Did you hear? We are a Michigan Celebrates Awardee! With hard work, dedication, and resilience, some small businesses have been able to excel during the past two years.

Michigan Celebrates Small Business is an awards event that highlights the contributions and innovations of small businesses across the state of Michigan.

We are defined by good people and doing what’s right. Much of our team has worked for larger construction companies and completed large complex projects, but we haven’t forgotten the West Michigan values that have made us who we are. We are made up of a hard-working individuals who have worked hard to get where we are today. We believe in people first and that will never change. We are very honored to be named a Michigan Celebrates Small Business Award winner and proud of our employees who made our success possible once again. 

Our owners had a great time at the gala accepting the award and meeting other small businesses who were also awarded. A big congratulations to all the other awardees!

The first step is understanding each role that technology plays when it comes to VDC. Building information modeling (BMI) is the digital database of information related to the physical and functional characteristics. BMI plays an important role in making decisions when it comes to making construction designs to make a model unique, functional, and foresee challenges of design before ground is broken. VDC is the process of bringing together the BMI models, cost estimation, and timelines to devise a strategic construction plan from beginning to end.

Here are four reasons why we utilize VDC to elevate and plan commercial projects.

1. VDC helps to visualize the plan

Site logistics

The process of VDC improves the quality of construction designs beginning with site logistics plans. The VDC team will leverage drones and satellite images to get the virtual representation of the site to determine what modifications may be necessary. During the process laser scanning and photogrammetry are used to capture existing structures to integrate with modeling software. VDC assists in identifying imperfections in the land that need to be addressed, trees or other structural barriers that need to be removed before the building process begins.

Virtual representation

During pre construction, the process of VDC provides visualizations of walkthroughs, renderings and a virtual reality of the structural design. Virtual reality adds a new dimension of accuracy and efficiency to the project’s timeline. It allows the entire team to see the project site without having to travel to it, and creates an environment where teams can collaborate in real-time expediting feedback, questions and concerns.

2. VDC makes scheduling better

Project managers love listing and hitting performance objectives. VDC helps the coordination and optimization of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MFP) is directed at ensuring architectural designs and the layout of the MEP’s do not clash. This gives engineers and architects fast and accurate concepts to prevent disruptions during the building phase of the project. allowing managers to make more tightly calculated and attainable schedules. Putting VDC into your process means the task of scheduling can be performed as early as the design phase, giving everyone in the following phases more time to do their jobs. VDC simply makes the entire management process smoother.

3. VDC keeps the job safe

Communication is key when it comes to construction safety. VDC has been used to spot and communicate any potential safety requirements to on-site workers, or off-site safety officials. Additionally, because VDC paired with drone imaging creates an in-depth 3D model of the building, more project stakeholders will be able to identify any potential risks or instabilities in the environment. This gives the team an opportunity to re-work the plan to mitigate any potential safety concerns. The more eyes you can have on every aspect of a project’s structure and systems, the better. VDC creates a model for all eyes to use.

4. VDC saves money

Budgeting is one of the biggest challenges any construction job faces, especially for commercial jobs. VDC generates highly-detailed project models, which includes using Building Information Management (BIM) software to find very specific cost estimates. The BIM process saves both contractors and businesses money not just by pin-point estimating every plank and screw, but by saving on rework that mis-estimating would’ve cost.

Additionally, the client now has a perfect 3D model of their commercial building’s design and its subsystems, meaning their building’s future maintenance needs will be easier to meet, update, and streamline, saving them money too. Practically for a client, VDC also provides natural light and energy consumption studies ensuring their design is optimal for their ongoing cost and sustainability. Financially, VDC is a win/win.

The Grand Rapids-based United Bank of Michigan has purchased the entire ground level commercial space of the Towers on River for a United Bank branch and also acquired approximately 60 percent of office space on the second floor for Lakeshore business offices.

The $28-million, five-story commercial and residential project at 159 South River Ave. is being developed by Towers on River LLC and Geerlings Development Co.  Midwest Construction Group of Zeeland is the Project Construction Manager.

United Bank of Michigan President and CEO Joe Manica said the decision to locate in Holland was a natural one as many of the bank’s business, commercial and general banking customers live or have operations on the Lakeshore.

“This will bring convenience to those customers, as well as the many area businesses and residents that value working with a local bank with roots in West Michigan,” Manica said.

The United Bank Lakeshore Regional Headquarters will offer business lending, treasury management, business services and be a mortgage office for homebuyers and new construction lending.  Total employment will be around 20 people including the bank branch.

Scott Geerlings—President of Geerlings Development Co. and partner in Towers on River LLC—said with the purchase by United Bank, we only have 8,500-square-feet of commercial on the second level still available for sale or lease with indoor security parking for workers.”

