I took a look at two projects the other day, the new apartment building on the REOTOWN sign site has some wooden framing starting, it looks like there will be no basement level. Over on Holmes Street the school renovation is progressing, it may have been noted before that the new windows are smaller than the old school room windows, but they are still quite large and are framed by some dark wood-like panels that look pretty good, adding a warm touch to all bricks. The streets are still a moonscape over there. It is one of those streets where I wonder why they only repaved two blocks of Hazel for instance, I know it's money that dictates these things, but some neighborhood streets are still so bad, the city really needs to address this problem.
@MichMatters@Jared I was thinking... Should we get back into the habit of making more individual threads for projects?? I've noticed it's gotten sorta hard to look back on things and conversations in the general development threads get messy every once in a while.
I heard a radio news report that stated the funds for the Walter French project have been approved, which is great news. It will be good to see the building full of people and activities.
There is an interesting artical about the old West Saginaw downtown district in the City Pulse this week. I was just over there checking out some homes for sale and noticed a sold sign on the old furniture storefront. Seems like a few things are going on in that area, they also talk about what was there in the old days. Fix the traffic pattern and this could be a cool Old Town/REOtown type neighborhood.
I'm hoping the Michigan & Marshall thing ends up being another apartment/mixed-use building, it'd seem pretty logical. Both properties are owned by Michigan Certified Development Corp on Coolidge Rd, but that doesn't provide much insight.
I may have missed someone else posting this but the City Pulse had an article on the new owners intentions for the Park Furniture buildings on Saginaw, in that article they mentioned multiple other buildings being worked on in the area, I imagine the brownfield plan is one of those mentioned: https://www.lansingcitypulse.com/stories/back-on-the-block-west-saginaw-street-lansing,23053?
I agree that neither of this are terribly exciting. Regarding the project on Michigan, if a company wants to reuse a building like that for the HQ that's fine and all but it's probably not worthy of property tax credits. I think property tax credits need to come with caveats that encourage or force certain aesthetic and site design standards. No property tax credits for stuff like this, or the dealership on Michigan or the poorly laid-out apartment proposal at MLK & Hillsdale.
I'm less against the Moneyball one because of just how far gone the area currently is and they will actually be replacing a building. As long as the new building has an appropriate design (such as not being a suburban office park-style building with a pitched roof, or not having an all concrete block facade), I'm content seeing them get tax credits.
In power company related news, some demo will be starting at Eckert which apparently was decomissioned late last year. Hadn't realized it went offline already.
I'm not mad at all to see that Consumers Facility move off of Willow. It may not be great in the short term as you lose the extra workers in the area but it offers a really significant redevelopment opportunity that could help change the fate of that struggling neighborhood. I just hope it doesn't take too incredibly long for the site to see new use.
Regarding Eckert, I also somehow missed that it was already offline. It's good to see them making moves in preparation for redevelopment.
Yeah, I don't necessarily expect the Consumers site be redeveloped too quickly without a concerted effort on the city's part. I imagine whoever develops the property will probably want to buy the apartments in front there and tear them down.
I also hope the city pays more attention to the area, I'd really like to see an effort to buy the houses on Willow east of Seymour with back yards to river and market them for higher density development. There's no reason to have riverfront property near Old Town be occupied by these mediocre houses on extremely deep lots, it's just a lot of wasted space.
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@MichMatters @Jared I was thinking... Should we get back into the habit of making more individual threads for projects?? I've noticed it's gotten sorta hard to look back on things and conversations in the general development threads get messy every once in a while.
I may have missed someone else posting this but the City Pulse had an article on the new owners intentions for the Park Furniture buildings on Saginaw, in that article they mentioned multiple other buildings being worked on in the area, I imagine the brownfield plan is one of those mentioned: https://www.lansingcitypulse.com/stories/back-on-the-block-west-saginaw-street-lansing,23053?
I'm less against the Moneyball one because of just how far gone the area currently is and they will actually be replacing a building. As long as the new building has an appropriate design (such as not being a suburban office park-style building with a pitched roof, or not having an all concrete block facade), I'm content seeing them get tax credits.
https://www.wilx.com/2022/10/24/bwl-set-demolish-four-structures-eckert-power-station/?outputType=amp
Regarding Eckert, I also somehow missed that it was already offline. It's good to see them making moves in preparation for redevelopment.
I also hope the city pays more attention to the area, I'd really like to see an effort to buy the houses on Willow east of Seymour with back yards to river and market them for higher density development. There's no reason to have riverfront property near Old Town be occupied by these mediocre houses on extremely deep lots, it's just a lot of wasted space.