What’s Going On at the Empty Lot Next to Peoples Church?

Readers are asking why they’re seeing contractor trucks at the empty, fenced-in lot next to People’s Church, at 140 West Grand River Avenue. This is the lot that until last fall held a series of dilapidated, vacant, two-story-tall commercial properties, as shown below. What’s up?

As ELi has been reporting, a major site plan proposal from DRW/Convexity, the Chicago-based owner-developers, comes before City Council tonight for three sets of properties in this area, including this one at 140 West Grand River.

In the proposal, the property at 140 West Grand River would hold a 10-story hotel in The Graduate chain, a line of hotels specifically designed for college towns. The Graduate operates hotels in Ann Arbor, Berkeley, Charlottesville, Madison, Minneapolis, and several other cities around the United States.

The site plan calls for two additional buildings, including a 12-story building on the property at the empty corner lot at Abbot Road and Grand River Avenue and a moderate-income rental building a block north, on Evergreen Avenue.

Below: Proposed hotel in The Graduate chain in foreground with the larger proposed building shown behind it and Peoples Church in the lower left.

According to attorney David Pierson who represents the Chicago-based DRW/Convexity, at 140 West Grand River, SME, an engineering firm, “is doing soil borings required for the geotechnical analysis and report for the project, the same kind of work they did for Center City and Core Spaces,” the two large projects now under construction along Grand River Avenue.

In a brief response to ELi, Pierson reiterated that “the schedule is tight” on this project, which is why work is being done now in the hopes that a deal is going to be worked out. The Graduate Hotel’s developers have said they can’t keep waiting for a deal to be struck at this long-blighted East Lansing site, and will likely move investment money to construct a hotel in another college town if a deal is not reached here soon.

The hotel group has “parked” investment money at this site for about three years now, as it has hoped for construction to start. (Read our report on why the last deal fell apart.)

To read about the latest plans and see a map along with architectural renderings, click here. Citizens who want to weigh in on the plans can show up at City Council tonight at 7 p.m. to make public comment or can write to council@cityofeastlansing.com.

UPDATE: Council approved the site plan. Read more.