Lansing-East Lansing, MI Development

[deja vu]

The elimination of Lansing's two remaining coal-powered plants will reduce the city's carbon emissions by 80%, according to the BWL.

Wow that's huge!

[LMich]

Though still under construction, MSU will be expanding the Facility for Rare Isotopes Beam (FRIB). One of the buildings will replace an existing building at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, while another will fill some empty land at the back of the complex.

Michigan State plans $35 million in additional technology, new building for FRIB

By RJ Wolcott | Lansing State Journal

December 22, 2017

EAST LANSING - Once Michigan State University's $730 million Facility for Rare Isotope Beams is fully online, it will be able to create a vast range of atomic nuclei, some of them so unstable that they exist only for fractions of a second.

MSU is planning to invest an additional $35 million in FRIB to maximize the facility's potential as a world-leading research facility. Doing so will allow the discovery of even more rare isotopes and better harvesting the isotopes produced by charged particle beams crashing into a target at near lightspeed.

Earlier this month, MSU's board approved the start of planning for a project that would add a new building in the heart of FRIB, where isotopes that would otherwise go unused by scientists can be captured in water and harvested.

The main equipment for the 227,000-square-foot facility will be a 400-kilowatt superconducting linear accelerator. The article says it's over 80% complete and has been in the testing stages; in fact, most of the construction of the actual facility is complete with most of the work now being tweaks and equipment installation with 400 scientists already working out of the facility.

You can see in this older overview where the two small expansions are going in:



And here is a explanation of the expansions:

A 12,000-square-foot Cryogenic Assembly Building adjacent to the existing Superconducting Radio Frequency Highbay for the maintenance of cryomodules and to perform research pertaining to cryogenic engineering. The current cryomodule assembly space in the east highbay will become research space for the reaccelerated beam program when the FRIB cryomodule production completes in 2019.

A 31,000-square-foot High Rigidity Spectrometer and Isotope Harvesting Vault to house research equipment for isotope harvesting and to provide experimental space for the FRIB science program.

[LMich]

A small development, but it looks like it'll be the last development act of the Bernero administration. The mayor looks to have restarted a project to rise in Old Town that was mired in lawsuits after it was originally proposed in 2013. The old building was a dance studio for years, and was built in 1946.

Robert Killips | Lansing State Journal

$4.2 million mixed-use development in Old Town approved by Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero

Haley Hansen, Lansing State Journal

December 30, 2017

LANSING - A stalled $4.2 million development in Old Town is moving forward.

Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, who leaves office Monday, signed an agreement Saturday that will let a mixed-use development proceed. The project will turn the abandoned building at 1115 N. Washington Ave. into 5,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 23 residential units on the second and third floors, according to a news release.

The project will be developed by Sam Saboury, an East Lansing developer who previously renovated Old Town’s Walker Building, according to the release.

Long story short, the developer was seeking a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) from the city council. The council voted 4-4 which meant the motion failed so the developer and mayor filed a federal lawsuit against the council citing housing discrimination, since this was being developed as affordable housing. The lawsuit was dismissed back in September. So I guess it looks like the developer is going to go forward minus the PILOT. Construction will start in March or April of next year. Here was the proposal back in 2013, not sure if it's changed:



Two lots up Sam Saboury redeveloped an old grocery store that had served as a dollar store in recent years into ground floor commercial space with apartments above.

Walker Building


City of Lansing

The Walker Building was built in 1905, though some say 1912. I assume that's for the obvious addition to the south side of the building.

[LMich]

Vacant - but will maintained - since 2004, the former Walter French Academy building on the near south-side at Cedar and Mt. Hope finally has some solid plans for redevelopment into mid-market housing after years of the Eyde family not being able to make it work. Hopefully, this plan goes through.

Former Walter French school building to be redeveloped

By RJ Walcott | Lansing State Journal

Janaury 9, 2018

LANSING - The building that once housed Walter French Junior High School is set to become a mixed-use residential development.

The families of Louis and George Eyde, founders of the Eyde Company, are donating the long-vacant building at the corner of Mt. Hope Avenue and Cedar Street to the Capital Area Housing Partnership, a non-profit that works to develop affordable housing.

The Eyde Company purchased the building from the Lansing School District in 1983 for $942,000.

They will spend the year cobbling together the funding, which will include historic tax credits, which means they will have to preserve the exterior largely as-is. Walter French was built in 1925.


Walter H. French Junior High School by Norm Powell, on Flickr

[LMich]

Notice last week that the coffee shop across the street moved into the first retail unit in the Venue at East Town, the residential building that opened on East Michigan avenue in East Town in early-November.


