I wonder if it has to do with where the land is. Is the old Spartan Village in East Lansing or Lansing? Whereas the University Corporate Research Park is in Lansing. An additional one also could be needed just because McLaren will end up using all of the remaining space and they foresee running out of space in 10 years.
I don't know if it is fair to say that they don't really care which city the campus is in. I assume by "campus" you are referring to the research parks. Being in Lansing though opens the doors for more incentives that East Lansing can't offer. In this case, putting a research park where Spartan Village was, in East Lansing, will not be as accessible to incentives as the current park.
I know we have talked a bit about this subject before, but wouldn't be a better situation for all the communities around the city to be incorporated into one Greater Lansing, with something like departments or boroughs where the smaller communities kept some of their local functions mayors councils, etc. then this would be one large city offering the same incentives tax rates and opportunities for building a business in Michigan's Capital City home to MSU. BTW I know this will probably never happen, but many folks already just say Lansing when asked where they are from even though it might be Delta Delphi Delhi or whatever township they live in. The Horrock's bags say Lansing as well as most hotel's titles that are not actually in the city. I think about this every time I drive Kalamazoo Street under 127 where Lansing Township just ignores the terrible condition of the street there.
I think MSU may develop a "town center" type of development in this area, with research buildings surrounding a retail/ housing center? That is what I picked up on. It would be nice if everyone had a reason to go there. Research/office parks usually are places where only the people who work there go.
The MSU Board of Trustees has voted 7-0 to build a 100 acre solar farm on the northwest corner of Jolly and Hagadorn Roads. The solar farm will generate 20 MWac of power and save the university roughly $1 million per year.
Also cool is that the land will still be used for sheep grazing and a pollinator habitat. I wonder how there will be enough light for the grass to grow for the sheep. Or maybe there will be enough spots without solar panels that enough grass will still be around.
The depiction of the solar farm's layout looks like they leave quite a lot of open land in the pastures as well as some ponds and marshlands. Some grasses will grow with small amounts of light like the wheatgrass farmers plant to cover their fields in the winter. I grow wheatgrass for my cat under a small lamp.
I'm glad to see solar but I'm always much less excited to see it placed over green space. If they were going to take away green space I'd rather it be flat, boring farm land rather than the more unique area they chose. I kind of like the rolling pastures off of Hagadorn there.
I took my sanity walk, out at MSU yesterday and noticed the new wood-framed building the was a power plant is nearly finished and is a really beautiful building, the contemporary design is very cool. Also, the new Music Provillian looks very nice with its new wing referencing the details of the older building. The gardens and flowering trees are blooming nicely too.
Yes, this is really big news and the articles I read didn't extrapolate enough into the effects of this change as well as the motivations behind it.
What I see is that MSU had known for a while that increased years living on campus led to higher graduation rates. When I was an RA (Resident Mentor) in the mid-2000's they told us this and wanted us to give our students a good live-on experience so they would come back. It seems that Covid has given them the right cover to make this change as well as financial pressure too.
Off-campus student housing basically had 3-4 years of rent per student (assuming students graduate in 4-5 years, which covers most though some statistics only measure 6-year graduation rates). This change will reduce the number of years students live off-campus to 2-3 years, which would be roughly a 28% drop in revenue for the off-campus housing market. This has the same effect as adding 28% more capacity overnight to off-campus housing. Rent rates will need to decrease and housing communities that are further away from campus or in less-desirable locations will suffer more (the new apartments on Grand River and Red Cedar Renaissance should be okay given their prime locations).
For the potential upsides: If more students graduate and students have a more positive experience living in East Lansing, more may want to stay for graduate school or post-grad employment thus adding to housing demand and adding money to the local economy.
Comments
I think MSU may develop a "town center" type of development in this area, with research buildings surrounding a retail/ housing center? That is what I picked up on. It would be nice if everyone had a reason to go there. Research/office parks usually are places where only the people who work there go.
Here's the full map and some key details: https://www.scribd.com/document/447060734/MSU-solar-array-project#fullscreen&from_embed
LSJ coverage: https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/2020/02/14/msu-michigan-state-university-install-100-acre-solar-energy-array/4760386002/
What I see is that MSU had known for a while that increased years living on campus led to higher graduation rates. When I was an RA (Resident Mentor) in the mid-2000's they told us this and wanted us to give our students a good live-on experience so they would come back. It seems that Covid has given them the right cover to make this change as well as financial pressure too.
Off-campus student housing basically had 3-4 years of rent per student (assuming students graduate in 4-5 years, which covers most though some statistics only measure 6-year graduation rates). This change will reduce the number of years students live off-campus to 2-3 years, which would be roughly a 28% drop in revenue for the off-campus housing market. This has the same effect as adding 28% more capacity overnight to off-campus housing. Rent rates will need to decrease and housing communities that are further away from campus or in less-desirable locations will suffer more (the new apartments on Grand River and Red Cedar Renaissance should be okay given their prime locations).
For the potential upsides: If more students graduate and students have a more positive experience living in East Lansing, more may want to stay for graduate school or post-grad employment thus adding to housing demand and adding money to the local economy.