Driving by the Lansing Center, today, I noticed that old Mill Supply Company across the street has been redeveloped as an art gallery. Then I get home and read the City Pulse to find that is, indeed, the case. I had no idea this redevelopment was taking place.
also, in a surprise move, Davenport is staying downtown and actually moving into the heart of the CBD at the Fifth Third Bank building at Allegan and Grand. The Boji Group will begin renovations this fall and complete it in next summer. The Boji Group also gets their current campus at Kalamazoo and Grand, but have no immediate plans for the land. I'm happy the Boji's get the land, though, because we know have a developer capable of developing the land whenever there is demand for it. I really think that corner would make for an modest apartment tower. It's an important gateway that needs an impressive filler to go along with the MSP headquarters.
I was doing some random searching, and came across the fact that the surface lot at 505 Allegan (directly southwest of the Capitol) is up for sale by Sam Eyde Management. I've been looking at this piece of land for years wondering why it wasn't up for sale, and apparently it has been. lol It's 3.5 acres. I wonder how much they are asking for it?
I have a feeling that whenever it is developed, it'll probably be developed as another super-block state office building, but my dream for that land has always been for something mixed used, maybe even a small downtown open-aired retail mall with an interior courtyard along the lines of something like Cherry Creek. It'd be physically oriented to have straight sightlines to the capitol building across the street. Whatever it is, it's definitely a large enough piece of land that it would be best to subdivide it.
The LSJ is reporting that the Boji's and the Lansing Housing Commission have purchased Davenport's campus at Kalamazoo and Cherry & Grand. It sounds like the Lansing Housing Commission will use the existing building(s) on Cherry for offices - I think it's the library. Boji will use the property along Kalamazoo. There is no word on what they want to do or when they want to do it, but it looks like they've worked this out. This also finally and totally frees up the Oliver Towers site.
Anyone been on West Saginaw Street, lately? I knew it had been talked about for years that they were going to narrow it and add a bike lane, but I hadn't ever heard them actually commit to them. Anyway, the LSJ reported yesterday that they were adding the lane from the western city limit to the River Trail. I was there, today, and it's a bit more sophisticated than I thought. They took out the right lane; half of it is used for the actual bike lane and the other half as a buffer against traffic. Really neat.
Sparrow Hospital has made an offer to buy the vacant Bingham Elementary from the Lansing School District. The school is immediately across the street from the hospital. So long as they don't use the land for parking, I'll be happy. I've actually always thought that Sparrow should get someone to develop a small hotel as apart of their complex considering how many out-of-town folks and their families are serviced at the hospital. It'd also spur development along the avenue and perhaps take it to the next level. The more in between downtown and the hospital along Michigan, the better.
The Lansing City Pulse had a City of Lansing public notice posted in the November 14-20 edition, which stated that Studio Intrigue Architects are requesting the rezoning of 600 East Michigan (abandoned gas station at Larch and Michigan) from light industrial to business district for the purpose of building a mixed-use building. Obviously, this hasn't been publically proposed yet, but I wonder what the plan looks like? I suspect they are going to do something like the Avenue Flats down Michign at Marshall on the site of the former gas station.
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also, in a surprise move, Davenport is staying downtown and actually moving into the heart of the CBD at the Fifth Third Bank building at Allegan and Grand. The Boji Group will begin renovations this fall and complete it in next summer. The Boji Group also gets their current campus at Kalamazoo and Grand, but have no immediate plans for the land. I'm happy the Boji's get the land, though, because we know have a developer capable of developing the land whenever there is demand for it. I really think that corner would make for an modest apartment tower. It's an important gateway that needs an impressive filler to go along with the MSP headquarters.
I have a feeling that whenever it is developed, it'll probably be developed as another super-block state office building, but my dream for that land has always been for something mixed used, maybe even a small downtown open-aired retail mall with an interior courtyard along the lines of something like Cherry Creek. It'd be physically oriented to have straight sightlines to the capitol building across the street. Whatever it is, it's definitely a large enough piece of land that it would be best to subdivide it.