LANSING — Mayor Andy Schor has withdrawn a proposal to have voters authorize sale of the public land that houses the Lansing City Market.
Schor also announced Friday that the Lansing Entertainment and Public Facilities Authority will no longer manage the market on behalf of the city.
Scott Keith, LEPFA president and CEO, says the decision to remove the market from LEPFA control makes sense given the mayor's intention to re-evaluate the market site.
Removing LEFPA as the manager is a good first step, I know that much. The only problem with suspending the plans to eventually sell the building is that that means the market will be empty for longer than it otherwise would have been. I hope to god it doesn't sit vacant for years and becomes blight.
There must be lots of people who like the "idea" of the City Market but did not shop there. I can not really understand why anyone would have an emotional attachment to that building, it always made me sad to go in there seeing how empty it had become. I hope the Mayor has something in the works for that area.
No one had a connection to the building; they had a connection to the idea of the market. I suspect most of them were like me: shopped at the old market all the time and built relationships with the vendors we frequented, and tried to support the new location until we just couldn't, anymore. As the old vendors left, there just wasn't any reason for me to go, anymore. The new building was garbage from the get-go, and many of us said as much when we realized they were essentially putting up an aluminum-sided pole barn.
Anyway, taking LEPFA out of the picture is a great first step for whatever becomes of the place. Virg and LEPFA basically single-handedly killed the concept of the market by putting it in the location it's in. The old market functionally worked because vendors could load from almost any side of the property. That's the only way a farmer's market is going to work, to have some way for vendors to easily dock and load their products. The current site was never conducive to that.
I think a restaurant incubator could work at the site, a kind of community kitchen of sorts. I'd love for them to either tear down the current pole barn, or do what the city said it was possible to do when people complained about what was going up at the site: brick up the outside of it. It's also built to support a mezzanine level, too. So there are things that could be done with current building if they wanted to.
I think they could use the steel structure as a base for a Fancy Barn, maybe take ideas from the best Michigan barns or [I know they would never do this] add a bit of fantasy like a storybook design, or even take a look at some of the historic fancy buildings that were near or in this neighborhood and incorporate parts of their design, breweries and sugar beet factories that looked like castles. Or just look in Mexico every town has a big market with the permanent business selling everything prepared food, fresh food, produce all under what is basically a roof. The stalls create the interesting environment, not the building.
I often think about what they could do with the S.Gand Ave parking ramp as it has such a great location on the river. Use it a base for an apartment or hotel building, have a full-time food-court and year-round greenmarket[like Horrocks] the opens on to the riverside with seasonal farmers markets set up on the redesigned ground floor with stalls that face the street. Awnings and nice looking overhead doors for the stalls that would look good even when the Farmers Market area is closed, the farmers could access the stalls from the back inside the ramp. The ever important parking could be above. Offer free parking!
My other "great idea" would use the Michigan Ave train station as the food court core of a city market that opens around the station.
Using the old trains station as a market is a great idea I'd never even considered. If customer parking would be a problem, they could easily do some kind of deal where they could use Sparrow's lots on the other side of the train tracks, and build some kind of pedestrian crossing to connect the two. The parking lot out front could be used for additional vendors, events, etc.
You should really send this idea ot the mayor: Lansing.Mayor@lansingmi.gov
Not sure if you were around here then, but the redone South Grand Avenue garage was part of a much larger project that would have included an apartment tower on the lots immediately south of it, but it fell throug during the recession. Really, it just needs to be brought down; it's just too constrainted and taking up riverfront land. I'd like to see the space a small park so you could continue the sight-lines from across the river down Allegan. It's crazy the amount of views it blocks from both sides of the river. The garage is built (it's internal layout) in such a way that you couldn't use it's first floor for anything other than parking - and the small retail spaces on either side of the entrance.
Wow, I love this idea. It would be centrally located along the busiest bus route, and the huge focus on that corridor should give it more momentum. A historic building will satisfy all the people who hate new things, and there’s plenty of space to build some open air sheds (a la Eastern Market) branching out to the north and south of the building. Having a facade like this, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Market,_Detroit#/media/File:EasternMarketShed2_summer2014.jpg (probably a bit smaller) along Michigan Ave would be amazing.
There’s plenty of parking with the street parking along Pere Marquette, the parking lot and open space north of the property, and the massive lots to the east.
This is my favorite city market idea yet. Definitely suggest this to the mayor.
Wrote Andy today! I also suggested using the steel frame of the barn to support glass walls and create a Winter Garden/Butterfly House. This would return the area to parkland and be a beautiful attraction for tourist and locals. I think the developer who knocked down the old market and the BWL could cooperate on such a project.
