Mailing addresses in downtown Kalamazoo's business district are in demand and currently hard to come by.
The residential vacancy rate for properties in the downtown business district is less than 5 percent, says Jerome Kisscorni, executive director of the city's Economic Development Corporation.
That's only one of the good reasons for the decision by the leadership of Catalyst Development to purchase and renovate a 144-year-old building in the downtown business district, originally built to house Kalamazoo's first city hall.
Catalyst purchased the building in 2008 for an undisclosed amount of money and the redevelopment project called Corporation Hall now is moving ahead.
"This is a very appealing project for this area of the mall," says Patti Owens, managing director and vice president of Catalyst, a Kalamazoo-based development company. "The building has been neglected for decades and is a prime candidate for a real meaningful rehab."
Construction is expected to begin within the next few months and be finished October 2012 with the unveiling of five luxury loft-style apartments on the second and third floors of the building and dedicated retail space on the ground floor.
Owens says the residential piece of the project is a modern take on the urban loft.
Two two-bedroom apartments on the second floor of the west side of the building will each be about 1,100 square feet and a soon-to-be-added third floor on the east side will house three two-bedroom apartments ranging from 1,900 to 2,100 square feet.
Each of the apartments will have a dedicated parking garage, rooftop decks and terraces that provide opportunities for urban gardening.
Through quality craftsmanship the development will make use of the original brick walls and wood, recycled glass and bamboo-based flooring.
"We want this to be a model for urban developers to see what's possible in a real-time urban setting," Owens says. "We also want it to be a model for sustainable design."
Building another floor will add another 3,000 square feet to the original 27,000-square-foot building that actually was once two buildings -- one of the many facts Owens dug up as she researched the history of the structure.
It housed not only city hall, but the fire department as well.
"The back half of the building was added on in the 1920s and it's in rough shape," Owens says. "The basement floor in the new building is two feet higher than the west building.You have to step down to get from the back to the front of the building."
Founders of V & A Bootery, just east of Corporation Hall, had an up close and personal look at changes to the building through the years. Bill Van Dis, who joined his family's shoe store business in 1973 -- 50 years after it first opened -- remembers when the building housed the Athena Bookstore and the Soup Kettle restaurant.
Van Dis says the downtown district experienced a decline in retail that began in the 1980s and went into the early 1990s. The introduction of restaurants and residential units beginning in the mid-1990s gave people new incentive to come downtown.
"It wasn't until got we got restaurants and downtown residential that we got increased traffic, and because of that retail has been on growth path over the last 10 years," Van Dis says. "The biggest threat to my business is not having other retail partners. Having those partners creates a shopping district."
So the redevelopment of Corporation Hall is a sign of things moving in the right direction.
"We're really pleased that there's going to be another redevelopment of
the building," Van Dis says. "This first extra-long block of the
downtown mall will have 100 percent new facades and new stores and we're
excited about that happening."
The project also appeals to business owners
like Van Dis because developments like Corporation Hall add to the city's
tax base, he says.
"In the city of Kalamazoo, downtown is the only area
seeing increased tax paid growth," Van Dis says. "From the city's point
of view, they're not going to see tax base growth in an industrial park
or neighborhood redevelopment. But, there's a real possibility of a tax
revenue increase in the core downtown."
Kisscorni describes the Corporation Hall project as one that helps restore a piece of the downtown mall's identity.
"It's another piece of the puzzle where we have an existing building that was under-utilized for many years, which will have mixed use on the streetside with retail and commercial and above it's going to be residential," Kisscorni says. "The market for residential downtown is very hot right now."
It's hot enough for Owens to build a waiting list of individuals who want to live downtown. She's found the area is especially appealing to employees of Bronson Methodist Hospital and other downtown businesses who can walk to work.
In addition to increasing the tax base, Owens says she's feeling pretty good about the 100 individuals who will be hired on a temporary basis for one year to transform Corporation Hall from a neglected landmark into a vibrant part of the downtown landscape.
"I love downtown Kalamazoo and I love that we get to put another meaningful project there," Owens says.
Several years ago, Catalyst rehabbed DeVisser Place, a building at 214 S. Kalamazoo Mall, and created a total of six one- and two-bedroom units ranging in size from 1,200 to 2,900 square feet.
More recently, Owens has been overseeing a project similar in scope to Corporation Hall in
Birmingham. She says the Detroit suburb has many of the same qualities as Kalamazoo.
"We do in Birmingham what we do in Kalamazoo. We invest in the communities we serve, but we want that investment to be meaningful," Owens says. "Our project in Birmingham is the first time we've invested outside of Kalamazoo."
Though the location may have been a departure for Catalyst, the core values which drive the company remain the same.
"We believe that you need to be the best wherever you are and whatever you're doing," Owens says. "We may not say it out loud, but that's what we're committed to doing."
Jane C. Parikh is a freelance reporter and writer with more than 20 years of experience. She is the owner of In So Many Words, based in Battle Creek.
Photos by Erik Holladay. Patti Owen stands in front of the old city hall that will undergo remodeling as part of a redevelopment project for the site on the Kalamazoo Mall.
A view of rear of the building. The back half of the building was added on in the 1920's and it's in rough shape," Owens says.
Patti Owen shows some of the portions of the building that will be redone in coming months.