Lansing-East Lansing, MI Development

[LMich]

After my surface parking ramp, it appears that there are plans in the works to at least try and fix it around the edges. According to the City Pulse, there is currently a wholesale review of the city's over-night street parking ban with emphasis on potentially scrapping it, and the pilot program on a street on the eastside has been wildly successful:

Parking predicament

Andy Kilpatrick, director of the city’s Public Services Department, said officials in 2005 eliminated the overnight ban on Horton Street at the request of neighborhood residents. And it’s been so successful that they’ve allowed it to continue. Just two blocks running north from East Michigan Avenue till it dead ends, Horton is the only street in the city where its residents needn’t worry about tickets.

In the neighborhoods, ostensibly put into place to allow for better street-cleaning, emergency vehicle movement, ect. what it really was was property owners in single-family neighborhoods guarding the frontage of their homes like hawks to prevent both neighbors and their visitors from parking in front of their homes. Because. But it's very rarely ever enforced, so there is a movement in some neighborhoods that abolish it if the city won't enforce it, though I'd bet the bigger movement is to keep it. Anyway, this could make for better land-use patterns in the neighborhoods by taking some of the parking requirements off the properties, themselves. Not 100% sure, but I think a street spot could count towards the parking minimums.

EDIT: Found out this is more geared towards the business districts than residential neighborhoods, and it's only one proposal.

[LMich]

Hub East Lansing - August 31


East Lansing Buzz

Center City - August 31


East Lansing Buzz


EastLansingInfo

August 31


EastLansingInfo

They are pouring the sixth floor on the Landmark (Grand River Building), Newman Lofts (Albert Building) seems to be growing in fits and starts and seems to be behind Landmark, now. Target (Grand River Building) has received their "temporary certificate of occupany" which will permit Target's contractor to do the interior building out of the store.

In other East Lansing news, the council set a September 18 public hearing for the Park District brownfield plan. And Thursday, the Downtown Development Authority and Brownfield Redevelopment Authority will consider the development agreement and the brownfield plan.

[LMich]

The constructors of The Hub put out some new renderings a few days back. Not a huge difference, but you can definitely see where the value engineering has come in:









I am not sure what's going on with the east wing, or why they'd make the elevator tower a dark color, which really draws your eye to it from these renderings. But, honestly, this is replacing a restaurant and a 7-Eleven with surface parking fronting the street, and both will get first shots at occupying some of the ground floor units in this new building. It's a huge improvement over the previous land-use.

Anyway, more interior shots of Spence Bros. facebook post on this.

And, not directly development related and I featured it before when it was installed, but I love these shots of [i]Portrait of a Dreamer[/b] in downtown Lansing:


THE DREAMER..... by marsha*morningstar, on Flickr


I CAN ONLY IMAGINE... by marsha*morningstar, on Flickr

This was part of a Lansing Art's Council-administered program and funded by the city. It held up decently well through the winter.

[LMich]

Hate to see this building come down, but it appears demolition on the old YMCA, for development proposals that have languished on this property since 2008, will begin this month. The current iteration of this proposal is Metro Place.


LSJ file photo

Old Lansing YMCA building to be demolished in next month, contractor says

LANSING — The old downtown Lansing YMCA building is finally coming down.

After years of planning and waiting, crews are now able to start demolishing the building.

In its place will be a $25 million project with 145 loft apartments and almost 7,000 square feet of commercial and retail space.

Before demolition, crews have to build a new sanitary sewer line, said Rich Cossettini, site superintendent. He expects they should begin demolishing the building, at 301 W. Lenawee Street, sometime in September.

Oakwood Construction sent a notice Aug. 29 to residents who live around the demolition area, alerting them that demolition was set to begin within two weeks.

Cossettini said he expects the demolition will take about eight weeks.

Because of the varying heights of the floorplates and the sectioning inside the building, this would have been a super-expensive renovation. So I get why they want to do new construction, but the architecture is bad, man. lol

[subterranean]

Oh boy. I'm going to stop commenting on this thread. I get too emotional about these designs. It's like Lansing has no self respect.

[LMich]

It's absolutely embarrassing. None of the residential developers want to pay for good designs. And it's not like the area is totally bereft of architects who could do a good job. Commercial real estate developers and developers of public buildings in Lansing have some really good choices when it comes to adaptive reuses, for instance, and even some new construction. But the residential stuff? Forget about it.

What also hurts is that despite the (relative) age of the city's architecture, Lansing has very, very few historic districts. Historic districts are very good pressure on things like increasing good design for in historic areas, and stopping demolitions for parking lots.

