Center City (Landmark & Newman Lofts)

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Comments

  • edited October 2017

    ...face palm...

  • edited October 2017

    I feel like they want the taller structures Ann Arbor is getting

    To be clear, you're talking about developers, right? Because the city has been trying its damndest to stop exactly that for decades, now. It's how we got the Northern Tier.

    I can't even tell you how much this burns me up. We've seen this again and again and again from the city. Honestly, I don't get why Lansing isn't trying to take direct advantage of this. Yes, location is important, but there is enough space around Frandor, which is close enough to campus, that the city could steal away some of this development. Harbor Bay, Convexity, and the rest are more than welcomed to set-up somewhere on East Michigan if they've like.

    And to think, we were this close to getting one of the few urban-concept Targets in the country, and it'd have been an even bigger coup since we'd have likely be the smallest metro to get one. I saw Indianapolis folks on another board pissed that we were getting one before they were.

  • What a complete joke this has all been. If there's ever been any doubt about where the bulk of the blame lies when it comes to development in East Lansing, let it be laid to rest. The city government there is inept. Their hobbling of their own downtown has seriously hurt this area as a whole. A large, dense and vibrant downtown East Lansing is a great way to begin keeping MSU students in the area. I just don't get the EL city government at all.

  • edited October 2017

    A WLNS story interviews tenants who were forced to move. Most just seem disappointed the project may not happen, but you have to feel the inconvenience. Downtown business owners aren't going to keep putting up with this stop and go.

    Oh, and of course Vice Mayor Ruth Beier doesn't see this as a failure (OMFG):

    “I don’t think of this as a failure, I actually think of this as the city working the way it’s supposed to work. We wanted the development, it’s disappointing not to get a grocery store and the 55 and up housing and the new building but we didn’t want to put the city at financial risk no matter what. And so this system that we put in place actually worked,” says Beier.

    She's right; the system did work. East Lansing's system is designed to make it damn-near impossible to develop large-scale projects in the city's downtown. Congrats on that, Ruth. It "worked."

    EDIT: Mayor Mark Meadows says he still hasn't been contacted by the developer, and thus can not call this cancelled. It is completely possible Beier is spreading this "news" to actually kill the project.

  • edited October 2017

    Hi all,

    I'm a new poster, but a long time follower of this site. I couldn't resist throwing in a Machiavellian angle on this city council run around... I'm wondering if the developer made Beier point on this whole blow up to try to get her off of city council. She is probably the strongest of the three candidates up for election in a couple of weeks, and definitely the least pro-development. So the developer pins the failure of this development on her, and then pulls a wait-and-see until after the election before making an official statement to the mayor/city council... while hoping for more financial accommodation from a Beier-free council.

  • Welcome!

    It certainly doesn't seem like they are 100% out of the deal yet. This feels like a negotiating tactic to me. Waiting for the election is something I didn't consider and I think you're in the right direction. At the very least the developer could end up selling the property and development plans since they've already moved their tenants out.

  • I believe that this person has too much power over these plans. she was on the local radio saying this was how government is suppose to work! EL had been protected from some sort of bad deal. I also think she lives in the past and wants to save something that no longer exist. The downtown today is mainly student eateries and souvenir t-shirt shops, is that what she is trying to save?
    If a building looks out of scale it's the one they want to build at Bouge and GR. I thought both the others were better in design, scale and location. It looks like the other land lord companies do not like it, saying there are not enough parking spaces. There is a point were some judge or someone is going to say let these people do business, and build what they want to build.

  • Thanks for the welcome. Ruth Beier is a mixed bag as a politician. On one hand, she seems completely in step with the old school East Lansing NIMBYs when it comes to development. On the other, I do think she is genuinely trying to do what she believes is best for the community, unlike many other past & present city council members. That said, I will probably hold my nose and vote for the other two candidates in hopes that a shake-up will give the city the momentum to move several of these big downtown projects forward.

  • It's back on, if it was really ever off. Eat that, Ruth. Out here starting rumors to try and derail the project. snort

    Demolition starts in November.

    The Center City District project in downtown East Lansing is moving forward again.

    East Lansing Mayor Mark Meadows and Chicago-based Harbor Bay Real Estate Advisors signed the master development agreement for the project on Thursday, and preparations for demolition are expected to begin next week.

  • I can't get over all the nimbys in the surrounding communities here! I was glad to see it was back on...or never off...either way!

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