Lansing Off Topic

[RustTown]

BTW, I wrote Kevin Green (Director of the Lansing Principal Shopping District) the other day concerning what Lansing is submitting for the Cool Cities programs, and he told me a few exciting and sad things:

1. Lansing has submitted for the first round of applications at least two proposals, and possibly four. The two most likely to go continue will be a proposal to create (marketing, signage, more attention) an actual "Stadium District" around Oldsmobile Park. Mr. Green informed me that the city has a vision to tie a 9-block area into a single district around the stadium. He did not specify (though I wrote back to ask him), but I would figure this would mean the Cedar/Larch Corridor through downtown Lansing. The second is grants for some project in Old Town he did not reveal. The other two not likely to make it past the first round are extra grants for the Michigan Avenue Rain Garden, and an unspecified project in REO Town.

2. The sad half is that, though, not publicly released, this is the last year of the Cool Cities Initiative, even if Granholm is re-elected, according to Mr. Green. He did not give his source, or even why the Cool Cities Initiative is going to be done away with.

[hood]

Thats too bad that they aren't going to do Cool Cities any more, but creating a Stadium District would be a really cool idea. My dad was just talking last night that about the Embassy Suites that was planned for the site where the stadium is now. I still wish Adado didn't shoot the idea down. It would of been around ten stories and almost filled up the lot. Just to have Embassy Suites, a hotel chain that usually only builds in very popular and large metros, is very impressive, maybe they will come with another proposal.

I personally don't like structures being built right onto rivers, and especially on such a slim piece of land. It's always been my belief that immediate riverfronts (i.e. first block from river) should also be public places in a downtown area. Plus, freeing up that part of the river would create a great sightline down Allegan. I'd really like to see a river over-look (i.e. a grand staircase where people can sit and eat lunch, people watch...), and the River Trail through this area. There aren't many great public spaces in the heart of downtown that could give you what this site could give you.

I love structures being built right up to the river, as they are in GR, I do however like there to be a walk along the riverside of the building, as with the Lansing Center and even the South Grand Ramp (but made freindlier).

[RustTown]

Anyway, I got a reply back saying that this Stadium District's boundaries will be about what I thought they were going to be. It will be Saginaw to the north, the Grand River to the west, Kalamzoo to the south, and the railroad tracks to the east. I wrote back asking him exactly what the grant will be for, you know, if it's just to draft a master plan for this area, or something more tangible such as putting up banners, constructing new streetscapes, and marketing vacant lots for redevelopment.

[RustTown]

lol, been a busy email day. Just got a reply back from Mr. Green saying that Cool Cities funds can only be used for tangible projects that have already been planned and are just waiting on additional funding to get started. Thus, this would mean that it appears that the city must already have something drawn up in terms of streetscaping for the Larch/Cedar Corridor. Mr. Green also alluded to some new signage to mark the district, signage that may be quite different than the current ones pointing to the Stadium, Capitol, Museums...and such. He also said their will be landscaping, as well as streetscaping.

BTW, I've got to get a picture of the city taking the Grand River Avenue Bridge apart in Old Town. It's quite a site. They have two giant cranes on the bridge which you can see all the way from certain places downtown. I walked up the River Trail today and they were working aggresively with other machinery dropping huge chunks of the bridge into the river. lol, at least, that is what it looked like. There may have been a boat or something down there to catch it, but I was south looking from the dam.

[hood]

Are they tearing down those footings that run next to the bridge also?

Also, just a sign of the direction the housing market is headed in around Lansing, there are now 101 homes listed in Lansing that cost $50,000 or less, thats compared to less than 30 for most of the past two years, I think that the most it ever got to be in the pat two years may have been around 50, but it wasn't for long. The number has been steadily rising from about 50 since January. In about a year or so, real estate investors will be buying up numerous properties.

Edited April 7, 2006 by hood

[RustTown]

I'd figure they are. The entire structure dates back to the early 1900's, I believe, and the other footings next to the current bridge are even older, I think.

[fisher191]

those are ice breakers, I am pretty sure that they are being replaced.

I looked at the schematics for the bridge about a month ago, so I'm about 90% positive on that.

I think the new ones will be a little cleaner.

They were necessary to protect the bridge, until the dam was put it, now they are a little redundant, but if they ever remove that dam, they may serve a purpose again.

[statedude3]

EDIT:

Alright, I confirmed this morning it was only an injury.

I dont want to start any rumors, especially since I dont have not been able to verify this. But it is unfortunate if this is true.

