The cement is cracking and Mayor Virg Bernero said overall Adado Riverfront Park is looking tired.
"We have older, but the amount of traffic, the amount of volume that goes in there ... that's our flagship brand, that's our flagship of the armada of parks - heavily utilized, right on the riverfront," explained Mayor Bernero. "It's a great beautiful park and it's due."
Seems to be in very preliminary stages, but it would be pretty neat. At least to see the park spruced up a bit. It would include a new permanent stage. Looks like it would be funded from the Waverly and Red Cedar Golf Courses when those are official.
This park really is sort of an embarrassment as it sits, it's essentially a grassy field with a few dilapidated structures and paths. I've always imagined Riverfront being redesigned in a similar spirit to Millennium Park in Chicago. Whatever they do, the park has to be a lot more inviting from the street, with more paths leading in, more things to catch the eye, etc... Done right, a renovation of this park could be big for downtown, I hope to see something special come of this.
I walked by there just yesterday. It's amazing how different it looks. Hopefully it will encourage more development in the area with the block being cleaned up along with the new apartment buildings.
I was by there earlier today and I'm a little disappointed that they tore down the older two floor building on Shiawassee, other than that I'm glad to see all the other buildings go, even that building won't be missed much. Besides, I know that for this brewery to do well it will need a good amount of parking and nice clean surroundings. It looks like they're really setting themselves up for success with this place.
I was looking at the July 27th council meeting and there were a few interesting items in the "Letter from the Mayor" section:
The Skyvue project is looking to get brownfield incentives.
The Bud Kouts dealership on Michigan is also looking to get brownfield incentives to raze and replace some buildings and add landscaping.
The long vacant property at Cedar & Syringa is up for rezoning to E-2 shopping district, the owner says this is to help sell the property.
The building at 1023 S Washington is applying for OPRA designation.
There's essentially no info on the 1023 S Washington project, and it's only a single story building so I'd be surprised, but very pleased to see anything too exciting for that property. As for the Cedar & Syringa property, I'm glad there's finally some activity with it and hopefully the owner finds a buyer to develop it sooner rather than later.
As for Bud Kouts, I can't see giving a car dealership brownfield incentives to make relatively modest improvements to their property, I hope the City denies any incentives that keep this property an auto dealership. If Bud Kouts wants to stay there, fine, but they'll have to do it on their own dime, incentives are getting way out of hand when they're being offered up to business like this. I'd hope they move though, with the direction Michigan Ave is going, a large car dealership has no place.
Lansing is saying that Lansing Township imposed a rezoning moratorium specifically to hinder the redevelopment of the former Waverly golf course. I don't have a real opinion here as I don't have any real information, but I wouldn't put it past the Township to pull something like this. If it turns out to be true I wonder if it's just to spurn Lansing or if it has to do with their conflicting interests being the developer of the Heights at Eastwood.
I have absolutely no idea how Township residents would react to an annexation attempt by Lansing. I know they'd have a local income tax and probably higher property taxes to deal with, the City would have to make a good case as to why it's worth it. I'm sure some township residents have to be disgruntled about the amount of attention paid to and investment in Eastwood, an area where virtually no residents live. I would be curious to see what residents of Lansing Township have to say.
I'm not the biggest fan of it but it works for a couple of reasons. It's painted red with sections in black for what I assume to match the Lugnuts colors. Also I feel that the bright new paint job does quite a bit to make it stand out in that block which a majority are vacant buildings. It helps that they cleared out some of them but I think they may need some help to get noticed there.
Yeah, that bridge sucks, on the plus side it's practically invisible from the road. The Kalamazoo St bridge isn't much better, it's in decent shape but is the standard railing and the way it arches it really separates the two sides of the river.
Really, the whole riverfront from Michigan to Kalamazoo is disappointing, the existing Rivertrail on the east bank is kind of dilapidated and now one of the two Michigan Ave access stairs is closed off. The west bank Rivertrail has been closed for years and was never really complete to begin with. But that's a rant and discussion in and of itself. They really do need to at least give the Michigan Ave bridge a face lift if it's going to be around for awhile and they need to fix up this section of the Rivertrail.
Comments
Seems to be in very preliminary stages, but it would be pretty neat. At least to see the park spruced up a bit. It would include a new permanent stage. Looks like it would be funded from the Waverly and Red Cedar Golf Courses when those are official.
I was looking at the July 27th council meeting and there were a few interesting items in the "Letter from the Mayor" section:
The Skyvue project is looking to get brownfield incentives.
The Bud Kouts dealership on Michigan is also looking to get brownfield incentives to raze and replace some buildings and add landscaping.
The long vacant property at Cedar & Syringa is up for rezoning to E-2 shopping district, the owner says this is to help sell the property.
The building at 1023 S Washington is applying for OPRA designation.
There's essentially no info on the 1023 S Washington project, and it's only a single story building so I'd be surprised, but very pleased to see anything too exciting for that property. As for the Cedar & Syringa property, I'm glad there's finally some activity with it and hopefully the owner finds a buyer to develop it sooner rather than later.
As for Bud Kouts, I can't see giving a car dealership brownfield incentives to make relatively modest improvements to their property, I hope the City denies any incentives that keep this property an auto dealership. If Bud Kouts wants to stay there, fine, but they'll have to do it on their own dime, incentives are getting way out of hand when they're being offered up to business like this. I'd hope they move though, with the direction Michigan Ave is going, a large car dealership has no place.
Lansing is saying that Lansing Township imposed a rezoning moratorium specifically to hinder the redevelopment of the former Waverly golf course. I don't have a real opinion here as I don't have any real information, but I wouldn't put it past the Township to pull something like this. If it turns out to be true I wonder if it's just to spurn Lansing or if it has to do with their conflicting interests being the developer of the Heights at Eastwood.
Really, the whole riverfront from Michigan to Kalamazoo is disappointing, the existing Rivertrail on the east bank is kind of dilapidated and now one of the two Michigan Ave access stairs is closed off. The west bank Rivertrail has been closed for years and was never really complete to begin with. But that's a rant and discussion in and of itself. They really do need to at least give the Michigan Ave bridge a face lift if it's going to be around for awhile and they need to fix up this section of the Rivertrail.