Development News

Stakeholders in the Madison Square area came away from last week's Grand Rapids City Commission meeting jubilant after a unanimous vote to establish a Corridor Improvement District (CID) in their district. The group spent the last 12 months working with residents, business owners and property owners to develop a vision plan for the district.

A CID is a tax increment financing (TIF) tool established by the state of Michigan to help local governments fund public infrastructure improvements in commercial corridors. The Madison Square CID district runs north-south along Madison SE from Umatilla to Garden, and east-west along Hall SE from Eastern to Jefferson.

Next steps include appointment of a CID board by Mayor George Heartwell, and drafting of a detailed development plan by the board. The board will submit the plan to the city for approval.

"The city is coming through with their Combined Sewer Overflow project, working on Hall Street right now," says Rebekka Kwast of Neighborhood Ventures. "When they're done there will be better infrastructure, decorative street lights and landscaping." Neighborhood Ventures, Lighthouse Communities and the Madison Square community developed the CID proposal.

The CID board will use the TIF funding to build on the city's improvements by implementing the community's vision to make the corridor more walkable, improve public transit and attract and retain businesses.

Kwast expects TIF funding to be modest – about $5,000 in 2010 up to an estimated $45,000 by 2035 – but the CID designation enables the board to supplement funding through the purchase, sale and lease of property, to hold fundraising events and to market the district to attract businesses, thereby increasing the tax capture.

"I think the CID is going to help to promote a more positive image of the area," Kwast says. "It's going to give leadership to the area and allow local businesses and property owners to instigate change."

Source: Rebekka Kwast, Neighborhood Ventures

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.


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Owners of the Cherry Deli are taking their successful restaurant model to Grand Rapids' West Side to become the first business in Bob Israels' Enterprise Building – The 4th Street Deli.

Scott Schulz, a former executive chef of Bobarino’s, and his wife Suzanne Schulz, planning director for the city of Grand Rapids, opened the Cherry Deli, 834 Cherry SE, four years ago at the brink of the East Hills business district revitalization. Today the district is a thriving shopping and dining destination.

"We're hoping the same will happen with this area," says Scott. "There are some great buildings that could house some cool shops."

The two-story building is on a former brownfield. Renovation of the entire building is underway by developer Bob Israels who has renovated several adjacent properties.

"He approached us on some of the things he has going in the building and wanted some place to offer soups and salads," Scott says. "After the Arnie's building and Little Mexico both burned down, the options for lunch for people who work around here are pretty limited."

Chef Scott will bring his culinary expertise to the new deli at 528 4th Street, but says the atmosphere and menu will be different from Cherry Deli to "get away from that chain restaurant feeling."

The menu features 100 sandwiches, 20 soups and 20 salads – all from recipes created by Scott. He and Chris Sommerfeldt, general manager, have spent the last months gathering ideas at food shows.

”We sat down one day and started brainstorming and came up with 130 sandwiches," says Scott. "Now we have to weed it down to 100."
 
The Schulz's added a full kitchen and a serving line. The space seats 55.

The deli opens in September.

Source: Scott and Suzanne Schulz, 4th Street Deli

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.


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Grand Rapids entrepreneur Daniel Koert has lived in cities that are drastically different from each other -- Brooklyn, Nashville, Chicago and West Palm Beach to name a few – but he found they had one thing in common: thousands of bike commuters.

His desire to support the trend in urban Grand Rapids and his love for bikes led him to establish Commute GR, a bike sales and service shop at 120 S. Division, just a couple of gear shifts from the city's center.

"I felt there was a large need for a real bike shop in the downtown because there are a lot of people around here who commute by bike," Koert says. "One of the first things I noticed when I moved back to Grand Rapids about a year ago is you'd have to drive a car to get to a bike shop."

Koert, 25, still rides BMX and he races road and mountain bikes. He says he hasn't "owned a car in, like, forever."

To get people riding their bikes more and driving their cars less, Koert started The Wednesday Evening Bike Rides. Anywhere from 80 to 120 riders gather at Commute GR at 9 p.m. every Wednesday and tour the city together.

Rebuilding used bikes is Koert's specialty. He learned bike repair as a child working alongside his dad, and tore apart his first BMX when he was six.

"Every time I get a bike finished it gets sold, so it's challenging to build up inventory," Koert says. "I strip them down to the frame, repack the bearings, replace the tubes, tires, chain, housing and cables. Then I do a full tune-up. Every bike I sell I know personally and I know it's going to be a great bike that will last."

Source: Daniel Koert, Commute GR

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.


