@Jared That's a good question. A lot of them are stick built with regular hotel layouts (no kitchen or bedrooms) so I'm not sure how those will fare as a reuse project but something like this one that is an extended stay would seem a realistic prospect to turn into one bedrooms or studios.
Right. These can get passed by zoning today but in 10 years if the market isn't where it is today, I expect the City would allow conversion of half of the property to apartments.
The renovation of the storefront on Grand River next to the Jackson [Jacobson's} building has started, I remember the plan was for a two-story building with a bar-restaurant and a games room? upstairs. It is good to see this vacant property being developed. Down the street the Detroit Wings Company opened a few weeks ago, and the wings are very good, they also have some great side dishes. The Cain's Chicken Fingers is still under construction, they are really putting a lot of money into that place, it looks nice. They will have to sell a lot of chicken fingers to pay for it!
I was just down at DWC the other day. Downtown EL is definitely busier than I've ever personally seen it. The corner of Albert & Abbot is barely recognizeable, anymore. IT's the difference between a destination center, alone, and not being a destination AND an actual neighborhood where people live.
That said, I'm getting worried about the crime issue. You almost never used to hear of shootings in East Lansing, and we've had multiple this year. 31 shell casings found just north of Albert and MAC, the other day. It wasn't random, but that's still a lot of collateral damage that could happen in such a busy area.
I just saw that on the news and was pretty surprised. For EL and any heavily populated area, 30+ shots is a lot. Hopefully it's just a temporary thing with the way crime is nationally, but I was surprised to hear that on the news.
It is amazing how quickly EL is changing though with all of the development. I usually only make it out there when the students are gone and it's not as busy lol.
I think that ELPD needs to have a large but not aggressive presence on weekends and game days. If people, see and know there are a lot of police on the streets maybe they would keep their guns out of their drunken fights after the bars close. More people are armed these days and I think it would be a good idea to keep things calm out there. It is kind of scary to see my building in the news reports about shootings right downstairs. I think the bars here also over-serve, when I was a bartender in Mass. I could be held responsible if someone I over served was in an accident, I am not sure if the laws are the same here.
I would also like to see the streets and sidewalks cleaned/washed down every day downtown. Every morning there are always big barfs broken glass and discarded food around the doorways and in the alley. Not only gross but very unsanitary.
The corner of Albert and Abbott is kind of a pain these days with the construction blocking one south bound lane, people and trucks parking in one north bound lane, and lots of people crossing the street. I hope that things will improve once the credit union building is finished.
EL is considering making part of the Bailey Neighborhood a testbed for a new form-based code. It certainly sounds like a positive to me, I've long hoped to see EL be a little more friendly to redevelopment of some the student oriented single family neighborhoods near Grand River into something more dense and although the details aren't settled it sounds promising:
The city hasn’t yet adopted a new code for this area, but what planners have been discussing is implementing a form-based code here to encourage the demolition of old rental housing stock to replace that with small apartment buildings and townhouse-style homes.
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That said, I'm getting worried about the crime issue. You almost never used to hear of shootings in East Lansing, and we've had multiple this year. 31 shell casings found just north of Albert and MAC, the other day. It wasn't random, but that's still a lot of collateral damage that could happen in such a busy area.
It is amazing how quickly EL is changing though with all of the development. I usually only make it out there when the students are gone and it's not as busy lol.
I would also like to see the streets and sidewalks cleaned/washed down every day downtown. Every morning there are always big barfs broken glass and discarded food around the doorways and in the alley. Not only gross but very unsanitary.
The corner of Albert and Abbott is kind of a pain these days with the construction blocking one south bound lane, people and trucks parking in one north bound lane, and lots of people crossing the street. I hope that things will improve once the credit union building is finished.
https://eastlansinginfo.news/special-east-lansing-district-identified-as-ripe-for-redevelopment/