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Originally Posted by The Lurker
^Thats fantastic news! I had no idea. Its been several years. Downtown was overwhelmingly dead last time I visited. Im glad activity is returning, although I much liked the zombie apocalypse atmosphere
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Yes! Slowly but surely, Battle Creek is trying to rebuild a robust downtown core. It has some assets that I personally think Kalamazoo should be jealous of (like two gorgeous Art Deco towers, nice streetscaping, and better connections to a less industrialized river). Might need to revise this thread title to be KALAMAZOO / PORTAGE / BATTLE CREEK if it keeps up. I guess I could post BC updates in the general WEST MICHIGAN developments thread too, but I just associate it more with Kalamazoo.
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Originally Posted by LMich
I really hope they can get this rezoning done. Looking at aerials, this is such a strange mix of uses in this part of town, and we need to see some way better site plans than the stuff currently there. This sounds like this would allow for that.
Even by sprawl standards the orientation of the buildings on their sites, here, look to be poorly place and undertilize their large parcels. Do you know whether this was originally zoned for industrial usage, or if the hotels were developed first? I'm just trying to figure out how you get hotels in the middle of an industrial district. It seems like either the hotels should have never been allowed or that it shouldn't have even been zoned for industry.
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Beat me to the post! It is very odd around there. Honestly, the whole stretch of Sprinkle Road from Kilgore to E Main has always felt bizarre to me. It has a very unplanned feel. Not quite city, not quite suburb, and a little rural thrown in. It's a hot mess. Just north of E Michigan Ave, for example, Consumers Concrete has a massive operation right across from single family residential. There are some massive greenhouses too, arrayed along River Street. Random traffic improvements like roundabouts and raised medians make it all feel even more haphazard. I am pretty sure that the area with the hotels was mostly industrial first, and then the hotels starting popping up, variance by variance, due to the high traffic counts and proximity to I-94, the airport, Pfizer Stryker, etc. I know at least some of them cater to visiting, extended-stay business folk.
In other semi-zoning-related news, the City formally approved the 2-block "neighborhood enterprise zone" downtown. This will hopefully kick start planned developments within this boundary (there are at least 2 planned mixed-use projects with affordable housing conponent).
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Kalamazoo approves tax abatement zone on downtown edge
By Malachi Barrett | MLive
June 07, 2018
KALAMAZOO, MI -- Developers can now apply for a 12-year tax abatement in an area south of downtown Kalamazoo. Monday, the City Commission created a "neighborhood enterprise zone" in a two-block area south of City Hall. Developments in the zone are eligible to have their taxes halved for nine years and reduced by 10 percent, 5 percent and 2.5 percent for another three years. The area is between South Park and Burdick streets and West Lovell and Cedar streets in the Vine neighborhood. Two developments are already planned: A $24.2 million mixed-use office and apartment building and another mixed-use project at a former public safety training facility. Local leaders hope the abatement will encourage new affordable housing projects to alleviate what city officials say is a 3,000 to 5,000 unit shortage...
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If there really is that big of a shortage, they are going to need more than 2 blocks of enterprise zone.