A real estate investment firm wants to sell a historic building in East Hills that houses a popular coffee shop — just one month after acquiring the property.

Grand Rapids-based Beeke Investments LLC, founded by Calvin Beeke, listed the building at 1035 Wealthy St. SE in Grand Rapids for sale for $595,000 on March 28 after acquiring it for $400,000 on Feb. 28 from former owner Kristin Sheline. 

Beeke Investments COO David Walkotten declined to comment for this report on behalf of the firm.

The 2,700-square-foot building houses the approximately 1,600-square-foot Scorpion Hearts Club coffee shop on the ground floor, as well as a second-floor, three-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment that’s about 1,100 square feet, per city property tax records. 

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An aerial view of the property at 1035 Wealthy St. SE shows the rooftop deck over the back portion of the building. Credit: Moxie Real Estate + Development

Max Grover, a commercial broker with Grand Rapids-based Moxie Real Estate + Development, has the listing. He said the apartment soon will be available to rent, while the commercial tenant, Scorpion Hearts Club, has four years left on its lease.

Grover projects the building’s next owner would get an annual rate of return on investment of about 8.9% after expenses. That’s based on a projected rent rate of $2,400 for the upstairs apartment. He did not disclose the commercial rent rate.

Scorpion Hearts Club owner Lorena Slager Wenzel told Crain’s Grand Rapids Business she hopes the coffee shop can remain in the space as long as possible under a new owner.

“We hope to be here for many more years,” Slager Wenzel said via email. “Of course, that all depends on the buyer, so we’re really hoping for someone who loves the cafe and wants us to stay here too.”

Slager Wenzel and a pair of business partners founded the coffee shop as The Stray Dog Cafe in 2007, later changing the name to The Sparrows Coffee, Tea & Newsstand in 2008 to avoid a trademark dispute. She opened a second Sparrows location on Bridge Street in 2017 but closed it the following year, when she also sold the coffee roasting side of the business to Schuil Coffee. The owners of Schuil then went on to establish another Sparrows location inside Kingma’s Market in the Creston neighborhood in 2021.

Slager Wenzel rebranded the original Sparrows location as Scorpion Hearts Club in 2023, following the death of her husband, David Wenzel, in 2020. The cafe also has a retail section that offers jewelry, art and other handmade goods.

The building at 1035 Wealthy St. SE was constructed in 1900. Property records show two small additions in the back were added later. The building still boasts its original hardwood floors and woodwork in both of the units. The upstairs apartment has its own laundry room, as well as an eat-in kitchen and living room.

The building was reportedly damaged by fire in the 1990s and underwent an extensive renovation before Slager Wenzel acquired it for the coffee shop, according to past media reports. Slager Wenzel sold the building to Sheline in 2019 for $430,000, according to property records. 

Grover said the building presents a prime investment opportunity, given its location along a desirable stretch of the bustling Wealthy Street corridor. 

The property is next door to the outdoor goods retailer Feral and just one block east of food and beverage establishments Testa Rossa, The Electric Cheetah and The Meanwhile Bar. Another restaurant, Forty Acres Soul Kitchen, is two blocks to the east down Wealthy. 

“It’s got a rooftop deck for the three-bed, one-bath apartment, and it’s got that outdoor patio seating (for Scorpion Hearts),” Grover said of the property. “That thing is prime for just a nice clean-up, and should be a great little building for somebody for a long time to come.”

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