GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Rockford Development Co. is proposing to bring almost 100 new apartments to the southwestern edge of Grand Valley State University’s downtown Grand Rapids campus.

The proposed development, which will be reviewed by the city’s Planning Commission on Thursday, Jan. 8, would take up nearly two blocks along the south edge of W. Fulton Street.

The project proposes two five-story buildings with 91 market rate apartments on a diamond-shaped lot bounded by Lexington and Seward avenues, according to the application by Rockford Development. The buildings will be linked by a second story connector.

The proposed development uses a building site that was created more than 10 years ago, when the city of Grand Rapids negotiated a land swap that allowed for the extension of Seward Avenue south of Fulton Street.

Parking would be provided across Lexington Avenue SW, where the developers propose building a two-story parking deck with 116 spaces. That building site also would include a 2½-story apartment building with seven units.

The parking deck for the apartment project will be built on the back of six lots Rockford Development purchased on the west side of Lexington Avenue, which dead-ends south of Fulton Street. The proposal calls for the demolition of four buildings on the southern end of the site.

The apartment complex would be located one block west of Peter F. Secchia Hall, a 65-unit dormitory built and operated by GVSU for the past 15 years.

The university, which operates about 6,000 dormitory beds, has since ceased building dormitories for its 25,000 students, relying instead on private developers for student housing.



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Jim Harger covers business for MLive/Grand Rapids Press. Email him at jharger@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter or Facebook or Google+.