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$72 million development breaks ground in Grand Rapids

A two-tower development that will redefine the heart the Grand Rapids downtown landscape broke ground Tuesday. The $72 million development at the corner of Ottawa Avenue and Pearl Street in downtown Grand Rapids will construct two buildings, a 15-story office building that will be home to the Warner, Norcross and Judd law firm as well as Chemical Bank, and a 12-story Hyatt Place Hotel with a restaurant on the ground floor. Orion Construction’s Public Relations Coordinator Jason Wheeler says it’s the biggest project the company has taken on so far. 

“We are ecstatic we are able to work with such great partners on this thing,” Wheeler said. “Another thing that we are really excited about is the location. Just being in the heart of our city center, and we feel a project like this that takes a surface level parking lot and transforms it into an economic driver those are the kind of projects that really get the wheels turning over here,” he said.

The two tours will replace the 125-space Ellis surface parking lot at the corner of Ottawa Avenue and Pearl Street. While available parking has been a hot topic in Grand Rapids as downtown continues to develop, the project will also come with a 430 space parking deck. Wheeler says in addition, the new buildings will provide employment opportunities downtown.

“It’s safe to say that this would create more than a couple of hundred jobs in the urban core,” Wheeler said. “So that’s really a nice component to the project which we are always happy to be able to bring some full time employment opportunities, that’s a really nice thing for us too.”

The development is expected to be completed in 2019.

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