616 Development plans mixed-use project along Wealthy Street in Grand Rapids

616 Development plans mixed-use project along Wealthy Street in Grand Rapids
616 Development plans to convert the Kregel Building on Wealthy Street into a mixed-use development with market-rate apartments and ground-floor retail.

GRAND RAPIDS — 616 Development plans a mixed-use project along the booming Wealthy Street corridor in the East Hills neighborhood east of downtown Grand Rapids.

According to documents filed with the city, the Grand Rapids-based development and property management firm will acquire the three parcels at 751 and 759 Wealthy Street, in addition to the six-story building at 733 Wealthy St., frequently called the Kregel Building.

The firm plans between 76 and 84 market-rate apartments at the building, which will be accompanied by 68 parking spaces.

The building’s ground floor would offer 10,000 square feet of retail space, which the firm says already garnered interest from at least three different users.

One of the additional parcels the firm plans to acquire will be used for parking, while the parcel at 759 Wealthy St. — currently home to clothing store Lee & Birch — will remain “an active retail building,” Jeff Olsen, 616 Development’s director of development, wrote in a letter to the city.

“We still have a lot of pieces that need to fall into place before the final project is announced,” Olsen told MiBiz this morning.

The Kregel Building is currently owned by NextWork Group LLC, an entity registered to real estate developer Robert Dykstra, while the additional parcels are registered to Thomas Logan of Hirg LLC, according to county property records.

Olsen said the company has a closing date on the properties “in the near future.” Should the project gain the necessary approvals, the developer would aim to start construction in 2017, he added.

The Wealthy Street project would add to an increasing pipeline of proposed developments from 616 Development, which include plans for mixed-use sites in Grand Rapids’ Creston neighborhood that were announced in October 2014. The developer has since worked to gain additional approvals for the projects. Olsen said the firm expects to break ground there later this fall.

Additionally, 616 Development is a partner in the proposed $140 million, mixed-use movie theater project in Grand Rapids’ Arena South neighborhood, also slated to break ground in 2017.

Executives from 616 Development are expected to take part in an informal advisory discussion with members of the Grand Rapids Historic Preservation Commission tonight.