Central Lansing Construction and Development.

[hood]

I knew people who lived there then, numerous abandoned houses, and the neighborhood was much worse, then the housing coaltion came in and there are responsible for most of the athstetic (spelling?) improvements. For intstance there were 4 abandoned houses at the corner of Avon & Cedar alone, all have been razed, there are only a handfull of abandoned houses in the neighborhood now. The neighborhood I think only improved on par with the rest of the city though. There is much lower crime pretty much everywhere in the country since 10 years ago. I don't expect this to last, with the continually failing economy.

[RustTown]

I think whenever you squash violent crime, the rest can be delt with. Baker-Donora has changed enough to where it can't get to where it was again unless property values fall further, which isn't going to happen with all of the renovations that have taken place.

[hood]

I heard on the news very yesterday that they expect housing values to actually fall in the Lansing area (Article), this can be expected after the ridiculous and falsely elevated housing values over the past few years. And the lower you go in the market, the more noticable the rip-off is, houses that were selling for $20-30k in 2000-2001 are now selling for $50-60k. Unfortunately many people are asking for unreasonable prices for their homes, I've seen houses in the Baker/Donora Neighborhood for $70-80k for approx. 1,000 sq ft. that is too much for the neighborhood, for a 1,000 sq. ft. house in this area in good condition, I would expect to pay around $60-70, no more. The neighborhood, could maintain it's current state, as long as the housing coalition continues it's work as planned, the neighborhood is currently in an extremely delicate state, if people stop investing, the neighborhood will quickly return to the way it was.

[RustTown]

What Ferris is doing needs to continue. The neighborhood is something like 70%+ rental, and cheap rentals, at that. They need to keep what they are doing by selling them as cheap, but owner-occupided housing. If that continues, or the neighborhood will be out of the woods. The only way it can fell more is if the rest of the owner-occupied housing is moved out of an turned into rentals, and to be quite honest, the people that have held on are the more likely than not going to stay with the new investment. Most of the people that have stayed are the neighborhood originals, though, I do fear what will happen when they all die off because most are elderly, now. Hopefully, Ferris and the housing coalition has the means to buy these houses like they have been doing as they come open.

I worked with my school with the GLHC for our schools service week, and they do some great work.

[hood]

I really don't expect the neighborhood to make any major improvements, it is a lot better and I don't see how it could get much better, at least theres not a good chance. I've spent a lot of time in this neighborhood and known many people here and most are happy with it's current condition, which is livable. It's sort of weird, even with it's high crime rate, I still feel comfortable walking around there and I'm not really paranoid of something happening.

[RustTown]

I don't expect it to ever get much better either, but then again, maybe it shouldn't. It's a lower-income area, and you simply can't drive all of your cities poor futher and further from the city. To say it can't get better crime-wise, is ridiculous, though. Poorness and poverty doesn't have to mean more crime, and in rare examples it doesn't. One of the largest poor cities in the country, El Paso, has routinely had less than 10 murders a year with low violent crime with a population of over 500,000. Baker's crime could definitely come down, and has been doing so. Not much more needs to be done accept with what they are doing now.

[hood]

I found a site with tons of info on the stadium district, it includes multiple renderings, floorplans, lease rates, ect... within its "Attachments" section, check it out: http://signatureassociates.catylist.com/js...istingID=270880

[RustTown]

Yep, I'm familiar with this. Signature Associates is a real estate company with quite a few properties in Michigan, including Lansing.

[jaredw]

Here is an article about the Lansing Art Gallery a year after their move to 113 S. Washington.

http://www.statenews.com/article.phtml?pk=31386

[RustTown]

Unless I'm really missing something, the Lansing Art Gallery was NEVER at the corner of Shiawassee and Capitol. They've always been at the Center for the Arts at Kalamazoo and Lenawee. Sorry, that was just a glarring mistake that they kept repeating in the article.

This is good news. Hopefully, the success of the Lansing Art Gallery will prompt the demolition of the current Center for the Arts, which is not only in a horrible location, but is actually an old car dealership/garage that now houses Boards Head Theater.

[hood]

I was wondering about the "Capitol & Shiawasse" location also, but I've never been to, and until fairly recently, never even knew there was a Lansing Art Gallery, so I wasn't really sure. You should email them with their mistake, Lmich .

