walker
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Posts posted by walker
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On 7/6/2023 at 5:35 PM, Jonesey said:. . . Did The Boardwalk building used to go all the way from Monroe to Division?
Not to Division but It went all the way to Ottawa. The portion of the old Berkey & Gay factory that was along Mason between Monroe and Ottawa was torn down and replaced with a parking ramp and parking lot when the building was repurposed into residential and offices in 2002. They say that when this was built, it was the largest furniture factory in the world. There was a railroad siding to service the factory that continued through the building then along Bond Street to service other factories in the neighborhood and then eventually the Grand Rapids Press building when it was on Michigan.
Of course I have a personal story about this: Back in the early seventies I actually worked for a year in the section of the building that was torn down that faced Ottawa as the night computer operator for a company called Sackner Products that leased that section of the building. I'd quit my job as a mailman to go to college but I ran out of money and dropped out and ended up getting a job there. After that year at Sackner I got a slightly better paying computer operator job a block down the street at Wolverine Brass (aka the Brass Works Building.) Sackner took a long time finding a replacement for me so for a couple of months I worked at both places simultaneously, that is - I was on the clock at both places at the same time. I'd start at Wolverine Brass and when everything was up an running and didn't need my immediate attention, I'd go down the street and run Sackner's computer. This was well before the days of personal computers and servers, these were the "big iron" mainframe computers. Strangely both of my bosses and their bosses were fine with this and I was making twice what I would if I only had one job..
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Article about legislation to allow cities besides just Detroit to establish their own land banks. It specifically mentions Grand Rapids, Wyoming, and Kentwood:
FREE PRESS: Detroit is the only Michigan city that can establish a land bank. More could soon join
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Maybe it's been there for awhile but I just noticed the other day this GRR billboard in Muskegon on Seaway Drive as you are driving east towards Mona Lake:
If it looks vaguely familiar, it is because it is obviously based on the old poster and the version of it painted on the side of Yesterdog as seen in my old post about Kohler Aviation back in 2019. Likely the billboard artist had fun with this even if hardly anyone knew what he or she was up to:
On 9/2/2019 at 3:24 PM, walker said:You might recognize this from the stylized version of this poster that's painted on the Yesterdog wall. Here's the original airline that flew from Grand Rapids to Milwaukee:
The Detroit part of this is you could take the train from Detroit and they'd let you out at the tracks adjoining the old Kent County Airport where you could then board a flight for Milwaukee. This was an odd plane, it had an open cockpit for the pilots while the passengers sat inside. They had several of these planes. The plane was amphibious which was a nice feature if it crashed into Lake Michigan which it did a few times with no loss of life or serious injury.
A bit of Kohler Aviation History
combined train and plane schedule
Yesterdog's version:
Passenger service has fallen on hard times at the Muskegon Airport. Because of the pilot shortage since the pandemic, the previous United Express regional carrier that flew between Muskegon and Chicago dropped their service and the replacement air service is provided by Southern Airways Express, an airline that flies nine-passenger non-pressurized single prop planes. Apparently the pilot requirements are not as strict for their planes:
LATE EDIT: I noticed on the Flight Aware website that unlike old Kohler Aviation with their amphibious planes, Southwest Airways Express does not fly their single engine plane directly across Lake Michigan, they stay pretty close to shore
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Free Press: MSU buys majority stake in Fisher Building in Detroit
The article states that the MSU Endowment Fund made a "$21 million investment in the real estate partnership that owns the Fisher Building and two adjacent surface parking lots and a parking structure." For now it sounds like it will continue renting to commercial tenants and MSU will also use it to house some of their programs.
Hopefully this will help stabilize another famous iconic Detroit skyscraper that has had some problems in recent years.
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Here's a story today in Mlive about proposed city ordinances that hopefully will make homelessness and panhandling a little less intolerable:
MLIVE: aggressive panhandling. piled-up belongings in parks could be forbidden in grand rapids
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3 hours ago, mgreven said:
Acrisure Amphitheater? Hopefully it's something decent...whether you love the Amway/DeVos/VanAndel crew or not, we don't need the Amway or DeVos/VanAndel Amphitheater. It looks like they are they only people in town sometimes. Seems like a quick groundbreaking...how fast can they have a new facility for everything there?
Considering who is the private part of the public-private partnership that put the amphitheater plan together and arranged for the relocation of the trunk storm sewer, I don't think we should expect to see a name out front on the amphitheater that we haven't already seen:
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21 hours ago, GR_Urbanist said:
. . . It's likely a simple matter of not getting a bank/whomever to finance it.
I'm no banker but I'm guessing this is the real problem. I think the FED's constant raising of the interest rates has finally made it not viable to finance big projects like this. Certainly the demand for new housing is still there.
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On 6/2/2023 at 3:44 PM, whitemice said:
Did you see that 601 Cherry St SE is listed for sale?
The last vestiges of the Logie era are fading away. 
