GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A residential tower planned next to The B.O.B. will be shorter than first proposed.

Plans submitted this month for Venue Tower show a building with 14 floors, down from the 20-story concept introduced in August. The project also no longer includes a rooftop beer garden that B.O.B. owner Greg Gilmore called a "park in the sky."



"We have removed the roof top component to our project as it was too expensive," Gilmore wrote in a Nov. 30 memo to the city.



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Gilmore and housing developer John Wheeler in August presented plans for a joint development of former city property between Ottawa and Monroe avenues, north of Fulton Street next to The B.O.B. They proposed a joint venture including a multipurpose entertainment venue called The Venue, and a 104-unit market-rate apartment building called Venue Tower rising to a height of 20 stories.

The City Commission in August amended required project deadlines and told developers to submit refined conceptual plans by Jan. 1. Those plans show a 14-story building with 90 apartments.

The building concept includes a skywalk to the adjacent city-owned Ottawa-Fulton parking ramp. Construction is targeted to start in June 2015 and finish in early 2017, Wheeler stated via email.

"The building is more in scale with the final Venue design that (our architect) Concept Design had created with Gilmore," Wheeler said. The 24 units on the top three floors of the tower may be sold as condos, he said.



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The Venue will have room for 3,153 people, according to occupancy calculations in the building plan. That includes movable seats and a temporary stage on the main floor, and retractable bleacher seats in a mezzanine that's open to the main floor below.

Gilmore in the fall said he was talking to an entertainment manager about The Venue hosting 100-plus events per year including concerts, trade shows and small conventions.

“We have the joint venture commitment from our international entertainment partner to design, build and manage the 2,400-seat venue with us,” Gilmore wrote to the city Nov. 30.

“We are currently working on a third-party concessionaire agreement with a national group to run the food and beverage operations and due to the complexity of the Michigan liquor laws it is taking a lot of time to work (through) this before we sign.”

Initial plans for the roof of The Venue included an open-air beer garden with fire pits and benches nestled around live trees and shrubs. The concept also featured a bar at one end and a movie screen at the other.

The city is requiring developers to submit final plans by Feb. 1.

Matt Vande Bunte covers government for MLive/Grand Rapids Press. Email him at mvandebu@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter and Facebook.