The city of East Lansing’s last foray into significant development wasn’t a paradigm of successful execution. The $116.4 million mixed-use project has only recently begun to show signs of life, and even those are feeble. Therefore, we feel a touch of trepidation when we say the two proposed developments that were set for a July public hearing last Tuesday sounds like a good idea.
The first project in question involves a proposed eight-story building adjacent to the Grove Street Garage. The space would contain restaurants on the first level and 42 apartments in the upper levels. The second project would involve adding two floors to The Post, 213 Ann St., and razing the buildings formerly occupied by Mackerel Sky Gallery of Contemporary Craft. A four-story building with commercial business and apartments would replace it.
Sounds cool to us. It sounds even cooler if the East Lansing City Council makes sure all its ducks are in a row before it does anything. Granted, City Center II had difficulties that were not foreseeable when the initial deal went down. But the handling afterward raised questions from residents about how city officials were handling everything from financing to project developer Scott Chappelle. In these cases, everything seems simple, but proceeding with caution won’t hurt.
Otherwise, we would look forward to developments that add to the downtown area. The reasons noted for these kind of developments by Councilmember Roger Peters is a desire to move away from strip-like development projects and toward vertical density. Considering the heart of the downtown area extends from Abbot Road to Charles Street, working on vertical density is probably the way to go.
The mixed-use buildings are of particular note as well. East Lansing residents haven’t been incredibly supportive of student expansion into the surrounding neighborhoods. It’s no accident that there is a second city out at Chandler Crossings and overlay districts all over the place. Providing housing in the downtown area would benefit both the residents and the students. Perhaps permanent residents could reclaim some of the rental housing in the neighborhoods while the students move closer to areas we frequent most often. For that to happen the housing would have to be affordable and not just condominiums.
The buildings also could support restaurant incubators. These days everyone is geeked about jobs. The service industry is growing, why not use that space to encourage start-ups? It could offer a little hometown variety to the national chains occupying other prime real estate.
If these projects come together as planned, the downtown will actually have the feel of a real city. East Lansing is college town, but that doesn’t mean it only needs bars and parking spaces.
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