It turns out the new house I had noted at Park Ave, and Hammond St. was built by the Ingham County Land Bank. It is really nice and very affordable for a nice three bedroom house in a nice neighborhood.
Is it a new house or a refurbished house? I know the land bank does a lot of full-on reconstructions that look new, but are actually old houses. I don't recall any empty lot at that corner, but it very well could have been a very quick tear-down and rebuild. I see it's not listed on the land banks website, so maybe it went right off the market? Admittedly, while I'm in the area fairly often, it's usually only on streets like Barnes, Pattengill and Pettis, but I have been on Park fairly recently.
EDIT: Actually, looking at streetview, it looks like you're right? Huh. Never noticed. But, this is exactly the kind of work the land bank is doing trying to stabilize intact neighborhoods by getting rid of blight before it spreads. It was really smart of them to do this before other houses began to drop like flies to flight.
That house is brand new. The house it replaced was pretty old, it is in the background of many of my family's snap shots as I grew up across the street. The new design really fits in the neighborhood, but it does not look at all like the house it replaced,it's better! The old one may have been torn down for a while as the lot was all covered with grass. In my house shopping I have noticed many Ingham county Land Bank houses they all look real nice and have a reasonable price. I saw this house on a real estate web site.
Not sure what happened, but a few weeks back Spartan Oil moved out of their warehouse at Cedar and Elm and then two blocks north they moved out of their distribution at Hazel and Cedar. Wolverine Development out of East Lansing has put them back on the market for rent, so it's not likely to be any major changes, which kind of disappoints me, as I remember the fire here back in 2005 that sent oil into the Grand.
I also noticed this move. It is a really large facility that is very specialized. I would say that another oil distribution company would be the only business that would go in there. It did seem to happen quickly, and I wonder did they go out of business or move somewhere else? Another type of business would be great as to take the oil tanks away from the river. Wasn't the building right next to the Kalamazoo St. bridge an oil business? If so maybe they could do something else with this site too.
LANSING – Imagine a ring of colorful cottages and homes surrounding a common green space with walkways, a fire pit and a greenhouse.
It might sound like a dream vacation location up North. But instead of a community nestled next to Lake Michigan, it is actually in an older Lansing neighborhood less than 1.5 miles east of the state Capitol.
“Cottage Lane” is an ongoing labor of love by Lansing builder Dave Muylle, who held an open house Saturday for his Eastside neighbors to walk through two newly built cottages.
The two-story cottages (about 1,200 square feet each) are painted green and orange and are designed to fit in with the Craftsman style houses of the Eastside neighborhood.
Ultimately, Muylle envisions a condo association for 14 households on an acre lot with a mix of restored houses, a 1915 duplex and seven newly built cottages. The open house showcased the first two of the seven cottages. Five more are planned.
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Over the years, he bought and restored five residential properties and turned them into rentals and three additional parcels of land. In all, nine contiguous parcels add up to just over an acre.
The two new cottages are named “Earl” and “Conway” after the original property owner, Earl Conway, who owned three duplexes on the site. Two duplexes were torn down by the city while a third was restored by Muylle.
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This is on the 100 block of Leslie immediately south of Michigan. He is trying to sell and/or rent them for an arm-and-a-leg in a neighborhood that probably can't command what he's asking, but I like the concept.
I am very impressed with this development. I have often imagined such a "cottage court" as a way to put a dense housing development on a small urban lot. I think they might be optimistic about the price they will get, but everyone selling a house is. The google street view shows them last summer.
One thing I don't get - where are the 12 other houses supposed to go? Seems like the immediate neighborhood is already chocked full of nice houses. I'd rather see old houses get rehabbed than torn down to build new.... Maybe I'm missing something?
It looks like they did rehab a couple of the old houses, the lots seem very deep, maybe that's where the new units will fit. I am going to take a drive past over there and see it live!
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EDIT: Actually, looking at streetview, it looks like you're right? Huh. Never noticed. But, this is exactly the kind of work the land bank is doing trying to stabilize intact neighborhoods by getting rid of blight before it spreads. It was really smart of them to do this before other houses began to drop like flies to flight.
This is on the 100 block of Leslie immediately south of Michigan. He is trying to sell and/or rent them for an arm-and-a-leg in a neighborhood that probably can't command what he's asking, but I like the concept.
When going up the street in google street view you can get a good before and after image.