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Earlier this month, Mary Jane Vander Weide took center stage of the newly refurbished Lawrence Park Bowl amphitheater in Zeeland and offered a few memories about winning a prize as a young girl in 1937 for her piano piece at the city's Talent Show.

It was the first event held at the Bowl, built under the Works Progress Administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and a fitting introduction to the unveiling of the improved venue that had fallen into disrepair over past years.

The 2009 "Re-Grand Opening Ceremony" was the culmination of a year-long, $250,000 project funded by the city of Zeeland to restore the structural integrity of the bowl, adding seats to the concrete bleachers, upgrading sound and lighting and making the area compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"Basically it needed to be completely restored or condemned," says Abigail deRoo, Zeeland city marketing director. "City Council felt that restoring the site was very important to the history of Zeeland, and making the Bowl accessible again would bring more people to the parks. [The restoration] creates a gathering space for community groups to hold events, concerts, church worship services, company picnics, family reunions and more.

"I can say that we definitely see a huge difference in the quality of the sound, the comfort of the setting, the ability to attract more bands to perform," deRoo says.

The architect for the restoration project was Andrew Baer of Holland, and the construction manager was Joe Novak of Black River Builders in Holland. 

Source: Abigail deRoo, City of Zeeland

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.


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A longtime vision of husband and wife optometrists Scott Hieneman and Stacy Davis came true this year when they opened an optometry office in Ada, enabling them to work together in the same practice.

Ada Eye Care is the second office for Hieneman, who also owns Northwest Optometry in Sparta, and the first independent venture for Davis. The office, 6739 East Fulton, Suite A-20, fills a 1,300-square-foot space that has been vacant since the construction of the building about three years ago.

"My husband and I had always wanted to go into business together and it was the right time to do it," Davis says. "I had already been practicing in Ada over 10 years and had built up a great patient base. I didn't want to start all over again, so I stayed in Ada and he comes in one day a week."

The office offers comprehensive eye care services for patients ranging from age five through senior citizens. Two examination rooms provide space for vision testing and consultation.

"I've spent my whole career in Ada," she says, highlighting the fact that she could have relocated anywhere. "I was raised in Lowell and did my undergrad at U of M. After optometry school at Indiana University I came back home to practice. And this is where I want to be."

Source: Stacy Davis, OD, Ada Eye Care

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.


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Veteran Holland business owner Susan Langejans has Found-ed a new vintage furniture store in downtown Holland.

Her new store, Found, sells retro and vintage furniture, lamps with custom shades, unique artwork, pillows, decorative accessories and vintage fabrics by the yard. Langejans and her design partner Sue Vanderveen also do custom work on used furniture to give it new life.

"We find stuff all over, anywhere from antique fairs to mission stores," Langejans says. "We find retro and ‘vintagey-type’ furniture."

People also sell unwanted pieces of furniture to the store for refurbishment.

"We do a lot of our (refurbishment) work ourselves," Langejans says, although the pair sends out most custom upholstery jobs to a third-party. “We want to have something unique, but affordable. A lot of people come in and want to re-do pieces of furniture because they don’t want to buy something new."

Located at 203 E. Eighth St., Found took over a recently vacated retail space in Holland’s downtown district. The 2,500-square-foot space needed only some cosmetic changes to complete the store’s retro-chic look.

"It’s got a retro vibe," Langejans says. "We’re definitely into that."

Although Langejans doesn’t promote her store as a "green" business, she says it still attracts customers who are environmentally conscious.

"We’re refurbishing and selling items that might otherwise end up in a landfill or who-knows-where," she says.

Langejans says the community’s response to Found has been positive.

"There were a lot of skeptics when we first opened, ¬because of the economy, but we’re finding that people are still living their lives and still want to be creative," she says.

Source: Susan Langejans, Found; Kara Barney, Downtown Holland Principal Shopping District

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.


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A popular restaurant on Grand Rapids' West Side is helping a nearby church keep a bit of history in the neighborhood.

As part of the $1.2 million exterior restoration of historic St. Mary's Catholic Church, masons will tuck point the 200-foot bell tower and replace any damaged bricks.  The replacement bricks are courtesy of the former Arnie's Restaurant, a Leonard Street fixture that succumbed to fire in May.

Built in 1873, the church building at 423 1st St. NW is in good condition, but the facade and roof have deteriorated from exposure to the elements. Bill Ogden, general superintendent at Owen-Ames-Kimball, the firm managing the project, attends mass at St. Mary's and has witnessed first-hand the problems with the aging facade.

"If it's 32 degrees (Fahrenheit) out and we get rain, the brick absorbs it. Then that night if it drops down to 15 degrees the water freezes and the brick facings pop off," he says. "Every week, a lot of pieces of brick would be on their steps."