Andrew Boehm, with Five Star Lakeshore Realty said residential sales of condominium units in the nine towers of the building are brisk.

“We already have six of the 27 residential units sold including two 2,500-square-foot condos on the top floor of one of the towers,” said Boehm.  Building construction is expected to be completed by spring of 2022.

The unique nine-tower design of the building provides for three upscale condominiums per tower ranging in size from 1,050-to 2,500-square-feet of living space. Residential units are priced from $550,000 to $1.3 million.

“Because of the tower design, each unit has three outside walls with windows and courtyards or patios that overlook the city,” said Boehm.

There will be secure parking for the residents and each unit will have two elevators and a stairwell for access to the floors.

“The third floor of the Towers will have a green roof with a courtyard for residents.  The building has been designed to have a big city feel in the heart of downtown Holland,” Geerlings said.

Holland Mayor Nathan Bocks said the city is in the midst of a downtown construction boom.

“Coming out of a year of uncertainty, new projects like the Towers on River speak well of Holland’s development opportunities,” said Bocks, noting the project is a great addition to the city and will help expansion to the north side of downtown.

Integrated Architects of Grand Rapids designed the Towers on River project.

Information on United Bank is available at http://unitedbank4u.com.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. –

Shamrock Acquisitions, LLC and JBD Acquisition Corporation are thrilled to announce an exciting new tenant, Whole Foods Market. The new store will be located at the corner of Radcliffe and 28th Street in the City of Kentwood, a suburb of Grand Rapids, MI. This will be the first Whole Foods Market in this region. The new Whole Foods Market Grand Rapids will occupy 40,000 square feet and be a combination of an extensive remodel and new construction.

Midwest Construction Group has been retained to facilitate construction. SVB+RECKLEY and Holland Engineering are providing architectural and civil engineering services, respectively. Signature Associates represented the lessor. Howard Schwartz Commercial Real Estate, LLC and Midwest Commercial Realty represented the lessee.

Between 2009 and 2017, employers across Ottawa County added a total of nearly 40,000 jobs to the market, reflecting a 34% increase, while new units being built countywide averaged less than 1,000 annually for that same eight-year stretch.

Complicating the scenario is the growth of low-wage jobs. Nearly a third of those new jobs were in the service sector, where the average wage is just $12 per hour. That income level makes it nearly impossible for a single earner working 40 hours per week to afford market rate housing, experts say.

With demand outpacing supply, the deficit is driving rents higher. Nearly 44% of renters are paying more than 30% of their income on housing, according to a countywide Housing Needs Assessment released last year by Housing Next.

The ALICE threshold

United Way has coined this situation as living below the ALICE threshold, an acronym for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. It essentially describes people whose basic living expenses — such as rent, food, transportation, and childcare — outpace their low wages, leaving them with barely enough income to survive. They are one car breakdown or medical emergency or extra expense from falling into poverty.

The poverty line income for a family of four living in Michigan is $24,600, while the ALICE threshold for a four-person household with an infant and a preschool-age child is $62,616, according to the Greater Ottawa County United Way.

“It’s just not sustainable, and they’re having to make choices between housing and childcare or food or transportation,” says Drew Peirce, executive director of the Good Samaritan Ministries.

In Ottawa County, 31% of full-time workers fall below the ALICE threshold.

Housing Next, created in 2018 to address the county’s affordable housing crisis, has set a goal of adding 7,500 units by 2023. In the past two years, the organization has had a hand in supporting a dozen projects that will add 2,000 new housing units at a range of price points.

Here are housing projects that include a total of approximately 400 affordable housing units that are expected to be completed in 2020.

• 236-unit mixed-income development at Waverly Avenue and 24th Street in the city of Holland. A Low Income Housing Tax Credit award will be used to ensure 30% of the units are affordable to households earning less than 60% of area median income. Roughly 30% of remaining units will be targeted as affordable to households earning 60% to 100% of AMI, with market rate housing making up the balance of the project. Rental rates are expected to range from less than $625/month to $1,800/month or more.
• 460-unit development next to The Shops at Westshore in Holland Township. Roughly 30% of the overall unit mix is expected to be affordable to residents earning less than 60% of the area median income. Phase 1 construction is expected to begin in 2020.
• 120-180 unit development on Lakewood Boulevard west of U.S. 31 in Holland Township. The units are being targeted for people earning between 60% and 120% of average AMI.
• 100-unit development on Felch Street, west of 120th Avenue in Holland Township. Roughly 75% of the units will be reserved as affordable to households earning between 40% and 80% of AMI or less. The remaining units will be market rate. Development lead is Magnus Capital. Construction is expected to begin in 2020.
• 216-unit development on the south side of Holland, near M-40. Brownfield tax increment financing, which will be used to reimburse costs of infrastructure, has been set up in exchange for a guarantee that at least 50% of the units are reserved for households earning 80% of area median income or less for 10 years. Geerlings Development is the lead developer, with support from Midwest Construction. Site work began in 2019.
• 156 units on the north side of Grand Haven Township. While the development doesn’t have income restrictions, it has been designed with rental rates starting around $600/month (affordable for households earning about 40% of area median income or more). This project includes one 24-unit building that will be leased by Gracious Grounds, a local nonprofit organization devoted to providing safe and supportive housing for adults with special needs. Construction began in early 2019, and development work is led by commercial real estate agent Chad Bush and Main Street Capital Group.

Zoning changes

More projects are in the pipeline for northwest Ottawa County. The delay is due in part to the size of the market combined with higher land costs in the Grand Haven and Spring Lake areas, according to Ryan Kilpatrick, Housing Next’s founding executive director.

Housing Next was created to do work facilitating regulatory changes and improvements to local zoning, and working with development partners from the for-profit and nonprofit sectors.

“We’re not exclusive in terms of who we are willing to work with. If a developer wants our support or assistance, we’re happy to come alongside, as long as we can stick to our priorities,” Kilpatrick says.

Those priorities are affordability and a mix of price points. While affordability is important, the organization isn’t trying to create a concentration of low-income or moderate-income housing, but rather a range of price points.

Housing Next is focusing on working with the county’s most populated communities — the cities of Holland, Grand Haven, and Hudsonville and Grand Haven Township — as they rework local zoning codes to remove barriers to affordable housing.

“Both the cities of Holland and Grand Haven are going through comprehensive zoning rewrites, and they’re taking a lot of input from Housing Next as to what they can be doing,” Kilpatrick says.

And the county is also taking an active role in addressing the issue. Last year, Ottawa County Commissioners voted to re-establish the Housing Commission, appointing a five-member board.

The key to creating affordable multi-family housing is taking advantage of government tax credits and building efficiently, according to Scott Geerlings, whose businesses, Geerlings Development Co. and Midwest Construction, are partnering on a few projects with Housing Next.

“I can’t just do a $20 million project and give up $2 million, but if you cut 10% by being efficient, these projects can make sense and can meet the need,” Geerlings says. “The bottom line is we need to watch every penny on these projects.”

Shaving off 10% requires everyone collaborating to create an efficient design and building process that reduces wasted materials. There is a big savings when waste can be reduced from 20 dumpsters to three, and space is better utilized for heating/cooling systems and duct work.

“If you have those plans in advance, and everyone is working together, it saves time and materials, and eliminates a lot of change orders later that can increase costs,” Geerlings says.

Addressing homelessness

Housing Next is also partnering with nonprofits that are addressing the county’s homeless population.

One example of this collaboration is with Good Samaritan Ministries, which recently started a nonprofit property management arm for affordable rental units. A three-year grant for the program is funded by the United Way’s responsive grant fund, with donations from the county’s two community foundations. Good Samaritan has hired an experienced property manager, and a local property management firm is providing support.

The new effort will complement the nonprofit’s work helping Holland-area homeless residents transition into rental housing with support that includes case management and rent subsidies that decline over time. The program has a 95% success rate, Peirce says.

Those who qualify for the services funded with federal dollars must be either living in their cars, staying in transitional housing, like the Holland Rescue Mission, or fleeing domestic violence.

As it is nearing the halfway point of a five-year pilot program, Housing Next is working to be transparent about its efforts. It recently gave an update in a letter to the community, written by Kilpatrick and the organization’s co-chairs, Mike Goorhouse, CEO/president of the Holland/Zeeland Community Foundation, and Hadley Streng, president of the Grand Haven Area Community Foundation.

The three leaders credited countywide collaboration for creating amazing progress in just a few short years.

“We are energized and grateful for the many voices championing this cause and for those taking actions, big and small, to help make housing more affordable for all. Together, let’s stay committed to making the list of accomplishments twice as long in the years to come,” they wrote in their letter.

You can read more about the Housing Next’s efforts in the organization’s full 2019 Summary Report at housingnext.org/about.

*This original article is from Rapid Growth and can be found by clicking here.

The new three-story, 170,000-square-foot facility is designed for independent senior living.  The senior complex will include 133 residential units providing 71 one-bedroom apartments, 59 two-bedroom apartments and 3 studio units.

“The new building for independent living is phase four of Vicinia Gardens in Fenton that was opened in 2013,” said Vicinia Gardens Manager Member / Owner Steve Steffey.  “We currently offer at the Vicinia Campus assisted, intermediate and memory care. This next phase will add Independent Living Opportunities.”

Vicinia Gardens has plans for a fifth phase of construction for independent living cottages. The residential senior campus at 4031 Vicinia Way in Fenton is east of Lansing just north of Ann Arbor in Genesee County.  A second Vicinia Gardens senior community is in Otsego, Mich.

