Hey, the city pulse has a few rezonings this week for Meridian Township. Anyone know what any of these are for?
1. Rezoning of land north and west of Jolly Oak Road (northwest of the Jolly Oak retail area around Okemos and Jolly) from a mix of industrial, commercial office and rural residential to C-2 Commercial. This is a nearly 34 acre redevelopment over multiple parcels, so this sounds like a fairly large, singular development.
2. Rezoning three parcels totalling 8.66 acres north of Grand River and east of Central Park Drive from commercial office and medium density residential to C-2 commercial. This also appears to be a fairly large redevelopment.
I can't find any zoning codes on Meridian Township's website, so I'm not sure of what defines C-2 commercial.
The development by Jolly and Okemos is supposed to be apartments for young professionals. I remember it was talked about recently, I'll have to find the link.
Edit, here's a snippet,
An Ohio-based real estate market research firm wrote an economic impact study for a developer planning to build an upscale apartment complex in an old industrial yard in Meridian Township. The $50 million development, Okemos Pointe, would include 450 one- to three-bedroom apartments and townhomes near Okemos and Jolly roads.
Elliott presented a multi-phase plan for the Meridian Asset Resource Center (MARC) building at 4675 Okemos Road and the former Central Fire Station property at 2150 Clinton Street that includes a restaurant with outdoor seating, an apartment building with a maximum of 18 units and a parking lot.
The restaurant would be developed first, and would incorporate the existing MARC building — now used as a business development center — plus a 2,500 square foot addition. The plan shows 3,900 square feet of outdoor seating, according to a memo prepared for township trustees.
Maybe the Douglas J development will eventually come to fruition. Anyway, looks like all plans are for downtown Okemos to go vertical, but not in an overboard way.
Good to hear that they are sticking with brick and limestone, though, I hope developers start to branch out and we're going to have a lot of Stonehouse clones. That said, I'd much rather have this problem than having to worry about what materials Gillespie uses here in Lansing. lol
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.
Nice. The apartment building looks ten times better with the additional floors. The rerouting of Wilson Road also makes all the sense in the world. You're going to fairly often have truck traffic to the FRIB, and this will keep that traffic off Shaw and allow larger vehicles easier turns.
Any story behind the tree? I ask, because I'm a big proponent of keeping trees whenever possible during redevelopment, and it's rare that this happens, so I'd really like to know about this tree's history. lol
There was an LSJ article written yesterday about the closing of GrandRiver Coffee at 515 West Grand River since the owners of the building will be retiring and moving up to Traverse City. No one will say if the building (which includes the Archive Book Shop nextdoor) has been sold, but Archive's owner says he'll continue renting his space from the owners of the property. Yet, again, there is no news if the building has been sold.
Has there been any news in the past that I missed that may have talked about 515 West Grand River? It seems as if development will eventually make it up this way, anyway, since it's already making its way up the street. This is right up the hill from Gateway like a block or two and basically the edge of the west end of downtown.
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.
Comments
1. Rezoning of land north and west of Jolly Oak Road (northwest of the Jolly Oak retail area around Okemos and Jolly) from a mix of industrial, commercial office and rural residential to C-2 Commercial. This is a nearly 34 acre redevelopment over multiple parcels, so this sounds like a fairly large, singular development.
2. Rezoning three parcels totalling 8.66 acres north of Grand River and east of Central Park Drive from commercial office and medium density residential to C-2 commercial. This also appears to be a fairly large redevelopment.
I can't find any zoning codes on Meridian Township's website, so I'm not sure of what defines C-2 commercial.
Edit, here's a snippet,
An Ohio-based real estate market research firm wrote an economic impact study for a developer planning to build an upscale apartment complex in an old industrial yard in Meridian Township. The $50 million development, Okemos Pointe, would include 450 one- to three-bedroom apartments and townhomes near Okemos and Jolly roads.
From http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/money/business/2015/05/18/apartment-building-boom-tied-jobs-economy/27529189/
Maybe the Douglas J development will eventually come to fruition. Anyway, looks like all plans are for downtown Okemos to go vertical, but not in an overboard way.
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.
Any story behind the tree? I ask, because I'm a big proponent of keeping trees whenever possible during redevelopment, and it's rare that this happens, so I'd really like to know about this tree's history. lol
Has there been any news in the past that I missed that may have talked about 515 West Grand River? It seems as if development will eventually make it up this way, anyway, since it's already making its way up the street. This is right up the hill from Gateway like a block or two and basically the edge of the west end of downtown.
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.