By: Deborah Johnson Wood
A $4.5 million makeover of Grand Rapids’ historic Flat Iron building and two adjoining buildings will bring 27,000 square feet of office space to the heart of the city. Locus Development’s John Green and Andy Winkel, developers of the project, hope to offer all that space to a company that wants a premiere downtown presence.
The Flat Iron Building at 102 Monroe Center is the street’s oldest, built in 1860. That building and the Groskopfs and Herkner buildings will connect to each other via the upper three floors.
“We have evidence of old passageways that are now bricked up,” Winkel says. “We want to create new passageways between the buildings that follow those openings.”
Locus will renovate the buildings to LEED standards and upgrade the upper floor interiors to 21st Century office space, yet maintain the historic integrity of the structures.
“We have 9,000 square feet per floor on the three upper levels,” Green says, “which would allow a large company to occupy a prime location in downtown Grand Rapids.”
“To have that space in the heart of downtown is something unique,” Winkel adds.
The upper floors were last occupied in the 1940s. Today, the Groskopfs building has significant structural damage from a leaking roof. A blow-up pool under the leak catches the water; a hose snaked out a window keeps it from overflowing.
“You could name a pool as one of our amenities,” Winkel jokes.
Current retail tenants—Groskopfs and Blake’s Turkey—will remain. Locus has a letter of intent for a vacant retail space in the Herkner building, but declined to name the interested party.
The City of Grand Rapids approved the buildings for Brownfield Redevelopment tax incentives; the developers await final approval from the state.
The Downtown Development Authority approved three $50,000 Building Reuse Incentives Program matching grants.
Source: John Green and Andy Winkel, Locus Development; Craig Clark, Clark Communications
Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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