I've never really felt that Eastwood has much of an effect on either downtown. If Eastwood has hurt anyone it's hurt the malls and plazas, specifically the Lansing Mall and Frandor.
I think that lansing should see about annexing the township. It is very inefficient to have numerous governmental agencies in a small area. I also think lansing and east.lansing should merge ( not school districts).
It seems weird to see this dense development on the edge of town like this, overlooking a giant parking lot (next to NCG Cinemas). I've always felt that Tony Saccos and Capital Prime are out of place - in the back of Eastwood, so far removed from the other restaurants. Seems like they need an additional freeway interchange in this area (US-127 at State Road?) to relieve traffic on Lake Lansing Rd.
The expansion is a mess, no doubt. Of course, what they should have done is like what they've done with a lot of the "lifestyle" centers going up or expanding around the country, and that is you replace a surface parking lot somewhere within the existing complex with a small (two-story) parking garage. You could do this by literally building the garage on the surface lot, or one of the side streets and filling the parking lot with more retail/office/entertainment.
Really, the Heights looks ridiculous within the context of the center. There would be no way in hell I'd pay the prices they are asking to live in a place overlooking a surface parking lot.
I agree completely. The one nice thing, I suppose, is this expansion will bring the development north up to the county line/DeWitt Twp boundary and stop there for the time being (i.e. no more room lift in Lansing Twp to develop). I still think the addition of two hotels there is a bit much -- but there must be a market for it.
The hotels actually seem to make sense to me. MSU has very little hotel space on or near campus given its size, to Lake Lansing and 127 is a huge hotel center for visitors to campus. It's not unusual at an intersection like this in a town this size to have a hotel on every corner. Unfortunately, all of this is going to demand a new intersection somewhere to the north with 127, which just perpetuates the sprawl.
I honestly don't know what to do with this town, anymore. lol Everything just seems so haphazard. It is embarrassing seeing, for instances, more historically sprawled cities in the South doing more to combat - or at least make better - sprawl than we are. We're still building very much in the fashion of the 90's.
Eastwood could be developed as a transit-oriented development (TOD) if we ever get our act together, which I guess is a silver lining.
With Eastwood in general, I had imagined that any expansion north of it would be a separate development, separated by a through road just north of the NCG parking lot.) Instead of in effect expanding Eastwood to make it bigger. Though Lansing Twp was limited by the remaining space available in the township, which probably explains some of the density. Not sure that it's a better plan, it was just what I envisioned/assumed. I've always wondered what the owners of Eastwood though about this expansion to the north.
With the hotels, I guess I assumed that they would have been built on the east side of US-127 near the MSUFCU building, not far from the existing Hampton Inn. As for the proximity to MSU, I agree, it seems like there would be more hotels. In a way, that's why I'm surprised that the former Clarion/Candlewood hotel (US-127 at Jolly Rd) did not survive. Though I'm glad to see it redeveloped as student housing.
More hotels proposed for Lansing...at Eastwood. If completed, this will be seven hotels clustered around Lake Lansing and US-127. The traffic here is already hellish; I honestly can't imagine how this is a good idea without proper transit infrastructure reworks in this area. I'm a broken record, here, but it'd be so nice to see this stuff clustered in other parts of the metro. It is far from the only business/retail district off a freeway in the area...
I'd begrudingly accept this as another node if the transportation infrastructure in this area was upgraded to meet the new traffic capacity of the area. If there was promise or more bus frequency, actually lighting the Lake Lansing/US-127 intersection, and just generally restructing the infrastructure in the area, I wouldn't be so incredibly disappointed. But, there is absolutely no mention of how traffic is going to be handled, here, and Lansing Township sure as hell doesn't have the expertise to do this.
Otherwise, yeah, it does need to be down-zoned. Why in the world in an area approaching a population of 470,00 is there literally ONE hotel in the core downtown area? I keep seeing the city's deal with the Radisson trotted out, but it's not legally binding from what I understand. I can't think of another area this size or larger whose hotel market is so incredibly decentralized. It's not for lack of demand, it's because neither Lansing nor Lansing township (or any other municipality in the region) have coordinated development like this. It's embarrassing, even while a lot else is going on in downtown Lansing and East Lansing.
Comments
Eastwood expansion
It seems weird to see this dense development on the edge of town like this, overlooking a giant parking lot (next to NCG Cinemas). I've always felt that Tony Saccos and Capital Prime are out of place - in the back of Eastwood, so far removed from the other restaurants. Seems like they need an additional freeway interchange in this area (US-127 at State Road?) to relieve traffic on Lake Lansing Rd.
Really, the Heights looks ridiculous within the context of the center. There would be no way in hell I'd pay the prices they are asking to live in a place overlooking a surface parking lot.
I honestly don't know what to do with this town, anymore. lol Everything just seems so haphazard. It is embarrassing seeing, for instances, more historically sprawled cities in the South doing more to combat - or at least make better - sprawl than we are. We're still building very much in the fashion of the 90's.
Eastwood could be developed as a transit-oriented development (TOD) if we ever get our act together, which I guess is a silver lining.
With the hotels, I guess I assumed that they would have been built on the east side of US-127 near the MSUFCU building, not far from the existing Hampton Inn. As for the proximity to MSU, I agree, it seems like there would be more hotels. In a way, that's why I'm surprised that the former Clarion/Candlewood hotel (US-127 at Jolly Rd) did not survive. Though I'm glad to see it redeveloped as student housing.
Otherwise, yeah, it does need to be down-zoned. Why in the world in an area approaching a population of 470,00 is there literally ONE hotel in the core downtown area? I keep seeing the city's deal with the Radisson trotted out, but it's not legally binding from what I understand. I can't think of another area this size or larger whose hotel market is so incredibly decentralized. It's not for lack of demand, it's because neither Lansing nor Lansing township (or any other municipality in the region) have coordinated development like this. It's embarrassing, even while a lot else is going on in downtown Lansing and East Lansing.