The LSD school board will consider selling Eastern to Sparrow Hospital on Thursday. To refresh memories, Eastern would be allowed to stay in the school for five years while they were updating/expanding the new Pattengill to high school standards, at which point Sparrow would demolish Eastern though maintaining “aspects of the historic value of the facility in future building design.” Sparrow's initial bit shows them getting Eastern and all of its land - 18 acres - for only about $2.5 million. A development group known as Capital Area Housing Partnership bid just under $1 million, but their proposal for the site wasn't detailed in the article.
There is no set proposal for Sparrow for what they plan to do with the land, but being as constrained as they are, it totally makes sense to hold some land directly adjacent to its hospital for the future. I doubt even with their growth they'd need a full 18-acres for the future, so maybe they'll get into the real estate business and sell some of it off. Whatever they do, I would really like to see some greenspace kept. You get some pretty decent views of the downtown skyline from the old baseball fields.
I'm very disappointed that they plan to raze Eastern. I believe a condition of the sale should be the preservation of at least the part of the building that fronts Pennsylvania. If Sparrow buys this property, razes Eastern and builds something insignificant in it's place it will really help me lose more faith in this city. We've lost entirely too much of our turn of the century architecture and we didn't have much of a collection to begin with. I can't believe we continue to make the same short-sighted mistakes.
I'm sad, but they've been talking about razing it for years, so this is really just confirmation of that. We knew it was coming down; I knew this when I saw Pattengill brought down. It's all a damn shame.
Up until now there was discussion of saving at least part of Eastern. I see no reason why at minimum the Pennsylvania facade couldn't be saved, call it an added cost of acquiring the property. There was also discussion before about retaining the field house, I wonder if that's still the plan?
Hey, Hood. This new article covers a point you brought up earlier:
LANSING - It ended with unanimous approval.
The sale of Eastern High School to the Edward W. Sparrow Hospital Association was approved Thursday night by members of the Lansing Board of Education.
The Lansing School District will receive $2.475 million for 18 acres of land where Eastern currently resides. The district has up to five years of rent-free occupancy to relocate its students to a new building. It is still responsible for paying utility and other costs associated with maintaining the building during the transition.
Sparrow will also work with the district to provide training and education to students in STEM fields, either at one of Sparrow’s hospital locations or another mutually agreed upon venue.
The sale does not include the property that includes Don Johnson Fieldhouse and nearby athletic fields, but Sparrow has first right of purchase for that property if the district decides to sell it.
Does the LSD have online packets of their meetings like the city of Lansing? It'd be very interesting to see EXACTLY what land has been purchased and what remains for sale. They mention it doesn't include the "nearby athletic fields" but are we just talking the baseball diamonds, or the baseball diamond, tennis courts and track at the base of the hill?
BTW, I've been up Orchard Street to its dead end (into East Village), and on the south side of the street is a large parcel of land I'd always assumed was part of the school district, but aerials show a fence and it's clearly not maintained as well as the school grounds. I'll have to look up what this is.
Also, this doesn't mention total demolition like the other article, but that they've already put that out there leads me to believe that is at least the initial plan. Perhaps they can be convinced otherwise since this is still five years off at the earliest. I know an alumni group tried a few years back to save the school building with limited success, but it seems that they at least got into the school's plans that any sale would have to consider preservation:
The preservation of the historical value of the Eastern property was one of the stipulations in Sparrow’s purchase proposal. Which parts of Eastern will be preserved isn’t yet known, she said. Sparrow will also “engage high-quality contractors who will themselves employ high quality, local skilled trades-people that realize the significance of delivering its project,” according to the purchase agreement.
This image is from page 13 of the purchase agreement, the district is retaining parcel E. The portion of land you're talking about south of Orchard St isn't outlined in the map, it may very well not be owned by the district.
Overall this may not be a horrible deal, if Sparrow manages to save the section of Eastern that fronts Pennsylvania I'll be happy, I don't think that's too unreasonable either. I'll also be interested to see if they come up with anything creative for the field house, there's certainly potential to turn it into a more often used venue.
Yeah, I can not imagine why anyone would allow the fieldhouse to go. There aren't too many venues like that in the city. In fact, my idea for it is really kind of simple: just use it as they've used it since the new Eastern would be just right across the way, anyway. In fact, I didn't even realize that they technically have access to Marshall along the little corridor they seem to own south of Catholic Central. If not that, it could still be used by the district for sporting events for all the schools as needed.