Edited April 12, 2006 by statedude3

[hood]

I got bored and made my own idea for a site plan for the Red Cedar golf course. I included the origional, undrawn-on arial, so feel free to make your own if you get time. The thick red lines represent streets, the thin yellow lines represent alleys behind rowhouses, the thin light blue lines represent alleys behind houses, the light green boxed-in areas represent park area and the dark blue boxed-in areas represent buildings with ground floor retail and 1 or more floors of residential above. To be more specific on these, for the rowhouses, I would suggest basically clones of the On The Grand condos in Old Town, those are a good design to put on a street grid. For the houses I suggest high-end 2-3 floor houses on skinny lots, there is an example of a neighborhood in Chicago that made me think of putting houses here, I'm going to try and find the pics of it. For the buildings I would focus on 3-5 story buildings, although 5 stories may be a longshot. they would be in the same general style as stadium district, make them look old and authentic. I also don't think it would be a bad idea for the same developer to buy up all those houses and businesses on Clippert and put matching rowhouses on there from Michigan to Kalamazoo. I think that if all that were done this would be a premier neighborhood and units would sell rather easily, even if they were very high-end.

[hood]

Is anyone going to the Nazi rally tomorrow? I know it's probably not a good idea, but I'm thinking of maybe going.

[RustTown]

I chose at the last minute to make it down there, and ended up staying the whole time. I was at Michigan just in front of the downtown police station and talked with a few people. I was surprised by how many people from out of state came. It was the first protest I'd ever been to.

During the rally there were a few arrest of protestors (I later heard 16 total before the day was out), but there wasn't too many incidents. After the police had sneaked the Neo-Nazis out of downtown most of us joined up with the out-of-state protestors, and we marched up to Riverfront Park, then down Shiawassee all the way to Eastern High School's fieldhouse (where I was told by other's that we had been denied), so we marched down Pennsylvania, and almost back towards the capitol into a thick barrier of police officers stopped up after crossing the Michigan Avenue Bridge. We then went to the Septmeber 11th Memorial at Wentworth Park where some of the "leaders" from out-of-state thanked us for coming. I'd estimate that we there was over 200 of us, or so.

A few times it got scary. Some in the group were trying to find the Nazis after they had cleared the capitol steps, and one of them was found where a few rowdy protestors started to attack him. The police on horseback sent us running down Ottawa toward the Ottawa Street Station. The other arrest I saw were right in front of the police station where the police indiscriminately picked a few protestors out of the crowd on Michigan dragging them to the police station (they had picked up one girl by her feet and shoulders), each of those times, the crowds began to scatter and their was a lot of screaming and confusion, but the protestors regrouped quickly.

Oh, I forgot to say, when we finally ended up at Wentworth Park the police thanked us for keeping the march relatively peaceful. We also got a lot of positive reinforcement from those living on E. Shiawassee, and along Michigan Avenue.

Let me just say, I could go on and on, but it was an...interesting...experience. lol

Edited April 23, 2006 by Lmichigan

[hood]

Nice to see this, now hopefully they can have a more definative plan by the end the year, and begin doing whatever it is they are going to do with the Oliver Towers site. Agreement reached on School for the Blind site

[RustTown]

I was so happy to see this resolved, and I'm glad that I was right that they were going to come to a compromise sooner rather than later. I'm kind of dissapointed they aren't just going to reclad and re-use Oliver Towers and build more around it. If they take the tower down, it's highly unlikely any other low-rises or high-rises are going up on the site. Case-in-point, Gillespies concept for the site only included rowhouses.

[hood]

I think the city should simply hold out on the site. If someone can come up with a very high quality, high impact development for the site, I could accept a five story development, or even a mix of 4-5 floors. I think the best thing for the site would be to build up the block as if it were older, individual 3-6 floor buildings.

[RustTown]

Also, with LCC on the other corner, I expect whatever is built here to have some quality retail on all of the street frontages. They could really milk this site for all its worth. The Grand and Shiawassee is a very busy corner.

I still wonder, though, if the city is still pondering putting up a new city hall on this site? This is one rumor that has not died. Even just a few months ago the former Lansing EDC leader told me that it was still very much a possibility, but the probability of it happening any time soon was low due to us facing bad budget even beyond 2006 as the city shrinks.

[hood]

I think that a new city hall may help the budget, as would a central garage. Although the intitial cost would be high, the savings in repairs, leased space, and by putting everyone under on roof would add up to a lot. I think that for the Oliver towers site the best thing would be to build a new city hall/central precinct/jail all in one big building. This building should take up no more than half the site, and I would prefer it to take up less. The rest of the site could be developed privately, with the same criteria that I mentioned before. When I first heard the idea for a new city hall I thought it was pretty far fetched, but the more i think about it, expecially looking and hearing about the condition of the current city hall, police precincts and the handful of scattered city offices, the idea may work.

