The economic status of the United States may still be on shaky ground following the events of the last month, but the city of East Lansing is maintaining its development efforts.
East Lansing has several of its own construction projects underway within the city limits, and several projects are underway in adjacent Bath Township on Abbott Road north of Lake Lansing Road. Jim van Ravensway, director of planning and community development for the city, said the projects will have significant impact on the city in terms of moving people to the area.
Van Ravensway said between $30 and $50 million in new construction is underway within the city.
“Right now in East Lansing, these projects could translate into a half million dollars in tax revenue in the next few years,” he said. “That’s fairly substantial.”
And van Ravensway sees no potential slowdown despite a national trend toward recession.
“We haven’t seen any slump in terms of development nor any reduction of people coming in to talk about new projects,” he said.
The high rate of development comes as no surprise to City Manager Ted Staton. He said he has frequently seen undeveloped property snatched up and changed into new single family subdivisions, condominiums or commercial developments in the past five years.
“We’ve been a very attractive place for investors,” Staton said.
Besides the $30 million-plus revitalization of the downtown area, the largest project underway is the Michigan Education Association building on Abbott Road just past Saginaw Road.
Also along Saginaw Road, west of Abbott Road, construction is underway on a 96-unit apartment building and a condominium development. There are also office building developments on Coolidge Road near the US-127 interchange.
“If you get out and start to see all that’s under construction right now, there are no real signs of recession in East Lansing,” Staton said. “And when you look downtown, all you see are signs of growth.”
The East Lansing tax base goes up between one to two percent a year based on new construction projects started in the city, but with an extremely high number of projects the base could increase up to 4 percent in a year, said Gary Murphy, finance director for the city of East Lansing.
But Murphy said that despite the large number of projects currently underway he wouldn’t call the current conditions a boom.
And, Murphy said, it’s still too early to tell if any real financial difficulties will befall the city, causing a slowdown in development.
“We get a big chunk of our general funding revenue from the state of Michigan which is tied to state sales tax,” he said. “If people buy fewer goods, less sales tax will be generated, and it would have an impact for us six months down the road.”
