In order to move forward after getting approval from the council, the project will also need approval from the Lansing Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
LANSING — The Red Cedar project has cleared another hurdle.
The Lansing City Council unanimously approved a purchase and development agreement with the developers of the proposed $242 million project on the former Red Cedar Golf Course bordering East Lansing.
The city first approved a development and purchase agreement with developers Joel Ferguson and Frank Kass in late 2014. The developers submitted an amended purchase agreement for a scaled-back project proposal earlier this year.
And the reminder of what remains to be done and the tentativel timeline to begin construction.
The project would include at least 200 apartments, more than 1,200 beds of student housing as well as an assisted living and memory-care facility. Plans also call for two hotels, a public park, restaurants, retail space and a public amphitheater.
The project still needs approval from the Lansing Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the Michigan Economic Development Corp in order to move forward.
Construction on the site could start as early as spring 2019.
Nothing seems to have changed about the timeline, but the lawsuit against this project's partners and city officials by a disgruntled former partner has been dropped. I don't believe this ever effected the developer's timeline, but it's always good to not have a cloud over you.
LANSING – A federal judge has found no merit to claims of illegal business dealings between city officials and developers Joel Ferguson and Frank Kass as part of a project to redevelop the former Red Cedar golf course.
U.S. District Judge Janet T. Neff sided with Ferguson, Kass and Lansing economic development officials Friday when she dismissed all claims that had been filed two years ago by Ferguson's former business partners.
"I lost not a minute of sleep about this frivolous lawsuit because I knew our team had done nothing wrong and was acting in the best interest of taxpayers," former Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero said in a statement Friday. Bernero was one of 13 people and entities named as defendants in the lawsuit.
The Journal again says that the developer is seeking approval from the Lansing Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the Michigan Economic Development Corp. to make this work. For some reason, I thought that the development agreement approved by the council in July also came with the brownfield, but I guess it didn't. I wonder, then, when we'll see them bring their brownfield plan to council if they hope to get shovels in the ground by next spring? The two State organizations they go through are a bit out of their hands, as they usually meet once a month. That leaves them, really, about six months to do all of this.
Yuck, just glancing through this thread highlights all the problems with this project....
I was ranting about this project in another thread, I'll copy those comments here below and continue with some other thoughts after that....
"(the Red Cedar concept is so weak that 6 years in there's been literally zero progress made). Everyone's lawyered up....it's gonna end in disaster and embarrassment for our region. People need to be thinking about plan b.....which needs to become plan A and it's this: 1) Ingham County acquires and develops Red Cedar as world class public park in the center of our region. 2) Frandor redevelops into a dense urban neighborhood better than any other in the region (this will happen naturally, through market forces).
This needs to be the new course of action. I will repeatedly say that the Red Cedar project is 1) a joke 2) a waste of tax payer money 3) short-sited and small minded 4) unrightfully taking a huge amount of public land away from the public and putting it in the hands of incompetent and heartless/brainless developers."
Okay, I will stop putting down the Red Cedar project .....if it moves forward I will root for it's success. I don't think it's the worst thing in the world. It would be kind of nice to have tall buildings on both sides of Michigan Ave.
But!!! Imagine if the Frandor side, Dunhams, the car lots to the east and the entire Clippert side were built up and all surrounding a giant awesome public park with amazing trails, water features (from Drain work), topography, new trees!!!, giant playground, lighted soccer fields, meadow w/ maze design, basketball, horseshoes, beach volleyball towards the MSU end, riverwalk trail extension taking you more directly into the heart of East Lansing and Frandor (the new city within a city), an already existing lighted baseball diamond (the best place ever to watch baseball, in my opinion), existing playground, comfort station, etc. There's probably a full mile of riverfront connected to a large forest preserve. You could have ice skating in the winter, sledding, cross country ski rental, snowshooing. There's already a skateboard park, sledding hill and softball stadium in the Ranney Park area - this park campus could be a world-renowned feature for Lansing metro. Over time a small indoor interactive museum could be added (Detroit has a great MDNR-operated Outdoor Adventure Center -- it features indoor recreations of outdoor sites and experiences of Michigan -- kids love it and it's a great place for families to go in the winter).
I think the city should rescind or buy back the land from the developers (who will be relieved to be off the hook with this project), gift it to Ingham County for operations, and then sponsor a national design competition for the park. This will produce a great and exciting concept design, renderings etc. Use this to solicit funds from donors all over Michigan who will want to get their names on this. This $100 million to $1 billion dollar project could easily be funded this way. This is how things work these days - public private partnerships. This site deserves the best - it deserves both public and private financial support - and it NEEDS to be serving the larger public. I personally think this is a much more noble, forward thinking long-term, smarter, more generous use of valuable public land than developing it into a freeway exit hotel complex with some medical offices and underground parking in a f*cking FLOODPLAIN!!! WTF
Okay, and give the Red Cedar developers a juicy parcel for a hotel right on the edge of the park......in return for their time and efforts and costs on this going-nowhere project. But at the same time force them to plant 300 trees in the park (2.5" - 4" calliper) in return for chopping down healthy mature trees.
And then make sure the 300 new trees align with the park masterplan. The park could (and should) get built out in phases over 5-10 years. This is how central park happened. Think of this as Lansing's central park, because it is.
I love it. You're thinking too small though. That area is just the norther tier of a much larger park complex that includes Fenner, Crego, Potter, Scott Woods, Sycamore Creek, the cemeteries...hell, even as far south as Hawk Island. If they could be tied together, under the highway and around water treatment you would have something that would dwarf Central Park.
