Lansing City Hall redevelopment and replacement
I guess I'll go ahead and get this thread started, keeping this discussion in the general thread is getting cumbersome. (for future reference this is picking up where the General Lansing thread left off on page 333/334 on 2/16/2018)
I'll save this first post for adding renderings, links, etc in the future.
Comments
I'm still not a fan of these proposals. If it were up to me I'd renovate the current City Hall and have it remain as City Hall while finding a new location for the police department, possibly as part of a larger county complex. My favorite location for a new police and/or county complex would still be in the same area as these proposals, along Washington or Grand between Kalamazoo and 496.
If the City moves forward with a new City Hall I wouldn't be unhappy with any of the locations proposed, the southern end of downtown would benefit massively from the influx of workers. I just don't want our City Hall to be an embarrassment, all of the locations proposed are far less desirable than the current one so whatever they build should at least attempt to make up for that fact.
Breitler is giving the city a deadline, stating basically that Lansing needs him but he doesn't need Lansing. hmm..
http://lansingcitypulse.com/article-16443-Clock-ticking-on-City-Hall-hotel-plan.html
Bye, bye, Breitler. See ya later. Honestly, this is a tone deaf way to negotiate in the media like this and with that kind insulting stance. This is not Lansing in 2000, say, when you almost couldn't pay anyone to building anything large scale downtown.
I've been pretty clear that I'm not keen on this process to begin with, but that just kind of cements it for me. Hotel was just proposed down the street; Breitler can kick rocks with that kind of rhetoric.
Yeah, there are honestly tons of surface lots that could be bought for the right price. People only propose deals that benefit themselves, not the others. The city would be getting the short end of the stick here and honestly a little inconvenience with continual maintenance is better than throwing everything away and having half of city hall on the streets looking for a home.
This guy talks like it's 1999! It would be great to have all this workout but I think Lansing would get along just fine without him. I would like to actually see the City Hall remain where it is and build a courthouse and jail over on Lenawee next to the courts there.
I talked about it earlier, but I don't get why he couldn't just buy the Farnum Building, or the lot at the corner of Michigan and Grand, or the lot at the corner of Walnut and Allegan...OH, because he'd have to pay full price for the land. lol
Seriously, this is the scam of a few decades ago where cities were so low they'd practically give away valuable buildings and land to developers. Those days are over. Cities can be choosier. It's hilarious he's talking about his firm as if it's the only game in town when Gillepsie just announced a hotel on privately owned land literally down the street. And then he had the nerve to talk about how his project would be higher-end than the Gillepsie project. Well whoopdie-doo. lol
I agree; slowly renovate the existing city hall and simple find another nearby site for the jails and courts if there is really that much of a space crunch. And then my other option was if they just must move city hall, keep the site centralized and on a site large enough to fit the courts and jails, too. I'd suggest the lot at the corner of Walnut and Allegan. You'd still have sweeping views of the capitol, but now you'd have a site large enough for a whole bunch of different functions. The Eydes own the city; maybe the city could work out something with them where they'd be the developer of the complex. who knows.
But the idea that the city just has to get out of the current location is a fiction; they don't.
Word on the street is that this project is dead on arrival, that it's not happening with this developer.
I don't even think you need a rumor to see this one isn't happening. This was essentially ended - no matter what lip service Schor is paying to the project - the second they couldn't get this through with Bernero. That's why they were trying to rush it at the end of last year. And, it's definitely not happening after that ridiculous and insulting interview the developer just gave the City Pulse.
I like that spot for a new City Hall location. It would fill in a large part of the "parking crater" that Lansing has become famous for! I also like the site I saw a while back, further to the south near Hillsdale. That spot would pull downtown all the way to REOtown.
I have been reading a few comments made about parking and the Lake Trust Block made by the developer that seems to indicate that the project there is happening, although I have seen no evidence of any potential action. It will sure be great to have that block occupied, in the summer it can be like walking a couple of blocks of desert past there. I hope they are planning to plant some trees!
My understanding of the development near Lake Trust block is that it's starting in the spring. This is based on a casual conversation I had recently, but I don't have anything to support that...300 apartments or something like that. That seems like a huge project.