Are they going to using the existing building, though? Because if they are, that's going to be something of downgrade for a relatively nice restaurant and building in Okemos:
The site they are moving to is literally an old KFC drive-thru, and it seems nothing lasts at that corner. Such a weird move. I want them to do well, but I'm very skeptical of that location unless they plan to totally redo the site with something more substantial.
Awesome. While I agree that the old KFC building leaves much to be desired, I'm glad to see one of the fancier area restaurants moving closer in. The original article mentioned that the owner has historic ties to the Allen Neighborhood Center, so perhaps moving to this location will put the restaurant closer to that as well as the Allen St. Farmers market.
So, the minutes for the August 13 committe of the whole meeting are out, and we're getting a bit more background on the proposed annexation from Delta Township to the city. There appears to be some scuttlebutt that the petitioners are wanting to develop a grow facility somewhere on this land, but no one seemed able to confirm that. And they are wanting to come into Lansing because the township was not supportive of the rumored plan. At the same time, we find out that the township isn't supportive of the annexation, either.
Needless, to say everyone who spoke on this issue in committee during public comment was against it (because they are literally against everything), and this was before the council members even brought the issue of the rumored grow facility up. The usual suspects on council were also very "concerned" and unsupportive of the annexation. The funny thing is that the zoning that would be applied to this land as it comes into the city would be F-Commercial, which doesn't allow marijuana grow facilities; a property owner would have to go through the rezoning process, and council would most likely reject the rezoning request.
Bottom line? The council has no say, and this will be on the ballot in November. There are only two residents on the land, which will vote, and then the city will vote. Barring some organized opposition to this, Lansing's about to get 10.9999 acres of land and associated taxes from these 8 lots.
Yeah, I'm for any annexation that "corrects" the city's borders, so I'm voting yes on this, too. Also, the city's zoning code allows for more urban development than Delta Township's, so whatever is eventually developed there will be better than what's there now.
Oh, just noticed today that the land Gillespie Group asked for a rezoning in the huge block to the southeast of Larch and Michigan looks to be doing site prep. It looks like they've evicted all the folks in the houses along Barnard (those that were rentals, anyway) and boarded up all the windows on the houses. So it looks like we might be getting some more information on this soon. This is going to be a huge development, and I bet like Marketplace it will be phased.
I really like the idea behind the improvements to Foster Park. It'll be great to see how it turns out, it looks like they have a good plan. The decorative wall along Kalamazoo and the plaza ought to really improve the view from the street and make the park along with the neighborhood more inviting. I wish they'd do more for the Kalamazoo facing side of Hunter Park also.
LANSING — Developer Brent Forsberg likes to show people side-by-side aerial views of downtown Lansing today and in 1932.
Today's parking lots were blocks of housing in the '30s. He'd like to make at least some of them housing again.
Forsberg is one of three principals of Urban Systems, a development group that plans to add hundreds of units of housing to the southern portion of downtown Lansing in the next few years.
Schor, as is usual for him, is really non-committal about the problem and solution:
Streets Blog, a nonprofit news organization, named Lansing the U.S. city with the worst "parking crater," back in April. It defined a parking crater as a massive area designated solely for street-level vehicle parking that wastes a city's development potential.
The designation points to one of the Lansing's downtown development hurdles: As a capital city, some of its prime real estate is controlled by the state. The city can't do much about the vast state-owned parking lots on the western side of downtown.
Getting rid of parking lots is a big piece in revitalizing a downtown, said Paul Soglin, the longtime mayor of Madison, Wisconsin, another capital city. Soglin estimated his city only has about six in its downtown.
‘“If you do aerial views of downtown you’ll find out that parking lots are a measurement of how great is the failure of imagination," he said. "It is expensive to build parking ramps and to build underground parking ramps but in the long term it pays off.”
Lansing Mayor Andy Schor said in the immediate future, the city could a better job of working with the state to use the parking space on weekends for events like art fairs and festivals.
“Ideally, we’d like to get rid of some of the surface parking," he said. "But that’s a long-term goal.”
There's also a little update on Forsberg's 500 South Washington, though still nothing really solid.
Urban Systems purchased the entire block 500 block of south Washington Avenue earlier this year. The block is home to the former Lake Trust Credit Union headquarters and a small, two-story office building.
The development group plans to renovate the Lake Trust building and build a five-to eight-story 170-unit apartment building with retail space on the southwest corner of Washington Avenue and Lenawee Street. Forsberg said Urban Systems is also aiming to redevelop the 600 block of Washington Avenue, but doesn't own all the property they're hoping to assemble.
Two proposals have come forward for the reuse of the historic Cooley-Haze House at the Cooley Gardens voters gave the city permission to sell, last year. One proposal by a local real estate agent is to reuse it as a retail establishment for salvaged building materials. The other proposal by a Jackson artist seeks to turn it back into residential usage for herself. The only restriction on the sale is that whatever the intended use, the house would have to maintain its historic exterior appearance.
The salvage shop sounds bizarre to me for this type of structure, and I'd like to see them reject that. The residential reusage makes the most sense, though if I owned it, It'd turn it into two-to-four nice apartments instead of a single family home. The other idea I had would be a bed-and-breakfast, or maybe two-to-four nice extend-stay hotel-type units marketed toward out-of-area state legislators who need accomodations for an extended period of time but no year-round, or maybe marketed toward prominent visitors to the area. The last idea I have would simply be the previous usage: a sort of exhibition space (gallery, museum, etc.) and conference space.
