The building at Spartan and Grand River is now proposed to be six floors along Grand River with a narrow two floor annex along the east property line. Apparently the new design is at least partially to accommodate a tree that has some sort of historical significance. I'm sure it's also to transition better to the houses in the neighborhood.
Also MSU will be significantly altering the route of Wilson Rd as part of the FRIB project.
I don't know about the history of the tree, I was watching that part of the most recent planning meeting and they were referencing it, but apparently everyone there already knew the context. I guess it was discussed in the prior two planning meetings, whatever the reason, even the developer seemed sympathetic to the tree's cause. I'm curious enough myself that I may try to skim through the previous meetings.
I haven't heard anything about 515 W Grand River. The building seems to be well maintained though, I'd be surprised if it were one of the first buildings to be replaced in that stretch. The coffee shop always seems busy too, I'm surprised nobody has bought the business.
The article says that the owners have found a buyer, but haven't shared details of the sale:
Thomas said the Sawvels have found a buyer for the building, but she did not know details including whether the space would remain a coffee shop.
Note that the very large residential projects of Louis St. are right behind the coffee shop. It would be a good location to build here and place a coffee shop and book store on the ground floor, although I don't know if Curious could handle the loss of sales during construction.
This is the manufactured housing community that they are talking about, http://screencast.com/t/61KLQ01A1. After the roads were built and a few of the lots sold, the company filed for bankruptcy and it remains mostly a ghost town that could make a pretty cool go-kart track I think there was a proposal about 5 years ago to put condos there but it never went anywhere as the economy hadn't fully recovered by that point.
For the Residential Agriculture to Community Retail Sales Business, that sounds to me like the developer wants to put in some small retail, probably things that cater to the office workers nearby. I could see a small convenience store, maybe lunch restaurant and a hair salon/barber shop.
Talking about aerials, the Google satellite images were updated within the past month or two, if you use the classic desktop version or the mobile version of maps you can check it out.
I can't seem to get the new imagery to show up on the desktop Google Maps, but the imagery on mobile Maps is at most a month or two old. It shows Marketplace completed, the Outfield well under construction and shows the Lansing Brewery property already cleared.
At the same council session, Stonehouse Village IV was approved as well as the brownfield plan for the project. I'm not sure when construction will start.
Comments
This video says that the approval was for 13 apartments and roughly 1,000 sq ft of "non-residential" space: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=83&v=7GZ3Wl43iFU
I'm not sure when construction would begin but hopefully soon. This has been in the planning phase for at least 8 years. The oldest comment I can find on this site that refers to it is http://develop.metrolansing.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=19&Focus=661#Item_4.
Also MSU will be significantly altering the route of Wilson Rd as part of the FRIB project.
I haven't heard anything about 515 W Grand River. The building seems to be well maintained though, I'd be surprised if it were one of the first buildings to be replaced in that stretch. The coffee shop always seems busy too, I'm surprised nobody has bought the business.
For the Residential Agriculture to Community Retail Sales Business, that sounds to me like the developer wants to put in some small retail, probably things that cater to the office workers nearby. I could see a small convenience store, maybe lunch restaurant and a hair salon/barber shop.