So I was driving by the old Dykstra Ford/Metro Ford building on MLK and Holmes the other night and it hit me as I passed it that there were lights on inside the building and what I thought was scaffolding. I tried to see if there was still a For Sale sign in front but I couldn't tell. I don't drive by there very often so I haven't been back by there. Has anyone noticed anything going on there? It would be nice to see something happen with that building.
@cliffordzang I haven't been over that way much lately, but I'll definitely look when I make it by there. It would be really nice to see that building reused or at least demolished. I just can't imagine what good the building would be for anything besides a car dealership though.
I just meant that I doubt LBWL can develop sufficient renewables, certainly within their service area, to replace Eckert anyway. Even now the bulk of their renewable's portfolio is landfill-gas generated electricity purchased from Granger. (Which is fine but... not the sort of energy production you see put people on the cover of pro-renewables documents!)
PS - what happened with the Dunham's in Frandor Plus?
So this is kind of a random question, but it's development related so I'll risk it - what happened to the McDonald's in Frandor? Used to be a fine place, one of my former students managed there, so I enjoyed seeing her when I dropped in. Then it got renovated. Now I believe it has two drivethroughs, which I figured to be the main purpose of the renovation. But they changed around the interior, got rid of all the Oldsmobile stuff so now it looks like generic McDonald's, moved stuff around so that now I believe they have less seating than before, installed a screen to show which order is ready that I've never seen them use, and the speed of service has probably decreased by a factor of 3. (Actually the employees seem much more chatty, much less dedicated to efficiency than they used to be. My former student also changed jobs about the same time, wonder if many people did. Maybe they cut wages?) Went there tonight, 5:30 PM on a Saturday, and the only people there besides me were a couple possibly homeless men, in any case one asked me for money (inside the McDonald's), and the other warned me that "oh man, so and so spilled beer on that seat earlier".
So... what happened? From the outside what it looks like is it used to be owned by a Lansing resident who loved the city and cared about his business, then he sold it to some company that "by golly we know what a McDonald's by an interstate is supposed to look like" who changed a bunch of things and had no idea how much they'd hurt the place. That's 100% speculation mind you, that's just what it looks like from the outside. Yeah it's just McDonald's, but kind of sad to see all the same.
I see, interesting photo. No there is still a Dunham's there, that's why I was confused, but the building doesn't look like that. And "Inovalon", which is probably the "tech center" you're thinking of, is right next door. If Dunham's used to occupy that whole building they don't anymore.
Also that whole development does the best job clearing snow, they seem to really love their parking lot.
Don't know - walking by it rather often as I do, it certainly looks like a call center. The biggest collection of cubicles you have ever seen, my friends.
There's an item in this weeks city council packet setting a public hearing for a PILOT tax incentive for the Saboury Building at 1113 N Washington. This was proposed quite awhile ago and I thought it was dead, here's a rendering of the initial proposal (there's no new details in the council packet):
Hope this is a realistic proposal. The scale and style seems perfect for this area and I'd love to see the little commercial building come back to life.
Comments
PS - what happened with the Dunham's in Frandor Plus?
So... what happened? From the outside what it looks like is it used to be owned by a Lansing resident who loved the city and cared about his business, then he sold it to some company that "by golly we know what a McDonald's by an interstate is supposed to look like" who changed a bunch of things and had no idea how much they'd hurt the place. That's 100% speculation mind you, that's just what it looks like from the outside. Yeah it's just McDonald's, but kind of sad to see all the same.
Also that whole development does the best job clearing snow, they seem to really love their parking lot.