Lansing-East Lansing, MI Development

[LMich]

Kind of tangentially related to development, but this will allow the city to borrow more easily for development whenever it needs to. For the first time in nearly ten years, after years of cutting to the bone and then some of the bone, itself, Lansing has a balanced budget. Along with the cuts, property and income tax revenues are finally starting to pick back up. It'll be very interesting to see county populations estimates out later this week.

Bernero: Lansing budget is 'balanced, cautious'

By Lindsay Vanhulle | Lansing State Journal

March 24, 2014

For the first time since he was elected in 2005, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero won’t have to cut staff or services from the city’s budget.

The $118.5 million spending plan Bernero presented Monday for the 2015 fiscal year that starts July 1 will start without a deficit. Instead, he said, it reflects a return to short-term financial stability and makes modest investments in key public services — namely, roads and police.

Lansing will need to avoid the temptation of overspending as revenues, primarily from property and income taxes, start to recover after falling during the recession, Bernero said. And the city will need to be aggressive in addressing its long-term costs, including pensions and retiree health care.

“It’s a hold-the-line budget, but it’s not a stay-the-course budget,” Bernero told reporters after his presentation. “We’ve survived. Now the question is: Will we thrive?”

...

Good on Virg. He's had to do a lot of things he'd rather not have done, but what could have been a city on a painfully slow death spiral is one that has managed to hold itself together, albeit, not completely unscathed from the forces bigger than itself. What I will say, though, is that the parks have been hit hard over the decade. There is a noticeable difference in upkeep and maintenance. I hope that we can continue to stabilize, but when we start growing that some of that money gets plowed back into the parks.

[LMich]

From the charrette came a working concept of lane configuration for the BRT through downtown EL (the rest of the line along the corridor comes later).











I am very happy with how this is turning out. At least through downtown East Lansing, they've physically seperated the BRT from auto traffic. They move all auto traffic north of the existing median, retaining two eastbound and two westbound traffic lanes. The bus lanes are where the existing eastbound traffic lanes, are. What seems to still be up for debate is whether the community wants to allow cyclists to share the BRT lanes.

[subterranean]

Wow. I have been wondering for a long time now how the heck they were going to try to get this to work with the medians and other upgrades East Lansing has done on Michigan and Grand River. Simple solution, yet I never even thought of it.

Still, there is not only the bicycle issue, but also the north side of the road will be a b%$## to cross. Thousands of pedestrians and thousands of cars. Someone is going to need a better solution to that problem.

[LMich]

Same here. When they described this in the paper, yesterday, it was confusing me as I couldn't for the life of me figure out what they were talking about. It took me going to the website and seeing the charrette material to get this. I'd never thought of this configuration. This was mostly because we'd had drilled into us that this would be center/median-running.

As for the traffic, I'm not sure how this is much different than the current set-up, honestly. Almost all the traffic lanes are replaced in this new configuration - which is more than I thought would be replaced; the original concept had a lane being taken out on each side of the median for the bus lanes. And trying to cross the boulevard is already hell. They are also counting on a reduction in traffic volume because of the new service. I think taking out the median makes this much easier to cross, in fact. It is something of a road diet.

[subterranean]

As someone who has spent a lot of time on MSU's campus and frequenting the adjacent businesses across Grand River, I personally found it a hell of a lot easier to cross one-directional traffic, frogger style, with a median in the middle. This is especially true mid-block. Currently, the medians provide a level of safety for pedestrians where you can cross one side when it's clear, wait, and then cross the other side when that clears. Compared to say the area around Sparrow where kids, patients and other pedestrians regularly and dangerously cross mid-block via the turn lane, the safety of the boulevard design in East Lansing becomes more apparent. Just add 40,000 kids and thousands of faculty to the mix and I think this is kind of a no-brainer. Not only will two way traffic volumes remain virtually unchanged, they'll be right next to each other with no safety in the middle. If signaled cross walks are not part of this system, I think this could be a catastrophe.

[LMich]

With the ramping up of construction season, three non-motorized on the southside trails are looking either to get way or speed up. The South Lansing Pathway interest me the most.

Work has begun on the 2-mile hiking/biking Sycamore Trail of which some of the trail runs along Jolly Road and connects to the Lansing River Trail. Photo taken 3/18/2014 by Greg DeRuiter/LSJ Greg DeRuiter

2 new trails will 'transform' south Lansing, Delhi Twp.

