Breaking down the barriers

There’s a parking lot for the Michigan Flyer bus. Closed storefronts line the avenue with a mishmash of businesses, including a pawn shop, a food truck, and a hot tub store. Red Cedar could spark a makeover.

“It will all happen in time,” said Allen Neighborhood Center Executive Director Joan Nelson of changes to the Michigan Avenue landscape. “The development will obviously probably expedite, accelerate the improvements to that no-man’s land, between 127 and Frances Street.”

The $276 million Red Cedar project is the “world class global village” officials announced last week. It will include a fullservice hotel, housing, retail, restaurants and commercial office space on approximately 31 acres of the 58-acre property, where the Red Cedar Golf Course used to be. The golf course was 61 acres, but the city is withholding three acres for potential additional development.

The developers will also construct a boardwalk that connects the property to the Lansing River Trail and a walking entrance that connects with Michigan State University. An estimated $76 million in public infrastructure will also be required.

The project coordinates with the proposed CATA bus rapid transit system that will operate like a light-rail system, using high-capacity buses operating in dedicated bus lanes from the Capitol to Meridan Township. It also will reconfigure and clean the water runoff from the Montgomery Drain, which runs through the site.

It will take a year to design and engineer the project. Construction is expected to begin by 2016. An estimated completion date was not immediately available.

“It’s going to take some time but it’s going to be something special,” said developer Joel Ferguson.

The city of Lansing will receive approximately $7 million in the sale of the property.

It is claiming the project will create hundreds of jobs, mixed use businesses, a 20-acre park, connected walkways, a main street from Michigan Avenue to the river front and at least one riverfront restaurant.

“You’re going to like to go there and eat dinner or live there,” said Ferguson’s development partner, Frank Kass, of Ohio-based Continental Real Estate Cos.

Mayor Virg Bernero said the project “tears down the barriers” between East Lansing and Lansing.

“Michigan Avenue is the backbone but there are 500-foot walls that set us apart,” he said.

The project “should lead development efforts for the entire corridor.” For Lansing, that means eastern Michigan Avenue.

“It’s not very inviting right now,” Nelson admitted. The Allen Neighborhood Center is an eastside neighborhood nonprofit. “Those barriers that keep people from moving further west down the avenue are precisely what we want the Red Cedar to address.”

“The transformation of the Michigan Avenue corridor will be a long-term process driven by both public and private investment,” said Randy Hannan, chief of staff and director of communications for the mayor, in a written statement. “The Red Cedar Renaissance will have a synergistic effect on the revitalization of the corridor by increasing population density, increasing property values and sparking private sector interest in the acquisition and improvement of properties up and down the corridor. “

Beautification efforts are planned, he said.

“The Michigan Avenue Corridor Improvement Authority will also play an important role because it has the ability to capture tax growth along the corridor and reinvest it in public infrastructure that supports things like walking and biking, improved lighting and beautification,” Hannan said.

The authority is a joint operation with East Lansing, Lansing and Lansing Township to plan development improvements along Michigan Avenue.

Nelson said she expects the area to change and grow to become more walkable and bikeable.

“People just have to get by the overpass and the empty lots,” she said. “They will want to find something much more appealing and walkable and welcoming. We are hoping for an integrated design that will take that into account. There is interest in moving beyond the 127 barrier.”

She said the impact of the Red Cedar will be felt along Kalamazoo Street as well as Michigan Avenue.

Kalamazoo is an east-west bike route, she said.

“Bikers coming from downtown Lansing or the west side of Lansing will come down Kalamazoo to access the Red Cedar development,” she said. “We’ve been looking at creating a sustainable neighborhood corridor that’s multimodal, has foodoriented business, five urban farms and all kinds of food-related activities.”

Hannan said the “neighborhoods to the west of U.S. Highway 127 will certainly be beneficiaries” of the project.

“Great amenities like those planned for Red Cedar and close proximity to public transit will make nearby neighborhoods a more attractive place to live,” Hannan said. “People from the ‘other side’ of 127 will be drawn toward Lansing as new developments inspired by Red Cedar and BRT replace some of the tired and derelict properties along Michigan Avenue.”