COLDWELL BANKER LISTING: 601 Cherry including history of house
Back when the Logies were renters on Madison and lived upstairs from me and were in the process of buying 601 Cherry, I think I remember Susan Logie telling me that they were purchasing the house for $25,000. That included not only the house on Cherry but the carriage house in the back and the rental property behind it on Union. The house on Cherry had been vacant for years as I remember.
Even if my memory is off by 100%, and I don't think it is, that's an amazing price considering what Heritage Hill houses are going for now. I think this was 1970 or 1971. You could get some real bargains back then in the early days of the Heritage Hill Association before it really got established.
In order to screen potential buyers I suppose, the realtors back then never put a "for sale" sign on a property that was listed in Heritage Hill and in some other changing neighborhoods. But I knew which ones were for sale and how much they were listed for because they'd send a notice of the listing to the owners in the mail on a postcard with all the pertinent information. And as I've mentioned a few times over the years, I was the neighborhood mailman in the portion of Heritage Hill south of Fulton.
I don't think 601 Cherry was ever listed. I think it was a private sale.
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This pretty big project surprised me:
I wonder how much this will raise the price on rental cars.
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4 hours ago, grandrollerz said:
I took this from Baton Rouge to New Orleans and it was pretty nice. Inexpensive and efficient.
Instead of Flixbus, this would have been the classic way to go between Baton Rouge and New Orleans:
QuoteBusted flat in Baton Rouge, waitin' for a train
When I's feelin' near as faded as my jeans
Bobby thumbed a diesel down, just before it rained
And rode us all the way into New Orleans
I pulled my harpoon out of my dirty red bandana
I's playin' soft while Bobby sang the blues
Windshield wipers slappin' time, I's holdin' Bobby's hand in mine
We sang every song that driver knew. . .
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On 5/2/2023 at 8:02 AM, Zads said:
I'm not sure where this goes, if it goes here at all. I figured the news of a demolition of a historic school in the city would garner some sort of thread somewhere.
This irritates me. Why not sell it to a developer for apartments? For the amount of housing we need in the city, this is the wrong move, especially tearing down a historic building.
"The School District had three different bids on the project which included a carpet recycling warehouse, an apartment building with a community center and a non-profit transitional housing building."
Just a follow-up to the earlier discussion about the Kensington School demolition issue. The school board voted unanimously to tear down the building. The news articles gave little new information about their reasoning. for turning down the proposals.
WOODTV: grand-rapids/grps-board-approves-demolition-of-kensington-school
MLIVE: grand-rapids-board-of-education-votes-to-demolish-vacant-school
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On 8/16/2022 at 12:52 PM, Allison Slater said:
There's a company here in GR that does container buildings, I could be wrong but I think they're somewhere by Roger B. Chaffee Ave? https://gotblox.com
First noticed this a couple of weeks ago before they painted it when it looked more like shipping containers including graffiti. This looks like what I'm guessing is going to be classrooms for the John Ball Zoo School. It is just to the left of the zoo entrance back behind the old pavilion where the band shell used to be.
Looking around the zoo, I for the first time noticed there are other shipping container buildings, including the ticket office that's been there for a few years along with a couple of concession buildings:
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On 6/24/2022 at 9:15 AM, GRDadof3 said:
I heard Dr Chang of BAMF speak at a Chamber event recently and that company is really impressive. I didn't realize they had the only cyclotrons in the world that they developed and have patents/FDA approval for that detect cancer and then cyclotrons that treat cancer. In the fraction of the time and way more precise than radiation or chemotherapy (molecular level precise). They expect a huge rush in patients from all over the country once they get fully up and running. They gave one example with one form of cancer (prostate) that once you're diagnosed traditionally, it's just basically you're waiting to die. Whereas with BAMF they have a proven 80% survival rate with their treatment. I'm paraphrasing obviously.
. . . Cool stuff happening here in GR.
In case your curiosity is peaked:
An interesting story in the Detroit Free Press today, somewhat similar to the Mlive article, about Doug Meijer's so far successful fight against prostate cancer leading him to invest in BAMF so people who do not have his means can take advantage of their advanced technology without having to fly to Germany for treatment.
You need a subscription to access:
Free Press: new cancer center had help from one of michigans wealthiest families
If you don't currently have a subscription and can't find your credit card just now there's this work around:
edit: here's the raw https address to plug into the archive link:
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The May 8th issue of The New Yorker has a long profile article about the famous (some would say infamous) screenwriter and director Paul Shrader who is a Grand Rapids native and a Calvin College graduate. They mention his Grand Rapids influences including watching artsy movies at the Wealthy Theatre. OK - they didn't say Wealthy Theatre by name, they just called it a neighborhood theatre. But I'm Shrader's exact age and that was the only place you could see artsy movies back then. I went there too (Wealthy Theatre, not Calvin.)
NEW YORKER: paul-schrader-wants-to-make-another-movie
I have aged much better than he has.
