The baseball thing, sorry, should have clarified. It's definitely a unique idea and with the effort I'd put in, I'd always rooted for it to see what becomes of it. The guy was so passionate about it when I spoke with him.
@Lymon89 Yeah, when I was looking into the concept it looked like it was a local guy behind it and he's been at for awhile. It looks like he now has the backing of a well known multi-millionaire baseball player so at least this one iteration of it looks like it will happen. It's an interesting concept, very much in the same vain as the small soccer field also at that park, I do hope people use the facility and it would be cool to see the concept in general succeed.
The city council agenda for next week shows hearings for OPRA applications for the 1102 S Washington Ave (cool old REO Town gas station) and 224 S Washington Sq (former hookah lounge) downtown. Last I heard about the REO Town property was that it would be a mini food truck hub with indoor/outdoor seating and a bar like Little Fleet in Traverse City. I haven’t seen anything about 224 S Washington, but it would be great to get that building rehabbed and occupied.
I was looking at the 224 S Washington (former club X-cel) OPRA and they are planning a $400k renovation to make it into an entertainment space able to host up to 600 people. The most recent development and planning agenda has a little more on it but essentially they're just going over what they're doing for the interior renovation and that they will "remove the current failing materials overlaid on the east side facade of the building (Washington Square). In addition, we will install LED signage."
Also potentially big news toady involving GM, they're apparently applying for incentives on a potential $2.5 billion battery plant out at Delta Township. Sounds like nothing official yet, GM is fishing for incentives, but having a battery plant in the area would make sense since there are already two of their newest final assembly plants here. I'd tend to think that if local officials don't muck things up it should be a pretty easy decision for GM.
City Pulse has an article with a bit more info on the proposal. The building would be 2.5 million square feet on 590 acres adjacent to the Delta Township plant, they're proposing 1700 permanent jobs and 1000 construction jobs.
Yeah, when they built the Delta Plant they always said they had enough land to build another assembly plant, then there was the talk from Hollister a few years ago about another plant finally going out there and it finally brings us here. Now the ball is in GM's court, I'm not going to celebrate too much until construction has started.
Between this, the 2.5 million sq ft Amazon warehouse, consistent Meijer warehouse additions, the almost inevitable additional suppliers for the battery plant, a new Auto Owners building, new retail complexes on Saginaw at Waverly and at I-96; there is a lot going on over on the west side. Despite the lack of anything too exciting downtown I think the area in general is experiencing more investment now than anytime I remember, there's a lot to be positive about around Lansing right now.
EDIT: Just to correct myself, that Amazon warehouse is proposed to be about 1 million sq ft, not 2.5
Gillespie just broke ground on a 60k sq ft medical office building next to the new Mclaren Hospital. I don't see any news articles but he posted it to his Facebook page.
Oh yeah, they broke ground before then even. All the first floor columns to the hotels are done and they're working on three elevator cores/stairwells, one of which is probably up to the 4th or 5th floor.
Speaking of construction, I was by the building behind Lake Trust today and all the first columns except the ones around the elevator core are in. The building is actually going to be L shaped leaving enough room between it and the Lake Trust building for a driveway and almost extending to Washington along Hillsdale. The elevator core there is up to four floors, the building was supposed to be five floors but I'm not sure if the larger footprint changed that, it should be clear by next week whether it's four or five.
I really have no idea what to expect at that site. I could see a couple small apartment buildings with or without ground floor commercial facing MLK and small apartments or townhouses facing the side streets. As always, I'll just be hoping for quality design and construction.
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Also potentially big news toady involving GM, they're apparently applying for incentives on a potential $2.5 billion battery plant out at Delta Township. Sounds like nothing official yet, GM is fishing for incentives, but having a battery plant in the area would make sense since there are already two of their newest final assembly plants here. I'd tend to think that if local officials don't muck things up it should be a pretty easy decision for GM.
LSJ article- https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/12/10/general-motors-gm-new-battery-plant-lansing-delta-township/6464210001/?fbclid=IwAR3qO9BcAeJQtYEsjI34UC4iAGqEb5CkJ78GdDjy5_doybOSiidMvEVtGyM
https://www.lansingcitypulse.com/stories/general-motors-to-build-25-billion-battery-plant-in-lansing,19211
Between this, the 2.5 million sq ft Amazon warehouse, consistent Meijer warehouse additions, the almost inevitable additional suppliers for the battery plant, a new Auto Owners building, new retail complexes on Saginaw at Waverly and at I-96; there is a lot going on over on the west side. Despite the lack of anything too exciting downtown I think the area in general is experiencing more investment now than anytime I remember, there's a lot to be positive about around Lansing right now.
EDIT: Just to correct myself, that Amazon warehouse is proposed to be about 1 million sq ft, not 2.5
https://www.facebook.com/GillespieGroup
Speaking of construction, I was by the building behind Lake Trust today and all the first columns except the ones around the elevator core are in. The building is actually going to be L shaped leaving enough room between it and the Lake Trust building for a driveway and almost extending to Washington along Hillsdale. The elevator core there is up to four floors, the building was supposed to be five floors but I'm not sure if the larger footprint changed that, it should be clear by next week whether it's four or five.