Townsend bought the property in 2008 with plans for an $11.9 million residential and retail complex in the area bounded by Butler Boulevard and Ottawa, Sycamore and Ionia streets.
But later that year, the banking and housing markets crashed and the appraised value of the project sank below the cost to construct the buildings, Townsend said.
“There’s no foreseeable future for being able to improve that property at even a break-even,” he said.
I remember how forcefully the development community (and then state senator Virg Bernero) tried to stop a church from aquiring the city a few years before Townsend ended up buying it. There were hard feelings at the time, and now that the project is through and there is nothing on the site, it'll probably reopen that wound. So, 7-block to the south still sits empty after nearly a decade, SOBI will now sit vacant...the entire western end of downtown remains depressed and stagnant.
I have no doubt that something will be done with this site eventually, it's just a matter of time. A park wouldn't be a bad use either, but I'd rather see some development in the area. I don't see houses being directly across the street from large state office buildings lasting forever.
There was a story in the City Pulse, last week, on this failed project. Apparently, the real estate agents (REMAX) that are marketing the land are still putting out requests for the land. It's only been two weeks, but it's good to see them being bullish about it.
I don't know why someone just won't develop some high-end rental on the property given how quickly downtown apartments have filled up. This would be a perfect place to continue to density of the Lansing Towers across the street. I feel that there is a need for another market-rate high-rise living option downtown, especially with the land literally being across the street from hundreds, thousands, really, of state employees that downtown living can be marketed to. Technically, Lansing Towers is the only one, and it's an aged building.
There's not many details right now and from what I can tell he's pretty early in the planing process, but I'd just be happy to finally get some nice infill on this site.
I'm glad he says that the rendering is very, very preliminary, because that would be a huge downgrade from the previous two proposals for that site. Again, with the La Quinta Inn, cheap highway-side motel slopped roofs. lol What I do like about the current plan is the density of the housing, but I wish it was more like the previous plan by Townsend that had a lot of different housing options (multi-family and attached single-family). This seems much more like just jamming as many units as he can get on the site, but keeping the costs low by only going three stories.
Anyway, just glad to here that someone is looking at this site, again, and hopefully, it gets better as it moves through the process.
Comments
I don't know why someone just won't develop some high-end rental on the property given how quickly downtown apartments have filled up. This would be a perfect place to continue to density of the Lansing Towers across the street. I feel that there is a need for another market-rate high-rise living option downtown, especially with the land literally being across the street from hundreds, thousands, really, of state employees that downtown living can be marketed to. Technically, Lansing Towers is the only one, and it's an aged building.
There's not many details right now and from what I can tell he's pretty early in the planing process, but I'd just be happy to finally get some nice infill on this site.
Anyway, just glad to here that someone is looking at this site, again, and hopefully, it gets better as it moves through the process.
Developer plans $6.8M housing deal in Lansing
I'm not very excited about the design on these, it looks like a generic apartment building with a little extra brick.
Looks like the cheap, student housing in the Northern Tier. I totally get why none of the units will be over $1,000 rent.