I like how the new building will wrap the corner. By end of the year do you think he means end of 2008?
By the way, the new City Pulse website is awesome! It is really going to change how newspaper websites work. If this site was around a couple weeks ago, I wouldn't have had to scan a copy of the newspaper for the Capital Club Tower ad.
I took a few pictures of the western part of the site. I really didn't realize how large it is, and how many properties still remain.
Ottawa @ Butler Looking Northeast
At the corner of Butler @ Ionia looking southeast
Looking at Lansing Towers Apartments from Sycamore Street, which is the eastern boundary of this property.
The site has some really neat mature trees. You can feel how old the Genesee neighborhood is. Many times, I've seen the neighbors mowing this huge tract of land. They've really kept it up. It could have easily have been left neglected and piled with trash.
It looks like Sycamore Street Partners (Gene Townsend), will be requesting a rezoning of the site (save for those homes to be kept) on Monday according to the city council agenda to make it a 'residential district' to allow for a greater housing density.
I'm not sure why this isn't in the online edition, but the most recent City Pulse had an article on changes being made to this project. A few notes:
- Townsend said that residential demand is down and office demand is flat, which is why he's requesting a partial rezoning.
- The change he is requesting is minimal. Instead of the residential/ground floor retail building at the corner of Sycamore and Ottawa (southwest corner opposite Hall of Justice parking lot), he wants to change it to office/ground floor retail. Even with the change, the number of residential units have no changed (76), so I guess he's simply fitting the units lost in the office building to other parts of the site.
- Conditions set by the city for the retail portion of the site include no car sales, no repair shops, no drive-thru windows, and no stand-alone parking. Townsend added a few conditions of his own: he'll limit surface parking to 21 spots, setbacks no more than current setbacks of neighboring parcels, and a bare minimum of 3,000 sq ft of retail space.
- For residential parking, Townsend is mulling building a small garage (I suspect he'd only need two levels, at the most) and surrounding it with retail and office space to hide it from view (this is down in many other cities, BTW).
- Now, the not-so-great news. The City Pulse makes sure to note that the project is behind schedule. Even worse, Townsend said that there is no timeline for the project.
Townsend always does excellent projects. He's probably my favorite developer in the city. I just hope this one makes it.
Well, it looks like Mr. Townsend's rezoning request has been passed by the council (today) after going through the appropriate public hearing and all.
I was looking at today's council packet, and it has some site plans and such that'd I not seen before. If you scroll down to page 42 of the packet, it has a new siteplan that where the buildings will be placed and roof heights:
It appears the two condo mid-rises along Ottawa Street will be 44'-8" in height, and the mixed-usde building on Ottawa (at Sycamore) will be 41'-5" in height. As the site gets closer to the existing residential neighborhood along Ionia the buildings step down in both size and height. All and all, a good mix.
So, here's to wishing Sycamore Street Partners good luck, and that'll we'll see construction of at least part of the development sooner rather than later.
Comments
By the way, the new City Pulse website is awesome! It is really going to change how newspaper websites work. If this site was around a couple weeks ago, I wouldn't have had to scan a copy of the newspaper for the Capital Club Tower ad.
Ottawa @ Butler Looking Northeast
At the corner of Butler @ Ionia looking southeast
Looking at Lansing Towers Apartments from Sycamore Street, which is the eastern boundary of this property.
The site has some really neat mature trees. You can feel how old the Genesee neighborhood is. Many times, I've seen the neighbors mowing this huge tract of land. They've really kept it up. It could have easily have been left neglected and piled with trash.
- Townsend said that residential demand is down and office demand is flat, which is why he's requesting a partial rezoning.
- The change he is requesting is minimal. Instead of the residential/ground floor retail building at the corner of Sycamore and Ottawa (southwest corner opposite Hall of Justice parking lot), he wants to change it to office/ground floor retail. Even with the change, the number of residential units have no changed (76), so I guess he's simply fitting the units lost in the office building to other parts of the site.
- Conditions set by the city for the retail portion of the site include no car sales, no repair shops, no drive-thru windows, and no stand-alone parking. Townsend added a few conditions of his own: he'll limit surface parking to 21 spots, setbacks no more than current setbacks of neighboring parcels, and a bare minimum of 3,000 sq ft of retail space.
- For residential parking, Townsend is mulling building a small garage (I suspect he'd only need two levels, at the most) and surrounding it with retail and office space to hide it from view (this is down in many other cities, BTW).
- Now, the not-so-great news. The City Pulse makes sure to note that the project is behind schedule. Even worse, Townsend said that there is no timeline for the project.
Townsend always does excellent projects. He's probably my favorite developer in the city. I just hope this one makes it.
I was looking at today's council packet, and it has some site plans and such that'd I not seen before. If you scroll down to page 42 of the packet, it has a new siteplan that where the buildings will be placed and roof heights:
Council Packet - February 23, 2009
It appears the two condo mid-rises along Ottawa Street will be 44'-8" in height, and the mixed-usde building on Ottawa (at Sycamore) will be 41'-5" in height. As the site gets closer to the existing residential neighborhood along Ionia the buildings step down in both size and height. All and all, a good mix.
Oh, and Iverson Architects are the architects of this plan.
So, here's to wishing Sycamore Street Partners good luck, and that'll we'll see construction of at least part of the development sooner rather than later.