I honestly can't imagine it being anything major. Maybe a one or two-story office building or something. My hope would be that they'd utilize the land as best they could, but it just strikes me in my gut that it's probably going to be something non-descript that would fit with the existing character of this freeway service drive. It's certainly not going to be anything that would require a whole lot of additional parking.
BTW, I read about Washington's "no" vote on The Abigail and her attempt to explain it and it just made me sad. lol It was something like she was concerned about future working-class residents of the building having to share entrances and hallways and other common areas with the homeless. lol I was totally non-sensical and made he sound out-of-touch and insensitive, and then were was some quote about "Don't let it be printed that Washington doesn't care about poor people" or something to that extent. The whole line of questioning from Wood and Washington on this project was just bizzare, as if this was the first project in the city or even this neighborhood that has ever had partially subsidized and/or rent-restricted housing. Old Forest/Walnut is a very poor area even by Lansing standards. This would actually raise land-values in the area while still actually being affordable.
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.
Hood, I think you're right after reading the rezoning request in the City Pulse, just now. It specifically states "The purpose of the rezoning is to permit the construction of a mixed use building at this location" so you were right in that this will at least be two stories. The request is by Studio Intrigue.
hood, I was just looking at 616 South Washington (the parking lot at Washington and St. Joe), and it still appears listed on loopnet for sale at a price of just under $400,000, though, the pages says it was last updated 13 days ago. Anyway, I've seen this kind of thing before were a property owner doesn't necessarily have to request the rezoning of the property. It's completely possible this is still owned by AF and they've asked the architect to lead up the process and speak on their behalf.
I'm not surprised to see Studio Intrigue involved in this, though, given that they were initially involved with coming up with a plan across the freeway at the site of the old motel. It'd really be something if both these were developed in the next few years. Heck, the parking lot directly across the street from 616 S. Washington (the parking lot for the Michigan Retailers Association) isn't necessary if a small parking garage is developed along the 500 block of South Washington on that huge surface lot in front of the old credit union tower - of course this block is big enough to include more than just a parking garage, but this site alone could take up the entire demand for commercial parking in the south end of the CBD.
I knew they were working on it, but I was still under the impression that they needed more money to get it back up fully running. This kind of went under the radar, huh?
In the LSJ story is an updated on the former Lansing Metal Center and Lansing Craft Centre sites in Lansing Township on the westside. Apparently, the GM bankruptcy spin-off company that owns the two sites (and two more in the area) is marketing them exclusively as light industrial sites since the pollution on the site is a bit more than they anticipated.
This is a bit disappointing to hear as the hope was that they'd clean up the sites enough to be able to support a number of different uses. I guess it's still possible if a local government helped with funding clean-up or RACER cobbled together some grants to do it, but that seems unlikely without a local government really pushing hard for them to do more with the sites. I've always said I want Bernero to lead this up, though, that would require some kind of annexation or 425 tax sharing agreements. Then again, the city of Lansing already has half of the former Verlinden plant that it has to take care of, but I'm sure it'd be easier to market this land if it were all in one jurisidiction.
EDIT: The MLive version of this story says that RACER will probably be doing remediation on the site even after they sell it, so I guess they are in this for the long-run. Both stories say that they've been approached by an auto parts supplier and the BWL (for a solar farm), and that whenever they do sell the land, they will only be selling it to companies with immediate plans for the site.
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BTW, I read about Washington's "no" vote on The Abigail and her attempt to explain it and it just made me sad. lol It was something like she was concerned about future working-class residents of the building having to share entrances and hallways and other common areas with the homeless. lol I was totally non-sensical and made he sound out-of-touch and insensitive, and then were was some quote about "Don't let it be printed that Washington doesn't care about poor people" or something to that extent. The whole line of questioning from Wood and Washington on this project was just bizzare, as if this was the first project in the city or even this neighborhood that has ever had partially subsidized and/or rent-restricted housing. Old Forest/Walnut is a very poor area even by Lansing standards. This would actually raise land-values in the area while still actually being affordable.
I think you're right about parking being a major limitation for this property, it'll be interesting to see what they have planned.
I'm not surprised to see Studio Intrigue involved in this, though, given that they were initially involved with coming up with a plan across the freeway at the site of the old motel. It'd really be something if both these were developed in the next few years. Heck, the parking lot directly across the street from 616 S. Washington (the parking lot for the Michigan Retailers Association) isn't necessary if a small parking garage is developed along the 500 block of South Washington on that huge surface lot in front of the old credit union tower - of course this block is big enough to include more than just a parking garage, but this site alone could take up the entire demand for commercial parking in the south end of the CBD.
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?
This is a bit disappointing to hear as the hope was that they'd clean up the sites enough to be able to support a number of different uses. I guess it's still possible if a local government helped with funding clean-up or RACER cobbled together some grants to do it, but that seems unlikely without a local government really pushing hard for them to do more with the sites. I've always said I want Bernero to lead this up, though, that would require some kind of annexation or 425 tax sharing agreements. Then again, the city of Lansing already has half of the former Verlinden plant that it has to take care of, but I'm sure it'd be easier to market this land if it were all in one jurisidiction.
EDIT: The MLive version of this story says that RACER will probably be doing remediation on the site even after they sell it, so I guess they are in this for the long-run. Both stories say that they've been approached by an auto parts supplier and the BWL (for a solar farm), and that whenever they do sell the land, they will only be selling it to companies with immediate plans for the site.