Has the city completed the sale of the property to the developers yet? I imagine that would (or should) happen before site prep starts, but I haven't seen any mention of it.
I was by this site Sunday and was happy to see that the site preparation work has begun! That is so great to see, for years I have been looking at this site trying to imagine buildings filling up that space. Kind of funny to be excited about seeing some piles of dirt.
I also read an article in the LSJ [paper version] from last Sunday at the library about the drain project, and I believe it said that the funding is in place and this will be getting underway in coordination with the Red Cedar project. This will really be something to see!
The LSJ reported that the sale finally closed on Friday. Does anyone know if the developers were making any sort of payments to the city during while their sale was pending? It would be kinda crazy to exclusively hold the land for the developers for so long rent-free.
It'd be crazy, but certainly not unusual, for them to not have paid the city anything. It's actually kind of par for the course. I remember Bedrock having squatted for years - given extension after extension - on the Hudson site in downtown Detroit before they finally started moving dirt at the end of 2017. It's probably more true at the beginning of this decade and back to the last that this happened, but it was pretty common for city's desperate for development letting developers run their own timelines, particularly when on a project where the size meant that there was only a local developer or two would could even conceivably develop the land.
I heard today on the 1180-AM radio local news that there will be an official groundbreaking ceremony today at the site! The report also mentioned that the developers were hoping to have it built, in one year. I was surprised to hear that, and that could be incorrect as sometimes the reports on this station get the numbers wrong. Or perhaps they are really going to be working on this project 24/7 and that this is what they are hoping. That would be cool to see this project being finished up a year from now.
As much as I am thrilled this project is up and running, I desperately hope that it does not interfere with traffic on Mich Ave. All that sewer work further up the road in East Lansing has been a real pain this year!
This is the infrastructure phrase of the project. It would be nearly logistically impossible in this region to finish all that is planned within a year. They've got to do all kinds of infrastructure work before they can even think about building on top of the floodway.
Yea! So good to see this event! I was thinking as well, the reporter misspoke when he said the want to finnish in one year I'm sure it will take at least 24 months. It would be good if they repaved all of E. Kalamazoo to make it a good alternative route for E. Michigan Ave which I'm sure will have construction delays. There are a couple of good EL to Lansing routes that one can take to avoid this area. Now that much of Mt Hope has been repaved it is a pleasant drive out to East Lansing.
I had a wow moment when I drove past this site yesterday! They are really moving a lot of dirt right now, digging out the area for the lake and for the water to flow under the building. I'm feeling like this is going to be a beautiful development if you judge by what they are going through to build on this site, I'm hoping the buildings on top will be worthy of the site.
They have quite a large lake going on at this site! It proves the water table is right there! It is going to be so great to see this project finished, with the water features, if they do it well, this development will be really beautiful. Right now I think one could ice skate out there the ice looked like it would be thick enough soon.
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I also read an article in the LSJ [paper version] from last Sunday at the library about the drain project, and I believe it said that the funding is in place and this will be getting underway in coordination with the Red Cedar project. This will really be something to see!
https://twitter.com/SteveJapinga/status/1182374736388644868