For whatever reason, the business community seems to be making a big deal of the recent sell of One Michigan Avenue downtown for $16.5 million to a Grand Rapids investment group. I guess it's because it's not being sold because it's not making money, but because it's mostly filled (98%). The investors plan to pump $1 million into upgrading the lobby, elevators and whatever else.
The story then goes on to say that it's sell helps determine what City Hall is worth, though this seems a weird time for Virg to still be pushing that on his way out. Apparently, and RFP is going on the city hall question within the "a few months." Even more strange is that the RFP is still also requesting space for all the county government even though the county has been pretty clear they've moved on, particularly with the criminal justice complex proposal. So, I suspect this is more just showing how good a deal they can get than making this happen anytime soon.
The article also hints at a step soon to be made for an additional downtown hotel.
It would really be great if they did something to that building. Of all the buildings built in the "urban renewal" area this one to me is the most disappointing building, and a sign of a lack of vision that finds downtown in it's present state. After years waiting and the tons of money that was put into clearing this block, they ended up building an unremarkable office building. I know, at least they built something, perhaps they can make it a more approachable and attractive.
There has been work going on at the white brick and tile clad building at the corner of Elm and S. Washington in REOtown. I am hoping it is not going to be more surface parking for the church, but that seems to be what they are working on as the building itself is full of junk, has broken windows, and they are not working on the building. Down the street the new record store seems to fit right in, and the coffee shop at South Street and S Washington has been painted and looks to be opening soon. Also they have installed some nice looking brick and wood at the entrance of the building being renovated across from the BWL. Also they still gutting the building[old pool hall] at Barnes Ave for the appliance store, and also at that corner Speedwagon has been closed all together for over a month. No sign of anything going on at the sub-station site, I guess they went with the short wall with the iron fencing and plaza above the river. If I look at it without emotion, it's OK, and I hope it does lead to more people using that park. I think I will able to resist peaking through to look at the rigging, I agree that the sorter wall will be less looming than a 40 foot tall wall, it does need to hide most of the rigging is what I'm hoping.
One thing to note out of the April 24th Council packet is that Summit Street Development is requesting a special land use permit for the land south of Oakland, north of May St, west of Prudden and east of the RR tracks (this is where the apartments built from shipping containers were proposed). There are no renderings or site plan but it does say that they plan to construct 522 units and that the buildings may be up to 10 floors. This is intriguing, I'll be interested in seeing more detailed plans.
522 units is very significant. Can't say I expected something possibly this tall. But, given how high the land sits, it makes perfect sence. The views up at Motor Wheels and the surrounding land are really good even at ground-level.
I have been wondering about that space since I have been back in Lansing. It sort of looks like an an abandoned trailer park with only the street lights left standing. So they were going to build apartments from shipping containers? I think it may have been a good thing that did not happen. They are building steel Quonset type buildings for housing in a Detroit neighborhood that look interesting, but I really can't see steel shipping container homes as fitting in here. I look forward to seeing what will be built there.
Back before Hepler turned the old Prudden building into Motor Wheel Lofts there were a couple of old warehouse buildings near the Oakland side of the site, they had a fire at some point and were abandoned for awhile before being demolished in the early 2000's:
On a side note, a previous renovation to the MW Lofts building itself had added modern mirror glass windows. I think it was intended to be offices but it was never completed and sat abandoned for awhile before the loft renovation happened.
At some later point they did the curbs and lighting that you see now in anticipation of an expanded parking lot for the never-occupied offices in the Prudden Tech Center. Then in 2014 they announced plans for the shipping container apartments: Building outside the box, with boxes
Now it appears that the shipping container apartment proposal is dead and there's this new, larger proposal.
Just to be clear, while it's gone through periods of lesser occupancy than others (and this is one of those times), the Prudden Tech Center has never been empty. It seems that looking at their current website that they've gone from trying to lease out the vacant space to a few single tenants to leasing out individual offices with some success.
No, not totally empty, but the largest chunk of the space in the middle has never been occupied. The state was close to leasing all the available space in that building within the past few years and apparently the deal fell through essentially because Hepler was being stubborn. According to it's listing there's 115,000 sq ft available out of the building's total 133,308 sq ft.
Thank you, this clears it up for me. My older brother worked a whole summer patching the roof of the Motor Wheel building back in the 60's. He had a great tan that summer. It is great to see that photo, to remember what the building looked like, although it was brick faced back in the 60's. I see that the container based building was more interesting than I was thinking. I was picturing the containers all set about the parking lot like a trailer park.
