terra firma

Greetings ! Yes, after loads of delays in permitting and such we are about to get rolling. Perhaps even this week, tho I doubt much will happen until after the Holidays. As with all our projects, we dont have a user in hand its a spec. deal but--- there has been much interest and even a couple offers for the retail / ground floor space. The upper floor will have 3 very nice apartments, ( a single 1BR and a couple 2BR units each with a parking space) that will probably be available mid summer '24 best guess. Retail .... our #1 priority is to select a Tenant that brings the right type of traffic for the neighboring retailers and best fits the local vibe, while also meeting internal rent objectives to help make it work. We like local shops where the owner is behind the counter, or at least a use that contributes to that local shop experience. What would be the best uses ? What ideas do you guys have for ideal neighbors here ? We'd love to know your ideas ! Thank you for your interest. eric

These guys did an amazing job figuring all this out, really a big upgrade for this block with their plans !

I think the grand opening of Good Truckin' Diner is or was today-- did anyone get there ? I'm traveling and sad to miss it but hope it's well received! Share your thoughts if you went.

We try pretty hard to keep things positive and are always excited about growth in our market, whether its "us" or the other guy. We are big fans of the Wealthy St. retail market area and we celebrate the many successes of our Tenants as most of them are absolutely thriving and having a good experience. This reporter contacted me earlier this week and was trying to create a story about rents being too high, driving businesses away. Some of the numbers quoted here are erroneous by nearly double what is actually paid, and I cautioned her not to proceed with her "story line"--- she did it anyhow. Please do not believe everything you read here. We have zero vacancy at the moment, which tells a much different story than suggested by this poorly written article. The business owner moved out of state, didnt renew the Lease, and left a family member to run things until the Lease expired. End of story. My apologies for bringing negative energy here, I felt it important to set the record straight. A good example of a reporter trying to put an exclamation point where one need not exist, under bad pretenses and without an obvious "goal" that could be construed as a positive for the deep effort so many of us in this community are trying so very hard to create. Wealthy Street retailers are succeeding, and the high occupancy levels demonstrate this. Sorry to whine but this crap needs to be set straight. https://www.crainsgrandrapids.com/news/retail/florist-to-leave-wealthy-street-storefront-search-for-new-location/

Joe, watch 701 Wealthy (ex: Royals) for some movement pretty quickly here -- as of today have a Lease in place with Good Truckin' Cafe, an established 6-store operator (started as a food truck, now a series of small restaurants). These guys have something of a cult following elsewhere in the state and an awesome, small-town diner vibe with some really amazing food and a huge reputation. They're not likely to open until maybe June --- this is a perfect use for this space, and fits well with the eclectic local vibe in this block-- couldn't be more excited to have this one teed up. Mark Ansara (Advantage CRE) brought the building to us, then went and found the tenant, and ...wham ! Here we go. What's next ? Where can we fit a smoothie shop in this neighborhood ? I feel like we need a smoothie shop. eric

Not quite but close. Mammoth Distilling is going into our almost-done project at 710 Wealthy (referred to here as the fish mural bldg). The 'handoff' is next week, they'll do a bit of their own finish buildout, and their tasting room opens I think in June. The good news is they're gonna fully activate the back yard and rear storage building spaces in conjunction with their use. This is part of a 6-store project for Mammoth, they are an established operator for sure and a great addition to t his block. I did hear a rumor that ELK brewing has sold but I dont know who the Buyer is, share what you know on that ! https://www.woodtv.com/news/grand-rapids/distillery-bridal-shop-coming-to-wealthy-street/

Thanks for the suggestion here, we've done some of this historically as I I was initially counseled by City staff to do this, and we went through those steps with 619 wealthy, 650, and 620 as well. Maybe not every group for every project (none of t hem were formally consulted on the current project) but In all, we've presented in the past to East Hills, Heritage Hill Assoc., Uptown business district, Wealthy Street business alliance, a group called Seeds of Change, seems like there may have been more. In sum, there were lots of meetings and with some groups only meeting once a month it took forever to go through these processes. We did get some good input. We also got lots of suggestions from group members that were downright silly. Perhaps a more streamlined understanding about who governs what could simplify this. Not to say we dont care what each group thinks, cuz we certainly do ! We want to be viewed as a good neighbor and a responsible developer who remains interested in the 'shop local' vibe and proves it out through our actions and the Tenant mix we bring. As investors in the neighborhood, our view is that asking someone to seek this much approval from this many groups- while not a requirement by law- is a pretty big ask. It has not been / is not clear which groups are even relevant on some of these in terms of 'boundary areas' and which buildings are governed by which organizations. Nonetheless, our very existence depends on market / neighbor approval in these areas and thus we respect the value of community buy-in on these projects. Using a platform like UrbanPlanet is quite a bit more effiecient as a way to disseminate information, but you're right we could do a better job in the future and at minimum could share plans with these groups to give everyone a clearer picture of our intent. I'll do my best to be more inclusive, as we used to be. Thanks for the note and the suggestion, a good reminder for sure. Side note: the HPC approved our plans for 680 Wealthy just last night. Now its time to get some numbers and see if we can actually make sense of it, hate it that the cats outta the bag already because then we look dumb if we dont perform but- I guess thats the way this one is gonna be... standby for updates and thanks for the support and input ! eric wynsma/ terra firma development

