Duthler’s Family Foods at 648 Bridge Street Northwest has sat vacant since 2017, but Ryan Talbot is hoping to demolish the former grocery store to build a 5-story, 150-unit apartment complex.
“A site like this, especially a kind of dilapidated or obsolete property, is perfect for what I do. I’m a new-construction-focused guy almost exclusively and it’s always helpful when you can remove something from the neighborhood that’s not working anymore and put housing there.”
Talbot is the owner Birmingham, Michigan-based Talbot Development. He’s secured an agreement to purchase the property and is now seeking state and local incentives to fund the project. This would be Talbot’s second major project in Grand Rapids, his first being The Current, a 72-unit mixed use development opening this fall in the Creston neighborhood.
“Grand Rapids has a very acute housing shortage and it’s fortunate for me that I have a skillset of building housing that’s in demand right now.”
Talbot says he knew just driving down Bridge Street that his next project would happen there.
“I always look for sites that are in corridors that already have something going on and just knew I liked it, knew that it had a great vibe, great energy.”
The units will be priced at the market rate and, if all goes according to plan, Talbot says the building will open in late spring or early summer 2026.
