10-12-2001
		GR's Van Andel Arena turns five During its first five years lighting up Fulton St., the Van Andel Arena has revived Grand Rapids' nightlife, stimulated area business and brought scores of concerts and events to the city's once-failing downtown district.

AP Wire Service

The 12,000-seat Van Andel Arena that was built five years ago in a forgettable end of downtown has turned a profit of at least $1.38 million each year.

An average of nearly 1 million people a year have visited the venue since it opened Oct. 8, 1996, with a skating exhibition by Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi.

Nearly $10 million was spent there last year on tickets to nonsporting events.

The venue plays host to circuses, monster truck shows, professional wrestling and ice skating extravaganzas and musical concerts.

The $75 million arena also has launched an economic and cultural rebirth to the south end of downtown next to U.S. 131.

City building permits show that about $150 million in new investment can be traced to the arena, which is located in an old warehouse district where food and assorted goods were once hauled off loading docks to customers across western Michigan.

Vacant, pigeon-infested warehouses in the blocks immediately around the arena have been transformed into trendy restaurants, lively bars and loft apartments.

Nisar Mullah, owner of Purple East, a local business, is thankful every day for the arena.

This year, Mullah spent more than $1 million renovating a burned-out four-story building.

The former Forslund Brothers furniture factory today is a colorfully lighted, modern building in an area once overwhelmed by broken wine bottles and vacant weedy lots.

``I would not have made this move without this arena,'' Mullah told The Grand Rapids Press for a Sunday story. ``What the arena did, it really adds not only the business, but it made people come downtown. The arena added good restaurants and good shops.''

Jay Fowler, a planner for the city, said the arena should get at least partial credit even for housing developments far to the north.

Back in the early 1990s, David Frey stood out for his bullish forecasts and for his insistence that the arena be built downtown instead of in the suburbs.

Frey is one of three co-chairmen of the Grand Action Committee, a local group of business people who raised $20 million in private donations for the arena.

``It would have been faster and cheaper to build an arena off some exit off an expressway,'' said Frey. ``But it wouldn't have done for the city what the (current) location in fact did.''

Frey is a member of the agency that oversees the arena, the Grand Rapids-Kent County Convention/Arena Authority. In that role, he stays on top of the events held inside.

The diversity of events, he said, has changed the area culturally.

The arena is named after the founders of Amway Corp., the global direct-sales company that peddles everything from laundry soap to nutrition bars. Jay Van Andel's foundation kicked in $11.5 million.