This plan looks really good. I also think projects like this reusing old buildings are more interesting than building something new. This near northwest side of downtown has a lot of people living in the area and there are really no services at all. I hope the commercial spaces are filled with businesses that offer something to the neighborhood.
I was at the downtown Post Office and noticed that they have removes all trees on the west side of the Capitol for the geo-thermal heating project. Just a thought but why did they have to do this directly behind the building? There are so many acres of surface parking lots just a block or two away, it seems like that would have been a better place for this. Digging up a parking lot instead of the Capitol lawn [I know there was a small parking lot behind the building] may have been cheaper and no need to cut down all the trees.
They used the amount of land they needed to use. They needed so many bore holes, and that included the whole west end. They didn't go tearing up the lawn for fun. You know I'm sensitive about trees, too, but this is unfair criticism in this case. They don't want to dig up any more land than they have to; that costs extra money. So they obviously needed to dig up what they dug up to make the project feasible. You need geothermal as close to the building being heated as possible to get the full benefit and price. It's not just something you can move across here or across there.
The lawn will be replanted and the capitol will get a more environmentally friendly and long-lasting heating and cooling system. It's a win-win as far as I'm concerned. Fortunately, the back of the Capitol doesn't have any of the special trees the front yard has.
EDIT: Well speak of the devil, Gongwer News has a photo of the construction, today:
Well thank you. I did fully understand what they are doing. It was just a bit shocking to see the entire area under construction, which I also knew was going on. Just like the substation I'm sure it will be beautiful once it's done.
A restaurant has finally opened in the former spot of the 621 night club on Michigan Avenue in the stadium district.
LANSING - Cari DeLamielleure didn't name her new restaurant Batter Up Bistro because of its proximity to the city's minor league ball park.
Cooley Law School Stadium is less than a block away from the 2,000-square-foot space on East Michigan Avenue DeLamielleure has transformed into her dream business. Previously home to 621, a night club and lounge, it's been empty four years.
The interior renovation took a year and baseball never figured into the equation, DeLamielleure, 50, said. "Batter Up" is a play on baking, not sports, so sitting just a short walk from the home of the Lansing Lugnuts is just a happy coincidence, she said.
The city has finally entered into a purchase agreement with a Grand Rapids-based company (Northern Capital Investments, LLC) to buy the old Waverly Golf Course and Michigan Avenue Park in Lansing Township which the city has owned for decades. The city will get $2.2 million cash for the 121 acres. The council has 75 days from when this was placed on file (which I guess is was October 13) to approve or reject the sale.
A public hearing is being set by the Committee of Development and Planning for Brownfield Plant #71 (1000 South Hosmer). This is the proposal for the redevelopment of an old warehouse (oldest part built in 1900) south of 496 for use by Neogen as office and warehouse distribution space for its Ideal Instruments subsidiary. It will create about 40,000 square feet of usuable space. Ideal Instruments is currently located at the north end of Hosmer Street just north of Michigan Avenue.
This is a biggie that has not leaked until now. A developer is seeking a special land use permit for a residential use of 735 East Hazel Street, and old warehouse building just south of 1000 South Hosmer, in a heavy industrial zone. The developer wants to convert this building into up to 160 apartment units. The city council is asked to schedule an initial public hearing on this after the planning board voted to recommend the SLU permit.
The city council is formally being asked to approve the conveyance of the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum building to the museum. It seems of the departments to comment on this, Public Service noted quite a few issues including some encroachment of the building and it facilities into some city right-of-ways they want to see corrected, and the museum finding some other way to reconfigure it's loading area as the museum has to use the river trail stub to load an unload certain exhibits. However, the document says most of these have been addressed since the city's study of this. The big piece of news? The city's agreement requires that the building continue as a museum for at least 30 years. If that is broken, the building goes back to the city. So, it looks like we won't be seeing a new museum any time soon. I guess this ends the campaign by the museum to move.
More big news: The mayor is asking the city council to formally begin the switch-over from conventional zoning to the new form-based zoning code. It will literally be transformational. The council is being asked to set a public hearing, so we'll see if they are ready to start this process Monday.
Ends-and-outs: public hearings will take place for the proposed apartment building on Pere Marquette and the renaming of Grand River Avenue through Old Town.
The news about 735 E Hazel becoming apartments is great, that's one of the main buildings I wanted to see renovated in the city. The multi-floor area of that building isn't very large though, to get 160 apartments I'd think they'd have to use some or all of the single floor sections of the building for residential. That will make for some pretty interesting apartments with incredibly tall ceilings (maybe two floor apartments?). I'm very interested in seeing their plans.
It's great to see that apartment building on Pere Marquette moving forward also. The building looks like it'll be pretty mediocre but I'm really glad to see a midrise on that street, hopefully there's much more to come.
I'm very disappointed to hear about the 30 year condition to the RE Olds museum sale. Not only should the R E Olds museum be encouraged to move for its own sake, but also for the sake of redeveloping Museum Drive. (...beginning rant about my idea for the area...)To me the ideal future of this are has always been pretty clear, a plinth should be built at the level of Michigan Ave with Museum Dr running south on top of the plinth, in a perfect world it would connect to Kalamazoo and maybe even to Grand via a bridge. There would be room for a handful of mid to high rises, one or two of which could face Michigan.
