East Lansing City Council interviewed DTN Management Co. and Lurvey White Ventures for the potential development of the Park District Project Tuesday night as part of a special work session. The gathering was the first of a series of meetings this summer regarding the space formerly known as City Center II.
Lurvey White Ventures partner Ridgway White, together with co-partner David Lurvey, explained the impact they have had all around Flint, including the establishment of Blackstone’s Pub & Grill and the Hyatt Hotel Riverfront Center. Of all their accomplishments, White highly spoke of his most recent work at the Michigan School for the Deaf, a $14 million project that redeveloped the 115,000 square-foot facility to support the most state of the art deaf education technologies.
“We envision the new Park District as the heart and soul of the East Lansing community,” White said.
“The architecture of the district would combine historic and modern features to create a warm, welcoming, tree lined, pedestrian-friendly area … but also encourages visitors and regulars to explore and be amazed.”
Lurvey White Venture’s plan features a year-round farmer’s market, a 120-room hotel including a 200-person banquet center and new parking and residential mixed-use buildings.
White and Lurvey presented two versions of their proposal. The first one costing $66.925 million and the second $83.375 million. The latter would be more expensive because of further development of pedestrian and residential space.
DTN Management Co. Vice President and former MSU offensive lineman Colin Cronin supported his company’s case for the location by explaining how they would utilize both public and private parcels for comprehensive development.
DTN’s proposal includes a 400-space parking structure and a 10-story building with hotel and residential units. The residential unit would hold approximately 450 units, and an additional 400 parking spaces would be created on the ground level.
Cronin said his plan would expand Albert Avenue to Valley Court in an effort to better circulate traffic. He said the current layout of the Albert Avenue and Abbot Road intersection disconnects the west side of the downtown area.
“For this thing to work out, parking is key,” Cronin said.
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