Of those proposals, I'd definitely pick Jerome-Ferguson, though, all seem a bit underwhelming. There are a few things I know I don't want at the site: I don't want student-only housing for the entire project, and I will not tolerate ANY kind of surface lot fronting Michigan Avenue, so that eliminated at least two of them right off the bat. And, it doesn't even look like Plante Moran actually submitted an actual proposal unless I skipped over it, somewhere. I like that Jerome-Ferguson seems to be the only ones that recognized this land as a part of great Frandor and seek to spread the development across Michigan Avenue, which is absolutely necessary. It doesn't hurt that they are local guys, either, and it shows in the attention they gave to the specific site.
Looks like after some delays we're getting some concrete work towards getting this done. The drain commissioner is having soil tests done on the site, this week. This is only really part of his part of the project (figuring out how to keep this project environmentally viable given that it sits in an obvious flood plain), but it also makes it so that the developers can move forward with their part of the project, too.
The LSJ had a long piece, today, on the development happening along Michigan Avenue, particularly the stretch east of US-127 around Frandor. Not much new was said, but I was shocked to hear that Gillespie actually owns the Sears store building at Frandor. I had idea he'd bought this and I don't think it was ever reported.
There is a news conference happening today to announce more details about this development. Without hearing anything yet, this is great news as it is another step towards the start of the project.
The city will team with the Lansing-based Ferguson Development Group, which is led by Joel Ferguson, and Columbus, Ohio-based Continental Real Estate to revitalize the former Red Cedar Golf Club along the border of Lansing and East Lansing.
The $125 million project, to be funded by the two developers, will be a mixed use development combining residential and retail. It will break ground by next spring, developers say.
I hope that when they say "next spring" they are talking about spring 2014. If that's the case then they'll break ground well before East Lansing's Park District project.
It would be great to see work that soon, although it's unclear what kind of work will be starting. I doubt that there will be work on buildings starting that soon, but who knows, it will be a phased project after all.
Looks like with the exit of the Jeromes, the preliminary site plan has been changed a bit:
I like this plan quite a bit more than the previous one (seems like there are more multi-family buildings and just bigger buildings, in general), as Michigan gets a nice streewall treatment. But, I'm surprised there isn't one parking garage, particularly given that this project is mostly to pay for the environmental remediation of the land to reduce run-off into the Red Cedar. There really needs to be less surface parking. Still, the plan seems to be getting better, at least in terms of its layout.
EDIT: Looks like they took down the website. That was quick.
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I hope that when they say "next spring" they are talking about spring 2014. If that's the case then they'll break ground well before East Lansing's Park District project.
Anyway, looking foward to seeing the renderings, though, I do wonder what happened to the Jeromes in all of this.
BTW, can we get the thread title changed? The project is now Red Cedar Renaissance.
I like this plan quite a bit more than the previous one (seems like there are more multi-family buildings and just bigger buildings, in general), as Michigan gets a nice streewall treatment. But, I'm surprised there isn't one parking garage, particularly given that this project is mostly to pay for the environmental remediation of the land to reduce run-off into the Red Cedar. There really needs to be less surface parking. Still, the plan seems to be getting better, at least in terms of its layout.
EDIT: Looks like they took down the website. That was quick.