Grand Rapids is Michigan's second largest city (197,800 city/MSA of about 1 million) located in the western portion of the lower peninsula about 50 miles inland from Lake Michigan in Kent County. Famous people to hail from or reside in Grand Rapis include; President Gerald Ford (whose museum and grave is also there), Gillian Anderson (actress), Adam Herz (American Pie movie writer), Kevin Matthews (radio personality), Andy Richter (actor), Dick York (actor), Roger Chaffee (Apollo I astronaut), Al Green (musician), Anthony Kiedis (leadsinger of the Red Hot Chili Peppers), Rob Bell (famous pastor/author), Buster Mathis (boxer), Floyd Mayweather Sr./Jr. (boxers), and Chris Van Allsburg (author).

 

Though born in Ohio I spent 18 of my formative years living in the metropolitan area. Its picture gallery (NOT taken by me) on UrbanOhio can be seen here...http://www.urbanohio.com/gallery/index.php?album=Other+Places%2FUnited+States%2FMichigan%2FGrand+Rapids

 

Though home to several auto related plants, many now closed, GR was never as dependent on the auto industry as Detroit and the rest of the east side. The city was at one time the furniture capital of the nation and companies like Steelcase, American Seating, and Herman Miller still call the region home. Other major companies to have operations out of the GR area include; Alticor/Amway, Meijer, Spartan Stores, GE Aviation, Wolverine Worldwide, MC Sports, Zondervan Christian Publishing, Universal Forest Products, and Foremost Insurance.

 

The region is also home to several colleges including Grand Valley State University, Davenport College, Grand Rapids Community College, Calvin College, Aquinas College, and Cooley Law School. Western Michigan University, Ferris State University, and Michigan State University all have branches in the area. As part of its economic diversification, GR has also heavily invested in the life sciences industry developing what has become known as the Medical Mile located along Michigan Street.

 

One of the largest keys to the cities recent growth and success has been the investment by several key families of philantropists such as the Van Andels, DeVos's, Secchias, Meijers, et. al. A proactive mayor and a large interest by local developers in the city also key contributors to its transformation.

 

This thread is intended to showcase the various projects occuring in the city. Most are of the low-rise nature. All images are property of their respected owners.

 

1. Michigan State University College of Human Medicine - $90 Million

 

2. Helen DeVos Children's Hospitalv - $274 Million

 

3. 38 Commerce, Parking ramp with office/residential liner - $20 Million

 

4. North Monroe Hotel/mix use (proposed) - $37 Million

 

5. Old Bicycle Factory mix use - $8.4 Million

 

6. Two West Fulton mix use - $34 Million

 

7. 657 West Fulton mix use student housing/retail (proposed)

 

8. Gerald R. Ford International Airport Parking Terminal - $134 Million

 

9. 9-Story Hotel located on Ionia adjacent to Van Andel Arena (proposed)

 

There are many recently completed projects, renovations, and a few projects that have been announced but do not have renderings available yet. I will post them as they released. The city also currently working on developing a streetcar and expand its normal bus service to include BRT.

Nice! Keep it coming.

Grand Rapids is certainly Michigan's best city.

Agreed.  They've had an incredible amount of development in the last few years.  Definitely 12 times what has been posted in this thread.  I've been hoping to get over their soon to get some photos but it's about 2.5 hours away from AA.  The Pill Hill/Medical Mile has really beefed up the entrance into the city.  I think the old Towers building at 7 short floors (now demolished) was the tallest along the Ford Expwy.

 

We need to get the JW Marriot and the new condo tower posted on here. 

Some of those are really nice and some seem like they'll be an eyesore when the style is out of date.

the new art museum downtown (the "GRAM") is quite good.Was there over Thanksgiving.  GR still retains a lot of its traditional, conservative sleepy-town characteristics, but downtown has really advanced the ball in the past 10 years or so.

This was finished up a few months ago:

 

LL Lofts

I travel to GR quite a bit and I love it as a city.  YesterDog shouldn't be missed.

Looks like a cool city!

It really looks like it wants to be taller.

 

BTW, again I see I really need to head out to G-Rap, alot of those renovations posted above are nearly completion.  I think my schedule is open all day Friday so I'll go out for a nice 2.5 hour drive LOL.  In a state where projects seem to remain in uncertainty, GR gets them done, and does them well.

 

What's even cooler are the neighborhoods.  Incredible housing stock in the Heritage Hill area.  While demolition has ravaged so many cities in Michigan, it skipped Grand Rapids thankfully.

 

 

I know we hate suburbs here but Cascade and Ada are just so quaint.  One of my colleagues up there is part owner of the development company that did/is doing Thousand Oaks GC.

 

EGR is awesome too!

Yeah EGR really tends to be overlooked.  I saw it for the first time last year and loved it.  I haven't experienced too many of GR surrounding suburbs with the exception of Wyoming, which I couldn't believe how monstrous it was.

 

BTW the GR Catholic Central's new office building is awesome.  They basically took this bombed out warehouse, took off the collapsing facade and brought it into the 21st century.  It looks really nice and very contemporary.  The parking garage has cables that will allow ivy to grow up the side giving it green walls.  I know they plan to expand the square more in the future, so it should be cool to see how it eventually turns out.

 

Another renovation has been announced recently.  I can't remember the name of the building, it's at the top of Monroe near the police station.  5 or 6 story wedge shaped building.  Excellent views.

 

I wasn't able to make it out to GR Friday because of bad weather.  Hopefully it will clear up soon and I'll make the trip.

I remember when that was proposed originally. 

 

Honestly, I wish GR residents would just ignore this stuff.  Had people not paid attention to these bogus development, the project could have died away fast without any discussion.

 

Love how that document was full of spelling errors

Here's a little article on Metro GR that popped up a few days ago on FORTUNE/MONEY/CNN Online (entitled "A Michigan success story"):  http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/11/autos/michigan_success_story.fortune/index.htm

 

A cool read (though Holland is an "exurb" or edge-city of GR <just like Muskegon, Saugatuck and Grand Haven>, not a suburb; Metro GR is 1.3 million people, not 1 million and there are WAY more philanthropic/historical families that have made a mark on GR than the perrenial favorites stated in the article - i.e. Parks, Browning, Claytor, Phillips, Pew, Hauenstein, Merlotti, Eberhard, etc.).

 

ENJOY  :clap:

DeVos, Van Andel families plan massive ‘skyline defining’ project in Grand Rapids

 

A roughly seven-acre, riverfront parking lot in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids could be transformed into a vibrant, mixed-use development with three high-rise towers containing up to 671 high-end apartments and condos, a hotel, office tower and retail.

 

The vision is being proposed by Fulmar Property Holdings, a company comprised of members of the DeVos and Van Andel families. The families own the 500-space parking lot at the corner of Fulton Street and Market Avenue, just north of Acrisure Amphitheater, where the project would be built.

 

More below:

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2024/09/devos-van-andel-families-plan-massive-skyline-defining-project-in-grand-rapids.html

 

 

 

 

 

Grand Rapids is a beautiful city. Kudos to their big money people actually building something new!

Impressive.  The family that owns the parking lot actually wants to build something on it.

scamway families, its a shame, but otherwise great plans. 

 

i wonder whatever happened to amway, is it still around? 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2024Sep 23 by mrnyc