To be clear about the old Deluxe Inn site, while no developer has bitten the bait on the hook (though, some have apparently nibbled according to the city), the city did put together a concept for the site which included a high-rise. So, it's not as if it's not being actively marketed, but the city is rightfully being picky about what they want to have developed on this site. I believe that it has to be mixed-use and multi-story (I believe they are also really pushing for 100+ units of housing if I remember correctly), so that rules out even something like what you see proposed at across the freeway at Washington and St. Joe.
Just thought I'd jog people's memories. Studio Intrigue put out a conceptualization rendering and everything a few years back, now. I'm sure it's floating around this website somewhere.
Delta Township and Lansing have finally come to a tentative deal for the township to purchase the 128-acre Grand Woods Park, a city-owned park Delta Township has been maintaining as one of its own for 30 years. The city had been leasing it to the township for $1 a year, but decided to unload it during last years general election. The city is selling it for the incredible price of just $600,000, with township interest free installments of just $120,000 a year.
Not sure if this money goes to the city's general fund or what, and it's not a lot of money, but for a park not even in the city and used mainly by township residents, this is a good thing for the city and township alike.
I like the idea of an industrial aspect to a building at the REOtown sign site, there was a water tower in the Diamond REO plant the had the logo painted on it and could be seen while driving up Cedar or Washington. I was in Detroit recently and they have a water tower refurbished and all lit up on top of one of the many redeveloped buildings. It looked great and I am sure it serves as a landmark there. There are still lots of industry in REOtown being proud to point that out would be a good thing. I also agree what ever goes in there should be of high quality design that embraces the neighborhood perhaps by having retail/restaurant space on S Washington Ave like you said right up to the sidewalk. If it were a hotel entrance should be on the Malcolm X side. That way it would be nice to walk by on Washington not having to cross any drives.
Speaking of that area I was wondering about the burned out print shop that burned down last spring. How long can they just leave a pile of debris sit there? The city must have some regulations about cleaning up after a fire. I think the folks who live next door might appreciate the site being cleaned up. If the site is abandoned maybe the city could make it a little park [it is very wooded and next to the river] with a bridge over to the river trail. It would be nice to walk or ride downtown via Malcolm X under 496 through the Cherry Hill Neighborhood.
Keep forgetting to post this, but I pretty regularly cut through downtown from the west along Allegan. For years now, there has been a tiny "neighborhood" of houses along the southside of Allegan and westside of Butler across the street from the Hall of Justice and State Historical Museum and Library, respectively, that have been able to hang on. The homes you can tell were pretty nice originally constructed as even in slightly declined states they've held up rather well. They weren't little worker's cottages or anything, mostly two stories. They were basically the last bit of history left from the large-scale "urban renewal" removals for the Capitol Complex and its associated buildings. To the west is the wide MLK Boulevard cuts them off from the westside neighborhood they used to be connected to, and to the south has been a years-long ground of vacant land that has languished as the Eyde's have sat on it. Despite this, it was rare to ever see any more than one of these homes empty at a time.
Anyway, I'm not sure if this happened just very recently or I just noticed, but just the other day I noticed that EVERY home along that block of Allegan save for one was boarded up, and with the same kind of boards indicating that this wasn't a natural decline but kind of imply that someone had bought up all of the properties and kicked or bought out the tenants and homeowners. When I passed the first time I saw some guy walking out front with a stick as if he was the owner and was looking for someone.
I'll look on the city website to see if these have all been bought up by a single owner, or if in some strange way the area literally did decline recently in a few months. I've heard about no redevelopment in the area, but I've always thought the Eyde's would eventually buy the rest of the block. I'd actually be sad to see these go, honestly, but so long as they are replaced and not left as an empty field like the rest of the blocks I'd be all right with that.
EDIT: Okay, so did some research on the city website. Either the media missed it or I did, but it appears this entire stretch of houses save for a lone holdout (which is curiously the only parcel with a different zoning code than the others) was bought by a shell company belonging to the Eydes (who own the two large blocks to the south) back in 2007. So, maybe this is a sign that they are about to redevelop these lots, finally.
