Grand Rapids' Goodrich Apartments breaks ground on $3.1 million makeover

Deborah Johnson Wood

Seventeen years ago Grand Rapids-based Dwelling Place, Inc. purchased and renovated The Goodrich Apartments – 14 affordable apartments on S. Division Ave. just south of the Avenue for the Arts. A $3.1 million project to update the units and buildings broke ground this week.

The apartments are in two circa 1890 structures constructed side by side at 333 and 339 South Division Ave. – the DelaMater Building and the Schuchardt Building, respectively.

"This is not a gut rehab, but the apartments will have new appliances, new cupboards and hardwood floors throughout," says Jarrett DeWyse, director of housing development for Dwelling Place. "The buildings are long and narrow and some of the apartments are kind of dark. We're reconfiguring those apartments to have lower interior walls so natural light from the windows can travel deeper into those apartments."

The apartments will get complete overhauls, including new bathrooms and some skylights. The shared spaces, such as hallways and stairwells, will be repainted and carpeted.

The residents in the five occupied apartments at 339 S. Division agreed to a temporary "apartment swap" to the building next door. Once their apartments are renovated, the residents will move back in and work will begin on 333 S. Division.

Dwelling Place waited for months for approval of historic preservation tax credits from the state of Michigan and the federal government. DeWyse says the approvals came through recently for nearly $2 million in tax credits. Dwelling Place has to prove that it fulfilled its promise to keep certain renovations historically accurate once the project is completed at the end of the year.

"We can't remove the wood staircases, we have to replace windows with windows of similar construction, and we'll restore all the exterior cornices and window ledges," DeWyse says.

The project also received $700,000 from the city of Grand Rapids, which Dwelling Place will repay after a 15-year compliance period, provided there is enough cash flow.

Source: Jarrett DeWyse, Dwelling Place, Inc.

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected]. Development News tips can be sent to [email protected].