Lansing-East Lansing, MI Development

[subterranean]

You're right, my mistake. Saginaw and Larch, the old Sunoco station. What a prime opportunity to densify the area, especially considering Motor Wheel and Prudden Place basically right across the street. I didn't know about the Paramount property, either.

I'm interested in what is happening to the properties on Michigan Ave. between Holmes and Soup Spoon. It seems like the last time I was by the Goodyear Tire property, I saw a for sale sign or something. They cleared, graded, and put new parking on the bock closer to Soup Spoon not too long ago. I'll take a look today on my lunch hour.

[subterranean]

Yup, the old Goodyear Tire property is for sale by Gillespie Group. Parking was put in on the back side of the lot next to Soup Spoon, also, with a grass frontage. It would be great to see both sites redeveloped as mixed use.

[LMich]

I was disappointed to see them make part of the site parking, though, I understand it. So long as they develop it so that parking is behind, it should be fine, since that's what's done on much of Michigan Avenue. Soup Spoon seems to be very busy. I've actually never been, but it seems to be one of those under-the-radar success stories. There should really be more around it.

Yeah, this is Gillespie work in the area. The Goodyear lot is rather oddly shaped, and a finger of goes very deep (back to Jerome, I think). Along with the old Bingham Elementary site across from Sparrow, these few blocks around Sparrow should be something of significant density, and definitely something over your regular two-story streetscape. This area should act as a "Midtown", of sorts, in between downtown and the low-rise East Michigan retail district beyond.

As for Larch and Saginaw, before they built the McDonald's gas station, I actually faintly remember some historic buildings fronting the street. They'd been modified, had been painted over a white that'd turned a kind of sick yellow over the years, and I'm pretty sure they were empty for the last few years of their existence. So, you can definitely build something to the sidewalk in this area. In a perfect world, MDOT would make it a priority to redo these intersections on what the city long-ago designated the "Island" because of how the streets cut off everything. The south sidewalk between Cedar and Larch along Saginaw is TINY and you feel so unsafe walking about it, and there is absolutely no room for any kind of landscaping. This whole area is a horrible entrance to downtown.

[LMich]

The former Moores Park Elementary, a mid-century modern building overlooking Moores Park on a river bluff in the far western fringes of REO Town, has been sitting empty for some time. Well, according to a Notice of Public Hearing, some local shell company is looking to turn it into a laboratory.

Moores Park School


Moores Park School (n.d.) Manson, Jackson & Kane, Inc. by MI SHPO, on Flickr

Right next door and down the bluff from the school, BTW, is the J.H. Moores Memorial Natatorium, built in 1923, still in use:


Moores Park Swimming Pool & Board of Water and Light by tegan.baiocchi, on Flickr

If I had to guess, I'd bet that Neogen is behind this renovation, as they are really big on reusing historic Lansing School District properties for their laboratories.

[LMich]

Well, this kind of came out of nowhere. Just after starting construction on Marketplace, the Gillespie Group is putting up Midtown Lansing at the eastern city limits along Michigan Avenue. Not that this wasn't already proposed, but I didn't know it was prioritized.

Gillespie’s ‘Midtown’ plan

By City Pulse Staff

October 30, 2013

Wednesday, Oct. 30 — Developer Pat Gillespie is scheduled to break ground Thursday on his “Midtown” project on Lansing’s eastern border. The mixed-use residential/commercial building is at the former site of the Silver Dollar Saloon, which was demolished over four years ago.

The planned 66 “eclectic, high-end urban flats” at 3411 E. Michigan Ave. is near the Lansing/East Lansing border. The development also includes plans for a 1,800-square-foot PNC Bank branch. It’s expected to be completed in August, shortly before the completion date of the first phase of Gillespie’s Marketplace project downtown.

...

A Chinese character pronounced “jia,” translated as “home,” is part of the building’s logo. “The logo is intended to start a conversation with the community about the value of engaging Chinese, and all international students at Michigan State University, in order to expand on a shared idea for global Michigan,” the press release says.

...

[subterranean]

Wow, that looks cheesy as all hell.

[LMich]

It really does. It only looks slightly better than that abomination of a rendering they recently put out for Marketplace that I didn't even bother posting, because it's so embarrassing. I mean, I'm not against exciting, modern designs. Lansing would do well with a few tacky/in-your-face projects to liven up its banal streetscapes. But, if you're going to troll the existing architecture, at least do it with quality materials.

