Council Approves Eastside 6-Story Project; Developer to Seek Brownfield TIF

Image: Architect’s drawing of the structure planned for the northwest corner of Grand River and Spartan Avenues

East Lansing’s City Council has approved a proposal to build a new six-story building at the northwest corner of Grand River and Spartan Avenues, and the developer says he will soon be back to ask for Brownfield Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to help finance construction.

Technically the property is owned by a company called “Next Generation Investment Properties, LLC,” represented at last night’s Council meeting by Joe Goodsir of Community Resource Management Company, a major landlord of student rentals in East Lansing.

The plan calls for 140 parking spots and about 1500 square feet of commercial space on the first floor, with rental apartments above that. Towards the north end of the property (heading into the residential part of the Bailey neighborhood), the plan calls for the building to scale down to three stories and include a courtyard that will feature an old oak tree about which some residents have expressed concern.

East Lansing Planning staff member Darcy Schmitt told Council that it is hoped the oak tree will survive the redevelopment. She also told Council that code requires 147 parking spots for a project of this size, so Council had to specifically approve there being only 140 spots.

Robert Phipps, the owner of Brookfield Plaza which is directly to the east of this site, previously raised a number of concerns. In a letter to the City dated June 27, Phipps objected to claims that he had been unreachable with regard to his concerns. (For the letter, see page 35 of this PDF.) He said the very narrow proposed setback—only about three feet from the property line to the building’s edge—would pose a problem during construction and use.

Phipps also raised concerns about Brookfield Plaza’s parking lot being improperly used by tenants and visitors to the new building, and about problems created for pedestrians. He told Council that he has “spent fifteen years redeveloping Brookfield shopping center into a neighborhood shopping destination and from the reaction of residents, they appear to be most happy with my improvements.”

Council had many questions for Goodsir about Phipps’ concerns. (Phipps was not at the meeting and apparently had no representative there.) Goodsir told Council he spoke with Phipps on “Monday evening,” presumably meaning the night before Council’s meeting, and that he thought his plans addressed Phipps’ concerns.

Goodsir said he plans to have video camera surveillance to deal with illegal parking and to have a security guard present to manage when students are moving in and out, to try to prevent them from parking their cars and trucks in illegal places.

Goodsir told Council he was willing to move the building “seven to eight feet” to the west to address Phipps’ concern about the east side setback. Mayor Pro Tem Diane Goddeeris introduced a condition on approval that put the setback on the east side (next to Brookfield Plaza) at ten feet.

This condition raised a question of what exactly Council was approving, since the plans showed the narrow setback on the east side. Goddeeris asked if a setback of ten feet on the east side would mean the building was just being moved wholesale to the west by that much, or whether it meant “taking a chunk out of the building.”

Goodsir said he thought this just meant a move west, but his architect, Kenneth Jones of Studio Intrigue, said it meant “reducing the volume” of the building, i.e., changing the building plan. Goddeeris then wondered aloud what they were approving, but said she was comfortable if they were making a commitment to the ten foot setback on the east side. Goodsir and Jones said they were making that commitment, and so the site plan that was approved with the ten-foot eastside setback is apparently different from what will be built, based on the approval condition and what Jones told Council.

Councilmember Ruth Beier thanked Goodsir for “getting together” with Phipps but said the City could not afford to “give away thirty years of tax revenues on new developments,” so she wanted to know what was coming in the Brownfield tax incentive application.

Goodsir replied that he had an expert in the area of Brownfield to help answer that, namely Eric Helzer of Advanced Redevelopment Solutions, who spoke briefly to Council about the site. Goodsir added that he felt “my partner and I are very good corporate citizens, we are the second largest taxpayer in the city.” He said because the site includes a former gas station with contamination, it would require environmental cleanup

Goodsir said that a four-story building—which they had considered building—would not require this environmental cleanup, but the six-story plan does. He also suggested that saving the old tree by way of the planned courtyard was a good reason to provide tax incentives to the project.

According to the applicants’ representatives at Council, the soil at the site has not recently been tested but “historical data” indicate contamination from the old gas station, including underground gas tanks that have leaked. Beier suggested she would rather have a four-story building with all the taxes going into the City’s General Fund rather than a six-story building with taxes used to reimburse the developer, especially if the issue was saving one tree. The applicants said the cleanup of the contamination was a real benefit to the City.

Councilmember Kathy Boyle said she also appreciated Goodsir meeting with Phipps, and that she appreciated the concerns about the tree. She said she wasn’t going to discuss the Brownfield TIF issue since it wasn’t yet before Council. Goddeeris also thanked Goodsir for coming up with a site plan “to meet everyone’s concerns” and said it was great to have green space on the plan.

Mayor Nathan Triplett said the project was consistent with the comprehensive plan and meets the requirements of the code, and that it was a good example of mixed-use, higher-density housing close to campus. He said that “getting the right development in the right places has been a struggle” but this was a sign things were going in the right direction. He said the Brownfield plan would have to be addressed in greater detail later.

No one other than the applicants presented any remarks during the public hearings on this site plan and Special Use Permit for the project and on the zoning change that the project requires.  The project was approved 4-0, with Triplett, Goddeeris, Beier, and Boyle voting in favor and Councilmember Susan Woods absent.

Reminder: You can communicate with Council in person at its weekly meetings or write to Council directly at council@cityofeastlansing.com. You can speak or write on any issue involving the City, not only what is on the published agenda.