44-unit riverfront apartment project planned north of downtown Grand Rapids

44-unit riverfront apartment project planned north of downtown Grand Rapids
Developers plan to add 44 apartments to this existing office building at 280 Ann St. NW along the Grand River.

GRAND RAPIDS — A 44-unit apartment project planned along the Grand River would add to existing offices near Ann Street and U.S.-131 on the city’s north side. 

Compass Insurance Agency CEO Jack Hoedeman and Honor Construction President and CEO Brad Laackman share ownership of the building at 280 Ann St. NW, where they also both have offices. The building is located just south of a Radisson hotel between the Grand River and U.S.-131.

Honor Construction would build the four-story, 26,000-square-foot addition to the existing building. Lott3Metz Architecture LLC serves as the project architect. The developers aim to break ground sometime in the fourth quarter of 2022, and construction should take roughly a year, Hoedeman told MiBiz. The apartments would be built on top of the property’s existing parking lot, he said. 

“There is a huge shortage of (housing) and this parcel is 2.5 acres,” Hoedeman said. “We have 1 acre of green space on the water and with all of the activation on the water, it seemed like a natural place where people would want to live.”

Grand Rapids has a residential rental vacancy rate of 1.3 percent, far below the state average of 5.2 percent, according to a recent HelpAdvisor study of such vacancy rates across the country. Grand Rapids’ current vacancy rate is also well below the city’s average of 4.3 percent in 2015, according to the study.

The city’s Brownfield Redevelopment Authority will consider brownfield incentives for the project during its September meeting. Soil along the riverfront parcel is contaminated from previous uses in the 1960s, Hoedeman said. 

“We’re very excited to bring some more market-rate units to the community and they are desperately needed,” Hoedeman said. “We’re happy to give some of that solution to the area.”