Lake View Development

[Eridony]

Muskegon Chronicle Article

from the article:

Their "Lake View" plan calls for 13 two-story town home units in three buildings facing Market or Terrace; a two-story, 4,817-square-foot retail and office building at Terrace and Western; and a three-story, 10,500-square-foot building facing Western that would have commercial retail space on the first floor and residential apartments on the second and third floors.

[Larry Spataro]

Muskegon Chronicle Article

from the article:

I've been hearing about a possible development at this location since they first announced tearing down the mall and rebuilding the streets. It looks like it has finally moved forward enough to go before the planning commission.

Does anyone know if they have bough the property yet? The article was pretty short and as always leaves a lot of questions unanswered.

[GRDadof3]

Info was passed along to me on this project:

- Project was approved yesterday by the Planning Commission

- Rowhouses will be built first, probably starting with the 5 unit on Terrace

- Site work should begin in April or May

Images:

Rowhomes (I love the "Denver modern" look to these)

Mixed Use Building

"Flat Iron" building

Overall site plan

Bellisimo!

[Eridony]

Wow, thanks for the images! I am pretty impressed with the design since the paper says that "flat iron" building should only be two stories. I think three is much more appropriate for Western Avenue, especially at such an important corner.

There was another article in the Chronicle today about this project. Planners OK Downtown Project; Parking Still a Concern

Planning commissioners liked the plan, but approved it only after being assured that J2 had an agreement with the Downtown Muskegon Development Corp. for a needed 30 spaces in an area facing Morris Avenue near the downtown post office.

[Larry Spataro]

Wow, thanks for the images! I am pretty impressed with the design since the paper says that "flat iron" building should only be two stories. I think three is much more appropriate for Western Avenue, especially at such an important corner.

There was another article in the Chronicle today about this project. Planners OK Downtown Project; Parking Still a Concern

I'm glad to see that this project wasn't held up due to a lack of parking, that is always a big issue in Muskegon.

[seagull4]

Parking is the key issue.

Muskegon's Downtown Development Authority has no money, and this is the source of money most cities use to fund things like public parking. The reason for this is two-fold. First, in the early 1990's the city commission bought the Muskegon Mall using bonds paid for by the DDA. They also bought several surrounding properties in order to expand the mall. Unfortunately, when the city sold the mall over five million dollars in bonds remained. Second, with the closure of the Muskegon Mall and several of the factories located in the DDA, the amount of money generated dropped significatly. As a result, the City of Muskegon has no funds to build or maintain public parking.

The parking lots on the mall site have been sold by the Downtown Muskegon Development Corporation, so they won't be there much longer. This means that as each development proposal comes forward, the developer must show where the parking for his project will be located, either on site or with a shared parking agreement off-site. The DMDC has signed shared parking agreements with several of the developers, but those agreements are short term and do not specify where on the DMDC property the parking will be located. As things stand, the DMDC has every parcel they own for sale.

The result of these two realities is a the possibility that after the first few developments are approved, future proposals will be rejected, because the parking requirements can not be met. (Muskegon is not Grand Rapids, people will not pay $5.00 an hour for parking here.) What the Planning Commission wants from the DMDC is a parking master plan that shows where the long term parking assocated with their parking agreements with the developers will be located. Without some kind of master parking plan, the Planning Commission will not be able to accept parking agreements signed by the DMDC or be able to approve additional developments without adequate parking.

I hope this helps clarify the parking issue.

Does the previous owner of the mall still own the huge

parking lot across from the Post office? (Next to the Hume bldg/Indian Cemetary) I do not think there is a more desirable piece of property anywhere that offers that type of lake view.

[Larry Spataro]

Yes. Rick Perelman owns the Morris Street Lot.

[Eridony]

Here is another article about this project: $7.5M Mixed-Use Development Planned to Revitalize Muskegon's Downtown

There isn't much new info here, except they say the flatiron building will be 3 stories (like the rendering shows) instead of the two reported in the Chronicle.

Also, there is information about the project start date:

Pulaski expects to break ground mid-June, with completion of the townhomes along Terrace Street by October. The remaining buildings will be phased in as the developers work toward a late 2008 completion date.