A vacant lot at 1015 Wealthy Street SE will soon house two new retail spaces and two second-floor apartments. Bear Manor Properties, developers for the site, received approval from the City Planning Commission to construct a 5,000-square-foot mixed-use building and a 14-space surface parking lot.
“It’s going to be a cool project,” said Brian Winkelmann of DTS+ Winkelmann, the building’s designers. “The developer wants it to be a LEED building, so we’re being innovative with the site plan.”
In addition to the possibility of constructing a green roof on the building, developers are investigating the use of recycled concrete from old sidewalks and highways as a paving surface for the parking lot. The concrete, crushed and compacted on top of a layer of sand, would act as its own storm water retention system.
“[When it rains], anything that comes off your car, like oil or dirt, goes into a catch basin and then into the sewer system and then into the Grand River,” said Todd Olin of Land Development Solutions, the civil engineer consultant on the project. “The crushed concrete and sand act like a natural filter; the particles that usually go into the storm sewer are filtered out.”
The filtered storm water would then seep into the ground, instead of being diverted into the Grand River through the city’s storm sewers.
About 2,500 square feet of retail space will be available on the main floor. Above will be two 2-bedroom loft apartments. Open, free-flowing floor plans include movable walls that will allow residents to customize the size of the rooms. A recessed balcony niche built into the upper level facade will provide one of the apartments with outdoor living space.
“The next phase is to complete the construction documents and get bids,” Winkelmann said. “We expect to break ground next spring.”
Source: Brian Winkelmann, DTS+ Winkelmann, LLC; Todd Olin, Land Development Solutions