Crews will replace the roof, any rotted wood, the window frames and possibly cover the bell tower cross with gold leaf. After that, crews will manually scrub the entire building using a chemical brick restorer and brushes; a technique proven to minimize damage. That cleaning process takes about 30 days.

"We're restoring it to the original beauty of the building," says Father Dick Host, pastor. "It's German Gothic architecture and was built for German immigrants on the west side. The St. Mary's church community began in a small wood church by the river, started by Bishop Baraga when Campau and the Indians were here. Now we have a lot of parishioners from Mexico and Guatemala, plus students and families."

Source: Bill Ogden, Owen-Ames-Kimball; Reverend Dick Host, St. Mary's Catholic Church

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.


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The recent merger of Triangle Productions and Postworks Michigan has created a new media production company in Grand Rapids, 1041EAST, a name derived from the company’s location, 1041 East Fulton. The merger relocated a handful of employees from Cascade to an urban business district at the former Triangle Productions location.

In 1987, after working together at another company, Larry Melton and Ralph VanKuiken struck out on their own. Melton founded Triangle Productions and VanKuiken founded Postworks Michigan.

Since then, the duo found themselves collaborating on countless projects, with Triangle shooting and producing photography and video projects, and Postworks turning them into interactive or online streaming media.

The communications industry has changed so much in the past decade, remarks Melton, that one company can handle everything from ideation to launch. There’s no longer a need for separate entities to do production and post-production work.

Combining the two companies streamlines processes for clients who want online media, streaming web video, animation, and traditional broadcast and corporate videos. Those clients include Amway, Details and Spectrum Health.

Melton and VanKuiken revamped the building’s interior to accommodate more employees and equipment. Three smaller rooms are now one large collaborative area where the graphics designers work, and an existing photo and video studio will be updated.
 
VanKuiken says that, for him, having a larger number of creative people to collaborate with is inspiring. He adds that the new location puts the company closer to clients, making it more convenient to do business.  

Source: Larry Melton, Ralph VanKuiken, Terrie Lynema, 1041EAST

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.


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Having opened two stores in her 12 years of business, Canterbury Cottage owner Cindy Haight has expanded her company again by launching a store in downtown Holland.

Canterbury Cottage at 48 W. Eighth St. recently opened with a selection of home décor mainly with a traditional cottage feel. The selection includes upholstered furniture, lamps, tables, pillows, candleholders and children’s furniture, bedding and clothing.

Among the store’s six employees are interior designers who make home visits for consultations and floral designers who create custom floral arrangements.

The owner of  Canterbury Cottage and Canterbury Kids in Jenison, Haight said she opened the new store as a way to bring in more revenue.

“I got curious about downtown Holland," Haight says. "I knew it was quite busy down there.” She made calls about stores for lease and finally decided on a 2,200-square-foot location that was previously a shoe store.

“I fell in love with it,” she says. “We just painted, built a counter and it was good.”

Haight says the store has been very busy. “People have been very complimentary," she says. "They seem to be excited about having us down there.”

Although the Holland store is just two months old, Haight says it is possible she could expand again. “We’re already seeing that we might run out of room at the new store. It would be neat to have a separate Canterbury Kids and Canterbury Cottage in Holland.”

Source: Cindy Haight, Canterbury Cottage;  Kara Barney, City of Holland

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.

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The Gilmore Collection recently closed on a $1.9 million purchase from the city of Grand Rapids of a parking lot adjacent to Gilmore's The B.O.B., positioning the company for development of a proposed marketplace and concert venue.

The four-story project includes a concert hall with seating for  thousands, 45 concert suites, an exhibition kitchen and 60 retail-ready kiosks for food and beverage sales. Spaces for a bakery, coffee shop and newsstand would provide options for those businesses to anchor the complex with regular daily hours.

"By this time next year, we'll have the construction plans done and will start to market the 45 suites for lease to corporations or individuals," says Greg Gilmore, general manager of The Gilmore Collection. "We're building it as a flex space to ebb and flow with whatever is happening downtown."

Gilmore envisions the exhibition kitchen as a place where local chefs, celebrity chefs and citizens might test their skills in "iron chef" style cook-off competitions. The concert space, which features a roof that will open, will double as a cinema, offering the occasional movie as a special event.

"We see a large need for a venue of this type to bring more people to the city," Gilmore says. "There's not a venue for concerts between the sizes of those at the Van Andel Arena and Saint Cecilia, except DeVos Hall, and then you have to sit in a seat and be formal."

The agreement with the city requires completion of the $5 million project by fall 2012. Gilmore hopes to have it open a year sooner.

