246 East Saginaw is an unassuming property built in 1972 in a strip of retail just east of the corner of Abbot and Saginaw. Everything in this area is very suburban, set back far from the road. It is probably best known for being the home of the well-known Abood Law Firm and a bar they own, Side Bar, which they'd carved out of the eastern third or so of the building in 2011. In some unspecified year - might have even been before the bar - a residential unit came to exist in he southeast corner of the building. Whether this residential unit was rented to one of the law partners, I have no idea.
Anyway, the owner is requesting a special use permit to turn the approximately 1,800 square foot residential unit into another restaurant, which would be internally connected to the Side Bar. Since the Side Bar opens relatively late, the new restaurant being envisioned is a diner. It's entrance would be near where the current entrance is for the residential unit on the south side (back) of the property.
I guess this caugh by eye because you very rarely see truly mixed use of this size, anymore, let alone in a suburban area in a modern building. It was just really cool that you could have a law office, a bar, and a residential apartment all in one place and have it work. I was also just surprised East Lansing's zoning code allows it, but lo and behold you can have just about any use in the B-2, Retail Sales Business district. I'd really like to see more of this kind of mixed usage that is not necessarily part of massive planned developments. In fact, Lansing zoning code allows this to in its catch-all F-Commercial district.
Really, more than anything else, it's just kind of the culture of our business that keeps this from happening more often. Commercial real estate owners don't like to also be residential landlords and vice versa, but it creates a more interesting urban environment for sure.
Had no idea Michigan and Grand River were paved so late; it's wild how rural this looked even in 1910. Kind of shows just how rural minded the city and college were, and how that's colored city policy even to this day in being more development-skeptic than most communities.
Looking at the public hearings posted in this week's city pulse, I see a Planning Commission item for a special use permit for the southwest corner of Merritt and Park Lake at their May 22 meeting. This is across from the Costco. Anyway, a developer is looking to build a three news buildings: a 7,000 sq ft marijuana provisioning center, a 4-story, 107-room hotel, and a 8,690 sq ft retail strip.
I'll be looking out for the plans for this one in the agendas. Given that the site doesn't appear to be that large, I suspect this might be rather dense.
Today at the LSJ.com site they talk about the Park Place development. It is confusing to me, as to why they have changed the plans so radically and come up with something less appealing and much smaller. Have "market forces" changed so much, is it the height issue, are they trying to pull a fast one? Whatever they build it would nice if it were to be built at the same time as the development next door. It's really no man's land in that area right now, it would be kind of a bummer to see the construction going on for the next four years in that small area.
Hey, these have been making their way through the planning process, but three restaurants are setting up shop downtown:
Baps, Inc. is looking to put in a Korean restaurant on the ground floor of the Charles Street parking garage at 340 Albert.
Sparty Tacos, Inc. is looking to open a "Barrios at Center City" restaurant in the ground floor of the new Newman Lofts Building at 202 Albert. This one had already been anounced in the media months ago, I think.
And 246 Equities is looking to open a diner "Back Bar" in part of 246 East Saginaw behind the Side Bar restaurant. I'd discussed this one just a few posts above.
These are all seeking special use permits because they will serve alcohol, and all come back before the planning commission next week.
Nothing special, but it does make pretty good use of a mildly irregular site, and the mix of uses is pretty interesting. Aside from the dispensary, the special use permit is also for the extra height for the hotel. BTW, to show how long they've been trying to redevelop this one, here is something Jared posted back in 2007:
Set for Public Hearing on April 3, 2007 Ordinance No. 1167; An application
from the CADA Investment Group, L.L.C., to rezone 16.96 acres of the former
Public Works property on Merritt Road from the RM-32 Multiple Family District
to the B-2 Retail Sales Business District.
Oh, and all the restaurants applications I posted about on the 3rd were recommended for approval and now make their way to the city council.
It looks like Greater Lansing is going to have an impressive number of hotel rooms available. There are about six or seven hotels being built now or will start soon. Even as I write that it seems unbelievable. I realize that the further out they build simple hotel block type buildings. The nice example is on W. Saginaw where they have at least provided an interesting looking facade with several different materials used. The not so nice example is the new hotel at the Eastwood center. A totally unremarkable building painted kind of dark colors and from Wood Rd. it looks like it is not finished or just really plain. This new plan seems basic but they are going to landscape the development very nicely.
The elevation for the dispensary is on the last page (19), and it shows a windowless building with uninteresting brick facades, largely, with a few stone flourishes. It strikes me as a below-average strip mall building mostly because of lack of windows.
There are considerably more attractive dispensaries planned in East Lansing, alone. It is larger than most, though.
I guess I meant more what's going on with the interior. The large sale area, waiting room, offices, breakroom, etc. It's way more... corporate than I imagine most dispensaries to be.
