That would suck to see that happen, it's bad enough the city gave Feldman's a tax incentive, this could very well kill the potential for a contiguous business district seamlessly spanning both sides of the freeway. I'm pretty disappointed to see one of the new local developers I had been optimistic about being the one pushing a self storage facility at one of the most important intersections of one of our main up-and-coming urban corridors. Let alone the fact it appears they're using carrot-on-a-stick tactics like claiming that a hotel may be part of a self storage development, that's a bit perplexing.
I don't want to believe that even the Township is stupid or short sighted enough to allow a zoning change like that for that location.
What's with the self-storage places? I wonder why it is so profitable to go into a business where there are already hundreds, if not more, storage units available for rent in the Greater Lansing area. We even have a nine-story tall storage unit building on the south side and a two block long five story storage business on Hosmer! Locating such an eyesore at this great location for almost any other type of business, would be just awful. Even a Dollar Genral would be better! We need Lansing to incorporate this area into the city.
@gbdinlansing I've known several people in the last year or two who have either had trouble getting a storage unit or had their rate dramatically increase presumably due to the high demand so there's something to it. I just don't get how so many people are willing to pay a hundred or two hundred dollars a month often just to store stuff they're never going to use and has no real value.
I am really surprised by this request from Dymaxion. The owner is also part of the People's Kitchen group, which is right here, so I wonder how that factors into the calculus. A lousy self storage unit goes against everything the company claims to stand for, it's a lazy business model that provides no real utility for the neighborhood. I feel like there's an agenda that isn't readily clear right now.
And I can't imagine any kind of secret agenda that would make sense.
The only thing I can think of is that they wanted the storage there to use for People's Kitchen or their escape house thingy that's right there. Otherwise it's an out of left field request that I don't get.
A storage facility has to be the dumbest thing I've heard for that spot on Michigan. It's a shame the ballot initiative isn't proposing that be carved into Lansing too. I believe it's just the Groesbeck slice. If that were unified with Lansing we could actually create a cohesive district there instead of this ugly mish mash of facilities that would go much better outside of the main drag.
I guess theory two is that they're trying to maximize revenue from the plot. Hotel up front, storage in the back, every square foot bringing in income.
I was thinking that they owned the land down to that club. It is kind of funny that I actually stayed in the little house next to the Alano Club way back in the early '80s. My friends from MSU and Kellogg Center rented the house for their last year. We named it "Howard House" They got a couch stuck in the basement stairwell and as college kids will just left it. This allowed a large group of feral cats to move into the basement. It was quite a place back then noisy and well smelly! I can't imagine what it is like today. They could put a storage place back there and it might be thought of as an improvement over those little tumbledown houses.
I agree that approving such a business there would be wrong, especially since there is so many empty lots, already industrial just a block west that are not on Michigan Ave... I wonder why these plans even come up from time to time, it seems like it was years ago they first talked about a hotel there, and they even cleared some of the houses, so it is disappointing to keep hearing about the plans that never happen.
@MichMatters I vaguely remember reading about a hotel on Wood Rd. I think it may have been a quote from a township official in one of the stories covering other things going on in the township referring to "a new hotel on Wood Rd". Don't quote me on it though.
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I don't want to believe that even the Township is stupid or short sighted enough to allow a zoning change like that for that location.
The only thing I can think of is that they wanted the storage there to use for People's Kitchen or their escape house thingy that's right there. Otherwise it's an out of left field request that I don't get.