In April, the owner of the Fifth Third building in downtown Grand Rapids, CWD Real Estate Investment, requested $15.2 million in public subsidies for its plan to convert several floors of office space in the building into apartments.
Tuesday, Grand Rapids’ city commissioners approved the tax incentives. Under the city’s brownfield program, CWD requested the $15.2 million as reimbursement for eligible expenses incurred while constructing the housing units. Those funds would come from property tax revenue generated from the development and be provided to CWD over a period of 25 years.
CWD plans on investing $30.7 million to repurpose the upper seven floors of 111 Lyon Street Northwest into 140 apartments. Fifth Third Bank would remain as the building’s tenant on the main floor. Of the 140 apartments, 28 would be rented to households earning at or below 100% of the area’s median income, or about $70,500.
During Tuesday’s Commission of the Whole meeting, Mayor Rosalyn Bliss expressed support for the project.
“This is an exciting project to me because it’s one of the first major conversions of office-to-housing which we know is needed, especially as the market has changed pretty dramatically since COVID when it comes to office space.”
Construction on the project is scheduled to begin this fall.
