This is weird, I was just looking around their site, and it seems they have their floorplan diagrams up (http://marketplacelansing.com/floorplans/). I say weird because this shows five full floors of apartments when I've been under the impression that the first floor is all parking. They show the first floor having apartments on both the river and stadium sides of the wing.
I wonder if the plans have changed, or if I'm still not understanding the layout? The most recent construction photo update shows the first floor on the stadium side being much higher above the ground than in the renderings, if still partially below grade. I'm confused. lol
I was just reading the article in the LSJ, yesterday, about Midtown and Marketplace. As of the story, Midtown has rented 51 of its 66 units, but Marketplace so far has only rented 27 of its 80 units. Both of there rents range from about $875 to $1,250 a month. Of course, Midtown just opened, so Marketplace has some time to catch up. Midtown also has a larger customer base to pull from (students right there at MSU).
I'm usually pretty excited to see the new development occurring when I go back home to Mid-Michigan. That, however, was not the case when I saw this development during my trip this past weekend. I’m sure someone was designing it to be “hip” or “urban”, but unfortunately it looks cheap and obnoxious. Gillespie missed the mark on this one and regrettably the residents of Lansing will be paying for this eyesore for years to come. I’m sure the interiors will be pleasant and it will bring people living downtown, however I’m very disappointed. What a shame.
Texigander, the design is definitely controversial. I get that. But, how will the people of Lansing be paying for it in the future? Are you referring to tax breaks? Repairs? Unsightly architecture? Honestly, I think this development will benefit Lansing, but I would like to hear your reasoning.
I see where he's coming from, the area is headed in a good direction and in the end Midtown will probable be somewhat detrimental to the immediate area. The design is simply a cheap imitation of some colorful buildings the developer saw in their travels, it won't age well and won't contribute much at the street level. The only good thing about it is that it's not a parking lot, vacant land or a single story building. But it's really beating a dead horse at this point, the building is there and it will be there, relatively unchanged, for at least a couple decades.
I see that they are putting up covered/canopy parking in the Market Place parking lot right off Cedar. This was never shown in any of the original renderings, and quite frankly it looks rather cheap like you'd find at a suburban apartment complex. Meh. I'd really like to see the City of Lansing getting a bit more stringent when it comes to the development of siteplans. There is really no good reason why the city didn't just suggest that Gillespie develop along Cedar, first, which would have hid the parking. There seems to be a significant amount of wasted space on this site.
Driving by there the other day I was pretty disappointed to see how permanent the parking lot looks. It doesn't give much hope for seeing any development in the near term.
I'm not surprised about that, really. It was made clear from the restart of the project that they are only required to build the back-building (and possibly the additional wing), and that the building fronting Cedar will only happens if demand warrants it. It was part of the reason I've been disappointed by this project apart from its design. It's just a really lazy site plan. I guess what slightly lessens my disappointment is that they are already building the Outfield, so there is really nowhere to go but up from here. But, they missed their opportunity to do this right the first time.
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I wonder if the plans have changed, or if I'm still not understanding the layout? The most recent construction photo update shows the first floor on the stadium side being much higher above the ground than in the renderings, if still partially below grade. I'm confused. lol
I so want them to announce they are going to build the other wing and/or retail/office building fronting Cedar. lol