I had forgot that the public hearing for 616 S Washington was back on July 28th, there were a few details on what's proposed in the meeting packet. I figured it'd be easiest just to copy this paragraph:
"The property to be rezoned is located at the northwest corner of E. St. Joseph and S. Washington
A venue. The purpose of the rezoning is to permit the construction of a 4-story building that would
consist of first floor office/commercial space and 51 upper level residential units ( 18 efficiency units,
15 1-bedroom units & 18 2-bedroom units). Although no parking would be required under the "G-1"
Business zoning, 44 interior parking spaces would be located on the first floor of the building. In
addition, the applicant intends to construct 3 5 surface parking lots on the property to the north at 608
S. Washington Avenue and 27 spaces to the west at 611 S. Capitol Avenue for a total of 106 parking
spaces altogether which would be more than adequate to accommodate the needs of the proposed
building."
And a rendering:
I really don't think I like this design, especially the fact that only 1/3 of the buildings frontage on Washington will be retail, the rest will be first floor parking. But bravo to Studio Intrigue for doing something different for a change, even if it does look ugly in that rendering.
That's good to hear, I wonder what building they're going into. With all those renovated storefronts (and likely more to come) I expect to see REO Town gain several new businesses in the near future.
Oh, no. They have got to do something with that ground floor on 616 South Washington. That is inexcusable. It literally doens't look like it's part of the rest of the building. Intrigue can do better than that. I mean, the rest of the design is passable as infill, but that ground floor doesn't work on any level.
It almost seems that this is a case of the developer adding in a minimal amount of first floor commercial space just to appease the city. The fact that 3/4 of the buildings first floor is parking is bad, but that they're orienting the commercial space more towards St Joe is a head scratcher. I really want to see the first floor commercial space along the building's entire side facing Washington, it'd seem to make sense from the developers point of view also.
EDIT: Since I was talking about it, here's the first floor plan:
Hood, was this a setting or a public hearing for the project or a rezoning? I'm wondering if pressure can't be placed on the planning board - or if we're beyond that point the city council - to try and get them to orient that retail to Washington. St. Joseph is essentially a freeway service drive, and them orienting the storefront onto that street is just bizarre.
BTW, I noticed a week or so ago at the northeast corner of Michigan and Ferguson (about a block from the hospital) that Soup Spoon has expanded its parking lot to the corner. It now basically stretches half the block. Of course, I'm disappointed whenever I see more parking placed on a major urban thoroughfare in Lansing. At the same time, I knew there was no way their existing parking lot and street parking could handle the parking needs of this place. Whenever I pass by it in the evening, it's always packed.
The funny thing is that right across the Ferguson on the northwest corner there appears to be construction equipment on that surface parking lot. It looks like it could be utility work (I see what I think is a water main that they are trying to bury), but I wonder if it's not utility work to facilitate development of the site? Is this parking lot included with rest of the block? I remember we discussed potential development on the old tire place, but I can't remember if it includes this parcel on the block.
The 28th was the public hearing and it was up for passage on Monday. In the packet, Public Services noted that any development will require a site plan review.
Your talking about the lot next to the Goodyear building? If so, I"m willing to bet that Gillespie owns that too, and that would seem to make a future development pretty likely.
Yep, I'm talking about the surface lot immediately to the east of the old Goodyear. I guess I'll go look it up on the city website.
EDIT: So it appears that the parking lot is actually three different parcels (and surround a privately owned parcel on three sides). They are all owned by Sparrow. I think I remember talking about this a year or two ago, now that I think of it. I remember them saying they were demolishing the buildings on site to use as a parking lot. I guess I'm even more confused, now, then, about what they are doing.
It seems odd for them to have such a small lot isolated from the rest of their properties, it looks to only have about 20 spaces. If they don't acquire that Goodyear building I can't imagine they'll find much reason to hold onto it.
I'm just hoping Sparrow doesn't go around hording property. I know they need to plan into the future, but there's no reason for them to own properties like that parking lot, they need to just sell it for development.
Comments
In trying to find something on that bridge I found Potter Park's master plan.
"The property to be rezoned is located at the northwest corner of E. St. Joseph and S. Washington
A venue. The purpose of the rezoning is to permit the construction of a 4-story building that would
consist of first floor office/commercial space and 51 upper level residential units ( 18 efficiency units,
15 1-bedroom units & 18 2-bedroom units). Although no parking would be required under the "G-1"
Business zoning, 44 interior parking spaces would be located on the first floor of the building. In
addition, the applicant intends to construct 3 5 surface parking lots on the property to the north at 608
S. Washington Avenue and 27 spaces to the west at 611 S. Capitol Avenue for a total of 106 parking
spaces altogether which would be more than adequate to accommodate the needs of the proposed
building."
And a rendering:
I really don't think I like this design, especially the fact that only 1/3 of the buildings frontage on Washington will be retail, the rest will be first floor parking. But bravo to Studio Intrigue for doing something different for a change, even if it does look ugly in that rendering.
EDIT: Since I was talking about it, here's the first floor plan:
BTW, I noticed a week or so ago at the northeast corner of Michigan and Ferguson (about a block from the hospital) that Soup Spoon has expanded its parking lot to the corner. It now basically stretches half the block. Of course, I'm disappointed whenever I see more parking placed on a major urban thoroughfare in Lansing. At the same time, I knew there was no way their existing parking lot and street parking could handle the parking needs of this place. Whenever I pass by it in the evening, it's always packed.
The funny thing is that right across the Ferguson on the northwest corner there appears to be construction equipment on that surface parking lot. It looks like it could be utility work (I see what I think is a water main that they are trying to bury), but I wonder if it's not utility work to facilitate development of the site? Is this parking lot included with rest of the block? I remember we discussed potential development on the old tire place, but I can't remember if it includes this parcel on the block.
Your talking about the lot next to the Goodyear building? If so, I"m willing to bet that Gillespie owns that too, and that would seem to make a future development pretty likely.
EDIT: So it appears that the parking lot is actually three different parcels (and surround a privately owned parcel on three sides). They are all owned by Sparrow. I think I remember talking about this a year or two ago, now that I think of it. I remember them saying they were demolishing the buildings on site to use as a parking lot. I guess I'm even more confused, now, then, about what they are doing.
I'm just hoping Sparrow doesn't go around hording property. I know they need to plan into the future, but there's no reason for them to own properties like that parking lot, they need to just sell it for development.