Studio Park - $140 Million Celebration Cinema/mixed use project

[Chester Cheeto]

On 2/5/2022 at 12:11 PM, joeDowntown said:

There was a mention in an article about upgrades to Westin apartments. Dwelling place owns the lot next to Max’s (and mennas). Sounds like they decided renovations were needed at the 2 buildings that are on Weston, and they are holding on building on the lot for now. Sounds like it was around 5 stories. It’ll add much needed affordable housing, but I don’t think it’ll be anything amazing to look at when built (it is in a historic district, so it’ll need to look appropriate to the area).

Joe 

 

I'll let y'all decide on the appropriateness of the look of the building for the location.

[Khorasaurus1]

1 hour ago, NoDustBusterNoMore said:

I'll let y'all decide on the appropriateness of the look of the building for the location.

Massing-wise, it reminds me of the Wurlitzer Building/Siren Hotel in Detroit. Obliviously not from a detailing perspective, though. I like the recessed storefront...that's nice touch. 

 

[Cookin_peacocks]

1 hour ago, NoDustBusterNoMore said:

I'll let y'all decide on the appropriateness of the look of the building for the location.

Love the height (obviously)

 

I wish it had balconies but outside that I'm good with it.

[GRDadof3]

2 hours ago, NoDustBusterNoMore said:

I'll let y'all decide on the appropriateness of the look of the building for the location.

It's 12 stories so it will obviously get approved. 

[Cookin_peacocks]

5 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

It's 12 stories so it will obviously get approved. 

This is one of those times when 12 stories is totally appropriate though.

[GRDadof3]

7 minutes ago, Cookin_peacocks said:

This is one of those times when 12 stories is totally appropriate though.

Oh for sure. 

[joeDowntown]

Guess I was wrong on the height, but the article in MIBiz said that it was a no go in the near term as the cost came back too high and they need to do too much work to Weston apartments (as opposed to expanding and adding more units). It'll probably happen some day, but doesn't sound like a near future thing. 

I also hope the historic commission takes a bit of a critical look. This looks too much like the Karl Chew buildings, which I think have aged very poorly (already).

Joe

[GRDadof3]

Going back to Studio Park.... the comments on the WoodTV FB page are always so.... enlightening. 

https://www.facebook.com/woodtv/posts/10159718279201236

[arcturus]

The WoodTV article mentions Studio Lofts as being fully occupied.  Are occupancy figures readily available for other developments downtown or is this some stat which is always kept under lock & Key? 

[GRDadof3]

21 minutes ago, arcturus said:

The WoodTV article mentions Studio Lofts as being fully occupied.  Are occupancy figures readily available for other developments downtown or is this some stat which is always kept under lock & Key? 

I don't think there's anyone actively collecting that information (it would change daily), but I've never had any trouble calling up an apartment complex and finding out what they have available.  Some have it pretty transparent on their websites. 

[Cookin_peacocks]

1 hour ago, GRDadof3 said:

Going back to Studio Park.... the comments on the WoodTV FB page are always so.... enlightening. 

https://www.facebook.com/woodtv/posts/10159718279201236

I posted this on Reddit and you should read some of those comments.

[GR_Urbanist]

I swore off r/grandrapids 2 years ago, but if some of the comments on Facebook are any indication, I can only imagine the abject insanity that those people are likely saying. 

The only thing worse would be reading Mlive comments.

[Cookin_peacocks]

33 minutes ago, GR_Urbanist said:

I swore off r/grandrapids 2 years ago, but if some of the comments on Facebook are any indication, I can only imagine the abject insanity that those people are likely saying. 

The only thing worse would be reading Mlive comments.

On Facebook, I saw one comment was like "this is not for us! Stop this project!" And a person replied "you live in Atlanta, what do you care?" And I laughed so hard.

[GRDadof3]

37 minutes ago, GR_Urbanist said:

I swore off r/grandrapids 2 years ago, but if some of the comments on Facebook are any indication, I can only imagine the abject insanity that those people are likely saying. 

The only thing worse would be reading Mlive comments.

The comments aren't that bad on reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/grandrapids/comments/smfzjm/new_apartment_tower_coming/

But the WZZM FB:

https://www.facebook.com/13ONYOURSIDE/posts/10159776873464568

I like how someone asks why they would built a high rise after what happened in Florida. 

2 hours ago, arcturus said:

The WoodTV article mentions Studio Lofts as being fully occupied.  Are occupancy figures readily available for other developments downtown or is this some stat which is always kept under lock & Key? 

https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/local/grand-rapids-renting-market/69-05a24dc7-9872-41ae-912f-9861f007ed82?fbclid=IwAR1uu2F8s5qyFHeBP_e-hP8x-PR-3Q2sfYStKoto1D4_crhyHWctsv8zg7Q

[arcturus]

Wow can Castle II be far behind?

[joeDowntown]

4 hours ago, GR_Urbanist said:

I swore off r/grandrapids 2 years ago, but if some of the comments on Facebook are any indication, I can only imagine the abject insanity that those people are likely saying. 

The only thing worse would be reading Mlive comments.

I actually think the Grand Rapids subreddit is pretty weird and interesting. Definitely not like crazy Facebook commenters (or users in general).

Joe

[grandrollerz]

This talk of other social media sites got me wondering....Is there an emergency Urban Planet protocol should this site ever go dark? Do we all meetup up on r/grandrapids? The salon? Is that still a thing? 

