I'm glad to hear that Zoobies is doing well. I had some doubts about how they'd do in that block. Hopefully this will mean better things for the eastern edge of Old Town, especially the old Temple Club.
Is it just me or does it seem that Lansing has reached a tipping point? I know we were close back before the recession, but as it becomes easier to finance it seems as though much of that previous momentum has remained. If this continues like it should Lansing's next ten years may be reminiscent of Grand Rapids' last ten, even if slightly scaled down.
As someone who spends a lot of their time driving all around the southside, I'd have to agree with you. To point out the positive first, things do seem to have bottomed out somewhere in the last 5-15 years and are slowly getting better. It'd be easiest to just list the positive things that have happened within the last few years:
-New Meijers
-The upcoming southside pathway
-Southside Community Center
-New small plaza at MLK & Holmes that's actually very well built
-Logan Square was remodeled, looks like it has fairly low vacancy. (Not to say it's very nice, but it's such an improvement over what it was, let alone if it were abandoned)
-Old Holiday Inn was remodeled and rebranded as Best Western Plus
-Several credit unions have built new buildings
-Several new dollar stores in areas that haven't seen any new retail in a long time
While all this certainly isn't impressive, nor is any of it very desirable developments, it does show that these corridors are not dead. You mentioned Cedar between Greenlawn and Holmes, even there things are a bit better. The gas station at Brookland and Cedar was finally tore down, another building down there was used to sell fireworks out of getting it's first use since I can remember and the buildings across from the old south precinct were restored. On MLK a few small, long vacant retail buildings have recently been reoccupied also, I just feel like the area is on the verge of some real improvements.
I think the best tactic to really reviving the southside is twofold: Cedar and MLK are the main target for redevelopment, second priority are select intersections away from those corridors. On Cedar and MLK, the city could do great by burying power lines, installing more welcoming streetlights and figuring out a solution to streetscaping that's low cost and low maintenance so we don't see a repeat of Cedar's current streetscaping. There are plenty of intersections that need varying degrees of improvement, but there's no better example than Holmes & Pleasant Grove. That little node of trash retail and apartments within two or three blocks of there has been a huge detriment to that neighborhood.
The key point for me in all this is that the southside is for the most part in decent shape. It shouldn't take too much work to stabilize it and get it to where it's steadily improving. Like you, I just hope it isn't ignored. If it is it will likely bring down the whole city, undoing all that's been done up until that point.
Yeah, Logan Square is going to make for a helluva redevelopment project someday, I'm not sure what exists now will ever be able to be put to good use though. I think the only way to bring life to that property would be to raze everything there and build a large mixed use development that brings the retail closer to street and puts some residential further back.
When it comes to Pennsylvania there really much to say. That corridor is struggling and always has, it's not cohesive enough, as you said the car lots are the only things really holding it together. Whereas with Cedar and MLK I see real opportunities for improvement, there's no clear solution to south Penn's conundrum, it may be the type of thing a master plan could fix though.
On a side note I just reminded myself of something to watch out for on the southside: the potential redevelopment of Walter French. I seem to remember reading an article somewhat recently about Eyde turning it into apartments. It certainly would be good for the area, a great use for the building and given the improving housing market it seems more likely than ever. If it does get done it could lead to one of my favorite dream projects in Lansing, a mixed use redevelopment of that whole factory area at Mt Hope and Washington.
On the topic of South Lansing / Cedar Street... I agree with comments above regarding the need for improvements (I live in southeast Lansing). Similar to the areas of new development downtown (around Stadium district, etc), I wish that the city would place more emphasis on improvements along the Cedar Street/Pennsylvania corridor near the I-96 interchange. Cedar Street south of I-96 - toward Holt - is generally nice. North of I-96 I think could use streetscape improvements, perhaps upgrades to the hotel (former Days Inn). The vacant plot of land across Pennsylvania from Meijer needs something (I recall a Sonic had been planned there). The freeway access is a definite plus - though I wish the DOT would improve the I-96 on/off ramps. The new Meijer will be an improvement. Seems to me that the Applebee's/Findley's/Pizza Hut plaza, Edgewood area, and business park near Executive Drive have potential for growth. I guess my hope is that any improvements in the extreme southern end would expand north along Cedar and Pennsylvania. I have similar hopes that the improvements downtown will expand southward into REO Town.
I'd find it incredibly hard to believe that Bernero or anyone on the council would go for a plan to sell CIty Hall unless there was a plan to move seamlessly into a new building downtown.
The idea they always discussed before was to combine all city offices, the county courts and Lansing police/jail into one new facility. I hope that's still the plan. I think that the only way for it to make sense is if it involves as many components as possible. If it does play out that way, this is going to be a big project, probably over 500k sq ft. I imagine they could buy the lot in front of Constitution Hall from Eyde and split the block up into two or three buildings along with a parking ramp and a sort of public square. That'd be my ideal outcome of a City Hall move.
Agree with pretty much all your comments - but one saving grace here might be the creation of a second hotel downtown, which is desperately needed. If the right tenant moves in...
