Red Cedar? Maybe soon

But maybe soon.

“We are making excellent progress and are very close to an agreement. It could be a matter of days or even today to have a deal in hand,” Randy

Hannan, executive assistant to Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, said Tuesday. “There are very few remaining issues to be negotiated, and we hope to resolve them quickly.”

The delay is about money: How much the city is willing to subsidize the project with direct aid, tax relief, commitment of its borrowing capacity, the sale price of the property and the cost of a project that the Bernero administration insists must be world-class.

The negotiations between the city and the Lansing Economic Area Partnership on one side and the developers — Ohiobased Continental Real Estate Cos. and the Lansing-based Ferguson Development Group — on the other are challenging.

“We want this to be a development where all of the components are seamlessly integrated into the whole project,” Hannan said. “Its a one-time shot. We only have one chance to do it right on this property.

“Its a matter of getting it right. No one is going to rush us,” said Bob Trezise, president and CEO of LEAP.

This isnt the kind of project where the developers — Joel Ferguson and Frank Kass — fully fund the investment with their money. Although they reap the rewards, Ferguson and Kass expect significant city assistance for the mixed-use project proposed for the abandoned Red Cedar Golf Course fronting Michigan Avenue.

The project, which priced out at $125 million last December when Kass replaced the Jerome family as a Fergusons partner, is now billed as a $200 million-plus project. If it proceeds, plans call for a Hyatt Hotel, student and non-student housing, retail/office and a large Sparrow Healthcare Systems medical facility, which Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero said last week he had secured for the project.

For a city the size of Lansing, this project is daunting. At $200 million – and likely higher once work begins – the cost is greater than either the Accident Fund headquarters or the Board of Water and Lights REO Town power station.

The city, which has a general fund budget of $118.5 million, recognizes the tug on its finances.

“We have to take a measure of the project and balance that against the potential public investment. Its part of the negotiations process. It is our fiduciary responsibility to the citizens to make sure the ends justify the means,” Hannan said.

He acknowledged that its a balancing act for the city, but one that it can manage. The developers have proposed a Disney World transformation of the abandoned golf course: exciting architecture, welcoming green space, plazas, fountains, shopping and happy families. Its this vision that city officials insist they deliver.

If Red Cedar Renaissance succeeds, it will reshape the Michigan Avenue corridor and would complement the Accident Fund headquarters and the Knapps Centre renovation as signature projects in the city.

But the site itself is a challenge — an expensive 61 acres of flood plain. The occasional Red Cedar River flooding that spilled into the golf course was an annoyance, an inconvenience for golfers, perhaps, but not consequential. Making the site suitable for development requires massive amounts of fill to raise buildings above potential flooding levels and, in fact, above Michigan Avenue.

What happens with the Red Cedar property affects how Ingham County Drain Commissioner Patrick Lindemann addresses water runoff issues from the Montgomery Drain. %u2028 “If you look at the development of the Red Cedar, you see that it is just one place I have to cross, a narrow slice of what I have to do.” Lindemann said. “The process is complicated — taking water from high places to low places over the stretch of a mile.

“We have to slow down the water and allow it to clean itself before it gets to the river front,” he said. What happens now is a runoff freefor-all. Pollutants draining from the property north of the river flush directly and rapidly into the Red Cedar.

Staging a test, Lindemann discovered how quickly pollutants migrate. He dumped a teaspoon full of orange dye into a catch basin in front of Jo Ann Fabric and Craft Store in the Frandor Mall, got back into his car and drove to the access area near Kalamazoo street.

“It was already there,” he said, of the orange tracking dye. He expects the drain project to tame the runoff to cost $10 million to $15 million.

The size of the Red Cedar property with the river running through it gives Lindemann the opportunity to combine runoff prevention structures like swales, retention ponds and rain gardens with the park-like setting envisioned at the site. The challenge the city and developers are wrestling with is how to structure a project that is both economically and financially solid and fulfills the social and environmental needs of the community.

Lindemann is convinced that can be done. “We have to create a quality place to live with jobs, a strong economy and good environment. A place where people feel comfortable interacting with nature.”

He believes that this project will redefine how people relate to the Red Cedar River, which like the larger Grand River to the west is an under-valued asset. He wants to change that and believes that the Red Cedar Renaissance project will do it.