Van Ess Plat No. 1

The moment you turn onto Van Ess, you notice the lots breathe—each one sits on roughly 0.38 acres, giving you space that doesn't feel squeezed into a grid. This 5-acre plat in Shawmut Hills runs thick with mature trees and rolling terrain, the kind of terrain that makes fall colors actually look like fall colors. You're about a 9-minute walk from a restaurant and roughly 13 minutes on foot to the nearest grocery, which means the neighborhood isn't stranded, but it's not downtown either—a deliberate distance that defines the place. Homes here cluster in the $375K range, mostly ranging from 1,200 to 3,000 square feet, with the architectural mix you'd expect from the 1950s and 1960s: ranch, cape cod, colonial. Downtown Grand Rapids is 12.4 minutes away by car, close enough that you're not isolated. Grand Rapids Public Schools serves the area, and five parks sit within a mile, including The Highlands about a 15-minute walk out.