Wealthy Street Mega Thread

[Prankster]

Am I looking at it wrong, or is there a big white wall facing the corner/roundabout?

[GR_Urbanist]

Truth be told, the original renderings were just a concept, so it's not a letdown that the new rendering is really "worse" looking....

First rendering:

 

2nd rendering:

 

It's just that it's Saint Mary's, and they have never been known for having taste when it comes to architecture or competence when it comes to urbanism.

I honestly have no idea what they are going for here in terms of the "style", but it definitely fits with the classic "cut off from the street bunker style" theme of the buildings across the street. I suppose the arch bridge thing is them trying to be imaginative, but I'm fully not expecting that to survive to construction. Honestly, I'm not even expecting the pedestrian bridge to either. 

 

I really liked where they were going with the original EAST side rendering, though.

I'm also not holding my breath that the new version remotely will look like this.

[GR_Urbanist]

We have a construction fence around the old Tatum site (680 Wealthy)!

Excited to see who the Terra Firma folks landed for it.

[terra firma]

On 12/4/2023 at 12:53 PM, GR_Urbanist said:

We have a construction fence around the old Tatum site (680 Wealthy)!

Excited to see who the Terra Firma folks landed for it.

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

[Pattmost20]

Lee and Birch posted on Facebook that they are moving. They said after nearly 10 years, the building sold and their lease is not being renewed. Curious what happens with that property. 

[walker]

44 minutes ago, Pattmost20 said:

Lee and Birch posted on Facebook that they are moving. They said after nearly 10 years, the building sold and their lease is not being renewed. Curious what happens with that property. 

Here's their Facebook post: 

Quote

Today marks the beginning of a very sad week for us at L&B... it is our official last week in our cute little shop on Wealthy and Eastern... I have been trying to avoid this reality as it has truly knocked me off my feet.  I've gone through all the feels of shock, anger, sadness, and am finally coming over to the side of looking forward to a bigger and brighter future for L&B GR.
We poured our hearts into bringing this little historic building back to life almost 10 years ago.  My 8.5 yr old daughter grew up in this shop; our GM Sarah started here; we've had so many lovely ladies on our GR team throughout the years here; we've thrown awesome events out in our parking lot; and we've met countless amazing customers along the way 
We're going to miss our cute little shop SO much... 
We truly love our Wealthy St community and are happy to say we are in the process of signing a lease on the street and will announce as soon as we can. 

And here is an earlier entry from January 7 where they explain what happened:

Quote

Unfortunately we're starting off the new year on a bad and extremely sad note...
After 9 years in our Grand Rapids location we are being asked to move out [with nowhere to go]...
Our landlords decided not to renew our lease due to an offer on our building and the surrounding lot + building...  This came as a complete surprise to us and happened in the middle of holiday season.
They have given us a little over a month to move out.  So we will be closing up our cute GR shop of 9.5 years on January 31.
We are not leaving GR as I refuse to give up on my hometown.  We are currently looking for a new long term home for our shop that will be even bigger and better.  I have high hopes we will find the perfect spot  and will update you when we have a plan in place.  
Xoxo,
Nikki
L&B founder + owner

 

Edited January 30 by walker

[GR_Urbanist]

WOW! That is a shock! L&B really made that corner theirs. I've always enjoyed how they really put in effort to be really active with the little space they had.

I hope they can stay in the general area. I'm not sure what space they could be looking at to move into, though. The only open spots i can think of are like Elk Brewery, and The old Little Caesars by Fuller.

 

As for the existing site? I hope it is torn down, and the site rebuilt to  properly fit the street. I cant imagine who else would be as classy as L&B there. My wild hope is that whomever owns the Kregel building is buying it to do something with that whole area instead of sitting on it.

[walker]

 

6 hours ago, GR_Urbanist said:

As for the existing site? I hope it is torn down, and the site rebuilt to  properly fit the street. 

WARNING - topic drift:

Oh, it's historic and so probably can't be torn down.  The building was originally the site of a Marvel Oil Company service station.  Marvel was a local company that took advantage of the mini oil boom that happened in the Grand Rapids area back around the forties (not sure of the exact years.)  Marvel was amazingly vertically integrated for such a small oil company.  They drilled for oil, they pumped it out of the ground, they refined it, and they sold low-priced gasoline from a string of retail gas stations like the one below that became Lee & Birch.  Their refinery was at 2201 Chicago Drive with one of their gas stations next to it.  Currently there is a Mobile gas station and a vacant (and likely contaminated) lot where they once were on Chicago Drive.  I can remember the refinery and a few of the stations, I think they went out of business around the mid sixties.

I've tried to search Google for more information about them and there is not much.  A search returns a lot about another likely unrelated Marvel Oil Company.  A search of Marvel Production Company, the name they went by for drilling, will return a couple of local oil well drilling permits but mostly it will return data about Marvel Comic superhero movies since that is the same name as the movie production company.     

Edited January 31 by walker
for clarity

[joeDowntown]

As always, great history lesson @walker.

If I’m not mistaken, didn’t the family (Dad?) of Lee and Birch own the building (and options on the Kregel building)? Fortunately, I think they will find space ( @terra firma to the rescue?) and hopefully whatever is happening next adds more density to that area (and please let the Kregel get redeveloped finally). 

Joe

[Zads]

21 hours ago, Pattmost20 said:

Lee and Birch posted on Facebook that they are moving. They said after nearly 10 years, the building sold and their lease is not being renewed. Curious what happens with that property. 

The building and the property, including the building next door is owned by an LLC tied back to a construction company in the city. I do wonder what will happen next with this property. I used to live right next door. I really hope the new owner keeps the L&B building, such a cool piece of architectural history.

[walker]

5 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

If I’m not mistaken, didn’t the family (Dad?) of Lee and Birch own the building (and options on the Kregel building)?

Joe

I think Bob Dykstra owned or at least had an option on the Kregel Building and the rest of the block back when Lee & Birch first moved in.  He also owns or owned the Harris Building on Division.  I think Nicole Dykstra, who I believe is one on the owners of Lee & Birch, is his daughter.  I'm guessing he no longer has any connection to those properties along  Wealthy but I really don't know anything about it.  I think the LLC that Zads found in the property look-up is likely the current owners. 

Edited January 31 by walker
fix typo

[walker]

On 3/10/2023 at 2:20 PM, gunnerdouzi said:

The spot next to Chartreuse Sisters will be Basic Bee Boutique... moving from their location on Division.

Nice story about Basic Bee Boutique on WOODTV:

WOODTV: black-owned-basic-bee-supports-other-businesses

[GR_Urbanist]

The new building for the old Tatum site is starting to sprout this week.

 

 

Edited February 24 by GR_Urbanist

[GR_Urbanist]

Lee&Birch looks to have thankfully landed a spot close to the original location.

Good for them. Would have been an unfortunate loss if they didnt.

 

Oh, and looks like next door, the old Elk Brewery space is getting a place called the Grey Rabbit!

 

Edited March 1 by GR_Urbanist

[GR_Urbanist]

 

The new building on the old Tatum site is really moving along!

2nd floor is already going up. You can really feel the presence this one is going to have on the street. 

Update: photo

Edited Tuesday at 02:07 PM by GR_Urbanist