Despite property issues, East Village plans move forward
Students might say goodbye to the Cedar Village apartments, and hello to a cinema, riverside park and various forms of entertainment, according to renderings for the proposed East Village project unveiled Wednesday.
“The renderings provide more detail than what we expected at this point, which we’re really happy to see,” said Lori Mullins, senior project manager for East Lansing.
According to the renderings, the ground floor of the proposed $750 million project will contain retail, restaurants and entertainment venues, including a 16-plex cinema, a 50,000 square-foot sports grill and a 1,000-1,200 capacity live theater.
The second floor will contain more entertainment, such as a piano bar and dance club, along with housing. The third floor will be entirely condominiums and student housing.
“I think it is a good idea and that it would draw people to East Lansing, as long as (the city doesn’t) get rid of student housing,” economics senior Jenny Mast said. “If there’s less student housing, that creates a problem of where you’re going to put the people you pushed out of there.”
However, the project, which will stretch between Grand River Avenue, Bogue Street and the Red Cedar River, could replace existing student housing, such as the Cedar Village apartments, but will not leave students without a place to live, said Ginny Haas, director of community relations for MSU.
“The expectation is that there will actually be more student housing in the plan,” she said. “But because the density is going to be so much greater … (it) will be combined with some for-sale housing and some kinds of rental housing.”
Pierce Education Properties doesn’t own any of the land in the East Village and is going ahead with the project, despite concern from some land holders. For the project to happen, the company would need to acquire the land, which is primarily owned by DTN Management Co. and several other companies and individuals.
There will be 1,500 beds for undergraduate students, 300 graduate student units and 200 condominium units, said Fred Pierce, president and CEO of Pierce Education Properties.
The next step for the developers is to acquire the property for the 25-acre project.
“As of (now), we’re in dialogue with virtually every property owner in the site area,” Pierce said.
The developers plan to offer either participation in the project, or purchase of the land, he said.
This process has been ongoing, but very slow, said Colin Cronin, area director of student properties for DTN.
“We had a little sit down with Fred Pierce (and his company) probably three months ago, but we hadn’t heard from them in almost a year (before that),” he said.
Cronin said he has not met with Pierce since then.
Nancy Kurdziel, president of Prime Housing Group, which owns seven buildings in the East Village area and one building within the specific project, said her company is not selling its properties.
“There’s nothing to negotiate, but we’ll be redeveloping on our own,” she said. “It’s interesting to see him putting together proposals for property he doesn’t own.”
In addition to acquiring property, between 60 and 65 percent of the land must be pre-leased by tenants in order to get financing commitments for construction, which is expected to begin in 2010 and last three years, Pierce said.
“(Therefore), we expect conversations with tenants to commence before the end of the year,” he said.
Students and East Lansing residents can see and comment on the project’s renderings on the city’s Web site, www.cityofeastlansing.com.
Published on Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Comments
green1
10/09/08 @ 7:00am
what the point of cramming so much cr*p into the small area that is east village? Can’t they just redevelop it as a neighborhood and make grand river more dense or something…seems like they’re trying to do too much in a space/city that can’t really support it
ZT
10/09/08 @ 9:21am
I am all for this as long as they keep the student housing affordable. Are they really making some units just for grads, and seperate for undergrads? If it isn’t a part of the university can they do that?
I do agree ramping up Grand River would help but if this is a success I believe it would come with time on its own. I do think due to traffic Grand River between Hagadorn and Bogue would need another lane. Look how busy it is now at rush hour already.
MSU Grad
10/09/08 @ 9:27am
As a recent MSU grad and a professional working in Lansing, I am pleased to see something like this coming. I do hope they keep it affordable for individuals or young families. Many of the newer housing projects have been so over priced that they keep young people out.
Kudos to the developers and the city for trying to reinvigorate that area.
K-Rock
10/09/08 @ 10:03am
Wow, does anyone really think that the student housing will be kept affordable? Cedar Village wasn’t very affordable as it was, but it was reasonable. This development will push students’ cost of living through the roof, IMO.
