The development agreement between the City of East Lansing and 100 Grand River LLC will be finalized in coming days, attorneys for both parties confirmed Tuesday night after it was pulled from City Council’s agenda.
The development agreement was pulled after it was determined not to be ready for a deliberation and vote.
100 Grand River LLC attorney David Pierson laid to rest any fears the project had stalled, saying it was pulled simply because and he and East Lansing attorney Tom Yeadon were continuing to smooth out the language.
Yeadon suggested the agreement would be finished within the next couple of days but could not comment on when it would become publicly available, citing it will still be submit to review by city staff before it reaches council.
Council is slated to vote on the development agreement at its June 6 regular meeting.
“I think we’ll be able to arrive at an agreement that both sides are happy with,” Yeadon said.
A meeting between the attorneys was held Monday morning, where much of the details were hammered out in hopes of releasing the document and attachments prior to the City Council meeting Tuesday.
After it became clear language needed to be smoothed out before a vote could take place, the document was pulled from the agenda around 1 p.m. Tuesday.
Mayor Mark Meadows, who had been present for prior deliberations about the development agreement, said a couple things needed to be worked out but was not concerned with it being pulled from the agenda.
“My understanding was these are two little minor things, but Pierson always has to go back to his client and then review that, so that may be the holdup,” Meadows said. “They gotta go back to Chicago basically to get the thumbs up and you need to at that point and time to delay (the vote).”
Meadows also revealed changes in some of the attachments had yet to be completed, which contributed to the the delay in the vote.
The development agreement is one of the final steps in ensuring the redevelopment project will move forward. The agreement outlines paths to be followed in case snags arise during the development’s construction.
“There’s certain conditions in it, stuff like "if they build half the project, how do we reimburse them... what happens if they stop and they don’t build 'Building C'?” City Manager George Lahanas said. “It’s supposed to take care of all those contingencies of how they get us to abandon the roadway. That kind of thing is supposed to be spelled out in the development agreement. It’s all the details that aren’t in the site plan or the reimbursement TIF plan."
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