Rebuilding Lansing’s downtown neighborhood: An update

As we ponder our downtown these days, most of us think of government offices (drastically reduced by the exodus of 30,000 state workers since COVID); the traditional central business district with its slowly and steadily growing retail and restaurant offerings; emerging arts and entertainment entities (Grewal Hall and, under construction, the Ovation); well-regarded colleges such as LCC; and, most exciting, significant new residential development.

Current and pending housing projects promise the most dramatic and impactful changes to our downtown. The recently completed Comprehensive Marketing Analysis, prepared by LandUseUSA, prioritizes residential development, along with commercial growth, and creation of more public outdoor gathering spaces.  Regarding residential development, the study reads: “Demand is high for downtown housing, catering to different family structures and income levels, and amenities that are accessible within a 15-minute walk.”

The study advises decision makers to “avoid over-building new detached houses for owners and explore alternative formats like side-by-side duplexes and townhouses.” The plan sets goals for townhouses, condos, and, of course, more apartments — “up to 1,127 new units throughout the downtown each year, including 910 lofts, walkups, and courtyard apartments. Diversify the choices with 123 new for-lease townhouses with private entrances and stoops; and 94 accessory dwellings, small cottages, and units in small apartment houses.”  (These are welcome words to this shared-use housing advocate!)

Downtown Lansing Inc. was deeply involved in the market study and has been hard at work advancing the priorities. “I am very excited about the major focus on housing,” Cathleen Edgerly, DLI’s executive director, said. “We saw what happens when you put all of your eggs in one basket and rely on state day workers to maintain a vibrant downtown.”

Post-COVID, the opportunity for more downtown housing prompted forward-looking developers to move quickly to create, collectively, 641 new units. Now being occupied are: REO Gateway at Malcolm X Street and Washington Avenue with 96 units over four buildings; Stadium North Lofts and Stadium North Senior Lofts (north of Jackson Field), each with 66 units; City View Apartments on Washington (next to the Ovation site), offering 172 units; Metro Place Apartments on Lenawee Street, 145 units; and Capital View on Capitol Ave with 96 units. These efforts involve both rehabs and new builds, studios to three bedrooms, and both market-rate and “affordable” spaces. Various of the new developments also offer fitness rooms, courtyards, yoga rooms, balcony lounges and storage space.

On the horizon is New Vision Lansing LLC, the $350 million project from family-owned Gentilozzi Real Estate Inc. The New Vision Project will develop or redevelop three downtown properties that will provide 460 units in the heart of Lansing. Of them, 150 units will be “workforce housing” (more than “affordable”), and the remainder will be market rate. Notably, at least a part of the financing for this project comes from a once-in-a-lifetime $40 million state investment secured by Mayor Andy Schor and the legislative Capital Caucus last session.

Also on the horizon, the Lansing Housing Commission will create two apartment buildings that will offer 111 affordable and six market-rate units.  LHC’s Riverview 220 and Grand Vista Place will go up along Kalamazoo Street between Grand Avenue and Cherry Street, near the new City Hall site as well as the historic Cherry Hill Neighborhood.

The 641 recently created units plus the projected 577 coming from the Gentilozzi and LHC developments in about 18 months gets us to 1,218 units.  And this does not reflect a host of smaller developments in the pipeline. While this is an impressive start, downtown Lansing has a ways to go to hit the market study goal of 1,773 new apartments annually for the next five years. “We need many more units in our downtown,” Rawley Van Fossen, Lansing’s planning director, points out, “and while I am excited about what we have been seeing recently, I hope that it spurs other developers to do the same.” 

Increasing the number of people living in downtown will dramatically change this city. Because more residents means more traffic, it will likely improve the prospects for downtown businesses, including the small shops and startups coming out of the DLI-supported retail incubator, Middle Village, as well as the planned Macotta Club, a restaurant incubator, opening later this year. 

With all of the residential development going on downtown, it will be interesting to see if organized neighborhoods make a comeback.  Beginning in the ‘70s and continuing for many years, the Downtown Neighborhood Association hosted annual art shows in Ferris Park and worked with businesses on a raft of placemaking events. Dormant since about 2018, DNA was followed briefly by Apartment Dwellers of the Downtown.

After disappearing during COVID, the Cherry Hill Neighborhood Organization has recently re-emerged. Thirty people came to a November meeting organized by Evan Carr, who moved to the area a year ago. A second meeting in December was hosted by the Lansing Housing Commission’s executive director, Doug Fleming, in the LHC offices adjacent to Cherry Hill and near the future home of Riverview 220 and Grand Vista Place. Carr described the December get-together as establishing a “spirit of partnership” between the LHC staff and Cherry Hill residents. Carr and his neighbors anticipate regular communication once LHC breaks ground on its neighborhood-abutting buildings this year.

Upcoming projects for the resurrected Cherry Hill Neighborhood group will likely focus on Cherry Hill Park improvements such as planting trees and river cleanups and promoting Lansing’s only designated Historic Neighborhood District. (To understand how this came to be, take a moment to stroll or drive through this architecturally stunning neighborhood!) About the resurgence of his group as well as the pace of residential building downtown, Carr said, “My hope is for the realization of vitality and potential. The stage is being set for a vibrant, urban experience.”

There is new excitement and momentum for creating downtown housing, and there appears to be space to accommodate it — especially if some of the empty state parking lots and buildings become available. This game-changing effort, involving so many different scales and types of housing development, will almost certainly result in a dynamic residential downtown for the first time in a very long time.

(Joan Nelson is the retired founding executive director of the Allen Neighborhood Center. Her column appears monthly.)