It was an Arby's and I went there some back in college during the late 70's, but I thought the "roast beef" was weird, I did like the hash brown potato squares. Back then this block had lots of shade trees a little bus station and I think the first site of the E.L. Food Co-Op. It would be a shame to lose that last little unique piece of the past, around here not much can stand in the way of development perhaps the Bigby Coffee lovers should start a preservation movement!
I'd prefer that this be the last one story building on Grand River to go. There are plenty of other places that are prime for development and not architecturally or historically significant.
Why not get the best of both worlds? If they knocked down everything but the first 30 feet or so of the domed part of the building, they could use it as the entrance for for the new building.
I was in downtown E.L. the other day and it became apparent to me that Ann Street is the street that will feel and look the most changed. From the street, the frontage on Grand River is going to have a similar look with the brick and glass facade so that walking by you won't really see the taller part of the building. On Ann, you can't miss it. It is going to fill the sky, with this building and the next development they are going to create a "big city" feeling on Ann Street.
Well, I was talking about the view from street level looking at the new building going up now. I was waiting for the Flyer bus at the hotel looking at the construction's progress and it looks to me like the sun will be behind the building soon after 12 pm each day which will cast a shadow across Ann and Albert Streets, this would be a big change from today. I may have used Ann Street when I should have said, Albert. I grew up in Lansing and I still can not get EL's streets right!
This is major news. The city desperately needs a movie theater and more "anchor" tenants downtown that will attract people. This also adds some much needed new office space to the downtown as well as more residential.
I think this will hit a couple snags though (reasonable or unreasonable):
Complaints about this being too large (Unreasonable IMO)
Enough people were surprised that Center City would market only to students that this will face negative consequences
People wanting to keep traffic off of Evergreen. It looks like the parking for the movie theaters will have its entrance off of Evergreen. I think they will need to reconfigure the intersection at Evergreen and Valley Ct to dissuade people from driving through the neighborhood.
Also, if they really want to break ground by March 2019, then I can't imagine them asking for any public money. The hold up might be the city wanting more money for the Evergreen properties than Vlahakis is willing to pay.
Comments
It was an Arby's and I went there some back in college during the late 70's, but I thought the "roast beef" was weird, I did like the hash brown potato squares. Back then this block had lots of shade trees a little bus station and I think the first site of the E.L. Food Co-Op. It would be a shame to lose that last little unique piece of the past, around here not much can stand in the way of development perhaps the Bigby Coffee lovers should start a preservation movement!
I'd prefer that this be the last one story building on Grand River to go. There are plenty of other places that are prime for development and not architecturally or historically significant.
Why not get the best of both worlds? If they knocked down everything but the first 30 feet or so of the domed part of the building, they could use it as the entrance for for the new building.
Yeah, we could at least save the facade, or make this the "top" of a new building.
Do they really need to make an amendment to the zoning rules? I would rather them propose a variance for them instead.
I was in downtown E.L. the other day and it became apparent to me that Ann Street is the street that will feel and look the most changed. From the street, the frontage on Grand River is going to have a similar look with the brick and glass facade so that walking by you won't really see the taller part of the building. On Ann, you can't miss it. It is going to fill the sky, with this building and the next development they are going to create a "big city" feeling on Ann Street.
Well, I was talking about the view from street level looking at the new building going up now. I was waiting for the Flyer bus at the hotel looking at the construction's progress and it looks to me like the sun will be behind the building soon after 12 pm each day which will cast a shadow across Ann and Albert Streets, this would be a big change from today. I may have used Ann Street when I should have said, Albert. I grew up in Lansing and I still can not get EL's streets right!
This is major news. The city desperately needs a movie theater and more "anchor" tenants downtown that will attract people. This also adds some much needed new office space to the downtown as well as more residential.
I think this will hit a couple snags though (reasonable or unreasonable):
Also, if they really want to break ground by March 2019, then I can't imagine them asking for any public money. The hold up might be the city wanting more money for the Evergreen properties than Vlahakis is willing to pay.