Mixed-income apartment complex slated for Lansing’s Grand Avenue

The Lansing Housing Commission is going ahead with plans for a $22.5 million mixed-use and mixed-income income apartment building in the heart of downtown Lansing after receiving a state tax credit, the commission’s executive director said.

“The Lansing Housing Commission is very excited with this award and we will be moving forward with this project in Lansing,” Doug Fleming said after the state announced the $1.497 million credit last Thursday (Aug. 10). He called it the “piece of financing we have been waiting for.”

Riverview 220 would occupy most of the east side of the 400 block of South Grand Avenue, which stretches north to south between Kalamazoo and Lenawee streets and west to Cherry Street. A small strip mall anchored by Baryames Cleaners would remain at Kalamazoo and Grand.

LHC has proposed 63 apartments above 2,200 square feet of retail space. Fleming said in May that most apartments would be priced for low-income tenants but some would be market rate.

The tax credit announcement was part of a larger state push to develop more affordable housing. The announcement said that“more than $13 million in federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) have been awarded to support the development or rehabilitation of 500 future homes across 10 affordable housing projects from Marquette to Detroit. The total investment from these projects is over $173 million and will create over 30 permanent jobs and over 800 temporary jobs.”

Developers that receive the tax credits can claim credits against their tax liability annually for up to 10 years — an important initiative that helps incentivize investments in affordable housing in local communities across the state, according to a press release from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The state funding will assist in building 56 low-income housing units, the release said.

City Pulse originally reported on the proposed developments in May.

The Capital Area Transportation Authority is eyeing the construction of an administrative building with space for homeless services on the south end of the block that the city’s old Center for the Arts — which housed BoarsHead Theatre — occupied. It would possibly have apartments as well.

Both projects, with their emphasis on helping low-income and homeless people, are strategically located across the street from the CATA Transportation Center. LHC would need to demolish buildings that were the home of Davenport University before it moved to 200 S. Grand Ave. in 2011.  CATA would build on a city-owned parking lot that replaced the arts complex after it closed about the same time.

“It’s gonna be the first mixed-use building in the city” of its type, Fleming said in May, referring to the preponderance of units priced for lower-income residents. “It’s a model that’s been used in Detroit and Grand Rapids and a lot of other cities, but we’re doing the first one here in Lansing. We need more of that.”

— TODD HEYWOOD