In regard to the location, I think it’s out east enough to potentially allow for another grocer closer to the capitol in the future, especially as more residential developments go up. This one can probably sustain itself with the immediate neighbors (all the apartments), the Eastside, and all the people willing to make the trip to whatever “name-brand” grocery it is.
There’s still the Walnut, Genesee, and Cherry Hill neighborhoods, all the residential in the southwest part of the downtown (not sure if that has an official name), plus the work week commuters that could be more likely to go to something a little closer.
I think a mini Horrocks downtown would do great. They could sell all their soups, sandwiches, pizza, sushi, coffee, and donuts to the lunch and breakfast crowd, be an option for commuters to pick up a few things while walking to their cars, and better serve the neighborhoods mentioned above.
Though I doubt Horrocks would want to risk any sort of cannibalization. They have a pretty good thing going out there, and they seem to be investing a lot in that location.
There are a lot of negative comments on the facebook page about the developer. I do wish a lot of different companies were putting up new buildings in Lansing, but this is the company that we have and is the one who is actually building. I hope he will listen to the community input and build a quality development on this huge spot. I would shop at a grocery there, it would have to be competitive in prices to be successful. Maybe an "urban" Meijers is coming.
It's really amazing what Gillespie and Potent Potables has done for this community. They've been crucial in creating a critical mass of development of Lansing. Though we're still plagued by the occasional rash of closings, the good news is starting to seriously outweigh the bad.
I can't think of one truly bad thing Gillespie has done, except for tearing down the original Lansing City Market. That was boneheaded and the city is still paying for that.
I mean, his use of Studio Intrigue as his architect for his projects is really an unholy alliance. The Stadium District is the only thing I find passable, and the Outfield isn't the worst, but the rest of the stuff can DIAF. He is also deathly allergic to building even small parking garages, and most of the parking is poorly placed (again, Stadium District was the only one that really got this right). No new construction large projects in the downtown area should be allowed to have surface parking out front; that's not being unreasonable at all. And yet only his original project got this right.
Gillespie leaves a lot to be desired for his developments, but for Lansing it's been better than no development at all. Larch & Cedar sounds like it's going to be much more substantial (similar to Stadium District) and built up to the street and corners, so at least we have that to look forward to. But, no, his developments are not without their drawbacks.
I am hoping that the Red Cedar development will be the end of it's better than nothing way of thinking here, and will mean that others will have to step up their game.
It seems like they are renting the new wing of the Market Place at a good pace, perhaps this will spur the building of the third phase along Cedar and Shiawassee. The drawing I saw briefly in the windows of "intrigue" featured an L shaped building built to the sidewalk/street with a small plaza where the walking man sculpture is now.
The other big thing Monday's council meeting is the acceptance of the parks grants for the county. Projects in this cycle include canoe/kayak launches at Krueger Landing, Moores Park, and the City Market (I assume some of this might be for repairs to existing ones?), a pathway extension in Fenner Nature Center, (river)bank stablization under Washington Avenue, and some River Trail bridge rehabs and reconstructions.
lansplant - oddly enough, I did talk to one of the managers at Horrocks about a similar idea a couple years back - opening up a small Horrocks in East Lansing or the Eastside of Lansing. He was friendly about the idea, but was keenly aware of the competition from othe indie/specialty-type grocers (Fresh Tyme @ Trowbrige, Mert's Meats on the Eastside... now defuct, etc.). As for downtown, I'm not sure they'd want to compete with the City Market, even though it is practically empty.
Mich - I agree that Gillespie really needs to revise their planning on parking... Not sure whether that will happen any time soon though.
That is great news about the parks and trails. I have to hope that the recent tree cuts near GM and the new substation are part of this because they sure left an ugly mess of fallen trees over there.
I think they could naturalize the river banks by sloping them into the river channel rather than the rock cages they used here. The river is not that deep here and has already built some slopping banks of sand and stones during the last floods. The river bottom seems like it was scrubbed out and the water is running quite clear and fast.
GM [I guess] put a storm drain on their side of the fence at the bottom of the drive there. This will help reduce the erosion there caused by the runoff from all that cement next to the trail. If you are into steam the new pipes really stand out! come down to REOtown and check them out!
Mayor Andy just announced Lansing landed seven Opportunity Zone designations. Apparently, this is a program with the U.S. Department of Treasury whose purpose is to spur reinvestment in disinvested urban areas. Apparently, the base building blocks are Census tracts:
The seven priority zones are in the following areas (see attached map):
N. Cedar/Larch Corridor - Census Tract: 66
S. MLK Corridor, Southwest Lansing - Census Tracts: 37, 36.02, 51
S. Cedar Corridor-West/I96 - Census Tract: 53.03
N. Grand River Corridor - Census Tract: 33.01
This looks like it could actually be pretty helpful as an incentive for investment. It allows people who own a property for 10 years or more to pay no capital gains on appreciation and it if you invest assets that you currently owe capital gains on into opportunity zones you can defer (and reduce by up to 15%) the tax until sale or 2026.