Apartments.com

It was good to see how it interacted with the street. It also has really cool accent-lighting in the crowns at night that surprised me. I guess with this complete and starting to make money for the developer that will mean he'll start Provident Place down the street in a few months.

[LMich]

Guess I hadn't been paying enough attention to this one, apparently, the two Center City District towers in downtown East Lasing started construction in late December. Photos from EastLansingBuzz:

December 21



December 28



January 11



January 19



It also appears right around the time on construction in mid-December that the developer filed with the FAA and it shows a slight increase in height of both buildings. Proposed at 136.5 feet and 119 feet, the FAA numbers show 140 feet and 125 feet. Not sure if those are just rough numbers, or if they actually represent an increase in height, though.

In other East Lansing news, the developer of the Park District parcel a block to the west of Center City announced on January 10 that they'll be submitting new plans after their previous plans were rejected.

http://statenews.com/article/2018/01...-meeting-jan-9

They say that the components will be the same, but they'll be moving some stuff around. Hopefully, this will be nearly the same size, but seeing as how financing was the problem, it does look like they might downsize this one a bit.

[subterranean]

I was in Lansing last weekend and I have to say that it was weird seeing some of the changes that are taking shape. Having lived there so long, it's pretty heartbreaking to see those few strips going the way of the dodo tbh. So it goes.

[LMich]

This is located on the southwest side of downtown in between the state police headquarters and the Waverly Hills neighborhood in Lansing Township.

Incoming marijuana development park sells out 63 acres, starts second phase

By Taylor DesOrmeau | MLive.com

January 25, 2018

WINDSOR TWP., MI - Plans are ahead of schedule for the 130-acre marijuana industrial park Harvest Park.

First announced in November 2017, all 63 acres on 10 lots in Harvest Park's first phase have been sold to licensed cultivators, processors or people in other medical marijuana fields, a Harvest Park press release states.

Lots are now available for the next 67 acres. The entire project is expected to create 1,000 new jobs, Donahue said last fall.

They say Phase II will be ready in the second quarter. Excavating is currently taking place on Phase I. This will be the largest medicinal marijuana grow in the country east of the Mississippi.

[LMich]

MichiGrain Distillery opened up int the old NAPA auto parts store across from Lansing Brewing Company (itself, a former auto parts warehouse) last week in the Stadium District.


MichiGrain Distillery facebook

American Fifth Spirits distillery opened around the corner across from the stadium a few years ago also in a renovated buildings. So there is becoming quite the base for a brewery district around the stadium more than anything else.

[deja vu]

It is pretty neat to see the before and after views of both of these breweries on street view history. I like that Lansing is getting its own brewery district.

[LMich]

The City of East Lansing continues its weekly updates of construction on Center City District via it's EastLansingBuzz webpage.

January 25 - We're looking east near Albert showing the Albert portion of the project.



February 1 - This appears to along Grand River looking more northeasterly. This is the taller building of the project.

[Ex-Ithacan]

^ Those workers must be freezing their butts off. Good to see progress though.

[LMich]

A huge hole in the south end of downtown Lansing may finally be filled. A local developer has purchased the home of the former Lake Trust Credit Union who moved their headquarters to Brighton in Metro Detroit in 2015, though they still maintain a branch on the ground floor.

Along with the 8-story headquarters building at Lenawee and Capitol, they also purchased the entire block. It was one of the sites considered for a new city hall last year.

Former Lake Trust headquarters sold to Lansing developers

By Haley Hansen | Lansing State Journal

February 5, 2018

LANSING — The former Lake Trust Credit Union headquarters on the south end of downtown Lansing has been sold to a local development group.

The credit union finalized the sale of the building on the southeast corner of Capitol Avenue and Lenawee Street to Urban Systems last week. The building was on the market for a little more than three years.

The sale is part of Urban Systems' bigger plans to transform largely unused space between downtown and REO Town into housing, office and retail space, said Brent Forsberg, an Okemos developer and one of three principals for Urban Systems.

Forsberg sees redeveloping those blocks as an opportunity to re-energize the entire downtown.

https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/...ers/301150002/

Plans call for a renovation of the existing building. A 5-to-8-story residential building with retail would go at the corner of Washington (the main retail street downtown) and Lenawee.

