This is great and I'm so happy to see them move forward with 7 stories. It's been well overdue to have MSUFCU locate offices downtown. I would love to see Vertafore and First National Bank move offices downtown, both are currently located near Abbot and Saginaw.
I think one of the worst things the city ever did was essentially pushing office space out to the outskirts when they adopted zoning. It's certainly not impossible, but between a geographically small downtown, and the difficulty in buying up individual smaller parcels and the process to merge, we're not likely to see much of this type of development downtown. MSUFCU got lucky because they found one of the few remaining city surface lots and some right-of-way the city was looking to part with. It was a perfect storm.
Yeah I agree though there are still a few landowners that already have large assemblies. Most of the SBS block is owned by a single owner, and I think Metzger owns Peanut Barrell to Campus Town Mall. The lot behind Peanut Barrell is privately owned too and the city's lease expires soon.
You are right; these are more than I thought there were. About the lot behind Peanut Barrel, looking at city property maps, it looks like the city owns the small part of the lot at the corner Albert and Bailey. You are saying they lease the rest of the lot there, too? I'd be interested to hear about the lease agreement.
Hmmm, so they are only doing a short-term lease (14 months, max, with a clause that allows termination of the lease if students aren't back this year), and the pandemic may make it so that parking isn't profitable. This is a good sign for development of that lot.
Yeah, if a large majority of students decide to do a "skip year", we may see other landlords decide now is the time to tear down and rebuild bigger. Previously that would have meant they would lose 1-2 years of rental income and the math didn't work in the favor of building new. But if there is a temporary drop in housing demand, we may see more businesses decide now is the time to do the renovations or rebuilds so they will be more competitive when students return.
I was just reading their reporting. Wow this is a major change. Good to see the contract is still in place until October which will give enough time to properly bid this out.
Comments
https://eastlansinginfo.news/with-the-public-ramps-bleeding-money-city-eliminates-free-2-hour-parking-downtown/
https://cityofeastlansing.civicweb.net/document/31290/Approve a lease agreement between the City and .pdf?handle=455D85AEE11C460CBF4817BA10DDB530
More history,
https://eastlansinginfo.org/content/future-bailey-parking-lot-uncertain