I hear ya man. going up one more woulda been great but it changes lots of code related expectations, additional means of egress and stairs etc that gobble precious square footage and add cost and complexity. our goal was to replace what was there in terms of ‘scale’, respect what it used to be, and add a residential component upstairs. remainder of the site is for 3 parking spaces, basicllly one per apartment. I think we’ll have a fun project here, of course haven’t priced it yet, and no we don’t have a Tenant for the ground floor. All our stuff is done on spec and we’re very uptight about keeping just the right Tenant mix in this neighborhood i’m surprised to see this MiBiz announcement but yeah, their info is pretty accurate..

710 has it's new storefront largely installed, Lease was signed yesterday and i'm gonna let the Tenant make their own announcement before I spill the beans but it's a great use for the space and is a name many of you will recognize. Surveyors at 680 ("Tatum" site) are for topographical work being done in conjunction w/ our permits and drawings - hope to have something to post here in a couple weeks per my convo with Joe Downtown above. Standby for some exciting changes

Joe, gimme a week or two on that...

new windows / doors / storefront system coming early January, much of the infrastructure work is already done including HVAC, electrical, floor repairs, carpentry work etc. we are hopeful of a mid-january completion of the base-building improvements and hope to move into tenant buildouts straight away, as we have strong tenant interest from two candidates, both of whom would contribute fully to the trendy local flavor and hip urban vibe of this neighborhood. when there's something to announce we'll remember to post it here first. EDIT: and YES we have stored the 'fish mural' panel series that covered the existing storefronts... I'm hopeful our eventual Tenant can find a way to implement them in their interior design scheme in some way; a tip of the hat to REB the artist of course and a fun way to remember the status of these buildings not so long ago. eric

Hi Joe ! the new building will indeed be same footprint / similar in form and structure to what was there. We will have just over 3,000 SF of retail space and 3 apartments up, each with its' own parking spot on-site behind the building. These will be 2BR units. We have not yet submitted anything for permits or HPC approval, i'm confident the group here will like it ! eric

@ GR Urbanist-- yes we are busy cleaning that fire mess up as we simultaneously are rebuilding 650 Wealthy next to it (Dime& Regal, Palace Flophouse) from damage related to the fire. We'd have cleaned the building site sooner (we bought it in may I think) but permitting took forever ! We do not yet have a plan for the "Tatum" site, which was formerly known as 666 Wealthy and is now called 680 Wealthy. We are beginning meetings w/ our architect to evaluate / identify a direction and will start making plans once we've got a path. It will be based on what we think fits there, and not driven by a particular use or tenant. Before we do anything on that site, we will at long last commence renovations on 710 Wealthy (the fish mural bldg) in hopes of being done mid-winter with that one, at which time I hope to roll right into new building development @ the 680 / Tatum site. No specific users identified for any of the above at this time. We are super happy that our Tenants along this corridor are enjoying good business volume and vitality. What a cool district. eric wynsma / terra firma development

