Lansing - A downtown office and housing development is one step closer to breaking ground after the city council approved the $2.18 million sale of city land for the new home of the Michigan State Police.
The council voted 7-0 Monday to sell the land to developers Gary Granger and MSU Trustee Joel Ferguson, rejecting other recent offers of up to $4.2 million. Councilmember Joan Bauer was absent.
The council didn’t consider the other offers because last week City Attorney Jim Smiertka said Mayor David Hollister has control over city real estate. The council only can decide whether to approve any deal, he said.
Irvin Kebler, chief operating officer of Eyde Limited Family Partnerships, the East Lansing company that increased its offer to $4.2 million last week, said it doesn’t make any sense.
“What’s the point of voting if the mayor makes the decision,” he said.
The land, known as the Triangle property, is located along the Grand River on the northeast corner of Kalamazoo Street and Grand Avenue. Granger and Ferguson, the lone bidders when it was put up for sale about two years ago, have been working with Hollister’s administration for about 18 months.
Smiertka said negotiations with other developers might take another two years.
“You have a negotiated contract,” he said. “(Eyde’s) proposal is ‘let’s start talking.’ You just can’t compare them, they’re apples and oranges.”
Granger and Ferguson plan to build a large office building on the city property, which would house the state police and the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.
MSU officials have said the move might allow the university to build a 1,300-space parking lot at the police headquarters, which sits on university land at 714 S. Harrison Ave.
The law enforcement agency signed a 99-year lease with MSU in 1931 and MSU wouldn’t be able to build the spaces until 2030 unless the contract ends early.
The council also gave the city’s Board of Water & Light permission to sell another lot on the Grand River to Granger and Ferguson for about $2 million. That site, on the southeast corner of Shiawassee Street and Grand Avenue, would be used to build an 80-unit apartment building and nearby townhouses.
At a council committee meeting last week, planning officials said the city spent about $6.3 million the purchase that land in 1990 and improve the property. Councilmember Bauer said she wanted to know how the council would be able to justify selling land at a price below the amount the city spent on it.
City officials said it was important to focus on the big picture, adding that the city purchased the land as part of an “urban renewal project” to clean up the downtown. The long-term benefits of the new development make it acceptable, they said.
