Founded by Irish immigrants in 1870, Saint James Catholic Church on Bridge Street held its last mass in 2022.
It closed due to declining attendance, priest shortages and mounting repair costs.
Now, The Diocese of Grand Rapids has agreed to sell the vacant property to investment firm Beckett Industries.
“They've owned these church assets for a long time, and as the church evolves, they have to kind of rethink what they're going to do with those.”
Managing partner Danny Beckett Jr. says his firm specializes in redeveloping church properties.
However, saving the structure wasn’t viable for the emerging urban neighborhood.
“We tried so many different options of turning it into a restaurant or some other type of use that would tie into this multifamily project, and we just couldn't get it to work.”
Current plans call for demolishing the 150-year-old sanctuary and surrounding buildings to construct “Saint James Place” – a $55 million mixed-use development with 240 apartments in two buildings.
General Partner John Meyer acknowledges the site’s emotional weight in the community.
“How do we honor that space in a way that's appropriate? How do we salvage architectural items? The Diocese, in this case, is going to save some of the windows and the bells. Anything that's left and salvageable - windows or art or architecture pieces - we're going ourselves try to salvage.”
Pending city approval, demolition could begin next summer with construction taking up to two more years.
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