[LMich]

Well, Market Place is back on. This isn't much of a surprise. The council illegally blocked the project by not keeping up their end of the bargain:

Ingham judge OKs Marketplace plan

Susan Vela • svela@lsj.com • October 25, 2010

UPDATED 10 P.M.

Lansing – Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina ruled today that the Market Place Redevelopment Brownfield Plan meets all criteria required under the state’s Brownfield Redevelopment Act and should have been approved by the Lansing City Council.

Aquilina’s order constitutes city council approval, which was required for the project to proceed.

“We’re thankful the court has approved the project and we can get started,” said Market Place developer Pat Gillespie, CEO of the Gillespie Group. “Lansing has made a great deal of progress over the last few years and it would have been a shame for that progress to stall.

“We will now put 100 percent of our efforts into continuing to help grow this city by completing the first phase of Marketplace, as was originally agreed to in our development agreement with the city,” Gillespie said.

Neither City Attorney Brig Smith nor council members wanted to comment on Aquilina’s decision Monday.

Jerry Ambrose, the city’s finance director, said the court ruling is a “positive.”

“We are more determined than ever to bring business and labor together,” he said.

On Oct. 11, the council deadlocked 4-4 on approving about $4 million in incentives for the proposed mixed-use project along the Grand River in downtown Lansing. A four-member council block has aligned itself with labor groups demanding union scale wages and benefits for workers on the project.