When you think of Grand Rapids, you usually think of a description like "conservative", "simple", "furniture city", "small Midwestern town", or other various blanket generalities, some of them not too flattering if you're progressive-minded and trying to convince people that its really not like that anymore here, really it isn't, we vote blue now and everything, just come and see.
Well, you can now add "world class medical research center" to your lexicon. And if you work in the health care/research field, you just might want to move here. I've got a house you can buy not to far from all of this.
A bit of good publicity for our state this week- Grand Rapids was featured in the New York Times, highlighting all the construction on Michigan Street's "Health Hill" and pointing toward the future of growth for this city, and for this state.
Imagine your city was built straddling a river valley, half of it up on a very high hill. Then they go and decide to build a bunch of really big buildings on that hill. That is what is going on now... and when they get done, not only will it be beautiful, it will be what the city is known for.
Maybe even the state. Look out, U of M.
From the summit of the hill, on this city’s north end, and stretching roughly half a mile in both directions along Michigan Street, a stunning array of buildings is under construction, reflecting a commitment of nearly $1 billion by the area’s prominent families and medical institutions.
There are a new medical school, a children’s hospital, a biomedical research center, a cancer treatment center, and two medical treatment and office buildings Also under construction is a seven-level underground parking garage; it will hold 2,300 cars and cost $30 million.
Driving is pretty difficult around there right now- best to avoid it unless you are headed to the emergency room at Spectrum- Butterworth Hospital, which, of course, is where they take all the emergency patients nowadays.
The area is quite vibrant with people walking everywhere; it is starting to remind me of Chicago or Detroit or any other big city.
All told, construction managers say, the buildings will cover 1.2 million square feet. By 2010, when construction is completed, those buildings, several designed by world-renowned architects, will provide enough space to treat thousands of people a day and employ 5,000 people, 2,500 more jobs than exist now on Health Hill.
Butterworth itself holds many memories for me- my Dad's quintuple bypass, my favorite uncle's stay to be treated for Epstein-Barr syndrome, many trips to the emergency room with the ex whenever some catastrophe happened, which was quite frequently. I have reasons why I avoid the health care industry- but I must say that the people who work in it are some of the most giving, caring, kindest people that I have ever met. They helped me through some very difficult times.
Butterwoth is now half-gone, replaced by a big hole in the ground that will be the new DeVos Children's Hospital.
On the south side of Michigan Street, Spectrum Health is spending $250 million to build the 14-story, 440,000-square-foot Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, designed by Jonathan Bailey Associates, which is based in London. It is to be finished by December 2010.
And so much more is coming...
A block away on Division Street, the Van Andel Institute, an increasingly prominent biomedical research organization, is adding a $178 million, 240,000-square-foot, five-level addition to the imposing $77 million 140,000-square-foot research building it opened in 2000, designed by Rafael Vinoly. The new wing is to open in December 2009.
On the north side of Michigan Street, the foundation of Michigan State University’s $70 million 125,000-square-foot medical school is taking shape, financed in part with gifts from Spectrum Health and the Van Andel Institute. It will open in August 2010.
Next door, Michigan Street Development — a collaboration between the DeVos family and Christman Construction — is building a $78 million 125,000-square-foot medical office building, hotel and research laboratory. It is to open in April 2008. An existing office building will be torn down next summer and replaced with a second 125,000-square-foot office tower.
And next to that, Michigan Street Development and Spectrum Health are building the Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion, a $100 million 284,000-square-foot patient treatment center that includes an unusual junglelike atrium. It is to open in June 2008.
All of this will go nicely with the research and development that is already here.
Even before the latest burst of construction, Health Hill had been the focus of investment by the city’s families.
Mr. DeVos and Peter Cook, another important financier, helped Grand Valley State University build a $57 million Center for Health Sciences on Michigan Street in 2003.
Fred and Lena Meijer helped Spectrum Health build a $137 million nine-story cardiac care center that opened in November 2004.
So, cheers to Michigan's "Second City", bringing us some good publicity in the eyes of the nation and showing us where our future can take us if we invest in our state. Other Michigan cities can take a tip from this-
Grand Rapids was one of just two major Michigan cities (Ann Arbor being the other) to gain population in the 1990s. In the last decade, its income tax revenues more than doubled, to $59 million annually.
“Now we’re claiming our place in the new economy with applied research, medical care, patient treatment,” Mr. DeLong said. “These are new, intellectually driven sectors. Health Hill is a concentration of intellectual capacity, and that is what we need in this era.”
Indeed.