There a story about the private/public plans for the downtown riverfront on LSJ.com. They used ideas from the "Penny for you thoughts" campaign. It sounds very exciting and will really make our river front a great asset to Downtown.
It's great to hear about a $2 million dollar investment in the riverfront, but I hope they don't spread the money too thin. They are talking about their area of focus being between the 496 and the fish ladder in Old Town, that's a lot of ground to cover. I'm sure some nice improvements will come of this but to really prosper the riverfront is going to need much more than $2 million.
$2 million is a lot of money. We built Ranney Skate Park for $400,000 around 2002. With $2 million we could probably build 4-5 parks/attractions like the skate park.
As someone already rather pleased with the riverfront, I'd just be happy to see some of that money pumped into modernizing and cleaning up Riverfront Park. You know, remove the old, abandoned fountain fronting the Shiawassee Street bridge, take down the rusted-out amphitheater, put in some nice stone/concrete plazas in key spots (maybe a small splash pad in the park for kids), replace the aging docks, etc...You know, make the city' premier events space look a bit more planned and permanent.
Fortunately, a big part of the riverfront between the Shiawassee Street and the Lansing Center has already been redone on both sides in a major way. So it's not like the entire riverfront will needed to be totally reconstructed or transformed. They could stretch $2 million quite a ways given that they don't need to remake the entire area.
I am hoping that these funds could be matched or added too with money from the county parks and trails tax funds. I think that the river trail and river front are good as they are but some investments in the infrastructure and just general appearance of the river it's banks would really be help to animate the area with more people. I wrote with my ideas and they even published them on their idea page. They were mainly about illuminating the under the bridge spaces, and a push cart market in the empty unused area next to the Lansing Center where that gazebo thing is. Well I have posted these ideas here before, you can read them if you can figure out my name [it has strom in it]!
I was very happy to see so many new trees are being planted all over downtown and through our parks, even in parks that have a lot of trees already like Moores Park and Potter Park. Also in the good news for your car, N. Washington Ave has been repaved from Oakland to N. Grand River Ave! Now do Capitol, Seymour[really bad] the rest of Walnut, Chestnut,and Pine!
Bernero has selected a developer, Beitler Real Estate Services, to redevelop city hall. City Hall would move to the old LSJ headquarters (the LSJ moved in to the Knapps building in January 2016).
I like it! Mid-century modern hotels have made a big comeback nationally. It's trendy again. It'd be cool if they played up that theme a bit in the new hotel. Not saying that there'd be a market for redeveloping the entire hotel as a retro property, but a lounge or eatery with that clean, futuristic look could create quite a splash.
Comments
1000 South Hosmer is a reconstruction of the existing warehouses on site. That will mean some new additions, but they are reusing the old warehouses.
Great, thank you! If they can see over 496 this building could have some good downtown skyline views.
There a story about the private/public plans for the downtown riverfront on LSJ.com. They used ideas from the "Penny for you thoughts" campaign. It sounds very exciting and will really make our river front a great asset to Downtown.
Here's a link to the story: Lansing's Community Foundation commits $1M in matching funds for downtown riverfront development
It's great to hear about a $2 million dollar investment in the riverfront, but I hope they don't spread the money too thin. They are talking about their area of focus being between the 496 and the fish ladder in Old Town, that's a lot of ground to cover. I'm sure some nice improvements will come of this but to really prosper the riverfront is going to need much more than $2 million.
As someone already rather pleased with the riverfront, I'd just be happy to see some of that money pumped into modernizing and cleaning up Riverfront Park. You know, remove the old, abandoned fountain fronting the Shiawassee Street bridge, take down the rusted-out amphitheater, put in some nice stone/concrete plazas in key spots (maybe a small splash pad in the park for kids), replace the aging docks, etc...You know, make the city' premier events space look a bit more planned and permanent.
Fortunately, a big part of the riverfront between the Shiawassee Street and the Lansing Center has already been redone on both sides in a major way. So it's not like the entire riverfront will needed to be totally reconstructed or transformed. They could stretch $2 million quite a ways given that they don't need to remake the entire area.
I am hoping that these funds could be matched or added too with money from the county parks and trails tax funds. I think that the river trail and river front are good as they are but some investments in the infrastructure and just general appearance of the river it's banks would really be help to animate the area with more people. I wrote with my ideas and they even published them on their idea page. They were mainly about illuminating the under the bridge spaces, and a push cart market in the empty unused area next to the Lansing Center where that gazebo thing is. Well I have posted these ideas here before, you can read them if you can figure out my name [it has strom in it]!
I was very happy to see so many new trees are being planted all over downtown and through our parks, even in parks that have a lot of trees already like Moores Park and Potter Park. Also in the good news for your car, N. Washington Ave has been repaved from Oakland to N. Grand River Ave! Now do Capitol, Seymour[really bad] the rest of Walnut, Chestnut,and Pine!
Bernero has selected a developer, Beitler Real Estate Services, to redevelop city hall. City Hall would move to the old LSJ headquarters (the LSJ moved in to the Knapps building in January 2016).
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2017/11/09/bernero-announces-developer-current-lansing-city-hall-site-new-location/850181001/
I like it! Mid-century modern hotels have made a big comeback nationally. It's trendy again. It'd be cool if they played up that theme a bit in the new hotel. Not saying that there'd be a market for redeveloping the entire hotel as a retro property, but a lounge or eatery with that clean, futuristic look could create quite a splash.