Park District Project in downtown East Lansing on track for January start date
Haley Hansen
EAST LANSING — With an approved brownfield plan, the Park District project at the western edge of downtown East Lansing should break ground early next year.
The East Lansing City Council unanimously approved a nearly $5.9 million brownfield plan for the $102 million project, which would include a hotel and a mixed-use apartment building. The plan, approved Tuesday night, will be reimbursed over the course of nine years.
MORE: East Lansing City Council approves $105M Park District plan, including 10-story hotel
Chicago-based DRW/Convexity plans to build an 11-story, 140-foot tall mixed-use building with two levels of parking at the corner of Abbot Road and Grand River Avenue. The first floor would have about 13,800 square feet of retail space. There would be 89 parking spaces between levels two and three.
The apartments would include 105 studio units, 18 one-bedroom units, 45 two-bedroom units and 50 three-bedroom units. There would be a rooftop terrace on the eleventh floor.
The developers also are planning a 10-story, 119.5-foot tall Graduate Hotel adjacent to the People's Church. The first floor would be used for the hotel lobby and retail space. The upper floors would have guest rooms, meeting rooms, a ballroom, fitness room and a rooftop restaurant. The building would have 194 rooms, 6,480 square feet of meeting space and 3,290 square feet of retail space.
The plan will reimburse the developer for costs related to infrastructure improvements and clean up on the site, which was long the home of blighted buildings.
“This meets all of our standards for what we think we should share for total costs," Council Member Ruth Beier said.
According to the city, the redevelopment is anticipated to generate 170 new full-time equivalent jobs.
David Pierson, Convexity's lawyer, said the project should break ground in January pending final approval from the state. Despite delays and complications with getting the project passed, he said, the site's prominent location and potential kept the developers dedicated to the project.
"They wanted to be the ones who can actually pull it off," he said.
Contact reporter Haley Hansen at (517) 267-1344 or hhansen@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @halehansen.