$80M development planned for long-vacant site along U.S 131, bringing 240 new jobs
Corewell Health will bring 240 new jobs to Wyoming as part of the health system’s $80 million planned redevelopment of a former GM stamping plant site near U.S. 131.
Corwell is planning to turn the property at 300 36th St. SW into a 296,515-square-foot “consolidated service center” featuring a distribution center, document and mail services and offices for supply chain staff.
The redevelopment will also include a dedicated parking area for Corwell’s lab courier fleet, electric vehicle charging stations and 36,000 square feet of shell space.
The consolidated service center will sit on the northern 40 acres of the site formerly home to the GM plant which closed in 2009 and has sat vacant since. Corewell purchased the acreage from Franklin Site 36 LLC for $6.6 million in December 2023, property records show.
Franklin Site 36 LLC, which bought the full, 75-acre former GM site from the city for $5.25 million in February 2022, holds the remaining 35 acres of the site and hasn’t submitted any plans to the city for redeveloping it.
Nicole Hofert, the city’s director of community and economic development, told city leaders last month it’s expected the southern 35 acres will be turned into an industrial-type development.
Michigan’s largest health system has received all required city approvals for the consolidated service center project except for building permits, which haven’t yet been submitted, Hofert told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press.
Hofert said Corewell hasn’t provided a tentative timeline for when it hopes to begin construction.
Corewell declined to comment.
Hofert told city leaders the Corewell development is expected to bring 240 new jobs to the city and cost an estimated $80 million.
However, it wasn’t clear if those will be newly created jobs or if they are jobs that will be consolidated from other Corewell properties – either leased or owned – into the new facility.
It also wasn’t immediately clear if some of those expected jobs are related to construction work for the new facility. Hofert did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
The project comes as Corewell continues construction on its “Center for Transformation and Innovation” downtown Grand Rapids campus. The downtown campus at 725 Bond Ave. NW will house workers formerly spread across 26 leases in the area.
That project includes an eight-story administrative office building, the renovation of the Brassworks building into office space and two adjacent parking structures. Corewell officials said they expect to fully occupy the new office tower and renovated Brassworks building later this year.
The Center for Transformation and Innovation is an effort to consolidate the health system’s administrative operations in the Grand Rapids region at one central campus.
It was announced in October 2019, with Corewell officials saying at the time they would discontinue a total of 26 existing leases and consolidate those office spaces within the center as a way to reduce costs and “facility dispersion.”
As part of the consolidated service center project, Corewell plans to build a pedestrian trail on the east side of the property along Buchanan Avenue SW that will be transferred to Wyoming’s ownership.
That trail will connect to the planned city marketplace north of the GM plant site as well as Godwin High School and another trail along the northern edge of the marketplace property.
Hofert said the city expects to open the year-round marketplace in early 2025.
The marketplace will have 24 flexible vendor stalls, storage space, restrooms and more, and will serve as a market for farmers and artisans, a gathering space for the community and a place for food trucks and entertainment.
The project is estimated to cost $4.5 million.
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