Six studio apartments on the drawing board for Grand Rapids’ Avenue for the Arts

For the past four years, Lucky Chana, owner of Lucky’s convenience store on Grand Rapids’ Avenue for the Arts (24 S. Division Ave.), has fielded all sorts of questions about the two empty floors above his store — questions from college students wondering if he has any budget-friendly apartments up there. By this fall, Chana hopes to answer that question with a hearty yes.
 
“We get so many students from GRCC, GVSU and Cooley who ask the same question,” Chana says. “They are looking for a medium price apartment, and all the apartments they’re building around town are a little bit high end.”
 
Chana’s plans are to create six studio apartments above the store. He says he’s received approval from the Historic Preservation Commission for his plans to restore and beautify the building’s façade — a $40,000 investment for brick repair, new windows and a new store canopy. He hopes to begin construction within the next four weeks.
 
“I think 30 to 40 years ago, there was some type of apartments upstairs,” Chana says. “I thought, if I could rehab those into 300- to 500-square-foot-apartments, it will be easy to rent at a reasonable price to these college students. My building looks like an eyesore, along with a couple of other buildings right now, and it’s time to do it and make it look better for the area. Hopefully it will bring better business to me and to my neighbors down here.”
 
Architectural design: R2 Design Group
Construction: Wolverine Construction
 
Source: Lucky Chana, Lucky’s
Writer: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor