Campus Village 2
This is a thread for the Campus Village 2 development. Rhode Contractors appear to be doing some of the work there now. The old Honda dealership has been torn down and they look to be clearing the lot. Here is a link to the original post.
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Construction of Campus Village apartments begins, to open additions next fall
By KRIS TURNER
The State News
Students are already leasing apartments for the building, which will be constructed at 1231 Michigan Ave., formerly the site of Capital Honda.
"There is a big hole in the ground right now; we hope to have it completed a year from now for the start of school," said Ernest Schaefer, president of Rochester Hills-based Campus Village Communities. "We've actually started leasing the building."
The new building will look similar to the Campus Village apartments, 1151 Michigan Ave., which opened in the spring of 2004.
It will be a three-and-a-half-story building located north of Campus Village apartments and will contain 47 apartments and 5,300 square feet of lower-level retail space.
For the new Campus Village apartments to be constructed, Schaefer, the project's developer, was required to acquire five rental properties from the Chesterfield Hills neighborhood.
The neighborhood is bounded by Grand River Avenue, Michigan Avenue and Highland Avenue and is across the street from the development.
As part of the agreement to build, Schaefer said he would try and buy all of the neighborhood's 26 rental licenses, thereby transferring the licenses to his project and leaving the homes to be owner-occupied.
Tim Dempsey, East Lansing's community and economic development administrator, said the development agreement allows families to move into the neighborhood and provides students with new housing.
The primarily owner-occupied area will be prevented from turning into a haven for student rentals, Dempsey added.
"It helps the neighborhood stabilize the owner-occupied homes," he said.
"Rental properties tend to cluster. This prevents that from developing."
The city of East Lansing is pushing for more families to settle in the area because enrollment in the school system has declined for at least the past 10 years.
Not everyone is going to want to sell their rental property and it's going to take a bit of coaxing to get everyone on board, Schaefer said, adding that he will be meeting with other rental property owners within the next 30 to 60 days.
Schaefer said he has bought five properties.
"We understand that there is going to be some property owners that are not going to be able to sell and we will deal with that when that arises," he said.
"It's simply the developer offering a very lucrative proposition. These property owners can have some shares in the new project and generate the same kind of cash flow they have from their current rentals."
Robin Sims, who owns a rental home in the Chesterfield Hills neighborhood, said she would only be interested in selling her property if Schaefer offered her a fair price for her property.
"I don't know really what to think," she said. "Every house has its price."
[ From LSJ.com ]
East Lansing project gets state assistance
Lansing State Journal
Campus Village East Lansing LLC will use a $700,000 tax credit to transform an obsolete car dealership into a 3.5-story mixed-use facility with 47 apartments and 5,300 square feet of commercial space.
The credit was announced today by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. It was one of several brownfield redevelopments receiving state assistance through the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
The East Lansing project's total investment for the project, expected to create 10 jobs, is estimated at $9.2 million. It is expected to create 10 jobs and have a local tax capture of about $1.5 million that will further benefit the development.
All told, the brownfield redevelopments in Detroit, East Lansing and Flint announced today will create as many as 69 jobs and generate $22.6 million in private investment.
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