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Steelcase Inc.’s Pyramid building in Gaines Township is for sale. The company is consolidating more of its operations to its headquarters building on 44th Street in Grand Rapids.

By Karen Gentry | TransActions
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GAINES TOWNSHIP — Increasing operational efficiencies helped sway furniture manufacturer Steelcase Inc. into the emotional, yet pragmatic decision that it needed to put its iconic Corporate Development Center — commonly known as the pyramid building — up for sale.

Jeanine Holquist, Steelcase corporate communications manager, said the need for the pyramid had lessened over the past few years. The company has worked throughout the organization to become more efficient and lean, and company leaders couldn’t ignore the fact that there was a better way to work.

Steelcase completed an expansive renovation and redevelopment of its headquarters building on 44th Street and Eastern Avenue in Grand Rapids, also the site for the Steelcase University Learning Center.

“We really invested in that campus in the last two to three years. At the same time, the occupancy in the headquarters and corporate development building was declining,” Holquist told TransActions. “So operating both buildings was not necessarily the most efficient use of our resources.”

Holquist said much energy and creativity can be gained by having a full building. The process of vacating the pyramid will likely take up to 2012 unless the plan needs to be accelerated to meet the desires of a buyer.

The pyramid is located on a 168-acre parcel at the southeast corner of 60th Street and East Paris Avenue, just over three miles from the Gerald R. Ford International Airport and less than a mile from the M-6/Broadmoor Ave. highway interchange.

The pyramid includes 333,000 square feet of open and private office space and 242,000 square feet of laboratory and support area. The building features 16-foot ceilings, exterior balconies and expansive windows that provide natural light throughout, four passenger elevators and four escalators.

According to CB Richard Ellis, the exclusive agent for the building, the pyramid can easily accommodate expanding corporate and high-tech business requirements because of the mechanical and IT infrastructure already in place.

Other selling points include a sound room for on-site product marketing, two-story photo studio, testing laboratory for product analysis, full-service kitchen/cafeteria and enclosed shipping and receiving area.

Gaines Township Supervisor Don Hilton said the building has been a signature, standout building for the company in the township he serves.

“It’s a beautiful building, unique in so many ways it’s almost hard to describe it,” Hilton told TransActions. “How many pyramids do you see in this area in the flight path of the airport?”

Hilton said the building might be a difficult one to divide because of the unique shape, although he said it could be possible to separate the six-story building by floors.
“I could see a headquarters for a banking institution or something related to the Medical Mile downtown,” Hilton said.

The Right Place Inc. Business Development Manager George Bosnjak said all options are on the table for the pyramid with mixed-use, business and education and other industries as possibilities.

“Ideally, we would like to get it filled as soon as possible. We’re looking at a lot of unique options with a building that size,” Bosnjak told TransActions.

He said The Right Place will promote the facility with site selectors and work with CB Richard Ellis to find partners to help fill the building.

Van Martin, CB Richard Ellis president and senior managing director of the Lansing and Grand Rapids offices, said the sale of the pyramid presents a unique opportunity to attract significant job growth to the community. The pyramid will be marketed throughout the country via CBRE’s Corporate Services and Capital Markets and through its institutional groups in life sciences, asset repositioning management, labor analytics, public institutions and education, and technology.

CBRE’s connections in Japan, Europe, Middle East and Africa will target large and mid-cap European and Japanese companies, including Global 500 institutions, Martin said.

Potential tenants could range from local Grand Rapids users to an international company looking to expand operations in the United States. Martin said the building is ideal for a corporate headquarters and for life sciences users because of the research and development laboratory component.

“The caliber of this building is unmatched in West Michigan, and therefore the potential for this building is nearly unlimited,” Martin told TransActions.

Martin touted many features of the pyramid including a two-story central atrium, a five story, rotating, stainless steel pendulum suspended over a reflective water feature, and the open floor plan with glass exterior walls.

Although no set selling price has been advertised for the pyramid, the 2009 taxable value of the building is $11.7 million, according to Kelley Ziesemer, Gaines Township assessor. Steelcase operates and pays taxes on 10 properties in Gaines Township and is one the township’s largest taxpayers. According to the township Web site, in 2008, the company paid nearly $1.25 million in taxes for the Corporate Development Center alone.

Holquist said the building cost more than $100 million, including furnishings, to build in 1986. TA