And still no new hotels downtown? I don't get it. I don't necessarily think that seven hotels is too many for that area, at least not by all that much. But to have such a dearth of hotels from downtown Lansing to Frandor to downtown East Lansing is truly embarrassing. I'd be shocked to not see a hotel in both downtowns in the near future though, it seems inevitable.
Hyatt Place: The $15 million, 128-room hotel from Chicago's Hyatt Hotels Corp. should be open by April 2015, said Kent Gregory, one of the hotel's franchise owners based in Savannah, Georgia. Builders have reached the fifth floor of a six-story building, Gregory said.
Fairfield Inn & Suites: The $10 million, 121-room hotel from Bethesda, Maryland-based Marriott International Inc. could open by July 2015
The Vista at the Heights: DTN's $17 million, 124-unit upscale apartment building could open in April or May 2015
Hilton Homewood Suites: A planned extended-stay hotel ... the 109-room hotel has an anticipated opening date in the first quarter of 2017.
I hadn't realized just how many hotels were being built over there. I'll have to take a ride out there this weekend to check out the progress. If we could have gotten half of the hotels to have located in either downtown Lansing or downtown East Lansing it could have been so much better. 50 years from now, Eastwood may have it's own district but for the next 10+ years it will still smell strong of urban sprawl.
I personally, for the entire region to flourish as a whole, downtown Lansing to be the main focus. It is the core of the region. It houses most of the regions dense job locations. From there we have to focus on the other main districts, which is East Lansing, South Lansing, West Lansing, North Lansing. For far to long in Lansing, each municipality has worked against each other in terms of regional planning, rather than with each other. This is why Lansing is so far behind in population growth and development than Grand Rapids or Detroit. I have been in lansing all my life and we have seen the decline since the 70s because of this. Now i know Grand Rapids have quiet a few billionaire benefactors, but come on man, we are the capitol city. Indianapolis, Atlanta, Phoenix, Sacramento, Austin, Boston, and so many others understand regionalism. They are kicking our tails.
I think people are warming up to all this talk of regionalism over the past decade or so, real changes are beginning. It's hard to say how it will all play out, but i'd love to see Lansing and East Lansing annex their bordering townships someday, and maybe themselves merge.
I agree we are starting to get the picture now, because we can taste the dust from the others kicking in our faces for so long because we are always behind them. But this will be my last comment on the matter that is negative. On a positive note, i believe we are awakening to the world out side of Lansing and realizing, we need to consolidate our efforts, and yes maybe our borders.
The Vista, the residential component of this mixed use development, is scheduled to open in September. The nearby Fairfield Inn will open in October. The Hilton Homewood Inn also have revised their plans and are proposing a bigger hotel upping its rooms from 109 to 139, and it will be seven stories, so probably the tallest building out that way.
I still don't get why so many hotels are going up there. I get a little more disgruntled about both downtown's lack of hotels every time this comes up.
I completely understand everyones gripe about all the hotels going in at Eastwood Town Center. It is still Lansing area so that's a plus, but I would like to see more hotels built closer to downtown Lansing.. I like what we've been able to do in the downtown area thus far but there's still lots of room for improvement. I'm so tired of driving downtown and only seeing one hotel.
Yeah, the state of hotels in the Lansing area has been a joke for some time. It was capped off when the Sheraton changed over to an off brand leaving the Radisson as the only full service hotel in a metro area of half a million people. With the new hotels in Okemos and up at Eastwood at least Lansing has some clean and respectable lodging for the area. The realistic side of me still sees the bright side of the situation, but I'm still annoyed because the area would benefit more from having the hotels in the cbd.
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The Vista, the residential component of this mixed use development, is scheduled to open in September. The nearby Fairfield Inn will open in October. The Hilton Homewood Inn also have revised their plans and are proposing a bigger hotel upping its rooms from 109 to 139, and it will be seven stories, so probably the tallest building out that way.