[RustTown]

You may be right. The current city hall is really inefficient. I can only imagine how much more they could save in energy cost in the like with a new "green" city hall that wouldn't require as much maintenance and power and...

But, I really don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. I can imagine how angry this would make the regulars if the mayor proposed moving city hall with our current budget. They have whined for much less.

Though, if the mayor can really prove that this will save the city in the long run (a very tough sale), than he may be able to get this through city council. It's something that should be considered. I've been to city hall a few times, and as I've said before, they are so out of space in many departments that there are file cabinents out in the already narrow hallways, not to mention all of the mechanical problems I hear about coming from this building.

[hood]

Like you said it's something the city the should definately take a very close look at and study the exact costs of. They need to compile a report on how much the current city hall costs and how much building a new city hall would save (of course you have to figure in the savings in consolidating precincts and sattelite offices). They would also have to figure in the benefit (other than financial) of the new city hall and the sale of the old one.

[RustTown]

BTW, I was just watching city council and they said something about the Mutual Building being redeveloped. Unfortunately, the city council site hasn't been updated in nearly a month. It sounds like someone else is looking to redeveloped the Mutual Building.

[RustTown]

Also,

Has anyone recently noticed that the Capitol Building has new lighting? It's not on the building (and the dome lights are still turned off after a certain time), but HUGE flood lights have been installed at the top of the Romney Building across from the Capitol (about 3-4 it looks like), and the light the entire grounds just about. It gives the Capitol a very eerie glow. If you watch the WILX at 11 P.M. they often show the capitol and you can see it. I wonder what it's all about?

[hood]

I haven't seen it yet, I guess I'll have to get down there sometime to check it out.

[hood]

Just FYI, the Motor Wheel lofts have 24 units that have already been leased looking at their site. Some are even the more expensive ones, I think that puts it at 20% leased even though completion isn't until August. If units, let alone expensive ones, can lease this quickly we should be looking at more developments in the near future...

Edited April 27, 2006 by hood

[LanCity]

Just FYI, the Motor Wheel lofts have 24 units that have already been leased looking at their site. Some are even the more expensive ones, I think that puts it at 20% leased even though completion isn't until August. If units, let alone expensive ones, can lease this quickly we should be looking at more developments in the near future...

Yep, I think you're right. I think the abundant interest in lofts on washington square, prudden place and motor wheel, the stadium district, and others indicates that the perceived "risk" of putting housing downtown is bunk. We'll see how well printer's row sells considering they've got NEZ and target a much much higher target demographic than probably 95% of the other developments we've got going right now.

I hope to see some of the more stagnant properties downtown get a little action... there are always going to be the prospectors who sit on their hands and wait for development to occur around them so they can pump up the price of their buildings, however, if people are making money hand over fist even those guys might realize how much money they're missing out on by NOT developing.

I think the Coal Storage/Power Station RFP is going to be very very attractive to some big national developers because they'll be able to see that there is plenty of demand for housing downtown. I think the fact that the city can attract 85,000 + people downtown for events like Silver Bells and Common Ground display the fact that people aren't resistant to coming downtown... they just need a reason. That plays into the "entertainment" angle I have envisioned for the powerstation (maybe not on the same scale but I'd love to see something like the re-use of Baltimore's old power station for example)

On that end if we can get enough downtown hotel rooms to start attracting some major conferences (while it was contraversial at least city council got rid of that stupid non-compete clause that radisson handcuffed the city with) so we can get some downtown usership... wouldn't you enjoy coming in from out of town if you had a conference and had the option of entertainment, sports, bars, and shops all within a 2 block radius? I've been to enough out of town conferences to know that Lansing would be particularly unique in proximity to all of these things to its conference center if they could pull it off... now its just a matter of somebody stepping to the plate and making the investment.

[hood]

I've always argued that expanding the Lansing Center and building a new 400+ room hotel downtown was probably the most important thing that can happen, because it makes everything else so much more attractive. As for lofts and apartments, I'm really hoping to see some highrise developments pop up along all those surface lots on Grand, and infill on the handful of empty downtown lots, such as the ones on both sides of the old Masaonic Temple. I think that with all this success in housing that there should be at least a couple of new projects announced this year, hopefully one will be a highrise.

[RustTown]

The whole convention center/hotel issue is a chicken/egg thing. For the Radisson to post increased numbers, more and/or larger conventions need to be found. But, to do that, the Lansing Center has to be significantly expanded.