Less than 24 hours after the East Lansing City Council approved plans for the Northern Tier housing complex The Beaumont, developers already have received calls from more than a dozen interested buyers and renters.
The controversial 40-acre complex proposal got a 4-1 vote in Tuesday night's council meeting held in the MSU Union.
Developer Pat Gillespie, of Gillespie Development & Management, said his company should be breaking ground on the project by May or June.
The community is set to be built on Coleman Road, just west of Crossing Place Apartments, 3636 Coleman Road.
The Beaumont will be known as an "alumni village" and will be geared toward MSU alumni, young professionals and empty-nesters, rather than students.
The accepted proposal was the 24th version of the complex, which was revised in response to resident and councilmember concerns. A series of conditions were added to the proposal, including one that said no owner-occupied units could be leased until 60 percent of the units are sold.
"We grew big ears and we listened a lot, and it turned out for the better," Gillespie said. "It was a very cooperative effort."
East Lansing Mayor Mark Meadows was the lone dissenting voice in the proposal, arguing that the project's density was inconsistent with what should be done in the Northern Tier.
"It's very well-designed and a beautiful piece of property, but it's offering a housing type that we're already glutted with in the area," Meadows said, referring to the abundance of newly built rental units in the Northern Tier.
Councilmember Vic Loomis said his initial concerns about The Beaumont were outweighed by the strengths of the final proposal, including the variety of housing offered at the complex.
"There are a lot of young families that don't have the resources to buy a new home who still need quality housing - that would be rental housing," Loomis said.
Resident and retired MSU faculty member Clarence Suelter watched the televised meeting from his home on Marfitt Road, just west of the future site. Suelter said he has mixed feelings about what he watched.
"The pragmatic thing to do was done, but I don't think you can build single-family dwellings up against the big apartment complex to the east of it," Suelter said, referring to Crossing Place Apartments. "The potential problem is that they won't be able to fill the place."
