Oh, don't read me wrong about bringing up downtown, again. It's not my typical rant. I was only saying that this would physically be huge even in downtown Lansing. It's unusual that I complain about size, but I really don't want Frandor developed at these densities. I wanted something a bit more substantial than what is there, now, but this should be a secondary node, no something to rival Lansing or East Lansing. I wanted it developed as a midtown-type district, really nothing over five or six stories, something to give potential residents an option above kind of low-density, single-family neighborhoods or even apartment complexes, but below urban "downtown" living. I guess it's not even the height, but just the scale of this thing. Again, we're coming up on nearly 670,000 square feet, which is literally bigger than anything in downtown Lansing. The road layout in the area is already crazy. Adding nearly 360 units right out on Michigan is going to be a nightmare without greatly increasing transit service on that section of Michigan, and that still leaves a crazy amount of cars if they want to go north trying to get on 127 on the exit way up at Grand River. That area is already crazy with eastbound traffic trying to merge on to Saginaw off of 127.
Laux Construction, the builders of the train station, also seem to be the contractors on the "gateway" landscaping project of LCC at the corner of Capitol and Saginaw:
Just sprawl, but it's always good to keep track of it. An Ohio-developer is developing 162, one-story apartment units just outside our freeway loop along Willow Highway. Currently, the land looks to be a small farm and wilde area behind that.
Apparently, they will be marketed at empty-nesters and be high-end. Generally, this kind of residential development in Delta Township has been kept east of 96 and north of 496, but that seems impossible to do with Delta also having allowed Marketplace to be built west of the Saginaw/96 interchange.
I called it. For the first time in many, many years, Lansing has posted a legit population growth according to the Census's latest sub-county estimates released, today. From the Detroit News:
Other good news for Michigan is that Detroit's loss has slowed considerably. Last decades it was loosing an average of 2.5% of its population per year. That has been cut in more than half to a loss of less than 1% per year and steadily falling. Anyway, it appears Lansing has finally turned the corner. I expect next periods gain 2014-2015 to post even higher growth rates. To put this into perspective, Lansing went from showing a loss of 0.3% in last years estimate (113,972) to a gain of 0.3%.
GM is adding back a second shift at Lansing Grand River to build the new Camaro. This $175 million retooling will mean the addition of 500 workers to the 1,300 who work on the first shift. LGR currently makes the CTS and ATS. Production will start on the new Camaro late this summer.
Lansing's really been hitting on all cylinders, lately.
I'm still digging through the recent municipal-level Census estimates. Of course, these should always be taken with a grain of salt, and a few stuck out to me, and I want to see if anyone has any idea as to what may be causing these swings.
- Aurelius Township, which immediately west of Mason with College Road making up its eastern border and directly south of Delhi Township, is showing a 20% population increase insce 2010, which I believe would make it the fastest growing municipality in Metro Lansing. Does anyone know of any large subdivisions developed here since 2010? With a population of only approximately 4,200 and largely rural, there would have to be some pretty big single-family housing developments there to show a growth of 703 since the Census.
- Watertown Township in Clinton County directly west of the airport is showing a growth of 7% since the Census. This is another rural township with only around 5,200 as of this most recent estimate. I'm aware of a lot of industrial development the township has received in recent years, but I wasn't aware of any major housing developments.
Anyone have any family in these areas or know anyone that lives in these townships? Again, the Census could be totally off; they missed a lot of where the growth was taking place in Lansing between the 2000 and 2010 Census (they REALLY missed what was going on in Bath and DeWitt, for instance). Some of these trends so far this decade do look a bit weird to me, and I'm just trying to wrap my mind around it. For instance, while the slowdown in Eaton County seems to make sense to me, I'm kind of surprised to see the slowdown they've are estimating for Clinton County, particularly for the formerly booming townships of DetWitt and Bath and attributing what growth they do estimate largely to Watertown. And, over in Ingham, they have the East Lansing adding fewer than a net of 100 new residents since 2010; East Lansing was another city they totally missed population growth in during the estimates in the 00's.
Looking at these numbers, I'm really thinking this is another instance where at the macro level, they are just underestimating the growth of the region by quite a bit like they did last time. The 2009 estimate for the tri-county area was 453,603 when the actual count the following year was 464,036.
Interesting. I wonder if they've eyed the 2100 south block, too? The guy who owns it obviously doesn't have the expertise to build anything himself (he's owned it for years), and has been marketing the cleared site for development for years. It's basically the only stretch of cleared land - and the largest of its type - along the entire corridor through Lansing.
Just to note, it's Scott Gillespie who bought the 2000 block (same guy who did the Marshall & Michigan apartments).
I'd assume that if he just bought half of the 2000 block he'd almost certainly be looking at an adjacent ready to develop property. I'm very curious to see how he redevelops this property though. The only buildings I could see tearing down is the storefront west of Emils and the Eastside Barbershop. The lot at the corner of Clemens and Michigan would be ideal for a three or more floor building to anchor the block. I truly can't wait to see what Michigan Ave will look like in 10-20 years.
The Lansing Public Service Department facebook page says that the Jackson and Lansing Railroad (JAIL) is repairing one of its crossings at Baker Street, (just west of Herbert). This is directly south of the site of the old former REO plant between Washington and Cedar.
What I'm confused about is that I didn't think this old railroad spur was in use, at all. I didn't even know JAIL owned this spur, as it doesn't appear on their map on their owner's website. The line ends some distance once it crosses MLK behind the drop forge site. Anyone ever encountered trains on this spur? I've been on MLK and and Mount Hope and Washington (the only other major crossings on the spur aside from Baker), and haven't ran into a trains in years so I'd always assumed this wasn't used, anymore. I know on their mainline, they mostly just store trains from what I understand, so maybe the spur is very rarely used.
BTW, also on the Public Service page was this old aerial of the riverpoint area from 1948:
The top of the photo is east. Cherry Hill can be seen at the bottom with St. Joseph and Main (Malcom X) the streets just above the river, all of these blocks from east to west were taken out for 496. All the riverfront land in Cherry Hill became Cherry Hill Park save for a parcel close the Kalamazoo. The blocks bound by Cherry, Hillsdale, Grand and Kzoo are also mostly cleared and reconstructed. The changes on the eastbank are even more apparent given the widening and rerouting of Cedar and Larch. Whereas Larch is no a major road, back then it ended at Kalamazoo. Instead, Beech seems to be the major north-south road that connected the near southside to the downtown area and the near eastside. Beech is no a depressed little street split into three segments because of the routing of 496 and its interchanges. The first is the two-block area north of the interchange, the second is the two-block area south of the interchange, and then the weird little spur and bridge into the city's public service complex. Finally, of course, the River Street Bridge can be seen, which was demolished to make more room for 496. If you've ever ridden your bike around this area, you know that you can still see parts of the bridge on both sides of the river.
And, here is a picture from 1961 oriented the normal way showing the area. The freeway hadn't quite reached the area, yet, but the city had already routed Main and St. Joseph over the river in the 50's and interchanged it with Cedar on the other side.
I wonder if this was in anticipation of 496, or if this would have been done, regardless? It's crazy how much the freeway changed this area. It was always awkward because of the river and how they configured the roads, but it was a dense area. There are still a lot of businesses down this way, but it feels like a dead-zone.
Comments
Apparently, they will be marketed at empty-nesters and be high-end. Generally, this kind of residential development in Delta Township has been kept east of 96 and north of 496, but that seems impossible to do with Delta also having allowed Marketplace to be built west of the Saginaw/96 interchange.
Other good news for Michigan is that Detroit's loss has slowed considerably. Last decades it was loosing an average of 2.5% of its population per year. That has been cut in more than half to a loss of less than 1% per year and steadily falling. Anyway, it appears Lansing has finally turned the corner. I expect next periods gain 2014-2015 to post even higher growth rates. To put this into perspective, Lansing went from showing a loss of 0.3% in last years estimate (113,972) to a gain of 0.3%.
Lansing's really been hitting on all cylinders, lately.
- Aurelius Township, which immediately west of Mason with College Road making up its eastern border and directly south of Delhi Township, is showing a 20% population increase insce 2010, which I believe would make it the fastest growing municipality in Metro Lansing. Does anyone know of any large subdivisions developed here since 2010? With a population of only approximately 4,200 and largely rural, there would have to be some pretty big single-family housing developments there to show a growth of 703 since the Census.
- Watertown Township in Clinton County directly west of the airport is showing a growth of 7% since the Census. This is another rural township with only around 5,200 as of this most recent estimate. I'm aware of a lot of industrial development the township has received in recent years, but I wasn't aware of any major housing developments.
Anyone have any family in these areas or know anyone that lives in these townships? Again, the Census could be totally off; they missed a lot of where the growth was taking place in Lansing between the 2000 and 2010 Census (they REALLY missed what was going on in Bath and DeWitt, for instance). Some of these trends so far this decade do look a bit weird to me, and I'm just trying to wrap my mind around it. For instance, while the slowdown in Eaton County seems to make sense to me, I'm kind of surprised to see the slowdown they've are estimating for Clinton County, particularly for the formerly booming townships of DetWitt and Bath and attributing what growth they do estimate largely to Watertown. And, over in Ingham, they have the East Lansing adding fewer than a net of 100 new residents since 2010; East Lansing was another city they totally missed population growth in during the estimates in the 00's.
Looking at these numbers, I'm really thinking this is another instance where at the macro level, they are just underestimating the growth of the region by quite a bit like they did last time. The 2009 estimate for the tri-county area was 453,603 when the actual count the following year was 464,036.
While Gillespie has bought the entire south side of the 2000 block of Michigan, including the Emil's building.
Eastside up swing
I'd assume that if he just bought half of the 2000 block he'd almost certainly be looking at an adjacent ready to develop property. I'm very curious to see how he redevelops this property though. The only buildings I could see tearing down is the storefront west of Emils and the Eastside Barbershop. The lot at the corner of Clemens and Michigan would be ideal for a three or more floor building to anchor the block. I truly can't wait to see what Michigan Ave will look like in 10-20 years.
What I'm confused about is that I didn't think this old railroad spur was in use, at all. I didn't even know JAIL owned this spur, as it doesn't appear on their map on their owner's website. The line ends some distance once it crosses MLK behind the drop forge site. Anyone ever encountered trains on this spur? I've been on MLK and and Mount Hope and Washington (the only other major crossings on the spur aside from Baker), and haven't ran into a trains in years so I'd always assumed this wasn't used, anymore. I know on their mainline, they mostly just store trains from what I understand, so maybe the spur is very rarely used.
BTW, also on the Public Service page was this old aerial of the riverpoint area from 1948:
The top of the photo is east. Cherry Hill can be seen at the bottom with St. Joseph and Main (Malcom X) the streets just above the river, all of these blocks from east to west were taken out for 496. All the riverfront land in Cherry Hill became Cherry Hill Park save for a parcel close the Kalamazoo. The blocks bound by Cherry, Hillsdale, Grand and Kzoo are also mostly cleared and reconstructed. The changes on the eastbank are even more apparent given the widening and rerouting of Cedar and Larch. Whereas Larch is no a major road, back then it ended at Kalamazoo. Instead, Beech seems to be the major north-south road that connected the near southside to the downtown area and the near eastside. Beech is no a depressed little street split into three segments because of the routing of 496 and its interchanges. The first is the two-block area north of the interchange, the second is the two-block area south of the interchange, and then the weird little spur and bridge into the city's public service complex. Finally, of course, the River Street Bridge can be seen, which was demolished to make more room for 496. If you've ever ridden your bike around this area, you know that you can still see parts of the bridge on both sides of the river.
And, here is a picture from 1961 oriented the normal way showing the area. The freeway hadn't quite reached the area, yet, but the city had already routed Main and St. Joseph over the river in the 50's and interchanged it with Cedar on the other side.
I wonder if this was in anticipation of 496, or if this would have been done, regardless? It's crazy how much the freeway changed this area. It was always awkward because of the river and how they configured the roads, but it was a dense area. There are still a lot of businesses down this way, but it feels like a dead-zone.