Of course, their is always the backwards looking NIMBYs in opposition, who are forever opposed to eliminating crumbling, ugly surface lots in the downtown area...
“I don’t like dirty, dark dangerous parking garages and think the city needs surface parking lots. As a credit union member I see it as a huge waste of money. It won’t be convenient to go there with no surface parking and it’s a high cost way to find more office space.”
I like it, it almost looks like there might be a small atrium at the corner which would win me over. Hopefully EL voters approve the sale. It's great to see this construction boom in downtown EL, it has me wondering what's next.
The hardest part of public land sales is usually getting them on the ballot, and in this case that wasn't difficult at all. It's rare for voters to reject them. This is really as good as done, IMO.
It is very good to see a local banking institution investing in one of our downtowns. I do wonder as I drive by the big buildings north of town, what are all those people doing in there? What are their jobs? What are they doing with my money? Now the MSUFCU needs more space for more of those people and jobs. I am a member of the credit union I think they offer great service so they are growing which is great. I thought the comment on the EL page saying we need more surface lots downtown was kind of funny. That guy should move to downtown Lansing where there are acres of beautiful safe surface lots for as far as the eye can see!
I've been mixing the MSU proposal with the Park Place West land. Looks like East Lansing put out the two proposals for the site which responded by the deadline yesterday, one of which we've seen: River Caddis proposal Convexity proposal
From what I see I can easily say I prefer the River Caddis proposal. I don't like that the Convexity building looks the same as their other building, I'd like to see more diversity of architecture. I'm not head over heels for the Caddis design but I like it overall and it would certainly be a nice change from what I'm used to seeing around here, I also like that it's not just more student apartments. My only concern is that the Caddis proposal is viable, I think it's safe to say that the Convexity proposal is serious and would break ground in short order, I'm not as sure about the River Caddis proposal.
I agree with hood here. Seems like a bird-in-the-hand (Convexity) vs. two-in-the-bush (River Caddis) situation. Both projects look to pay similar amounts for the properties (~3-5M), both want to pull similar levels of TIF (~14-16M), but Convexity looks to be more shovel ready (<6 mo to break ground) vs. River Caddis (~6 mo., plus up to ~ 1 yr of extensions to get everything ready).
Given that amount of flexible time in the latter plan, I'd be far more worried about substantial changes to the River Caddis site plan, and less likelihood of getting that project through in current form. Particularly given how the RC "Citadel" will push all the way up to Valley Court, which will whip the Oakhills historic district NIMBYs into a raging froth over building height, style, and traffic changes on the border of their residential neighborhood.
Comments
https://eastlansinginfo.org/content/eli-survey-shows-support-land-sale-ballot-question
Of course, their is always the backwards looking NIMBYs in opposition, who are forever opposed to eliminating crumbling, ugly surface lots in the downtown area...
“I don’t like dirty, dark dangerous parking garages and think the city needs surface parking lots. As a credit union member I see it as a huge waste of money. It won’t be convenient to go there with no surface parking and it’s a high cost way to find more office space.”
I guess them releasing this is a signal that maybe they are leaning toward the taller version as opposed to the 5-story version.
River Caddis proposal
Convexity proposal
Given that amount of flexible time in the latter plan, I'd be far more worried about substantial changes to the River Caddis site plan, and less likelihood of getting that project through in current form. Particularly given how the RC "Citadel" will push all the way up to Valley Court, which will whip the Oakhills historic district NIMBYs into a raging froth over building height, style, and traffic changes on the border of their residential neighborhood.