Hathaway Properties History
Hathaway Properties is a locally owned land development company. It is in the business of planning, building, leasing and selling residential, office, retail/commercial and storage space. The initial projects were the construction of Greenville’s relocated bowling alley and the Fisher Big Wheel (department store) in 1982. These properties were the first indicators of interest in the west side of Greenville...until that time, the Armory and the newly constructed JR’s Castle were the western-most commercial properties. The north/south corridor, or M-91 was where commerce was predominantly situated. However, traffic patterns were shifting as northern Kent County continued to grow toward southwestern Montcalm County. The west side of Greenville was, naturally, becoming the convenient and sensible location for businesses to build — the population growth and traffic counts were now higher than the north/south corridor. The partners in Hathaway Properties understood this change and made a commitment to be a part of the growth, insuring that local interests were involved in the “west side story”.
The next addition to the Hathaway projects was The Maplewood Square Apartments in 1985. Totaling 104 units, these apartments filled an important void in the community’s rental inventory. Until that time, there were mostly income-restricted apartments available. Maplewood Square offers one and two bedroom apartments that are not income-based. Today, there are multiple “original” tenants who have been at Maplewood for 20 years.
At the same time the apartments were under construction, the Greenville West Shopping Center was being built, with JC Penny as the anchor store. Just recently, the center underwent a multi million dollar renovation with, most notably, an attractive update to the façade. Hathaway brought in regionally acclaimed architects, Visbeen Associates to design the new look.
The Hathaway partners understand that an investment in design and architectural character is necessary to create memorable, quality and pleasing places to live, work and shop. Implementing these beliefs back in the 80’s and 90’s and now and into the future, Hathaway is fulfilling its mission: “to provide the city of Greenville with viable options for attractive, affordable and enduring community assets...ultimately, places worth caring about.” After all, it is their community, too.
Partners and brothers, Byron and Bill Cook, and Byron’s son, Jeff Cook, are multi-generational Greenville residents. Born and raised in Greenville, three generations of Cook families have made both business and philanthropical investments in the community. Partner Hank VanderWerp is the original real estate developer who teamed with the Cook Brothers in the early 1980’s. VanderWerp is a Grandville resident and owner of Clinton Realty, but has become a Greenville friend to many and a regular at City Council and Planning Commission meetings.
VanderWerp states, “Over time, there have been several partnerships involved in the varying developments...with Hathaway having the overriding interest in many of the retail, office, apartment, condominium and now residential developments on Greenville’s growing west side.”
Between the 80’s and now, Hathaway has added the Parkside Condominiums, Greenville West Self Storage, Hathaway Circle Business Park, Wyngate Office Center, Office Park West, Hathaway Professional Center, The Marketplace, Meadowridge Apartments and Townhomes, Edgewater Apartments, Hawthorne Condominiums and Hawthorne Townhome Condominiums. They have also spun off sister companies Hathaway Construction, and Hathaway Maintenance Resources. Hathaway Pointe, on Greenville West Drive, south of the “roundabout” behind Meijer, is Hathaway’s business office and sales and leasing center. The company has grown in recent years from a few to nearly 20 employees.
Jeff Cook remarks, “There is nothing that brings me greater joy than to see a project at its completion. When a specific need in our community has been identified, and the project is planned carefully and constructed with great concern for quality, I then can say how proud I am to be a part of the process. We live, work and are raising our families in this community; all of us at Hathaway are committed to its success.”
He adds, “And we want to be one of the positive change agents for Greenville’s ‘re-definition’. Along with the national trend in the enormous growth in healthcare as an industry and the tremendous success of Spectrum Health United Memorial to bring a $17 million expansion to its Greenville facility, Hathaway can provide the homes and the office and retail service centers that will complement the growth in local healthcare. You can’t have one without the other.”
Hathaway Properties is well on its way to assisting in the shaping of Greenville’s future. Additional condominiums and home sites (as part of HathawayGreen) and more retail space for restaurants and other shops...all in the city of Greenville, will strengthen the local economy which is reeling from the change from a manufacturing-based to service-based system.
Caroline Cook, Marketing Manager for Hathaway, comments, “This is an absolutely exciting time for Greenville. We are a textbook case of a community in change...we can either embrace the change and be a part of the solution, or shrivel up. Hathaway is proactively investing in positive change. Not just talk, but dollars and cents. Sure, it is a risk to invest in real estate developments. But, for the sake of our community and our collective children’s futures, it is a risk worth taking.”