I honestly don't get what Gillespie is doing. If he wants to put up cheap properties with cheap materials, he should just go the conventional route with the architecture like he did with the Beaumont in East Lansing. But, putting up this garrish crap and peddling it as "cool" and "hip" is really wearing on my nerves. I wonder if this is Studio Intrigue? Because it looks like their work. It blows my mind that their designs have actually become worse as they've become more popular with Gillespie.

All that said, so long as they aren't putting this on prime real estate (and, unfortunately, that's what happened with Marketplace and the City Market), or right up against our historic gems, I can tolerate it

Speaking of Marketplace, an update from their Facebook page showing footings and an elevator core going in:

October 29

[Michagain]

Yikes, this is very very tacky. However this is Lansing, and I'm desperate to accept any new urban development. Hopefully this can be just a one-time architectural "glitch" for this area of town.

I think I'll pass on a friendly note to the Gillespies

Edit: wow, they already broke ground.

[Rizzo]

Metal panel or dryvit comes in other colors.

[LMich]

It appears that Red Cedar Renaissance, the massive redevelopment of the old Red Cedar Golf Course across from Midtown, is moving foward with soil testing. Red Cedar Renaissance is actually two different projects, one being the commercial component (hotels/retail/housing/office) and the other environmental (raingardens/parkland/drain reconstruction). Most of the work currently being done is for the latter by the county drain commissioner who is overseeing the environmental work:

Soil tests next for proposed Red Cedar Golf Course redevelopment project

By Lindsay VanHulle | Lansing State Journal

November 4, 2013

LANSING — Engineers likely will begin taking soil samples at a closed eastside Lansing golf course this week — a crucial step in determining how a massive redevelopment project proposed there would be built.

Ingham County Drain Commissioner Patrick Lindemann said the samples and Red Cedar River floodplain models he collects from the Red Cedar Golf Course will be used to draw up plans for a series of rain gardens and collection ponds he wants to build to divert storm runoff from emptying into the river.

...

Lindemann and Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero reached an agreement two weeks ago to start the $260,000 environmental work, which will be borrowed and added to the city’s share of the total drain project once construction begins, the agreement states.

This is actually reworking a problem that was caused by the construction of Frandor Mall back in the 50's. They built it atop the Montgomery Drain which empties into the Red Cedar River. With so much pavement and pollution, it's been of environmental concern for decades, and because of it being built atop the stream, a lot gets flooded in this area.

[LMich]

Long-term plans for Spartan Stadium include the option to expand it to 90,000 when demand warrants, but the real story the deputy atheletic director tucked into his interview with a radio station the other day, is that MSU is actually going to take out even more general seating from the stadium in the coming years.

Michigan State's master plan includes end zone seating deck, would make Spartan Stadium capacity 90K

By Brandon Howell | MLive.com

November 7, 2013

EAST LANSING — If the demand is ever there, Michigan State has a plan in place to expand Spartan Stadium to seat 90,000 spectators.

The endeavor would include adding a second-level seating deck to the venue's south end, MSU deputy athletic director Greg Ianni said Wednesday on The Drive with Jack Ebling. But before it would ever become a reality, the numbers and dollars would have to make sense.

"It would take a situation where you can't get a ticket for a game over a period of time," Ianni said. "There's got to be a demand for those seats and the ability to pay back the debt that you would incur in building that facility. If you go back to when we built the (west stadium) tower, the design of the tower and the funding package and the payment package of that entire construction was basically done through the sale of the suites and the club seats.

"If you can't get a payback on an addition in a reasonable period of time...then you're probably not going to go in that direction."

Right now, there isn't demand for such expanded seating. Spartan Stadium's current seating capacity is 75,005, and the venue averaged 75,382 attendees in 2012. However, attendance has been rising since 2010, when the stadium's average attendance was 73,556.

...

After that project is done, MSU actually will turn its attention to reducing Spartan Stadium's seating capacity. Ianni said the venue's master plan calls for widening aisles, installing more railings and adding more handicap seating space.

"That's all part of this as we continue to...make this stadium more fan-friendly," he told the radio show, adding that the stadium's capacity will decrease to approximately 70,000. "We seem to be more comfortable with getting to that number, eventually.

...

Quite frankly, I'm getting a little annoyed at them continually messing around with the seating capacity in a negative way. They just got through adding the club seats and luxury boxes in 2005, and now they are giving general seating back. I can understand this kind of trade-off in money-making ventues like professional sports, but I think reducing capacity - especially general seating - at a college sports facility should be the last resort. After this renovation is complete, the stadium will seat fewer people than it did in 1994, the last time it was reduced (from 76,000).

