I will not get politics into the discussion again unless the thoughts posted go that way. It's just hard to watch these bad things happen in my Michigan and my Lansing. I have always been proud of being from Lansing Michigan. I would always defended Michigan against all detractors in the years I lived out east, they would ask, "where are you from?" Canada? Fargo? when they detected my Michigander accent. When I told them "whrah" I was from most people's face would kind of drop generally ignorant of Michigan, except for "poor Detroit" and frozen wilderness. I told people I am from Lansing, I swear many people out there did not know Lansing is the Capital of Michigan.By the time I left two bars there always have the Spartans on when ever they play. My point is that I really love Lansing and am so happy to be home. I am really amazed at the positive changes in the city. I use the river trail and go to Hawk Island, I shop and eat downtown, I live in REOtown, I think it is all really great. I too just want developers and politicians to love Lansing as much as I do and build amazing buildings that people will love and pave the streets so we can drive our new Cadillac's and Camaro's.
I also have noticed something going on in that newly black warehouse building on Kalamazoo. There are new vent pipes on the roof and wires for I would guess outdoor lighting sticking out of the Kalamazoo street walls. It will be interesting to find out what is going in there and why they painted it all black. The building down the street on Michigan looks really good.
I hope that they don't waste this prominent site on this crap. I'm worried that the land bank even granted them the time to see what they come up with; this should have been a "no" right out the gate.
THURSDAY, Feb. 18 —The old Deluxe Inn site along I496 just south of downtown Lansing, long an eyesore before it was torn down in 2010, has been optioned to a Grand Rapids company that would build a four-story, $4 million extended-stay hotel there.
The site has “good numbers“ for what would be a chain hotel, said Brian Winkelmann, a Grand Rapids architect who is a partner in M2B2 LCC, the developer. He declined to name the chain.
The Ingham County Land Bank owns the property. “We signed the option agreement to give them time to work with the city,” said Ingham County Treasurer Eric Schertzing, who chairs the land bank board.
It should be pretty easy to figure out which chain does extended-stay hotels, these days, since so few do. Even if it's upscale, this is the wrong site for this concept. I'm sorry, but it'll turn right back into Deluxe Inn. Deluxe Inn lasted as long as it did because of its relative isolation.
As long as it's built up to the street, uses quality materials, has a good design and includes at least some ground floor retail I'd be happy with this, four floors is about the minimum height I'd like to see but I'm pretty happy about it being a hotel. The Deluxe Inn was the way it was partially because of its design and partially because it wasn't a name brand and had neglectful operators. A well managed chain hotel should have no problem succeeding at this site, it's in downtown and has easy access to MSU. Downtown/central Lansing desperately needs more hotels, if this proposal's design and site layout are good I really hope it happens.
On the subject of which chain, there's too many options to offer a good guess. There are several extended stay chains currently in the Lansing area, the ones I know of are Staybridge, Candlewood, TownPlace and Residence Inn. Here's a list of chains: Lint of extended stay hotel chains - Wikipedia. Hilton's been making a push into Lansing so perhaps it's them.
I just read that the BWL has already made up their minds about the site of the new substation. I am glad to hear that that there are folks who are questioning this plan. The meetings with the neighborhood will be to discuss the exterior wall treatments, which seems to say it's going in there and there is not anything we can do about it. Like I have said before put it in the GM parking lot not in a city park. There are very nice mature pines that you can see from way up the street, some of them are quite unique. It will be a shame to see the day they cut all those trees down. It seems especially here in Lansing that history has no place in the path of progress. This connects REOtown to Downtown? How?
Across the street the hotel plan sounds OK, like hood said, lets hope it has some sort of urban design that really does connect with Downtown.
The hotel locating here may also have to do with the borders of downtown and the chokehold that the Radisson has on it. $4m actually sounds pretty cheap though for 4 stories. I don't expect any ground floor retail will be included unless the city required it and I don't see them mentioning that anywhere.
EDIT: The LSJ is reporting that because the property is in an overlay district, it will be required to be mixed used. So, that allays a lot of my fears. Still, we'll see what "mixed use" is in Lansing as required by the overlay district. The article mentions for one that it requires parking to be put out back. How much retail/commercial on the first floor is required, however, is something I'll have to look up.
Yeah, not a destination hotel or even something to compete with the Marriott in East Lansing or Radisson downtown. At least a hotel with a rooftop bar or fancy restaurant included would be a compromise.