[statedude3]

Does anyone know the status of Oliver Tower located at the corner of Capital and Ionia? I know that the building is owned by the lansing housing comission, and was fixed up after a fire a few years back but has never been repopulated. I am told that it is in very good condition, and could house people immediately.

I had an idea that it would be a suitable locatoin to house some of the unfortunate people from the gulf coast. I think that it was a good idea to open verlinden school (closed in 2004), but I think there would be more comforts of home if they lived in more private apartments. Just a thought.

[hood]

To the best of my knowledge, the building was never repaired. They had estimates done and said that repairs would only cost $200-250k, thats a small cost for bringing 108 much-needed units online. I am VERY dissapointed with both the city and the LHC on there lack of action on this property. I think they are purposly holding out on repairing these so that they can sell the property to some developer for a high-end development. Gillespi proposed a project for this site, an entire block of 4 story rowhouse buildings, a great project but not for this site, there is simply too much open land downtown to justify razing a much needed apartment building, luckily the project fell through. These must be repaired, Katrina victims or not, I'm sick of seeing the city try to rid the downtown area of lower and lower-middle income people.

[RustTown]

This is so funny, I was just thinking about the Oliver Towers and sent an email to Councilwoman Bauer who got back to me today about housing some of the evacuees of hurricane Katrina there.

She wrote back telling me that though the fire was pretty well contained, the building suffered EXTENSIVE smoke damage, and was never repaired.

I've written the council about this before, and see I'll have to do it again. The longer this building sits the more dangerous it becomes, and the more of an eyesore it becomes.

[hood]

It appears to be in good shape on the outside and I'm sure it's in perfect structural condition. I don't need to hear some dumb excuse from the city about "smoke damage," the LSJ quoted those in charge that the cost to re-open the building as of 2002 was $200-250k, I don't care what the repairs are, the building should of been repaired then, theres no excuse. Their great idea was to build a new building or complex at that abandoned trailer park on MLK, that hasn't been done either.

[RustTown]

Random photos and Construction updates (9-11-2005):

5/3 Bank Building (2501 Coolidge Road) in northwestern East Lansing

402 South Washington Square - nearly complete, and looks pretty cool at night. You can see the four exterior lights on the facade.

Capitol Commons Senior Tower

Cooley Center (Cooley Administration Building, and soon home to the schools classrooms once they completely vacate the Masonic Temple).

Full base view. This was a quality reuse project. This building looked drastically different before it's reconstruction where it was completely stripped and rebuilt.

The newly renovated and historic Durant Arch in Durant Park just north of downtown. The lettering is lit brightly in a pale blue light at night. Too bad Saginaw Street is actually one way and goes in the opposite direction of that arch is facing. It kind of makes you wish it was two-way again, because you really can't appreciate the arch from any angle but from within the park now.

Grand Tower Social Services Building from the south. Hopefully, the project planned for the surface lot wil fall through soon.

The foot of Michigan Avenue looking east.

The Michigan Manufacturers Association Building right off of Washington on St. Joseph on 496.

The base of the planned-to-be-renovated Ottawa Street Power Station. The attention paid to detailing back then on something as utilitarian as a power station is just amazing. We are lucky if we can this kind of quality and detailing on office buildings, anymore. The bottom dark band is pure granite, and the rest is a progressively lightening of bricks. I think it's supposed to represent the burning of the former furnaces inside.

Prudden Place construction

The new windows (and window holes) have been added to the back of The Arbaugh. The developer seems to be using quality materials in the reconstruction. The developer is now working on the underground parking garage directly beneath the building. It's interesting to see entrance being constructed on the southend.

The Lansing September 11th Memorial. I try to make it here every year on this date.

The fastly-finishing 2900 West Road in the northwestern corner of East Lansing bringing this thread full circle.

[hood]

I kind of like that 2900 West Rd. building, it will be sort of nice to have some decent sized buildings visible from the freeway, hopefully the master plan for nearby Eastwood will be fulfilled so it becomes more than just an oversized stripmall.

I just emailed Cooley about their plans regarding the Towne Center again, I'm hoping to actually get a reply this time.

