East Lansing Development

[hood]

Once again pictures are appreciated since I have a hard time making it out to EL, and I'm still interested in the development there. I'm especially interested in Gaslight Village, I went by there the other day and couldn't see where the 3 story building was going up, is it on Lake Lansing or another street?

[jaredw]

The gaslight village building is going up on Abbott Road, about a block north of Lake Lansing. I will try to get pictures on Thursday.

[Palapinga]

Downtown East Lansing would benefit greatly if they were to add some things:

1.) A grocery market somewhere around Abbott and Albert, which would provide fresh foods in an elegant setting but remain low cost.

2.) If the plans for City Center II fell through, why not build a two-story Target like they do in some other states. As an MSU student who has discussed this with many others, Target would do incredible business because it's cheap and affordable for anything, also because the nearest one is on the other side of the mall in Okemos, which is too far away for MSU students. Just build an underground parking unit adjacent to the lot.

3.) Traveling down Abbott road from Saginaw into downtown is not a very attractive drive. I cannot believe, especially with all the projects around Lake Lansing Rd that the city doesn't want to spruce up the area going into downtown, to make it more attractive for incoming vehicles. They could add decorative lighting and streetscapes that could very well broaden the appeal for new residents of East Lansing. It's rather dreary.

4.) a restaurant like Outback steakhouse would be great to have in downtown, which would increase the possibilities for families to visit the downtown

5.) Repaint the Hamster Cage to Green and White or some pleasant solid color. What an awful awful eyesore to the city!

If anyone else has any good ideas, post them.

[hood]

I think the biggest key for EL's downtown is for the city council to stop pestering developers over petty things and stop forcing lower heights. Other than that I think that EL is moving in the right direction.

[RustTown]

Speaking of East Lansing development, it looks like the Stonehouse Village (or whatever is called) is up to its third floor. I don't know why, but it's much taller than I expected.

[jaredw]

2.) If the plans for City Center II fell through, why not build a two-story Target like they do in some other states. As an MSU student who has discussed this with many others, Target would do incredible business because it's cheap and affordable for anything, also because the nearest one is on the other side of the mall in Okemos, which is too far away for MSU students. Just build an underground parking unit adjacent to the lot.

Is this true that the City Center II fell through or are you speculating?

[RustTown]

Who said that the proposal for City Center II is dead?

[hood]

You probably won't hear anything new on City Center II until the end of the year/beginning of '07. They said back in like Januaruy or February that they were coming up with the plans for the 10 story version and that it would be 12 months before they would be done.

[RustTown]

Can an East Lansing forumer get a shot of the Stonehouse Village construction? It looks topped out. It also fits really well at that corner, and kind of creates the same effect as the three story low-rise (the one with Blockbuster at the Collingwood Entrance, I think) a block away. The first floors is MUCH taller than I'd expected it to be. It looks nearly the height of two full floors.

[jaredw]

Yeah, I will get a picture real soon of the Stonehouse Village.

Also, today while on my way back to campus I noticed that the apartment building on Evergreen looks finished, at least from the outside. You may remember reading in the news a while back about a house that caught on fire on Evergreen in East Lansing. The owner, either Scott Chapelle or Hagan Realty, rebuilt the property in to a three story apartment building. The property is located across from People's Church in the back.

[RustTown]

Hmm...I don't remember hearing about that, but that is welcomed news to hear such good things come from something bad. I do notice the name, though, of Scott Chapelle, but can't quite place it on other projects he's done in the area.

[jaredw]

Scott Chapelle is the developer for the City Center II and also was the developer for The Pointe development at Saginaw and Coolidge. He has many large scale developments. http://www.strathmoredev.com/

[jaredw]

Here are some pictures I took today with my camera phone. I plan on bringing my digital camera with me to get better pictures, but these should suffice for now.

Stonehouse Village. You can see the Taco Bell in front of the building. The building has four floors in the front and five floors as the building goes down the road. In other words, the commercial section takes up two floors.

The MSU parking garage. This view is from Campus on Circle Dr.

The apartment building that I was talking about a couple posts earlier.

A vacant lot on Oakhill from another house that burned down. This property has a proposal for a three story apartment building also.

[RustTown]

Cool! Thanks.

[hood]

Stonehouse village does look a lot taller than I thought it would, I can't wait to see what happens with the Taco Bell site. I'm also suprised at how large the new parking ramp is, it looks pretty impressive. Isn't it supposed to get a pitched roof also.

[statedude3]

Stonehouse village does look a lot taller than I thought it would, I can't wait to see what happens with the Taco Bell site. I'm also suprised at how large the new parking ramp is, it looks pretty impressive. Isn't it supposed to get a pitched roof also.

I saw a rendering with both a pitched roof and an open top parking deck. I'm not sure what it's going to have.

, I'm spending my afternoon photographing campus. I'll post my tour in the photo thread later today.

[hood]

Wolverine, do you think we can get this topic pinned, being it's an overall EL development topic?

[jaredw]

Here is a photo update from my digital camera. Photos were taken today, 04/19/06

Stonehouse Village:

Apartment building on Evergreen:

View from the other side of the vacant lot on Oakhill. The hole in the properties in the middle of the picture is the lot:

The construction at Homer and Saginaw. The building doesn't take up that much of the lot at all. If you look closely, you can see the wall on the left is under the arm of the backhoe:

[hood]

Lmich, do you think that Stonehouse village is worth putting it on Emporis? I emailed the developer and the architect a couple times trying to get the height, but I had no luck. BTW, I'm suprised that they are even allowed to build the top 3 floors out of wood, their being pretty cheap about this. It must be aimed at students.

[RustTown]

I was thinking that the other day. If you can get me the start and completion dates, and some other info, that would be great. I tried to find minutes on the city website, but don't exactly know when the most recent proposal was proposed. From what I've been hearing, this has been a proposal (in a different form) since 1998

[hood]

I think it was started late last year, does anyone know for sure?

[kissinger]

Lmich, do you think that Stonehouse village is worth putting it on Emporis? I emailed the developer and the architect a couple times trying to get the height, but I had no luck. BTW, I'm suprised that they are even allowed to build the top 3 floors out of wood, their being pretty cheap about this. It must be aimed at students.

[kissinger]

Stonehouse is going to be four stories tall. I have talked to the architect and the top three stories that are framed will be bricked. The building has gone through many designs. The whole building at one time was to be bricked very similar to the building that holds blockbuster next door. I have also seen floorplans for the apartments above the retail space and I do believe it is targeted towards college students. I am not a big fan of the split face block at street level myself.

[hood]

If you have a contact with the architect can you ask him what the height of the building will be in feet? Both to the roof and to the highest structural point, also the square footage would be nice.

[kissinger]

Stonehouse will be 55' tall and actually be five stories. Fun fact as well. According to the print there is a taco bell sign drawn over the front door. The front half of the building is for retail. The back and the remaining upper floors are all apartments. I will have a unit count and square ft count for everyone tomorrow.