GVSU celebrates opening of Grand Villages on Allendale Campus

Grand Valley State University students, staff, and community members joined representatives from Orion Construction last week for a ribbon cutting event to celebrate the opening of The Grand Villages, a 20-acre “Greek Village” located at 5050 Pierce Road near the university’s Allendale Campus. 

10 multi-unit buildings were constructed by Orion, in conjunction with its Orion Real Estate Solutions and majority partner Alan Hoffman of Grand Villages, LLC., to provide a total of 265 new beds between the homes, each containing between 13-16 bedrooms with floor plans ranging from 9,870-12,100 square feet.

Jason Wheeler is a spokesperson for Orion Construction/ORES and says the Allendale-based project was not only an opportunity to continue a lucrative business partnership with Hoffman, but to also be a part of bringing together a community of students in a rapidly growing campus context. 

“We’re also motivated by the fact that GVSU really has such a great program going with its Greek organizations and helping them to relocate to a centralized area really kind of brings an identity to the school, especially since the rest of the school is growing so much,” Wheeler says. 

The initial phase of the project began in January 2014, with architecture designs by Johnson/Newhoff and financing provided by Wolverine Bank. Wheeler says the 20-acre site has space for additional growth, though the developer currently has no concrete plans in place at this time. 

The new buildings are fully occupied by members of GVSU’s 10 different Greek organizations. 

“With almost every other university you go to, you can sort of identify the student groups, including Greek organizations — but at GVSU, at least prior to this, those groups have been pretty scattered,” Wheeler says. “There was not a lot of housing to tie them into one cohesive unit, so that was really one thing we liked about this project, helping to bring some cohesion to those groups and build a sense of community there.” 

Written by Anya Zentmeyer, Development News Editor
Images courtesy of Orion Construction/Orion Real Estate Solutions