[RustTown]

It looks MUCH better than the cheesy cartoon rendering, and that's rare. Usually, buildings looks worse than their renderings. It's still a suburban office building, though.

[hood]

Of course, I'm sure we would all rather have this office space going downtown, but if it's gonna be a suburban office building I'd like it to be like this one. And it is nice to finally have a building look better in real life than in it's rendering. Hopefully people will begin to build either in downtowns or suburban buildings like this, rather than those office parks filled with ugly, wasteful one story office buildings.

[hood]

Of course, I'm sure we would all rather have this office space going downtown, but if it's gonna be a suburban office building I'd like it to be like this one. And it is nice to finally have a building look better in real life than in it's rendering. Hopefully people will begin to build either in downtowns or suburban buildings like this, rather than those office parks filled with ugly, wasteful one story office buildings.

[LansingLawyer]

Hi -

I'm a 28 year old lawyer who is going to be taking a job in a few weeks working in state government. I'm looking to live downtown so I could walk to work and to the Michigan strip of bars, and I would love an affordable loft-style apartment. I've looked at the Arbaugh and a few places owned by Ken Stockwell on Allegan and Washington...but it seems like you all have mentioned a number of other projects that I haven't been able to find any information about. Hollister Building, Ranney Building, 402 S. Wash Sq., Michigan Mutual, Washtenaw Lofts, etc. Are any of these projects going to be available for move-in by the end of this year? How can I find out more info? I can stay w/ an aunt and uncle temporarily...but wouldn't want to do that much past December 1. Also - I need something reasonably affordable on a state salary, so I'm probably going to try to find a roommate. Any advice there?

Thanks

PS Lmichigan - great job on all of these pics. I found another website where you posted tons of streetscapes and was very impressed.

[RustTown]

Thanks.

Anyway, the Hollister Building renovation is currently a proposal and is planned not to start until next year. Ranney is still under renovation, and will probably be done by the end of the year if they stay on schedule. 402 South Washington Square will be done very soon, so that may be an option. Michigan Mutual has been put on hold. The Washtenaw Lofts are available now.

Here are a few resources that may help you further since I don't know specifics:

1. Lansing Lofts - http://www.lansinglofts.com/

2. Printers Row - http://www.printersrowlansing.com/

3. Prudden Place - http://www.pruddenplace.com/home.htm

4. The Arbaugh - http://www.karpandassociates.com/

I'll see what else I can dig up later. Another option might be the expansion of on the Grand Condominiums in Old Town which is a mile north of downtown.

[hood]

Welcome Lansing Lawyer, do you plan on becoming part of the discussion here or just looking for some quick info?

Anyways, out of all the downtown projects I would choose The Arbaugh, but other options include: Printers Row they wont be done until at least spring though, 301 Place now completed, Prudden Place almost done but probably a bit to far from downtown for what you want, Stadium District won't be done for awhile, 402 S. Washington It may be filled already, I am not aware of any online info for the Ranney Building or the Hollister Building, I would suggest walking by the building and looking for a sign or flagging down one of the workers to try and contact the owner.

EDIT: Ya beat me LMich!!!

[LansingLawyer]

Thanks for getting right back to me guys. Those links were helpful. You might be interested to hear that the 301 S. Capitol project is not going ahead...I guess the owner recently decided to keep it as commercial space. As for my joining the conversation, I definitely want to join the team of bringing back downtown Lansing - that's one of the reasons I'm excited to live there...it's going to take a lot of individual decisions of people like me to make it happen. And I hope to do my part. Whether I'll be able to speak intelligently about what's going on is yet to be seen - I've never lived in Lansing and you guys know a lot more about the area than I do...but I hope to learn. I might be a good outside perspective for a while.

Thanks again! And if you have more ideas about housing or ways to find roommates, don't be shy.

[hood]

I think you would be best suited to find a place that you want to live in for a year or so, by then, many, many projects will have come online. the Stadium District will be done, Printers Row will be done I'm sure many other loft conversions will be done and the proposed apartments at Shiawassee & Grand, which will likely be the largest and most impressive development downtown, will likeley be either done or nearing completion.

As for keeping up on Lansing development, I just watch the news, browse the internet and look to this site for my info.