Comments
For whatever reason, the business community seems to be making a big deal of the recent sell of One Michigan Avenue downtown for $16.5 million to a Grand Rapids investment group. I guess it's because it's not being sold because it's not making money, but because it's mostly filled (98%). The investors plan to pump $1 million into upgrading the lobby, elevators and whatever else.
The story then goes on to say that it's sell helps determine what City Hall is worth, though this seems a weird time for Virg to still be pushing that on his way out. Apparently, and RFP is going on the city hall question within the "a few months." Even more strange is that the RFP is still also requesting space for all the county government even though the county has been pretty clear they've moved on, particularly with the criminal justice complex proposal. So, I suspect this is more just showing how good a deal they can get than making this happen anytime soon.
The article also hints at a step soon to be made for an additional downtown hotel.
It would really be great if they did something to that building. Of all the buildings built in the "urban renewal" area this one to me is the most disappointing building, and a sign of a lack of vision that finds downtown in it's present state. After years waiting and the tons of money that was put into clearing this block, they ended up building an unremarkable office building. I know, at least they built something, perhaps they can make it a more approachable and attractive.
There has been work going on at the white brick and tile clad building at the corner of Elm and S. Washington in REOtown. I am hoping it is not going to be more surface parking for the church, but that seems to be what they are working on as the building itself is full of junk, has broken windows, and they are not working on the building. Down the street the new record store seems to fit right in, and the coffee shop at South Street and S Washington has been painted and looks to be opening soon. Also they have installed some nice looking brick and wood at the entrance of the building being renovated across from the BWL. Also they still gutting the building[old pool hall] at Barnes Ave for the appliance store, and also at that corner Speedwagon has been closed all together for over a month. No sign of anything going on at the sub-station site, I guess they went with the short wall with the iron fencing and plaza above the river. If I look at it without emotion, it's OK, and I hope it does lead to more people using that park. I think I will able to resist peaking through to look at the rigging, I agree that the sorter wall will be less looming than a 40 foot tall wall, it does need to hide most of the rigging is what I'm hoping.
One thing to note out of the April 24th Council packet is that Summit Street Development is requesting a special land use permit for the land south of Oakland, north of May St, west of Prudden and east of the RR tracks (this is where the apartments built from shipping containers were proposed). There are no renderings or site plan but it does say that they plan to construct 522 units and that the buildings may be up to 10 floors. This is intriguing, I'll be interested in seeing more detailed plans.
522 units is very significant. Can't say I expected something possibly this tall. But, given how high the land sits, it makes perfect sence. The views up at Motor Wheels and the surrounding land are really good even at ground-level.
I have been wondering about that space since I have been back in Lansing. It sort of looks like an an abandoned trailer park with only the street lights left standing. So they were going to build apartments from shipping containers? I think it may have been a good thing that did not happen. They are building steel Quonset type buildings for housing in a Detroit neighborhood that look interesting, but I really can't see steel shipping container homes as fitting in here. I look forward to seeing what will be built there.
Some background...
Back before Hepler turned the old Prudden building into Motor Wheel Lofts there were a couple of old warehouse buildings near the Oakland side of the site, they had a fire at some point and were abandoned for awhile before being demolished in the early 2000's:
On a side note, a previous renovation to the MW Lofts building itself had added modern mirror glass windows. I think it was intended to be offices but it was never completed and sat abandoned for awhile before the loft renovation happened.
At some later point they did the curbs and lighting that you see now in anticipation of an expanded parking lot for the never-occupied offices in the Prudden Tech Center. Then in 2014 they announced plans for the shipping container apartments: Building outside the box, with boxes
Now it appears that the shipping container apartment proposal is dead and there's this new, larger proposal.
Just to be clear, while it's gone through periods of lesser occupancy than others (and this is one of those times), the Prudden Tech Center has never been empty. It seems that looking at their current website that they've gone from trying to lease out the vacant space to a few single tenants to leasing out individual offices with some success.
No, not totally empty, but the largest chunk of the space in the middle has never been occupied. The state was close to leasing all the available space in that building within the past few years and apparently the deal fell through essentially because Hepler was being stubborn. According to it's listing there's 115,000 sq ft available out of the building's total 133,308 sq ft.
Thank you, this clears it up for me. My older brother worked a whole summer patching the roof of the Motor Wheel building back in the 60's. He had a great tan that summer. It is great to see that photo, to remember what the building looked like, although it was brick faced back in the 60's. I see that the container based building was more interesting than I was thinking. I was picturing the containers all set about the parking lot like a trailer park.