Oh my god, a winter garden is SUCH a great idea for the City Market site. You're really on fire, lately. That would be a great addition and attraction.
Comments
Whiplash. Mayor Andy has abruptly suspended the plans to sell the city market:
Removing LEFPA as the manager is a good first step, I know that much. The only problem with suspending the plans to eventually sell the building is that that means the market will be empty for longer than it otherwise would have been. I hope to god it doesn't sit vacant for years and becomes blight.
https://lansingmi.gov/ImageRepository/Document?documentID=6122
There must be lots of people who like the "idea" of the City Market but did not shop there. I can not really understand why anyone would have an emotional attachment to that building, it always made me sad to go in there seeing how empty it had become. I hope the Mayor has something in the works for that area.
No one had a connection to the building; they had a connection to the idea of the market. I suspect most of them were like me: shopped at the old market all the time and built relationships with the vendors we frequented, and tried to support the new location until we just couldn't, anymore. As the old vendors left, there just wasn't any reason for me to go, anymore. The new building was garbage from the get-go, and many of us said as much when we realized they were essentially putting up an aluminum-sided pole barn.
Anyway, taking LEPFA out of the picture is a great first step for whatever becomes of the place. Virg and LEPFA basically single-handedly killed the concept of the market by putting it in the location it's in. The old market functionally worked because vendors could load from almost any side of the property. That's the only way a farmer's market is going to work, to have some way for vendors to easily dock and load their products. The current site was never conducive to that.
I think a restaurant incubator could work at the site, a kind of community kitchen of sorts. I'd love for them to either tear down the current pole barn, or do what the city said it was possible to do when people complained about what was going up at the site: brick up the outside of it. It's also built to support a mezzanine level, too. So there are things that could be done with current building if they wanted to.
I think they could use the steel structure as a base for a Fancy Barn, maybe take ideas from the best Michigan barns or [I know they would never do this] add a bit of fantasy like a storybook design, or even take a look at some of the historic fancy buildings that were near or in this neighborhood and incorporate parts of their design, breweries and sugar beet factories that looked like castles. Or just look in Mexico every town has a big market with the permanent business selling everything prepared food, fresh food, produce all under what is basically a roof. The stalls create the interesting environment, not the building.
I often think about what they could do with the S.Gand Ave parking ramp as it has such a great location on the river. Use it a base for an apartment or hotel building, have a full-time food-court and year-round greenmarket[like Horrocks] the opens on to the riverside with seasonal farmers markets set up on the redesigned ground floor with stalls that face the street. Awnings and nice looking overhead doors for the stalls that would look good even when the Farmers Market area is closed, the farmers could access the stalls from the back inside the ramp. The ever important parking could be above. Offer free parking!
My other "great idea" would use the Michigan Ave train station as the food court core of a city market that opens around the station.
Using the old trains station as a market is a great idea I'd never even considered. If customer parking would be a problem, they could easily do some kind of deal where they could use Sparrow's lots on the other side of the train tracks, and build some kind of pedestrian crossing to connect the two. The parking lot out front could be used for additional vendors, events, etc.
You should really send this idea ot the mayor: Lansing.Mayor@lansingmi.gov
Not sure if you were around here then, but the redone South Grand Avenue garage was part of a much larger project that would have included an apartment tower on the lots immediately south of it, but it fell throug during the recession. Really, it just needs to be brought down; it's just too constrainted and taking up riverfront land. I'd like to see the space a small park so you could continue the sight-lines from across the river down Allegan. It's crazy the amount of views it blocks from both sides of the river. The garage is built (it's internal layout) in such a way that you couldn't use it's first floor for anything other than parking - and the small retail spaces on either side of the entrance.
Thank you I will write to the Mayor, I was just brainstorming about the City Market thinking about a building that in its self would be a good draw.
There’s plenty of parking with the street parking along Pere Marquette, the parking lot and open space north of the property, and the massive lots to the east.
This is my favorite city market idea yet. Definitely suggest this to the mayor.
Wrote Andy today! I also suggested using the steel frame of the barn to support glass walls and create a Winter Garden/Butterfly House. This would return the area to parkland and be a beautiful attraction for tourist and locals. I think the developer who knocked down the old market and the BWL could cooperate on such a project.
Oh my god, a winter garden is SUCH a great idea for the City Market site. You're really on fire, lately.
That would be a great addition and attraction.
Yes, these are great ideas! Thanks for sharing them