What Should Go in the Arcadia Ales Building Downtown Kalamazoo?

The former brewery has been empty for a couple of years now, and you've got lots of ideas about what should be done with this space on the Kalamazoo River.

A letter from a curious listener also made me wonder. When Arcadia Ales suddenly closed in 2019, the story was quickly followed by news that a Grand Rapids brewery would soon be moving in.

It looks like Arcadia Ales in Kalamazoo's days are sadly numbered as the Grand Woods Lounge will be opening its doors in Kalamazoo at the site of the former Arcadia Brewing Company, according to a news release from a public relations firm representing the bar and eatery. Grand Woods Lounge, which hosts another location in Grand Rapids, will take over the site at 701 E. Michigan Ave. This news comes months after Arcadia Brewing Co., was taken over by First National Bank of Michigan, the original owner’s mortgage lender, earlier this year.

More than two years later, there's no sign of Grand Woods Lounge in Kalamazoo. So, what's the deal? We posed the question as to what you'd like to see in this scenic space on the Kalamazoo River. Facebook doesn't disappoint, everyone has an idea:

Another brewery with good food and entertainment
Kayak rental
Housing for the unhoused
Bring Arcadia Ales back
Homeless Vets
Brewery school
Sports bar, pool tables, darts, corn hole, horseshoes, TVs, craft beer, and full bar
Gentleman's club
A wedding venue or banquet center
Roller skating
A military-style headquarters to train and prepare to overthrow and dispatch all current government

It's 2021, anything can happen.

Long Gone Bars and Nightclubs in Kalamazoo

Photos of bars and nightclubs that no longer exist in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Get our free mobile app

LOOK: Best Beers From Every State

To find the best beer in each state and Washington D.C., Stacker analyzed January 2020 data from BeerAdvocate, a website that gathers user scores for beer in real-time. BeerAdvocate makes its determinations by compiling consumer ratings for all 50 states and Washington D.C. and applying a weighted rank to each. The weighted rank pulls the beer toward the list's average based on the number of ratings it has and aims to allow lesser-known beers to increase in rank. Only beers with at least 10 rankings to be considered; we took it a step further to only include beers with at least 100 user rankings in our gallery. Keep reading to find out what the best beer is in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C.

Categories: Articles