It's in next week's council agenda. GM subsidiary requesting a Michigan Strategic Fund Renaissance Zone designation, and an Industrial Facilities Exemption, the latter of which exempts a company from personal (and/or real) property taxes for 1-to-12 years dependent on what the local gov is willing to offer. They've reopened the 425 Act Agreement with Delta Township and everything. I'm waiting for some info on whether the amendments proposed for the agreement benefit Lansing or the township. The amendment has the city splitting most revenues and expenditures (property and industrial facilities taxes, infrastructure improvements) 50/50, though the city gets most of the income tax revenue (rising from 5% to Delta in the first year to 50% in the 10th year). Lansing is also entitled to an administrative fee for income and property tax collection. I'm not sure how those splits compare to the current agreement, though.
Looks like Committee of the Whole just unanimously greenlit each of the GM-related issues on the agenda, so this should pass council tonight in the same fashion. Pretty big thing we landed, though it was always the point of the original 425 with the township that Lansing Delta Township assembly wouldn't be the only structure on that land out there.
Edit: Ahh, from what I can tell, the amended 425 Agreement benefits the township more than anything. I guess the city figures that with more revenue coming in, they can share more of it with the township. First, it looks like they'll be splitting income tax revenue 50/50 on the new plant. Next, beginning in 2025, Lansing will begin to split income tax revenue with the township, first 5% and then increasing by 5% each year until it hits 50%. This all seems to imply that Delta currently gets ZERO income tax revenue from the 425 agreement. The only thing I see that Lansing gets from this amendment is that they get to collect a 1% administration fee on the total revenue collected for administering income tax collections. lol
To be honest, I was happy with the original agreement. Delta got half the property taxes off the development, and didn't have to deal with directly with GM.
This is all kind of moot in the short-term, though, since the different designation would exempt the new plant and its workers from paying taxes for probably at least a decade.
Yeah, when they built the Delta Plant they always said they had enough land to build another assembly plant, then there was the talk from Hollister a few years ago about another plant finally going out there and it finally brings us here. Now the ball is in GM's court, I'm not going to celebrate too much until construction has started.
Between this, the 2.5 million sq ft Amazon warehouse, consistent Meijer warehouse additions, the almost inevitable additional suppliers for the battery plant, a new Auto Owners building, new retail complexes on Saginaw at Waverly and at I-96; there is a lot going on over on the west side. Despite the lack of anything too exciting downtown I think the area in general is experiencing more investment now than anytime I remember, there's a lot to be positive about around Lansing right now.
EDIT: Just to correct myself, that Amazon warehouse is proposed to be about 1 million sq ft, not 2.5
Gillespie just broke ground on a 60k sq ft medical office building next to the new Mclaren Hospital. I don't see any news articles but he posted it to his Facebook page.
Apparently, the Izzos are co-owners of the building. Cool. And they already have two tenants.
BTW, their facebook page shows they broke-ground for the Hyatt House Hotel and Marriott AC Hotel on December 9th at Red Cedar Renaissance. I'd not heard that.
Oh yeah, they broke ground before then even. All the first floor columns to the hotels are done and they're working on three elevator cores/stairwells, one of which is probably up to the 4th or 5th floor.
Speaking of construction, I was by the building behind Lake Trust today and all the first columns except the ones around the elevator core are in. The building is actually going to be L shaped leaving enough room between it and the Lake Trust building for a driveway and almost extending to Washington along Hillsdale. The elevator core there is up to four floors, the building was supposed to be five floors but I'm not sure if the larger footprint changed that, it should be clear by next week whether it's four or five.
A purchase agreement is being planned for the purchase of city-owned property on West Hillsdale and MLK which used to be home of Union Missionary Baptist before they moved into the MLK median. Apparently, a DeWitt-based company (https://www.gryphon-llc.com/) wants to develop the 2.2 acre site into multifamily housing, though no other details are given in the purchase agreement. This is a request for a public hearing on sale, so look for this in the coming weeks.
Interestingly, this site is specifically mentioned in the city ordinances dealing with the Seven Block Neighborhood redevelopment, which seems to be the only neighborhood development strategy ever written directly into city code.
