Well, looks like Market Place is on hold, indefinitely, after the council decided to continue to play hardball with the developer:
Quote:
Lansing City Council refuses to reconsider Market Place project
Susan Vela • [email protected] • October 19, 2010
They filled Lansing City Council's chambers but couldn't persuade members to reconsider approximately $4 million in incentives for the construction of Market Place.
"We have such an opportunity," said Summer Schriner, an Old Town businesswoman addressing council members Monday night. "Things have already been put in motion.
"What you guys did last week ... it's dangerous. I urge you ... please do the right thing."
The council, though, refused to budge from last week's vote. They voted 4-4 against reconsidering developer Pat Gillespie's brownfield redevelopment plan that would have permitted incentives Gillespie said were needed to construct his $23.1 million Market Place.
The mixed-use project was supposed to create an "urban village" near the new Lansing City Market on the banks of the Grand River.
Monday's council vote duplicated last week's - with Brian Jeffries, Carol Wood, Eric Hewitt and Derrick Quinney voting against reconsideration, just as they voted against the incentives.
Their vote came despite language in the 2008 sale agreement for the old City Market property that was supposed to become Market Place. It specifically states that the "developer and city each agree to use commercially reasonable efforts to pursue all support available for the project such as brownfield financing (and) brownfield tax credits."
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In the same night, though, the council passed the brownfield plan for the Knapps Center on Washington Square. Bizarre.