A contest to name the project, currently dubbed "Bobville," is on The B.O.B.'s web site. Top prize is a trip for four to Gilmore's Redstone Inn in Redstone, Colorado.

Source: Greg Gilmore, The Gilmore Collection

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.

 

 

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After a little more than two years of offering delicious eats from an unusual menu, Bobby J's Downtown closed its doors on July 3. But fans of the Heritage Hill/Heartside eatery aren't raising a fuss. They know that the goodies live on in West Michigan Caterer, the original business started by Bob Johnson.

"We've always used Bobby J's kitchen for the catering and for the restaurant," Johnson says. "But the catering operation has grown so rapidly, that, for us to be able to put out the lunch menu and still do five to eight catering events for a Saturday night and serve 800 to 2,000 people at off-site locations just didn't work."

Johnson would have to lay out about $300,000 to build a second catering kitchen at another location in order to keep the restaurant open. Instead, he turned the restaurant, 15 Jefferson SE, into a leasable downtown venue for meetings, conferences, rehearsal dinners and the like for 10 to 150 people. Johnson replaced the tables and booths with portable tables and chairs that can be configured to fit the needs of the event. Rental includes wireless Internet access and audio/visual technology. Food and beverages are available through West Michigan Caterer.

Johnson offered all of Bobby J's employees jobs with the catering business, and all but a couple of them stayed on, bringing the employee rolls to 42. Another 40 are on call for serving catered events when needed.

"We'll be able to increase jobs because we'll be able to book more daytime and other catering events plus lease the restaurant space," Johnson says. "We're refocusing the business and have developed daytime delivery for groups of 10 or more."

Source: Bob Johnson, West Michigan Caterer

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.

 

 

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The explosion of development along Wealthy Street SE has reshaped the neighborhood from a street lined with vacant buildings to a busy business district filled with shops, restaurants, bars and entertainment spots.

Today, Jenison-based Georgetown Development marks its first foray into urban redevelopment with a groundbreaking ceremony for the historic renovation of two buildings at 632-636 Wealthy SE. The $1 million project promises to bring four residential apartments and 4,000 square feet of retail space to the area.

"We see things moving to more of an urban community with the synergy that's happening here," Ponstein says. "There are more people moving into the city and there's a need for more retail and businesses. With the tax incentives, it makes these projects viable to do, where in the past they were not."

Those tax incentives include brownfield redevelopment and historic tax credits, and a Renaissance Zone extension.

Last year the city of Grand Rapids granted a Renaissance Zone extension for the retail portion of the development only, but Todd Ponstein, president of Georgetown Development, said that without the Ren Zone the company couldn't afford to move forward on the project. This spring, the city reconsidered and granted the Ren Zone extension until 2024.

The four apartments will be 1,000 square feet each with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and will rent for about $1,000 dollars a month.

Residential tenants will pay no state or city income tax – a savings of about 5.5 percent of their wages – and no property tax until 2024, says Ponstein. Commercial tenants will not pay property tax of the Michigan Business Tax until 2024.

Source: Todd Ponstein, Georgetown Development

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.

 

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So many Grand Valley State University students want to live on-campus that even the addition of three new housing buildings and 460 additional beds the college can't keep up with demand. The university received 6,500 applications for 5,464 beds two years ago, resulting in some 600 freshman and half of the sophomores living off campus against their preference.

In summer next year, the university hopes to ease the situation with the opening of 608 apartment-style housing units on campus – a net increase of 460 beds. Last April, the college broke ground on the $52.4 million housing project after razing Grand Valley Apartments.

Three L-shaped buildings surround a large green space that will have bike racks, benches and trees where students can toss a football or Frisbee, or just relax.

"This used to be an old parking lot and we are trying to put more green space on the site than there was when we started," says Scott Veine, project manager for Pioneer Construction, the construction manager.

Two- and four-bedroom furnished units offer full kitchens, common living areas and storage. Elsewhere in the buildings are study rooms that accommodate up to 12 people each, vending areas, mail areas, and laundry facilities. Some 75 percent of the interiors – nearly every space except the hallways – will receive daylight.

Veine expects the buildings to receive LEED-NC Gold certification.

"We have a series of five rain gardens that divert the storm water runoff from the Allendale storm water system and from the ravines that snake through the campus," he says. "The whole campus is built on high plateaus created by the ravines. Before, 100 percent of the runoff went into the ravines, but the new system creates new wetlands on the campus about a half mile away from the housing project."

Integrated Architecture is the architect.

Source: Scott Veine, Pioneer Construction; Kathy Ingle and Abigail Forbes, Grand Valley State University

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.

 

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