Downtown Flint construction,projects & Photo post

[Allan]

Haha, yeah, where did all the forumers go? I guess the lack of development news in the Flint area is to blame.

[dnast]

Actually, downtown was on the front page news in Sunday's paper. Not that there was a whole lot of new information, but it took up three pages and had renderings.

[Allan]

I guess I missed that. I was in Grand Rapids all weekend, before I rushed back home and then to school.

[Allan]

Here's an article about the building the Genesee County Land Bank is turning into its offices. According to the article, they hope to finish by October.

http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/news/031405_NW_da_downtown.html

[dnast]

Good find. It's nice to see this building is getting 7 lofts. With all those buildings getting 1-2 lofts, it was going to take forever to get up to a significant number of new residences downtown.

[Pachuco]

Entertainment and dorm buildings will begin in June.

[dnast]

Well, there will only be one floor of residential lofts in the entertainment complex, so it won't have too many. Somehow I forgot about the dorms when I was writing that, though.

[VeeFan]

Some of the scaffolding came down on the old Economy Store, and at first I didn't notice any difference in the facade, but it does looks better.

[Pachuco]

The facade is red brick right ? I forgot

[dnast]

I'll have to check it out. It never looks any different when I pass by. When's the completion date for it, anyway? I don't remember.

[VeeFan]

Other than putting in windows, it doesn't look like they changed the facade material...it still looks like the dark brown brick that was there before.

[Pachuco]

I still hope they plan to put a park in the area where the big blacktop sits downtown, It would do wonders, bring vendors, more festivals, college students, and many others.

[Allan]

I still hope they plan to put a park in the area where the big blacktop sits downtown, It would do wonders, bring vendors, more festivals, college students, and many others.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Buildings with ground floor retail & lofts above will bring more people than a park will. Want a park? Then make the riverfront nice again.

[Pachuco]

Buildings with ground floor retail & lofts above will bring more people than a park will.  Want a park?  Then make the riverfront nice again.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Retail and lofts will not bring festival right in the central of downtown.

[Allan]

I still don't think a park is the best use of the land. True, it wouldn't allow festivals to be held downtown. But for everyday living, I think retail & lofts is the way to go. I would like the lot returned to the way it used to be. Right now downtown doesn't even feel like a downtown. Putting buildings there would change that.

[Pachuco]

If someone was to propose a loft comlex, or a huge mixed used building where would parking be ?

[Allan]

A parking garage.

[Pachuco]

AH,DUH !!!! Where will the parking garage belocated at ?

[VeeFan]

I still hope they plan to put a park in the area where the big blacktop sits downtown, It would do wonders, bring vendors, more festivals, college students, and many others.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't know if everyone saw the article a few weeks ago, but there's supposed to be a "Historic Tree Park" planted in the area around the White Building.

[Pachuco]

I don't know if everyone saw the article a few weeks ago, but there's supposed to be a "Historic Tree Park" planted in the area around the White Building.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah I saw that, one of the trees is connected to lincoln in some way.

[Allan]

AH,DUH !!!! Where will the parking garage belocated at ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It would be incorporated into the project. That lot is gigantic...there is plenty of room for a parking garage & a building.

See the Lofts of Merchants Row in Detroit for an example. Parking garages need not take up an entire city block. They can (and should) be well integrated into the urban landscape.

[Pachuco]

How long do you think someone will even propose something on that lot ?

[Allan]

Whenever all the other buildings are renovated. In other words, it's going to be a few years. Developments don't happen overnight.

[dnast]

There were/are also plans to use the Genesee Towers site for a parking garage. I'd prefer they just reclad the building, though, since it already has parking built in.

Another option is to have a parking garage built into whatever ends up on the main parking lot. Ideally it would be underground but that's very unlikely.

[Allan]

Yeah, underground parking is the way to go. It's not going to happen in Flint anytime soon though.