- Well, this was quick. The council will consider on Monday leasing out a part of Riverfront Park for Capital Zip's zip line. Technical details include three-story, 350-foot-long zip line. The vacant building at 711 Center Street - I believe an old cleaning company before they moved a bit to the east - will be used for additional parking as well as a small retail/office establishment and restrooms. Doesn't say whether the building will be reused or demolished and something build in its place; whatever, they'd have to change it quite a bit to get that kind of space out of it. It appears they'll be clearing the brushy area around the property as they are also requesting part of the old rail easement to offer access to the actual zip line tower. The lease of the actual park would be for 10 years.
- A public hearing will be set for March 14 at this meeting for the brownfield redevelopment plan for South Edge Lofts at St. Joseph and Washington.
- The rezoning for the Red Cedar Renaissance project at the old Red Cedar golf course is up for Monday.
- The Michigan School for the Blind property will be rezoned.
Looks like a good amount is getting done and moving forward.
There's also a couple of interesting 'Letters from the Mayor' regarding PILOT programs for "Capitol Park Center" and "Walnut Park Apartments", the actual letters are replaced by "not available at time of print" text so who knows what these actually are (The Abagail was another one of these PILOT programs on the list but we know what that one is.) These names aren't already attached to any known project are they?
There's also a transfer of liquor license to Mega-Bev Inc at 3630 S Cedar. This is the old L&L/Daily Deals at Rouse & Cedar, I'd love to see this building get back to use as I grew up less than a block from it. Mega-Bev is a company out of Battle Creek and it looks like they run large liquor stores: Mega-Bev
PILOT is "payment in lieu of taxes" and it's what a municipality can charge an otherwise tax-exempt residential property for city services. According to the state constitution, this surcharge can't be more than what taxes would be. The program is used for things like...
(1) If a housing project owned by a nonprofit housing corporation, consumer housing cooperative, limited dividend housing corporation, mobile home park corporation, or mobile home park association is financed with a federally-aided or authority-aided mortgage or advance or grant from the authority, then, except as provided in this section, the housing project is exempt from all ad valorem property taxes imposed by this state or by any political subdivision, public body, or taxing district in which the project is located.
Comments
I also have noticed something going on in that newly black warehouse building on Kalamazoo. There are new vent pipes on the roof and wires for I would guess outdoor lighting sticking out of the Kalamazoo street walls. It will be interesting to find out what is going in there and why they painted it all black. The building down the street on Michigan looks really good.
It should be pretty easy to figure out which chain does extended-stay hotels, these days, since so few do. Even if it's upscale, this is the wrong site for this concept. I'm sorry, but it'll turn right back into Deluxe Inn. Deluxe Inn lasted as long as it did because of its relative isolation.
On the subject of which chain, there's too many options to offer a good guess. There are several extended stay chains currently in the Lansing area, the ones I know of are Staybridge, Candlewood, TownPlace and Residence Inn. Here's a list of chains: Lint of extended stay hotel chains - Wikipedia. Hilton's been making a push into Lansing so perhaps it's them.
Across the street the hotel plan sounds OK, like hood said, lets hope it has some sort of urban design that really does connect with Downtown.
- Well, this was quick. The council will consider on Monday leasing out a part of Riverfront Park for Capital Zip's zip line. Technical details include three-story, 350-foot-long zip line. The vacant building at 711 Center Street - I believe an old cleaning company before they moved a bit to the east - will be used for additional parking as well as a small retail/office establishment and restrooms. Doesn't say whether the building will be reused or demolished and something build in its place; whatever, they'd have to change it quite a bit to get that kind of space out of it. It appears they'll be clearing the brushy area around the property as they are also requesting part of the old rail easement to offer access to the actual zip line tower. The lease of the actual park would be for 10 years.
- A public hearing will be set for March 14 at this meeting for the brownfield redevelopment plan for South Edge Lofts at St. Joseph and Washington.
- The rezoning for the Red Cedar Renaissance project at the old Red Cedar golf course is up for Monday.
- The Michigan School for the Blind property will be rezoned.
Looks like a good amount is getting done and moving forward.
There's also a transfer of liquor license to Mega-Bev Inc at 3630 S Cedar. This is the old L&L/Daily Deals at Rouse & Cedar, I'd love to see this building get back to use as I grew up less than a block from it. Mega-Bev is a company out of Battle Creek and it looks like they run large liquor stores: Mega-Bev