This is interesting...the article reveals a little bit more about the long-term renovation plans to the property at 225 Parsons St. including mention of "a premium lifestyle offering." PlazaCorp, the recent purchaser of the property (under the name 225 Parsons LLC) has not revealed specifics, but there is also mention of a "live entertainment venue, a music instrument store, a recording studio and a space for musicians to try instruments or rehearse" as well as "a courtyard and cafe/restaurant with a view across the iconic site where people can enjoy a meal and soak in the musical history of Kalamazoo."

Here's a few construction updates from yesterday evening. It was a nice day so I took a walk after work.

The Exchange is moving along - I posted more photos of the project here.
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246 Michigan Ave - The balcony is now added for this private residence conversion:
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Former Alamo Drafthouse / Soon to be the AMC Kalamazoo 10 Theatre. I couldn't get too close because of security, but there is clearly a lot of interior activity happening right now. They are constructing some sort of new bulkhead on the inside of the curtain wall - probably for advertising upcoming attractions from the inside. It's a quick turnaround - renovations / reopening is expected this Fall:
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Peregrine 100 - Phase 2, which involves conversion of the oldest portion of this former bank building into retail and apartments, is ongoing. First floor windows are removed, presumably will be replaced:
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They also recently installed new exterior signage - it looks ok, but the old wall panels behind the sign on the Kalamazoo Mall side look dirty / damaged. Pretty silly to me that they didn't fix that:
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Site clearing is underway for Phase 2 of The Foundry Development. A portion of this cleared area will be for the future extension of Harrison St south to Pitcher St. According to this MLive article, "Phase 2 calls for the development of an office and residential building...between 45,000 and 60,000 square feet, all on one floor...another 10,000 square feet may be added on a second level for residential uses." It's a sizable area for Downtown / Rivers Edge (about 8 acres). It's just too bad that the best we can expect is a two story structure with more surface parking. More finished pictures of The Foundry Phase 1 can be found here.

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There's several piles of small scrap metal laying about:
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This portion is being remodeled into a new restaurant:
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Finally, with daylight waning, I tried to get a look at the new Portage Northern MS, which is further along with steel work than I had thought:
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It's those extra 20 volts that will kill ya:
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A pretty big project out of WMU is moving forward. The University has announced plans to replace all of the first-year student dormitories in 'The Valley Neighborhood' with new dorms. The area is presently comprised of three large complexes, known as Valley I, Valley II, and Valley III. Each of these complexes currently houses approximately 1,000 students, with four connected halls per complex (12 halls total).

The dorms were built in the 1960s, and are pretty typical of that time (and quite sparse by today's standards), consisting of small suites where two student rooms share a connecting bathroom. The below video tour of Ackley / Shilling Halls gives a sense of the typical feel of these dorms:

• Video Link

The new dorms might be expected to resemble something similar to the recently completed Western Heights Residence Halls (also designed for first-year students). The rooms themselves are quite small, with more money and design being put into shared collaboration and activity spaces:

• Video Link

CannonDesign is leading the design of the new dormitories, and the first of three public forums was recently held on campus on 9/14/17 to gather input form students and faculty / staff. Valley III, consisting of Fox, Eldridge, Harrison, and Stinson Halls will be the first to go, with demolition starting in early 2018 and completion expected by Fall 2020. Using the figures in the MLive article, this project might cost somewhere round $165 Million in total (assuming 3,000 student beds x $55,000 per bed).

Campus Map:
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Valley Neighborhood Detail:
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Base image source: WMU Campus Maps

Aerial view of the Valley Neighborhood, in all of its 1960s splendor. The cleared area is where the new Valley Dining Center now stands:
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Image Source: Google Maps

Existing Valley Dorm Photo:
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Image Source: MLive

A little bit west of Kalamazoo, in the Village of Mattawan, the Mattawan Consolidated School District just opened its new Later Elementary Building (grades 3 through 5). There was a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday night for students, parents, and staff. The school features learning neighborhoods divided into three wings, with a lot of state-of-the-art technology and advanced building systems. There is also an abundance of natura light, as evidenced in the photos below. A new Early Elementary building is also under construction next door to serve grades K-2. It will connect to the Later Elementary once completed in Fall 2018. Together, the two schools will be one of the largest elementary facilities in the state, with the capacity for around 1,500 students. The link below offers a short new coverage video by WWMT.

