GRAND RAPIDS — A second Grand Rapids business owner is investing the proceeds from the sale of its Monroe North property to Corewell Health for further expansion.
David Parm, who started working at Quality Auto Service Center when he was 15 and purchased the company from the previous owner, sold his auto repair shop at 606 Ottawa Ave. NW to the health system in May 2022 for $2.2 million. Parm acquired the property in 2018 for $575,000.
The property is located across the street from Corewell’s Center for Transformation and Innovation, an eight-story office building for administrative staff that’s currently under construction.
Corewell has been scooping up properties in the city’s Monroe North neighborhood for years to make way for the CTI development and potentially other projects. A spokesperson said the health system has no immediate plans for the 606 Ottawa property.
“Corewell Health continues to plan for future development of the North Monroe area,” Corewell said in an emailed statement. “We continue to focus on the construction of our new Center for Transformation and Innovation which will bring together business functions to support collaboration and innovation. There are no immediate plans for other developments at this time.”
Quality Auto Service is a roughly 100-year-old business formerly owned by the late Ralph Siegel. Parm, who is 50, worked there for about 25 years before starting another auto repair business in Grand Rapids. He remained close with Siegel and acquired the business from Siegel’s estate after his death in 2017.
Parm is also the owner of West Side Garage LLC, an auto repair shop located at 856 7th St. NW on the city’s west side. He plans to consolidate West Side Garage and Quality Auto at 1560 Leonard St. NW, a former service station and dealership built in 1922 that has about three times the space as his current facilities. Parm’s two businesses employ about 15 people.
Parm has contracted with Grand Rapids-based Copper Rock Construction Inc. on the nearly $3 million renovation project that’s being completed with proceeds from the sale to Corewell Health.
“We’re bringing it back to its original use,” said Parm, who will continue to lease the Ottawa Avenue building until the renovation is completed later this year. “It makes sense to put everyone under one roof.”
Meanwhile, Parm is at least the second business owner to use the proceeds from the sale to Corewell Health to finance an expansion. In 2021, Eastern Kille Distillery sold its facility at 700 Ottawa Ave. NW to the formerly named Spectrum Health for $3.75 million, more than 10 times the amount of the distillery’s initial property investment in 2014.
The sale is paying for Eastern Kille’s expansion into a new distillery, restaurant and tasting room in Plainfield Township, where construction broke ground in early January.
