Kalamazoo -
A new
site plan is up for review. If it's approved, Kalamazoo will be seeing another small dispensary / growing / processing installation at 617 Portage Street, called "Yuma Way". The good thing about this is that it coincides with the street improvements along Portage, and it breathes new-life into a long-vacant building that is in the pseudo "dead-zone" between Downtown, South Town, and Edison / Washington Square.
617 is part of the former home to Hoekstra Hardware, which closed a few years ago (the same building that triggered a Biggby coffee redevelopment proposal, which I'm 99% sure is dead). I'm not sure what will happen with the other parts of the former Hoekstra's - this proposal only seems to touch one part of it - the left / north ~1/4 of
this assemblage.
It might start the ball rolling to "restore" the former Hardware store back into its smaller, historic commercial storefronts that no doubt merged over decades. This row of commercial structures is one of the last holdouts from decades of disinvestment and abandonment. Hopefully down the road we see the other adjoining buildings brought back to life - either as expansion space for Yuma Way, or some other uses - which will help bridge the pedestrian gap between Downtown, South Town, and Edison -
Source:
City of Kalamazoo | Driven Design