If you would like to see something kind of amazing checkout the Googleamaps 2017 photo of this corner, it is a "before picture" from only two years ago that really show how far downtown EL has come in such a short time. It will great to see an office building go up on this surface lot.
It is also very striking when approaching downtown EL from Grand River from the east or west, or Mich Ave. from the west. Those tall new buildings really mark the downtown from a distance!
In other EL/Meridian twp news, I took a trip down Grand River to the edge of Okemos recently and saw a few interesting developments. It looks like Knight's Inn finally spruced up the old eyesore motel next to Whole foods with some exterior upgrades. Nothing amazing, but it looks a lot better. Soldan's pet store did a similar face lift on an old 90's fronted building near downtown Okemos on GR - it now looks like a nice neighborhoody store. And finally, something is going on in the first floor of Element 509 across from the hub... does anyone know if this is a commerical develoment, or are they converting the first floor to apartments?
This is pretty sad for me. From the article, "Fathy Shetiah said the new space will be more modern. Though it will significantly fewer parking spaces, it will have a drive-through that the old site did not have."
There's a lot of character in the old location, and this new location won't have that character anymore. Biggby's is Lansing's coffee house, and it has grown to be a very sizable coffee house in the US with about 240 franchises according to https://www.entrepreneur.com/franchises/biggbycoffee/299698.
It's really nice to visit Seattle and see the "original" Starbucks (yes, I know it's not the actual original location but they were able to keep most of its character by staying in Pike Place market since 1971: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_Starbucks).
This the nicest looking 7-eleven I have ever seen! I think that it was smart for The Hub to offer the former businesses space in their new building. They had those spaces leased to those businesses before the building was built.
This plan may never get off the ground if the economy moves in to a recession, as it's looking this week and last week. I imagine lots of development projects that haven't put a shovel in the ground will get delayed since this virus may take three months to fully play out and by then we may have a very different looking economy.
Yeah, this will no doubt be a rough patch. I'm betting there will be a pretty strong boom when the smoke settles from all this though, the economy had remained surprising stable before this and now there will be stimulus money and low interest rates floating out there. The biggest question for me is will there be a seasonal lull in the summer and we end up dealing with an even worse outbreak next fall/winter? Too many unknowns right now.
FYI, I've been a New Scientist subscriber for a long time, they're one of the most authoritative science magazines out there that's really accessible to laymen. They've made most of their coronavirus coverage free to everyone, check it out here:
The lsj.com has an article saying they have submitted plans to EL for a pretty nice looking mixed-use/office building on Albert at Evergreen. I like the contemporary design which looks bright and light.
Comments
In other EL/Meridian twp news, I took a trip down Grand River to the edge of Okemos recently and saw a few interesting developments. It looks like Knight's Inn finally spruced up the old eyesore motel next to Whole foods with some exterior upgrades. Nothing amazing, but it looks a lot better. Soldan's pet store did a similar face lift on an old 90's fronted building near downtown Okemos on GR - it now looks like a nice neighborhoody store. And finally, something is going on in the first floor of Element 509 across from the hub... does anyone know if this is a commerical develoment, or are they converting the first floor to apartments?
There's a lot of character in the old location, and this new location won't have that character anymore. Biggby's is Lansing's coffee house, and it has grown to be a very sizable coffee house in the US with about 240 franchises according to https://www.entrepreneur.com/franchises/biggbycoffee/299698.
It's really nice to visit Seattle and see the "original" Starbucks (yes, I know it's not the actual original location but they were able to keep most of its character by staying in Pike Place market since 1971: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_Starbucks).
https://mobile.twitter.com/CityofEL/status/1228695315852689413
FYI, I've been a New Scientist subscriber for a long time, they're one of the most authoritative science magazines out there that's really accessible to laymen. They've made most of their coronavirus coverage free to everyone, check it out here:
https://www.newscientist.com/article-topic/coronavirus/