273 apartments will be placed above the Target with a mix of micro, studio, one and two-bedroom apartments. The parking structure, which will be placed directly behind the Target, will be 10 stories. The bottom 5 floors of the Albert Avenue structure will be for retail and parking, while the top 5 floors will be senior housing. 

“There is a number of milestones, first is the parking deck, we hope to have open by the end of 2018,” East Lansing Director of Planning, Building and Development Tim Dempsey said. “The Target will probably be the next component of the project, and then the residential pieces will be kind of the later parts of that.”

Currently, the HopCat building is the tallest off-campus structure in East Lansing at 8 stories, though Hubbard Hall on campus stands at 12. MSU students have been taken aback when hearing about the scale of the new project. 

“I guess we’re getting a skyline now, huh?” said Jorel Singleton-Cochran, a computer science junior. 

“I actually live down in Jackson... I’m up here a lot,” said Renee Wines, a computer science junior. “I don’t normally go to Target because it’s nowhere near my house in Jackson, and it's nowhere near campus up here. It’d probably be something I would be more willing to go to right next to campus.” 

Traffic and lane closures will be a growing concern while the project moves forward. 

“There is going to be a lot of traffic going in and out of Grand River. I was just there yesterday around 6 o'clock right after classes,” Singleton-Cochran said. “With that Target going in at the same spot, I hope they clear up traffic somehow."

Eastbound Albert Road between Abbott Road and MAC Avenue will continue to be closed for the foreseeable future. Albert Road will be closed off entirely beginning in May, 2018. Dempsey expects Albert Road to reopen once students arrive in East Lansing in the Fall of 2018.