Downtown Development Authority

Above: the project site at the northeast corner of Grand River Avenue and Spartan Avenue.

The East Lansing City Council voted yesterday on both the site plan and Brownfield Tax Increment Financing (TIF) plan for the White Oak Place project at Spartan and Grand River Avenues (just west of Brookfield Plaza). But in both cases, what the Council approved was significantly different from what the developer had proposed.

Above: Architect’s rendering of the proposed development.

East Lansing’s City Manager George Lahanas announced today that a series of long-blighted commercial buildings on Grand River Avenue near Abbot Road will be demolished by the end of this year. According the announcement, the new owners of the “Big Bank Building” at the northwest corner of Grand River Avenue and Abbot Road and the commercial property between that structure and People’s Church have agreed to a “stipulation and consent order to demolish the properties” by December 31, 2016.

Above: Artist’s rendering of the proposed project as seen looking east from Spartan Avenue

If two votes go as expected, tonight East Lansing’s City Council will set a pair of public hearings for April 12 to consider a site plan and tax increment financing (TIF) plan for a major new apartment complex near Hagadorn Road. If built as planned, the project, a six-story mixed-used development to be named White Oak Place, will sit on the corner of East Grand River and Spartan Avenues, just west of Brookfield Plaza.

The Michigan Land Bank Fast Track Authority has granted the City of East Lansing its request for $99,000 to demolish the vacant, blighted “little bank building” at the corner of Abbot Road and Albert Street, shown above.

Above: The "little bank building" at 303 Abbot Road.

Various blighted, vacant buildings near Peoples Church downtown are likely to soon be demolished following a series of recent actions by the City designed to bring about the demolition.

Above: The boarded up old Taco Bell building (left), where the redevelopment will occur

Townhouses on Albert Street (above), photo courtesy of Hagan Realty

In a pair of unanimous votes, this week East Lansing’s City Council put through a group of zoning changes that appear designed to encourage more housing for non-students in high-density areas of the City and to discourage housing of large number of students in single dwelling units.

Above: One version of what the City thought the East Village could look like if redeveloped

Tomorrow, the City of East Lansing will host the first meeting of the group convened by City Council to address landlords’ concern about the City telling them they may not make improvements on certain properties. Since 2011, the City has determined that landlords cannot make certain changes to their buildings if they are “nonconforming”—that is, if the buildings don’t meet the zoning for that property.

East Lansing’s Downtown Development Authority (DDA) Project and Infrastructure subcommittee met this Tuesday to hear revised plans for White Oak Place, a project planned for the northeast corner of Grand River Avenue and Spartan Avenue. The developer presented a new Brownfield plan lowering the tax increment financing (TIF) ask from $9.5 million to about $6 million. The developer also provided a revised site plan.

A recent presentation to East Lansing’s Downtown Development Authority (DDA) unveiled the Brownfield tax increment financing (TIF) plan for the proposed mixed-use redevelopment where Spartan Avenue meets Grand River Avenue. If all goes as presented to the DDA, the developer will be asking East Lansing’s City Council to approve $9.5 million in TIF reimbursements for expenses related to the redevelopment.