Center City Construction Continues, Changing Downtown

Above: Photo courtesy of East Lansing Buzz, the City's PR campaign for downtown construction.

Work is continuing on the $132 million Center City District project downtown, and East Lansing can now start to see some of the permanent changes that will result from this major public-private partnership. In about a week, a popular portion of Albert Avenue will be closed for six weeks as that road is significantly redesigned. Meanwhile, this year’s East Lansing Arts Festival will be shifted east of its long-time location.

The Arts Festival moves east:

Surface Parking Lot 1 on Albert Avenue has for years served as an anchor space for the East Lansing Arts Festival. But with Lot 1 being replaced with a major new public parking garage as part of the Center City District project, the annual springtime festival has to be moved to a new location.

The map below shows where this year’s festival, set to take place May 19-20, will be located. (Click here for larger view.) The main stage and food court will now be located in the Bailey Street surface parking lot, behind the Peanut Barrel. The festival will continue from there west down Albert Avenue.

As in previous years, MAC Avenue between Albert and Grand River Avenues will be occupied by some of the festival booths. This year, the open plaza outside the Marriott Hotel will be used for art demos, and the Ann Street Plaza near the clock tower will be dedicated to the children’s art area.

More of Albert Avenue to be temporarily closed:

As part of the Center City District project, the City is using a $58 million tax increment financing (TIF) deal to build the new parking ramp and also to redo the infrastructure on and below Albert Avenue in the project area.

Starting on May 7, Albert Avenue will be closed to vehicles from the 7-11 side of Grove Street all the way to Abbot Road. This means Grove Street will effectively dead-end temporarily at HopCat and 7-11.

Pedestrians who want to get to businesses along the closed Albert Avenue stretch—including Harper’s, Menna’s Joint, and Black Cat Bistro—will still be able to get to them.

According to a City press release, this street closure “is expected to take approximately six weeks and will include upgrades to underground public utilities, roadway resurfacing, the addition of new bike lanes and sidewalks and walkway replacement/ improvement.”

Albert Avenue will look different when it’s all over:

ELi previously reported that the owners of Harper’s had come to City Council on April 17 asking for the sidewalk on that side of the street to be widened as part of the street redo, to avoid having pedestrians spilling out into the roadway during busy periods and to allow for beautification of the north side of the road, similar to what is planned for the south side under the redevelopment.

The issue came up again at this past week’s City Council meeting, where Director of Planning Tim Dempsey told City Council his department is working with the development team to figure out a way to widen the north sidewalk.

Below: Albert Avenue as it currently exists.

Council Member Ruth Beier said she had looked back at renderings of the Center City District proposal and now realizes that the woonerf design—a design that calls for a wide, plaza-like sidewalk with no curb—was never intended for the north side, but just for the side of Albert that is on the Center City District side.

City Planning staff have explained that the south side will not have curbs, but the north side will still have curbs because of how the properties on the north side are configured. Beier said at Council this week that she just wanted to make sure now that the north sidewalk is “wide enough to be safe on that side of the street.”

Council Member Aaron Stephens agreed with Beier, saying even a relatively small increase on the north side would represent “a pretty big improvement.”

Council Members Shanna Draheim and Erik Altmann agreed but wanted to make sure that the south side is still constructed as originally planned, with a wide sidewalk including amenities like trees and benches and space for outdoor dining, as shown in this architect’s rendering.

Draheim said she hoped there would also be aesthetic improvements outside Harper’s and 7-11 on the north, and Dempsey said that is the plan.

A reminder about what else is coming:

Besides the redo of Albert Avenue, the Center City District project will result in a major new structure along Albert Avenue. This will include a new publicly-owned parking garage with privately-owned retail space along the first floor facing Albert Avenue. Above half of the parking garage will be five floors consisting of about 92 rental apartments for people aged 55 and over.

This rendering shows what that structure will look like. The ten-story portion houses the senior rental apartments to be constructed above the new five-story garage.

The developer will own the Albert Avenue-facing retail space and the rental apartments above the parking garage, and will pay the City lease payments for the air spaces in which those structures exist. (Read more about the financial deal.)

Along Grand River Avenue, the developer is building and will own a 12-story structure. On the ground floor will be an urban, small-format Target store, and above that will be about 270 market-rate rental apartments.

A recent visit to a Chicago urban-format Target store in Hyde Park, near the University of Chicago, provided a look at what East Lansing can expect from this store: a variety of groceries, including fresh produce, meats, frozen foods, and “grab and go” foods; beer and wine; cosmetics and toiletries; a selection of housewares aimed at urban living, including bedding and basic cooking supplies; and a selection of the kinds of clothing carried by big Target stores.

Target has been trying out this new style of store in college towns around the U.S.

Water main in the alley to be replaced at cost of about $100,000:

This past week, City Council approved spending up to $104,350 to replace a water main that runs in the alleyway behind the businesses along Grand River Avenue between Abbot Road and MAC Avenue.

Previous discussions of the project have indicated that the $58 million TIF would pay for infrastructure improvements in the area, and using the project to pay for needed public infrastructure improvements has been seen as a major reason to do the project. So, I asked why this cost is coming out of the City’s General Fund rather than out of the project’s funds.

According to Nicole McPherson, the City’s Engineering Administrator, “The main reason this section of water main was not being [paid for] by the Center City project is due to the fact the developer will not be tying to this water main with either of their buildings” on Grand River Avenue or Albert Avenue.

“The building on Albert Avenue will be tied to a new water main being installed by the developer on Albert Street from Abbot Road to Grove Street,” according to McPherson, while “The building on Grand River Avenue will be tied to the existing water main in Grand River Avenue.”

The water main to be replaced is still needed to serve other properties in the area. The City says that the existing water main is about 90-years-old and doesn’t meet current standards and therefore needs replacing. Replacing it while everything is torn up is cheaper and easier.

“While this water main may not have been replaced this year” if it were not for the Center City District project, says McPherson, “it was definitely on the City's list of possible replacement projects.” This is why the Department of Public Works recommended spending infrastructure funds on this project rather than another one in the City at this time.

The City did not put the cost out to bid to see what various contractors might charge. According to Scott House, Director of Public Works, in a memo to Council, "Due to the congested nature of the [construction] site and need to coordinate all work on site, we have determined that the work could best be accomplished utilizing Hoffman Bros., Inc., the site contractor for Center City."

Says House, "We feel that the cost is reasonable and lower than what could be expected from an outside contractor."

See ELi’s complete coverage of the Center City District project.