cstonesparty
-
Posts
309 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Project Database
User Guide
Store
Events
Posts posted by cstonesparty
-
-
1 hour ago, Khorasaurus1 said:
Interesting that all the light industrial buildings on the block bounded by Summer/Winter/Douglas/Blumrich are still standing in this picture. Generally with stadiums/arenas, anything like that nearby gets knocked down for parking/"future development." We'll see if those businesses stay in place.
I'd wager significant amounts that those properties are being hotly pursued by same party who acquired Big Boy...
-
1
-
-
-
In the article today about the tower at Studio Park, there's this shot of the arena... Looks really lousy.
-
2
-
-
4 hours ago, joeDowntown said:
it's a bit of a drive for commuters.
Joe
I think M-6 as a commuter tool makes outlying areas near 8th Ave in the SW region continue to be preferred direction for growth vs longer drives.
-
1 hour ago, Zads said:
Story from Crain's on the approval.
I sincerely appreciate Commissioner Shannon's comment about how the DASH lots are always empty. That's been a big talking point for people that are opposed to this project because it takes away parking (not to be confused with those that have an issue with the lack of parking).
I'm also a resident of West Grand and I get the parking concerns for neighbors, that's valid. I'm interested to see if there's any sort of agreement that can be reached between GA2.0 and the neighborhoods (JBAN and West Grand specifically) in regard to prioritizing neighbor parking during events.
Didn’t DASH route change reduce ridership and hasn’t recovered yet?
-
If you look at the structure of minor league baseball it will quickly become clear that the Whitecaps are exactly where they should be and Detroit will always have Toledo at AAA. Imagining otherwise is a waste of time and energy.
-
3
-
-
One of the most instructive parts of this article is that attendance peaked quite a while ago and has plateaued... Comments in this thread envisioning expansion of seating capacity should bear that in mind. They're enhancing services with revenue generating offerings and segments in mind... Not growing capacity.
-
1 hour ago, GR8scott said:
Actually growth COULD continue through '24 and '25 at least because concourse A expansion is not completed yet, there are several additional flight options coming soon to ATL, DFW, BNA, MSP (all destinations already served). I would think that would continue when the concourse project completes later this year along with the customs project and hope that means new destinations CUN, maybe JFK, IAD and TOR again and hope better service to the west coast to LAX, LAS, and PHX and maybe new service to SLC SEA among other possibilities!
Will United ever bring back the direct flight to Dulles?
-
2 hours ago, GRJohn said:
I wonder if they could do what East Brook Mall (Center Point) did and de-mall themselves. That seemed to work well for them.
I have to wonder if they kept the indoor structure and changed business model to make it the suburban entertainment district for people who don't like downtown, want to park near the restaurant, bar, etc. Add indoor minigolf, gokarts, fowling, etc. That would seem like a pivot that could be successful if combined with some ongoing niche retail and some housing conversion of part of the structure... South and west suburbs are rich opportunity for non-downtown people.
-
3
-
-
1 hour ago, whitemice said:
Agree; Calder Plaza is a money pit, this seems to mostly be about refusing to abandoned what was clearly a bad idea.
There is no there there. Calder Plaza's soul is a parking ramp for office towers. Potted plants on top will not change that. So much resources that could be better deployed elsewhere.
I think we've basically circled around to previous conversation about city hall. That seems to me to be the crux of the issue--as long as city hall is there, the use of that block is somewhat locked. Is there ANY possibility that city leaders would consider relocating? I think very unlikely. Even more unlikely that the federal building would be relocated...
-
1
-
-
23 hours ago, HavingAhoot said:
I like the modern Lumber/Wood parts while also dislike cheap way out budget clad look. All in all, grateful we are getting a stadium. Can always give it a facelift if this pro soccer business takes off.
that isnt wood. metal panels
-
33 minutes ago, whitemice said:
It does match the character of much of the West Side. There is metal siding all over the West Side on newer buildings.
All over the city at this point. Strikes me as lazy and uncreative to be frank. It's gonna look like three designers with a limited repertoire designed everything for a decade by the time this fad is done. (more than a decade--when did the UICA building go up?)
-
On 11/8/2023 at 9:20 AM, cstonesparty said:
I don't think with Progressive AE working on this that will happen. These renderings and the renderings from the amphitheater are all of a style that they (or a specific designer there) seem to be favoring lately, and a TON of the metal panel cladding in stuff they've designed...
reupping on this comment since the recent renderings show same metal cladding trend... folks who were hoping for brick & ivy / old fashioned ballpark cues. It's definitely not that!
-
On 2/24/2024 at 6:17 AM, WMrapids said:
Corewell is planning a 300,000 square foot service center at the old GM location on 36th Street. There’s a market going in across the street too.
https://www.woodtv.com/news/kent-county/corewell-health-plans-service-center-for-wyoming/amp/
That's fairly underwhelming for that site, based on the potential it has. But since it's been marketed for--what, a decade?--quite some time without success, it was inevitable that something underwhelming would go in there. At least it's not another strip mall with dispensary and payday cash...