BTW, wow about that land to the north of the school property. I'd always just assumed the bigger fields were part of the school; in fact, I was simply talking about the small rectangle off the end of Orchard. Wonder why it's never talked about for development?
EDIT: Just went and looked it up. It's a single lot despite the physical divison. It's a 10.38 acre site owned by the State of Michigan Real Estate Division. I figure it was part of the Boys Training School and they just never sold it off like they did the rest of the property (which is now East Village). I do remember hearing that there used to be apple orchards back that way which is probably why the street is named what it is. Sad that it's not on the tax rolls and that the State apparently isn't doing anything with it.
The sale history is interesting. It seems to have been owned by the city back in 1999 when they sold it to the school district. It appears to have gone to the state in 2008. Each time it was no more than $1. I'm sure the transfer was probably talked about when they were working out the Boys Training School land sale, but I can't remember.
I think that property is where the largest and oldest of the Boys Training School buildings were, it could still be publicly owned. If it is in private hands it could make for a nice albeit small neighborhood style development.
From what I saw on their web site the company seeking to redevelop the School for the Blind campus should be hired by Sparrow. It looks they have done many old school buildings very nicely. I hope they can retain the facade at least. Also build something that looks urban, the East Village part of the Boy's School land looks out of place and does not relate to the neighborhood in any way.
I am pretty sure that the Boy's school had some sort of agricultural enterprise on the north side, I could be wrong but it seems like I remember cornfields and planted rows that you could see going down Saginaw. Many State institutions grew some of their food and offered farm work as vocational rehabilitation.
Comments
Also, Sparrow has website dedicated to construction updates (I'll add this link to the first post): Building Sparrow
There is no set proposal for Sparrow for what they plan to do with the land, but being as constrained as they are, it totally makes sense to hold some land directly adjacent to its hospital for the future. I doubt even with their growth they'd need a full 18-acres for the future, so maybe they'll get into the real estate business and sell some of it off. Whatever they do, I would really like to see some greenspace kept. You get some pretty decent views of the downtown skyline from the old baseball fields.
Does the LSD have online packets of their meetings like the city of Lansing? It'd be very interesting to see EXACTLY what land has been purchased and what remains for sale. They mention it doesn't include the "nearby athletic fields" but are we just talking the baseball diamonds, or the baseball diamond, tennis courts and track at the base of the hill?
BTW, I've been up Orchard Street to its dead end (into East Village), and on the south side of the street is a large parcel of land I'd always assumed was part of the school district, but aerials show a fence and it's clearly not maintained as well as the school grounds. I'll have to look up what this is.
Also, this doesn't mention total demolition like the other article, but that they've already put that out there leads me to believe that is at least the initial plan. Perhaps they can be convinced otherwise since this is still five years off at the earliest. I know an alumni group tried a few years back to save the school building with limited success, but it seems that they at least got into the school's plans that any sale would have to consider preservation:
This image is from page 13 of the purchase agreement, the district is retaining parcel E. The portion of land you're talking about south of Orchard St isn't outlined in the map, it may very well not be owned by the district.
Overall this may not be a horrible deal, if Sparrow manages to save the section of Eastern that fronts Pennsylvania I'll be happy, I don't think that's too unreasonable either. I'll also be interested to see if they come up with anything creative for the field house, there's certainly potential to turn it into a more often used venue.
BTW, wow about that land to the north of the school property. I'd always just assumed the bigger fields were part of the school; in fact, I was simply talking about the small rectangle off the end of Orchard. Wonder why it's never talked about for development?
EDIT: Just went and looked it up. It's a single lot despite the physical divison. It's a 10.38 acre site owned by the State of Michigan Real Estate Division. I figure it was part of the Boys Training School and they just never sold it off like they did the rest of the property (which is now East Village). I do remember hearing that there used to be apple orchards back that way which is probably why the street is named what it is. Sad that it's not on the tax rolls and that the State apparently isn't doing anything with it.
The sale history is interesting. It seems to have been owned by the city back in 1999 when they sold it to the school district. It appears to have gone to the state in 2008. Each time it was no more than $1. I'm sure the transfer was probably talked about when they were working out the Boys Training School land sale, but I can't remember.
I am pretty sure that the Boy's school had some sort of agricultural enterprise on the north side, I could be wrong but it seems like I remember cornfields and planted rows that you could see going down Saginaw. Many State institutions grew some of their food and offered farm work as vocational rehabilitation.