Look at the area of town, its off a highway in a very heavily RETAIL environment... its at the intersection of MSU, East Lansing, and Lansing... its not in a "walkable area" (there are neighborhoods to the north, not sure how much foot traffic they contribute, but considering the large amount of residential in this area there is a world of improvement necessary from a walkability standpoint before we can really have a decent conversation on developments like this becoming more "walkable")... and while yes, its just a strip mall, its new development in an area that most wouldn't see much "new development" and its a hell of a lot better alternative than just defaulting all retail growth to the clusterwoode towne centre
I think the look and feel of the development is going to be great, I just hope the users are there to fill it up and keep it active. Its much better than some vinyl awnings and a blue metal roof like you'd see out in delta twp., so we can at least be thankful for that.
I don't expect the Frandor area to change much until Frandor itself leads the change, by switching to more of a lifestyle center format. I do see a decent possiblity of mixed use developments going in along Michigan though, and possibly even between Clippert and 127. But I have to agree that this development is about the best that anyone could expect given the location, although the second floor office space would have been nice.
Yesterday I noticed a ~7 foot tall scaffolding is set-up on the sidewalk on Capitol running in front of the Boji Tower the entire length of the building and wrapping around the corner a little onto Allegan. No signs or anything...looks like the same scaffolding that was by the Representatives Office Building further up on Capitol, so maybe it's just window and facade washing?
Menna's joint on 200 block of Washington Sq. next to Brannigan Brother's seems to have had a bit of interior work done. There were people in there today and lights on tonight when I came home. They were supposed to have opened by mid-July and I haven't seen any work there in the last month, but they appear back underway.
Rumor mill: a new bar / grill is opening up at the corner of Cedar and Shiawassee where Club 505 was -- work is already going on to gut and renovate the interior. I heard it will be an upscale bar focused on music (not sure of a more specific theme, but I think live music might be part of the mix).
I walked by yesterday and workers were removing ugly ceiling tiles to expose a beautiful tin ceiling. If you were never inside of 505, I think any work on the interior will be a real improvement.
Sounds good. But I hope they do something interesting to the exterior, adding some windows would be nice. Also I don't know if it's been posted here, but the Famous Taco on Allegan is being turned into a bar/grill.
Sounds like great project. So what I'm understanding is a 2 floor addition on the side of One Michigan, with a possible rooftop patio? I wonder if he plans on redoing the facade also.
Comments
I think the look and feel of the development is going to be great, I just hope the users are there to fill it up and keep it active. Its much better than some vinyl awnings and a blue metal roof like you'd see out in delta twp., so we can at least be thankful for that.
I walked by yesterday and workers were removing ugly ceiling tiles to expose a beautiful tin ceiling. If you were never inside of 505, I think any work on the interior will be a real improvement.