Lots of news within these last few posts. Thanks to @citykid for the insights
That the 1506 N Grand River development is still in the table, even if downsized, is very positive. That development would be huge for the area as originally envisioned but would still be transformative even as something half that size.
Regarding Sparrow, this sort of plays into why I was very disappointed that the city allowed them to vacate 8th St. I just don't have faith in them being good neighbors. The city has to start playing hardball in these situations. If they need parking they can build another ramp. They could buy a truly massive amount of goodwill with a restoration of Eastern that keeps all of its Pennsylvania facade and the auditorium.
Great to hear about that plaza on Miller, it's been a quickly declining eyesore for at least the 15+ years since I frequented a friend's house in that area. It'd be great to have gotten something mixed use but just seeing it cleaned up and put back to use is enough for me. Those are generally decent neighborhoods surrounding there so I'm surprised it took this long.
Finally, the Parks Furniture project will be another great one to see happen. It's a pretty straightforward project but is so, so necessary. In a perfect world they would have tore down that last vinyl-clad storefront and rebuilt a 3-4 floor building in it's place but short of something like that I have no complaints. As always I'm just hoping for good quality materials, particularly quality windows, they make all the difference.
I like the small-town look of this design; I was wondering about the spaces that are labeled classrooms.
There is a large artical on LSJ.com about the new restaurant spaces being built on the ground floor of the Knapp's Building. Sounds interesting, it would be really great to have such a large space for several restaurants and store fronts like at Lansing Shuffle, they say they are aiming to be open by the '24 Holiday Season.
Down the street the Downtown Liquor Store caught fire last night, I am not surprised with all the coolers and condensers packed into the small poorly ventilated space, plus there are always incents burning. Who knows, the folks who own the place are very nice, but I would not really mind if they opened a new store somewhere else.
We'd talked about it a some months ago, but the renovation is for a job training company specializing in medical jobs. There are going to be 4 commercial units on the west end of the property and the main part of the old furniture store will be the classrooms, a lab and other support spaces for the school. The corner building will be a small coffee shop. Upstairs above all this will be 11 apartments. It's called The Iris.
Sorry I wasn't clear. The three houses along Holmes St that went down are going to greenspace and the rest of the land with the vacated street was combined with the main hospital, outlined in red, to limit their property tax liability also want to point out that they bought the old SEIU building on Bingham and is conning the city into thinking they are using it for their operations so they don't have to pay taxes. It is completely vacant when I go by every day. /rant
Anyway, the five houses in yellow and the three across Ferguson are being donated to ICLB/Habitat for rehab. I believe the part in orange is becoming a new parcel that can be built on under the R-6b zoning. I was hoping the press release would be updated by now because I don't believe the hospital is actually doing anything besides donating the houses. I don't think there will be any additional 'affordable housing' beyond these 8 structures.
Parcel Viewer is updated annually in the spring so all of the lot combinations and splits should be reflected soon. And a new aerial for 2025 should be gearing up in the fall. They are updated on 5-year intervals due to the cost.
820 W Miller and the 900 block of Saginaw both received Facade Improvement Grant dollars; the 900 blk got an extra boost beyond the normal $10-20k award. I was not crazy about the east end building either and am hoping the built version is more compatible with everything else. It was one of my recommendations as part of that review committee. I think they wanted to match Moneyball across the street?
Ahh, thanks for explaining the lot combinations. That makes it easier to understand. Oh, so the "housing" they are talking about is for some good press because of all of the other crap they are doing. Great. lol I do hope that the planning office is very clear with the council and planning commission for anything else they want to do that Sparrow is working against the entire spirit of the form-base code. Sparrow is not some suburban hospital off a highway exist in Okemos. This is a historic hospital in the middle of an urban neighborhood, and Sparrow and UofM need to be compelled to act like it. If parking is an issue, develop a big-ass employee garage behind Eastern and call it a day and stop eating up their Michigan Avenue frontage with surface parking lots. It's crazy how we're totally redoing Michigan Avenue, building housing and shops on it, facade improvements...and then they do this. /rant
Anyway, I love the one hold-out house on Ferguson even more, now. lol
City Rescue Mission did submit their site plan for the new property. It's nothing interesting though, just a two story addition to connect the two buildings. i heard on the radio their $9-10 million dollar renovation campaign. That's double the number I heard when they were going through the rezoning.
