The Outfield

hood

The Outfield is a four floor mixed use development built by Gillespie Group, the plan takes the place of his earlier 'Ballpark North' proposal. The building will have 84 residential units and a ground floor restaurant with access to Cooley Law School Stadium. Construction on the project began in mid 2015 and should be complete in early to mid 2016.

The Outfield - Gillespie Group





Articles about this project:
3/11/2014 From the LSJ - $22M upgrade would add apartments to Lugnuts ballpark

3/12/2014 From Mlive - Lansing Lugnuts stadium plan: What about fireworks, broken windows and other answers to reader questions

6/9/2014 From City Pulse - Council Approves Cooley Law School Stadium project

12/17/2014 From LSJ - State to invest $2.5M in The Outfield project in Lansing

4/20/2015 From LSJ - Work starts on The Outfield ballpark apartments

hood

I was gonna say the same thing, developments seem to be picking up like they were. If only we can get a high rise...

From looking at the rendering, I'm thinking that this will only use up the land that the city garage sits on, looking at the satellite images it looks about right. As for those lots in front of the stadium, I'd hate to see them stay parking lots, but seeing them developed wouldn't excite me too much either. I'd rather see that stretch in front of the park be turned into a sort of landmark park with water features, sculptures and what not.

:EDIT:
Here are the initial renderings that were originally in the first post:

dj1997

I love this project. A good facelift/update for the stadium, and I like how they are "urbanizing" the outfield. I'm a little sorry to see much of the lawn seating go (as it looks from the renderings), but as a whole I think this very positive.

For the parking lots at the front of the stadium, I'd like to see them replaced with a park or a plaza, rather than retail buildings. To me, the stadium is an attractive building from the front, and would rather see it not hidden by other buildings. I'm all for new developments in the city and downtown, but rather than the front of the stadium they could go elsewhere. Any additional retail I would think could go along Shiawassee, north of the Outfield?

Certainly the Outfield replaces the earlier Ball Park North project. I recall that Ball Park North was on hold due to the recession/housing market, and due to the proposed casino (the land might have been used for a casino parking garage and retail). I don't have have a lot of confidence that the casino will happen (seems like so may parts have to come together, and the ongoing litigation, etc). Does the Outfield project suggest that the casino is less likely to happen, or am I thinking too much into it?

hood

Yeah, I don't think this will have an effect on the casino plans either way. If anything it's being built to fit in with those plans, the building will probably still allow for the realigned and extended Museum Drive. I attached a satellite photo below, you can see where the City garage's property ends:



MLive also has a story on the project with a bit more info and a couple of renderings of the stadium renovations in their gallery:Lansing Lugnuts stadium plan: What about fireworks, broken windows and other answers to reader questions

hood

No, I don't see a through street in the renderings. I was just saying that this would likely allow for a through street in the same spot the casino site plans showed there being one.

hood

I'd have to disagree with you on a few points. I don't think the building should be moved back at all, for one, its current placement should allow Museum Dr to fit just north of it. The current plan does put a walkway going around the outfield and I doubt Gillespie will have any issues leasing the 40 apartments facing the field even with noisy crowds, balls hitting windows and fireworks. Lastly, I don't think the stadium needs more seating, it needs less and better seating (which these renovations will accomplish), it'd be nice to see games sell out once in a while.

hood

I think the restaurant is the building at the northwest corner. At the northeast corner there's no first floor for the length of that overhang, it's the ramp to the field. That's one of the things I was trying to decipher in the rendering because the rear rendering also shows no first floor, I was thinking that could mean underground parking since the ramp to the field shouldn't need to be that wide.

About the lawn seating, I don't see it being necessary either. It seems like people hardly use it and it just creates an eyesore.

hood

The ramp is under the building itself, it comes in off of Cedar. If you look at the renderings you can see that there's no first floor (you can see clouds and trees though the building in the close up rendering of the overhang) on the east side of the building. There's nothing that spells it out, but it has to be the access ramp to the field.

hood

Yeah, I can't tell. But even with the ramp, you'd still have about 3/4+ of the basement that could be used for parking. I'd imagine having to put that ramp in already goes a good ways toward what they'd have to do for underground parking.

hood

My logic is that I doubt they'll just be able to build a foundation that close to the outfield wall without disturbing it. Therefore I figured they would already be digging fairly deep under at least part of the building to do whatever they have to do. I'm basically just throwing a though out there though.

Jared

Weird that Oldsmobile Park was still designated as light industrial.