When
Orion Construction’s Fulton Square development is finished come this winter, the new mixed-use project will boast 55,000 square feet between its two buildings, housing 47 residential units, 3,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, a 4,000-square-foot restaurant, and 92 parking spaces in total.
Straddling the neighborhood boundary between Eastown and Fulton Heights,
the new Fulton Square is located next door to Opera Grand Rapids on the corner of Fulton Street SE and Carlton Avenue, occupying a lot that has been long vacant since its last tenant, Michigan Lithos, burned down several years ago.
“We’re excited to be able to bring back another Eastown development from vacant land, like Eastown Flats,” says Jason Wheeler, spokesperson for the Grand Rapids-based Orion Construction, which opened its 35-unit Eastown Flats apartment building during summer 2015. “It’s always good if we can take something that was creating no taxable valuable and made it into something that provides economic impact.”
The $9.2 million project was funded by a combination of Brownfield redevelopment and Neighborhood Enterprise Zone tax incentives, with additional financing from majority investors SIBSCO and Sparta-based ChoiceOne Bank. With Concept Design Group as the project’s architect, Colliers International is managing the leases of the developments. None of the leases have been signed yet, though Wheeler says ORES has been in talks with potential restaurant and retail tenants who are interested in the space.
The project, which Wheeler says is ahead of schedule with an anticipated December 2016/January 2017 completion, received unanimous support from the city, planning commission, and area neighborhood association before breaking ground in April.
With Aquinas College just a stone’s throw away, Wheeler says Orion hopes to bring more than just new housing options to the college’s students, faculty, staff, and community members at large.
“What Fulton Square offers is a housing component and additional entertainment opportunities within that Eastown area that we think will be supported well by Aquinas College students and faculty, as well as being an additional entertainment offering to the Grand Rapids Opera House,” Wheeler says, adding that there’s an added bonus of potential for increased exposure to the GR Opera by some who otherwise may have not visited on their own.
“I also want to thank the neighborhood association for being such a strong supporter and providing so much valuable insight into the design and different components of development so that we knew it met their standards and expectations,” Wheeler says. “Their input was really valuable and we took that into consideration during the design and continue to take that into consideration as we finish the development.”
To learn more about the future Fulton Square, visit fultonsquaregr.com.
Written by Anya Zentmeyer, Development News Editor
Images & renderings courtesy of Orion Construction Co. & Concept Design Group
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.