I won't be surprised if this makes the redevelopment of the old junior high school next door more difficult. It has been site of a LIHTC application or two. Unawarded obviously.
I could see it making the site more attractive for transitional/supportive housing. Since they haven't been able to get it off the ground, anyway, maybe that might be an easier get.
The interesting in the LSJ update on this is that they speak of them fully transferring services over to the next complex, where before they explicitly stated that they were going to keep their kitchen at the Michigan Avenue facility. I wonder if this was an oversight by the author, or if they've decided to unload themselves of the Michigan Avenue facility, entirely.
The 600 block was listed for sale somewhere? I think they saw the dollar signs. It would have been insane to keep those buildings when they are looking at a $10m move and they could get ~$2m from the sale.
Comments
That the 1506 N Grand River development is still in the table, even if downsized, is very positive. That development would be huge for the area as originally envisioned but would still be transformative even as something half that size.
Regarding Sparrow, this sort of plays into why I was very disappointed that the city allowed them to vacate 8th St. I just don't have faith in them being good neighbors. The city has to start playing hardball in these situations. If they need parking they can build another ramp. They could buy a truly massive amount of goodwill with a restoration of Eastern that keeps all of its Pennsylvania facade and the auditorium.
Great to hear about that plaza on Miller, it's been a quickly declining eyesore for at least the 15+ years since I frequented a friend's house in that area. It'd be great to have gotten something mixed use but just seeing it cleaned up and put back to use is enough for me. Those are generally decent neighborhoods surrounding there so I'm surprised it took this long.
Finally, the Parks Furniture project will be another great one to see happen. It's a pretty straightforward project but is so, so necessary. In a perfect world they would have tore down that last vinyl-clad storefront and rebuilt a 3-4 floor building in it's place but short of something like that I have no complaints. As always I'm just hoping for good quality materials, particularly quality windows, they make all the difference.
You mentioned this, citykid, but did you not know they were going to announce adding?
There is a large artical on LSJ.com about the new restaurant spaces being built on the ground floor of the Knapp's Building. Sounds interesting, it would be really great to have such a large space for several restaurants and store fronts like at Lansing Shuffle, they say they are aiming to be open by the '24 Holiday Season.
Down the street the Downtown Liquor Store caught fire last night, I am not surprised with all the coolers and condensers packed into the small poorly ventilated space, plus there are always incents burning. Who knows, the folks who own the place are very nice, but I would not really mind if they opened a new store somewhere else.
Anyway, the five houses in yellow and the three across Ferguson are being donated to ICLB/Habitat for rehab. I believe the part in orange is becoming a new parcel that can be built on under the R-6b zoning. I was hoping the press release would be updated by now because I don't believe the hospital is actually doing anything besides donating the houses. I don't think there will be any additional 'affordable housing' beyond these 8 structures.
Parcel Viewer is updated annually in the spring so all of the lot combinations and splits should be reflected soon. And a new aerial for 2025 should be gearing up in the fall. They are updated on 5-year intervals due to the cost.
820 W Miller and the 900 block of Saginaw both received Facade Improvement Grant dollars; the 900 blk got an extra boost beyond the normal $10-20k award. I was not crazy about the east end building either and am hoping the built version is more compatible with everything else. It was one of my recommendations as part of that review committee. I think they wanted to match Moneyball across the street?
Anyway, I love the one hold-out house on Ferguson even more, now. lol
I won't be surprised if this makes the redevelopment of the old junior high school next door more difficult. It has been site of a LIHTC application or two. Unawarded obviously.
The interesting in the LSJ update on this is that they speak of them fully transferring services over to the next complex, where before they explicitly stated that they were going to keep their kitchen at the Michigan Avenue facility. I wonder if this was an oversight by the author, or if they've decided to unload themselves of the Michigan Avenue facility, entirely.
The 600 block was listed for sale somewhere? I think they saw the dollar signs. It would have been insane to keep those buildings when they are looking at a $10m move and they could get ~$2m from the sale.