Lansing City Council will be reviewing these development-related items at the Feburary 3 city council meeting:
- A request for rezoning of 930 West Holmes from F Commercial to G Wholesale District. 930 West Holmes is a 9.2 acre, 120,000 square foot modern office building which backs up along to Southland Road and in between MLK and Washington. For a long time it was the home of EDS's Lansing offices and the structure was completed in 1968. It has a 500-space surface lot out front. It doesn't specify who is seeking this rezoning or for what. G-2 Wholesale is usually used for warehousing, enclosed garages, etc...but also general retail, so who really knows. Anyone heard any rumors about this?
- A request for SLU permit (Special Land Use) for 4209 South Pennsylvania to allow the existing building to be used as an "exprimental laboratory" for only god knows what. This is a small building at the northeast corner of Pennsylvania and Cavanaugh across from the Quality Dairy. It's one of a group of three idential buildings along that stretch of the road built in 1968.
- A request for rezoing of 810 West Ottawa (former SOBI Square) from purely residential zonings to a mix of professional office and residential to allow for the construction of residential townhomes, condos, offices and a few neighborhood retail spots. This it the Michigan Association of Broadcasters plan released a few months back.
I've always thought Krogers should take over the EDS building as it's a better location, it would also allow them to renovate it while staying open in their current building which is getting pretty rundown. I would think it will be some kind of retail though, regardless of use It'll be great to see that building getting used again.
I'm curious to see if that building on Penn is anything interesting. Here's to hoping it's a business with huge growth potential, even better if it's something cutting edge. Probably just a place to draw blood or something though...
There is no explict mention of redevelopment of the EDS property in the rezoning request, and it would take quite reconstruction to change it to retail usage. If they were going for retail, they could easily fill the actual retail buildings directly north that line Southland. I imagine this might be a tear-down and rebuild. My dream for this whole area around Logan Square is a densification of the area. This is the only place on the southside outside of South Lansing down by Edgewood that could realistically be redeveloped as a major town center. It's really clear if you a pedestrian who ill-used the land is in this area, and it becomes just as clear with aerial shots.
BTW, I was just looking at the city's interactive zoning map of the area, and save for the Rite-Aid and Colonial Bar and Grill, almost the entire area around MLK and Holmes is zoned F-1 Commercial. So changing the zoning for this huge plot of land to G-2 Wholesale is going to be a big change for the area. Here's the definition for G-2 Wholesale:
The intent of the "G-2" Wholesale District is to permit the wholesale and warehousing of products, and to permit the packaging, assembly or treatment of products within an enclosed structure.
Permitted Uses: Wholesome and warehouse activities within an enclosed structure, as well as general retail and public garages.
And, here's the definition for F-1 Commercial:
The intent of the "F" and "F-1" Commercial Districts is to allow general retail commercial uses.
Permitted Uses: General retail uses (ie., comparison retail, theater, hotel) as well as convenience retail and office uses.
I'd love this to be retail, but if it were likely they'd have simply kept at F-1 Commercial. I guess it depends on what "general retail" means, which I guess in this case relative to other retail zonings might mean some kind of meat/vegetable packing plant with a small retail outlet somewhere on premises. You know, basically somewhere where a product is both processed and sold. When I get the time I'll look around the map to see what other kind of businesses in Lansing are currently zoned G-2 Wholesale.
I'd honestly like to see some retail at that spot on on Penn; it doesn't even have to be particularly urban given the location. Because, basically, QD is the only general retail on Penn between Jolly and the bridge up near the hospital, and I'm not even sure if there is any retail in that little plaza up there, anymore.
This building would be an infinitely better location than those run down, forgotten about storefronts on Southland. The area would have to be bustling for those to fill in with any high value businesses. The EDS location however, would be as good a retail location as you could get on the Southside besides being on Cedar or Edgewood. Whether new construction or not, retail would seem to be by far the best use of the site. Although if the redevelopment were retail it would make the rezoning odd given the zoning descriptions you found. Who knows. As I mentioned before though, both the Cedar and MLK corridors seem to be on a decent upswing and putting the EDS site back to use would help a lot.
I'm gonna guess that it's getting rezoned towards actually using it for a warehousing. Maybe something like the Meijer warehouse on Creyts Road. It would be great if it were an Amazon distribution center.
Check out this historic photo (1906) from the City of Lansing Public Service Department:
This is looking north along Cedar (or maybe where Larch is, now) just south of where 496 is, today. The old railroad tracks is where the River Trail is, now, and you can see the old steel Kalamazoo Street Bridge, which was actually the old Michigan Avenue Bridge before a new bridge was put up at Michigan Avenue. This old steel structure would be replaced by a knew bridge at Kzoo in 1925.
Haven't had time to read the report to see there reasons why, but some outfit called the Urban Institute metro Lansing will be the second fastest growing metropolitan area in the state (after Mount Pleasant) upon the 2030 Census:
LANSING – Mid-Michigan will see the state's biggest population booms by 2030 and will be among the fastest-growing regions in the country, according to a new report from the Washington-based Urban Institute.
The Greater Lansing area will have 540,960 residents by 2030, a nearly 17-percent increase, the report forecasts. The Mount Pleasant region will grow even faster, expanding nearly 21 percent to 172,909 residents by 2030.
I was just along Southland Avenue, today, which is the street between MLK and Washington north of Holmes, and noticed the building directly behind the old EDS Center mentioned that a skating rink would be opening up inside it, soon. So I looked up the property just to make sure it's not part of the EDS Center, and it's not. Seems like a weird place for a skating rink, but I guess I'm glad to see this area getting more attention as of late. The whole area around here needs to be redeveloped, quite frankly, as a southside town square.
If they do it right I think they should get good business. There's not a lot to do on the southside and from their Fb page it looks like there will be more than just skating.
Not sure if the media ever followed up on this, but the plan to turn the parking lots in front of the Hall of Justice into a park is still moving forward.
These are months out of date, now, and I can't find anything more recent, but the last time I remember posting about this was before November, so it looks like the process is formally started.
Comments
- A request for rezoning of 930 West Holmes from F Commercial to G Wholesale District. 930 West Holmes is a 9.2 acre, 120,000 square foot modern office building which backs up along to Southland Road and in between MLK and Washington. For a long time it was the home of EDS's Lansing offices and the structure was completed in 1968. It has a 500-space surface lot out front. It doesn't specify who is seeking this rezoning or for what. G-2 Wholesale is usually used for warehousing, enclosed garages, etc...but also general retail, so who really knows. Anyone heard any rumors about this?
- A request for SLU permit (Special Land Use) for 4209 South Pennsylvania to allow the existing building to be used as an "exprimental laboratory" for only god knows what. This is a small building at the northeast corner of Pennsylvania and Cavanaugh across from the Quality Dairy. It's one of a group of three idential buildings along that stretch of the road built in 1968.
- A request for rezoing of 810 West Ottawa (former SOBI Square) from purely residential zonings to a mix of professional office and residential to allow for the construction of residential townhomes, condos, offices and a few neighborhood retail spots. This it the Michigan Association of Broadcasters plan released a few months back.
I'm curious to see if that building on Penn is anything interesting. Here's to hoping it's a business with huge growth potential, even better if it's something cutting edge. Probably just a place to draw blood or something though...
BTW, I was just looking at the city's interactive zoning map of the area, and save for the Rite-Aid and Colonial Bar and Grill, almost the entire area around MLK and Holmes is zoned F-1 Commercial. So changing the zoning for this huge plot of land to G-2 Wholesale is going to be a big change for the area. Here's the definition for G-2 Wholesale:
And, here's the definition for F-1 Commercial:
I'd love this to be retail, but if it were likely they'd have simply kept at F-1 Commercial. I guess it depends on what "general retail" means, which I guess in this case relative to other retail zonings might mean some kind of meat/vegetable packing plant with a small retail outlet somewhere on premises. You know, basically somewhere where a product is both processed and sold. When I get the time I'll look around the map to see what other kind of businesses in Lansing are currently zoned G-2 Wholesale.
I'd honestly like to see some retail at that spot on on Penn; it doesn't even have to be particularly urban given the location. Because, basically, QD is the only general retail on Penn between Jolly and the bridge up near the hospital, and I'm not even sure if there is any retail in that little plaza up there, anymore.
This is looking north along Cedar (or maybe where Larch is, now) just south of where 496 is, today. The old railroad tracks is where the River Trail is, now, and you can see the old steel Kalamazoo Street Bridge, which was actually the old Michigan Avenue Bridge before a new bridge was put up at Michigan Avenue. This old steel structure would be replaced by a knew bridge at Kzoo in 1925.
1948:
1961:
Crazy, huh?
Who knows what will happen, but it's nice to see Lansing continue to get good press.
If they do it right I think they should get good business. There's not a lot to do on the southside and from their Fb page it looks like there will be more than just skating.
http://www.lansingmi.gov/media/view/PublicInvitePDF_10_22_14/7440
http://www.lansingmi.gov/media/view/FocusGroupInviteRSVP/7443
These are months out of date, now, and I can't find anything more recent, but the last time I remember posting about this was before November, so it looks like the process is formally started.