Looking at this rendering, it becomes painfully obvious that those properties on the opposite sides of evergreen and albert ave need a serious upsizing!!!
... and finally, that the unremarkable city hall building complex is squatting on a lot of wasted space in the downtown area... it would be great if they moved up abbot and built a more space efficient building across from Hannah on all of that wasted single-level commercial space along the east side of Abbot...
No, I'd rather that city hall stay downtown but build a more dense building with underground parking. A guy can wish lol. But right now they don't have any funds to relocate. But staying downtown will keep some office workers downtown as well as anybody coming for court or other city business which will overflow to the retail and restaurants.
Thats odd... I thought that the City of EL owned those rental properties. I seem to recall that they were considering knocking them down to put in a temporary surface lot while parking ramp under City Center was going to be built.
Jared - I envisioned the funds for moving city hall would come from the sale of the more desirable downtown parcel, but I really have no idea whether this would work. I agree it is best to keep as many city hall associated folks downtown as possible, but I expect the impact from their loss would be rather minimal, as there are not that many city employees, and many people (including me!) drive in/out to do their business with the city.
Thanks for clearing up the confusion Mich - I've been trying to keep an eye on what the city plans to do with those properties, as I believe they're a part of the financial mess that the city is in... as I recall, they were part of a large, overpriced land purchase by the DDA/city around 10 years ago for the original planned development. And as far as I know, the city owes a huge balloon payment on them; I'm pretty sure this info was uncovered by ELi over the past couple of years...
However, I predict that any remaining issues will get fast-tracked towards a solution. Otherwise, if the city blows this deal at this point, I'd look for a few city council members to get the boot next time around.
The city council is also operating on a skeleton crew with only three regular attendees and they need votes of at least three in the affirmative to pass anything so each member has a veto now. If Ruth Beier manages to attend (she's taking night classes now) then they can get a fourth but it's not guaranteed.
Comments
Looking at this rendering, it becomes painfully obvious that those properties on the opposite sides of evergreen and albert ave need a serious upsizing!!!
And that the city still has way too much surface lot parking in that area of downtown...
... and finally, that the unremarkable city hall building complex is squatting on a lot of wasted space in the downtown area... it would be great if they moved up abbot and built a more space efficient building across from Hannah on all of that wasted single-level commercial space along the east side of Abbot...
Thats odd... I thought that the City of EL owned those rental properties. I seem to recall that they were considering knocking them down to put in a temporary surface lot while parking ramp under City Center was going to be built.
Jared - I envisioned the funds for moving city hall would come from the sale of the more desirable downtown parcel, but I really have no idea whether this would work. I agree it is best to keep as many city hall associated folks downtown as possible, but I expect the impact from their loss would be rather minimal, as there are not that many city employees, and many people (including me!) drive in/out to do their business with the city.
Thanks for clearing up the confusion Mich - I've been trying to keep an eye on what the city plans to do with those properties, as I believe they're a part of the financial mess that the city is in... as I recall, they were part of a large, overpriced land purchase by the DDA/city around 10 years ago for the original planned development. And as far as I know, the city owes a huge balloon payment on them; I'm pretty sure this info was uncovered by ELi over the past couple of years...
Jared and Mich - Not sure... this is the most recent update I've come across:
https://eastlansinginfo.org/content/details-revealed-proposed-redevelopment-deal
However, I predict that any remaining issues will get fast-tracked towards a solution. Otherwise, if the city blows this deal at this point, I'd look for a few city council members to get the boot next time around.