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1 hour ago, arcturus said:
In my inbox today - non stop service to LaGuardia on American.
Yeah, according to this press release from back in December, it starts today:
GRR PRESS RELEASE: american airlines new york
I'm a little surprised they are going forward with this right now since many sources say that flights to all New York airports are being reduced 10% this summer because of a shortage of air traffic controllers:
TRAVELNOIRE: summer-flight-delays-airlines-cut-new-york-flights
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4 hours ago, Zads said:
I'm not sure where this goes, if it goes here at all. I figured the news of a demolition of a historic school in the city would garner some sort of thread somewhere.
This irritates me. Why not sell it to a developer for apartments? For the amount of housing we need in the city, this is the wrong move, especially tearing down a historic building.
"The School District had three different bids on the project which included a carpet recycling warehouse, an apartment building with a community center and a non-profit transitional housing building."
I have no inside information or really much of an opinion on this. The Mlive link below is a little more detailed. According to the article the Board of Education spent a lot of time studying the issue. The article doesn't explain what their reasoning was for rejecting the bids but I suspect they probably don't think any of the proposals are viable considering the cost they estimate it would take just to get the building up to code. Personally I can't see anybody spending seven million dollars to bring the building up to code so that it can be used as a carpet recycling warehouse.
MLIVE: grand-rapids-school-board-reconsidering-demolition-of-old-vacant-high-school-building
It looks like at one time it was a very nice looking school. Just because it is old though doesn't mean it is historic and must be saved.
EDIT: Here is a link to an earlier article giving a summary of each bid:
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YouTube recommended to me this video of the history of the Book Tower. It's a little overly dramatic but it still gives a good outline of its history:
History of the Book Tower up till the time it was abandoned
But it is restored and almost ready for new tenants. Here's a recent story and tour from WDIV:
WDIV: sneak peak of restored Book Tower
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32 minutes ago, joeDowntown said:
. There's a couple of interesting articles in Crain's Grand Rapids (formerly MIBiz and GR Business Journal) about GVSU's plans for the downtown campus:
The publisher of Crain's Communication is Mary Kramer, a former Grand Rapids resident, GVSU graduate and GVSU board member. I wonder if that has anything to do with Crain's taking over MIBiz and breaking this GVSU story?
CRAINS: leadership - Mary Kramer
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3 hours ago, RiversideGR said:
Sorry if this has already been discussed, but there is an item on the agenda for the next Historical Preservation Commission meeting for a proposed mixed-use development at 241 State Street
I like it.
The most historic thing on that wedge block is the Calkin's Law Office Building at 201 State Street, supposedly the oldest building in Grand Rapids. But keep in mind that isn't its original location. It was originally downtown at Monroe and Ottawa and it was moved from there later to Ionia Ave. It fell into disrepair and was saved and was restored and moved to where it is now when the museum was across the street. Without the museum there it is kind of an orphan building and maybe should be moved again, especially if it is used as an excuse to stop this redevelopment. Back in 2007 there was a discussion here about whether the Calkin's building should be moved or not:
Urbanplanet - 2007: calkins-law-office-building
'
Before the move
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20 hours ago, RegalTDP said:
. . . I don't even know where the heck that house is. I know listicle writers never put much effort into this, but there are so many great licensable pics of GR and you can find them in two seconds.
I doubt if either of the writers of the two articles, the original one, and the one that was cribbed from it, spent more than a couple of hours each on their stories. That's much less than the amount of time that's been spent here discussing them.
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Hickory NC is #1 on their list. I traveled many times to Hickory back when I worked. That was a long time ago. If I thought for a while, I could probably come up with a few nice things I could say about Hickory and be sincere. But I cannot think of any list where I would make Hickory #1 or even a top ten.
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According to a press release from Dan Gilbert's Bedrock real estate company, they "will begin pre-leasing for its residential units at Book Tower in April as the development prepares to open this spring." The Detroit News has a free link to a story about it in today's paper:
DETROIT NEWS: bedrock-to-open-restored-historic-book-tower-in-detroit-this-spring
This is really great news for Detroit. The Book Tower is a great icon from the salad days of Detroit.
It could now use some updating but here is the Wikipedia article for the Book Tower in case somehow you are not familiar with it:
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On 7/4/2022 at 11:01 AM, Guest said:
. . . I wonder how long it will be until Kent Country Club FINALLY sells to a developer. That property has so much potential and an awesome location.
On 7/4/2022 at 12:21 PM, Pattmost20 said:Not going to happen anytime soon. I know a few members, they have doubled the number of members in the last few years. That place is booming.
Thought of these old posts when I read this article today about the improvements to Kent Country Club:
WOODTV: Renovations Modernizing Kent Country Club Dining Area and Patio
Grand Rapids Restaurant Rumor Mill
in Grand Rapids
Posted
New concept and new name and menu but apparently the same owner and building as the Sandy Point Beach House: