The Grand Rapids City Planning Commission has postponed a vote on Gentex Corp.’s plans for a second manufacturing plant in the city, citing a lack of clarity with the company’s proposal.
Gentex (Nasdaq: GNTX) seeks to expand on the city’s southeast side, where the Zeeland-based automotive and aerospace supplier opened a satellite production plant in spring 2023. Since then, Gentex also opened a tech hub in downtown Grand Rapids.
The Grand Rapids City Planning Commission on Thursday tabled a request to rezone the vacant 6.4-acre property at 1639 Madison Ave., which the company acquired earlier this year to build another manufacturing plant, as Crain’s Grand Rapids Business previously reported.
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The company submitted the request along with Rockford Construction Co. and nonprofit Amplify GR. An affiliate of Rockford Construction was listed as the previous property owner, though Rockford serves as a property manager for Amplify GR.
Planning commissioners primarily cited “discrepancies” in the submitted plans, including with lighting, sidewalk design and landscaping that was inconsistent in several iterations of the draft site plan.
“There appear to be a number of discrepancies between the site plans, your building plans and the renderings for the project,” Planning Commissioner Brian Swem said during Thursday’s meeting. “I would like clarity on what’s being proposed because it’s not currently clear.”
The planning commission plans to reconsider Gentex’s rezoning request on May 9. If approved, the request would go to the City Commission.
The irregularly shaped parcel at 1639 Madison falls into three different zoning districts: low density residential, industrial transportation and traditional business. Gentex seeks to rezone the whole parcel as SD-IT (special district-industrial transportation), arguing that it would conform with nearby uses and the city’s master plan.
Despite seeking more consistency, commissioners appeared generally supportive of the project, which also would involve the remediation of legacy contamination at the former National Brass Co./Dexter Lock building site.
“This will allow this heavily contaminated piece of property to undergo some cleanup and protection for the community,” Planning Commissioner Kristine Bersche said. “I like to see the industrial component staying within our city.”
Site plans call for a 53,976-square-foot light manufacturing/assembly facility along with 6,721 square feet of office space spanning two stories, according to planning documents filed with the city.
The facility would be used to manufacture automotive mirror devices and other electronic components. Shifts would operate between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., per the company’s rezoning request. About 40-50 employees are expected to be working each shift.
The proposed 95 parking spaces on site exceeds the required amount of parking by more than 20%, which is the maximum amount of parking permitted without a special land use approval. Planning commissioners during the meeting asked the development team to reconsider the company’s parking needs.
“There is a little bit of an unknown with this new facility, but we do know from our other operations … (that) parking can be a premium and difficult at times,” Scott Ryan, vice president and general counsel for Gentex, said during the meeting.
The amount of parking in the site plan is meant to accommodate shift changes and some community events and job fairs that Gentex anticipates hosting in a community room in the building, Ryan said.
One of the “fundamentals” of the project was to try to encourage more employees to walk or consider other modes of transportation to get to work besides driving, Ryan added.
“It’s one of the core reasons they wanted to do the project, but they’re still designing it based on other facilities, too,” Ryan said.
The company voluntarily proposed several conditions attached to the rezoning that include landscape buffers, limiting uses to light manufacturing and limits on truck traffic and lighting. The Southtown Corridor Improvement Authority Board submitted a letter in support of the project.
Gentex notes in planning documents that the property was used for industrial purposes dating back to the early 1900s, and that the surrounding residential area was built as workforce housing.
“One of the current redevelopment objectives is to train and hire new employees from the neighborhood,” the rezoning application states.
The local hiring commitment contributed to the Southtown Corridor Improvement Authority’s support for the project.
“The Southtown CIA Board supports this project due to sufficient criteria met on the Southtown Development Scorecard,” according to a March 20 letter. “In particular, the commitment to local hiring practices noted in their community benefits agreement to be tracked and reported bi-annually to the Southtown board by Amplify GR as well as the benefits outlined in the ‘Specific Owner Goals’ for the property.”
Amplify GR Executive Director Jon Ippel said the nonprofit organization, which is leading the large Boston Square Together mixed-use project about a mile east, is “confident that Gentex will sufficiently address the Planning Commission’s questions at its May meeting.”
“This proposed project will build on the company’s existing presence and bring more jobs to Madison Square,” Ippel said in a statement. “We applaud Gentex for its strong alignment with neighbor priorities, such as local hiring and career advancement programs.”
The Madison Avenue property is located a few blocks south of a Gentex satellite production facility at 355 Cottage Grove St. SE that the company opened in spring 2023 in the Madison Square neighborhood. That facility produces sub-assembly components for the company’s HomeLink product, which is used for operating garage doors and other home automation devices.
Later in 2023, Gentex announced the opening of a technology hub in downtown Grand Rapids as part of the company’s ongoing plan to invest in Grand Rapids.
“Rising transportation costs make commuting increasingly difficult, so if Gentex wants to recruit employees from Grand Rapids, we need to be here,” Gentex President and CEO Steve Downing said in a statement last year. “And by locating a satellite plant and creating jobs in a neighborhood near (the) city center, our goal is to strengthen not only Gentex, but also the surrounding community, and we look forward to future opportunities to do so.”
Gentex is the largest employer in Ottawa County, with more than 6,000 employees working at the company’s main campus in Zeeland and other nearby facilities on the lakeshore.
In January, the company reported a record year in 2023 as sales exceeded $2 billion for the first time.
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