Anyway, some new or updated renderings from some Michigan State University projects.

STEM Teaching, Learning and Interdisciplinary Research Facilities: This one began construction in 2018, and includes the intergration of the historic Shaw Lane Power Plant into the facility.









Eli Broad College of Business Pavilion: Having been under construction since June 2017, this one just received the biggest gift from a single donor in the university's history. Real estate developer Edward Minskoff donated $30 million to this project.

[subterranean]

The academic stuff looks a lot better. I've been really impressed by MSU's growth in the sciences and the building boom that's been happening there. It's clear they intend to stay relevant.

[LMich]

Found out a bit more about the new "residential permit for street parking" ordinance that clears up my earlier misconceptions about and understanding of it. Apparently, it's something that's been fairly quickly making it through committee and is up for a public hearing, tonight.

The program would allow for the creation of residential street parking zones, as the city currently bans residential overnight parking on all but a single street as a pilot program. The "residential street parking zones" would by the Department of Public Service, the Parking Services Office - which is under the Department of Economic Development and Planning - would then administer the program including rules and rates and such. As I understand it, the permit wouldn't guarantee a specific spot on the street, but I'm not 100% sure of this.

While I said earlier that this was targeted toward reducing required parking minimums downtown, I'd forgtten at the time that downtown (the G-1 zoning district, anyway) actually doesn't have any required parking minimums. So at least downtown this is really just geared towards developers who don't want to waste so much of their lot area - or demolish structures on a nearby lot for parking - for parking they often feel they have to build for residents. The impetus for the ordinance was the developer who is looking to development Midtown on the 500 block of South Washington, downtown.

What I'm still unsure of, however, is if these zones would count toward the parking minimums for business districts and residential neighborhoods outside downtown. I imagine they would, but I'm trying to find this out. In the case that this does count toward parking minimums in the other zoning districts, this would be great for urban land use (and great for developer profits on a given project) in the city, as developers would have to build less off-street parking on their lots.

Not really development news, but Young Bros & Daley is the oldest contiously operated business on Michigan Avenue; I had no idea. They celebrated their 125 year anniversary on September 6th. Really kind of impressive given what's happening around them.


Young Bros & Daley


Young Bros & Daley

Young's, located at Michigan and Hill right across the railroad tracks from downtown, sells architectural products like brick, tile and stone, and also carries outdoor furniture and sells fireplaces. They've really kept their property up over the years.

[LMich]

Couldn't remember if I posted about this one, but Elevation at Okemos Pointe out in the south end of Okemos - Jolly Oaks - completed it's first phase in August, I believe. That phase consisted of 8 buildings with 166 units it total. I believe the next two phases will bring the development to 20 buildings and nearly 400 units, in addition to general retail and a market place.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/elevatio...=page_internal

[deja vu]

^ Those look pretty good. I like the materials and massing.

[Ex-Ithacan]

Look nice indeed. Though I'm not familiar with rental prices in the area, the cost looks reasonable to me.

[LMich]

Yeah, they are developed by a young guy whose tired of the typical suburban single-family tract housing that would have been built out this way a decade or two ago. He's got some big stuff he's planning for Lansing proper, too. The rents? They are a little high for the area, though probably not high for that specific area of the metro. A $1,000 for a studio is pretty high above the average, but Okemos is fairly well-to-do so I'm sure they thought they could command these prices. The only other place commanding those types of prices for a studio are downtown. Though even downtown some of the new construction stuff like Marketplace are under $900 a month for a studio.

[LMich]

Some stuff in next Monday's agenda (Sep 17) of the Lansing City Council's Committee on Development & Planning that will go to the full council the following Monday (Sep 24):

1. Waypoint Dunckel: Both the "Planned Residential Development" review and brownfield plan is up for approval for this one. This is the suburban(ish) apartment complex planned for the edge of the city at the southeas corner of Dunckel Road and I-496 on the site of an old, abandoned hotel. The project consists of 286 rental units in 4, four-story buildings on a 9.6 acre site. This required a lot split, as the frontage actually along Dunckel Road will be developed as a hotel and commercial space. This development is actually oriented from Collins Road. These are being built for MSU's McLaren Hospital to go up just to the north. More on that one later. Oh, this was given a new name: Volaris Lansing. It's developer is Waypoint Residential out of South Florida, but their Dallas office in particular. Plans are that final approvals will come by the September 24th council meeting.



