Abrams Landing: Proposed Luxury Loft Building

[RustTown]

Not just that, but listen to the regulars complain about the rezoning, as eventually, Mr. Fisher will be requesting the dreaded two-words...tax abatements. lol I hope Mr. Fisher gives it to the regulars, and shuts them up.

I'm could tolerate Lansing getting rid of Waverly since it is the furthest from the city, but I'd like to see Grosbeck kept, as is. Sycamore is a loss. It's under water half the time because it's in a flood plain. In fact, last time I drove by most of it was under water, and this is even after they've finished working on over the past year. Short of some huge feat to engineer and raise the land, that piece of land will always be worthless for redevelopment.

You know what I've been thinking about the Triangle? Why not just make it mixed use to make the state office building look more attractive to the state? Granger and Ferguson could sell it as a live/work site, you know, market it as a place where you wouldn't have to commute to, carefree living, in the heart of it all...blah, blah, blah. Otherwise, building a new state office building doesn't sound attractive to the appropriations committee considering the budget and/or the Republicans running the Congress who call themselves fiscal conservatives.

[hood]

I don't like their current proposal, thats for sure. But I have a feeling their minds are made up. I still think the best plan would be to rebuild River St. with the office building and a parking ramp on the triangle parcel and with residential buildings along the river.

[fisher191]

I'm trying a little different approach with the regulars.

We'll see if it works or not. Honey over vinegar.

[RustTown]

I don't like their current proposal, thats for sure. But I have a feeling their minds are made up. I still think the best plan would be to rebuild River St. with the office building and a parking ramp on the triangle parcel and with residential buildings along the river.

A triangle is a pretty impractical shape for a parking garage. In fact, I don't ever think I've seen any shapped other than rectangles.

Matt, interesting. Maybe, you may be able to shmooze some of them over.

[hood]

They said at the city council meeting tonight that you will now have to tear down this building, is that right?

[RustTown]

I think he said earlier in the thread that it was a possibility that he wouldn't be able to save the building. I do hope he saves the last of the decorations left on it, though. I'm happy things are moving forward.

[hood]

I'm not too concerned with this building, if he didn't save anything it woulden't bother me, but putting the balls from the corners and the decorations from the center of this building would be sort of cool to see on the new building.

[RustTown]

Matt, I heard you mention something about an American tax credit, or something, that would take some of the burden off of the city having to add other abatements. What exactly is this credit, and exactly how does it work?

[fisher191]

New Market Tax Credits, its a 39% federal tax credit that targets 'low income census tracts', which is basically all of downtown Lansing. The project must have at least 20% of its revenue from commercial/retail sources. Mixed use is ideal.

I may still have to use Brownfield, since the city wants the parking, which the parking will count in Brownfields.

I had more to say, but obviously ran out of time, and I was definetly not as eloquent as I usually am.

the city really pushed me to accomodate more parking, so the building is almost certain to come down.

The north wall can't support the weight of 2nd floor parking, plus the additional floors.

[RustTown]

How much parking are they asking for total, and how is it, again, that you are incorporating it into the new structure? As you said, this is a pretty small site, and a creative solution for parking is the only solution since none of the buildings around the property are going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, Paramount recently did their regular upgrades and maintenance, and got a new sign. The smell from the place, most of the time, really adds character to the neighborhood.

[hood]

I think Paramount should add an in house cofee shop, that would be cool, especially if you could see the roasters and stuff while in there. Also, have you made a final decision on how many floors it will be? They were saying an additional 3-4 yesterday.

[RustTown]

I must of missed that; what exactly did they say?

[hood]

Jeffries was describing the development, but he didn't seem like he knew exactly what he was talking about, he said that he beleived the development involved adding 3-4 floors to the building, but in the same statement he said that the building would have to come down. I think he's confused.

[hood]

I noticed that the Abrams Building is no longer listed with CBRE, I take it the building has been closed on?

[fisher191]

Just finished meeting with the rendering artist to review some conceptual sketches.

I have selected one that I like and so, probably in the next 24 hours, I will post a link to the sketch that you guys can all critque.

Your sneak peak, would be..... think... the Knapps Building, but obviously new, and more three dimensional. I think the building is fleshing out to be unique enough, that plenty of people will like it, and plenty will not like it. I just hope more like it, than don't!!

There is going to be a few minimal changes, but for the most part it will about 90% accurate.

I think its also unique enough that people would be very surprised that its rental and not condo.

[RustTown]

Great!

I like the sound of it just from the description. Lansing is long overdue for some new architecture.