I just saw the old pawn shop on Larch also, I think it said something about Lansing's first distillery. I remember hearing something about a distillery in the news, I looked back and found this story from Capital Gains: Sleepwalker Spirits and Ale aims to open Eastside distillery. I'm not sure if it's related, Sleepwalkers site only mentions opening a tap room at Allen Street Market. There's also a distillery at MSU, it could be somehow related: Red Cedar Spirits Facebook.
About City Hall, I remember the Senate being interested in the building. I'm not sure that the timing of the Senate moving to sell the Farnum Building followed by the City looking into selling City Hall are coincidence. It would be the perfect building for the Senate, it's the size they need, has basement parking and is directly adjacent to the Capitol and House buildings.
City Hall is nearly twice the size of Farnum, which is only 78k sq ft. I can't find any official square footage for City Hall, but I remember hearing it was around 150k sq ft, which would agree with my SketchUp model. I'm pretty certain that if the timing works, which it looks like it may, the Senate will get City Hall, the past rumors coupled with the timing of their respective announcements makes it fairly likely in my mind. I really don't see a hotel there, there's little parking, no views on two sides and there's just so many other places you could put a hotel. I continue to think that office is a fine use for buildings along Capitol. Grand and its cross streets with Washington should be the focus of residential and retail growth, that'll be difficult enough.
This adds to the concerns of the LPD's move to HIll: The hidden cost of moving LPD. It also adds the interesting twist of Hepler trying to get first right of refusal on City Hall, he thinks apartments or a hotel would go good there. Whatever happens I don't think LPD moving to Hill is a good idea, the only real positive being the renovations to the building.
Comments
Is it just me or does it seem that Lansing has reached a tipping point? I know we were close back before the recession, but as it becomes easier to finance it seems as though much of that previous momentum has remained. If this continues like it should Lansing's next ten years may be reminiscent of Grand Rapids' last ten, even if slightly scaled down.
-New Meijers
-The upcoming southside pathway
-Southside Community Center
-New small plaza at MLK & Holmes that's actually very well built
-Logan Square was remodeled, looks like it has fairly low vacancy. (Not to say it's very nice, but it's such an improvement over what it was, let alone if it were abandoned)
-Old Holiday Inn was remodeled and rebranded as Best Western Plus
-Several credit unions have built new buildings
-Several new dollar stores in areas that haven't seen any new retail in a long time
While all this certainly isn't impressive, nor is any of it very desirable developments, it does show that these corridors are not dead. You mentioned Cedar between Greenlawn and Holmes, even there things are a bit better. The gas station at Brookland and Cedar was finally tore down, another building down there was used to sell fireworks out of getting it's first use since I can remember and the buildings across from the old south precinct were restored. On MLK a few small, long vacant retail buildings have recently been reoccupied also, I just feel like the area is on the verge of some real improvements.
I think the best tactic to really reviving the southside is twofold: Cedar and MLK are the main target for redevelopment, second priority are select intersections away from those corridors. On Cedar and MLK, the city could do great by burying power lines, installing more welcoming streetlights and figuring out a solution to streetscaping that's low cost and low maintenance so we don't see a repeat of Cedar's current streetscaping. There are plenty of intersections that need varying degrees of improvement, but there's no better example than Holmes & Pleasant Grove. That little node of trash retail and apartments within two or three blocks of there has been a huge detriment to that neighborhood.
The key point for me in all this is that the southside is for the most part in decent shape. It shouldn't take too much work to stabilize it and get it to where it's steadily improving. Like you, I just hope it isn't ignored. If it is it will likely bring down the whole city, undoing all that's been done up until that point.
When it comes to Pennsylvania there really much to say. That corridor is struggling and always has, it's not cohesive enough, as you said the car lots are the only things really holding it together. Whereas with Cedar and MLK I see real opportunities for improvement, there's no clear solution to south Penn's conundrum, it may be the type of thing a master plan could fix though.
On a side note I just reminded myself of something to watch out for on the southside: the potential redevelopment of Walter French. I seem to remember reading an article somewhat recently about Eyde turning it into apartments. It certainly would be good for the area, a great use for the building and given the improving housing market it seems more likely than ever. If it does get done it could lead to one of my favorite dream projects in Lansing, a mixed use redevelopment of that whole factory area at Mt Hope and Washington.
The idea they always discussed before was to combine all city offices, the county courts and Lansing police/jail into one new facility. I hope that's still the plan. I think that the only way for it to make sense is if it involves as many components as possible. If it does play out that way, this is going to be a big project, probably over 500k sq ft. I imagine they could buy the lot in front of Constitution Hall from Eyde and split the block up into two or three buildings along with a parking ramp and a sort of public square. That'd be my ideal outcome of a City Hall move.
About City Hall, I remember the Senate being interested in the building. I'm not sure that the timing of the Senate moving to sell the Farnum Building followed by the City looking into selling City Hall are coincidence. It would be the perfect building for the Senate, it's the size they need, has basement parking and is directly adjacent to the Capitol and House buildings.