“We expect to have the new building completed and open in February 2021,” said Scott Geerlings, Midwest Construction Group Partner and President. “Midwest will be doing the construction management on the building and will be hiring 150 construction workers and tradesman from the local area to work on building construction.”

Midwest Construction Group is currently building a $25 million senior facility in Punta Gorda, Fla., near Fort Meyers In a joint project with Owens-Ames-Kimball Co. of Grand Rapids.  A new $12 million, 120-unit Spectra Student Living Center was recently completed by Midwest Construction Group in Big Rapids, Mich.

The name Vicinia is a Latin word that means “neighborhood.”

“We say we’re a neighborhood seniors can call home,” said Steffey noting Vicinia strives to create a “homelike environment while catering to the social and intellectual needs of our residents.”

Its two senior residential communities offer plans tailored to individual needs that include 24-hour care, dining services, house keeping as well as recreational and social activities. Vicinia, in Fenton, will likely double the number of staff they have when the new building is completed.

Vicinia Gardens staff is available to answer questions on the new independent living complex and will be taking reservations starting this spring.  The website is www.viciniagardens.com or by phone at 810-629-9368.

Now doing business at the 8,500-square-foot facility are Top Tier Fitness, Senior Helpers Lakeshore and the Body, Heart, Mind Holistic Healing Center.

“The building started out in the 1940s as a grocery store, then became a medical office and finally a tanning salon,” said Geerlings Development President Scott Geerlings whose company did a “down to the studs” reworking of the interior.

“The building was in need of a total interior clean out and renovation which we did in phases over the last year through Midwest Construction Group of Zeeland,” said Geerlings.

Rehabilitation and repurposing of underutilized older buildings and properties in West Michigan is one of the focuses of Geerlings Development.

The company’s largest rehab project to date is the renovation and repurposing of the 165,000-square-foot former Donnelly Corp. World Headquarters building at 414 East 40^th St. in Holland that was completed this year.

The remodeled 653 Michigan Avenue building just south of Holland Hospital is now at full occupancy. Located in about half the building space is Top Tier Fitness owned and operated by the husband and wife team of Nick and Lark Robinson of Holland. The fully equipped workout center focuses on High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) classes.

“We take the time to carefully craft each session to be the most effective, rewarding, and empowering 30 minute workout possible,” said Lark Robinson who has a Masters degree in Exercise Science and Public Health.  She and her husband, both certified personal trainers, teach the classes offered from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.  The business website is www.toptierfitnessholland.com .

Also open at the 653 Michigan Ave. location is Senior Helpers of Southwest Michigan, part of a national home care service that sends trained caregivers for elderly clients who need tailored care to stay living in their homes. Senior Helpers is an award winning national in-home care company.

Robert Sanders, a veteran of senior care and psychiatric care markets and a retired career military serviceman, and his wife Janice–an experienced Master’s level licensed social worker–opened the business to provide “in-home” services ranging from Alzheimer’s and Dementia care to personal care and companionship for elderly residents.  The business serves from Muskegon to South Haven and Holland to Hudsonville. The website is www.seniorhelpers.com/mi/lakeshore .

The third business—Body Heart Mind Holistic Healing Center—is a collective space for three personal practices that include Kim Mulder, a spiritual director and Yoga instructor, Dr. Theresa Gargala, a certified psychotherapist and counselor, and Jill Nagelkirk, offering Boundless Life Counseling for teens, women and couples. The Holistic Healing Center website is www.bhmhhc.com.

Port View Flats features 3 bed, 2.5 bath condos with open concept kitchen and living space expertly crafted with maple cabinetry, granite countertops and life-resistant flooring. Featuring over 1700 SF of finished living space, Port View Flats is your oasis away from it all yet near it all. With remarkably low association dues, this is an opportunity not to pass up.

The location provides easy access to downtown and just minutes from shopping, dining and entertainment. Outdoor enthusiasts will enjoy the Paul Henry Thornapple Trail nearby offering miles upon miles of paved trails; perfect for runners, bikers and nature lovers.

For additional information and to reserve yours, visit portviewflats.com or contact Alicia Fisher directly at 616-588-3625.

Hoekstra Electrical Services specializes in commercial, residential, industrial and agricultural electrical, along with controls and automation engineering and integration. As their business continues to grow, now with 70 employees, they knew they needed to keep up with this growth by moving out of their previous location in Hamilton. The new facility includes larger areas for all aspects of the business including the controls and automation group. In addition, the new location gives them closer access to the Interstate highway to be more accessible to clients.

On Tuesday, September 17th at 3:30pm the Michigan West Coast Chamber will be hosting a dedication and ribbon cutting event to celebrate at their new facility (68 West 64th Street).