Owners anticipate growing demand from students and professionals
By Al Jones
Kalamazoo Gazette
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) - Ron and Matt Smilanich's plan is coming together.
The father and son knew for years they wanted to reclaim and develop the two floors above Bimbo's Pizza, the business their family has owned and operated for the past 55 years.
They wanted to build loft apartments upstairs, anticipating growing demand from students and professional people who would want to live near Western Michigan University's new medical school, Kalamazoo Valley Community College's planned healthy Living Campus, and businesses already downtown.
That is happening.
They are finishing work on the last of six luxury loft apartment units, while the property's first tenant ended a year of occupancy and not long ago signed a new lease, according to the Kalamazoo Gazette ( http://bit.ly/1yWV9UY ).
Working as their own general contractor - with local builder James A. Ballett and other construction professionals - the Smilaniches have converted about 10,000-square-feet of unused space into the Arlington Lofts.
They are one- and two-bedroom apartments that range from 970 to 1,650 square feet in size. They have an urban/industrial style, including exposed brick walls, duct work and support beams.
Each has a different floor plan, but each has maple wood flooring, hardwood cabinetry, granite countertops and a walk-in porcelain tile shower.
Rent starts at $1,500 a month.
"We had the full intention of developing upstairs to get the full use of the building," said Matt Smilanich, who owns the property with his father and their wives. "But times had to be right in downtown Kalamazoo for us to take the risk of going through a major development since we're small business people."
He said downtown living has been booming during the last five years and "we felt that the timing was right."
Ron Smilanich said he and his son wanted a property that his grandchildren may one day want to operate, along with the pizzeria. He was reluctant to provide an exact figure for the redevelopment project, but said the family has spent more than $500,000.
The toughest part?
"Probably trying to figure out a layout for the whole design," said Matt Smilanich. "Nelson Nave was the architect. He did several sketches."
The building got its start in 1889 as the Arlington Hotel. It is listed in the National register of Historic Places.
The sketches included layouts with as few as four apartment units and as many as eight, he said, "trying to figure out the best layout for the building and trying to maximize the space."
"We didn't want small little units," Matt Smilanich said. "We wanted open and airy. We wanted them to be big and nice."
The common area on the second floor retains the 20-foot-high ceiling that had been the hotel's grand ballroom. It also benefits from vintage artwork acquired from the late Robert Medema, the owner of The Emporium antiques shop and a close friend of the Smilaniches.
"We had been redoing the building since about 2001, starting with the facade and the west wall," said Matt Smilanich.
In 2007, he and his father remodeled the inside of Bimbo's and expanded the ground-level space. It has been the home of Newman's Bookshoppe for the past five years.
"From there we've just kept picking away at things," Smilanich said.
They started work in 2012 to convert the two upper levels of the building by expanded the rear of the building by 1,500 square feet to accommodate an elevator, a stairwell and a parking lot entrance.
"Prior to that, there was no access to the rear," Smilanich said.
Work to build the apartments started in earnest in mid-2013 and included building a third floor across most of an open area that had been a large second-floor hotel ballroom.
"Structurally, it (the building) was in great shape," Matt Smilanich said.
But the upper levels had not been unused since 1937 and had deteriorated, he said. "It looked like somebody locked the doors and walked away from it," he said.
Ron Smilanich said he wife Sue and Matt's wife Gayle have been very involved in the development, its design and its progression.
The Arlington Lofts project utilized a lot of local building professionals including: Nelson Nave, architect; James A. Ballett, builder; Nehil-Sivak, engineer; Kalamazoo Electric; Tipton Plumbing and Crookston Poured Walls for Concrete.
Published: Wed, Apr 29, 2015
