I've gone by and seen the shopping center and it is already looking much better. The sidewalk in front of many of the businesses has gone from about 12 feet wide to about 25 feet wide, and they are making the parking lot look much nicer. The article also mentions that Grand Traverse Pie Co will be moving in, and there is only one vacant storefront.
Grand Traverse Pie makes the best pie in the world. Their Long Berry Crumble (I think is what it's called) is awesome. Apples, strawberries, and rasberries, under a cinnamon-brown sugar crumble top, I wish I had a piece right now.
The Ingham County Landbank has rejected a proposal for apartments to be built on the site of The Dollar nightclub. The apartments would house up to 200 students and professionals. I would like to see a mixed-use building built, and I'm not sure if the current proposal was for mixed-use. I do agree that a bar is probably not the best idea for the location, and with the large housing units being built across the street, it would fit the character to match it on the north side of Michigan Ave.
At the meeting, the developer said the problem with mixed use at that site is that it's in the flood plain. It makes it much more difficult to do street-level retail or offices - although he emphasized that plans could change as he and the county worked through the process and talked more about what they each wanted (and how it could be paid for).
I found it really interesting, though, that there was so much neighborhood support for housing at the site, yet the authority board turned down the only housing proposal they received. (Apparently five or six developers expressed interest in the site, but only two proposals were turned in.) I wonder if it all could have something to do with this authority - made up of county commissioners - having no experience in this kind of development process.
It has nothing to do with it being in a floodplain, because the similarly sized campus villages across the street, as well as the new Riverwalk apartments on the other side of the golf course are ALL in a floodplain. That was a lame excuse.
If I remember correctly, the only thing Campus Village and Riverwalk have at street-level is parking. Any living or commercial space is raised above flood level - which puts those spaces up in the air nearly a story from the street.
Could there be some way to get street-level commercial use in a flood plain? Maybe. But the construction cost probably goes up to meet insurance requirements. That was the developer's point.
How does that explain the other one-story businesses in the area surrounding the golf-course or Frandor, etc..? The entire area sits in a former swamp, and there was a story not too long ago about the area to be soon restructured to prevent flooding. I'm confused. I was under the impression the flood worrying is more like an excuse than actually something to be taken seriously.
Comments
What do you think? That's Lot 1 they're talking about.
I've gone by and seen the shopping center and it is already looking much better. The sidewalk in front of many of the businesses has gone from about 12 feet wide to about 25 feet wide, and they are making the parking lot look much nicer. The article also mentions that Grand Traverse Pie Co will be moving in, and there is only one vacant storefront.
Ingham Co. Rejects Proposal for Dollar
I found it really interesting, though, that there was so much neighborhood support for housing at the site, yet the authority board turned down the only housing proposal they received. (Apparently five or six developers expressed interest in the site, but only two proposals were turned in.) I wonder if it all could have something to do with this authority - made up of county commissioners - having no experience in this kind of development process.
Could there be some way to get street-level commercial use in a flood plain? Maybe. But the construction cost probably goes up to meet insurance requirements. That was the developer's point.