Michigan & Grand development

Comments

• hood

  June 2 edited June 2

  According to LSJ the plans are to build that 5 floor red brick building first, it's supposed to be complete within two years, before Tower on Grand is done. Granger says the parking lot to the north will host a high rise that could be 15 floors or more in the future. So the little building seems pretty set while the taller building appears more or less like a placeholder design. Demolition of the Walter Neller building is delayed due to "permitting issues", I imagine it could be to push through some sort of tax incentive where there's an advantage to there being a dilapidated building on the site.
  
  https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2025/06/02/walter-neller-building-demolition-residential-plans-downtown-lansing/83989530007/
• MichMatters

  June 2

  Now I'm really quite annoyed the city didn't take Granger up on its offer after seeing what we came up with for the new city hall. lol
• hood

  June 2

  You wouldn't of thought they could've done worse than that non-descript 4-floor building, huh? Where there is a will, there's a way.
• Lymon89

  June 2

  I'll believe it when I see it. Even if it does happen, it will never look like that. It will be the cheapest, most scaled back building. He'll probably try to make it a pole barn (you probably laugh, but that was a thing for awhile that killed projects). He only cares about the money in his pocket, more so than most developers I've come across.
  
  This has been scaled back a lot from what they originally were going after. The plan was to always do a smaller "work force" housing followed by a larger tower. I'm actually more optimistic that this could move forward because they cut many many floors off the tower from what I last was aware of.
  
  Regardless of the developer, the project they have shown would be great for that corner. However, they've let that corner decay so much for decades that almost anything would be great there.
  
  Sorry for the pessimism...I just know this company too well.
• hood

  June 2

  I'm not exactly confident but I'd like to remain optimistic on this, I continue to wonder if the negative publicity got to Gary Granger himself or perhaps the Granger family at large. It has to be annoying to publicized negatively like that, singled out by the mayor, being asked questions about it, getting jabs from family members. It's not like there isn't money to be made after all, I'd personally bet that he'd net more money doing a decently high-quality project than something garbage. Maybe the resources or capability just hasn't been there. But I know the type of businessperson you speak of, they chase short term benefits over the long term. They often end up misguided even in those efforts. Greed can often be counterproductive.
  
  On a positive note, I really like the profile of the conceptual development on the Grand & Michigan corner. A large, low-rise base extending out to the street with a tower set back as shown would create a very nice feel. Seeing that tower end up 20 or 30 floors would be fantastic. Even just seeing the 11-floor conceptual version happen as it is shown would do a lot to make me feel at ease about the city's future.
• gbdinlansing

  June 3

  It is a "hope for the best situation"; I would if I were Gary G. I'd want a beautiful exciting looking building to go up on this prominent corner that says my business is a great success and this is the kind of building, we could build for you. He did have some good points about G.R. and how they have repopulated their downtown, with a vision of that happening here. If this is what he wants to happen then it would make sense to build quality buildings that would draw people to them. I am just happy to see this project and that we have finally reached the point where buildings with people living and working in them are more profitable than parking lots.