City Center Studios

MichMatters

Umm...can I just say, AWESOME? Really, who say this coming? Sounds like it's going to sit on the former A-to-Z Rental lot across the street from Riverfront Towers & Apartments. Gillespie is just going crazy with development, it seems. It's good to see Lansing jump on this before any other city in the state does. I can see media and entertainment becoming a significant piece of our economic puzzle.



Proposal May Deliver Movie Magic to City

Jeremy W. Steele • Lansing State Journal • June 3, 2008 • From Lansing State Journal

Lansing may be ready for its Hollywood close-up.

And to make sure the capital city gets its take, a local developer and video production firm want to build a 71,000-square-foot studio and production facility downtown.

A team led by East Lansing's Gillespie Group and Lansing-based Ahptic Film & Digital are set to announce plans today for City Center Studios, which would have twin 24,000-square-foot soundstages large enough to handle a blockbuster.

It would likely be late 2009 before the studios could open, and no movie deals are yet in the works.

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micro

That is great. Hopefully they can break ground relatively quickly before anywhere else can scoop this idea. As someone relatively new to the Lansing area, I was already surprised by the amount of video companies in Lansing, most located in Old Town. And obviously not mediocre/amateur places seeing that one of them produced the video that won the Ikea makeover for Old Town. So this would be a great addition.

thecommish

Exciting stuff. Does anyone know of anything that might hold this project up, zoning, council issues, etc? Who owns that land currently? It sounds like this is one project that might go from the drawing board to reality pretty quickly as long as there isn't any major red tape.

hood

I was also thinking this project will come to fruition sooner than others. They say it should be opening late 2009, that would likely mean a groundbreaking before the end this year. As far as hold-ups, the A-1 rental land was for sale for awhile, it's no longer listed so I assume Gillespie alreay bought it, and theres a relatively development-freindly council that will make the project go as fast as they can allow.

This project ought to be really neat, and very unique, at least for this state. As usual, I just can't wait to hear and see more details about it, and of course, see it break ground.

hood

Found the projects website: City Center Studios

reversiblehatt

Couldn't they orient the building differently to make it more cohesive with the other development downtown and to encourage pedestrian traffic? I understand that this building's use will entail significant equipment loading and unloading and perhaps traffic from the airport, but it would be nice to see some of these projects begin to try and themselves toward downtown.

hood

I agree that the development could be more cohesive with the area, but being the kind of building it is, I really don't know how much more they could do. Overall I'm just happy that something like this is getting built at all. Besides the other projects Gillespie is doing are going to be very cohesive and pedestrian friendly. He is basically creating a whole new swath of downtown. I thought it would take 10 years or more to fill in the "Stadium District," now it's looking like a significant portion will be done while we are still in the first wave of development.

MichMatters

I'm not complaining at all. As with any studio lot, this is an industrial building, so I'm looking at it mostly in terms of economic impact. You can't treat it like a mixed-use development.

I can't think of what would hold this up. I believe the Eyde's owned the land, but I assume Gillespie bought it recently. He's been buying a lot of properties and land within the new "Stadium District". The only thing I see holding this up is the developers if they choose to. With there being so many different parties involved in this, the major concern is keeping them all together long enough to get this thing built.

hood

The good thing about having a lot of parties involved is that they will likely push eachother to move on the project. I don't want to get too optimistic, but I think this is one of the more "solid" projects proposed right now.

MichMatters

Thinking about this a little bit more, and living within what is now dubbed the Stadium District, someone needs to building a small parking garage somewhere on Cedar or Larch, or even along the back of Pere Marquette. I hope the city is doing a parking study of the area, and that we don't keep having to settle for surface lots.

hood

I couldn't agree more. There is a need for decent-sized parking ramp in the Stadium District, something like 600 spaces or more.