Here are some of my self-taken pictures of the area:

Looking southwest


18. Lenawee Street structures by NewCityOne, on Flickr

Looking north


1. Skyline South by NewCityOne, on Flickr


P1010004 by NewCityOne, on Flickr

Looking west


P1010001 by NewCityOne, on Flickr

Looking northeast from south of I-496


P1010076 by NewCityOne, on Flickr

[LMich]

Hasn't hit the media yet, but this weeks city council packet has information on the long-planned redevelopment of the corner of Larch Street and Michigan Avenue, better known as 600 East Michigan Avenue at the eastern end of downtown. Originally only supposed to include the corner lot - the site of what was once the only gas station in downtown - but we find out in the packet that the developer (Gillespie Group) has pieced together a total of 3.6 acres.


600 East by NewCityOne, on Flickr

Gillespie Group is seeking to both have the outlined area rezoned G-1 - the highest density classification in the zoning code which requires no setbacks, on-site parking, highest residential densities, etc... - to facilitate the development of a mixed-use residential/commercial development with details to be determined. The reason the two lots you see along Michigan are left out is because they are already zoned G-1. The big parcels left off on Larch is Liskeys, a high-priced auto repair shop who apparently didn't want to sell, and then two lots along Barnard. The development also includes a request for the vacation of the alley in between Liskey's and the old gas station lot going to the railroad tracks for the construction of a new road through the site, which I imagine will make it so that you have either zero or maybe just one curb cut along Michigan with all other traffic being circulated along the new street and Barnard at the south end of the development.

The original concept for the corner lot at Michigan and Larch was for a little cheap-looking three-story apartment building. We can assume from this that this is going to be a much more substantial development. This development is coupled with the eventual renovation of the old Union Depot (old Clara's restaurant) across the street - also by the Gillespie Group - and a three-of-four-story apartment building to be built immediately north of the depot.

I'm guesing that this is going to be at least as large as the Stadium District mixed-use building across Larch a block to the east.

[LMich]

The tower crane is up at City Center District in East Lansing and nearly 500 piles driven and poured. Photo from EastLansingBuzz:

2-16-18: Looking directly east from around Abbot Road.



I've also been told that site preparation is well underway at The Hub a few blocks east. We should see construction on that one by next month.

[deja vu]

^ It's shaping up to be a very busy construction season. Whatever's cooking for 600 E. Michigan DOES sound big - does this mean that Gillespie is trying to acquire the other parcels with the single family homes, along Barnard?

Here is that preliminary design rendering, with Studio Intrigue's telltale secondary color scheme on the paneling -


Source: Gillespie Group | Studio [intrigue] Architects

[LMich]

Originally Posted by deja vu

^ It's shaping up to be a very busy construction season. Whatever's cooking for 600 E. Michigan DOES sound big - does this mean that Gillespie is trying to acquire the other parcels with the single family homes, along Barnard?

I don't think so. What he's getting rezoned are properties he has worked out agreements with. Apparently, the two remaining properties on the north side of Barnard didn't bite.

He really doesn't need the land on Barnard, though. It's mostly going to be used as a driveway/outlet so that they can keep curb cuts (and traffic) off the Michigan Avenue frontage and funnel it onto the higher-capacity/speed Larch Street. It's the "back" of the property, likely we're the parking will be located.

[subterranean]

Oh for the love of god, somebody please kidnap Studio Intrigue and Gillespie and drop them in Siberia.

[Rizzo]

This design is one of their lesser offensive. They kept the palate and mish mash of geometry and style to like....5 instead of 25. I don’t mind bold color at all, but some of the past work was clumsy assemblages, like the Park District hot mess

[LMich]

The Gillespie-Studio Intrigue aliiance is a unholy alliance, and Studio Intrigue is an individual scourge on this city's post-modern architectural landscape. What you see above was a very rough original concept for the smaller corner site of this block before Gillespie spent the last few years trying to buy up this entire block for something far more grand. This original concept was particularly offensive given the location; this has to have at least ground floor commercial space, and I'm happy that this is now a large component of the development.

I've seen people (rightfully) complain about the architecture of their developments before on their social media, and their excuse couldn't be more patronizing: "Milennials like colors." More accurately it's that people don't generally care about architecture either way, or at least will tolerate bad architecture. Truth be told, as bad as Studio Intrigue is, whoever does Gilbert's stuff in Detroit also has a similar concept, at least as it relates to interior design. The only thing I'll give Studio Intrigue is that their work on smaller, commercial buildings is often inoffensive. Their stuff seems to work better on a smaller scale; the problem is scaling upwards.

BTW, the design architect for Park District in East Lansing has been Solomon Cordwell Buenz out of Chicago for the last few weeks. Studio Intrigue was never formally affiliated with any iteration of this project. The last time they had any involvement at all was during an informal design competition where they mocked up a rough concept for the area along with four or five other local developers and architectures.