The five acres at 301 36th Street SW that used to be Godwin Heights overflow parking for a shuttered GM stamping plant now open at 9 a.m. every Sunday from May through October. That single sentence is the whole story of what changed in Wyoming this year.
For two decades the city's summer calendar was a Concerts in the Park series at Lamar Park, a scattering of Pinery Park events, and whatever residents drove into Grand Rapids to find. In 2026 that calendar filled in. The former GM footprint on 36th Street became a public gathering space, an industrial employer, and a health system's regional service address, all inside a two-year construction window. The result on a resident's Google Calendar is a weekly rhythm with actual anchor days rather than a hunt through Facebook events.
Sunday belongs to a building that did not exist last summer
The Godwin Mercado Farmers Market, presented by University of Michigan Health-West, will kick off its first season beginning Sunday, May 3 through October 25. Market hours run 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays. That is the schedule. What matters is what sits underneath it.
The building is a year-round facility, not a summer tent. Eight automatic overhead doors that open and close facilitate that year-round possibility. In those colder weather months, the garage doors come down. A single market day will be hosted each week during the winter months. Two market days will take place during the summer months. The city has also confirmed that a fall festival, a holiday market, and the annual Wrap Up Wyoming winter event will run out of the same building, which turns Godwin Mercado from a warm-weather amenity into the city's default indoor gathering address.
There is also a name to know if you are new to the neighborhood: Krashawn Martin, the city's Parks and Recreation Director, is the person quoted on record about the space's programming. Kyle VanEerden is the market manager. Vendor and food truck applications for the 2026 season are open on the Mercado's own site, which matters if a neighbor is a baker, a farmer, or a maker who has been selling out of a garage on Instagram.
Tuesday at Lamar Park is a schedule, not a maybe
Concerts in the Park is back at Lamar Park, 2561 Porter Street SW, starting at 6 p.m. It is free. Food trucks rotate. The 2026 lineup is short and worth pinning to a fridge:
- June 16 — Kanin Wren's Taylor Swift Experience
- June 23 — American Rust, heartland rock and Americana
- July 7 — Molly, soul
- July 14 — Brena, popular covers
- July 21 — MexiCuba, Latin
- July 28 — On The Lash, Irish traditional
The 2026 season kicks off June 16 at Lamar Park. Residents and visitors are invited to enjoy free live music, food trucks and family-friendly fun on select Tuesdays throughout the summer. All concerts begin at 6 p.m. at Lamar Park and feature a variety of musical genres for audiences of all ages. Six Tuesdays. That is the entire run. If you plan to catch one Latin night with the neighbors, the answer is July 21. If you have a kid who has memorized every Taylor Swift lyric since second grade, June 16 is the one to arrive early for.
Brena is the local anchor of the lineup. Brena's lead duo, Craig Avery and Steffan Copenhaver, met in 2005 at Grand Valley State University. Copenhaver was studying trumpet, while Avery was a piano major focusing on music performance. In 2007, Avery and Copenhaver, along with Copenhaver's brother Sean, formed the band Brena. They have been a fixture of this series for years, which is why July 14 tends to draw the largest crowd of any Tuesday.
28th Street is the fast-food story
The other change residents already feel is on 28th Street. The grand opening was scheduled for Tuesday, February 3, 2026. The new restaurant is located at 1730 28th Street in Wyoming, 49519. That is Michigan's first Bojangles. The Wyoming spot is owned by Michigan-based Meritage Hospitality Group, which also owns Morning Belle and Blue Porch along with several area Wendy's. If the parent company sounds familiar, that is why.
Two details worth knowing before you drive over. The Wyoming address was most recently a Taco John's. In a statement, the company also shared a couple more restaurants will be coming to the area in 2026. And the store itself was designed as a demo location: the Wyoming location also has a "biscuit theater," where customers can watch as employees make the biscuits from scratch. That is not a small choice. It says the chain treats Wyoming as its Michigan flagship, which means staffing, hours, and menu availability will be tighter here than at whatever locations follow.