Whose site is this?  Is it at risk of going away? Do they need money? I see we are one of the few remaining active forums so I get curious from time to time.

[joeDowntown]

21 minutes ago, grandrollerz said:

This talk of other social media sites got me wondering....Is there an emergency Urban Planet protocol should this site ever go dark? Do we all meetup up on r/grandrapids? The salon? Is that still a thing? 

Whose site is this?  Is it at risk of going away? Do they need money? I see we are one of the few remaining active forums so I get curious from time to time.

Neo runs / owns it. I think we've always been one of the more active forums (in the state/country/world). I don't know what plan b would be. We all dial into our AOL accounts and jump on MySpace? LOL

Crazy, I've been active on this site for 18 YEARS. Dang. So no, I've never thought of a backup plan.

Joe

[GRDadof3]

3 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

Neo runs / owns it. I think we've always been one of the more active forums (in the state/country/world). I don't know what plan b would be. We all dial into our AOL accounts and jump on MySpace? LOL

Crazy, I've been active on this site for 18 YEARS. Dang. So no, I've never thought of a backup plan.

Joe

I've seen a lot of users over on reddit. We'd probably switch over there. But that would suck we'd lose a lot of info from here. 

I wonder if Neo backs it up? 

[MJLO]

4 hours ago, grandrollerz said:

This talk of other social media sites got me wondering....Is there an emergency Urban Planet protocol should this site ever go dark? Do we all meetup up on r/grandrapids? The salon? Is that still a thing? 

Whose site is this?  Is it at risk of going away? Do they need money? I see we are one of the few remaining active forums so I get curious from time to time.

This has been touched on once or twice should Neo ever abandon UP.    The Grand Rapids section over at the city-data website could probably accommodate it.  The GR section has been dead for a while, but it's a busier website in general.  It also attracts a lot of trolls and can be hyperbolic and political so the quality of discussion would be at risk.   I hope this site never goes dark lol.

[gvsusean]

15 hours ago, grandrollerz said:

This talk of other social media sites got me wondering....Is there an emergency Urban Planet protocol should this site ever go dark? Do we all meetup up on r/grandrapids? The salon? Is that still a thing? 

Whose site is this?  Is it at risk of going away? Do they need money? I see we are one of the few remaining active forums so I get curious from time to time.

I hope this site never goes dark. Been here since 2005… maybe we should make a group on FB or something as the emergency falL back page should something happen and then all migrate from there?

[GRDadof3]

15 minutes ago, gvsusean said:

I hope this site never goes dark. Been here since 2005… maybe we should make a group on FB or something as the emergency falL back page should something happen and then all migrate from there?

Kind of like an underground bunker? Everyone meet there if UP goes dark? 

If it did go dark, Joedowntown and I would start up a UP replacement somewhere (reddit, Facebook group). I feel like reddit is set up a lot more like the UP board moreso than Facebook. 

Otherwise I'd see if Neo would just let me take it over. He does get some ad revenue, probably enough to keep the lights on. Pretty sure he lives in N.C. 

As it has been for years, Nashville, Charlotte, Greenville SC and Grand Rapids pretty much get the only traffic:

https://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/forum/10-usa-south/

[GR_Urbanist]

The staying power of UP is so unreal, that it makes me nervous that it could actually not be here one day. It is honestly the last piece of the "old" internet that I can still go to! These days it is nice just to have a serious old-school forum free of the overly emotional, and politically-charged nonsense you cant get away from on FB or Reddit orTwitter.

And I love the fact that this seems to be the only place where people have actual civic pride in GR. Virtually any other place that has a story about even a simple renovation to a building, or a positive story about GR ranking highly in the minds of people, is met with a wall of comments of bitter, spiteful and just deranged people that just despise living in this city. They really seem to hate everything about this place, and think this is honestly one of the most crime-ridden rundown + overpriced places on Earth, and they just cant wait to leave.

[GRDadof3]

25 minutes ago, GR_Urbanist said:

The staying power of UP is so unreal, that it makes me nervous that it could actually not be here one day. It is honestly the last piece of the "old" internet that I can still go to! These days it is nice just to have a serious old-school forum free of the overly emotional, and politically-charged nonsense you cant get away from on FB or Reddit orTwitter.

And I love the fact that this seems to be the only place where people have actual civic pride in GR. Virtually any other place that has a story about even a simple renovation to a building, or a positive story about GR ranking highly in the minds of people, is met with a wall of comments of bitter, spiteful and just deranged people that just despise living in this city. They really seem to hate everything about this place, and think this is honestly one of the most crime-ridden rundown + overpriced places on Earth, and they just cant wait to leave.

Most of those people don't even live in the city. Frankly, I don't either (and I remember from our meetups that most of the members here do not). But how goes the central city will determine how our metro area goes, in my opinion. I certainly do a lot of business in the city, and patronize a lot of businesses in the city. 

But you're right, it is crazy how long this forum has gone. 

[grandrollerz]

Definitely would prefer Reddit since I'm not on FB.  I've been contemplating alternatives for one of the groups I miss that lives on FB and a Telegram  channel would work for that, but something like UP might be better with Groups.io - https://groups.io/   Remember threaded email conversations from eGroups/Yahoo Groups?! I guess it's sorta like that.

Much love to @Neo then for keeping this alive!!