In a time when tuition keeps going up between 6-9% every year, they really think that it’s appropriate to put in a brand new “piano bar, movie theater, and sports grille” right next to campus? Do you really think that the piano bar and sports grille will be serving affordably priced drinks & food? The movie theater will probably offer student tickets at $7, but that’s a luxury when you’re making $7.50 an hour.
So let me get this straight, EL and MSU are OK with the following priorities:
1) Reducing student housing that is practically right on campus where you can walk or bike to all your classes
2) Pushing students farther and farther off of campus to find affordable housing
3) Reducing parking on campus in an effort to go green (but where are the off-campus students supposed to park?)
Look at what happened with the condos built above CVS (across from the Riv), those were astronomically priced and the only students who lived there were those with rich parents. Are we supposed to think that the ones in East Village will be any different?
spartyon12
10/09/08 @ 1:06pm
Let’s break down everything that Fred Pierce/EL commission want to bring to the East Village area and why this whole project doesn’t make sense.
1. Student Housing: East Village wants to create affordable housing for students and grad students (so in a long, confusing way they mean MSU students). They plan to somehow keep rents low while developing this new project. They also plan to increase the housing stock in EV for students in the area.
The only problem is that Cedar Village area is exactly that, affordable off campus housing for all MSU students. By tearing down the entire neighborhood they are attempting to create exactly what the area already has from a housing standpoint.2. Condos: EV wants to create condos for young professionals, empty nester and so on.
This is despite the fact that projects aimed at these groups in East Lansing such as albert place (sold only 6 of 36 units) and west village continue to be empty…also city center 2 if it ever gets built will be completed well before EV…therefore they are saturating a market that appears to be past its capacity
3. Create a downtown for East Lansing: East village wants to create a vibrant downtown with mixed housing, movie theater, bars, restaurants and a park.
Once again East Lansing or the nearby area already has ALL of this…last time I checked downtown EL had mixed housing (city center 1, 2?, albert place, west village, student housing). A variety of restaurants and bars are blended with trendy stores like urban, American apparel and the refinery. For all the similar things that current downtown EL has similar to east village plan they also have tons of available store fronts that sit empty for one reason or another. If we can’t fully support the current downtown a new one will once again saturate a market that seems to already be struggling. Lastly, the movie theater would become one of 3 in the immediate area not including wells hall. While it would be nice to have a movie theater close to campus it isn’t something essential and is again only giving us an amenity we already have.
These are only a few of the many more questions about the project such as how they plan to deal with already congested traffic on surrounding streets, why all of this development on a flood plain for the red cedar river is a good idea, who is going to pay for all of this and so on.
The new project does nothing but over saturate EL with things it already has or can’t currently support. The reasons to oppose this project are more than just about students being displaced, it’s about the city and outside developers creating a poorly planned development that serves nobody in the end.
EL needs to go back to the drawing board to help create a sustainable and functional cedar village for MSU students/residents and EL. There is no reason for all the extra bells and whistles to be brought to the neighborhood. It should be left as a neighborhood and grand river should be made more denser when the time comes to expand on our current downtown.
Development for the sake of development will always end up bad.
Townsend
10/09/08 @ 3:07pm
People are missing the point… I’m all for keeping affordable housing within this complex which is very convienient for many students, esp undergrads, who are less likely to have cars. Isn’t that what the East Village folks are promising?
I don’t get people like SpartyOn. Are you just whining just for the sake of whining? To say: we already have this kinda stuff, so why build more: is just plain myopic and stupid. East Lansing has expanded it’s downtown, mixed-use development and high-density housing in recent years, obviously. But it could use much more. For a University the size of MSU, downtown EL is very small. Compare peer U college towns like Ann Arbor, Madison, Berkeley, Seattle/U. District (U.Washington) and Westwood (UCLA). These college strip areas are far larger, more densly developed and more appropriately scaled for the school it serves. Downtown EL is far from bad: it’s one of the better downtowns, but it’s still small. East Village is attempting to extend downtown, and give students/visitors more a variety of things to do.
