The LSJ posted an article about Cooley Law School's decline and its effect on downtown Lansing. Cooley has dropped to about 1/3 of its enrollment peak in 2011. Many of the bars that closed downtown attribute a large chunk of business loss due to the enrollment drop.
As for Cooley, it never had a great reputation and it lost whatever reputation it had when it decided to go the total diploma mill route. It's sad to have seen so many folks base their business off it not knowing what was going on and for Cooley to have made the decision to reduce it's quality, but it's shrinking is probably for the best in the long-run. They had to hook up with Western Michigan because they'd damaged their brand so much.
The buildings at 513 W Ionia St and 519 W Ionia St total 9,132 square feet. Schmidt's project would call for 4,500 square feet of office/retail space and six residential units on the second floors.
This is great infill, just want Lansing and other downtowns need. I am much happier to give incentives for smaller projects like this. I would actually rather have 10 small projects vs one large project, given the failure rate of making it to market for the big ones.
I've always loved these buildings, and even as they went vacant they were pretty well kept up so I assumed that they'd be renovated. Glad to here about this. I took some photos of them years ago.
Ionia is still a pretty solid street save for the block or two from MLK which has seen some decline. If you're ever on MLK going north-bound just stick in the right lane and it funnels you right onto Ionia. This particular block is kind of scenic with the old houses and mature trees lining the street. And because it sits at the top of the hill some pretty interesting peaks of the business district.
Technically, this isn't in the Genesee downtown neighborhood (that starts west of Pine), but most still consider it part of the historic neighborhood.
I was out on East Mount Hope east of Aurelius in Crego Park. The flooding is quite bad, but it's a flood plain. What the flooding has meant, however, is that it's caused A LOT of the trees to fall down and it looks like the city took the chainsaws to them. This happened along both Auerlius and Mount Hope. Along Mt. Hope they had to do it because they have utility lines running on the north side of the street in the park.
The flooding is worse than I think a lot of people in the main part of the city realize.
I have only been back for a short time[2 years] but the rivers are the highest I have seen. It has gone down some, it is really impressive to watch the water rushing through the Moores Park damn. The Grand is a really big river!
I think a lot of the trees in the swamps fell during the wind storm in Feb.. Normally neither the wind storm or it's dramatic results would have happened if the air mass was cold and the ground frozen as it has been during February in Mid- Michigan. This kind of event could be seen as a result of climate change, it is not suppose to be 70 degrees and all the fields thawed in February. Of course it was perhaps just a mild winter.
That being said, the utilities cuts along Mt Hope and other parks have been very radical and they have left a mess of stumps, huge branches and broken shrubbery at many places. The stumps and slabs of tree trunk from huge cottonwood trees just lay in a jumbled mess along the river trail east of S Washington, are the going to clean this up? It does not seem like it.
The Grid, new arcade-bar in Old Town, is opening this Tuesday at 4pm. This will be a destination bar for many people, and will help to continue the growth of Old Town.
I think this place will be a success. I tended bar in a place with a similar set up. It was interesting to see how many people really love to play pinball, and video games. There was also pool and ping-pong tables. People had a great time and and usually drank lightly so they could still play the games. I like that as of now it is just a bar, not a restaurant/bar.
Comments
The LSJ posted an article about Cooley Law School's decline and its effect on downtown Lansing. Cooley has dropped to about 1/3 of its enrollment peak in 2011. Many of the bars that closed downtown attribute a large chunk of business loss due to the enrollment drop.
An article in the LSJ about the redevelopment going on on the eastern half of Michigan Avenue (East Town).
As for Cooley, it never had a great reputation and it lost whatever reputation it had when it decided to go the total diploma mill route. It's sad to have seen so many folks base their business off it not knowing what was going on and for Cooley to have made the decision to reduce it's quality, but it's shrinking is probably for the best in the long-run. They had to hook up with Western Michigan because they'd damaged their brand so much.
From the LSJ: Blighted buildings near Capitol could get new life
This is great infill, just want Lansing and other downtowns need. I am much happier to give incentives for smaller projects like this. I would actually rather have 10 small projects vs one large project, given the failure rate of making it to market for the big ones.
I've always loved these buildings, and even as they went vacant they were pretty well kept up so I assumed that they'd be renovated. Glad to here about this. I took some photos of them years ago.
513
519
Great pictures, thanks for sharing! I don't remember seeing these buildings in person before. I guess I just don't travel down Ionia much.
Ionia is still a pretty solid street save for the block or two from MLK which has seen some decline. If you're ever on MLK going north-bound just stick in the right lane and it funnels you right onto Ionia. This particular block is kind of scenic with the old houses and mature trees lining the street. And because it sits at the top of the hill some pretty interesting peaks of the business district.
Technically, this isn't in the Genesee downtown neighborhood (that starts west of Pine), but most still consider it part of the historic neighborhood.
I was out on East Mount Hope east of Aurelius in Crego Park. The flooding is quite bad, but it's a flood plain. What the flooding has meant, however, is that it's caused A LOT of the trees to fall down and it looks like the city took the chainsaws to them. This happened along both Auerlius and Mount Hope. Along Mt. Hope they had to do it because they have utility lines running on the north side of the street in the park.
The flooding is worse than I think a lot of people in the main part of the city realize.
I have only been back for a short time[2 years] but the rivers are the highest I have seen. It has gone down some, it is really impressive to watch the water rushing through the Moores Park damn. The Grand is a really big river!
I think a lot of the trees in the swamps fell during the wind storm in Feb.. Normally neither the wind storm or it's dramatic results would have happened if the air mass was cold and the ground frozen as it has been during February in Mid- Michigan. This kind of event could be seen as a result of climate change, it is not suppose to be 70 degrees and all the fields thawed in February. Of course it was perhaps just a mild winter.
That being said, the utilities cuts along Mt Hope and other parks have been very radical and they have left a mess of stumps, huge branches and broken shrubbery at many places. The stumps and slabs of tree trunk from huge cottonwood trees just lay in a jumbled mess along the river trail east of S Washington, are the going to clean this up? It does not seem like it.
The Grid, new arcade-bar in Old Town, is opening this Tuesday at 4pm. This will be a destination bar for many people, and will help to continue the growth of Old Town.
http://thegridoldtown.com/
I think this place will be a success. I tended bar in a place with a similar set up. It was interesting to see how many people really love to play pinball, and video games. There was also pool and ping-pong tables. People had a great time and and usually drank lightly so they could still play the games. I like that as of now it is just a bar, not a restaurant/bar.