Will downtown Grand Rapids get a major grocery store?

The explosion of housing development in downtown Grand Rapids has started a number of conversations about the general livability factor of the city and the lack of grocery availability in that area of the city. From data made available by JPMorgan Chase this summer, we know that downtown residents make 80 percent of their purchases outside the downtown area and that the Knapp's Corner Meijer and D&W is the most sought out location for grocery purchases.

Over the last decades a pattern of downtown working and suburban living emerged, but since the Butterworth/Blodgett merger and the development of the Medical Mile on Michigan, demand for downtown real estate has increased significantly, spurred on by increasing transportation costs as well. Suddenly the place to be is not longer in the suburbs, but in the city, and developers have been eager to build more housing that will appeal to people with professional jobs and incomes. Old factories and commercial buildings have been transformed into condos and apartments, and the city recently approved plans for a mixed-space development in the Belknap neighborhood, just north of the Medical Mile.

These changes have been controversial, with some calling them gentrification and others accusing the city of allowing the more well off citizens to push established residents out of key areas of the city. Other celebrate what they consider the significant improvements in dining choices, retail shopping, entertainment options, and public living.

What is not debated by either group is that downtown city living, despite its benefits, is more challenging because of the lack of grocery shopping options. Food is available in the city in small boutique groceries and at farmer's markets, and there are food delivery options through Doorganics and the West Michigan Coop, but there is no large scale, one-stop-shopping option for buying food and other sundries downtown.

So how viable would a large grocery store be downtown? Despite the Downtown Development Authority identifying the lack of grocery options downtown as a significant weakness of the city in 2011, there seems to be significant hesitation from chains like Meijer or Trader Joe's to locate anywhere near downtown. Part of this must be logistical. Parking downtown is a problem, and although the Silver Line made its inaugural run this week offering residents more transportation flexibility, large chain stores are designed to sell groceries in bulk - a practice that doesn't mesh as well with public transportation use.

Additionally, for the most desirable affluent market, there already are grocery options like the Downtown Market. It's the working class and downsized middle class who would need a low cost option like a coop or an ALDI downtown to consider urban living even possible. Most of them rely on their cars too much to give them up, even if car maintenanceis more expensive long term. This demographic isn't concerned about the health benefits of kombucha or gluten-free eating. They need grocery stores who will accept the bridge card and/or offer cheap staples and produce, locally grown or not.

The question, then, is: does the city intend to encourage economic diversity with its downtown planning or not? And is there enough demand to support a larger grocery store at present? Rich people can always pay to have groceries delivered, no matter where they come from. The economically disadvantaged need an option geographically nearby.

Only time will tell.

Grand Rapids invests in its own infrastructure and success

Last week, May 6, the citizens of Grand Rapids voted 2-to-1 for a ballot proposal to extend the temporary income tax raise until 2030 to pay for the rebuilding of its streets and roads. They also approved a measure that would make the city - via taxes - responsible for sidewalk repairs.

Previously homeowners were assessed the costs of sidewalk replacement, typically upon the sale of their homes. The proposal was sharply contested by the Grand Rapids Taxpayers Association, but the 13.7% of taxpayers who made it to the polls showed significant support for the measure.

This is the second time in the last three years that taxpayers have voted for change in their transportation infrastructure. They previously voted in May 2011 for the construction of a high-speed Silver Line bus line on Division Avenue as well as extended and expanded routes.

Currently the roads in Grand Rapids are rated 60 percent poor, a fact that creates a barrier to employment for lower wage workers who must commute to their jobs but cannot afford to pay for new suspensions or shocks every year, even if these auto parts are manufactured locally. With better roads, more comprehensive mass transportation, and other options for travel, such as dedicated bike lanes, it should be easier for would be employees to hurdle that entry to regular work.

The Grand Rapids business community has also grown in tandem with the development of the Silver Line. Grand Valley State University has continued to expand its downtown Pew Campus, last year opening the Seidman Center, which includes the Seidman College of Business.

The Downtown Market also opened to great fanfare last summer. The Medical Mile continues to expand. Michigan State University is planning a new biomedical research center on the site of the soon-to-be demolished old Grand Rapids Press building.

All along the future Silver Line route, buildings have been under the hammer. Tower Pinkster now occupies the gorgeously renovated Art Moderne building at the corner of Fulton and Division. Kendall College of Art and Design has extended itself into the refurbished former Federal Building. Just off of Division, Founder’s Brewing Company added a $26 million expansion with beer garden to its amenities.

The energy downtown is completely different than it was a decade or so ago. What was an empty and derelict downtown is now bustling with shoppers and businessmen, and regularly flooded with runners, swing dancers and ice skaters in season, happy to window shop, attend a performance at the Civic, or eat at any one of the fine restaurants in Grand Rapids's ever expanding food scene.

It’s an exciting time to be living in the city and see that, despite all of the economic storms of the past decade, Grand Rapids continues to thrive, build, and innovate.