MLive posted a bunch of photos on their site. You can link to those here. Below are a couple of highlights - it really is a good looking facility. I wish my elementary had been this nice.

Cafeteria:
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Commons:
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Commons:
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Commons:
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Gymnasium
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All Images Source: Mark Bugnaski | MLive

(If you're still reading this, here is some footage from back in July, including some good drone flyover footage):
• Video Link

I was driving around town today and noticed that demolition has begun on a portion of 829 Portage Street just south of Vine Street, in the northern part of the Edison neighborhood. The area actually consists of three buildings (and I think several separate parcels). The prevelant grape motif is a remnant of the structures' former use as a warehouse for 'Grapevine Furniture' - a new and used furniture business which closed in 2013 after 25 years in service. The property has been pretty much vacant since then. Here's an article that I found from 2013 about the closing of the business:

I've always liked the brick detail on the one masonry building (which has severely degraded in recent years). While nothing fancy, it still showed that some care was put into the construction of the original building. I would love to find out its age and its original intended use - maybe that portion will not be destroyed (but I'm guessing it will). I will try to find out more about what the plans are for this property, which has good street presence on a corner lot along the busy north-south Portage Street.

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Images Source: Google Maps (Accessed 9/17/17)

Some news updates from around town.

1. Perhaps of greatest weight, a land-swap deal between the County and Plazacorp has been cleared, regarding plans for a potential future consolidated County Courthouse in Arcadia West, between Cooley and Park Streets. The rough estimate for the developments in this area are $100 - $200 million, but it is still early on. Wood TV8 did a news story on it here:

2. An expansion of Newell Brands Inc. may be coming to the area, if local officials can entice the company with enough incentives. Newell Brands, maker of things like Sharpie markers, Rubbermaid kitchen supplies, and Graco car seats, has a 3-year old, 40,000 SF design and research center at WMU's Business Technology and Research Park that employs about 100. An expansion could equate to an $8 million investment via a 22,000+ SF addition, and perhaps 60 new jobs. Existing jobs at the facility have estimated salaries of $70,000 to $90,000 per year.

3. The Kalamazoo Farmer's Market pavilion could be expanding, via the City's purchase of condemned property near the current market. This is part of a three-year plan that also includes realigning Bank Street, which leads into the market, to better accommodate the increased car traffic. The popularity of the market has grown to the point that vendors are frequently turned away due to lack of space.

4. I don't care too much about this, but Gallagher's Restaurant, on Stadium drive, will be partially converted to 5,000 SF of mixed retail (with 5,000 SF remaining for the current restaurant). A new 11,000 SF retail addition will be added to the back of the current 10,000 SF structure. The new opening is scheduled for summer 2018.

I just posted some photos of a recent tour of the old Vicksburg Paper Mill, which has big redevelopment plans in its future. You can check out those photos on the Discovering Kalamazoo - Photo Thread, here.

A previous post mentioned that the City was exploring potential redevelopment of the former fire station on 116 W Cedar St. Officials have now issued an RFQ for developers. The RFQ can be found here. According to it,

The city's idea is to keep the large garage bays and add additional floors.

Current View from Cedar St:
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City Planners' proposed massing:
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Images Source: placemaking.mml.org

Some news from the week:

1. Lot's of moving pieces right now with the City's ongoing master plan talks and related discussions:

Sounds like a lot of talk, but this part of the story caught my attention:

2. The first tenant is confirmed for the latest Trade Centre building, along the I-94 corridor:

A bit misleading, as Minoru passed away in 1986. If the article meant to refer to the firm which he founded, it was called "Minoru Yamasaki Associates, Inc." before his death, and it was renamed to Yamasaki & Associates after his death, until its shutdown in 2009. Recent news indicates that the firm will be reopening again in Detroit.

3. More info on Newell-Rubbermaid's planned expansion in Kzoo:

4. Trader Joe's is soon to open its first location in Kalamazoo:

1. Recent article on the progress of non-motorized trails in Kalamazoo and surrounding areas:

2. Not much new info in this article, but a photo of the former Alamo Drafthouse with the new AMC signage that was recently installed. To my disappointment, it looks like this is about all that will be done to the exterior of the buiding, in terms of renovations & repair.

