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Hopeful downtown developers answer to officials, residents

April 10, 2013

After the last meeting of the Park District Planning Area Review Team left members with more questions than answers, prospective developers of the Park District Area — a slot of vacant downtown properties including the site formerly planned for the City Center II project — were brought before the team to review their qualifications Wednesday at the meeting at City Hall.

The review team will take the information from the meeting into consideration to rescore the developers qualifications and score their proposals for next week’s meeting for discussion.

Five of the six developers came before the team to prove why they are qualified to manage the multimillion-dollar project and answer questions on their previous work.

Check out previous State News coverage of the Park District proposals, including specifics on what the developers are proposing for the properties.

Capstone Collegiate Communities LLC and Vlahakis Companies

John Acken, a representative for C3, said the company has developed properties in more than 90 college towns across the country.

“Capstone has traditionally focused on the student market,” he said. “In all of our developments, we have a mix of unit types … the idea is to cater to and allow for anyone (to) rent in any of the units.”

Ken Szymusiak, co-director of the new economy division at the Lansing Economic Area Partnership, or LEAP, questioned Acken on the relationship between Capstone and Vlahakis, which owns the Dublin Square Irish Pub property. Acken said the partnership brings a perspective to the project centered on restaurants.

Urban Cultural and Arts District LLC and Studio [Intrigue] Architects LLC

Szymusiak asked the developers what their experience is in projects of this magnitude.

“It will be the largest project I’ve ever taken on,” Dave VanderKlok, principal architect with Studio [Intrigue], said. “We have plenty of experience with projects of several million dollars that are going on at multiple times.”

DTN Management Co.

Chairperson of the Park District Planning Area Review Team Doug Jester said DTN showed him a few more qualifications than what he gave them credit for in the team’s original review.

DTN originally was given 30.4 points out of 50, tied with MBT Partners LLC and Visser Brothers Development with the fourth-least points.

“(They showed) more experience with land uses other than student housing,” Jester said.

MBT Partners LLC and Visser Brothers Inc.

Jester said the presentation also shed light on the developers and earned some more qualification points from him.

“(They) earned more credit from me in terms of more custom projects as opposed to just following a corporate design,” he said.

Lurvey White Ventures

Ridgeway White, a partner of Lurvey White Ventures, said there is demand in the market for hotels, when asked about how to balance the right mix of uses and a good working market for the downtown area.

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The developer plans to build a year-round farmers market, 120-room hotel and residential mixed-use buildings.

“(We) believe there is a demand of a certain portion of student housing,” White said. “We believe that loft living is in. Urban living is in. And we think that, coupled with the farmers market, we think we can build that.”

The Parkside Project LLC

The sixth developer, Parkside, declined to come before the team to be interviewed.

There was discussion regarding whether Parkside should continue to be in the running for the site’s development and whether it should go through the next round of scoring. City Attorney Tom Yeadon said the developer should continue to be judged, but the team should take into consideration its unwillingness to come and provide information.

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