GRAND RAPIDS — CWD Real Estate Investment Inc. want to reshape a key downtown corridor with more retail users, including storefronts and restaurants.

The project aims to re-activate the stretch of Lyon Street between Monroe and Ottawa avenues, removing a stone wall along Lyon Street and adding in street-level commercial space. It will bring a “modern aesthetic and new vitality” to buildings surrounding Calder Plaza, the convention center and hotel district, according to CWD.

The project will take shape along property CWD acquired from Fifth Third Bank in 2016 for $31 million.

“With the proximity of our best hotels and our incredible convention center, it has the best location fundamentals for increased retail and restaurant density,” Sam Cummings, managing partner at CWD, said in a statement to MiBiz. “This redesign delivers on that — to support not just our development but to enhance the marketability of the convention center and our downtown in general.”

CWD expects to add three to five retail/restaurant spaces with the project, the first step in a larger redevelopment plan for Vandenberg Center, which includes 111 Lyon St. NW and 200 Monroe Ave. NW.

Construction on the Lyon Street corridor project will begin in the coming weeks, according to CWD. Grand Rapids-based AMDG Architects Inc. designed the project, and Walker-based Triangle Associates Inc. is serving as the general contractor.

Work continues on the 100,000-square-foot former Fifth Third Bank building at 200 Monroe, which has since been acquired by an affiliate of DeVos family office RDV Corp. for its headquarters, as MiBiz previously reported. Once completed, the building also will house Ottawa Avenue Private Capital, an affiliated investment advisory firm, and the DeVos family foundations.

RDV’s design plans include “extensive exterior renovations,” including a new entrance onto Monroe Avenue, where there is currently no access. Plans also call for the removal of a concrete facade and dark tinted windows for “a more modern design.” The company also wants to extend the building to the south, as well as reconfigure the rooftop HVAC equipment to allow for the addition of office space to be built on top of the current building.

CWD previously redeveloped the building at 250 Monroe Ave. NW with the addition of Bank of America and the restaurant Roam by San Chez.

In addition to the new retail space, CWD also will lease more than 100,000 square feet of available office space at 111 Lyon, an 11-story commercial office building and parking garage. Law firm Warner Norcross & Judd LLP had occupied the space before moving its headquarters to the newly-opened Warner Building in downtown Grand Rapids.