It's the only thing that would fit with "campus plan." What they are building down on South Washington north of the park is planned as a campus. I guess we'll get more news whenever the city decides to release it.
The 2024 state budget put aside dollars for the city of Lansing, allowing the city to move forward with projects that were halted due to a lack of funding. Such as the relocation of city hall.
“This building is old, it is not very functional it’s got asbestos, it’s just in bad shape,” Schor said. “Now we’ve got a nice sizable contribution from the state which will allow us to move to a city hall that’s effective for the residents of the city of Lansing.”
The city has already received proposals for a hotel to move into the empty office space.
My guess is that the proposal isn't particularly new, but alludes to the existing proposals created some years back when Virg was trying to move the city out of the building.
All I can say is that I'll be up in arms if they move the city hall to that south Washington complex or any existing building. If they build a high quality building that's designed by a reputable architect, I'll probably shut up. I may not be happy, but I won't complain too loudly.
imo The only empty lot that is clearly fitting for city hall is to buy half of Eyde's Constitution Hall lot that's kitty-corner to the Capitol. The SW corner of Washtenaw & Grand, NW corner of Lenawee & Grand and the Larch/Cedar/Kalamazoo lot (a location that's growing on me as a think more about it) would all be acceptable to me. The SW corner of Grand & Michigan would also be ok although I've always hoped to see a new tallest building in the city go there someday, which city hall will certainly not be.
This is all besides the fact that I have strong concerns that if we sell off city hall any potential development will fall through, be downsized or built incredibly cheaply; then we're stuck with a potential joke of a city hall that Schor has pushed us towards while having a large empty building facing the Capitol or a mediocre hotel that will never live up to expectations.
This whole saga has reeked of crookery to me since Bernero announced it, I don't trust the people involved or their motivations.
I went over to Frances Park to check out the Rose Garden, I found it blocked off for construction. They have replaced some of the sidewalks, adding a sidewalk right through the middle of the garden which was a grass path:{, and put up a new pergola. I hope it looks better when the work is finished as it was kind of a mess. On the way back to EL I noticed that the demolition work had begun on the Walter French housing project. That was one of those projects I thought I would never see built! Also, the REOtown project is looking a little better, still quite suburban but with some kind of interesting exterior treatments, and quite large balconies.
The LSJ did an update on the public safety headquarters the other day. I was glad to hear that they were able to shave off about 10% of the cost because the mayor was able to convince some ratings agencies to upgrade Lansing's bond rating; it's $175 million, now. Didn't vote for this, and haven't changed my mind, but if they can get it in cheaper, that's good news to me.
Also, this article makes clear that the public safety bonds for the public safety headquarters and the $150 million earmark from this year's state budget are, indeed, for two separate projects, though the city is still not talking about how it will use the $150 million as part of moving city hall.
The Lansing Police Department is contained within Lansing City Hall, as is the city’s lockup and 54A District Court. The city has long wanted to replace City Hall, and in the latest state budget officials got a one-time $40 million allocation for a new city hall, part of about $150 million in pork spread across projects in Greater Lansing. The city has not yet said how it plans to spend the funding.
With moving the police and courts from city hall, I guess it'd be possible to pay for a new-construction city hall to house the remainder of the city offices. And if they weren't building new and were going to buy an existing building, it becomes even cheaper. Still, I'm completely against the move unless they can demonstrate a plan to build something even half as iconic as the existing city hall, which is very unlikely. If they bought the old (Masonic) Temple Building, you might be able to begrudingly get me to support a move. lol But I have very little hope for anything nice.
As expected the, public safety campus siting is mostly wasted space. Looks like at least half the space on the combined parcels is some form of surface parking.
This is kind of what I'd expect a new city hall site to look like, too. Just ZERO committment to urban development while giving lip service to it for private developers.
I get the houses across Washington wouldn't want street fronted buildings but why not do a 40'-100' set back with greenspace and plazas between the building and the street? It just seems incredibly silly to build something with this site layout this day and age, let alone in an older part of the city. There's really no excuse imo.
One bay of parking already exists in front of the existing building, so I wasn't surprised to see that. It's just overall shitty urban planning. It's just overall too much parking and poorly sited, to boot. How are they going to justify this on a literal bus route?
Honestly, at this point, they just need to move into the old McLaren campus and call it a f%cking day, because this is embarrassing.
Comments
My guess is that the proposal isn't particularly new, but alludes to the existing proposals created some years back when Virg was trying to move the city out of the building.
imo The only empty lot that is clearly fitting for city hall is to buy half of Eyde's Constitution Hall lot that's kitty-corner to the Capitol. The SW corner of Washtenaw & Grand, NW corner of Lenawee & Grand and the Larch/Cedar/Kalamazoo lot (a location that's growing on me as a think more about it) would all be acceptable to me. The SW corner of Grand & Michigan would also be ok although I've always hoped to see a new tallest building in the city go there someday, which city hall will certainly not be.
This is all besides the fact that I have strong concerns that if we sell off city hall any potential development will fall through, be downsized or built incredibly cheaply; then we're stuck with a potential joke of a city hall that Schor has pushed us towards while having a large empty building facing the Capitol or a mediocre hotel that will never live up to expectations.
This whole saga has reeked of crookery to me since Bernero announced it, I don't trust the people involved or their motivations.
Also, this article makes clear that the public safety bonds for the public safety headquarters and the $150 million earmark from this year's state budget are, indeed, for two separate projects, though the city is still not talking about how it will use the $150 million as part of moving city hall.
With moving the police and courts from city hall, I guess it'd be possible to pay for a new-construction city hall to house the remainder of the city offices. And if they weren't building new and were going to buy an existing building, it becomes even cheaper. Still, I'm completely against the move unless they can demonstrate a plan to build something even half as iconic as the existing city hall, which is very unlikely. If they bought the old (Masonic) Temple Building, you might be able to begrudingly get me to support a move. lol But I have very little hope for anything nice.
This is kind of what I'd expect a new city hall site to look like, too. Just ZERO committment to urban development while giving lip service to it for private developers.
I get the houses across Washington wouldn't want street fronted buildings but why not do a 40'-100' set back with greenspace and plazas between the building and the street? It just seems incredibly silly to build something with this site layout this day and age, let alone in an older part of the city. There's really no excuse imo.
Honestly, at this point, they just need to move into the old McLaren campus and call it a f%cking day, because this is embarrassing.