Why the south side feels busier than a year ago
If you drive Buchanan south of 36th and feel like you are waiting through more light cycles than you used to, you are not imagining it. That five-acre Godwin Mercado parcel sits on the north edge of a 75-acre property the city has spent two decades preparing for reuse.
The Wyoming City Council recently approved a $150 million investment project that will bring new life to the long-vacant former General Motors stamping plant. The GM plant opened in 1936, closing operations in 2009. Over the years, the city worked to prep the land for redevelopment. Two projects are now actually going vertical on that footprint.
The first is Benteler Automotive. Plans for the 20-acre property include an around 317,000-square-foot assembly plant for V801 Ford Transit Van battery components. The $105 million plant would employ around 170 people, with three shifts working five days a week. The plant address is 3901 Buchanan St. SW, located at the southwest corner of Site 36. The second is a Corewell Health regional service center taking a 40-acre site in the north portion of Site 36.
Read those two facts against Godwin Mercado on the same parcel and you understand the traffic. One neighbor on the block put the tension plainly in a WZZM interview earlier this year: "I'm just a little saddened by all the traffic between that and the new Benteler facility that are going to cause. If you come down 36th Street and try and turn here on Buchanan, you might wait three to four lights before you get a chance to turn." The takeaway is not that the neighborhood is worse. The takeaway is that if you have lived here more than two years, your muscle memory for that intersection is out of date.
A working summer week, in the order you would actually run it
- Sunday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Godwin Mercado Farmers Market at 301 36th Street SW. Coffee, produce, prepared food. Park on the north lot that used to be Godwin Heights athletics overflow.
- Tuesday, 6 p.m. Concerts in the Park at Lamar Park. Bring the lawn chair. The food truck lineup rotates weekly; the concert itself runs until roughly 8.
- Wednesday or Thursday. Neither night has a citywide anchor, which is what makes them the right nights to try the Bojangles biscuit theater on 28th Street or to walk the newer trail sections around Metro Health Village on the west side of the city.
- Saturday, midday. Pinery Park at 2301 DeHoop Ave. is the city's other picnic hub. Joy in the Park is on the calendar for Saturday, July 25 at noon. Reservations for the picnic pavilions themselves book up months in advance; that has been true for years and it is still true.
The point is not that every night is booked. The point is that residents finally have a default answer to "what's happening in Wyoming this week" that is not "let's just drive downtown."
What this actually means if you live here
The Metro Health Village side of the city, off Byron Center Avenue near the M-6 interchange, has been the polished, medically anchored anchor of Wyoming for years. It is the address of the organization's 208-bed main hospital, located in Metro Health Village in Wyoming, Michigan, which serves more than 250,000 patients annually. That side of town is not going anywhere.
What changed in 2026 is that the south side of the city, around 36th Street and Buchanan, now has a public identity that matches the west side's medical one. The city's 20-year effort to reuse the GM footprint stopped being a rendering and started being a place where you buy tomatoes on a Sunday morning, park for a Benteler shift on a Monday afternoon, and check in for a Corewell appointment on a Wednesday. Neighborhoods do not usually change shape that fast. Wyoming's did.
If you own a home here already, the practical implication is small and worth naming. The blocks between South Division and Buchanan, north of 36th, have been the quiet middle of the city for a long time. They are not quiet anymore. Whether that is a good or bad thing depends entirely on what you bought your house for. If you were looking for weekend foot traffic and a Sunday routine within walking distance, you got it. If you bought for the quiet, the new rhythm is worth walking before you decide.
Curious what all of this activity means for what your home would actually sell for in 2026? Glover Agency tracks Wyoming block by block and can give you a straight read on how the Site 36 buildout, the Godwin Mercado corridor, and the Metro Health Village side are pricing differently right now. See Your Market Value.