[LMich]

Not much new in this piece, but there was a piece over the weekend in the LSJ detailing the development happening or planned along Michigan Avenue, particularly around the Frandor area. It again mentions the massive Red Cedar Renaissance project, Midtown, and everything happening of planned along the stretch of road on the East Lansing side. The big thing to come out of this piece is that Gillespie owns not just the Midtown site, but the structures on either side including the PNC Bank (which is moving into Midtown) and retail strip that houses Altu's, a locally famous Ethopian restaurant. The biggest surprise, however, is that he actually owns the massive Sears building down the street. I hadn't even heard a hint of this. He has a long-term lease with them, so that's not going to change, but the store actually turns its back to Michigan Avenue with some space in between the store and the street that I would not be surprised to see developed.

Construction of Midtown is underway last week on Michigan Avenue in Lansing. Midtown is just one of several projects by private developers that is helping to transform the area. / Greg DeRuiter | Lansing State Journal

Transforming Michigan Avenue: Private developers taking the lead on key thoroughfare

By Lindsay VanHulle | Lansing State Journal

November 8, 2013

Under a makeshift tent on East Michigan Avenue on a recent rainy morning, Pat Gillespie stood behind a microphone and told a group of elected officials, business leaders and reporters to picture a multistory, multicolored building on a muddy lot straddling the Lansing-East Lansing border.

He’d call it Midtown. It would have apartments — mainly for young professionals, but also for international students at nearby Michigan State University. And it would be the latest new development on Lansing’s far east side.

But there’s more. When a PNC Bank branch across the street moves into Midtown’s ground floor next year, Gillespie will own its old space next to what once had been a popular nightclub spot in the Dollar and its earlier incarnation, the Silver Dollar Saloon. By December, the East Lansing developer expects to close on the flat, nondescript commercial building on the other side that is home to Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine.

Altogether, the Lansing developer will control more than 430 feet of contiguous frontage on one of the region’s busiest streets, just as interest builds for a much broader overhaul on a roadway running from the Capitol to Webberville.

...

Gillespie said food retailers already are looking at PNC Bank’s current branch, knowing it won’t be vacant for the better part of a year, since it has a drive-through facility. And his company also owns the building that is home to a Sears, Roebuck and Co. store, part of the Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based department store chain.

Sears has a long-term lease, Gillespie said, but it also offers another 560 feet of Michigan Avenue frontage.

...

[LMich]

The Trowbridge Plaza redevelopment - Trowbridge Village - went before the East Lansing Planning Commission, last night. Trowbridge Plaza is the shopping center directly west of campus right off the 496/127 interchange. The packet included some renderings:





The new things you see at the plaza include an actual plaza tacked onto the eastern end of the retail strip (the buildings tucked back from the street), and a small plaza at the front of the grocery store that will open it up. Then, you have the, two multi-family residential buildings. The one fronting Trowbridge is 4-stories (54 feet) with ground floor retail/commercial. It replaces a grass lawn and a vacant bank building. The one at the western edge of the site is 5-stories (64 feet) with ground floor retail/commercial. It replaces a former Asian restaurant and a stand-alone/drive-thru Wendy's still in operation. Lastly, you see a new drive-thru restaurant constructed between the two residential buildings just west of were the bank building used to stand. A curb cut/entrance to the area is also removed along Harrison Road on the eastern perimeter.

So, more urban than what was there before, but still a kind of marginal redevelopment. That said, directly to the north of the village is the former Red Cedar Elementary School closed, last year, which will now house the school district's administrative offices and some pre-K and kindergarten programs. And, directly across Trowbridge and then the railroad tracks is where the new Amtrak station will soon rise. Just wish everything could be connected better into an actual village.

EDIT: I should have been able to spot this from the renderings, but almost the entire ground floors for each of the residential buildings is dedicated to parking. Only a tiny portion of the buildings in each corner feature any kind of commercial space. :\

[LMich]

Looks like the release of the plan didn't exactly go over well with the existing anchor tenant or neighbors:

Trowbridge redevelopment could mean end for Goodrich's Shop-Rite, owner says

By Dawn Parker | Lansing State Journal

November 14, 2013

EAST LANSING — A longtime grocery store may be in its final months at a southwest city location, but the developer overseeing a plan to renovate the Trowbridge Plaza shopping center said he’s trying to help Goodrich’s Shop-Rite remain where it has been for nearly 50 years.

The city’s planning commission held a public hearing Wednesday about plans first introduced to a neighborhood group last month by local developer Kevin McGraw for the Trowbridge Plaza shopping center at the intersection of Trowbridge and Harrison roads.

