Oh, heck. It looks like at the last minute Scott Chappelle swoops back in to keep the rotting bank building at Abbot and Grand River off the foreclosure block. It's his way of trying to inject himself back into controlling aspects of the new Park District plan. I really wish he'd just go away.
Sure does. They are from the era when East Lansing was still a village. Still, I like that art deco building. I'd love that if that corner is ever up-zoned for them to keep that building as a base or podium and just build up over it.
I like the layout/siteplan, although I'd like to see that pub stay. It just sucks that after all this time we're still probably at least a couple years away from shovels in the ground.
The project has been given a 60-day extension by the city council to provide for the refinement of the site plan and to supply financial information for the project. That moves the date up from the end of the month to the end of February. The developers say they probably won't need the full 60 days, though.
We've been through this before, but DTN is a bit more reputable than Scott Chappelle, so I'm not seeing stalling tactics quite yet.
Nothing really new, but DTN is now saying that it is going to try to proceed without the Strathmore-owned properties. I'm starting to doubt that DTN will actually start any work on this project.
I'm not the kind of guy that usually wishes ill will on anyone, but I wish Strathmore would just go bankrupt, already. They have caused nothing but delay ans strife in this area of East Lansing. They obviously have neither the wherewithal or expertise to develop the Park District like it needs to be developed, and are essentially squatting at this site. They really ought to be ashamed of themselves.
I'm not sure I'm liking the rhetoric out of the city that they will downsize this if they can't get the bank building. It would seem like to me what you'd want to do is increase the height of the other properties, if anything, to make up for not having the bank site. But, this is EL where the political will remains keeping buildings are short as possible and density as low as possible. Just to show Strathmore, I'd stack two of the buildings on top of each other and have a twenty story tower just out of spite. lol This, of course, would only raise the value of his property. lol
I'm just half-joking, here, but the city could do eminent domain and turn the corner into a city square or some kind of structure for public use and then just have the developers increase the floor counts on the other sites to make up for the loss.
Yeah, I think eminent domain here is actually in the right direction. Years back the city took the odd step of condemning the Cedar Village area as part of their East Village plan. That condemnation was absurd, whereas these buildings are actually on that downwards path, if they're not there already.
Comments
http://www.mlive.com/business/jackson-lansing/index.ssf/2013/12/dtn_unveils_preliminary_plans.html#incart_river_default
Sounds like there are a lot of hurdles (it includes the GR Ave property and Dublin Square).
It is definitely ambitious and transformative.
Not sure that link worked (on my phone right now). If not, Google: mlive Dtn Park district.
This is some impressive density.
We've been through this before, but DTN is a bit more reputable than Scott Chappelle, so I'm not seeing stalling tactics quite yet.
http://statenews.com/article/2014/04/park-district
I'm not sure I'm liking the rhetoric out of the city that they will downsize this if they can't get the bank building. It would seem like to me what you'd want to do is increase the height of the other properties, if anything, to make up for not having the bank site. But, this is EL where the political will remains keeping buildings are short as possible and density as low as possible. Just to show Strathmore, I'd stack two of the buildings on top of each other and have a twenty story tower just out of spite. lol This, of course, would only raise the value of his property. lol
I'm just half-joking, here, but the city could do eminent domain and turn the corner into a city square or some kind of structure for public use and then just have the developers increase the floor counts on the other sites to make up for the loss.