East Lansing Development

[Palapinga]

If anyone is interested in some current contruction updates...

Stonehouse Village appears to have completed the major brick work, and now it seems that the focus is on the facade of the first floor. There are some pillars on both sides of all the lower level doors that are being cased out with some nicy rock design. Taco Bell looks like it's going to be in the front. A reminder to those that the new Stonehouse Village residents are expected to move in August (when their lease begins). That means the developer must get things under wraps in two months, and by the looks of it, it doesn't seem feasible.

[hood]

I went out taking construction pictures today and here are a few:

Mercantile Bank, the foundation work is moving along and it looks like the MSUFCU HQ will have access right next door onto Coolidge.

The Beaumont, work is moving along quickly.

Rowhouses:

Houses:

Apartments:

Gaslight Village:

[jaredw]

Nice pics hood. It looks like the rowhouses in the Beaumont are more like apartment buildings styled like rowhouses. The way that they will appear to have parking directly infront of them looks kinda bad. I would wish that they would have access from the back with maybe parking in a subfloor beneath the row house. This way the traffic infront of the rowhouses is minimized and the cars are hidden from the view, hopefully making it more pedestrian friendly.

[RustTown]

I was thinking the same thing. While the rowhouse-style may look nice, it looks pretty ridiculous if it doesn't function as one. lol

[hood]

They do have their main garage in back, the parking in front is just paralell parking, I would think just for guests and such.

[jaredw]

Vlahakis is starting some construction (well, probably demolition) at the Evergreen Grill in East Lansing. They have one small backhoe there now, but it looks like they have already started to dig on a small piece of land by Abbott Road. A large dumpster is there too. Hopefully, they will be clearing for the Museum Place. It's just too bad that the Evergreen Grill will be torn down. It was East Lansing's old Post Office and is pretty historical.

[hood]

If the Museum Place was much less significant of a development, I would have a hard time endorsing the razing of historical structures for it, but this is a very large project so I think it's worth it. Be sure to keep us posted, I rarely make it to downtown EL but am always interested in the goings on around there. Anything going by West Village yet? They said everything was in place to begin the project a week or two ago.

[jaredw]

I ride by West Village everyday on my way to work. There hasn't been any movements there yet that I have noticed.

[hood]

Sounds good, I like these infill projects. I just hope they go with a little different architecture than Stonehouse I since they are going to be the same height.

Is there a way for me to add things to the map? If not, please add the Mutual Building (208 N Capitol), BioPort Expansion (MLK & Sheridan) and LCC's University Center (Shiwassee & Capitol).

[RustTown]

Good news! Though, East Lansing needs to just completely drop the height limit in all of downtown instead of doing it by project.

[jaredw]

^^^ I don't think they were talking about a height restriction, I think they were talking about the same thing that Matt Fisher had mentioned. After you have floors higher than 55', the costs skyrocket.

Which means that if a developer is going to go higher than 55', they might as well add FIVE stories to the development instead of just one to pass the barrier.

Hood: I'll open up the map so you can edit it. Here is a website with information on how to update it. http://www.schwen.de/wiki/GMap/Docs

[JazperG]

does anyone have a pic of what campus village II is gonna look like? Also, is stonehouse village II extending to tha parking area behind the cottage inn? they should look to building where the taco bell because thats another large empty propertyy. east lansing's downtown is really expanding and getting more active it seems.

[jaredw]

I don't think they are far enough in the development stage for a rendering yet. I believe they are not going to have the building expand in to the parking lot, because there is a public alleyway behind Cottage Inn.

Eventually, you will see a development go up on that parking lot, Lot 7, now that the city has acquired the fraternity house behind Taco Bell. They plan on tearing down the frat house and expanding the parking lot behind MSUFCU all the way to Bailey. This will bring more parking spaces inline for a building at the corner of Bailey and Albert.

I could expect a proposal for the Taco Bell lot in the future, but I think it will be Spring 2007 when you start hearing about it, at the earliest.

There are a lot of developments going up around East Lansing. Some are under the radar, in terms of this forum, for example the Pot Belly Sandwich Works which is moving in to the corner of MAC and Grand River and a healthy eating restuarant on MAC just a couple doors down from Pot Belly. I will try to post pics on it. But keep in mind, that when businesses are moving to East Lansing, it is usually just turn around from businesses that have failed before. Hopefully larger developments like West Village, Museum Place, and East Village will start to pop up in the news soon.