@ Joe, that would have been a great building to re-purpose but sadly our chances are gone. You are correct about the anti-development sentiment of the owners, we presented offers, they just didnt seem interested.. perhaps their stance will soften in time, as this tragedy i'm sure is hurtful to them (hope they had good insurance!) it will be something one of us can explore re-developing eventually into something appropriate. It's a nice big site, so an appropriately sized retail-residential 2 or 3 story that gives a good nod to its architectural surroundings could be a great fit here. While their losses are 'complete', others suffer some inconvenience as our tenants next door (Dime & Regal, Palace Flophouse) are temporarily closed due to roof and other structural damage resulting from the demo crew's inadvertent 'removal' of upper floor brick walls collapsing onto our facility, well after the fire crew was gone. It really sucks for our Tenants, who were thoughtfully selected originally for these in-fill developments and grew to become ambassadors for the Wealthy Street Business District, important parts of what gives this hip retail area it's unique flavor and diverse urban vibe. eric

yeah downtown. it’s called Stella’s. owner has several bar concepts, i’m just a landlord not a bar owner. his place w me is max’s south seas hideaway which is a tiki restaraunt— it is awesome

that's a super cool idea. one of my tenants (Max's south seas hideaway) also has a video arcade bar downtown GR, he's the right guy for the job, I will ask him

^^ "fish mural" building @ 710 Wealthy St.... that one is us. We haven't closed yet, and we do not know who our eventual tenant will be-- purely speculative like the rest of our projects in this neighborhood. Historically, the building had two entry points and a center demising wall (read: two-Tenant bldg.) and when we engage our architect that is the path we will take. Due to the weird Covid-dampened retail leasing market, we will not be in any big hurry to start this one, but we know that eventually we'll wish we had .. thus we raised our hand for it. Any user ideas for us to pursue when we get rolling ? What does the neighborhood not have that it should ?

Yeah, thanks Walker. It's a really cool business model, in what I consider to be the right area for what they're doing. I think they have a fairly big social media following, wish they had a bigger 'street presence' -- a sign or something, it is still a street-retail business after all. When you drive by it's hard to know what's happening in there. I wish them all the best of course and hope to see them succeed ! We do have another prospect looking at the other side of the building, but overall retail Leasing is pretty slow right now. I'm hopeful.

Thanks GRD3. We're happy with how it turned out for sure, our friends at McGraw Construction got it done ahead of schedule and on-budget. To my amazement, NO tenants yet. Plenty of prospects, but nothing 'done deal' yet. We also think there could be a market for smaller buyers and so we are going to also list it as two separately available retail condo units. Sizes approx. 1500 SF. Perhaps there is an operator out there who would prefer to own than pay rent ? There's nothing for sale really in the neighborhood, other than un-renovated stuff that is very expensive and requires intensive renovation--- those aren't really ideal for someone trying to run a shop and be a hobbyist-developer at the same time. Maybe someone would like a ready-to-go suite they could purchase? Let's go test the market. eric

Paul--- great to see your progress here and the continued enthusiasm for the block you were so instrumental in getting started. Full support from us for sure, we're watching with full interest and hope to see it happen ! eric wynsma / terra firma development

There are probably many of us that would buy these properties, but when you look at 710 Wealthy ("the fish building") for sale @ $710,000 it really is not 'for sale'. I made the guy an offer a few years back, I really do not believe he wants to sell-- but I suppose at that number he would. His number is probably what it's worth after someone does a full-on renovation, there's really no room for a developer OR end user to have this make any kind of sense---- so there she sits---- it's frustrating to those of us who are invested in neighborhood improvement....

Chris, we have no Tenants for this one. Purely a speculative project. What we've learned from our other 3 projects in the neighborhood is that marketing before "nearly complete" does generate interest, but it's a whole lot easier once people can see and feel what the end product will be like. SO--- we'll begin that process once we have a basic structure outta the ground. Currently, doing some sub-surface demo as we found a bunch of old concrete in the ground (from the old gas station days). Site work begins immediately thereafter, steel goes up next, etc. We like the idea of starting tenant buildout in June-July, but who knows how real that is. Therefore, we'll pause on the Tenant hunt. We like the idea of continuing our walkable, street front local retail theme as we did with 650 and 619. Not saying 'no' to a restaurant or pub but it's not our first choice for the area, if other (read: easier, simpler) options exist.... standby here for updates ~ eric wynsma

Less than 5 hours, the whole building was gone... We're gonna roll straight into site work, and ideally, we will be ready to start doing Tenant buildouts beginning in June. Took us forever to get all the approvals, but all is well and here we go--- thanks for the interest.

Article about Wealthy Street in MiBiz: https://mibiz.com/item/26160-wealthy-street-corridor-emerges-as-‘jewel’-of-gr-real-estate-market

GRDad--- I consult with industry pro's on every project and generally stay out of the way on overall design--- I'm no designer or architect -- and perhaps x99 is God's gift to urban revitalization but his know-it-all style sucks and I dont care for the insulting nature of his words. OK--- enough on that. I'll move along now. Thanks for your interest.