IPA To Begin Construction Of Grandville Office Park

GRANDVILLE — Investment Property Associates (IPA) of Grand Haven got the go-ahead from the Grandville Planning Commission recently to begin construction on an 11,500-square-foot office building, the first of several planned for a new office park complex fronting 44th Street.

The office park development, along with some commercial development, will involve a total of 17 acres on 44th and Rivertown Parkway, across from RiverTown Crossings mall.

The office park will front 44th Street and occupy half the 17 acres. IPA wants to develop some commercial properties on the remaining acreage fronting Rivertown Parkway, which would likely include restaurants and upscale retail.

IPA will break ground soon on the first office building on 1.6 acres of the site. The office will be in a condo association so space will be sold as site condominiums.

Several professional users already have expressed interest in the office space, noted Denny Cherette, IPA president and founding partner.

Chad Bush of IPA said it’s yet to be determined how many buildings will be constructed on the office park site because there are no defined lot lines identified as yet, though IPA has tentatively sectioned off five office and five commercial lots.

“Everything is really variable right now,” he explained. “If we get a bigger user and someone needs three acres, we can easily allocate that. It will be build-to-suit, but there also will be lots for sale. Everything is on the market now.”

In the commercially zoned area, individual commercial lot sales on Rivertown Parkway will be tied to an association with fairly stringent guidelines, said Cherette. Currently there is only access to the site from 44thStreet. IPA is building an interior road to access both the office lots on 44th and commercial lots on Rivertown.

The initial building project includes a 1,640-foot-long, 20-foot-wide internal roadway, 1,200 feet of landscape berm along 44th and ten 20-foot light poles.

The roadway will be constructed this summer, and the first building will be enclosed by fall, Cherette said.

Under the site’s PUD zoning, IPA is required to construct one office building first, Bush noted. After that, other buildings could get started simultaneously.

Cherette said IPA had agreed beforehand not to come forward with an application for any commercial development until it had applied for, received and commenced construction of one of the office buildings.

Among long-term considerations is an internal sidewalk network linking the entire site.

As Cherette noted, IPA will provide pedestrians safe access from 44th Street down to the southerly half of the property. He said if necessary, the company would put in parallel north and south sidewalks along external roadways.

The entire park will take about two to three years to build out, Bush estimated.

“Obviously we haven’t been marketing this as hard as we normally would just because we didn’t want to run in front of the Planning Commission or City Council on our approval,” he said.

“So once this office building gets completed, we’ll just open the floodgates on marketing. I’ll be able to better define the total time frame in about three to four months after I get a response from the initial marketing.”