I can do some more digging about the enabling language and threshold for review. In the past the city would do Act 33 reviews for something as simple as a balcony or outdoor restaurant seating. Those kind of transitioned to simple right of way permits. But Sparrow's skywalks over Michigan Ave. and the previously proposed over Pennsylvania Ave. would have had a full review.
If you are interested here is some background on local building authorities. No comment on the mix-up but glad it wasn't my fault.
Lansing is getting another $6 million in grant money that will go to various projects including RoeCo and the Parks Furniture renovation now called "The Iris" (I'm very happy to see that one moving forward):
Well it's official*, and I can't believe local media missed this: GM Grand River is going to convert to EV's at a cost of $1.25 Billion (*tentative to approval of the UAW deal):
Needless to say, this is good albeit somewhat expected news. I did not expect a price tag like that, details are thin but I'm wondering if this will include physical additions? There's certainly not room for a battery plant but perhaps an electric motor assembly wing? $1.25 billion is a lot of money.
It may finally be happening... The State parking lots between the Ottawa/Hannah Buildings and the Hall of Justice is set to become a park, work could begin next spring. Needless to say, this fantastic and long-awaited news.
I am as supportive as the next person but really underwhelmed by the concept design in the 11/21 LSJ. The old 'Michigan relief with ponds as the lakes' design was so cool. If anyone is interested I can put up the 1987 Capitol Park Design and 2015 Greening America's Capitals reports on the city's planning webpage.
The public/private partnership is confusing to me as well, I assume they're looking for corporate sponsors to help fund certain features at the park.
I'm not going to even attempt to pass any judgement on the current design as it's so early in the process. I will say that I'd rather them do a really good job on the parts of the property they develop while leaving those greenspaces open for future additions to the park rather than trying to fill up every corner of the space on a limited budget. I was a fan of that old 1987 designs that was shown in the 2015 report, I certainly wouldn't be against recycling aspects of that plan.
The LSJ article does leave a little room for concern with the closing quote: "...We also need to address the current site usage with other state agencies before we can proceed." I'd like to think that if they're at this stage of the project where their parading plans around in public and speaking about start dates that there's been at least a tacit approval from the relevant departments, but who knows?
Perhaps the governor has shown support and or indicated a willingness to force it through should the departments resist, when I contacted Sarah Anthony's office asking about this some time ago it was implied that the governor could make it happen in spite of the Capitol Commission and DTMB not seeing eye to eye.
I'm all in favor of this. It's interesting that the Pennsylvania frontage isn't included even where Hepler has already demoed houses, I wonder what the logic is there? I do hope he does something more interesting with his current project than a couple hundred of those grey townhouse buildings shown in the conceptual renderings.
This has the potential to be one of those things that has a huge long-term effect on the city. The area around MW Lofts was already well positioned to be its own neighborhood node and eventually merge into downtown via the growth of the Larch/Cedar corridor, Hepler's new development and this NEZ just expand what's possible. The industrial complex to the north across Oakland is low-hanging fruit that has a ton of potential to be a pretty cool area if it should ever fall out of use, and perhaps if things go well it could help bring the Penn/Grand River/High St area out of the doldrums.
On another note, Google Maps has updated its 3d imagery for most of central Lansing and EL/MSU in the past couple weeks, the imagery is no older than a few months. Just wanted to share as I always appreciate looking at the aerial views as new projects fill in the cityscape.
I could imagine there being some financing hang-ups over this but it could just as well amount to an excuse to delay it. I can't believe he plans on spending $60-$100m on this renovation, it doesn't seem like a sensible project to me.
I'm sorta surprised Gillespie hasn't proposed any new apartments, I was expecting to at least see the Marketplace block completed by now.
I'm not a developer, so this is just speculation, but with the federal fund rate possibly at the terminal level, it would make sense for Gillespie to stall and bet on a pivot and lower rates in 2024. That's my optimistic take.
My pessimistic take is that we're going to see a repeat of what happened before the last financial hit. Awesome projects announced (Capitol Club), and then an economic downturn that sets everything back 10 years.
Comments
If you are interested here is some background on local building authorities. No comment on the mix-up but glad it wasn't my fault.
https://www.wilx.com/2023/11/02/lansing-receives-over-6-million-revitalization-placemaking-grants/
https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2023/11/02/lansing-giving-out-6m-in-state-grants-frandor-sears-solar-charity/71419515007/
https://gmauthority.com/blog/2023/11/gm-to-invest-1-25-billion-at-lansing-grand-river-plant-for-ev-production/
Needless to say, this is good albeit somewhat expected news. I did not expect a price tag like that, details are thin but I'm wondering if this will include physical additions? There's certainly not room for a battery plant but perhaps an electric motor assembly wing? $1.25 billion is a lot of money.
https://www.wlns.com/news/new-park-planned-for-michigan-capitol/
I'm not going to even attempt to pass any judgement on the current design as it's so early in the process. I will say that I'd rather them do a really good job on the parts of the property they develop while leaving those greenspaces open for future additions to the park rather than trying to fill up every corner of the space on a limited budget. I was a fan of that old 1987 designs that was shown in the 2015 report, I certainly wouldn't be against recycling aspects of that plan.
The LSJ article does leave a little room for concern with the closing quote: "...We also need to address the current site usage with other state agencies before we can proceed." I'd like to think that if they're at this stage of the project where their parading plans around in public and speaking about start dates that there's been at least a tacit approval from the relevant departments, but who knows?
This has the potential to be one of those things that has a huge long-term effect on the city. The area around MW Lofts was already well positioned to be its own neighborhood node and eventually merge into downtown via the growth of the Larch/Cedar corridor, Hepler's new development and this NEZ just expand what's possible. The industrial complex to the north across Oakland is low-hanging fruit that has a ton of potential to be a pretty cool area if it should ever fall out of use, and perhaps if things go well it could help bring the Penn/Grand River/High St area out of the doldrums.
On another note, Google Maps has updated its 3d imagery for most of central Lansing and EL/MSU in the past couple weeks, the imagery is no older than a few months. Just wanted to share as I always appreciate looking at the aerial views as new projects fill in the cityscape.
I'm sorta surprised Gillespie hasn't proposed any new apartments, I was expecting to at least see the Marketplace block completed by now.
My pessimistic take is that we're going to see a repeat of what happened before the last financial hit. Awesome projects announced (Capitol Club), and then an economic downturn that sets everything back 10 years.