New projects in Monroe North

[Jonesey]

Judging by the cars, I would say this is the 70s?  It looks like the businesses on the W side of Monroe just kinda had their butt pointed to the river.  It was heavily industrial and I think most of the cool buildings were preserved, but it would have been cool to see the entirety of 840 was preserved, I never realized there was that massive of a manufacturing building in GR

The archives are looking to digitize as much as they can, but there's just waaaay too much stuff and too few staff

[walker]

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..       

 

 

 

Edited July 20, 2023 by walker

[kevin8gr]

1978 view from Lookout Hill from my grandpa's slides.  The red building was at Monroe and Coldbrook I think 

[Allison Slater]

Noticed Icon on Bond looking a bit interesting last week

 

[Zads]

City has purchased the site for moving the Fire Department training, freeing up the riverfront for redevelopment. Great news for our riverfront.

https://www.crainsgrandrapids.com/news/real-estate/city-closes-on-1-9m-industrial-property-to-relocate-fire-operations-free-up-riverfront-real-estate/

[Jonesey]

On 8/30/2023 at 3:31 PM, Zads said:

City has purchased the site for moving the Fire Department training, freeing up the riverfront for redevelopment. Great news for our riverfront.

https://www.crainsgrandrapids.com/news/real-estate/city-closes-on-1-9m-industrial-property-to-relocate-fire-operations-free-up-riverfront-real-estate/

GR also got an earmark for new fire stations.  $5,000,000 IIRC, I know a lot of that will go to the new station on Kzoo and the new facility, but it would be awesome if they moved the fire station right there

[RiversideGR]

Interview with Mark Secchia with discussion of his restaurant/venue with indoor bocce courts:

Mark Secchia returns home, but shies away from old-guard of Grand Rapids power brokers | Crain's Grand Rapids Business (crainsgrandrapids.com)

[grandrollerz]

Still can't figure out if he's using the upstairs or if that will be the storage place.

[Cookin_peacocks]

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2023/12/bike-path-pedestrian-walkway-would-replace-this-downtown-grand-rapids-road.html?utm_campaign=grandrapidspress_sf&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3fW-W0HyZ-vbyLriBb3oheCkNRHYWBdu3tqVOEWzltDIm3jlK2fawRMLo

 

Looks like they are tearing a half mile stretch of Division out and turning it into a bike path while reconfiguring Ionia to carry that traffic.

[Khorasaurus1]

22 minutes ago, Cookin_peacocks said:

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2023/12/bike-path-pedestrian-walkway-would-replace-this-downtown-grand-rapids-road.html?utm_campaign=grandrapidspress_sf&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3fW-W0HyZ-vbyLriBb3oheCkNRHYWBdu3tqVOEWzltDIm3jlK2fawRMLo

 

Looks like they are tearing a half mile stretch of Division out and turning it into a bike path while reconfiguring Ionia to carry that traffic.

Interesting that it's being phrased that way - I had previously seen it as Ionia would be removed, Division would be shifted west, and the bike path would be built at the foot of the hill. Which is the same idea, just phrased differently.

Just semantics (and street signs/addresses), but it will be interesting to see how the road names work. There's three names to work with - Division, Ionia, and Plainfield. Honestly, the simplest thing might be to call the whole thing Plainfield from the underpass north.

[whitemice]

2 hours ago, Khorasaurus1 said:

call the whole thing Plainfield from the underpass north

THIS!  As a near-NE-quadrant resident: this has always been confusing to explain to people.  The railyard et al have been gone for more than half a century - normalize the street names already.

Question: is there an overview of what happens just a bit further north when there is no longer a parallel Ionia?  Or is this the same stuff as from 2022?  It looks very similar.

Edited December 19, 2023 by whitemice

[joeDowntown]

This, along with a hillside park would be amazing for near downtown, and the residents of both Belknap and Monroe North. Ottawa and Division running parallel makes no sense.

@whitemice, just guessing here, but I would imagine it won't be too hard to get Division and Ottawa to lineup a bit north (lots of space, no buildings in the way):

 

[RiversideGR]

10 minutes ago, joeDowntown said:

This, along with a hillside park would be amazing for near downtown, and the residents of both Belknap and Monroe North. Ottawa and Division running parallel makes no sense.
 