[RustTown]

^^^ I don't think they were talking about a height restriction, I think they were talking about the same thing that Matt Fisher had mentioned. After you have floors higher than 55', the costs skyrocket.

Which means that if a developer is going to go higher than 55', they might as well add FIVE stories to the development instead of just one to pass the barrier.

Hood: I'll open up the map so you can edit it. Here is a website with information on how to update it. http://www.schwen.de/wiki/GMap/Docs

Yeah, I actually didn't get around to reading the article later, so I spoke to soon.

Question, though, does anyone know if East Lansing still has (or ever had) any formal height restrictions on the books, or was it always a "gentlemen's agreement" where the city and developers just agreed to not go taller in downtown? I was under the impression that there has always been a height restriction downtown so as not to create an overpowering skyline across from MSU.

[jaredw]

I think you are correct, and that there is a height restriction of eight floors. It seems like depending on who you are though, the city will relax the height restrictions.

[RustTown]

I thought it was four stories along Grand River.

[jaredw]

You may be right about Grand River, although they are letting Museum Place go higher than that. Also, I wanted to correct myself. After rereading the article, I noticed that they did talk about two seperate developments. Stonehouse Village 2 would have first floor commercial and nine two-bedroom units. A development on Lot 7 will have 3 one-bedroom units and 33 two-bedroom units.

[statedude3]

Jared, when is Museum Place supposed to get under way? I have heard next to nothing about this, other than one article a while back in the State News.

[jaredw]

From what I have heard, they should be demo for the Museum Place in the fall, but the construction of the building seems still a ways off.

[JazperG]

Anyone know of any new business/eating joints coming to downtown East Lansing? I saw a while someone wrote PotBelly's is moving to M.A.C. which is pretty solid.

[jaredw]

Yeah, Potbelly's is coming to the corner of MAC and Grand River. There is a healthy eating store two doors down that is moving in. B-Tan moved down the street from the corner of MAC and Grand River, to make room for Potbelly's. Taco Bell is not new, but should be moving across the street in a couple months. I think that about sums it up. Just Potbelly's and the other one on MAC are the new ones.

[Michi]

I ate at the Chipotle a few days ago when I was in town for a workshop. I was impressed with the trendy store, but I like Qdoba better. The margaritas are good at Chip though.

[jaredw]

Some items on the agenda for Tuesday's council meeting:

Consideration of Brownfield Plan Amendment #7 for the Campus Village II

(1231 Michigan Avenue) Project.

Authorize the City Manager to sign a contract with Cross Lake Construction,

Inc. in the amount of $152,005.05 for the construction of the Cool Cities

Plazas and Ledebuhr Fountain. Also, approval of change order #1 which

reduces the total contract amount to $107,954.05. This contract will be

funded by the Cool Cities grant and an Envision East Lansing Donation from

the Ledebuhr Family.

Introduce and set for public hearing August 1, 2006, Ordinance No. 1151, an

ordinance to provide for a service charge in lieu of taxes for Easthaven Manor

Apartments senior housing project.

Further consideration of Ordinance No. 1136 to rezone two vacant lots at the

southwest corner of East Saginaw and White Pond from the R-3 Single

Family Residential District to the B-1 General Office Business District; and

site plan approval to redevelop the properties at 250, 260 and 280 East

Saginaw and the two lots to be rezoned above with a partial two-story,

23,000 sq. ft. medical office building. These applications were referred back

to the Commission for further review and recommendation by the City

Council. The applicant has submitted an alternative site plan to develop the

same building and 96 parking spaces on the portion of the site already zoned

within the B-1 District and therefore would not require consideration of

Ordinance No. 1136 and rezoning of the two vacant lots.

-------

It will be cool to see what the plazas and fountain will look like when they are finished. I believe they will be using the corner lot at Hagadorn and Grand River, which the Ledebuhrs donated. I think the Easthaven Manor Apartments are the ones being built on Haslett Road near Hagadorn. If that is what they are called, then they are a three story development with two buildings. It's a 55+ community. It would be nice to see a rendering of the office building on Saginaw. The owner bought up two buildings and two vacant lots, a pretty large chunk on Saginaw by Abbott Road.

[statedude3]

I just lost all respect for Stonehouse Village this morning, after seeing an ugly shade of yellow over the entrance. I was hoping it was not perminant, but upon further inspection it looks like the final product.

sorry, no pictures.

[jaredw]

I was wrong about which corner lot they would be using to install a fountain on. It will be the corner of Abbott and Albert.

Statedude, they could be waiting to put a Taco Bell sign up, covering the yellow.