West Village Area Proposal Coming from DTN

Photo courtesy of Google street view

Local developer DTN Management is set to present a new plan for the empty lot at the northwest corner of West Grand River Avenue and Delta Street, next to the West Village Condos. The empty lot is shown above; to the west are the West Village townhouses, and to the north, Valley Court Park.

In 2014, DTN unsuccessfully sought approval for a project to involve the same lot. That was for a six-story, mixed-used building across two lots (this empty lot plus Biggby’s lot), set to be connected on three upper floors to form a tunnel over Delta Street. Some West Village condo owners and some other citizens objected to the size of the building as well as to the design, specifically the large open space in the middle (which some at Planning Commission referred to as a “party pit”) and the Delta Street tunnel, which would have been 136-feet long and 68-feet wide.

The new proposal is more modest—four stories tall and built on only the vacant lot on the west side of Delta Street. The new plan calls for one level of underground parking. The property where Biggby’s operates on the east side of Delta Street is not part of this version, as it was in the larger proposal that DTN put on hold in June 2014.

This news came yesterday at the Executive Committee meeting of East Lansing’s Downtown Development Authority (DDA). The matter was put on the DDA’s January 22 agenda. At that meeting, City staff will report on this new, scaled-back project proposed by DTN for the lot known as “300 West Grand River.”

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