I'm fine with not every project on Michigan Ave including retail. Until all current retail spots are occupied, new ones may just sit vacant which won't look too good either. There's always the possibility that this building could be rezoned later and retail converted on the ground floor if the demand became high enough.
I just wish that better materials would be used on the building.
I hope that there is another architect in Lansing that could come up with something better that this. This style or school of design should be left to history and should not dominate the central core of our city more than it already does.
Maybe they got lazy for the conceptual "PLACE YOUR BUILDING HERE" thing. I agree though, no more of this look, it looks bad for the city when every new development from this group looks like it came from a boxed set.
I saw somewhere on Facebook that the owners of Clara's are closing it because they sold the property. So maybe this will get reopened as a new type of restaurant or something else. It could make a really cool train-themed bed & breakfast.
If it's true that they're closing because someone bought the property then I'd bet that there's something already in the works. It could be pretty cool as a bed and breakfast, it would require building a new annex for guestrooms but there's plenty of room there for that. One of the things I'm wondering is whether any new plans might include some form of new construction, it'll be interesting to see what comes of this.
No need for an annex, roll up an old sleeper car and the bed & breakfast is ready for business
Could even add a subtle bounce and roll along with TV screens covering the windows to simulate that the train is moving. Play a bit of audio and the simulation is complete lol
I saw a very interesting program on PBS in their series called ten things that changed the country. This one was called Ten city parks that changed the country. A very interesting look at the beginnings of the common space to the modern parks of today. What I thought related to Lansing was the progressive theory that parks should offer everyone of all classes a place to recreate. We have many pieces of the parks they showcase here in Lansing. I would have to say I get park envy when I see how other cities have built and maintained their public parks. We have the bones to have many of the attractions of those ten parks. I would like to see our parks go from nice to really spectacular, we should not just settle for the way the parks are taken care of and thought of as a commodity to be sold off or developed into utility sites.
Also I was wondering why they have not been mowing the grass at any of the public schools that I have passed by these past few weeks. At Sexton there are four foot tall weeds growing in the sidewalk median in front of the school. I guess they will get to it but I think it sends a really bad message to our students and anyone who may be passing by, like me looking at homes in the neighborhood. Has it really come to the point we can't mow the grass at our schools?
Some things from this weeks regular city council meeting:
- Looks like Lansing finally completed the sell of Grand Woods Park in Delta Township to the township. This 139-acre park had been leased to the township since 1984, and they'd maintained it as a township park since then. The city unloaded it fro $600,000.
- The city also unloaded vacant fire house #3 on West Hillsdale downtown adjacent to the Capital Commons apartment complex. It's currently zoned for commercial office space. I forget when exactly it was shuttered, but it's been on the market since 2012.
- The Lake Trust site downtown has been formally rezoned to G-1 Business from F-Commercial, which will allow for a more diverse redevelopment of the site than F-Commercial allows.
- The South Edge site down at Washington and St. Joe has been formally rezoned.
- A public hearing has been set for the Central Substation project, but I'm not sure fo the date, as this was just an agenda packet and not the meeting minutes. This is simply saying that the Lansing Planning Board recommends that the city council approve a special permit use to allow the substation. There is then the inclusion of a really passive-aggressive page of information about how the city did not buy the Jenison House (Scott Center) on the site from the family, but got it via GM who bought it from the family. I guess this is to try and fight off any claims that the city broke a promise/covenant since they technically got the house in a trade from GM. They then go on to lay this out again in how they acquired the nearby sunken garden site, which was also sold to GM and then traded to the city. Sounds like hinky stuff was even happening back in the 60's and 70's.
I sound like a broken record, but if GM and the City could do all of these trades, then, why not know?
- Connected to this is the resolution to sale the old Union Missionary Baptist Church land the city owns at MLK and Hillsdale for the Scott Center.
Wow, some big news in the local hospital world. According to the City Pulse, Michigan State is looking to partner with McLaren and build a new teaching hospital at Collins and Forest, which would technically be in the City of Lansing unless it spills over into East Lansing. It would most likely mean the closing of McLaren's current hospital on Pennsylvania.
I'd always lamented that MSU was seemingly slowly moving all of its medical school out to Grand Rapids. This would give its medical school its own dedicated hospital here in Lansing, and provide nearly 100,000 folks who live directly east of Lansing with a closer option for a hospital. The medical school currently partners with both Sparrow and McLaren here in Lansing, but this would draw it closer to McLaren.
The article says state law keeps McLaren from moving the Pennsylvania campus more than two miles, and this is within that range. More to the point, the southside is already served by McLaren's Greater Lansing campus on Washington, which is its only emergency room in Lansing, anyway, so moving the Penn campus won't have a huge effect.
Development-wise, this might also kick start development in the freeway-side techpark along Collins Road in the City of Lansing.
Comments
I just wish that better materials would be used on the building.
Could even add a subtle bounce and roll along with TV screens covering the windows to simulate that the train is moving. Play a bit of audio and the simulation is complete lol
Also I was wondering why they have not been mowing the grass at any of the public schools that I have passed by these past few weeks. At Sexton there are four foot tall weeds growing in the sidewalk median in front of the school. I guess they will get to it but I think it sends a really bad message to our students and anyone who may be passing by, like me looking at homes in the neighborhood. Has it really come to the point we can't mow the grass at our schools?
- Looks like Lansing finally completed the sell of Grand Woods Park in Delta Township to the township. This 139-acre park had been leased to the township since 1984, and they'd maintained it as a township park since then. The city unloaded it fro $600,000.
- The city also unloaded vacant fire house #3 on West Hillsdale downtown adjacent to the Capital Commons apartment complex. It's currently zoned for commercial office space. I forget when exactly it was shuttered, but it's been on the market since 2012.
- The Lake Trust site downtown has been formally rezoned to G-1 Business from F-Commercial, which will allow for a more diverse redevelopment of the site than F-Commercial allows.
- The South Edge site down at Washington and St. Joe has been formally rezoned.
- A public hearing has been set for the Central Substation project, but I'm not sure fo the date, as this was just an agenda packet and not the meeting minutes. This is simply saying that the Lansing Planning Board recommends that the city council approve a special permit use to allow the substation. There is then the inclusion of a really passive-aggressive page of information about how the city did not buy the Jenison House (Scott Center) on the site from the family, but got it via GM who bought it from the family. I guess this is to try and fight off any claims that the city broke a promise/covenant since they technically got the house in a trade from GM. They then go on to lay this out again in how they acquired the nearby sunken garden site, which was also sold to GM and then traded to the city. Sounds like hinky stuff was even happening back in the 60's and 70's.
I sound like a broken record, but if GM and the City could do all of these trades, then, why not know?
- Connected to this is the resolution to sale the old Union Missionary Baptist Church land the city owns at MLK and Hillsdale for the Scott Center.
I'd always lamented that MSU was seemingly slowly moving all of its medical school out to Grand Rapids. This would give its medical school its own dedicated hospital here in Lansing, and provide nearly 100,000 folks who live directly east of Lansing with a closer option for a hospital. The medical school currently partners with both Sparrow and McLaren here in Lansing, but this would draw it closer to McLaren.
The article says state law keeps McLaren from moving the Pennsylvania campus more than two miles, and this is within that range. More to the point, the southside is already served by McLaren's Greater Lansing campus on Washington, which is its only emergency room in Lansing, anyway, so moving the Penn campus won't have a huge effect.
Development-wise, this might also kick start development in the freeway-side techpark along Collins Road in the City of Lansing.