BTW, the existing homes date from 1890 to 1916. Some of the examples:
927 West Allegan
921 West Allegan
917 West Allegan
915 West Allegan
913 West Allegan
The lone holdout is right in the middle of the block at 923 West Allegan.
Save for 923 West Allegan, the rest of the land now matches the zoning of the two large empty parcels to the south of these houses: DM-1 Residential District. This zoning allows for a max density of 19.8 units per acre. It's the first (and lowest) multi-unit building classification for residential. So, the large parcel to the site is about 2 acres, so we're talking something like a max of 40 units. You combine the parcels along Allegan with these and we're maybe talking 50-60 units for that entire block? Depending on how they could break up development (single building or individual building, where they put the parking), we could be talking something like a three or four story apartment building, maybe?
The Eyde lot even further south between Wasthenaw and Kalamazoo is about 3.2 acres (minus the city owned land in the southeast corner of the block) and the same zoning. All in all, this could be some considerable density whenever they decide to do anything with this. It'd make a nice edge/transition district.
Thanks for such an interesting report. I do like those houses, and what is left of what was one of Lansing's oldest neighborhoods. Most of the Capital Complex seems to be built in a defensive way, all on top of or behind huge walls. There is really no point that says welcome take a stroll here this is part of your neighborhood, it's way more like this not your's Lansing it belongs to the State and is for State business. The surface parking lots in the middle of the whole thing create a barrier between the neighborhoods and prove that they were never going to build out all that land and at the time they took it had no regard for the city of Lansing. The Supreme Court building in no way is open or relates to the surrounding neighborhood.Why? Were they building such a defensive fortresses to defend against civil unrest or the people who live there? It all looks OK when you drive by because the trees have grown in nicely. Walking by is not so great.
Building something there will be a good thing, it would be nice to include a retail spaces along MLK that had maybe a grocery store and stores that would serve the new residents and the West side. Maybe they could re-purpose the big houses move them all together to create shop fronts with apartments upstairs. The make fake facades that look like that all the time why not us real buildings?
There are renderings of the old proposals for this property here: 7 Block Development
The news that there has been activity there is interesting, especially given the low office vacancy rate downtown. There's a lot to speculate on, but I'd imagine any development here would probably be mostly office space. I wonder if anything will happen in the near future?
Sad, but expected news, Emil's is closing October 30th: Emil's, Lansing's oldest restaraunt, to close. It says he will open up a business in Allen Street Market called Emil's Too, it sounds like it'll be a deli/carry out style place. This pretty much empties that block for the new developer to do as he pleases.
I'm not sure there is special use permits for the type of zoning for 7 Block. One of the big problems when they were working on this is that the city wanted more housing in that area and the Eydes finally relented which is why it's zoned what it is, now. Whatever is going to go up there has to be primarily housing; I believe you can include ground floor commercial with this zoning classification, but that's about it. They wanted to prevent this area of downtown completely becoming an office park, which is kind of what happened with the Capitol Complex.
The Frances Park Pathway Extension and reconfiguration of Moores River Drive was formally opened, today:
Having driven this, it's probably not as pleasant a drive as it once was from an aesthetic point of view. And, by that, I mean drives don't get sweeping views of the river like they did. On the other hand, this is a million times better for pedestrians of all sorts. What they essentially did was take a hard, urban embankment and demolished it softening the river's edge.
Now, the next step is getting this trail to Grand River Park, which has been a real struggle since we've had to deal with Lansing Township who is rarely interested in any kind of positive cooperation with the city. The trail has been planned to go up Waverly (where there are no sidewalks) and then take Old Lansing Road (which has gravel shoulders) up to Grand River Park.
Comments
Just thought I'd jog people's memories. Studio Intrigue put out a conceptualization rendering and everything a few years back, now. I'm sure it's floating around this website somewhere.
