I went to Silver Bells and noticed these two places were open. I thought it may be just a pop-up deal just for that night, It is great to see they are reopening both places. Silver Bells was very enjoyable this year with the weather being just right and the Capitol Ave looking so nice. This year's tree is also really pretty. The Capitol looks really beautiful at night, with the new lighting that really set off the different features of the building. It makes me happy to see all the businesses open and filled with people, Kelly's was jamming that's where we like to go for a beer during the singalong! It would be great to have a few more events like this and the 4th fireworks to bring folks downtown [S. Washington area] at night more often. Maybe one big event a quarter.
On a somewhat different note, I am pleased to see a lot more development in Lansing out of the Downtown/REOtown/Mich Ave./East Lansing/Meridian twp. Grand River corridor... like knocking down the old Golf house, whatever is going on at Grand River and Fairview, bulldozing the old, falling down trailer repair shop on MLK near the I96 exit, and lots of little developments that are sprucing up the old, tired urban corridors of Lansing, like S. Cedar and S MLK. There's also been a fair bit of upgrading to otherwise unremarkable commercial buildings like the old bank/new starbucks and the Courtyard by Marriott on Lake Lansing road near Eastwood, or the Manpower building on N. Cedar, all over the Lansing area.
Is there an official term for this kind of urban renewal? Kind of like a rising tide lifts all boats or something...
I guess not directly development related, though it shows the the affects of the development. Lansing School District's enrollment is up for the first time in 18 years:
Online home goods retailer Wayfair will open a customer service center in Meridian Township in 2020, bringing more than 500 full-time jobs to the region.
The project, announced Tuesday by the Michigan Economic Development Corp., was in the works for a year with the Lansing Economic Area Partnership, Michigan State University and other organizations joining together to pitch Greater Lansing to the company.
Lots of things in next week's Development & Planning committee agenda, but what caught my eye was that we get an explanation on the hold-up on the old Deluxe Inn site. Apparently, they've been unable to land a hotel, so they may end up with only a residential/commercial/retail mixed-use development. They are still asking for the rezoning next week, though.
For next week's Planning Board, the proposal to redevelop the old Kmart on South Cedar into a U-Haul self-storage facility is back. This time, though, the proposal includes new features like tearing up some of the huge parking lot for interior landscaping, and a storage building built close to the Cedar Street driveway for the property which will be designed to look like a commercial building. Still included in the plan is to leave the current commercial zoning of most of the Cedar Street frontage alone so that commercial buildings could be developed at the front of the property to obscure the main storeage building in the old store. The same was done for the old EDS property on Holmes.
I wonder how or why someone on the City Council would be against building more housing? Maybe she just trying to make some final waves before she exits her position. I believe that this area is going to need a lot more housing in the future as I think people are catching on to Lansing's affordability, culture and location. I hope it will not be true but soon there may be a lot of people who want to move here to escape the effects of climate change or economic stratification that creates million-dollar houses and offers 12 per hour jobs in their part of the country.
Very glad to hear that vast, horrible Kmart parking lot will be dealt with. I hate huge surface parking lots for numerous reasons. I am a big fan of the idea of penalizing/incentivizing property owners to tear out excess, unused black top!!!
...why would you be opposed to more residential...in an area you're trying to revitalize with more foot traffic. I like her son, I'm in his ward, but I'm glad she's gone.
I see some of you are just finding out about the horribleness of Washington. lol The irony of her position is that she lives in the newest subdivision of the city. There was never any logic behind her positions other than saying "no" to damn-near everything; as you can tell even by the minutes of the meeting we're talking about, city staff had to warn her that she couldn't place conditions on the development that aren't in the code/ordinances. Anyway, I like Urban Systems' visions, but they've yet to deliver on any of their big projects. I'm a bit worried it took them a whole year just to update us on the fact that they still hadn't nailed down a particular plan for the Deluxe Inn site.
In some other news, the MEDC has put out a request for proposal for 1506 N. Grand River north of Old Town. This is 3.6 acres right on the river north of the North Grand River Avenue bridge.
Their prefered development scenario is a new multi-story building with a restaurant (6,400 sq ft), office space (7,000 sq ft) and apartments (49 units).
Comments
Is there an official term for this kind of urban renewal? Kind of like a rising tide lifts all boats or something...
For next week's Planning Board, the proposal to redevelop the old Kmart on South Cedar into a U-Haul self-storage facility is back. This time, though, the proposal includes new features like tearing up some of the huge parking lot for interior landscaping, and a storage building built close to the Cedar Street driveway for the property which will be designed to look like a commercial building. Still included in the plan is to leave the current commercial zoning of most of the Cedar Street frontage alone so that commercial buildings could be developed at the front of the property to obscure the main storeage building in the old store. The same was done for the old EDS property on Holmes.
“Council Member Washington spoke in opposition to more residential and apartments in the area.”
Is there like an annual downtown residential occupancy report? Last I heard it was pretty high. Where exactly does this opposition come from?
Can’t say I’ll be too sad to see her go.
In some other news, the MEDC has put out a request for proposal for 1506 N. Grand River north of Old Town. This is 3.6 acres right on the river north of the North Grand River Avenue bridge.
https://www.miplace.org/4ac873/contentassets/1a5b3fd4a1164b8e805166dd9ee8459b/rrsites_rfq_lansing.pdf
Their prefered development scenario is a new multi-story building with a restaurant (6,400 sq ft), office space (7,000 sq ft) and apartments (49 units).