I haven't been on the River Trail by there in quite a while, I'm guessing this was done fairly recently?
I'm glad to see them doing something with the dilapidated sections at least. Allowing unusable sections of the trail remain there abandoned with no intention of reopening them was very dumb. Hopefully they actually have plans to do something here, if not at least they have a clean slate to work with in the future.
I think Michigan Ave could connect with a path that goes through the museum area and down to the river trail. That whole area of the trail could use an upgrade, as I have suggested lighting under all downtown bridges would make those parts of the trail a place you may want to stop, now they are places you want to get through fast. The lit up under side of the bridges could illuminate the structure which can be kind of cool and artistic.[like on Mich. Ave & 127 soon] it might also be nice if they did rebuild the stairway on the southeast side of Mich. Ave with a bike stand there so bikers could just stop there and head over to Washington for work or lunch. I have also suggested the area could be a setting for push cart type businesses. Selling arts and crafts,hats and scarfs, Lansing and MSU souvenirs, food and beverages,renting bikes. That area could be a staging area for pedicabs that offer river trail tours. Businesses could pay fees that would go toward the river trail. A little commercial activity in a few small areas of the trail would not take away from the natural or scenic beauty and might fill otherwise empty areas with people having fun, and spending money.
I think the photo is the other side of the river from the trail.On the east bank you can still see the steal structure for the original stairs. and the 70's sign pointing the way to Michigan Avenue. Looks bad.
They removed the stairs on the north side of Michigan also? That would be a little surprising as they seemed to be well built.
The riverfront in this area will inevitably see redevelopment so I don't expect them to do some full scale rebuilding of the trail until some development happens there, but they could certainly do a better job maintaining it and perhaps even make some modest improvements in the meantime. I think the idea of adding and area or areas that allow for push cart business and food trucks would be a very simple way to add some vibrancy to the trail. In the more distant future I hope that any developments will allow for some retail fronting the trail, but that'll be a ways off.
It is great news to hear that they are going to do something with the Oliver towers building. I hope a plan involves re-doing the generic facade. It never was an attractive building for such a prominent spot. I would think that apartments in that building would have really great city views with churches downtown and LCC. The city might want to think about repaving Capital Ave.in that area, it is so bad that it is embarrassing.
It's cool that the popcorn shop is going in on 100 block soon to be known as the snack block. I hope that the closed shop fronts on Washington SQ. will be replaced with something more than sandwich shops. I think there could be more sit down restaurants that might have dinner hours this would be good and encourage others to have later hours , also get that night club going, up the street and kind of expand the entertainment district, night clubs bring in people at night!
I'm going to hold off on judging the Oliver Towers redevelopment until I see what the facade will look like and how the retail space will be situated. It's just nice to finally see some real progress on this property.
Just a quick thought, we should probably be updating the Oliver Towers page in the forum with this information rather than the "General Lansing Development" page. Specific project updates might get lost pretty easily in this thread.
It serves as a reminder of how soon the decommissioning of Eckert is. I still can't imagine what can be done with that building after its life as a power plant.
The cost of razing the building, the smokestacks and environmental cleanup necessary after razing will probably mean the property either gets reused or sits empty a very long time before demolition. I also don't expect GM to save the day by buying up the property, they have plenty of empty land and the Eckert site sits on the opposite side of the railroad tracks.
The old part of the plant is nice and would make a nice centerpiece to any redevelopment, the tall newer part could get a new facade and reworked floors to just about any needs. I think the only real hindrance to the site is the isolated location, but given the right use it could be a very interesting project.
I thought a similar thing regarding Eckert in terms of cost to raze it. I found myself just chatting with engineers a couple years back, one an electrical engineer who in in power distribution and he said couldn't see them leaving the plant at all. It's more of a liability to maintain and secure such a large building. He didn't imagine it lasting much past the decommissioning.
That said, it is too bad if that is the case. I agree that the original portion of the power plant could be a nice redevelopment, but again as mentioned is the access and the fact is sits in a flood plain. I think it will be interesting to see what does come of it. I just can't see there being a demand for it's redevelopment given the factors playing against it like cost and location. The Ottawa plant at least had the downtown location playing in it's favor and even so sat mostly vacant for a considerable amount of time before anything was considered.
Comments
I'm glad to see them doing something with the dilapidated sections at least. Allowing unusable sections of the trail remain there abandoned with no intention of reopening them was very dumb. Hopefully they actually have plans to do something here, if not at least they have a clean slate to work with in the future.
I think the photo is the other side of the river from the trail.On the east bank you can still see the steal structure for the original stairs. and the 70's sign pointing the way to Michigan Avenue. Looks bad.
The riverfront in this area will inevitably see redevelopment so I don't expect them to do some full scale rebuilding of the trail until some development happens there, but they could certainly do a better job maintaining it and perhaps even make some modest improvements in the meantime. I think the idea of adding and area or areas that allow for push cart business and food trucks would be a very simple way to add some vibrancy to the trail. In the more distant future I hope that any developments will allow for some retail fronting the trail, but that'll be a ways off.
It's cool that the popcorn shop is going in on 100 block soon to be known as the snack block. I hope that the closed shop fronts on Washington SQ. will be replaced with something more than sandwich shops. I think there could be more sit down restaurants that might have dinner hours this would be good and encourage others to have later hours , also get that night club going, up the street and kind of expand the entertainment district, night clubs bring in people at night!
The old part of the plant is nice and would make a nice centerpiece to any redevelopment, the tall newer part could get a new facade and reworked floors to just about any needs. I think the only real hindrance to the site is the isolated location, but given the right use it could be a very interesting project.
That said, it is too bad if that is the case. I agree that the original portion of the power plant could be a nice redevelopment, but again as mentioned is the access and the fact is sits in a flood plain. I think it will be interesting to see what does come of it. I just can't see there being a demand for it's redevelopment given the factors playing against it like cost and location. The Ottawa plant at least had the downtown location playing in it's favor and even so sat mostly vacant for a considerable amount of time before anything was considered.