Hell, if done right this would be good for Creston too. Connecting the three areas with more walkable/bikeable infrastructure. I would love to see the intersection of plainfield and leonard to become more pedestrian friendly. 

[whitemice]

7 minutes ago, RiversideGR said:

I would love to see the intersection of plainfield and leonard to become more pedestrian friendly.

Yep.  Leonard/Monore & Leonard/Plainfield are hostile.  By walking or bike those are part of my daily trips;  I'll often ride the #11, at least in part, so I don't have to cross Leonard.

24 minutes ago, joeDowntown said:

it won't be too hard to get Division and Ottawa to lineup a bit north

Certainly looks like enough space.  I wonder what they can do to make the Mason/Division & Coldbrook/Division intersections friendlier.  Coldbrook & Divsion is also a very common intersection for my household; Division is not nearly as bad as Leonard, but with the swoopiness of the road there is little warning for hotdog Motorists -  adding more swoopiness won't improve it.  The light at Plainfield/Leonard backs up Division past Coldbrook making it worse, there always seems to be a Helpful Motorist in the mix who *^%&#@#s up traffic flow to and waves for you cross [aka: get murdered by the annoyed Motorist who is about to use the left turn lane to pass them].

[joeDowntown]

Interesting quote in Crains. MiEN (who bought the Baker Furniture building on Monroe and are starting a phased move in March) also bought the American Seating campus. 

This quote is interesting:

The firm listed that part of the property (south end of the Baker building) for $10.9 million in late 2022 but has not yet received an offer from a housing developer that aligned with its vision for the site, Bergsma said. He said he is not ruling out developing it himself, but first he wants assurances that the city of Grand Rapids will move forward with its GR Forward and River for All plans to develop the surrounding north riverfront into trails and more mixed-use residential.

Joe

[RiversideGR]

1 hour ago, joeDowntown said:

Interesting quote in Crains. MiEN (who bought the Baker Furniture building on Monroe and are starting a phased move in March) also bought the American Seating campus. 

This quote is interesting:

The firm listed that part of the property (south end of the Baker building) for $10.9 million in late 2022 but has not yet received an offer from a housing developer that aligned with its vision for the site, Bergsma said. He said he is not ruling out developing it himself, but first he wants assurances that the city of Grand Rapids will move forward with its GR Forward and River for All plans to develop the surrounding north riverfront into trails and more mixed-use residential.

Joe

I read that article too but couldn't decide to discuss it (Creston, Monroe North, West Side...)

I would love to see housing on that site, but I also kind of like that they are holding the city's feet to the fire on this. When we talk about riverfront redevelopment it always seems to come with a veil of mystery (at least to me). I would love to see more concrete plans and timelines put out there. 

[joeDowntown]

20 minutes ago, RiversideGR said:

I read that article too but couldn't decide to discuss it (Creston, Monroe North, West Side...)

I would love to see housing on that site, but I also kind of like that they are holding the city's feet to the fire on this. When we talk about riverfront redevelopment it always seems to come with a veil of mystery (at least to me). I would love to see more concrete plans and timelines put out there. 

I agree. If all the sudden the river re-work gets de-prioritized (which would be a shame, but without whitewater, it definitely takes some of the enthusiam out of the GRWW project), it would be bad to redevelop and have a lackluster riverfront.

Joe

[cstonesparty]

1 hour ago, joeDowntown said:

I agree. If all the sudden the river re-work gets de-prioritized (which would be a shame, but without whitewater, it definitely takes some of the enthusiam out of the GRWW project), it would be bad to redevelop and have a lackluster riverfront.

Joe

have to wonder if a lot of that was pie-in-the-sky thinking and we'll get a half dozen small/medium scale projects on the water's edge instead of the encompassing vision that River for All/GR Forward envisioned.  The project on the water's edge at the museum is going forward, and likely the city parcel north of 196 will, but what else REALLY will happen?

[Zads]

City of GR Parks and Rec posted some images of a reimagined Canal Park. In the comments, they note the trail from Leonard to Ann expects to be kicked off within the next year or so. Check it out.

https://www.facebook.com/GRParksandRec/posts/pfbid02Ym1xqnonrv5ypocojanvTGdP3Fr7yhpAob1H446SckSutpQAxtyHreuNV4GdCxyhl

[joeDowntown]

For those that don’t have access to FB, here are some images I saw on another site  my favorite concept is the stepped portion that goes down to the rivers edge: