Just when i thought we had rid our city of those things he is bringing them back. I know some folks like to use these scooters but I did not miss seeing them spread all over town this summer.
I'm still so-so on the Cherry Hill project. I just wish they'd do a little something extra with the facade and roof. I'd like to see a little variation in the facade, maybe more prominent porches, bay windows or something similar. That, coupled with some more variation to the roof, be it dormers or larger/better designed gables, would make a massive difference in the look of the building.
I'd like to see what the Association of Realtors is doing for their building. Three floors isn't much but it's right for the area and I'm really happy to see some extra density between downtown and Old Town, especially when it's a non-descript single floor office building being replaced.
I think the Temple Building could be a great hotel and conference center, maybe building a residential tower/parking structure connected on the surface lot next door.
Over on Cheery Hill the computer depictions of this project are not very good. I know these kinds of drawings are much less expensive than creating an artist drawn depiction but they really do a poor job of selling a building project. You have to imagine the building looking better than the drawings. Which I hope it does! It would be great if they were of the same quality as the Grand Avenue development. It is interesting that someone wants to build such a large project in that neighborhood. It is nice and peaceful [ and quiet w/496 above??] in that little corner of Lansing, I think like in East Lansing there is a good trend developing bringing people back into our city centers.
It's nice to see this is becoming reality, I really hope he puts some nice windows in there. Regarding the demand, I'd say if the prices for the units are appropriate for their size then he shouldn't have a problem leasing them.
I'm also glad to see the Holmes St project is moving forward but I share your doubts about whether something high-end will really work in that area. That neighborhood is isolated and doesn't have a whole lot going for it right now. I don't see it improving without some big, probably unrealistic, changes.
I drive by the Holmes Street School often, and this neighborhood is not as isolated as you may think. Holmes St. has one of the few underpasses under 496, which leads to Hunter Park and Kalamazoo St. then straight to the Sparrow Complex and E.Michigan Ave. Hazel leads to Pennsylvania Ave. and around the bend on Malcolm X. St. you can get to Aurelius Rd. and Mt. Hope. It's true the are some rough areas and some poorly kept housing but there are also more well-kept houses and the area has some nice tree-lined neighborhood streets which would be greatly improved by repaving. I could see Sparrow and BWL workers and maybe older Eastside residents wanting to stay in their neighborhood as potential tenants in a higher-end building. Seeing these beautiful school buildings fall into disrepair bugs me more than others, I noticed the rear of Otto Jr, High is being covered with graffiti and Walter French is still a mess. I hope to see every old school find a new purpose or they should take them down and sell the land.
@gbinlansing I'm all around that neighborhood pretty frequently, up and down the streets including the dead ends and I have to disagree. This neighborhood is too isolated from main thoroughfares and commercial districts, too many of the houses are small and many were built poorly compared with other houses of the era. The street layout hurts the neighborhood a lot, the dead ends and the single, freeway-style exit off Aurelius are counter productive. The neighborhood is well positioned in the Lansing area overall so if some streets were rearranged and maybe a commercial strip added on Aurelius this neighborhood could quickly turn around. I sort of have some ideas for this area, but I'm not sure they would be realistic.
But I agree about schools, they make for fantastic reuse projects. I have faith that Walter French will eventually be restored and put back to use even if the current owner fails. Otto will be a little more of a challenge, there is a lot of land there so maybe a large redevelopment with the old Otto building as a centerpiece would be a good move.
@MichMatters I saw that at Motor Wheel, I was assuming this would be for their new office parking. It would seem to be a little overkill but I wouldn't be surprised if they could end up 600-800 workers there when filled up. I think they have around 100k sq ft of potential office space??
I own a house very, very close to the Lake Trust property so I'm excited to see this going forward. Based on the current info/renderings I have no complaints. The Lake Trust building itself should be a pretty straightforward clean-up/rehab, it's well built and the brutalist(ish) design has grown on me. The new building is scaled well for the area and looks simple but nice, like many projects the quality of materials will really dictate my opinion on this one. I like that they're not trying to develop the whole site now, maybe with some luck we'll end up with something more special facing Washington Sq.
Is Capitol 2-way now, or are the parking spots in the renderings facing the wrong direction? Is there anywhere else along Capitol that has diagonal street parking like that? I know it's common on the Washington side.
According to the cpix listing the Prudden Tech Center is 133k sq ft total and there's currently 115k sq ft for lease. It looks like they are/were planning solar car ports over the 630 spaces in that lot.
Comments
Just when i thought we had rid our city of those things he is bringing them back. I know some folks like to use these scooters but I did not miss seeing them spread all over town this summer.
I'd like to see what the Association of Realtors is doing for their building. Three floors isn't much but it's right for the area and I'm really happy to see some extra density between downtown and Old Town, especially when it's a non-descript single floor office building being replaced.
It would be an amazing office building for a law firm. They could lease out the parts of the building that they don't need.
I think the Temple Building could be a great hotel and conference center, maybe building a residential tower/parking structure connected on the surface lot next door.
Over on Cheery Hill the computer depictions of this project are not very good. I know these kinds of drawings are much less expensive than creating an artist drawn depiction but they really do a poor job of selling a building project. You have to imagine the building looking better than the drawings. Which I hope it does! It would be great if they were of the same quality as the Grand Avenue development. It is interesting that someone wants to build such a large project in that neighborhood. It is nice and peaceful [ and quiet w/496 above??] in that little corner of Lansing, I think like in East Lansing there is a good trend developing bringing people back into our city centers.
I'm also glad to see the Holmes St project is moving forward but I share your doubts about whether something high-end will really work in that area. That neighborhood is isolated and doesn't have a whole lot going for it right now. I don't see it improving without some big, probably unrealistic, changes.
But I agree about schools, they make for fantastic reuse projects. I have faith that Walter French will eventually be restored and put back to use even if the current owner fails. Otto will be a little more of a challenge, there is a lot of land there so maybe a large redevelopment with the old Otto building as a centerpiece would be a good move.
@MichMatters I saw that at Motor Wheel, I was assuming this would be for their new office parking. It would seem to be a little overkill but I wouldn't be surprised if they could end up 600-800 workers there when filled up. I think they have around 100k sq ft of potential office space??
I own a house very, very close to the Lake Trust property so I'm excited to see this going forward. Based on the current info/renderings I have no complaints. The Lake Trust building itself should be a pretty straightforward clean-up/rehab, it's well built and the brutalist(ish) design has grown on me. The new building is scaled well for the area and looks simple but nice, like many projects the quality of materials will really dictate my opinion on this one. I like that they're not trying to develop the whole site now, maybe with some luck we'll end up with something more special facing Washington Sq.