I've been expecting to hearsome official word on a new Eastwood development for awhile. I'm fairly confident that this project will happen, even if it may be awhile before we see it get underway.

I don't think this development will have much of an affect on any of our urban centers. It will probably have much more of an impact on the malls and the suburban retail corridors.

After reading this article in today's edition, I'm more convinced than ever this project shouldn't be built.

$85 million plan puts shops, hotel near Eastwood
Lansing Township proposes new development adding restaurants, condos and a parking ramp

Melissa Domsic • mdomsic@lsj.com • October 21, 2009 • From Lansing State Journal

LANSING TWP. - An $85 million development plan adjacent to Eastwood Town Center is poised to bring more diners and shoppers to the area near Lake Lansing Road and U.S. 127.

Plans are in the works for a 15-acre mixed-use development on vacant land along Preyde Boulevard east of NCG Eastwood Cinemas and north of the Champps Americana restaurant. Those plans call for a collection of restaurants, shops, condos, a boutique hotel and a parking ramp.

The Lansing Township Downtown Development Authority hopes to receive $29 million in Recovery Zone Bonds - federal stimulus package money - and start construction in spring 2010.

The DDA would build the parking structure and some commercial space at a cost of roughly $21 million to $25 million, but it's seeking a private developer for the rest of the project.

The DDA's portion would be funded partly through a special assessment levied on the existing and future commercial properties that would use the parking structure.

"The DDA's role is to encourage economic development at a level above what the private market would support," Executive Director Steve Hayward said.
New jobs

Altogether, the development should create 200 to 300 jobs, Hayward said. But at least one retail expert questioned the wisdom of embarking on such an ambitious plan now.

Pat Huddleston, retailing professor at Michigan State University, said she's surprised the DDA is planning an expansion in the midst of a recession.

On the other hand, she said, this could be a good opportunity to lock in lower construction costs.

"I'm not sure that it's needed, but it's possible that it could be viable if they bring in retailing and dining options that aren't already present in the Lansing area," Huddleston said.

Eastwood Towne Center opened in September 2002 at Lake Lansing Road just west of U.S. 127. It's 95 percent occupied and is made up of about 40 stores, several restaurants and a movie theater. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and its Sam's Club subsidiary opened stores west of the center in August 2004.
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The planned expansion is not affiliated with Eastwood, which is owned by Inland US Management LLC.

Multi-use space

The DDA's plans call for more than 100,000 square feet of mixed-use commercial space and a 926- to 1,285-space parking structure that would span both sides of Preyde Boulevard. Two 12- to 15-story towers would be constructed on top of the parking deck.

One tower would house a boutique hotel, residential rental units, owner-occupied condominiums and penthouses. The other would hold 140,000 to 200,000 square feet of office space.

The the rest of the article can be found here:
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20091021/NEWS01/910210324

I'm not too sure about condos either, I would imagine that this development would be better for student oriented housing and some middle to high end apartments. It's hard to say how well the residential portion of this project will go, although I'm sure that the retail, restraunt, and hotel portions of the project should be quite successfull.

While I'd love to see this focus and money go to the downtown core, I am cautiously optimistic about this. I always wished that they put in a floor or two of condos and apartments over the retail in Eastwood. If anyone here is familiar with Crocker Park in Cleveland, something a bit like that. I feel like this might build up the area a little more, so it's less sprawl and more multi-layered, if that makes any sense. While I think the downtown should be the focus, I do think that we shouldn't ignore the fringe areas. Eastwood is an important retail area and the anchor of the northern tier and I don't think we should throw all our energy into downtown at the expense of other areas. I think chain restaurants and the type of retail this project will attract is better suited to urbanized suburbs anyway. I don't think any of us expects a Cheesecake Factory to go into downtown, but something like that would really do great at Eastwood. I agree with hood though - I imagine they will end up renting most units to students and young professionals. I doubt a lot of people will buy condos there - except to rent them out.

Again, to be clear, the only thing imminently planned, at the moment, is one level of parking above some speculative retail/commercial space. The township is seeking practically ALL of Ingham County's alloted stimulus bonds to build this. The rest of the plan is completely speculative, which the township supervisor even alludes to in the article that ran in the Journal, today.

Again, this story was released purely to try and out-wrangle Accident Fund for the available stimulus bonds. The county has a total of $29 million to dole out. The township is seeking $21 to $25 million of those for Eastwood's parking garage, and Accident Fund is seeking $16.2 million for its project for its parking garage. They decided to release the speculative plans, today, to make a stronger case for their bid, but I don't buy it.

What should happen is that Accident Fund is granted the $16.2 million it needs to help it with its parking garage, and the rest could go to Lansing Township, and force them to come up with the rest of the money they need for their speculative project. This is yet another example of a township wanting to be treated on equal funding as an incorporated city. They want to have their cake and eat it to. They know that as a township they can only raise a fraction in taxes what a city can. Well, boo-effin-hoo. Incorporate, then, and maybe you'll have the more of your own money to put towards these boondoggles.

Everyone seems to be stuck on debating the possible planning merits of the plan when the real issue, here, and other meta issues, which isn't a bad thing, but this is really another example of a township wanting to have the best of both worlds: wanting city-level amenities without incorporating.

The Eyde's are rich, right? If Lansing Township and corporation really believes in the merits of this project, they'll do what Lansing did with Accident Fund's request for a garage: ask them to front half the money for the parking ramp and bond the rest of it out.

Has anyone heard when they will announce which project(s) are getting the bond money?

Like I said before, if there was some way to know for sure that they'd build a MULTI-level parking garage and two 12-15 story towers and had an anchor tenent or two, I would be very much more in support of this project. So in that sense I agree with jwswrites. But currently all that is actually proposed is a one-level parking ramp and that's hard for me to get behind funding as a taxpayer on that alone. Add to that the fact that is in direct competition to the AF multi-level ramp that's part of the most significant project in the entire region in my opinion and I really can't support a one-level ramp by itself. So in that sense I also agree with MM. I do think suburbs are important for longterm MAJOR growth (as much as I don't like them), but if I have to choose between two projects, I always go with city center. My reason is simple, there are a million cookie cutter nice suburbs, but there are far fewer urban city centers out there to live in. So the city center (along with E. Lansing's college town vibe) is what makes mid-michigan stand-out from all those suburb options and therefore that's where we should be focusing our projects. However, as I said, to truly compete for all major businesses to have a larger pool of potential companies, some of which just aren't going to want to completely leave the suburb lifestyle, we do need good suburbs.

Lansing Township recovery bonds approval expected

I think its good that they were able to have money for this project and the Accident Fund ramp. Eastwood is certainly developing into a very nice area and it will offer an impressive gateway into Lansing for those coming from the north.