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By Andrew Domino | MiBiz
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The Hinman Company is revising a road exit from Westnedge to its Trade Centre property, where it could add a third building. COURTESY PHOTO

A quick glance on a drive down Westnedge Avenue or along Centre Avenue leaves no doubt that the city of Portage is growing. City administrators intend to update the comprehensive development plan in 2012, but construction is already underway in several areas.

The most significant is the intersection of I-94 and South Westnedge, which has been covered in orange construction barrels since 2009. The intent is to widen both I-94 and South Westnedge, as the intersection is the major route in and out of both Portage and Kalamazoo. The Michigan Department of Transportation estimates that the project is now about 50-percent finished, though it’s only anticipated to last until November of 2011.

While MDOT is quick to reassure travelers that all of the shops and restaurants in the area will remain open during the construction, Portage officials are looking ahead to what might come next for their city.

“The city is in the process of relocating roads along I-94,” said Vicki Georgeau, director of community development for the city of Portage. “It’s hopefully paving the way for development in that area.”

Just north of the I-94/Westnedge crossing, development is already underway. The Hinman Company already features two office buildings in its Trade Centre complex and is revising the road exit from Westnedge to the site. Hinman’s conceptual plan shows a design including a third office building built between the existing two, as well as restaurants, shopping, a 120-room hotel and plenty of parking outside each facility.

Georgeau said the Trade Centre property is part of the Downtown Development Authority area, which stretches along South Westnedge from I-94 north to Kilgore. The office complex will see the most changes in the next year, though smaller updates can be found elsewhere in the DDA area, like the former Bennigan’s restaurant finding new life as an Old Chicago Pizza restaurant this summer. Georgeau said a plan for renovations to the Willow Creek Shopping Center has been submitted to the city as well. Willow Creek is the line of small stores across Westnedge from the Meijer supermarket.

While the DDA area remains the focus of retail business in Portage, it isn’t the only part of the city seeing new growth. Apartments and senior housing is planned on Centre Avenue. Stryker has submitted plans to take up nearly 100,000 square feet of the “quad building,” a former Pfizer facility on Romence Road. The medical device manufacturer intends to expand into the building this fall, but it will be a tenant in only 25 percent of the space. No other businesses have announced plans to join Stryker in the building, and Georgeau said only that Portage is “hoping to attract more tenants” there.

Also on Centre Avenue is the Centre Point Commons, a shopping area at Centre and Portage Road. The Portage Animal Hospital was updated, with a bank coming to the area as well.

Development is expanding in Portage in 2011, with a 12-percent increase in the number of permits, Georgeau said. Of the permits, more than two-thirds are for non-residential development.

The next step for Portage is a revision of its 2008 comprehensive plan, set for next year. In the 2008 plan, several “corridors” were identified as sites where the city would concentrate its economic development: Centre Avenue, a parallel line of stores on Milham Avenue, a few miles to the north, and smaller areas on sections of roads north of I-94, like Lovers Lane and Sprinkle. None of those areas is new to development.

In the 2008 plan, city planners acknowledged a limit to the amount of land available for development into stores and restaurants, especially as the DDA uses I-94 as its southern border. The city’s future land use map indicates that the extent of its current development, with commercial buildings along Westnedge and south to Shaver Road, is about as far as the city plans to allow shops. The next step isn’t making room for more, it’s making what’s already there better, Georgeau said.

“When we update the comprehensive plan, we’ll be looking at ways to spur development,” she said.

Steward Sandstrom, president and CEO of the Kalamazoo Regional Chamber of Commerce, said Portage is a good model for the type of economic development the chamber supports — encouraging accessibility to business in the area. He said the chamber was instrumental in the move to expand the I-94 and South Westnedge intersection, to help increase the access to retail distribution centers, like the Target store facility in Kalamazoo.

Sandstrom said city officials and its development plans indicate a willingness to welcome retail to the city.

“The city of Portage is where you can have that kind of discussion,” he said. “We hope what happens in Portage becomes the norm in Michigan.”

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TAGS:

• hinman company
• kalamazoo
• portage
• south westnedge
• steward sandstrom
• vicki georgeau
• willow creek