Perrigo's New Downtown HQ

[deja vu]

Follow-up story on the Perrigo HQ - 

Quote

Perrigo seeks $4.1M in tax incentives for planned GR headquarters; Holland expansion moves forward
Kate Carlson | MiBiz
December 17, 2020

GRAND RAPIDS — Perrigo Co. plc is seeking a 12-year incentive agreement estimated at $4.1 million in total property tax savings for its plans to relocate its North American headquarters to downtown. The Grand Rapids City Commission set a Jan.12 public hearing to consider the agreement. The commission will consider an Industrial Development District for the project, as well as a 12-year Industrial Facilities Exemption Certificate and a 12-year New Personal Property Exemption Certificate. Perrigo’s new headquarters is planned at 430 Monroe Ave. NW, where it has committed to a 15-year lease...

According to this article, Perrigo must retain 150 employees in downtown GR within 2 years of completing the project to remain eligible for these incentives.

Edited December 19, 2020 by deja vu

[joeDowntown]

I listened to part of the City Commission meeting and Perrigo / Rockford Construction was presenting (to get tax breaks). They said they'd start building in February (in a month) and be done next May. 

There was also an interesting conversation about 1601 Madison Ave. near Cottage grove. Sounds like a multi-phased development but they discussed bringing a "technology company" (90+ people) into the city, using local contractors (down to the zipcode).

@ModSquad, am I making this up, or at one point did you try to develop this land, only to get screwed by Azzar?  Or was that someone else/some other property?

Joe

[joeDowntown]

Perrigo got the tax breaks they asked for. The building could break ground within the month!

https://www.woodtv.com/news/grand-rapids/perrigo-gets-tax-breaks-for-grand-rapids-hq/

[GRDadof3]

18 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

Perrigo got the tax breaks they asked for. The building could break ground within the month!

https://www.woodtv.com/news/grand-rapids/perrigo-gets-tax-breaks-for-grand-rapids-hq/

Great news. I drive by that spot often and keep wondering when it will start. Assumed it'd be a while yet. 

[GRDadof3]

Looks like they're starting on Perrigo's new HQ. May just be utility work but it's something. 

[joeDowntown]

They’re digging the foundation. Pretty deep hole on site this evening. Here we go!

Joe

[GRDadof3]

On 3/5/2021 at 9:37 PM, joeDowntown said:

They’re digging the foundation. Pretty deep hole on site this evening. Here we go!

Joe

There's a big crane set up on Monroe now. This is moving way faster than I thought. They must have kept this pretty hush hush during the planning phase with the city.

 

[GRDadof3]

This was an interesting piece of news too, from about a week ago:

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/perrigo-announces-agreement-to-sell-generic-rx-business-for-1-55-billion-in-total-consideration-301237255.html

Perrigo selling its entire generic drug business...

"After the transaction closes, Perrigo expects to have more than $2 billion in cash available to advance its consumer self-care strategy, preferably through prudent and revenue accretive M&A. This is an exciting day for Perrigo."

 

[Pattmost20]

7 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

This is moving way faster than I thought. They must have kept this pretty hush hush during the planning phase with the city.

My buddy is an estimator at an electrical contractor in town, he texted me a few days ago saying they had won this job. So it makes sense they would be getting moving.

[GR_Urbanist]

From today. They certainly arent wasting any time on this!

[GRDadof3]

We have liftoff.  #towercrane

 

 

[joeDowntown]

Looks like the official groundbreaking ceremony is today at 1pm:

https://www.woodtv.com/news/grand-rapids/perrigo-breaking-ground-on-grand-rapids-hq-wednesday/

[GRDadof3]

I keep waiting for the tower crane parts to be delivered. I think I've recorded every tower crane assembly in the last 20 years.

Do we have a read on how tall this building will be in feet? In comparison to neighboring buildings? 

Edit: it looks like it's only 4 floors above the parking deck so really not that much taller than the MSU building. 

[Raildude's dad]

They make such a big deal about Perrigo. It would be a big deal if they owned the building but they are only leasing 3 floors. Break the lease and they go by-by

[joeDowntown]

150-175 well paying jobs (from outside the typical GR suburban area) still seems pretty good to me, adds an established name, and adds to the mix of the MSU Research facility. Not quite sure what there is to be grumpy about here?

1 hour ago, Raildude's dad said:

They make such a big deal about Perrigo. It would be a big deal if they owned the building but they are only leasing 3 floors. Break the lease and they go by-by

 

[Raildude's dad]

Not grumpy just making an observation.  It looks like the lease is about half the building with the top 3 floors wider than the lower floors. If I'm seeing correctly. 

[walker]

21 hours ago, Raildude's dad said:

They make such a big deal about Perrigo. It would be a big deal if they owned the building but they are only leasing 3 floors. Break the lease and they go by-by

No problem.  If they break the lease, the space can be repurposed as a brewery with convenient parking.

[InSecurity]

On 4/25/2021 at 8:13 AM, GRDadof3 said:

I keep waiting for the tower crane parts to be delivered. I think I've recorded every tower crane assembly in the last 20 years.

Do we have a read on how tall this building will be in feet? In comparison to neighboring buildings? 

Edit: it looks like it's only 4 floors above the parking deck so really not that much taller than the MSU building. 

I walked by yesterday and the first section of a tower crane is in place.

[joeDowntown]

Sorry i misread your observations. I do think Perrigo is a little slimy in their corporate setup (based in Ireland, my ass). I DO think that this will be an advantageous move for them, strictly from a recruiting perspective. Allegan is a bit of a hard sell, and it's hard to recruit top talent from around the country to move to Allegan. I also wonder what the appeal of moving to the MSU research park is when they are selling their generic pharmaceutical division to double down on "self-care" (although there could be a lot of R&D in this space, so maybe it still makes sense?).

I'm curious what the plans are for the rest of the space. Will it be marketed to small healthcare / science companies? Are there any plans for ground-floor space (a coffee shop or small restaurant may make sense to service the three buildings and surrounding area). Have they discussed the rest of the building?

I drove by this weekend and I think we'll see the building go vertical soon. The foundation seems ready, and the first floor is starting to poke out. If nothing else, it gives me something to drive by and get progress updates on until other projects start to materialize.

Joe

[GRDadof3]

On 4/26/2021 at 9:54 AM, InSecurity said:

I walked by yesterday and the first section of a tower crane is in place.

Yes, it's been like that for over a week I think. Haven't seen any other pieces installed.

[joeDowntown]

Drove by yesterday and they're putting up pre-cast concrete walls along the parking ramp (kind of makes you wonder why they even built window openings on the ramp). These concrete panels make it look like once their in, the building will go up quickly (like legos).

 

[mpchicago]

4 minutes ago, joeDowntown said:

Drove by yesterday and they're putting up pre-cast concrete walls along the parking ramp (kind of makes you wonder why they even built window openings on the ramp). These concrete panels make it look like once their in, the building will go up quickly (like legos).

 

 

It's my understanding they should be in their offices by next spring, which seems really fast.

[InSecurity]

On 4/14/2021 at 5:26 AM, GRDadof3 said:

We have liftoff.  #towercrane

 

 

I walked by this morning and the crane is finally going up. 

[joeDowntown]

15 minutes ago, InSecurity said:

I walked by this morning and the crane is finally going up. 

The concrete columns that will become Perrigo's portion of the building (on top of the parking structure) are in as well.

Joe

[Cookin_peacocks]

Can confirm