I doubt any memorial would look right in front of city hall, unless it had the look of a modern sculpture. I think one of the downtown parks would be a better fit, perhaps Riverfront park, definately not Durant or Ruetter park though, as they are well designed parks that nothing else should be put into them.
There is no word yet on how extensive the damage is, however, I would think that if the brick exterior remains standing the building could be and should be saved.
Thats really too bad, I mean REALLY too bad. Even in this building's severely dilapidated state it could have been nice, and this building was one of the few remaining decent sized warehouse/industrial buildings left in Lansing. Most of the others have been lost to "urban renwewal" or fire. On top of that, this area of Kalamazoo already looks all too baren, especially since they demolished that building across the street. I hope that developer had good insurance so they can do something with the property, but I doubt it, it's virtually impossible to get insurance on abandoned buildings.
WLNS reported that firefighters were demolishing some of the sidewalls in an effort to save what parts of the building they can. If they can save the facade, keeping it in a repairable state, I'de be happy. It turns out the owner of ACD.net is the one redeveloping it, he says they still plan to move forward with their project.
I was just by the building this morning and they tore down whatever was left of the front facade. As far as I'm concerned there is nothing left of the building worth trying to save. Maybe, now that Kalamazoo from Larch to the RR tracks is a virtually blank slate, besides the abandoned gas station, we will see some new projects go up. I would be happy with 2-4 floor buildings in this area, or even rowhouses but it may be too busy of a street for that.
I don't think there is any hope to fix up Kalamazoo in the near future, maybe this area being so close to downtown, but once you get further East through the neighborhoods it would be too difficult. Many cities withe successful downtowns have rough edges, we need not be too concerned with areas like this, simply keeping it from getting much worse would be an accomplishment.
I seen the name of that coffee shop at the Ranney Building, Cornerstone Coffee. A guy who lives across the street from me is the owner of it, it's a new chain. The first one was in Holt and opened a year ago or so, he is now selling franchises and starting new stores himself, I don't know if this is a franchise or owned by him directly.
According to the "Building Permits" section of the LSJ Ingham is adding a fifth floor to their new heart wing at a cost of over $3 million.
I never di get a picture of the sign at Ingham, but at some point, when I have time and the weather is decent, I would like to get out and get more pictures, of Ingham and other projects.
As for the coffee shops, I'm not sure how much good it would do or how common it is to have them stay open during the evening. I suppose the least they would add would be an open place and a lit up space to the street.
Also, I was reading a story about a person involved in Capitol Bancorp in the LSJ today and it said that they have over 190 employees and currently occupy all of the Business & Trade Center (50,000 sq ft) and one full lfoor of the Pheonix Building (14,000 sq ft) and that they plan to double the number of banks they hold by 2011. This is the most solid evidence I've seen for what I have speculated for a couple years: Capitol Bancorp will need a new building. If they double in size by 2011, which seems likely, infact they may exceed that goal, they may need up to 130k sq ft just to house what they have then. Thats not even allowing for future growth which would be highly likely. I would expect them to build around a 200k sq ft building, the question is whether they will stay downtown...
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There is no word yet on how extensive the damage is, however, I would think that if the brick exterior remains standing the building could be and should be saved.
According to the "Building Permits" section of the LSJ Ingham is adding a fifth floor to their new heart wing at a cost of over $3 million.
As for the coffee shops, I'm not sure how much good it would do or how common it is to have them stay open during the evening. I suppose the least they would add would be an open place and a lit up space to the street.
Also, I was reading a story about a person involved in Capitol Bancorp in the LSJ today and it said that they have over 190 employees and currently occupy all of the Business & Trade Center (50,000 sq ft) and one full lfoor of the Pheonix Building (14,000 sq ft) and that they plan to double the number of banks they hold by 2011. This is the most solid evidence I've seen for what I have speculated for a couple years: Capitol Bancorp will need a new building. If they double in size by 2011, which seems likely, infact they may exceed that goal, they may need up to 130k sq ft just to house what they have then. Thats not even allowing for future growth which would be highly likely. I would expect them to build around a 200k sq ft building, the question is whether they will stay downtown...