I'm interested to see that, too. Maybe they will end up reconstruction the interior of the site and add a new construction floor or two. I have no idea. As it is, it's a 145,000 square foot building, which would make for an average total floor area per apartment of just over 900 square feet if they seek the max of 160 units. Not sure how that compares with other buildings. You can tell from aerials it's kind of pieced together, so I do imagine they'd do significant reconstruction to even out the interior sections.
I'm still curious as to how nothing has been announced or even leaked for the Prudden Wheels expansion. Usually something that's gone as far as to have a sign made and request a special land use permit/rezoning gets some attention, but I've not even seen the city pulse pick-up anything on it. That's a possible ten story building or two.
Guess I hadn't heard of this one. Capital Gains Lansing is reporting that Deloitte, the world's largest proffessional services firm, has moved it's Lansing office to the Hollister Building at 106 W Allegan; they will occupy the third and fourth floors. At 150 employees, this is one of the bigger private office moves we've seen in years.
That said, I don't know where they were before. Did they move from outside the neighborhood, or were they in another downtown office building?
From the article, "Before the office, many Deloitte employees were housed within state buildings, working alongside State of Michigan clients on IT and consulting projects."
Comments
This plan looks really good. I also think projects like this reusing old buildings are more interesting than building something new. This near northwest side of downtown has a lot of people living in the area and there are really no services at all. I hope the commercial spaces are filled with businesses that offer something to the neighborhood.
I was at the downtown Post Office and noticed that they have removes all trees on the west side of the Capitol for the geo-thermal heating project. Just a thought but why did they have to do this directly behind the building? There are so many acres of surface parking lots just a block or two away, it seems like that would have been a better place for this. Digging up a parking lot instead of the Capitol lawn [I know there was a small parking lot behind the building] may have been cheaper and no need to cut down all the trees.
They used the amount of land they needed to use. They needed so many bore holes, and that included the whole west end. They didn't go tearing up the lawn for fun. You know I'm sensitive about trees, too, but this is unfair criticism in this case. They don't want to dig up any more land than they have to; that costs extra money. So they obviously needed to dig up what they dug up to make the project feasible. You need geothermal as close to the building being heated as possible to get the full benefit and price. It's not just something you can move across here or across there.
The lawn will be replanted and the capitol will get a more environmentally friendly and long-lasting heating and cooling system. It's a win-win as far as I'm concerned. Fortunately, the back of the Capitol doesn't have any of the special trees the front yard has.
EDIT: Well speak of the devil, Gongwer News has a photo of the construction, today:
Well thank you. I did fully understand what they are doing. It was just a bit shocking to see the entire area under construction, which I also knew was going on. Just like the substation I'm sure it will be beautiful once it's done.
A restaurant has finally opened in the former spot of the 621 night club on Michigan Avenue in the stadium district.
Quite a bit of news on Monday's council agenda:
The news about 735 E Hazel becoming apartments is great, that's one of the main buildings I wanted to see renovated in the city. The multi-floor area of that building isn't very large though, to get 160 apartments I'd think they'd have to use some or all of the single floor sections of the building for residential. That will make for some pretty interesting apartments with incredibly tall ceilings (maybe two floor apartments?). I'm very interested in seeing their plans.
It's great to see that apartment building on Pere Marquette moving forward also. The building looks like it'll be pretty mediocre but I'm really glad to see a midrise on that street, hopefully there's much more to come.
I'm very disappointed to hear about the 30 year condition to the RE Olds museum sale. Not only should the R E Olds museum be encouraged to move for its own sake, but also for the sake of redeveloping Museum Drive. (...beginning rant about my idea for the area...)To me the ideal future of this are has always been pretty clear, a plinth should be built at the level of Michigan Ave with Museum Dr running south on top of the plinth, in a perfect world it would connect to Kalamazoo and maybe even to Grand via a bridge. There would be room for a handful of mid to high rises, one or two of which could face Michigan.
I'm interested to see that, too. Maybe they will end up reconstruction the interior of the site and add a new construction floor or two. I have no idea. As it is, it's a 145,000 square foot building, which would make for an average total floor area per apartment of just over 900 square feet if they seek the max of 160 units. Not sure how that compares with other buildings. You can tell from aerials it's kind of pieced together, so I do imagine they'd do significant reconstruction to even out the interior sections.
I'm still curious as to how nothing has been announced or even leaked for the Prudden Wheels expansion. Usually something that's gone as far as to have a sign made and request a special land use permit/rezoning gets some attention, but I've not even seen the city pulse pick-up anything on it. That's a possible ten story building or two.
Guess I hadn't heard of this one. Capital Gains Lansing is reporting that Deloitte, the world's largest proffessional services firm, has moved it's Lansing office to the Hollister Building at 106 W Allegan; they will occupy the third and fourth floors. At 150 employees, this is one of the bigger private office moves we've seen in years.
That said, I don't know where they were before. Did they move from outside the neighborhood, or were they in another downtown office building?
From the article, "Before the office, many Deloitte employees were housed within state buildings, working alongside State of Michigan clients on IT and consulting projects."
Also https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/footerlinks/office-locator/michigan/lansing.html lists 120 N Washington though Google Maps isn't so helpful in pointing me at that specific building (it takes me to One Michigan Avenue, which might be correct but they don't use that address).