GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — An old downtown Grand Rapids office building is being converted into apartments as developers work to address a growing housing shortage in the city.
Orion Construction is demolishing old office space inside the Ledyard Building to make way for 40 one- and two-bedroom apartments ranging from 523 to about 1,200 square feet. Prices will range from $1,000 to $2,400 per month.
"We're probably standing in somebody's living room. It could be a bedroom. Some of the units do have the bedrooms on the inside. Some are on the window side," Orion Construction CEO Roger Rehkopf said.
CWD Real Estate Investment owns the building and says the conversion was the right move given the city's housing demand.
"How people work is evolving, and what we're trying to do is to, you know, give stability to our assets and at the same time improve the overall demographics of downtown," CWD Real Estate Investment's Sam Cummings said.
A 2025 study released by Housing Next highlighted the need for more than 13,000 housing units in Grand Rapids by 2029, including a mix of rentals and home ownership. The Ledyard conversion will chip away at that number.
The $10 million project is receiving $4.6 million in brownfield incentives. As part of those incentives, 20% of the units must qualify as affordable housing rentals.
"In this building, we have to have 20%," Cummings said.
Cummings is branding the development around the building's history.
"This is going to be a very boutique product. We are branding it as the Ledyard and original city living, because this is the building back in the 1870s and 80s had residences in it, and we are bringing it back to its roots," Cummings said.
CWD and Orion also developed and constructed the Residences at 111, a separate high-density apartment property managed by KMG Prestige, which handles a total of 8 properties. Cummings said the Residences at 111 is already nearly half full.
"We're actually a little ahead of schedule, so feeling, feeling good," Cummings said.
In April, I reported on high-density apartment buildings in Grand Rapids being nearly full.
Developers say it will be about a year before residents can move into the Ledyard Building.
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