Central Lansing Construction and Development.

[hood]

Couple news articles today:

Florida man cancels offer for city school

Pet store move no easy walk in the park

[RustTown]

I saw the Preuss article today, and have yet to make it in there. I'm trying to find an excuse just to go check it out. lol

I'm not surprised about the Flordia investor, as I said from the beginning, and am happy in an odd way this didn't happen. He seemed flakey from the beginning, and its good to see that locals may find a use for it.

[hood]

I got a reply back on an email that I sent to the EDC's directore about the Association Building, heres what it said:

"Hello: The Association Building concept is an idea being pushed by a local developer in conjunction with other potential downtown buildings (new). Their idea is fairly simple. Provide a dynamic, highly visible building that would provide space for associations who wish to be located near the capitol building itself."

An important bit of new info from this is that the building would be near the Capitol, and more importantly that there are other buildings planned in the same area, obviously not yet announced. One thing that I think makes this project a good possibility is the number of associations currently housed in old downtown houses and small office buildings, such as all the modern two-three floor ones located north of downtown, plus the ones located in the larger downtown buildings. From what I've been able to gather this project would seem pretty straitforward and pretty feasable, depending on the exact size being proposed.

[RustTown]

Funny you got that email back because that's exactly what I was thinking the other day. There are tons of small Michigan associations headquartered in and around downtown Lansing, and it only makes since that that would be what this project is about. Those could be the anchor tenants, and then they could construct even more speculative space for other potential tenants. It would be so neat if this ended up being Lansing's new tallest. They could even boost the height by making some floors residential, or a small botique hotel; a true mix-use development. Only problem with that is the financing gets tricky.

Hopefully, they can do some convincing to round them up and make this project more feasible. I'm surprised you got an email back from the EDC director, because I still haven't. lol It's Bob T. right? See what more you can get out of him.

[statedude3]

But doesnt this sound kinda like the the Ren Cen dooming Detroit...drag people from othter buildings to the brand new office space and alienate the other buildings. That's the first thing that I thought of at least.

[hood]

Lansing has a very low class A vacancy rate, low enough to justify new market rate space regardless of who the tenants are. Lansing currently has no significant amount of open class A space downtown, so a new office building at least the size of Capitol View is inevidable in the near future. Besides that, most of these associations are in old houses or in small ugly class B and C office buildings that are built on former house lots. Lansing has plenty of room for new construction either way you look at it.

[hood]

I emailed this to Bob Trezise today:

"I realize that this project is being kept hush-hush, but there are two

things that I would like to know. Will it/could it end up Lansing's tallest

building or close to it? And, When might we get a public announcement or be able to learn more details?"

And got back this response already:

"It is no where near that level discussion at all. It is mostly a vision at this point- though more serious than that for a variety of reasons."

[RustTown]

State,

This would be almost nothing like the RenCen in that downtown Detroit was seeing a huge decline, so the RenCen kind of did hurt the downtown scene. Downtown Lansing Lansing is different in that it has a constant business base with state government and those wanting to be near it. Trust me, as fast as these associations would move out (most being located in old house office buildings, and small buildings on the fringe of downtown) someone would move in.

BTW, I'm surprised these developments over the past few days weren't mentioned, once being very big news:

1. Demmer Corporation of Lansing, the other day, recieved a government grant to make armor for light military vehciles. They want to make it in the mostly vacant Motor Wheels site along the Cedar/Larch Streets viaduct in North Lansing that been vacant for years. This is huge news. Today, the Lansing Brownfield Redevelopment Authority Board approved the proposal, but it still must go through city council and a state board, but will almost certainly be approved. They will initially provide 180 new manufacturing jobs to the city, and expected to grow that to 400 or so by 2010.

Just great, great news. Especially since I never thought that factory would totally be reused. And, the Northtown Commerce Park right on the other side of the vaiduct was also recently in the media with how it's growing. It's great to see these two old industrial hulks reused.

2. All of Lansing's vacated schools have been bought up. It was announced today that Northwestern Elementary, the ones that's been vacant for the longest, will become a community center, and that Verlinden will be bought by the DeWitt couple for a daycare.

This is good considering that not too far down Grand River Avenue, in Detroit, they are struggling to find resuses for the 30 schools they've had to close.

[hood]

I don't think the Demmer thing is that huge of a deal, they are only going to occupy the building that GM had already fixed up, so the jobs will be nice but they are not rehabbing any of the nasty buildings in the complex.

[RustTown]

You mean it will just be the building along Larch? Kind of disappointing, and maybe not big development news, but a big day for the city in terms of job creation, no less. The possibility of 400 jobs over the next 5 years is one of the larger brownfield redevelopments in the state as the article stated.

[hood]

Yeah, just the building along Larch, but it is still quite a large building, I think a little under 300,000 sq ft. They also own about another 300,000 sq ft of unrehabbed building at the same address, or at least the assessors site says it's unrehabbed, but it may just be they forgot to update the second structures "remodeled" date.