Not sure if this money goes to the city's general fund or what, and it's not a lot of money, but for a park not even in the city and used mainly by township residents, this is a good thing for the city and township alike.
Speaking of that area I was wondering about the burned out print shop that burned down last spring. How long can they just leave a pile of debris sit there? The city must have some regulations about cleaning up after a fire. I think the folks who live next door might appreciate the site being cleaned up. If the site is abandoned maybe the city could make it a little park [it is very wooded and next to the river] with a bridge over to the river trail. It would be nice to walk or ride downtown via Malcolm X under 496 through the Cherry Hill Neighborhood.
Anyway, I'm not sure if this happened just very recently or I just noticed, but just the other day I noticed that EVERY home along that block of Allegan save for one was boarded up, and with the same kind of boards indicating that this wasn't a natural decline but kind of imply that someone had bought up all of the properties and kicked or bought out the tenants and homeowners. When I passed the first time I saw some guy walking out front with a stick as if he was the owner and was looking for someone.
I'll look on the city website to see if these have all been bought up by a single owner, or if in some strange way the area literally did decline recently in a few months. I've heard about no redevelopment in the area, but I've always thought the Eyde's would eventually buy the rest of the block. I'd actually be sad to see these go, honestly, but so long as they are replaced and not left as an empty field like the rest of the blocks I'd be all right with that.
EDIT: Okay, so did some research on the city website. Either the media missed it or I did, but it appears this entire stretch of houses save for a lone holdout (which is curiously the only parcel with a different zoning code than the others) was bought by a shell company belonging to the Eydes (who own the two large blocks to the south) back in 2007. So, maybe this is a sign that they are about to redevelop these lots, finally.
BTW, the existing homes date from 1890 to 1916. Some of the examples:
927 West Allegan
921 West Allegan
917 West Allegan
915 West Allegan
913 West Allegan
The lone holdout is right in the middle of the block at 923 West Allegan.
Save for 923 West Allegan, the rest of the land now matches the zoning of the two large empty parcels to the south of these houses: DM-1 Residential District. This zoning allows for a max density of 19.8 units per acre. It's the first (and lowest) multi-unit building classification for residential. So, the large parcel to the site is about 2 acres, so we're talking something like a max of 40 units. You combine the parcels along Allegan with these and we're maybe talking 50-60 units for that entire block? Depending on how they could break up development (single building or individual building, where they put the parking), we could be talking something like a three or four story apartment building, maybe?
The Eyde lot even further south between Wasthenaw and Kalamazoo is about 3.2 acres (minus the city owned land in the southeast corner of the block) and the same zoning. All in all, this could be some considerable density whenever they decide to do anything with this. It'd make a nice edge/transition district.
Building something there will be a good thing, it would be nice to include a retail spaces along MLK that had maybe a grocery store and stores that would serve the new residents and the West side. Maybe they could re-purpose the big houses move them all together to create shop fronts with apartments upstairs. The make fake facades that look like that all the time why not us real buildings?
The news that there has been activity there is interesting, especially given the low office vacancy rate downtown. There's a lot to speculate on, but I'd imagine any development here would probably be mostly office space. I wonder if anything will happen in the near future?
Sad, but expected news, Emil's is closing October 30th: Emil's, Lansing's oldest restaraunt, to close. It says he will open up a business in Allen Street Market called Emil's Too, it sounds like it'll be a deli/carry out style place. This pretty much empties that block for the new developer to do as he pleases.
Having driven this, it's probably not as pleasant a drive as it once was from an aesthetic point of view. And, by that, I mean drives don't get sweeping views of the river like they did. On the other hand, this is a million times better for pedestrians of all sorts. What they essentially did was take a hard, urban embankment and demolished it softening the river's edge.
Now, the next step is getting this trail to Grand River Park, which has been a real struggle since we've had to deal with Lansing Township who is rarely interested in any kind of positive cooperation with the city. The trail has been planned to go up Waverly (where there are no sidewalks) and then take Old Lansing Road (which has gravel shoulders) up to Grand River Park.