GRDadof3

I'm confused. The Switch data center wasn't going to improve technology here locally. Was it? Or draw other businesses. Amazon built where it did because it's right off M-6 and they have a ton of land to expand on. It was never because Switch was there. It certainly didn't turn out to be as in-demand as Switch was hoping, it seems, but it was successful enough to sell.

Interesting. There's a proposal before the planning commission to turn the ground floor retail space at Belknap Gateway into residential units. I don't think that corner retail space has ever been leased. Who the heck would want those interior studios with no windows?

I was looking at that picture and thinking the same. I'm sure they'll get buried. I think a lot of burying of powerlines gets funded by TIF/DDA funds.

Just as you walk in to the left used to be all dining area. It's now a store (or was when I was there a few years ago). Shorts Brewery in Bellaire did the same. An entire dining section is now a store.

Wow harsh. I think they did their best to keep it going (and the patio may have been a hail mary and probably came back way more expensive than they planned), but there's a lot of competition on Bridge now from when they opened. Competition for customers and staff. And frankly it's way too big for a restaurant/pub. You want a place to feel full, and you also WANT to have a wait on busy nights (as it makes it seem popular). They had neither a full house nor a wait the last couple of times we went. They even got rid of a lot of the german stuff on the menu. Even Nickerbocker/New Holland reduced their restaurant footprint. Whoever buys this should divide the place up into separate businesses.

Totally agree Joe. The Medical Mile wouldn't be anything like it is today without MSU and Spectrum Health doing all of the heavy lifting. I haven't heard of anything really coming out of the incubator that was in the Cook Devos Center. So you really need GVSU and another higher ed institution and a big tech player to take the reigns if you're ever going to get 20,000 more tech workers in 10 years. BTW, what is the largest tech player in Grand Rapids now?

Yes I was mainly talking about everyone else. Not the big families. But even the big families can't make enough housing to fix the aforementioned shortage issues. Anyway, moving on. A little more formal statement from Grand Action and their PR firm today. https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2022/09/downtown-parking-lots-eyed-as-site-for-professional-grand-rapids-soccer-stadium.html?utm_campaign=grandrapidspress_sf&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook Sounds like it's a little more serious that previously thought.

It's not risk aversion, it's costs. Every project I've seen looked at recently, the numbers are all upside down. No private investors or lenders are going to give you money for a project that has an upside down pro-forma. i.e. single family starter homes for $500K+ or starter townhouses for $450k+. There are no buyers for those products, especially with higher interest rates expected for the next few years at least. We just don't get enough transplants here who just NEED to own a home. Many are just renting. I do know that new suburban housing projects have ground to a halt, and anything that was in the works is pretty much on hold now. Just what we need with an already tight housing shortage. Thanks Feds.

If you read the report (which reads like a marketing piece and not a white paper), they do talk about GVSU and a lot of other education initiatives. But I too am skeptical. It basically boils down to 3 strategies: ) Talent (improving tech training and education in the area). Feel like I've heard that one many times in the last 20 years... ) Hold a bunch of events and create incubators. You mean like StartGarden and that biotech up on the hill were supposed to launch the area into the future? ) Growth. Increase actual internet infrastructure. Hey, they've finally started on one of the ancilliary buildings now!!

Here's the actual strategy from the Right Place's website: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://rightplace.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/uploads/downloads/public-resources/Tech-Report-iPDF-FINAL.pdf I was looking for a little more meat as to how they're going to add 20,000 workers in the tech industry. Still reading...

No, you can't see the lake. But you can see small mounds on the horizon that I think are tree-covered sand dunes near Grand Haven. At least, I've never seen the lake from the couple of times I've been in one of the penthouses. I saw this crane from 131 way up in Comstock Park area coming South. Crazy. lol.

Hey, the admins and moderators here don't care. We just sometimes get contacted by outside parties who get their hackles up occasionally. But this site is not profiting off the images, they make just enough in ad revenue to keep the lights on.

Surprisingly you can see that crane from all over the city. I even saw it from 196 out by the Beltline. I think it's because it's on the hill vs down in the valley where most of downtown and Monroe North lie. Will there be a tower crane for the new Spectrum ramp? That would be cool to see. Plus I think this crane is not at full height yet. Doesn't seem high enough for a 12 story building.

Cranes, cranes in all the skies.

And it will be the tallest thing in that part of downtown. I can't imagine it not getting approved with the housing shortage.

A public input session/meeting is coming up for the McConnell project talked about recently on here. Looks like quite a large project.

I graduated from WMU. I haven't watched a WMU game since we went to spartan stadium a few years ago and Western got creamed lol. I was actually rooting for State. My wife got her Masters from GV and my daughter just graduated with her bachelors from GV this Spring. So I'm not totally oblivious to the Lakers. I think I would go to some USL soccer games in a sweet new stadium though. Maybe even more than Whitecaps games.

Yeah, I'm acquaintances with one of the owners and they've been struggling for a couple of years.

I guess that's my point. You really think a lot of people are going to watch a televised game of Grand Valley State University vs whomever? Maybe I live in a bubble but I don't know anyone who follows GV football. Not trying to be negative, just uninformed.

Hey I didn't spill the beans on this one, and I have basically zero recriminations on me if I did put something on here that wasn't ready for prime time. Unless it was for one of my clients which their line of business doesn't really align with urban development projects. But the OP pulling his post and the images doesn't really stop the fact that they were copied onto responses over and over again. But I think the Padnos site is a terrible site for a stadium. Why do we keep trying to create these "pods" of development clusters that take 20 - 30 years to build out? The West Side DASH lots are plug-n-play and there's still plenty of room for mixed use all around it. I've said it once and I'll say it again, we AREN'T Charlotte, Nashville, Austin, Portland or Denver. And we never will be. We should be one kick-ass Grand Rapids but we're not going to have massive numbers of 50 story buildings scattered throughout the downtown area. We're just not growing fast enough (our growth slowed during the pandemic for the first time in quite a while). Those other places just kept growing, faster. And building a venue that you can watch ColdPlay and also they can host a soccer game is LAME in my opinion. That seems like Dayton Ohio amateur hour. An amphitheater provides a completely unique experience. A soccer stadium provides a completely unique experience. If you've ever seen a live concert at LMCU ballpark, you know what I'm talking about. It's LAME. Plus, I don't follow sports and most people don't follow sports that closely. Do people REALLY care about D-1 vs D-whatever teams? End rant.

I don't think so. Probably just a reprimanding. If it costs them the client though, then.... lol.

Someone reached out to me to see if I knew the admin of this site, and I said I did of course, but never heard back again. I assumed they wanted the images pulled. The cat's kind of out-of-the-bag now. Interesting that DPFox bought the Big Boy site now.

Maybe GV wouldn't play every game at this downtown stadium. Maybe just exhibition games, night games or when they expect a big turnout.

Nobody knows. Nobody's talking.

I haven't been there in a few years. Parking is weird. And it's a modern building on the outside but looks like Mel's diner. I like to go out to breakfast but I always forget about that place.