The LSJ is now reporting that this project is back on the move. Demolition of the YMCA is slated for Spring, and a 20 million dollar mixed use (residential+retail) will take its place. "Metro Place will be a four-story structure including 156 apartments and 7,425 square feet of commercial and retail space."
This is great news! The last we heard of the project was back in 2012, so this was pretty unexpected to me. 4-story infill is the type of development that I think Lansing really needs before we start trying to shoot for more high rises.
To get a four floor building, spanning an entire block and built out the the street is great, the fact that it's going in a relatively off the beaten path area of downtown makes it better. My only gripe is with the vinyl siding and cinder block-like materials, but given the location and design of the building it's much more palatable here than with Gillespie's projects.
We desperately need more developers working in Lansing, so I really hope these guys do well and carry out more projects.
It's been a while since we've heard anything on this project so I'm not 100% sure on the status but I just went by the old YMCA building just a bit ago.
The building looks pretty gutted as of now. Wonder if they're close to demolition.
I noticed the fencing a couple weeks ago driving by, I was wondering how long it'd been there. I hope to see this project move forward, it would add quite a few people downtown. I didn't notice that they were working on gutting the building, but it's a good sign that they are.
Can't say as though I'm surprised here, I think this developer bit off a little more than they can chew. I also agree that I won't miss this proposal. It would have been great in the sense that it would add a lot units to the downtown housing market, but at the end of the day it's only a four floor building with relatively little commercial space, a mediocre design and in a part of downtown that probably doesn't have a lot of upside in the near future.
All that being said, it sounds as though the developer is still pursuing the project and they're ready to go if they can get the financing. We'll see.
I agree with your thoughts on the design. Maybe this is dated and they will revisit the design. Seems like I saw this drawing a few years ago. As folks here may know I really hate those roof caps or whatever they call them. I think they make a building look shorter, and they seem cheap. It is really great that something is going to built there, but I think that anything built there ought to be at least as nice in its design and quality as the building, it is replacing.
I wish they would keep the YMCA building and turn that in to apartments and then they can build this on the rest of the land. They could even use part of the YMCA building as a community center for the complex (offer indoor basketball courts and a dance studio, things that are relatively low maintenance).
The YMCA is a sorta cool old building and if someone wanted to properly restore and reuse it I'd be all for it but it would be a really difficult building to do anything with. It has short ceilings and small floors, the U-shaped main section is probably about 25-30 ft wide. I do wish someone could have come up with a good reuse of the building though, as has been stated all too many times, there are still plenty of parking lots to build on throughout downtown.
The upside here is that the new building will have a large number of units so if it's successful it ought to make investors a little more comfortable lending for other projects in the area. I agree that the architecture in that rendering is subpar but that is the same rendering from the proposal several years ago so I'm really hoping they improve on it, we'll have to wait and see on that though.
It would have really been great if they would have built "The Lenawee" here as they originally proposed, I think downtown could support the office space and that was a nice looking building.
I agree that the old building is better than this new design. The developers keep saying the Y building is unsuitable for redevelopment. I think that most of the upper floors were hotel-like rooms, which would seem to be easily reconfigured, and having a pool and a gym could really add to a residential development's value. I think the same thing about Walter French.
Wow, when did they propose this building? So much better. I thought it was a drawing of a building proposed for another city. No, it is a drawing of what they are not going to build in Lansing. It is kind of depressing to turn back to what they are going to build.
Comments
This is great news! The last we heard of the project was back in 2012, so this was pretty unexpected to me. 4-story infill is the type of development that I think Lansing really needs before we start trying to shoot for more high rises.
We desperately need more developers working in Lansing, so I really hope these guys do well and carry out more projects.
A wider view of the building from WILX:
The building looks pretty gutted as of now. Wonder if they're close to demolition.
All that being said, it sounds as though the developer is still pursuing the project and they're ready to go if they can get the financing. We'll see.
I agree with your thoughts on the design. Maybe this is dated and they will revisit the design. Seems like I saw this drawing a few years ago. As folks here may know I really hate those roof caps or whatever they call them. I think they make a building look shorter, and they seem cheap. It is really great that something is going to built there, but I think that anything built there ought to be at least as nice in its design and quality as the building, it is replacing.
I wish they would keep the YMCA building and turn that in to apartments and then they can build this on the rest of the land. They could even use part of the YMCA building as a community center for the complex (offer indoor basketball courts and a dance studio, things that are relatively low maintenance).
The YMCA is a sorta cool old building and if someone wanted to properly restore and reuse it I'd be all for it but it would be a really difficult building to do anything with. It has short ceilings and small floors, the U-shaped main section is probably about 25-30 ft wide. I do wish someone could have come up with a good reuse of the building though, as has been stated all too many times, there are still plenty of parking lots to build on throughout downtown.
The upside here is that the new building will have a large number of units so if it's successful it ought to make investors a little more comfortable lending for other projects in the area. I agree that the architecture in that rendering is subpar but that is the same rendering from the proposal several years ago so I'm really hoping they improve on it, we'll have to wait and see on that though.
It would have really been great if they would have built "The Lenawee" here as they originally proposed, I think downtown could support the office space and that was a nice looking building.
I agree that the old building is better than this new design. The developers keep saying the Y building is unsuitable for redevelopment. I think that most of the upper floors were hotel-like rooms, which would seem to be easily reconfigured, and having a pool and a gym could really add to a residential development's value. I think the same thing about Walter French.
Wow, when did they propose this building? So much better. I thought it was a drawing of a building proposed for another city. No, it is a drawing of what they are not going to build in Lansing. It is kind of depressing to turn back to what they are going to build.