By Greg Davis | Lansing State Journal

March 26, 2014

LANSING — Like most days, David Louth was walking his dog, Monica, as she led the way on the Lansing River Trail near Maguire Park last week.

Soon, the white Maltese will have more miles to explore.

Crews have begun work in Delhi Township on the 2.1 mile Sycamore Trail, which will stretch south from the Lansing River Trail at Maguire Park and connect with a trail that goes into Holt.

“She loves this one, so I know she’ll love the new one,” said the Lansing man, as Monica tugged ahead on her leash.

It’s one of two major trail projects this year that will add to the 13 miles of pathways on the Lansing River Trail and to a 1.5-mile paved trail that goes through Valhalla Park in Delhi Township and enters Holt.

In coming weeks, crews are expected to break ground in Lansing on the South Lansing Pathway, a $2.1 million hiking/biking trail that will add more than five miles to the Lansing River Trail network. It will run from Waverly Road east to Cavanaugh Road – mainly along a Consumers Energy right-of-way south of Jolly Road.

“It’s really going to be a transformational year for south Lansing,” Chad Gamble, the city’s director of operations, said of the trail work.

Even though parts of the Lansing River Trail are now underwater because of spring flooding, Delhi Township officials say the $3 million Sycamore Trail project is creating a buzz among residents who have noticed heavy machinery driving in pilings on the pathway -- some of which is raised -- along Jolly Road.

...

The Sycamore Trail will connect with the southern trailhead of the Lansing trail at Maguire Park. It then will wind south through Delhi Township to connect with an existing trail at Willoughby Road and Pine Tree Road at Maple Ridge Cemetery. That existing trail then feeds south into Holt — three miles from Maguire Park.

The work should be completed by this fall.

...

Gamble said the work for on the South Lansing Pathway will begin in full force once the weather warms up, allowing asphalt to be poured. Federal funding will cover more than 80 percent of the pathway’s cost.

He said construction should be completed by this fall.

As part of the project, a section of Pleasant Grove Road will be re-striped to create bike lanes that will connect to the pathway. Signals will be installed at certain road crossings, and a series of short extensions will connect the path to schools or parks.

It's probably easier to say that the South Lansing Pathway will stretch from Waverly to Aurelius and then snake it way up to Cavanaugh.

EDIT: Metropolitan Census estimates are out, and Lansing surprises. After last year estimate showing an almost stalling of growth between 2010 Census to 2012 (+1,696, +0.36%), it seems the Census has revised the growth upwards to +0.7% for the 2010 Census to 2013 period adding 3,285 residents since the Census. The 2012 to 2013 period showed +1,289 (+0.27).

It seems Ingham and Clinton had nearly the same numerical population growth, while Eaton County has stalled out, which kind of shows you that Bath County/East Lansing northern tier sprawl is probably still pushing this, but Ingham County is also finally showing growth after stagnating. It's possible that Lansing might show it's first year-over-year growth in forever when the sub-county estimates come out.

[LMich]

More sprawl at Eastwood: A 130-room Holiday Inn and a Hilton Homewood Suites extended-stay. If everything that is proposed is completed, that would be seven hotels at that interchange in an area with hellish traffic, already.

Lansing area could get two new hotels

By Lindsay VanHulle | Lansing State Journal

March 31, 2014

LANSING TWP. — The Holiday Inn chain is ready to return to the Lansing market, more than five years after it closed its last full-service hotel and turned its focus to a lower-priced chain.

A spokeswoman for the hotel company’s British parent, InterContinental Hotels Group PLC, said a 130-room hotel is planned for a site on Wood Street, north of Lake Lansing Road and west of a Sam’s Club store. It is expected to open in 2015.

If all goes as planned, the Holiday Inn Lansing North will join several other hotels in and around the upscale Eastwood Town Center retail mall near Lake Lansing Road and U.S. 127 — including two that are under construction.

The region’s tourism experts say adding hotels within a 1-mile radius is the product of demand that will attract more travelers to Lansing.

...

Honestly, without an increase in transit infrastructure in this area to go along with all of this development, this is really just a crime against urban planning. Lansing Township hasn't the skill nor incentive to do anything other than what they are doing. Seven hotels in or right outside Eastwood, and one in downtown Lansing. Something is wrong with this picture.

[JonathanGRR]

The proposed BRT in Lansing/East Lansing looks very promising. I like how they have (at least in the renderings) separated the bus lanes completely from other traffic.

