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DeVos, Van Andel families tap Chicago firm to develop massive, skyline defining project

Posted By: mlive on September 22, 2025.  For more information, please click here to read the source article.

Members of the DeVos and Van Andel families have tapped a Chicago firm to lead their push to transform a riverfront parking lot in downtown Grand Rapids into a massive residential and commercial development featuring three high-rise towers.

Magellan Development Group, a family-owned firm that’s built upscale, high-rise mixed-use developments in Chicago, Boston, Miami, Nashville, Minneapolis and Austin, has signed an agreement to serve as the project’s development partner.

“These two families, they are true long-term visionaries and stewards of both this parcel but really within the broader community,” said J.R. Berger, president of Magellan Development Group. “We feel a perfect match with the landowners, and so we’re extremely excited about this partnership.”

The $797 million development was proposed last year by members of the DeVos and Van Andel families through their company, FulMar Property Holdings.

It envisions the construction of up to 671 high-end housing units, a luxury boutique hotel, an office tower, and retail space at a seven-acre riverfront parking lot at Fulton Street and Market Avenue SW adjacent to Acrisure Amphitheater. The plan also calls for a pedestrian pathway along the Grand River.

The parking lot, owned by the families, was formerly home to the Charlie’s Crab restaurant. A portion of it has also been used by AHC Hospitality, formerly known as Amway Hotel Corporation, for employee parking.

If built, the project would be one of the largest developments in the city’s history, and, through the construction of three high-rise towers, add a new dimension to the city’s skyline.

The project, known as Fulton & Market, has been championed by the city of Grand Rapids and business leaders who say it builds on a push to grow the downtown population and activate the banks of the Grand River.

It’s also seen as a key part of a plan to create a vibrant commercial, entertainment and recreational corridor along a 31-acre stretch of Market Avenue, between Fulton and Wealthy streets, where the 12,000-capacity amphitheater is being built.

Magellan will be tasked with bringing the Fulton & Market project from concept to reality.

The firm will be charged with leading everything from the design of the buildings to the layout of the apartments, as well as the recruitment of retailers, restaurants and other tenants.

The firm will also oversee architectural and engineering services, manage construction, and lease and manage the development’s apartments, offices and retail space. It would also lead efforts to activate the space with events and activities.

“It’s really taking the master plan and evolving it and developing it into something that can actually be market-financed and built,” Ryan Schell, Magellan’s vice president of development, said of his firm’s work.

Magellan and FulMar Property Holdings have signed a memorandum of understanding laying out Magellan’s involvement and duties for the project. Magellan, founded in 1996, is also an investor and part owner of the development.

Berger, the president of Magellan, declined to say how much his firm is investing in the project or what its ownership share amounts to.

Brad Thomas, principal of Grand Rapids-based Progressive Companies who’s been leading pre-development services for the Fulton & Market project, said Magellan was chosen as the project’s developer following a nationwide search.

Local firms were invited to apply, but Thomas said he and his colleagues chose Magellan because the firm has a track-record of completing projects that mirror the scale of what’s envisioned at Fulton & Market.

“It ultimately boiled down to experience and like-work,” he said. “Just the reality is, Grand Rapids hasn’t had anything from this scale to draw from.”

Magellan has developed a host of large-scale, luxury mixed-use developments in Chicago and other major U.S. cities. One of its marquee projects is Lakeshore East, a 28-acre, $4 billion mixed-use neighborhood, adjacent to Millennium Park, Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. Lakeshore East has 4,950 residences, 1,500 hotel rooms, retailers, an elementary school and is the “largest downtown development in any major U.S. city,” the firm says.

The firm also developed The St. Regis Chicago, a 101-story tower — the third tallest building in the city —that contains a hotel and 393 for-sale housing units, according to its website. The development, which opened its first phase in late 2020, carried a $1.03 billion price tag.

Another one of Magellan’s projects is Sienna at the Thompson in Austin, Texas. Completed in late 2020, the 32-story building includes 411 hotel rooms, 331 apartments, and ground-floor retail space, according to Magellan’s website. The development’s price tag is listed at $294.7 million. While those developments show the scale of Magellan’s work, Berger said the Fulton & Market project will be tailored for Grand Rapids and the owner’s vision for development.

“The two through lines are they fit the communities they’re in and that they’re best in class,” he said of Magellan’s projects. “Our goal is to meet and unmet demand in a marketplace, but … understanding that the community has goals and needs, and we need to fit within those as well.”

Although the Fulton & Market project now has a developer, the project still must clear a crucial hurdle to move forward. The Michigan Strategic Fund, the public funding arm of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, must sign off on a $565 million Transformational Brownfield plan for the development to move forward, officials say. The $565 million subsidy, a key component of the project’s financing plan, is not a cash handout to the developer.

Rather, it would provide FulMar Property Holdings, the company owned by the DeVos and Van Andel families, with a host of state and local taxes, generated because of the development, over a 30-year period. Those dollars would be used to help cover the project’s construction costs. If the subsidy is approved and development does not occur, no tax revenue is generated, and thus, no payments are made to the developer.

Joe Agostinelli, founder of Michigan Growth Advisors, a firm that’s assisting with the Transformational Brownfield request, said he did not have a specific date on which the Michigan Strategic Fund will consider the request. However, he said he expects it to be “yet this year.”

The Grand Rapids City Commission signed off on the Transformational Brownfield request in December 2024, with Third Ward Commissioner Kelsey Perdue casting the sole “no” vote.

Perdue, along with community activist group Together West Michigan, says the development doesn’t provide a significant public benefit in exchange for the $565 million tax subsidy.

To qualify for the maximum subsidy through the Transformational Brownfield program, as FulMar Property Holdings is seeking to do, a developer must reach an affordable housing agreement with the local government where the project is based.

FulMar Property Holdings has offered an $8.5 million payment to the city’s affordable housing fund as part of its affordable housing agreement.

Together West Michigan has said it wants Fulmar Property Holdings to increase its affordable housing contribution to $113 million.

In December, Grand Rapids city staff expressed support the $8.5 million payment to the affordable housing fund, and they did not publicly advocate for a bigger payment. Agostinelli said last week that there have been no changes to FulMar Property Holdings’ proposed affordable housing payment.

If the Michigan Strategic Fund approves the Transformational Brownfield incentive, further work on the project would continue.

Officials said they don’t have a date on which they would like to start construction, because significant planning and design work has yet to take place. Documents submitted to the city of Grand Rapids last fall as part of the Transformational Brownfield request estimated construction of the office tower could begin in fall 2025, with construction of the residential tower and the condo and hotel tower occurring in summer 2026. Those, however, now appear to be outdated.

Berger, the president of Magellan, said he would like to see construction begin “as soon as we can,” and that “we’re excited to get going.” However, he said projects of this scale are complex, and that “there’s a lot of stakeholders in these things and we need to understand the process a little more from their perspective.”

Looking forward, the project team says they’re excited about the development, and what it would add to the city.

“It truly captures this idea of transformational,” Thomas said last week, as he pointed to the parking lot where the project would be built.

Today, the parking lot borders the Grand River but does not have pedestrian access to the waterway. That would change if the project were built, as plans call for tying-in the property to a regional riverfront trail network that would connect to the amphitheater and other points to the north and south.

“The room we’re sitting in right now, we’re looking out the window at a sea of parking,” Thomas said. “And if you look just south of it and look at the transformation the amphitheater has made, at what used to be the public works facility, it makes it that much easier to envision what can be here and the impact it will have in this community.”