East Lansing residents who spoke at the meeting appeared largely unhappy about plans for a $24 million overhaul that would include two new apartment buildings.

The meeting’s most startling revelation may have been that Goodrich’s, which has been at 940 Trowbridge Road since 1966, may not be able to remain past the end of its lease on Aug. 31, 2014.

Co-owner Steve Scheffel told the commission he and other owners have been negotiating with their landlord for the past year.

“With the lease being proposed, there is absolutely no way that Goodrich’s Shop-Rite could continue in business, almost no possibility of that whatsoever,” Scheffel said.

...

The more I look at this, the less sense it seems to make on so many different levels.

[LMich]

The Meridian Mall, which anchors the eastside of the metro area, is being expanded by 18,650 square feet (with an additional 11,350 square foot renovation of existing space) near JC Penny to add more space. Also, an interior build-out within the existing structure will make room for a 20,000 square foot H&M clothier, and another interior build-out will ad a 23,000 square foot Planet Fitness gym:

H&M clothing store slated for Meridian Mall

By Lindsay VanHulle | Lansing State Journal

November 18, 2013

OKEMOS — Meridian Mall plans to bring in Swedish clothing retailer H&M, according to a Meridian Township planning official.

The Okemos mall also wants to build an 18,650-square-foot addition near a J.C. Penney Co. Inc. department store — on what is now a mall service area — and convert other retail space for a new store, according to an application the mall filed with Meridian Township.

The expansion proposal is the subject of a public hearing Tuesday at a township board meeting. It would create 50 jobs, according to the mall’s application.

If the township board signs on, the proposed new space would be 30,000 square feet near the J.C. Penney store for a retailer, documents show. The documents were filed by Haslett engineering firm Kebs Inc. on behalf of mall owner CBL & Associates Properties Inc., which is based in Chattanooga, Tenn.

...

In addition, the mall is expected to add a Planet Fitness gym in January. Franchise owners have said it will occupy 23,000 square feet near the Macy’s and Shoe Carnival stores — the latter of which also recently opened in the mall. The gym will have an exterior entrance, Menser said.

I'll have to get out to the Lansing Mall on the other side of town to see how the construction of the new multiplex is going. While this is all suburban development, it's nice to see that the suburban malls have not just recovered what they lost prior to and during the recession, but are actually growing again, which bodes well for retail in the urban area in general.

[LMich]

First major development at the airport since Lansing and DeWitt Township entered into their tax-sharing agreement - whereby Lansing receives a split of the taxes at the airport in exchange for providing certain city services - late last year:

Niowave plans $202M production facility at Lansing airport

By Lindsay VanHulle | Lansing State Journal

November 20, 2013

DEWITT TWP. — Niowave Inc. plans to build a new manufacturing facility near Lansing’s airport that will produce radioisotopes for medical imaging, creating at least 90 jobs.

The Lansing-based company, which develops superconducting linear particle accelerators, will formally unveil the $202 million project Thursday. But Niowave was awarded a $3 million state grant Wednesday that is meant to offset some construction costs for the 50,000-square-foot building that could open in 2015 at Capital Region International Airport.

Jerry Hollister, Niowave’s chief operating officer, said the facility will produce radioisotopes primarily for medical use in imaging, diagnostics tests and for therapy. It would allow the company to export the isotopes to other markets, Hollister said, since most of those used in America are made outside of the U.S.

...

Initial hiring could bring 90 new jobs, with as many as 120 jobs possible. Positions will include scientists, engineers, computer-assisted designers and technicians, Hollister said, with an average salary of $60,000. The company employs more than 70 people now.

“Michigan has quite a bit of the intellectual capacity necessary to really support this new industry, and particularly here in mid-Michigan,” Hollister said. “It just made sense for us to be here.”

In addition, the state said, Illinois offered Niowave an undisclosed incentive package if it would relocate to the Illinois Accelerator Research Center — part of Fermilab, a U.S. Department of Energy-funded research laboratory.

Keeping Niowave’s manufacturing here likely would support Michigan State University’s efforts to secure federal funding for the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, a planned energy department nuclear science research facility awarded to MSU in 2008, the state said.

...

Not so fast, Chicagoland; you can't have everything, now.

