Okemos & Haslett

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  • Yeah, Okemos and Jolly has become something of a center for the south border of the township since its one of the few freeway interchanges coming into and going out of town to Detroit. Jackson National Life and its expansions have only made the area more desirable since there are now thousands of workers just on the other side of the interchange.
  • Since there is no thread for this, I'd thought I'd add it to the one dealing with the communities furthest east. Well, it looks like little Williamston on the eastside is going to get its tallest building: 4-stories! lol
    WILLIAMSTON – A four-story mixed use development about to go up on the west side of downtown just might be able to lay claim to being Williamston's tallest building.

    The highest-reaching buildings in the heart of the business district are three stories.

    Crews broke ground late last week on what is being called the 304 River Edge Apartments on vacant property at 304 W. Grand River Ave. According to Andrew Kneffel of Lansing-based KMG Prestige, the managing agent for the property, the structure will consist of 4,300 square feet of commercial space on the first floor with three floors of apartments above it.

    Kneffel said he expects the building to be ready by late spring.

    “It’s going to be a pretty exciting venture for us in Williamston,” he said.

    There will be 30 apartments — 18 units with two bedrooms and another 12 with one. Kneffel said the one-bedroom units will rent for $1,100 a month and the two-bedroom apartments will cost $1,550 or $1,600 a month, depending on location.

    636059251739836398-304-River-Edge-front.jpg
  • edited October 2016
    The LSJ is reporting that the Douglas J mixed-use project in downtown Okemos has died, at least how it has been planned for years, now. The developer and township weren't able to reach an agreement about how to carry out the project (the developer wanted the township to pay for burying th overhead powerlines). Anyway, the current plan is for Douglas J to probably rebuild at their current site, and for them to sell the properties they were going to tear down for their headquarters. Meanwhile, the buildings will sit empty.

    Hopefully, someone will snap them up, but the township makes urban development (and any development, really) very difficult.
  • edited October 2016
    The big loser in the project is the house that was built in 1870 which got torn down by Douglas J since they let it fall apart after buying it. This used to be the Goddess Book Shop Triple Goddess Bookstore.
  • You have any picture of it? I really like the historic Okemos; I wish the township saw the value in it and went to bat for it more often. They've paid all their attention to the sprawl at the south end of the township and Central Park. Downtown Okemos has done what it could in spite of the township, quite frankly.
  • edited October 2016
    Yeah, it was actually called Triple Goddess Bookstore (I updated my comment above to fix the name).

    Here's a picture of it from Flickr user Eridony, titled The Triple Goddess Bookstore
    2687807644_8d40527759_b.jpg

    The house was on the Michigan Historic Register as the Dr. James F Smiley House.
    The house was built circa 1870 and approved as a historic site in 1987, said Laura Ashlee, a historian with the State Historic Preservation Office.
    From Razing Tuba Museum will change character of crossroads
  • Buried in the LSJ article about the project being shelved was this paragraph about a new Tavern & Tap location opening in downtown Okemos,
    Tavern & Tap in downtown Lansing plans to add a second location in downtown Okemos at the former Meridian Asset Resource Center building at 4675 Okemos Road. Developer Kris Elliott, of Evergreen Companies, bought the building in April 2015 and was granted a zoning variance last week to add 1,700 square feet. It is unclear when the restaurant might open.
  • Okay, so this is where Triple Goddess came from. They are on East Michigan in Lansing, now.
  • Okemos "Village" within greater Meridian is what they should call it, maybe place making would help. They could fill in all the empty spaces with smaller buildings that could enhance and recreate the village downtown that was once there. As soon as they built the mall it became a place to drive through on the way to the mall. That was almost fifty years ago. That is how long leaders out there seem to have done nothing to help the old village center.
  • Construction on Okemos Pointe is scheduled to begin next month. $67M Okemos project to start in January has more details.
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