Comments
There’s still the Walnut, Genesee, and Cherry Hill neighborhoods, all the residential in the southwest part of the downtown (not sure if that has an official name), plus the work week commuters that could be more likely to go to something a little closer.
I think a mini Horrocks downtown would do great. They could sell all their soups, sandwiches, pizza, sushi, coffee, and donuts to the lunch and breakfast crowd, be an option for commuters to pick up a few things while walking to their cars, and better serve the neighborhoods mentioned above.
Though I doubt Horrocks would want to risk any sort of cannibalization. They have a pretty good thing going out there, and they seem to be investing a lot in that location.
There are a lot of negative comments on the facebook page about the developer. I do wish a lot of different companies were putting up new buildings in Lansing, but this is the company that we have and is the one who is actually building. I hope he will listen to the community input and build a quality development on this huge spot. I would shop at a grocery there, it would have to be competitive in prices to be successful. Maybe an "urban" Meijers is coming.
It's really amazing what Gillespie and Potent Potables has done for this community. They've been crucial in creating a critical mass of development of Lansing. Though we're still plagued by the occasional rash of closings, the good news is starting to seriously outweigh the bad.
I can't think of one truly bad thing Gillespie has done, except for tearing down the original Lansing City Market. That was boneheaded and the city is still paying for that.
I mean, his use of Studio Intrigue as his architect for his projects is really an unholy alliance. The Stadium District is the only thing I find passable, and the Outfield isn't the worst, but the rest of the stuff can DIAF. He is also deathly allergic to building even small parking garages, and most of the parking is poorly placed (again, Stadium District was the only one that really got this right). No new construction large projects in the downtown area should be allowed to have surface parking out front; that's not being unreasonable at all. And yet only his original project got this right.
Gillespie leaves a lot to be desired for his developments, but for Lansing it's been better than no development at all. Larch & Cedar sounds like it's going to be much more substantial (similar to Stadium District) and built up to the street and corners, so at least we have that to look forward to. But, no, his developments are not without their drawbacks.
I am hoping that the Red Cedar development will be the end of it's better than nothing way of thinking here, and will mean that others will have to step up their game.
It seems like they are renting the new wing of the Market Place at a good pace, perhaps this will spur the building of the third phase along Cedar and Shiawassee. The drawing I saw briefly in the windows of "intrigue" featured an L shaped building built to the sidewalk/street with a small plaza where the walking man sculpture is now.
The alley vacation and rezoning for the Larch & Michigan block is up for passage at city council on Monday.
https://lansingmi.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_04092018-2103
I'm excited to see how quickly this is moving.
The other big thing Monday's council meeting is the acceptance of the parks grants for the county. Projects in this cycle include canoe/kayak launches at Krueger Landing, Moores Park, and the City Market (I assume some of this might be for repairs to existing ones?), a pathway extension in Fenner Nature Center, (river)bank stablization under Washington Avenue, and some River Trail bridge rehabs and reconstructions.
lansplant - oddly enough, I did talk to one of the managers at Horrocks about a similar idea a couple years back - opening up a small Horrocks in East Lansing or the Eastside of Lansing. He was friendly about the idea, but was keenly aware of the competition from othe indie/specialty-type grocers (Fresh Tyme @ Trowbrige, Mert's Meats on the Eastside... now defuct, etc.). As for downtown, I'm not sure they'd want to compete with the City Market, even though it is practically empty.
Mich - I agree that Gillespie really needs to revise their planning on parking... Not sure whether that will happen any time soon though.
That is great news about the parks and trails. I have to hope that the recent tree cuts near GM and the new substation are part of this because they sure left an ugly mess of fallen trees over there.
I think they could naturalize the river banks by sloping them into the river channel rather than the rock cages they used here. The river is not that deep here and has already built some slopping banks of sand and stones during the last floods. The river bottom seems like it was scrubbed out and the water is running quite clear and fast.
GM [I guess] put a storm drain on their side of the fence at the bottom of the drive there. This will help reduce the erosion there caused by the runoff from all that cement next to the trail. If you are into steam the new pipes really stand out! come down to REOtown and check them out!
Mayor Andy just announced Lansing landed seven Opportunity Zone designations. Apparently, this is a program with the U.S. Department of Treasury whose purpose is to spur reinvestment in disinvested urban areas. Apparently, the base building blocks are Census tracts:
Map
Looks like two of them cover the two halves of downtown, four of them are in southwest Lansing, and one is up near the aiport.
This looks like it could actually be pretty helpful as an incentive for investment. It allows people who own a property for 10 years or more to pay no capital gains on appreciation and it if you invest assets that you currently owe capital gains on into opportunity zones you can defer (and reduce by up to 15%) the tax until sale or 2026.
Opportunity Zones fact sheet - pdf