Madcap Planning New Grand Rapids Roastery, Office HQ and Retail Bar

Proposed Madcap facility at 1041 Fulton. Photo by Google

Madcap Coffee is seeking approval from its home city Grand Rapids, Mich., to convert a former 8,000-square-foot dry cleaning and gas station building into a new roastery and headquarters, with future plans to develop an adjacent coffee bar.

In a filing with the Planning Commission late last month, Madcap’s plan also includes space for Grand Rapids-based micro Brewery Vivant, which would use a portion of the new facility for barrel aging and storage.

(more: Ann Arbor’s Mighty Good Coffee Adding Two Retail Outposts)

The six-year-old company — founded by former barista competitor and current Barista Guild of America chair Trevor Corlett — has won numerous national awards for its coffees and has has wholesale accounts and many high-end cafes from coast to coast. Madcap currently operates its original roastery and cafe at 98 Monroe Center NW, as well as a Washington D.C. roastery and lab.

(more: Stiller, Menon and Corlett Among SCAA 2014 Recognition Award Winners)

The new facility, at 1041 E Fulton., would house Madcap’s roasting operations and provide new company offices. A section of the building currently being used by a photography/video company is being envisioned as a new retail bar. Madcap’s proposal, submitted by real estate broker Chris Muller, promises to dramatically transform the currently homely looking building and its streetfront into a vibrant retail space that fits well with existing craft food and brewery companies in the neighborhood, including a nearby farmers market.