-
1
-
-
25 minutes ago, Zads said:
Scary stuff. Here's a piece from Fox17.
Just looking at the picture in the piece, it was in the vent in the rear of the building and traveled up through that to the roof.
I work a few blocks away and could smell it in our building. Was wondering what was on fire...
-
3 hours ago, joeDowntown said:
One step closer. I have to imagine we'll see real plans and updated renderings soon:
how does Crains have the submission? I looked on Planning Commission page and nothing has been posted on that agenda yet...
-
2 hours ago, joeDowntown said:
I would then expand DeVos Place onto the Western portion of the property leaving enough property on Ottawa for new development (residential hopefully, with parking below ground).
Cool. Another magic wand follow-up...
If you could have either the post office or city/county buildings to expand DeVos Place, which would you use? What's your 'best-use' for either property?
-
38 minutes ago, whitemice said:
Why not all of Calder Plaza? It's not a good place. It would be a prime site for a big development. Not going to happen - but would be my choice. Sell the entire site, it could fetch some real coin, build a very nice city hall on one of the parking lots.
if you had the magic wand, where would you put city hall?
-
12 hours ago, whitemice said:
Still waiting for evidence of an exodus; this is the wrong direction for an exodus.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/downtowngr.org/ourwork/MNTIFA-Agenda-Packet-FEB-2024.pdf
That's a pretty interesting report that you pulled that stat out from... lots of positive stuff in there, like you showed.
Also some things to be watching to see what the ongoing trend looks like:
DASH lost a ton of ridership when they changed the route
visitor activity counts down
hotel occupancy down
-
4 hours ago, joeDowntown said:
@whitemice, I’m curious what you think of the proposed zoning changes (discussed in this article). Specifically, what are your thoughts on the ADU changes. Do you think they did a good job? I know you built an ADU, but said it wouldn’t work for most properties in GR (IIRC your yard was quite big and fit within the layers of restrictions but most lots wouldn’t work). Curious how much it moves the needle to allowing more ADUs in the city.
Joe
Did they revise the highly restrictive aspects of ADU siting that you've commented on previously, @whitemice?
-
On 2/17/2024 at 12:59 PM, joeDowntown said:
The DeVos family has planned an announcement for a “transformational gift for children’s healthcare” on Monday, Feb 19. Will be interesting to see what’s planned and seems to involve Corewell, Mary Freebed and Pine Rest.
-
Crains article from the focus groups...
-
1
-
-
2 hours ago, thebeerqueer said:
I wonder how the Standale location is doing? Seems like a better fit out there.
I pass there very frequently and it appears very busy most of the time. That and Westside Social seem to be full more often than not...
3 hours ago, MJLO said:I do appreciate Meritage because they have bigger ambitions. Wendy's is definitely their core. I'm sure they are continuing to grow that portion of their business. It's a little disappointing to see them keep redeploying this strategy of creating their own chains. I can't think of a single chain anywhere that was inorganically "flash created" that has survived. Too many locations, too fast and a workforce can't be developed fast enough to the standards of whatever brand is trying to be established. What ends up happening is an employee base that is under trained, service suffers, and pretty quickly the restaurant public becomes turned off or indifferent. The locations become forgettable pretty quick (think Bagger Dave's).
I'm not a senior manager of a publicly traded restaurant company, but I'll armchair quarterback the hell out of it. I would think they'd be better off with an M&A strategy of purchasing established chains, over continuing to waste capitol into these failed attempts. They seemed to do that with Anna's House a while back. I know they went pretty deep into a potential purchase of the brand. Eventually they decided against it. Morning Glory all of the sudden happened (with a not so subtle similarity to Anna's house lol). It'll be interesting to see if they try something else at this location. I think the foot traffic on that portion of Ottawa is still too low to really be sustainable for a restaurant that big. Unless they are really able to drive a concept that's more of a destination in it's formatting.
O'Charley's was sort of an effort at a more chain-type mid-level restaurant (licensed, not acquired) from them, but that didn't really last either...
-
1
-
-
13 hours ago, Pattmost20 said:
The amount of times Meritage has tried to launch a new chain restaurant concept is kind of crazy. Aren't we up to like 4 different concepts they've opened, expanded, and then closed down?
isn't that what they do, though? develop restaurant concepts? get out of them after they've hit a plateau or pour fuel on if they work? I'm not any kind of expert in the restaurant field, but I've heard the life-cycle of a restaurant is pretty short, so this would seem to be their strategy.
Grand Rapids Airport (GRR) News and Developments
in Grand Rapids
Posted
With reduced snowfall over recent years I'm surprised they didn't position this as maintenance and equipment storage instead of snow removal equipment.