[LMich]

Not exactly a new concept - the station at Penn and Saginaw was converted to a single-family home years and years ago - but it looks like two more of our historic fire stations will be converted to homes. It's really great to see old city infrastructure (schools, fire stations, etc...) saved and converted for other uses.

Station #7 | LSJ File Photo


Station #5 | LSJ File Photo

Closed Lansing fire stations could be converted into homes

By Lindsay VanHulle | Lansing State Journal

April 11, 2014

Home sweet firehouse?

It could happen for some prospective Lansing home buyers.

After about a year of searching, the city has found buyers for two fire stations it closed nearly three years ago — and those buyers want to turn the brick industrial buildings into their permanent homes.

If City Council agrees, the would-be buyers’ plans for the former firehouses — No. 5, on Todd Avenue near Mt. Hope Avenue; and No. 7, near the corner of North Jenison Avenue and Saginaw Street — would bring the city-owned buildings onto property tax rolls and serve as high-profile examples of reclaiming urban space.

“These are unique properties, not your typical single-family residences,” said Bob Johnson, Lansing’s planning and neighborhood development director. “It could be very, very cool.”

The city has signed purchase agreements with two sets of buyers.

Adam Eicher and Karen Turkovich have a deal to buy the 5,770-square foot Station No. 5 for $86,250. Daniel Luke and Anne Carrigan intend to purchase the 3,919-square-foot Station No. 7 for $115,000.

...

A third station, No. 3 in downtown, is still on the market.

[LMich]

So, we find out why work on the Capital Area Multi Modal Gateway (i.e. our glorified Amtrak station proposal) hasn't moved foward: the bids came in way too high for the budget of the project. Still, it's back on track, now.

East Lansing rail, bus station to be 'substantially complete' in mid-August 2015

By Dawn Park | Lansing State Journal

April 11, 2014

EAST LANSING — A new rail and bus station in East Lansing will take longer to build than planned because construction bids came in nearly $2 million over budget.

The $10.5 million project, which would replace the city’s 40-year-old train station near Harrison and Trowbridge roads, will be sent out for new bids after contractors said the work would cost more than the station’s $5 million construction budget, officials said.

Plans have been revised. Officials said they now hope the building will be “substantially complete” by mid-August 2015, said Lori Mullins, East Lansing’s community and economic development administrator.

Demolition of the existing station had been expected to start before the end of 2013, with construction of the new building to start this spring.

The new station will serve as the hub for Amtrak trains and bus service from Greyhound, Megabus and Indian Trails. It will add bus bays and parking spaces for taxis, rental cars and bicycles.

...

A portion of the grant already has been used for design and engineering work, leaving $5 million available for construction, said Debbie Alexander, CATA’s assistant executive director.

The low bidder, Grand Rapids’ Beckering Construction Inc., said it could do the work for nearly $6.9 million, CATA said.

Two local contractors — Delhi Township-based Laux Construction & Homes and Moore Trosper Construction Co., of Holt — bid $7.5million and $9 million, respectively.

CATA officials adjusted the project to keep costs down, Alexander said. Plans called for demolishing the existing station before building a new one and opening a temporary station for passengers, but CATA officials decided that would have been too costly.

...

New bids are due back on May 21st. Sounds like they aren't downsizing the project, rather reworking the demolition of the existing buildings to save money. Instead of building a temporary structure, they'll just wait until the new structure is done before they'll demolish the existing station.

[LMich]

This seems to get brought up every once in awhile, but it looks like this administration is really looking to unload the current city hall across the street from the capitol.

Lansing looks at selling City Hall

By Lindsay VanHulle | LSJ.com

April 15, 2014

LANSING — Lansing will probably keep its police gun range near Capital Region International Airport.

City Hall’s days, however, could be numbered.

Mayor Virg Bernero’s administration is taking a close look at the buildings, parks and public facilities the city owns to decide which it can keep, which it can afford to renovate and which it can sell.

The underlying goal, now that Lansing’s budget has stabilized for the first time since Bernero was elected in 2005, is to trim infrastructure to match a city government that steadily shrank during nearly a decade of deficits and budget cuts. Bernero’s $118.5 million spending plan for the 2015 fiscal year that starts July 1 avoids a shortfall for the first time in his tenure.

At the center of the discussion will be City Hall. The 10-story building occupies a prime spot of downtown real estate across the street from the Capitol. Bernero’s office has said City Hall needs major work, including to its heating and cooling systems and a leaking roof.

...