(d) All proposals received for the sale, long-term lease and/or re-use of the existing Union Missionary Baptist Church structure at 1020 West Hillsdale Street and the associated linear park land must be approved by City Council after review by the Development and Planning and Ways and Means Committees.
I assume since it was demolished long ago that the city has just ignored this ordinance all together. Anyway, this area is zoned DT-1 (Urban Edge) which is the least intense zone of the three downtown zones. By-right requirements and options include a height minimum of 2 stories (25 feet) and a max of 4 stories (40 feet), 60% max lot coverage, side and rear yard parking or street parking, a 25% decrease in parking requirements. Uses include the widest range of housing types and commercial business which is not regular retail.
I really have no idea what to expect at that site. I could see a couple small apartment buildings with or without ground floor commercial facing MLK and small apartments or townhouses facing the side streets. As always, I'll just be hoping for quality design and construction.
Look like it's going to be two-story stacked flats, which is they share an entrance would technically be multi-family, but really just function as stacked (side-by-side) duplexes. I was hoping for something a bit more substantial for a site right on MLK.
But, it's 40 units where there is currently a field, so I can't complain too much. The LFD is making a suggestion of reopening Lenawee so they won't have to access the development through the existing block along Lenawee, but it looks like that's not in the cards.
Comments
Edit: Ahh, from what I can tell, the amended 425 Agreement benefits the township more than anything. I guess the city figures that with more revenue coming in, they can share more of it with the township. First, it looks like they'll be splitting income tax revenue 50/50 on the new plant. Next, beginning in 2025, Lansing will begin to split income tax revenue with the township, first 5% and then increasing by 5% each year until it hits 50%. This all seems to imply that Delta currently gets ZERO income tax revenue from the 425 agreement. The only thing I see that Lansing gets from this amendment is that they get to collect a 1% administration fee on the total revenue collected for administering income tax collections. lol
To be honest, I was happy with the original agreement. Delta got half the property taxes off the development, and didn't have to deal with directly with GM.
This is all kind of moot in the short-term, though, since the different designation would exempt the new plant and its workers from paying taxes for probably at least a decade.
Between this, the 2.5 million sq ft Amazon warehouse, consistent Meijer warehouse additions, the almost inevitable additional suppliers for the battery plant, a new Auto Owners building, new retail complexes on Saginaw at Waverly and at I-96; there is a lot going on over on the west side. Despite the lack of anything too exciting downtown I think the area in general is experiencing more investment now than anytime I remember, there's a lot to be positive about around Lansing right now.
EDIT: Just to correct myself, that Amazon warehouse is proposed to be about 1 million sq ft, not 2.5
https://www.facebook.com/GillespieGroup
BTW, their facebook page shows they broke-ground for the Hyatt House Hotel and Marriott AC Hotel on December 9th at Red Cedar Renaissance. I'd not heard that.
Speaking of construction, I was by the building behind Lake Trust today and all the first columns except the ones around the elevator core are in. The building is actually going to be L shaped leaving enough room between it and the Lake Trust building for a driveway and almost extending to Washington along Hillsdale. The elevator core there is up to four floors, the building was supposed to be five floors but I'm not sure if the larger footprint changed that, it should be clear by next week whether it's four or five.
Interestingly, this site is specifically mentioned in the city ordinances dealing with the Seven Block Neighborhood redevelopment, which seems to be the only neighborhood development strategy ever written directly into city code.
I assume since it was demolished long ago that the city has just ignored this ordinance all together. Anyway, this area is zoned DT-1 (Urban Edge) which is the least intense zone of the three downtown zones. By-right requirements and options include a height minimum of 2 stories (25 feet) and a max of 4 stories (40 feet), 60% max lot coverage, side and rear yard parking or street parking, a 25% decrease in parking requirements. Uses include the widest range of housing types and commercial business which is not regular retail.
But, it's 40 units where there is currently a field, so I can't complain too much. The LFD is making a suggestion of reopening Lenawee so they won't have to access the development through the existing block along Lenawee, but it looks like that's not in the cards.