[RustTown]

I've always wanted to go photograph the site, but I hear they have security, and that's really something I try to avoid. lol Trespassing isn't my forte.

[hood]

They now have a rendering up for the Michigan Resuraunt Association, and for a two story building it looks very nice. It is a classic brick design but appears that it will be quite detailed, If nobody else does I am going to get a picture of it by the end of the week.

[RustTown]

Link?

[hood]

Its on the sign posted at the site, I haven't found any online renderings.

[hood]

A couple of notable things in this Monday's council meeting:

"iv. Z-8-2006; 628 E. Michigan Ave., Petition for rezoning from "H" Light Industrial to "G-1" Business District filed by Fady Inc. to allow conversion of the existing building and proposed second story addition to a mix of office and residential uses"

I wonder if they plan on adding second story to only this small building or the whole strecth of buildigns. I think that either way this will help to further fill in the 600 block of East Michigan, which could really use some work on the south side of the street.

Also this:

"c. Brownfield Redevelopment Plan #26; Hollister Building Redevelopment Project located at 106 W. Allegan St"

Even though its a project know about for awhile, then these things come up for approval, they usually give further details and more importantly a timeline.

[RustTown]

Yeah, the Hollister Building is applying for EVERY brownfield, historic tax credit, tax exemption...it can, so we'll be seeing this one go through approval for a few more months, now.

It's cool that little historic building is going to get a second-story. It's my dream that there will eventually be nothing under 2-stories lining Michigan Avenue from the city border to downtown.

[hood]

While it may be dreaming a little big to hae Michigan Ave redeveloped that extensively, I think that within the next couple years we will see all of the 600 block redeveloped, and before too long I would expect redeverlopment to Pennsylvania.

I was looking at some arials toninght and thinking about the Association Project, and I think I hae a good idea as to it's location. The lot East of Consititution Hall, since it has been stated that the building will be nearby the Capitol and quite large, this is the only possible location that it could be while both strictly meeting that criteria and not having to tear anything down. Besides, I'm almost certain it's a private lot, and if it is that lot it would be great, being that it would help to fill in that huge gap between the Capitol Complex and the rest of downtown.

[RustTown]

Speaking of Michigan Avenue, the city is starting its second phase of installing the historic styled street lights along Michigan, and taking those old overhead one's down. They are finally getting to the "town center" area at Clemens. Before you know it, it will look nice, at night, all the way from the border to downtown as the lighting really does a lot for the feel of the area, at night. It actually really makes it feel more safe.

Yeah, the lot in front of Constitution Hall is a private lot, one I've been waiting to see developed for years, though, I always imagined it mixed-use. Hopefully, it's divided up. I'd hate to see another "block building" like Constitution Hall built there. I've always imaged some very high residential there that would have terrific views of the capitol.

Lastly, it appears that the CSO is wrapping up along westbound East Michigan Avenue in front of the stadium (500 block). They have it all paved back over, so it looks like they'll be coming to the eastbound lanes of East Michigan Avenue before you know it.

[hood]

Yeah, the lot in front of Constitution Hall is a private lot, one I've been waiting to see developed for years, though, I always imagined it mixed-use. Hopefully, it's divided up. I'd hate to see another "block building" like Constitution Hall built there. I've always imaged some very high residential there that would have terrific views of the capitol.

I really don't think residential would be right for that area, anything there would be like an island, and would seem distant from the core. Although I agree that the lot should be divided up rather than have one large building, although I sort of doubt it will work out that way. The best we may hope for is a half block of building and a half block of parking ramp, which may not be so bad if it is of the right scale (i.e. very large building, at least 15 floors.)

[RustTown]

This would be a better place than anywhere else to put some/most of the parking underground for whatever happens to arise there. BTW, we disagree on this, but I really believe the city should start expanding the CBD westward as they've started slightly with adding groundfloor retail when approving the Capitol View office building. This was, after all, a cohesive neighborhood before the state paved over most of the area for surface parking. There should be a connected between east and west downtown.

[hood]

While I would like to see the CBD expand, I think that expanding it this way would be a lost cause, it is already a dead office district. It would be hard to really change the area significantly, especially since the state will not give up any of the land they own. I think the efforts to create residential are best to stay focused on the current CBD, especially Grand Ave, and towards the "Stadium District."

[hood]

The rendering of the Michigan Resturaunt Association Building:

One thing I'm glad to see with this building is that they are going to have the wide sidewalks like Capitol View does.

[RustTown]

Nice! Much better than their last building.

[hood]

I'd have to say I'm pretty impressed with the design, it's not spectacular, but it appears that it will be a high quality building. I was thinking that they might do something really cheap, like that foam with the hardened stuff sprayed over it.