Within 60 days, Bernero’s administration expects to issue a request for proposals to find an engineering firm to do a “top-to-bottom” review of what is needed — and how much it will cost — to renovate the roughly 50-year-old City Hall for use for another 50 years, Hannan said. It also will include considerations about how much space city government will need.

Administrators haven’t decided whether the firm also will include the cost of moving out or a review of other possible sites for City Hall.

The last such study was done in 1998, Hannan said, and is outdated.

Hannan said an appraisal of the property also will be done.

...

Lansing City Hall and Police Building by MI SHPO, on Flickr

[LMich]

After years of trying to get this thing off the drawing board, it looks as if the Abigail - the administration building for the old Michigan School for the Blind - will be renovated for residential usage.

Greg DeRuiter | Lansing State Journal

Former school for the blind could become apartments

By Scott Davis | Lansing State Journal

April 18, 2014

For nearly two decades, the Abigail Building has stood empty near Pine and Maple streets in Lansing. A Braille plate near an entrance serves as a reminder it once was part of a state school for the blind.

But next year, when the four-pillar facade structure turns 100 years old, developers hope to give the building new life as affordable apartments for low-income persons.

On Friday, Lansing city officials announced a $15 million project to redevelop the building into 44 apartments while preserving its unique architecture on the former campus of the Michigan School for the Blind in Lansing. The developer is Harbor Springs-based developer G.A. Haan Development.

...

Other parts of the former school campus also have been redeveloped in recent years. The Ingham County Land Bank, which owns much of the campus, renovated the historic 6,000-square-foot superintendent's house in 2009. It's now occupied by Rizzi Designs.

The school’s library building became the Greater Lansing Housing Coalition's Neighborhood Empowerment Center in 2010.

Some buildings couldn’t be saved. In recent weeks, demolition has begun on a forming dining hall for the school, and there are plans to raze a maintenance building and brick “cottages” that once served as dormitories.

...


Greg DeRuiter | Lansing State Journal

[LMich]

Marketplace - April 23


Gillespie Group facebook

One more floor to go. I still find it strange that I've heard nothing about the building/complex-wide amenities and lobby area, which is to be built on the right (north) of this photo. It seems strange to ask people to pay what they are asking for without the thing having a proper entrance, yet.

[LMich]

Not a development, really, but some shots from the third annual Lansing Marathon, yesterday, courtesy of Robert Killips at the Lansing State Journal. It's good to see these place-making events popping up in recent years. It's an entirely urban course, but takes ample use of the Lansing River Trail.

[LMich]

A view from the fourth-floor of Marketplace on May 5th still scheduled for it's October open:


facebook

The river side is going to have some excellent views. I hadn't realized, however, that this high up would actually block the views of the capitol and Boji Tower. A little bit to the left, and you'd have gotten all the buildings in. I really need to get a shot of the project looking down City Market Drive (formerly Museum Drive) at night.

[LMich]

Got some ground-level shots of Marketplace, yesterday. It's still so odd seeing it without its second phase.

From the Shiawassee Street Bridge with the Stadium District apartments in the background:


Marketplace by NewCityOne, on Flickr

From City Market Drive (formerly Museum Drive):


Marketplace 2 by NewCityOne, on Flickr

From the westbank Lansing River Trail outside Accident Fund Company headquarters:


To Market, To Market by NewCityOne, on Flickr

Hopefully, as this area continues to draw in residents, we'll get more high-quality constructions, because all of this stuff is kind of ugly. But, I'm not going to complain too much when we're mostly filling old parking lots. I see that the area across the street where The Outfield apartments will go on the back of Oldsmobile Park is being slowly prepared. They are preparing to move the utilities.

[LMich]

Speak of the devil, the LSJ had a piece on The Outfield, yesterday:

Work continues on the Market Place development near the Lansing City Market. / Rod Sanford

Credits sought for new apartments at Lugnuts ballpark

By Lindsay VanHulle | Lansing State Journal

May 13, 2014

Economic development officials want to use brownfield tax credits to pay for part of a project that will put apartments in the outfield of Lansing’s minor league baseball stadium.

The city’s brownfield authority wants to add Cooley Law School Stadium to an existing brownfield plan that also includes an area bounded roughly by the stadium and Shiawassee, Cedar and Larch streets near downtown Lansing.

If approved, the city would use the tax credits to fund public infrastructure work private developers need before they can build 100 apartments as part of a project dubbed The Outfield.

