Eastwood Downtown Development District

Comments

• Jared

  July 2007

  I'm not too impressed by what they have planned. It just feels like such a stab at all the progress that the local cities have made towards getting people to move back to the city. This is just further sprawl, and their hope for high-density is laughable. Over the next 10-20 years, I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple neighborhoods come in, but I just cringe at the idea of a DDA centered around a shopping-mall.
  
  What does anybody think of this quote:

  The lack of condominium and loft conversion projects in Downtown Lansing suggests that downtown suffers from a weak real estate market that could be attributed to perceptions of safety, lack of shopping, and poor public services. It could also suggest that the local development community is extremely conservative and/or suffers from a general lack of vision. In either case, the dearth of downtown residential redevelopment suggests that this market may be quicker to take root in a place like the DDA district, which is close to downtown yet remains at a comfortable arm’s length.
• MichMatters

  July 2007 edited July 2007

  It's laughable to say the least. That they, of all of the municipalities in the area, are trying to paint themselves as the region's most competent and creative urban planners is hilarious. We're talking about a municipality that is predicted to have lost more of its population than any other municipality in the tri-county area. Weak real estate market in downtown Lansing, and this is not even to mention East Lansing? What's funny is that downtown development, in Michigan, is one of the only healthy sectors of the housing market in the state. Sorry, it's time to annex this @ss-backwards enclave before it can do anymore damage to real regional planning. lol
• sabatoa

  July 2007

  dittos and well said.
  
  I find that quote offensive as well as laughable. Their municipality is a joke to everyone who knows better.
• MichMatters

  May 2008 edited May 2008

  Looks like Lansing Township is at it, again. I say that this offers the City of Lansing the perfect challenge of finally pushing forward a Lansing Center expansion. What I envision given the tightness of money is that the city go into a public-private partnership with some developer and sell away the naming rights of a new expansion to the center. Finding a way to build a 27,000 square foot addition really shouldn't be that difficult. It's also unconscionable that a city the size and health of Lansing has only one downtown hotel.
  
  Lansing Township Has Big Plants to Expand Eastwood
  
  Susan Vela • Lansing State Journal • May 14, 2008 • From Lansing State Journal
  
  LANSING TWP. - Lansing Township's study into possible construction of new hotels, a conference center, and a water park has the potential to shake the region this summer.
  Advertisement
  
  Renewed ties between the township and the city of Lansing could be severed entirely by the proposed developments - possibly to be funded by the township itself - that would add to the popular Eastwood Towne Center.
  
  Promising more than 600 on-site and spinoff jobs, the $100 million project would include 250 hotel rooms; 27,500 square feet of meeting space and a 65,000-square-foot indoor-and-outdoor water park the size of a football field and then some.
  
  ...Continued at Link...
• hood

  August 2008

  I guess you could call this good news: Lansing Township puts hotel on back burner
• MichMatters

  December 2010

  Sure everyone's already saw this, but Lansing Township is looking to develop another 120,000 square feet of retail space directly north of Eastwood. They decided in doing this phase instead of the more substantial office and hotel complex along Preyde Boulevard for the time being. This new phase will also include a parking garage, more surface parking, and a possible expansion of Coleman Road along an old rail right-of-way. It always been my hope that the old rail ROW would be used for a trolley connecting this area with downtow, but, meh.
  

  
  
  
  Lansing Township plan new retail, parking space near Eastwood
  
  Derek Melot • dmelot@lsj.com • December 19, 2010
  
  ...
  
  In April 2011, a decade after Lansing Township gave zoning approval for the "lifestyle" shopping center, the township will break ground on the next major phase of its development strategy: 120,000 square feet of commercial space and 1,300 parking slots on vacant land just north of NCG Cinemas. A fall 2012 completion date is the goal.
  
  Borrowing $22 million via mostly tax-exempt bonds, Lansing Township is making a bold bet that the first decade of retailing success at Eastwood is the first of many to come.
  
  Rather than just helping private development, Lansing Township, through its Downtown Development Authority, will be its own developer. The township will construct the store space, erect a 620-slot parking ramp and pave 700 additional surface parking spots.
  
  ...
  
  Additional retail development always has been part of the township's goal. The so-called Eastwood DDA actually encompasses property far beyond the confines of the eponymous lifestyle center. The new project actually is a smaller version of a previous proposal for more than $100 million in development that would have included a hotel, a much-larger parking ramp and two 12- to 15-story buildings.
  
  ...
• hood

  December 2010

  I'm really interested to see the site plan and renderings for this project. I'm wondering if the retail will be similar to what's already there or if it will be stand out. I'm hoping for multiple floors or parking hidden behind the buildings.
• MichMatters

  December 2010

  There is a general masterplan for this whole area of Lansing Township, and it sounds like they are following it pretty closely. I posted it at top of thread. It gives an idea to how they are hoping to structure the area.
• hood

  December 2010

  I've seen the master plan before I'm just trying to imagine exactly where they're going to build at and how they're going to situate the buildings. If they do have multiple floors, I'm wondering what will occupy the upper floors.
• JazperG

  January 2011

  Eastwood's sweet, but man it really does eliminate Greater Lansing from having a solidified retail core. Downtown East Lansing & Lansing probably both suffer from this. But hopefully it encourages more specialty stores and boutiques to open up in the Downtowns since the chains are being pulled to Eastwood and its expansion.