/12/downtown_newsstand_and_tobacco.html#incart_river_mobile_home

Joe

[GRDadof3]

On 12/16/2016 at 6:06 PM, GVSUChris said:

According to some Engineering Department notes it looks like this project will start heavy construction next summer, and they want to separate it into two separate buildings with one being a Marriott AC Hotel and the other being an office building. The parking lot...well...remain a parking lot. 

Here are the plans I think you're referring to. You can click on the image to see a large scale version of it. Nothing in the packet showing the facades. 

I assume they're saying "3 buildings" because the Easterly building looks like it will be permanently split? Condo-ized? 

Projected investment is $26 Million. 

DLR Group (architect) is a pretty big firm:

http://www.dlrgroup.com/search/?search=ac+hotel

 

And a typical floor (2nd floor)