[LMich]

Maybe some misplaced enthusiasm by Brent Knight with the "instant landmark" phrase, but this will be a pretty big deal in a campus that has been ugly on the exterior - save for the landscaping, which has always been pretty decent - for a very long time:

$18.3M Gannon Building renovation creating an 'instant landmark'

By Matthew Miller | Lansing State Journal

November 24, 2013

The most striking change to the Gannon Building at Lansing Community College will be the faceted glass wall that trace an irregular curve along a portion of the building’s eastern face.

“This will be an instant landmark from the exterior,” said Brent Knight, the college’s president, pointing to an architect’s rendering of the wall. “From the interior, it will be a great space for students.”

That interior is the space once occupied by the college’s swimming pool, which is now filled in with cement and sand, the bleachers torn out, the walls stripped to bare cinder block and steel beams.

By next fall, when the $18.3 million renovation project is complete, it will be a food court and student commons. Through the glass wall, students will be able to look out onto Grand Avenue and Adado Riverfront Park and the Grand River beyond that. The steels beams will be wrapped for artistic effect.

There will be four food vendors; college officials haven’t yet pinned down which ones. There will be a balcony where the bleachers used to be, a coffee shop to go with it.

...

LCC did away with its Kennedy Cafeteria in the course of a $31 million renovation of the Arts & Science building completed over the summer. The Gannon food court is meant to fill the gap but also to give students another informal space to hang out on campus, a place where the seeds of community can sprout.

...

[LMich]

Update on the suburban Whole Foods going up in Okemos:

Whole Foods store advances in Meridian Township

By Lindsay VanHulle | Lansing State Journal

November 26, 2013

MERIDIAN TWP. — Plans for a Whole Foods Market in Meridian Township could be decided within two weeks.

The natural and organic foods grocery chain locked up unanimous support Monday from the township’s planning commission, meaning it’ll be sent to the full township board for final approval in early December.

“We’re trying to get them through,” said Peter Menser, an associate planner for the township.

Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods plans a 35,000-square-foot store on roughly five acres of land on East Grand River Avenue, near the border with East Lansing. The company would hire 150 people by the time it opens in 2015.

...

Whole Foods will sit on property that includes the former home of the Velocipede Peddler bicycle shop, which has relocated to the west inside the Brookfield Plaza shopping center at Hagadorn Road and Grand River. Developer George Tesseris also plans to dismantle the mostly-vacant Mobile Home Manor mobile home park as part of the project.

...

[LMich]

Marketplace - December 4th


Gillespie Group via Facebook

I do feel bad for those with the west-facing apartments having to look at the corrugated metal siding on the City Market. lol

Midtown - December 4th


Gillespie Group vis Twitter

[LMich]

Well, after hearing the rumors of a move of the state senate offices earlier in the year, it seems state senate Republicans just up and sprung a vote to move from the Farnum Building at the corner of Capitol and Allegan across from the Boji Tower and the Capitol:

David Eggert | AP

Michigan Senate votes to authorize sale of Farnum building

by David Eggert | The Associates Press

December 5, 2013

Lansing — State senators authorized the potential sale of their downtown office building on Wednesday, drawing criticism from a top Democrat who alleged a secret deal already has been struck to move into nicer offices nearby.

The legislation, approved 22-14 primarily with Republican support, would let the Senate secretary sell the state-owned Farnum building for fair market value, with proceeds going to the Senate to acquire or lease office space. The 1959 building near the Capitol houses most senators’ offices and some committee rooms.

Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville said it needs extensive work to remove asbestos, upgrade security and heating/cooling and make other improvements. It could cost a “scary” $24 million to upgrade the building, so it may make sense to sell it and lease other space, the Monroe Republican said.

...

But Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, an East Lansing Democrat, told the Associated Press in a phone interview that a behind-the-scenes deal may have already been done.

The Senate would sell the building to developer Ron Boji, she said, and broker a lease-to-own agreement to move into the nearby Boji-owned Capitol View building that opened in 2005. State Department of Community Health employees in that building would be moved to another building for which the state already is paying rent, she said.

...

I bet you Whitmer is spot on about how this is going down. How this seemingly came out of nowhere and was fast-tracked seems to point to the deal already being made, and the Boji's (as well as Ferguson) are always looking to take the State out of buildings they already own to line their own pockets. Anyway, with vacancies consistently in the single digits for Class A space downtown, this definitely means the Boji's kicking some existing state tenants out of Capitol View. The question remains what this means for the Farnum? I think Richardville is exaggerating the issues with the building.

Farnum State Senate Office Building


50/365 2010 YIP "A reflection at Farnum" by Photo Jimbo, on Flickr

Capitol View


Capitol Steps by NewCityOne, on Flickr