2. The Wing: A public hearing will be set next Monday for the brownfield plan for this one. This is the old factory down at Hazel and Hosmer in a non-descript neighborhood just south of I-496. This came as a shock to just about everyone earlier this year because of it's location in the middle of "nowhere" as far as revitalization is concerned. Having secured its Special Land Use permit earlier this year, as it's seeking to house residents in an industrial district, the brownfield plan is for Phase 1 or a three phase plan. This first phase includes 60 apartment units of housing in the parts of the building which front Hazel and Hosmer. The Hazel frontage will also include ground floor commercial space and the Hosmer frontage will include a restaurant on the ground floor. Also a part of this phase will be the renovation of an over 50,000 sq ft footprint in the middle of the factory to temporary light industrial usage, as well as a unique 7,500 sf ft "maker space." This is scheduled all to start in October and be completed by January 2020.

What's really interesting is that this is only the beginning. We find out that Phase 2 includes renovating "The Hangar" section of the building on its north side into the container apartments they announced when they first announced the project. They will be stacked three-high in this old section of the factory creating residential complex within the building. This phase plans to start in the Summer of next year. The biggest thing we found out, however, is Phase 3. This phase will created a thin (only a 6,400 sq ft footprint) 16 to 20 story residential tower which will be over a parking garage they plan to build in about half of the temporary industrial space, which is a part of phase 1. That phrase is tentatively scheduled to start in January 2022. Really, if even only half of this ever gets done it will be a success as far as I'm concerned. The developer? The guy who developed Elevation at Okemos Pointe above. Finally approval is expected in late October. Preliminary work has been ongoing all year, but for heavy construction they want to nail down the brownfield plan, first.



3. MSU McClaren Greater Lansing Hospital: On the committees agenda is the recommendation for the vacation of Alliance Drive (in full) and Technology Boulevard (in part) in the University Corporate Research Park as eastern city limits to make for MSU's new hospital. This will be a few blocks north of Volaris Lansing. A vacation approval before the full council on Sep 25 would allow them to start construction probably early next year.

[LMich]

The Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) agenda for Thursday didn't come out until the day of, so I couldn't include this stuff in my last post. Anyway, the BZA handles all variance requests, and is the first and only body that deals with these. The city council does not have oversight of it, so a request is typically heard, allowed public comment, and approved all at one meeting.

1. MSU McLaren Greater Lansing Hospital: We find out McLaren is requesting a max height of 178 feet in a zoning district that only allows for 45 feet. They are also requesting for redesignation of the two streets that front the property from "collectors" to "major or minor arterials" which is a condition for a hospital to be built. To be clear, the elevations only show a building of 158 feet tall, but I imagine they want the extra height for future expansions, one of which is outlined in the elevation. It'd allow them probably two additional floors if they ever needed it.

2. Allen Neighborhood Center - Kircher Complex: This one came out of nowhere. This is a request by the Allen Neighborhood Center on the city's lower east side - specifically along East Kalamazoo between Allen and Shephard - for relief from front yard setbacks, lot area requirements, and parking requirements to construct 40 apartment units on the property, and about 4,200 square feet of additional ground floor commercial space. It'd be two floors and basically fill the corners and some missing frontage along Allen and Shepard streets from Kalamazoo back to the back building line of the existing complex. Because of the zoning of the property, they'd need a minimum of 56,800 square feet of lot area for the 40 residential units, whereas they only have a bit over 49,000 square feet. They'd also be required to have 20-foot setbacks along Allen, Shepard, and Kalamazoo, whereas they are requesting only 8, 9.25, and 0 feet, respectively, so as to fit into the historic context of the neighborhood. Finally, all of this new space (residential and commercial) would require a parking minimum of 160 spots, whereas they are only planning 80 citing that it's in a walkable neighborhood, along bus lines, and will be geared towards older folks without cars. Oh, all existing programs and tenants, such as the farmer's market, would be kept as part of this expansion.



The planning office recommended both of these be approved.

[subterranean]

I wonder who ANC's development partner is on this. I tried to search for the agenda and minutes for the BZA, but couldn't find them posted online. I'd be interested in learning more about this.

[LMich]

You go to the "Government" drop-down near the top of the page and then click on "Agendas & Minutes" and it takes you to the Agendas center. Sometimes, the various boards and committees are late; some of the boards have very poor agendas and minutes.

Anyway, the Allen Neighborhood Center is the only developer mentioned. There could be other partners, but none are mentioned. The only additional piece of information I see that's worthy of note is that an out-of-state owner actually owns the property, and ANC seems pretty harsh about how they manage the complex, which is weird because they must obviously have their blessing to do this project.