The great thing is that so many amenities and attactions are already in place (zoo, golf course, nature center, splash pad, swimming lake, etc...). It just needs connection and cohesion.
It would tie MSU to the Southside and REO\downtown - areas that would absolutely thrive with greater connectivity.
It'd be a gargantuan project - that I'm sure the money will never be there for - but we could turn that whole area in to a natural artery running through the Lansing area.
Comments
Looks like the council approved setting a public hearing for July 9 for the amended development deal, last night. The next steps:
It looks like things are rolling towards shovels in the dirt! "no jinx!"
The council finally approved the development and pruchase agreement for this project, tonight.
And the reminder of what remains to be done and the tentativel timeline to begin construction.
Nothing seems to have changed about the timeline, but the lawsuit against this project's partners and city officials by a disgruntled former partner has been dropped. I don't believe this ever effected the developer's timeline, but it's always good to not have a cloud over you.
The Journal again says that the developer is seeking approval from the Lansing Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the Michigan Economic Development Corp. to make this work. For some reason, I thought that the development agreement approved by the council in July also came with the brownfield, but I guess it didn't. I wonder, then, when we'll see them bring their brownfield plan to council if they hope to get shovels in the ground by next spring? The two State organizations they go through are a bit out of their hands, as they usually meet once a month. That leaves them, really, about six months to do all of this.
Well, I'd love to see this project moving forward again. Here's hoping for spring of 2019!
Yuck, just glancing through this thread highlights all the problems with this project....
I was ranting about this project in another thread, I'll copy those comments here below and continue with some other thoughts after that....
"(the Red Cedar concept is so weak that 6 years in there's been literally zero progress made). Everyone's lawyered up....it's gonna end in disaster and embarrassment for our region. People need to be thinking about plan b.....which needs to become plan A and it's this: 1) Ingham County acquires and develops Red Cedar as world class public park in the center of our region. 2) Frandor redevelops into a dense urban neighborhood better than any other in the region (this will happen naturally, through market forces).
This needs to be the new course of action. I will repeatedly say that the Red Cedar project is 1) a joke 2) a waste of tax payer money 3) short-sited and small minded 4) unrightfully taking a huge amount of public land away from the public and putting it in the hands of incompetent and heartless/brainless developers."
Okay, I will stop putting down the Red Cedar project .....if it moves forward I will root for it's success. I don't think it's the worst thing in the world. It would be kind of nice to have tall buildings on both sides of Michigan Ave.
But!!! Imagine if the Frandor side, Dunhams, the car lots to the east and the entire Clippert side were built up and all surrounding a giant awesome public park with amazing trails, water features (from Drain work), topography, new trees!!!, giant playground, lighted soccer fields, meadow w/ maze design, basketball, horseshoes, beach volleyball towards the MSU end, riverwalk trail extension taking you more directly into the heart of East Lansing and Frandor (the new city within a city), an already existing lighted baseball diamond (the best place ever to watch baseball, in my opinion), existing playground, comfort station, etc. There's probably a full mile of riverfront connected to a large forest preserve. You could have ice skating in the winter, sledding, cross country ski rental, snowshooing. There's already a skateboard park, sledding hill and softball stadium in the Ranney Park area - this park campus could be a world-renowned feature for Lansing metro. Over time a small indoor interactive museum could be added (Detroit has a great MDNR-operated Outdoor Adventure Center -- it features indoor recreations of outdoor sites and experiences of Michigan -- kids love it and it's a great place for families to go in the winter).
I think the city should rescind or buy back the land from the developers (who will be relieved to be off the hook with this project), gift it to Ingham County for operations, and then sponsor a national design competition for the park. This will produce a great and exciting concept design, renderings etc. Use this to solicit funds from donors all over Michigan who will want to get their names on this. This $100 million to $1 billion dollar project could easily be funded this way. This is how things work these days - public private partnerships. This site deserves the best - it deserves both public and private financial support - and it NEEDS to be serving the larger public. I personally think this is a much more noble, forward thinking long-term, smarter, more generous use of valuable public land than developing it into a freeway exit hotel complex with some medical offices and underground parking in a f*cking FLOODPLAIN!!! WTF
....just my thoughts on it
Definitely curious what others think
Okay, and give the Red Cedar developers a juicy parcel for a hotel right on the edge of the park......in return for their time and efforts and costs on this going-nowhere project. But at the same time force them to plant 300 trees in the park (2.5" - 4" calliper) in return for chopping down healthy mature trees.
And then make sure the 300 new trees align with the park masterplan. The park could (and should) get built out in phases over 5-10 years. This is how central park happened. Think of this as Lansing's central park, because it is.
I love it. You're thinking too small though. That area is just the norther tier of a much larger park complex that includes Fenner, Crego, Potter, Scott Woods, Sycamore Creek, the cemeteries...hell, even as far south as Hawk Island. If they could be tied together, under the highway and around water treatment you would have something that would dwarf Central Park.
The great thing is that so many amenities and attactions are already in place (zoo, golf course, nature center, splash pad, swimming lake, etc...). It just needs connection and cohesion.
It would tie MSU to the Southside and REO\downtown - areas that would absolutely thrive with greater connectivity.
It'd be a gargantuan project - that I'm sure the money will never be there for - but we could turn that whole area in to a natural artery running through the Lansing area.