The City Council this week set a public hearing for June 2.

...

The city says it qualifies for brownfield credits in part because the site had been used as the city’s maintenance garage.

The existing brownfield plan, called Ballpark North, was created to cover a potential mixed-use development and parking deck north of the ballpark that tied in with a proposed tribal casino to be built near the Lansing Center, Dorshimer said.

The stadium project can be added because it is adjacent to the property covered by the brownfield plan.

City officials in March announced a plan to build as many as 100 apartments in the outfield of the stadium, home to the Lansing Lugnuts minor league baseball team.

The $22 million project also would include a renovated ballpark with a new roof, restrooms, concessions stands and seating.

Construction on The Outfield would occur during the next two seasons, with apartments ready by the Lugnuts’ opening day in 2016.

...


This city of Lansing building, a former maintenance garage just north of Cooley Law School Stadium, would be torn down for development. Rod Sanford/lsj

With this, you'll have a few hundred residential units across the street from the stadium except to the east where they'll have to go vertical if they want to add anything.

[LMich]

And update on Trowbridge Plaza on East Lansing's southwest side right off of I-496. This is a perfect example of how crazy powerful NIMBYs are, with some of them even being on the city council, itself. First, they got an entire apartment building nixed at Trowbridge Plaza. Last night, they nixed the fifth floor on the remaining apartment building. On top of that, they got a development agreement that would ban any future development at the site from going over three stories, and no future building could be residential. This is exactly why East Lansing has forced itself to sprawl at its edges.

Trowbridge project passes East Lansing council

Dawn Parker | Lansing State Journal

May 20, 2014

EAST LANSING — The redevelopment of Trowbridge Plaza will move one step forward.

City Council members voted 4-1 on Tuesday to approve an amended special use permit and site plan for the project, with Council member Kathleen Boyle dissenting.

The proposal, most recently valued at $17 million, seeks to renew the shopping area at the corner of Trowbridge and Harrison roads with new exteriors and new infrastructure.

The plan underwent several amendments prior to final passage, most notably a reduction in height of one story to a proposed five-story mixed-use building with retail on the first floor and residential above.

Mayor Nathan Triplett said he was “persuaded by the neighborhood” that a five-story building was not “appropriate” for the site.

Another condition affirmed by the Council limits any further construction on the site to no more than three stories and prohibits additional residential development.

City staff issued their own recommendation of the project to the planning commission on April 3, writing “the applicant has modified the plans and reduced the density of the residential component to try and respond to both citizen and Planning Commission concerns.”

...

East Lansing is so afraid of any kind of housing that may even remotely appeal to students that they completely over-react to any multi-story residential development. What's crazy about this is that this is basically across the street from campus.

Back in Lansing: It appears the black brick is being installed on Marketplace, though, unfortunately, the rest of the facade is cheap paneling crap.


Gillespie Group

On the eastside at the border, Midtown really fills the space over the neighboring retail strip.


Gillespie Group

[LMich]

And, downtown East Lansing continues its march to the west...

The area around the Delta is getting really dense with all of these residential projects. This will have a huge impact on the immediate entrance into downtown EL from the west along Grand River. This building will span two lots over a small access street to Valley Court Park.

Original Biggby Coffee store in East Lansing to be razed, replaced as six-story building

By Dawn Parker | LSJ.com

May 27, 2014

EAST LANSING — The original Biggby Coffee store would be torn down and replaced with a six-story building under a proposed development project just west of downtown East Lansing.

The Gateway Project is proposed for 270 and 300 W. Grand River Ave., near Delta Street and Valley Court Park.

It would include roughly 5,000 square feet of commercial space — and Biggby would remain on the site on the building’s first floor, a city administrator’s report shows. A total of 160 apartments are planned, with multiple floor plans ranging from studios to three-bedroom units.

Colin Cronin, vice president of Lansing Township-based rental housing developer DTN Management Co., which is leading the project, said the 280,000-square-foot project is expected to cost between $20 million and $22 million. He said the new Biggby would fill much of the first floor, though an additional tenant would take up 2,000 to 2,200 square feet.

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Parking for 240 cars would be in the basement and second floor.

...

What is being replaced:


LSJ File Photo

I believe this was originally constructed as the old Greyhound Station until it moved down the block. That building was subsequently demolished for some rowhomes, some of which you can see in the background off to the left (west).

[subterranean]

That used to be an Arby's. Also: Studio Intrigue strikes again? Damn that is ugly.