Like it or not, while EL should give a lot of deference for MSU students, it is not the students’ own private enclave. EL is very attractive to middle/upper middle full-timers, esp young professionals, visitors and tourists (if you don’t believe it, look at Michigan travel literature). Deal with it. And understand that a more vibrant, attractive East Lansing enhances MSU (and your degree) beyond what you understand — like say making the community more attractive to the high-quality faculty both the university and most sensible students would like on campus.
Stop being so childish SpartyOn.
Dude
10/09/08 @ 7:09pm
Bottom line is, the prices will go down because the economy is screwed. Kids won’t be able to get student loans, the price of attending MSU will be too expensive for anyone to afford and these units will be begging for tenants in years to come.
MSU Student
10/09/08 @ 8:31pm
There is no way that with all the money DTN and Prime Housing Group are making from their aparments located in this area, that the developers could offer enough money to make these companies bite. I’m sorry but the fact that Cedar Village has housing that is somewhat reasonably in price is a big deal around East Lansing. If they build a brand new development including student housing, there is NO WAY it will be reasonable for students.
CSE Grad '06
10/09/08 @ 9:30pm
The new commercial fronts on the lower levels & the high capacity sound fantastic. It could revitalize the cramped and rundown downtown but the lack of interest in the condos looks like a legitimate concern. Townsend seems to be drinking the coolaid with his baseless claims that there’s so much demand for this type of housing in EL. The dreadfully low current occupency levels and the prospect that the supply will already expand independant of this project make this an utterly untennable position.
The ownership issue is extremely disturbing, though! It appears clear that some owners aren’t interested in selling and they don’t appear to be even trying to negotiate seriously with DTN. Clearly, they expect that the city will simply steal the land for them. I’m sure the crooks on the city council are already prepared to take action and don’t evem see amything wrong with it.
gggw
10/10/08 @ 1:54am
it’s great to have such a plan for all these exciting facilities,
but why do it need to be that close to campus? do students really need all these sports bar and stuff right next to the main buildings like business school? the most important issue for students is housing but not entertainment. they can probably find another place for it but not cedar street.
R C River
10/10/08 @ 4:44am
Pay attention to the flood plain. The city has “revised” away the truth. In 1975, I saw Red Cedar water on Grand River Avenue. Way back around 1900 (see the MSU histories) the river was one mile wide at the Farm Lane bridge. The official flood plain map ignores these facts: blame it on ignorance or blame it on influence, either way it’s a lie.
Chad
10/10/08 @ 8:16am
People,
There is no way in the world Pierce Education Properties will get funding for this project. The credit markets are completely locked up and banks in general are de-leveraging their balance sheets like crazy. The last thing any bank will do is lend the developer money for this project, or the borrowing costs will be so high they cannot afford it anyway.
One more point: 200 condos?! That’s down-right laughable. Good luck moving 200 condos in this real estate market for years to come. Why would you buy a condo pay tax, interest, maintenence, closing costs ect. ect. when you can expect 0% appreciation and have the ability to rent the same “condo” for $700 a month.
Lansing area developers are living in another world. Face it, the go-go years of the real estate bubble are officially over.
Scott
10/10/08 @ 11:54am
Townsend said “For a University the size of MSU, downtown EL is very small. Compare peer U college towns like Ann Arbor, Madison, Berkeley, Seattle/U. District (U.Washington) and Westwood (UCLA).”
Why would anyone want MSU to end up like Ann Arbor???? I went to MSU and visited Ann Arbor and thought our set up was head and shoulders above Ann Arbor. Yeah the downtown might not be as big but I’d rather have it like it is then end up with MSU turning into Ann Arbor
Don't worry about it...
10/10/08 @ 2:54pm
If you all think this will get financed you are nuts. Turn on CNN or try to go to your bank for a loan. This is much ado about nothing. The Prime Housing Group is smart to ignore it.