[fisher191]

well, here's the sketch, I referred to yesterday. One of the doors will be combined to show only two streetlevel doors. The first floor is going to be raised to take the place of what looks like the 'second floor', so it will still be four floors in total. The ceiling heights are being adjusted so that the fourth floor's floor is at 54'.

What do you guys think?

I'm a huge Art Deco fan so if you don't like that part, ....it won't be changed.

http://www.lansingliving.com/photos.php?property_ID=31

Hopefully you can see it, it's on my website, but I don't know how to make it any bigger.

[hood]

Thats much better than what I was even thinking it would be (and I thought it would have been good anyways), I was expecting a basic but nice redbrick building. But this is really a treat, I love the blue tile (I assume?), the arch(!!!) and the two central 'spires' at the top. What are the balconies made of? It looks like stainless steel with a structural look maybe? I really like this Art Deco/ultra-modern mix of architecture, at least thats what it looks like to be. One suggestion, instead of combining two doors into one regular swinging door, use a revolving door if you can afford it, they are nice, energy efficient and I just plain like them.

Also, what is the total height to the highest structural point? Just asking so the structure can be added to Emporis.com.

[fisher191]

Thanks Hood.

I love the 'and I just plain like them' comment, made me laugh.

I think the tip of the spire should be 70-75', there was a slight misunderstanding between us and the artist, they thought we had to keep the building under 54', and so we clarified that the floor of the fourth floor had to be at 54', and so add another 14' for the interior spaces, plus 3-4' for the transom....then the spires should put us up there at around 75, possibly pushing 80. From these sketches they are going to make the requested changes, then once I approve, do the full rendering.

The colors are a creme and cobalt, so you were right on that (high gloss cobalt tile, and tan brick). It may be very hard to distinguish, but on the street level there is some ARt Deco stepping into the windows to keep a little more 3 dimensional feel. There is quite a bit of that 'stepping' all over the building, that is hard to really see unless you have it in a larger format. They had another version which was much more muted in colors, and I thought just a little to bland.

I am going to see what everyone thinks on the revolving door idea, if we do it, we would do two of them. I want there to be equal emphasis on the commercial spaces. They are kinda cool!!

Also at the top of the arch we are going to put the Abrams Topography award emblem. http://www.pa.msu.edu/abrams/HistoryImages/TA-award_web.jpg

The plane would be brought down a little, but I thought that might be a nice finishing touch for that peak.

There is a chance that the ramp would be moved to the opposite side of the building, but no effect on overall look for that change.

The next big thing is to see how much flak I am going to catch from the neighbors, Paramount and the Pawn shop, since the building will be built to the lot lines, I am expecting a little resistance, but hopefully they buy into the vision. Also just starting to work with LISC for the New Markets Credits, if they like the project it is still possible to break ground this fall.

[hood]

I doubt they would fight too hard, it would raise their property values significantly, and since the pawn shop is trying to sell they should really be happy. One other thing, if it isn't already included, maybe there could be some exterior lighting shining up the columns between the balconies, similar to the lighting on the RR Donnelly Building in Chicago (below) they used high intensity bulbs to shine narrow beams of light up the columns, they key in your case would be getting those beams narrow enough so that they don't bother tenants and the lights on the Donnelly building seem like they would do the job.

[fisher191]

That is a beautiful building.

We do have some lighting on the beams Just below the spires is some lighting, and also on the the next set of beams, right at the floor level of the top floor.

Also those balconies will be either stainless or powder coated black, and they have a 'fan' pattern to them.

[hood]

Also those balconies will be either stainless or powder coated black, and they have a 'fan' pattern to them.

Do you mean there will be both or you will choose one? If it comes down to choosing one I would very strongly suggest stainless, not only for the balconies but for various accents on the building, such as the arch.

[RustTown]

Matt, that is an awesome design! I really like the name, too. This is something very rare for even Michigan. Most new residential low-rise and mid-rise designs try to play it safe, like the Ellington in Midtown Detroit, or the condo towers going up in Royal Oak, but this is new and modern without being so "in-your-face." It also has a few classical elements. This is way better than I expected and makes the Stadium District look like of plain in comparison. lol

Keep up the great work! Hopefully, you can find a way to make the rendering larger.

BTW, I'm pretty sure that the zip/postal code for that address is the same as everything else in that area on that side of the river: 48912

Also, who is the architect, and what is the number of units again, and how many parking spaces and underground levels?

[hood]

Lmich, do you think this is enough info to add this building to Emporis yet?

I was looking at the estimated cost of revolving doors and it looks like they run around $20k-$30k, ouch! They are very nice and add a lot of prestige to a building and with those prices I can see why.

[fisher191]

architectural firm: Design+, Grand Rapids.