The only thing really of note is the level of confidence in Ferguson's quote regarding Red Cedar Renaissance, he said: “We’re good to go”,“We’ve got a strong project.” It's also noted that the development agreement for Red Cedar will be sent to council soon.
Edit:
Also, The Abigail project was passed by City Council: Council approves low-income housing project in Abigail building. I went and looked at the council agenda and noticed that they also set a public hearing for Hepler's new apartments, and much more interestingly, a public hearing to rezone the parking lot at the NW corner of Washington and St Joe to G-1 (the same zoning as the denser areas of Washington Square and Michigan Avenue). This lot was for sale last I knew so I thought that they may be rezoning it to make it more salable, but I checked CPIX and it isn't listed there anymore, I checked the City's property info page and it still lists Accident Fund as the owner. The public hearing is July 28th, hopefully we can find out more, I'm really hoping to hear that there are already plans for the site, if there is something will probably be in the news before the public hearing.
Anything but a fast-food restaurant with drive-thru or a gas station would be good for the corner of Washington and St. Joe. It would be great to get rid of one of the surface parking lots in that area.
I'm pretty certain that it won't be a fast food restaurant or anything like that, I doubt one would even be allowed in G-1. I'm sure whatever goes here couldn't be too small scale, I remember the asking price for the property was something like $1.5 million, it seems to me they'd have to do something decent sized to justify the price. I'd hate to guess on a property like this but I would think something 2-4 floors and at least 20k sq ft would be plausible, though something larger is certainly possible and anything smaller may have trouble passing city council.
Regarding Crego, I heard about the grants and the plans, but I don't remember ever hearing anything about an opening date. I'm wondering how long it's already been open.
It is disappointing to hear that they plan exclusively industrial redevelopment on the sites, but I shouldn't of expected better. As for the solar farm, it seems like a very dumb idea to seriously go after solar energy in Michigan and it would be a huge waste to use up a large tract of land in the middle of the city for one. At least something real is finally happening with the sites.
While on the subject of GM, the logistics plant over at LGR looks to have all it's steel up, and it looks larger than I anticipated. They have also started the foundation for what I assume is the stamping plant right along the east side of the northbound MLK bridge.
You know, I try not to criticize it, because something is generally better than nothing - but I seriously do not understand why LBWL wants to expand their solar facilities. The output of the Cedar Street array is so miniscule I can only conclude we have it for publicity purposes only, so we can say we "do solar". Per LBWL's own reports, the array produces about 65 MWh of electricity per year, almost certainly not even enough to power the Stadium District right next door. For comparison, LBWL's entire renewables portfolio (most of it purchased from Granger) produces 85,000 MWh.
Right, the fact that it is on otherwise-idle land is a redeeming feature. But the average American home uses about 11 MWh per year - so the array can only power about 6, not 50. From what I've read, 50 was the original expectation, and about 500 MWh was the expected output - I would love to know why we're sitting (and have been, year after year) at about 1/10 of that. Did somebody mess up the initial calculation, or is there some sort of equipment problem that has plagued the array from the beginning? I don't know why output is so much below what was expected.
Comments
The only thing really of note is the level of confidence in Ferguson's quote regarding Red Cedar Renaissance, he said: “We’re good to go”,“We’ve got a strong project.” It's also noted that the development agreement for Red Cedar will be sent to council soon.
Edit:
Also, The Abigail project was passed by City Council: Council approves low-income housing project in Abigail building. I went and looked at the council agenda and noticed that they also set a public hearing for Hepler's new apartments, and much more interestingly, a public hearing to rezone the parking lot at the NW corner of Washington and St Joe to G-1 (the same zoning as the denser areas of Washington Square and Michigan Avenue). This lot was for sale last I knew so I thought that they may be rezoning it to make it more salable, but I checked CPIX and it isn't listed there anymore, I checked the City's property info page and it still lists Accident Fund as the owner. The public hearing is July 28th, hopefully we can find out more, I'm really hoping to hear that there are already plans for the site, if there is something will probably be in the news before the public hearing.
I think you're right about parking being a major limitation for this property, it'll be interesting to see what they have planned.
On another note, I noticed that Lansing Towers is for sale, I hope any new owner looks into a major overhaul there.
I didn't even know Crego Park had already opened, did anyone else hear about it?
It is disappointing to hear that they plan exclusively industrial redevelopment on the sites, but I shouldn't of expected better. As for the solar farm, it seems like a very dumb idea to seriously go after solar energy in Michigan and it would be a huge waste to use up a large tract of land in the middle of the city for one. At least something real is finally happening with the sites.
While on the subject of GM, the logistics plant over at LGR looks to have all it's steel up, and it looks larger than I anticipated. They have also started the foundation for what I assume is the stamping plant right along the east side of the northbound MLK bridge.