By: Deborah Johnson Wood
This fall the Grand Valley Metropolitan Council (GVMC), in partnership with Kentwood, Wyoming, and Gaines and Byron townships will convene area stakeholders to redesign the business district along Division Avenue between 54th and 60th streets. The proposed development is the first of what could potentially be many multi-million-dollar mixed-use hubs spurred by Michigan’s most sophisticated transit project yet, the $40 million Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).
The Rapid, the regional transit agency, will operate the BRT, which will run from 60th north along Division Avenue to the city core, circling past hospitals, colleges, DeVos Place and Van Andel Arena. With 19 designated stops (including stops at 60th and 54th), pre-paid boarding, a dedicated travel lane, buses every 10 minutes, and the ability to change red lights to green, the BRT will speed riders to their destinations.
“When you put in a fixed-route transit service, the land around it immediately becomes more valuable and it’s profitable to develop it more intensely,” says Jay Hoekstra, GVMC planner overseeing the charrette.
The Rapid’s web site reports that the BRT's potential to leverage private investment varies: “…as high as 1000 percent, e.g. Cleveland’s Euclid Corridor…. At the lowest end of ROI is Pittsburgh with 115 percent.”
But community leaders are confident the new transit service will accelerate urban revitalization along the Division Avenue corridor.
“This is a good place for redevelopment because there’s a lot of vacant and underused land to develop into commerce centers,” Hoekstra continues.
Hoekstra plans to meet with stakeholders over the summer to prepare for the charrette, which is funded by grants totaling $36,000.
“Downtown is the main destination with the greatest number of jobs and the cultural center,” Hoekstra says. “If it works out, there will be some pretty fine neighborhoods and town centers along the route.”
Source: Jay Hoekstra, Grand Valley Metropolitan Council
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Deborah Johnson Wood is the development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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