^ That's great news for the area. They've been working on securing that funding for a while now.

Speaking of rivers and water - it has been pouring rain here - 6" yesterday and more today although it is tapering off. Below are some photos of Western Michigan's Waldo Stadium, which experienced unprecedented flooding Saturday evening. Lighting in the area initially caused the game to be delayed, but it was ultimately postponed, once the field began flooding. An excessive amount of water from the overflowing Arcadia Creek poured down the stairs on the western side of the stadium, filling it and creating a small lake. Too bad PJ Fleck wasn't still around to help them 'row the boat' our of this mess.

These photos are by Kaytie Boomer at MLive.

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Wow that's crazy it's been rainy here on the east side of the state for a few days but only a couple inches at best i think we got some gulf of mexico moisture courtesy of the remnants of hurricane nate.

So the sun came back (briefly) after more than 6" of rain were dumped in some parts of the city over the weekend. WMU lost its postponed homecoming game to Akron on Sunday, after the ground crews were able to clear about 2 feet of standing water from the stadium field. You figure that the stadium has the proper infrastructure to deal with heavy rainfall, but this was just unprecedented. I think most of the interior spaces were spared. They managed to produce sandbags rather quickly from somewhere close by.

An insightful article from Second Wave Media that tells the story of Kalamazoo's recent growth and many positive changes. I've met Andrew a few times, and he and his team at DKI have a good handle on navigating the many challenges and priorities that often define this small city.

A local Architecture / Engineering / Surveying firm, Wightman & Associates, is making a move from Portage to downtown Kalamazoo's east end (433 E. Ransom) as it expands its staff and aligns itself more with their client base in the area. I think this is good news in several ways - one being an indicator of the increasing health of the metro area's A&E industry, another being a testament to just how much the east end has transformed in recent years to attract new housing and businesses. The company's main office is in Benton Harbor, with a third location in Allegan. They will more than triple the SF of what they had in their current Portage office space.

Here is the property as it looks on google maps today, across the street from the Norbridge Building. It's walking distance from Bell's, HopCat, Green Door Distilling, etc.

The interior aesthetics look a lot like many of the other downtown firms' offices, which tend to be located in repurposed industrial / exposed brick-type structures. By my count, this will put the total count of A/E offices located in the greater downtown area somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 - 20 separate firms, which to me is a lot, given how small the city is.

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Images Source: Second Wave Media / WAI

I missed this news when it came out...in post #123 I wrote about WMU's plans to move forward with the plan to replace the valley dorms. Well apparently that is now on hold, indefinitely, with unclear reasons why, but probably a combination of decreased enrollment and financial challenges.

It's an odd statement by the University to say that plans were always speculative. The press release issued a few weeks before this seemed to imply that a planned construction schedule with demolition in early 2018 was moving forward full steam.

A long-planned expansion of WMU's successful Business Technology and Research Park (BTR Park) in Oshtemo Township is closing in on a Spring 2018 groundbreaking, according to a recent MLive article. The site has an interesting history, having served as former orchards that were maintained by former residents of the Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital. Long-overgrown, this 50+ acre parcel is one of the largest undeveloped pieces of land in the area, and is located adjacent to the Asylum Lake Nature Preserve, itself the site of former Psych Hospital activities and structures.

I think my favorite part of the article is the name of the Oshtemo Township Planning Commission Secretary - Dusty Farmer.

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The site is the wooded portion - in the mid-ground of this image. US-131 is in the foreground, and the existing BTR Park and Asylum Lake Preserve are in the background:
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Is the land at the northeast corner of Drake and Parkview across the street developable or is it a part of the Asylum Lake Preserve? It have been great where it technically in the city, but maybe it wasn't possible. Also, on that site plan, are the proposed buildings the white areas?

Here's what the article has to say about future expansion nothing seems to be clear but new building for expansion of the WMU R&D business park is the ultimate goal.

This is a very interesting project it seems like the white spots shown are spaces for the expansion of the Western Michigan University business park. There are laws in Michigan that protect wetlands from development or require developers to recreate a larger wetlands area if one is to be filled in and developed over. It looks to me like the area to the north of the site is a wetlands area and with a buffer zone with storm water management built into the fringes of new business park perhaps a portion of the site falls under certain natural protection or it just could be that WMU is trying to use the natural beauty of the site to attract tenants.