WYOMING, Mich. — For years, residents in Wyoming have been asking for a downtown area of their own on 28th Street. City Hall said they’ve been listening and taking notes. Now, plans are in place to build one of their own.
“I think what we heard from our residents is they want a city center in Wyoming,” Nicole Hofert said during an interview with FOX 17 on Tuesday. “That they enjoy going to the other commercials nodes in the area but they wanted something local, and so this is an opportunity to provide that. Ideally it competes with other commercial nodes in the area but it’s really about our residents.”
Hofert is the director of community economic development with the city of Wyoming. She’s currently spearheading a revitalization project that’ll transform 28th Street, from Burlingame and Clyde Parks avenues, into a downtown area.
“Our city center project includes both public and private investment in Wyoming. The public investment is a new pedestrian bridge spanning 28th Street and then 3.1 miles of trails that connect to Kent County trails, Pinery Park, the larger trail network etc.,” Hofert said. “And then on the private side, Magnus Capital is our partner there, and they’re bringing some new housing units and commercial to the site.”
Hofert said the public infrastructure part of the project will be paid for with the $16,000,000 they received in ARPA funding.
Privately, the developers plan to spend an initial $65,000,000, she said.
“In our community when we start talking about economic development and how do we grow, Wyoming and Kentwood has been growing, as well as West Michigan for years,” said Keith Morgan, president of the Wyoming-Kentwood Chamber of Commerce. “If we want to have sustained growth we have to have what people are looking for. People want to work in place.”
According to the city of Wyoming, population has grown by 3,000 people between 2010 and 2017. Nearby Grand Rapids has grown by 94,000 people from 2010 to 2020.
Morgan reiterated the importance of making home life and leisure accessible.
Part of the project, he said, includes putting the powers lines below ground to make the area look inviting.
“Back in the day when Rogers Plaza used to be the destination people would come and there was traction or there was an attraction there,” Morgan said. “So, now that we have some more development going on a lot of that just creates a lot of good vibe.”
He believes those vibes will lure more people and businesses to the area.
Construction begins over the summer.
“We believe this is going to be the catalytic event that kind of launches our project,” Hofert said. “We think that it’s got this transformative nature that’s going to partner with the private development really start to be what pushes our city center into some prominence.”
