BTW, anyone catch this week's City Pulse in which the mayor mentions something about the current AF headquarters building? Apparently, he says if what he has lined up pans out, it'll involve 400 workers moving to the current headquarters building, but would not say more. I'm racking my brain to try and figure out who in the area would have 400 workers to move downtown. Could the City, perhaps, be looking to make it the new city hall? I have no idea.
I highly doubt City Hall would move there, they would have to build a new police headquarters separately. Looking at the largest employers list it looks like the only plausible company is Delta Dental (432 employees), which recently announced that they are hold off on current expansion plans. Consumers Energy could also be possible, but I don't know how many of their 525 area workers are in the offices (on Willow). Of course it could always just be more State workers.
I think the idea for "being along a bus line as if it were a number of parking spaces" is a great idea. I had never thought of that before, but it is definitely a way to give an incentive for businesses to located in accessible and urban areas.
Hood, Consumers current local facility is perfect for them. It's not just an office building but a service center. They need a garage for all of their trucks and space to store equipment. I can't see them splitting their office space from their service space. In fact, it looks like utilities are going in the other direction (consolidating their service centers with their administrative offices); it's why BWL eventually combined their office and service space and left downtown. And, while Delta isn't fully expanding like they'd hope, the headquarters is already under construction. There is no way they are leaving that campus; they don't have the money to leave something like that behind.
Jared, I brought that up because I'm pretty sure I've heard that some planning boards in more professive cities weigh a development plan who sets up along existing transit line as a better project and worthy of passing then one that don't. I'd like to see the city pass an ordinance making something like that official. We should be formally incentivizing developments that are along existing bus lines. Fortunately, most of the stuff developed in the last few years have been along CATA routes.
Anybody know how many people Blue Cross has at its Delta Township office building, which it recently sold to Auto-Owners? AF is a subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Given this economy and financial market, it might make sense for them to fill the old Accident Fund building themselves.
And even if they didn't fill the whole building, they could lease out the empty floors. The top floors once housed the Loomis law firm before AF's growth pushed them out.
I think the parking deck financing problem was already brought up somewhere. But this article (on July 31st) also says:
"Starting at 9 a.m. today, Grand Avenue will be closed between Ottawa and Ionia streets for 12 to 14 weeks.The closure will make room for site preparation before crews demolish the portion of the North Grand parking ramp over Grand Avenue. Demolition won't happen for another couple of weeks, said Jim Cash, president and CEO of Christman Capital Development Co."
It's hard to tell from the picture just posted, but on Saturday the workers were building a retaining wall for the river trail. The wall is three blocks tall, with each block being about 2-3 feet tall.
Really? I'd only noticed that they dug out a pathway along the existing wall.
Anyway, anyone know exactly what that structure is in the river to the far left in the picture? It's been on both sides of the river, and I'm wondering exactly what it's called and exactly what it does?
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Jared, I brought that up because I'm pretty sure I've heard that some planning boards in more professive cities weigh a development plan who sets up along existing transit line as a better project and worthy of passing then one that don't. I'd like to see the city pass an ordinance making something like that official. We should be formally incentivizing developments that are along existing bus lines. Fortunately, most of the stuff developed in the last few years have been along CATA routes.
And even if they didn't fill the whole building, they could lease out the empty floors. The top floors once housed the Loomis law firm before AF's growth pushed them out.
I think the parking deck financing problem was already brought up somewhere. But this article (on July 31st) also says:
This is sooner than I thought.
Anyway, anyone know exactly what that structure is in the river to the far left in the picture? It's been on both sides of the river, and I'm wondering exactly what it's called and exactly what it does?