Comments
A little development that I found interesting for what it represents.
https://eastlansing.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=1959&meta_id=77301
246 East Saginaw is an unassuming property built in 1972 in a strip of retail just east of the corner of Abbot and Saginaw. Everything in this area is very suburban, set back far from the road. It is probably best known for being the home of the well-known Abood Law Firm and a bar they own, Side Bar, which they'd carved out of the eastern third or so of the building in 2011. In some unspecified year - might have even been before the bar - a residential unit came to exist in he southeast corner of the building. Whether this residential unit was rented to one of the law partners, I have no idea.
Anyway, the owner is requesting a special use permit to turn the approximately 1,800 square foot residential unit into another restaurant, which would be internally connected to the Side Bar. Since the Side Bar opens relatively late, the new restaurant being envisioned is a diner. It's entrance would be near where the current entrance is for the residential unit on the south side (back) of the property.
I guess this caugh by eye because you very rarely see truly mixed use of this size, anymore, let alone in a suburban area in a modern building. It was just really cool that you could have a law office, a bar, and a residential apartment all in one place and have it work. I was also just surprised East Lansing's zoning code allows it, but lo and behold you can have just about any use in the B-2, Retail Sales Business district. I'd really like to see more of this kind of mixed usage that is not necessarily part of massive planned developments. In fact, Lansing zoning code allows this to in its catch-all F-Commercial district.
Really, more than anything else, it's just kind of the culture of our business that keeps this from happening more often. Commercial real estate owners don't like to also be residential landlords and vice versa, but it creates a more interesting urban environment for sure.
Had no idea Michigan and Grand River were paved so late; it's wild how rural this looked even in 1910. Kind of shows just how rural minded the city and college were, and how that's colored city policy even to this day in being more development-skeptic than most communities.
Looking at the public hearings posted in this week's city pulse, I see a Planning Commission item for a special use permit for the southwest corner of Merritt and Park Lake at their May 22 meeting. This is across from the Costco. Anyway, a developer is looking to build a three news buildings: a 7,000 sq ft marijuana provisioning center, a 4-story, 107-room hotel, and a 8,690 sq ft retail strip.
I'll be looking out for the plans for this one in the agendas. Given that the site doesn't appear to be that large, I suspect this might be rather dense.
Today at the LSJ.com site they talk about the Park Place development. It is confusing to me, as to why they have changed the plans so radically and come up with something less appealing and much smaller. Have "market forces" changed so much, is it the height issue, are they trying to pull a fast one? Whatever they build it would nice if it were to be built at the same time as the development next door. It's really no man's land in that area right now, it would be kind of a bummer to see the construction going on for the next four years in that small area.
https://develop.metrolansing.com/discussions/index.php?p=/discussion/209/park-place#latest
Hey, these have been making their way through the planning process, but three restaurants are setting up shop downtown:
Baps, Inc. is looking to put in a Korean restaurant on the ground floor of the Charles Street parking garage at 340 Albert.
Sparty Tacos, Inc. is looking to open a "Barrios at Center City" restaurant in the ground floor of the new Newman Lofts Building at 202 Albert. This one had already been anounced in the media months ago, I think.
And 246 Equities is looking to open a diner "Back Bar" in part of 246 East Saginaw behind the Side Bar restaurant. I'd discussed this one just a few posts above.
These are all seeking special use permits because they will serve alcohol, and all come back before the planning commission next week.
The redevelopment of the parcel across from Costco's will be introduced to the Planning Commission this week that I mentioned back on the 2nd.
Here is the site plan:
https://eastlansing.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=1961&meta_id=79011
Here is the staff report:
https://eastlansing.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=1961&meta_id=78989
Nothing special, but it does make pretty good use of a mildly irregular site, and the mix of uses is pretty interesting. Aside from the dispensary, the special use permit is also for the extra height for the hotel. BTW, to show how long they've been trying to redevelop this one, here is something Jared posted back in 2007:
Oh, and all the restaurants applications I posted about on the 3rd were recommended for approval and now make their way to the city council.
It looks like Greater Lansing is going to have an impressive number of hotel rooms available. There are about six or seven hotels being built now or will start soon. Even as I write that it seems unbelievable. I realize that the further out they build simple hotel block type buildings. The nice example is on W. Saginaw where they have at least provided an interesting looking facade with several different materials used. The not so nice example is the new hotel at the Eastwood center. A totally unremarkable building painted kind of dark colors and from Wood Rd. it looks like it is not finished or just really plain. This new plan seems basic but they are going to landscape the development very nicely.
That seems like a way bigger and fancier dispensary than I think I've ever seen before.
The elevation for the dispensary is on the last page (19), and it shows a windowless building with uninteresting brick facades, largely, with a few stone flourishes. It strikes me as a below-average strip mall building mostly because of lack of windows.
There are considerably more attractive dispensaries planned in East Lansing, alone. It is larger than most, though.
I guess I meant more what's going on with the interior. The large sale area, waiting room, offices, breakroom, etc. It's way more... corporate than I imagine most dispensaries to be.