M Retail Solution's New HQ

The recently renovated building at 502 Second St. is more than a typical office space, and Chris Muller is more than a typical commercial real estate agent. Along with a partner, Keith Winn of Catalyst Partners, Muller purchased the property and developed it into an environmentally sustainable office environment.

After years of living and working in the Washington, DC area, Muller returned to Grand Rapids to start M Retail Solutions, a real estate company with the vision of connecting tenants and properties that would benefit each other synergistically. Rather than simply transforming Grand Rapids with new construction, Muller believes neighborhoods can be revitalized without losing their character.

"We have to keep building upon the little nuances that we already have," Chris says. "If you want to cater to where people are, you have to figure out how to fit within the confines of that urban area."

Muller believes that along with the evolution of individual neighborhoods, Grand Rapids needs to focus on its viability as a cohesive city.

"A lot of people have built up the backbone of what Grand Rapids can be, it's just now everyone's role to build upon that," he says. "The Rapid having better transportation is one key point. It will start to integrate and seamlessly connect all of these trade areas that, until now, have been divided and split apart with no connectivity between them. People who are getting more used to coming downtown for dinner or an event, they'll continue to want that experience. They're not going to be happy with only going out to 28th Street anymore, they're going to want to go places on Wealthy or Cherry or downtown. I think the demand for that is what is going to make Grand Rapids vibrant in its urban core."

It's this philosophy that led Muller and Winn to purchase and renovate 502 Second St., a building in a relatively undeveloped Westside neighborhood, for their own offices.

"We wanted to be close to downtown, but still have a cool project to experiment on and room to grow," Muller explains. Some of the uses they've found for the surrounding land include an underground geothermal heating system, a garden they've fit into a vacant parking lot next to the property and a roof cistern that collects rainwater for reuse. "We wanted this building to be a sort of incubator for all things environmental and sustainable," Muller says.

Following their focus on conservation and sustainability, many of the materials Muller and Winn used in the renovation are reclaimed from older buildings, most interestingly the now demolished Iroquois Elementary School. From the school, Chris was able to salvage lockers, flooring and bleachers, and they've found some interesting ways of using them. Some of these reuses, like the staircase railing made of bicycle wheels, are obvious and lend a quirky feel to the space. Most of the reused items, though, blend in seamlessly. The floor in M Retail's office area is made from the old wooden gym flooring, and the metal grate that divides it from the rest of the space once separated the school's weight room.

Muller and Winn have also sought to use as many of the building's natural features as possible. After stripping away the inner plaster and flooring, the remaining brick walls and concrete required only minimal refinishing, leaving a modern looking interior. They were also able to uncover some features long hidden by past renovation. When tearing up the asphalt in the parking lot, they found old paving bricks that had been covered over, which they removed one by one and saved for use in the property's walkways.

Despite the vintage appeal of the reclaimed materials in the building, many of its features are technologically innovative. The building's underground geothermal heating system and high-efficiency lighting package are controlled by an Apple iPad application. From the tablet, Muller is able to control temperature and lighting ambiance in any of the building's rooms manually, or with preset programs. The open interior plan of the building also makes the most of natural sunlight; on many days the offices need almost no artificial light.

Even where it wasn't feasible to use reclaimed materials for building features, Chris was conscious to use sustainable and locally sourced items. The majority of their office furniture is Herman Miller, and the kitchenette in M Retail's office was made by 4x8, a local company that designs cabinetry constructed of renewable bamboo.

Muller and Winn are currently in the process of applying for LEED certification of 502 Second St., which they hope to obtain by early summer. You can follow the development of the building from start to finish at their blog.

Jake Sebastian is a freelance writer, adventurer and radio producer at WPRR Public Radio. He's also the host The Feed, a weekly radio program that features the latest political news, independent arts, media trends and hyperlocal issues.