Apparently, the salvage shop guy is offering the most for the property ($20,000) while the artist is offering $10,000. Both are low because of the interior work that will be required to bring it up to code for whichever of the uses is chosen. The salvage shop guy apparently has the most experience with real-estate, but his proposal is also the odder of the two. The other thing working for the salvage shop guy is that he want work to get the structure on the National Historic Registry, though I'm not knowledgeable on what kind of tangible benefits come from that designation.
The home was built in 1903 and consists of around 4,200 sq ft spread across two stories + basement + prominent attic. The site is currently zoned residential (C-Residential) for duplex usage.
I'm actually kind of surprised by how excited I am about seeing this old house reused. There is literally nothing else left around it, but that also makes it really unique.
Comments
Tannin is moving from Okemos to East Michigan Avenue. I love this kind of confidence in the city.
https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/2018/08/20/tannin-restaurant-italian-okemos-moving-east-michigan-avenue-lansing/926311002/
Are they going to using the existing building, though? Because if they are, that's going to be something of downgrade for a relatively nice restaurant and building in Okemos:
The site they are moving to is literally an old KFC drive-thru, and it seems nothing lasts at that corner. Such a weird move. I want them to do well, but I'm very skeptical of that location unless they plan to totally redo the site with something more substantial.
Awesome. While I agree that the old KFC building leaves much to be desired, I'm glad to see one of the fancier area restaurants moving closer in. The original article mentioned that the owner has historic ties to the Allen Neighborhood Center, so perhaps moving to this location will put the restaurant closer to that as well as the Allen St. Farmers market.
The mayor formally introduced a Request for Information for the City Market building, today:
https://lansingmi.gov/DocumentCenter/View/6264/LANSING-CITY-MARKET-RFI-FINAL-PDF
It's for the "reuse and reactiviation" of the property. It'll be interesting to see who bites.
Curiously, I don't see a schedule. Did I miss it?
So, the minutes for the August 13 committe of the whole meeting are out, and we're getting a bit more background on the proposed annexation from Delta Township to the city. There appears to be some scuttlebutt that the petitioners are wanting to develop a grow facility somewhere on this land, but no one seemed able to confirm that. And they are wanting to come into Lansing because the township was not supportive of the rumored plan. At the same time, we find out that the township isn't supportive of the annexation, either.
Needless, to say everyone who spoke on this issue in committee during public comment was against it (because they are literally against everything), and this was before the council members even brought the issue of the rumored grow facility up. The usual suspects on council were also very "concerned" and unsupportive of the annexation. The funny thing is that the zoning that would be applied to this land as it comes into the city would be F-Commercial, which doesn't allow marijuana grow facilities; a property owner would have to go through the rezoning process, and council would most likely reject the rezoning request.
Bottom line? The council has no say, and this will be on the ballot in November. There are only two residents on the land, which will vote, and then the city will vote. Barring some organized opposition to this, Lansing's about to get 10.9999 acres of land and associated taxes from these 8 lots.
This amuses me, but I'm voting for it. First we take the 10.99 and then we take over the world.
Yeah, I'm for any annexation that "corrects" the city's borders, so I'm voting yes on this, too. Also, the city's zoning code allows for more urban development than Delta Township's, so whatever is eventually developed there will be better than what's there now.
Oh, just noticed today that the land Gillespie Group asked for a rezoning in the huge block to the southeast of Larch and Michigan looks to be doing site prep. It looks like they've evicted all the folks in the houses along Barnard (those that were rentals, anyway) and boarded up all the windows on the houses. So it looks like we might be getting some more information on this soon. This is going to be a huge development, and I bet like Marketplace it will be phased.
I really like the idea behind the improvements to Foster Park. It'll be great to see how it turns out, it looks like they have a good plan. The decorative wall along Kalamazoo and the plaza ought to really improve the view from the street and make the park along with the neighborhood more inviting. I wish they'd do more for the Kalamazoo facing side of Hunter Park also.
From the LSJ:
What would liven up Lansing's downtown? More people and fewer parking lots, experts say.
Schor, as is usual for him, is really non-committal about the problem and solution:
There's also a little update on Forsberg's 500 South Washington, though still nothing really solid.
Two proposals have come forward for the reuse of the historic Cooley-Haze House at the Cooley Gardens voters gave the city permission to sell, last year. One proposal by a local real estate agent is to reuse it as a retail establishment for salvaged building materials. The other proposal by a Jackson artist seeks to turn it back into residential usage for herself. The only restriction on the sale is that whatever the intended use, the house would have to maintain its historic exterior appearance.
The salvage shop sounds bizarre to me for this type of structure, and I'd like to see them reject that. The residential reusage makes the most sense, though if I owned it, It'd turn it into two-to-four nice apartments instead of a single family home. The other idea I had would be a bed-and-breakfast, or maybe two-to-four nice extend-stay hotel-type units marketed toward out-of-area state legislators who need accomodations for an extended period of time but no year-round, or maybe marketed toward prominent visitors to the area. The last idea I have would simply be the previous usage: a sort of exhibition space (gallery, museum, etc.) and conference space.
Apparently, the salvage shop guy is offering the most for the property ($20,000) while the artist is offering $10,000. Both are low because of the interior work that will be required to bring it up to code for whichever of the uses is chosen. The salvage shop guy apparently has the most experience with real-estate, but his proposal is also the odder of the two. The other thing working for the salvage shop guy is that he want work to get the structure on the National Historic Registry, though I'm not knowledgeable on what kind of tangible benefits come from that designation.
The home was built in 1903 and consists of around 4,200 sq ft spread across two stories + basement + prominent attic. The site is currently zoned residential (C-Residential) for duplex usage.
I'm actually kind of surprised by how excited I am about seeing this old house reused. There is literally nothing else left around it, but that also makes it really unique.