[LMich]

This is so cool. I was kind of surprised that Lansing allows this as I know a lot of other city's zoning codes prevent gardens in front yards. I remember a huge dust-up in Oak Park when a women turned her front yard into a garden. I think she eventually won, but she was being threatened with all kind of legal action.


Nick King | Lansing State Journal

"An oasis among the lawns": These residents are ditching traditional front yards

LANSING — When Jennie Gies was growing up, it took her nearly six hours to mow the grass at her family's five-acre property in the northern part of Michigan's Bay County.

It's a chore the 35-year-old doesn't miss now that she lives on Lansing's east side and keeps only a small patch of grass between the sidewalk and road. Gies, a legislative program coordinator for the Michigan Nurses Association, has replaced most of the yard at her Ferguson Street home with vegetables and native plants.

In doing so, she joins the ranks of other Lansing residents who are ditching what was once a middle-class ideal — the perfectly manicured front lawn. For some residents, the choice is aesthetic. For other lawn apostates, the reasons are environmental.

A Lansing spokeswoman said the city doesn't require residents to keep front lawns with grass. City ordinances do prohibit weeds and require that grass be no more than eight inches tall. Additionally, the city forbids plants that block sidewalks and prohibits keeping "indoor" furniture outdoors.

Nick King | Lansing State Journal

It's a really interesting article in full. Ostensibly, many of these ordinances about lawns were put in when ideas of aesthetics were different and to keep the nature out of the city. But, I'm kind of glad that mindset is changing, and I'm glad this city at least doesn't make this difficult.

[LMich]

Looks like we're nearing the end of this. After over at least 12 years of actively trying to redevelop this site, Park District is looking to start construction in January. From EastLansingInfo:



After Years of Drama, Park District Plan Looks Real

At long last, it looks like the “Park District” development is finally happening.

The previous owner and would-be developer of this area, Scott Chappelle, has been convinced to stand down. That’s because DRW/Convexity, the current developers of the vacant properties downtown, has reached a deal with Chappelle, who lost the properties to foreclosure years ago. DRW/Convexity will pay Chappelle to release claims.

Timeline:

East Lansing Community & Economic Development Administrator Thomas Fehrenbach reiterated at Council’s meeting last night that Building A must be completed and occupied by May 2021 to receive the Michigan Business Tax credits. That means things have to move quickly.

After the meeting, David Pierson, DRW/Convexity’s attorney, noted to ELi that the developer’s timetable actually calls for July 2020 completion, in order to have occupancy ready in time for the 2020-2021 academic year. This is because East Lansing lease cycles operate to accommodate student housing, even for non-student residences. The hotel also wants to be ready a few months before the start of the Fall 2020 MSU football season.

Under the now-approved development agreement, the developers must submit applications for permits for Building C (the moderate-income rental building) within 18 months of Building A’s completion. Building C must be completed by January 1, 2025. If it is not, the land will be transferred to the City for use as “public open space.”

The last little odds-and-ends include seeking some financing from the Michigan Strategic Fund, and they are shooting for the Fund's November 27th meeting to make their case. But it looks like we might see construction by January on this one.

[deja vu]

Good news.

[LMich]

Another project passes a big hurdle. The sale of the Waverly Golf Course & Michigan Avenue Park on the westside in Lansing Township has been finalized, which will allow this one to move forward.


Greg DeRuiter | Lansing State Journal

Lansing closes on $2.2 million sale of former Waverly Golf Course

LANSING TWP. — The former Waverly Golf Course has been sold to a Grand Rapids developer for $2.2 million.

The 121-acre site between Michigan Avenue and West Saginaw Highway is in Lansing Township, but is owned by the city of Lansing. Lansing Mayor Andy Schor announced Wednesday that the developer and city had closed on the sale.

The profit from the sale will go toward the City of Lansing Parks and Recreation Department.

he proposed development would consist of 204 apartments, 52 multi-family duplexes, 76 townhomes and 101 single-family homes. Plans for the site also include 120 units of senior housing and 145,000 square-feet of commercial and office space. Site plans call for a 45,000 square-foot box retail building.

This is a win-win for city and township. Lansing gets to unload a golf course it hasn't operated since 2017, and gets $2.2 million to pump into its parks system. Lansing Township gets revenue from the millions of dollar in development that will happen at the property. My only hope is that the developer comes up with something a bit more urban-minded than their initial proposal plans for.

Not a development, but some interesting photos around the Stadium District from some angles we don't often see. Photos are by James Lenon:













I will be happy when GG finally "closes" Marketplace with the construction of it's third phase that will front Cedar Street. That surface lot there is bothering me so badly. lol It'll be interesting to see if they start on Phase III while they are also building 600 East Michigan.