I'm still confused about what council approval is needed for the tower, or would it just be the brownfield (and maybe the garage over the street if that's still in the works)? There won't need to be any rezonings or anything. Glad to hear of updates on it.
Gentillozi is supposed to be slated to speak on their progress at the 1st Ward constituent meeting, January 6th - 10am, at the Allen Neighborhood Center.
Which is funny, since all of the development is taking place in the 4th Ward, But Kost seems to be super-involved in constituent services relative to the other ward councillers, so it makes sense knowing that. lol Thanks for the heads-up.
The Pointe West Condos across from St. Lawrence are looking nice, probably a bit better than the actual rendering. Pointe West is the 5 attached units on three former detached single-family home lots on West Saginaw in between Bartlett and Carey. Most recently, part of it was used as an urban garden. The form-based code allows anything from the river to the city limits in this area along Saginaw to be developed as small-scale multi-famy/attached, by right, now.
I drove from Casa Nova [best pizza] down Wavery down to Saginaw and was disappointed to see that the Car Wash is still the only thing built on the golf course site so far, is that development still happening. [I know this is in the township] further down [in real Lansing] is when I was surprised to see the new condos on Saginaw Street. They look good. I was trying to avoid potholes so I did not notice any of the other developments that have been talked about east of MLK.
I just checked CPIX and the property isn't being marketed on there, I thought it was before. I can imagine demand not being off-the-charts over there but I can't imagine the best they could do is a single car wash. Something must be up.
A good article in the City Pulse today about the new development by Hepler next to Motor Wheel, as well as the NEZ proposal being put forth. It looks like this is repurposing the building attached to Motor Wheel that was commercial previously. I'm not sure if this ties into the other development at Penn and Saginaw but the NEZ would cover that and some other properties due to the way it is bounded. Honestly they could have had the eastern bound go all the way to Maryland ave to pick up that other block of warehouses to incentivize those being redeveloped into something more appealing, promoting increased density on this set of blocks.
The focus on being "green" is interesting, I hope it is legitimate and isn't just smoke and mirrors because it sounds cool in theory.
I'm going to read this, but I'm kind of worried this is the same-old/same-old. He's saying he's building these for 20-somethings and that he's making them "affordable", but...
Hepler said his target audience is 20-somethings. To encourage them to rent, most units will be furnished and top out at $1,195 a month.
This does not strike me as that, at all, particularly given they are under 500 square feet. Like, it's not the most ridiculous price-point in town, but it's definitely not what I'd consider affordable for your average 20-something unless we're talking degree-having 20-something who's already nailed down a professional job.
Though, I wouldn't expect him to go much lower; he knows who will lease from his management of other properties. But I do wish we had more affordable normal-sized rentals. It's why I'm glad to see Stadium Lofts doing what they're doing, but that requires working with the feds, which not everyone wants to do.
Sounds like utilities will be included with Hepler's apartments so it makes that rent a little more palatable.
Realistically the concept of "affordable" new construction is just plain silly. New construction generally runs $150k+ per unit, even amortized over 20 or 30 years most low-income people can't afford to pay for that. Workforce or moderate income housing is a much more realistic goal for new construction projects. Housing the poor requires either direct government subsidies or a healthy churn of the housing stock moving from high-end and mid-market to low-end housing as it ages out.
Besides, rent here is pretty affordable relative to national trends. Most places with rents lower than Lansing are real down-and-out towns. I fully expect prices around here to keep going up given the state and direction of the local economy.
A bit of what I consider to be good news: The Rescue Mission appears to be selling their buildings on Michigan Ave. The Mission wins by selling their smaller, more valuable properties to pay for a much larger one; the city wins by getting one of the larger homeless shelters out of one of the most prominent areas of the city and spreading the homeless population out a bit more. It could be yours for $3m.
Comments
The focus on being "green" is interesting, I hope it is legitimate and isn't just smoke and mirrors because it sounds cool in theory.
https://www.lansingcitypulse.com/stories/what-is-the-wheel-district,82525
This does not strike me as that, at all, particularly given they are under 500 square feet. Like, it's not the most ridiculous price-point in town, but it's definitely not what I'd consider affordable for your average 20-something unless we're talking degree-having 20-something who's already nailed down a professional job.
Though, I wouldn't expect him to go much lower; he knows who will lease from his management of other properties. But I do wish we had more affordable normal-sized rentals. It's why I'm glad to see Stadium Lofts doing what they're doing, but that requires working with the feds, which not everyone wants to do.
Realistically the concept of "affordable" new construction is just plain silly. New construction generally runs $150k+ per unit, even amortized over 20 or 30 years most low-income people can't afford to pay for that. Workforce or moderate income housing is a much more realistic goal for new construction projects. Housing the poor requires either direct government subsidies or a healthy churn of the housing stock moving from high-end and mid-market to low-end housing as it ages out.
Besides, rent here is pretty affordable relative to national trends. Most places with rents lower than Lansing are real down-and-out towns. I fully expect prices around here to keep going up given the state and direction of the local economy.
https://cpix.net/property-search/#/property/635ca79134b77a000aa19125