superNOVA

There was originally to be a Phase III if I recall, an office tower to the South. However, this was more of a dream of the architect than the actual committee. So, while the plans may still be out there, they were never officially part of the final plan. As it stands, Phase I and II were the only planned pieces. I think...

That is not the med school. The med school with be the building on the West end of the development.

Actually GR rates very high when it comes to the possiblity of a sports team. The last list that the Sporting News put together had us in the top three for the most likely and most viable markets. We are the most prosperous market without a team, and within the all important 60 minute travel time circle, there are around 2.5 million people - way more than enough. It could happen, the problem is, no one around here believes that...

It is possible, and would make a lot of sense. They might as well work them together, to both their benefit. VAI could use a decent flow of talent and MSU is actually a highly rated sciences school without an outlet. Perfect.

If I recall the original VAI plan for phase III was for an attached office tower to the South of the building. Early speculation was for a decent sized tower - but I think as the project advanced phase III itself was scrapped. I believe it was something that the architect was pushing (for more visibility) than anything. However, this would be an ideal location for the medical school,

There are also all sorts of equipment and wiring tunnels all over. Mostly fiber and electric but also some heating from the old steam plant. Trust me, there is a labryinth under the city from Spectrum all the way to St Mary's.

If you ask me it is growing too fast. Northern Michigan is losing a lot of its old character.

Actually he is. He was probably one of my best professors when I was at GVSU. Well at least one of the only ones with real world experience.

I just like the door on the Towers building that is now three storeys off the ground. You can see it when coming West on 96 through downtown. Hope they have it sealed.

They are just throwing a bone to St. Mary's to keep them from feeling left out. Plus, it is not like they really want to look like they are favoring one hospital over another because in the long run, they will need them both. St. Mary's actually does have some highly respected staff and departments. It is just a different type of facility, not much like Spectrum. That being said, we all know this thing is going on the hill. My bet, the Christman development - I am guessing that the very reason they are moving forward on this so quickly is because they see MSU as a good long term lock.

Looks like they are going to do it all at one (or close to it) after all. The ramp and lot around the towers building are coming down and the grade is being worked on down to Division. Interesting that the private side of this got off without an official ground breaking or much fanare at all. I even thought that their development was to be slightly delayed - guess not.

The Children's Hopsital is slated to begin after the construction of the Cancer Center. This has always been the plan. Spectrum has a policy of one project on the hill at a time to reduce congestion.

It is not owned by Spectrum but the logistics of such a project demand that the developer and Spectrum have an understanding. Spectrum is a hospital and has to be aware of the effects of its development and the developments around it.

Well. The Cancer Center is definitely a go. The other project tied to it looks OK and might as well go up while the Cancer Center does. The reason for this is because the next project on the list, the Children's Hospital will make it extremely difficult to build on both sides of Michigan at the same time. Spectrum has a policy of one project at a time to reduce the inconvienience to customers and ambulance drivers.

The canopy is $20 million of it. $20 million, for a canopy? WOW, must be a nice canopy. How much was the Bus Depot - they have a big canopy. All I am saying is that this should be one hell of a parking ramp. Sadly, we need a big ramp and it has been about 20 years since it should have been built. Even more sad is that this is the solution. What is wrong with a normal downtown style cheap ramp (Ellis does these well) and a normal cheap canopy?

The orginal plans called for three phases - I am not sure if this is still the plan but it was the way that it was intended. The third phase was to accomodate office staff and such opening the entire Phase I and II to research space. It could be possible that the Towers redevelopment (which seems seriously tied to this announcement) may be filling this need. So there may never be a Phase III. Or it may take another form. The very early announcements of the VAI (during the process of choosing an architect) clearly stated that a 20 or so storey tower was eventually to be integrated into the plan. There were never any drawings of the final project with the tower. The best I have found were Phase I and II - which the architect wanted to build all at once - hence the drawings are available on his website. Here is Phase II as originally planned... Unfortunately it is flash so no posting the pic and you have to dig through the site to find it. http://www.rvapc.com/ edit... Phase II is supposed to be about 300,000 sq. ft.

Heard this in the morning and have been waiting to post all day. This is great news for the hill. As if I recall, the second Phase is truely massive compared to the first. I am still waiting for the office tower portion that will make the third phase - but all in good time. I also can't help but feel that they may be trying to tie this into the Towers redevelopment. Perhaps to either use space for offices or for development.