Order Reprints

By Brian Edwards | MiBiz
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

AzulStar has developed technology that effectively brings Wi-Fi capabilities into multi-unit apartment or condominium buildings. CEO Tyler van Houwelingen announced in November that the company had expanded into Kalamazoo, Muskegon and Lansing. PHOTO: BRIAN EDWARDS

GRAND RAPIDS — It seems a mystery: When you stay in a hotel, you can get high-speed wireless Internet in your room for the length of your stay. But move into an apartment or condo building, and you’ll likely need a modem, Ethernet cables and a one-year agreement with a phone or cable company.

Grand Haven’s Tyler van Houwelingen has solved that mystery for a West Michigan owner of several large multi-unit residential properties, including The Loft in downtown Grand Rapids. Together, they’ve started offering a connectivity service at The Loft that works just like the Wi-Fi at many high-end hotels, where they charge you for service rather than give it away.

When you log onto The Loft’s network, a screen pops up and offers three choices of high-speed Internet access: 1 megabyte (MB) for $22 per month; 5 MB ($33 per month) and 15 MB ($44 per month). Tenants register an account and the Internet service gets added to their rent payment. There are no long-term contracts or set-up fees.

“We wanted to keep it very simple,” says van Houwelingen, CEO of Grand Haven-based AzulStar Inc. The privately held company, which offers 4G and 5G wireless connectivity to commercial and government customers, set up the network at the urging of The Loft’s owners.

It actually took a little extra urging, admits van Houwelingen, who initially said no thanks to the request. He’d tried setting up a network before at a Grand Haven multi-unit building a few years ago and got less-than-stellar results. But advances in technology got van Houwelingen to give the Loft project another look. Improved wireless routers and access points now offer three times better area coverage and five times the speed. “The technology had to get there,” he says.

With the setup at The Loft, the slower speeds are sufficient for most tenants, though a fair number “want the big, 15-meg pipe,” says Todd Beyer, regional manager of Eenhoorn LLC, the Grand Rapids-based developer and property management company that owns The Loft as well as other local properties such as Plaza Towers and Wind Ridge.

So far, the adoption rates have outpaced projections, Beyer says. The wireless option went live at The Loft in May. Today, more than 50 percent of building’s tenants have signed up for the service.

“We take that as a sign that this is something that people want and really desire,” Beyer says, attributing tenant buy-in to the ease and flexibility of the service, as well as The Loft’s demographic makeup. The Loft has 56 apartment units and many residents are young professionals who are web-savvy, Beyer says.

The success of the program at The Loft has gotten AzulStar the green light to begin work at Plaza Towers, the high-rise apartment and condominium building overlooking the Grand River in downtown Grand Rapids. At Plaza Towers, AzulStar will be offering connectivity speeds up to 50 MB and will be testing speeds up to 100 megabytes per second.

In November, AzulStar announced it was expanding its services into Kalamazoo, Lansing and Muskegon.

  Order Reprints

TAGS:

• azulstar
• grand rapids
• tyler van houwelingen