Solutions, not parking lot for Oliver Towers land

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Why can't I get excited about thispending land swap in which Davenport University gets that prime pieceof land across the street from Lansing Community College in exchangefor property a block down the river for the "boondoggle site" of theMichigan State Police?

I know there’s a larger vision at workand just about anything would look better than the vacant eight-storybehemoth known as Oliver Towers, but is a new Davenport campus the onlyoption on the table? Forget about whether it’s the best option, forjust a minute.

Are there other options? Are we just soexcited that after 10 years of burned-out high-rise we’ll take any oldoffice building with its accompanying parking lot in exchange for floodplain real estate?

In short, the answer appears to be yes.Under the recently announced land swap between Lansing Mayor VirgBernero and the private school, Lansing is finally rid of the albatrossknown as Oliver Towers. Davenport doesn’t need to threaten to leave theCapital city with its nearly 1,000 students.

Economic development lives in downtownLansing . . . but sometimes what is presented as a simple solution ismuch more complicated than it appears. 

Lansing Community College apparentlywants a crack at the land, even though the Bernero administrationclaims LCC officials shrugged them off last year when approached by theland. The LCC folks bring up some good points.

Why was the property never put for bid?If the property is purchased for what it's worth — between $2.26 to$2.52 million — couldn’t the city use that money to patch up some ofthe cuts in its budget?

What is the city of Lansing going to do with Davenport's abandoned property that is near a flood plain?

The winner of this swap is DavenportUniversity. They get the growth they wanted. They'll be next door toLCC's "University Center," which looks really good to prospectivestudents. Its Lansing building will no longer hidden from public viewnear the Grand River.

Davenport gets the property withoutgoing through a messy public bid process. They’re relying on the cityto jump through all the hoops at the U.S. Department of Housing andUrban Development to cement the deal.

But as much as I want to mark this a"backroom deal" that should get thrown to the wolves, I can’t bringmyself to go there. In the end, this agreement will get a thorough examby the Lansing City Council. If there’s a hint of anything shady, I’msure Carol Wood and Brian Jeffries will be all over it. If it’ssignificant, we’ll hear about it.

Absent that, Davenport probably deservesthe prize. Unlike LCC, it came forward with a plan. While LCC’s board,led by Larry Meyer, sees the land in its long-term plans we don’t knowhow it fits into its long-term plans.

Does that mean Oliver Towers stays therefor another five, 10 years until LCC gets around to doing somethingwith it? Or does that mean the apartment complex gets leveled andturned into another . . . ugh . . . surface parking lot?

Another surface parking lot. Exactly what we don’t want to see downtown. 

If the city did put up the property forbid, LCC would need to put together some concept of what it planned todo with that land. But if we haven’t seen anything yet, what could theycook up in the next few weeks?

And if LCC bought the land for marketvalue, the $700,000 lien to the federal government would still need tobe paid off. The money the city makes off the deal can’t be expected tocover city expenses in the long term.

Under this deal, the lien is slated to be waived since a new home has been found for the city’s public housing folks.

Yes, the city of Lansing is gettingstuck with land in a floodplain, but this is still riverfront property.The new Michigan State Police headquarters was designed in a way thattook the floodplain into account. It can be done.

We’ve wanted something done with theOliver Towers property for years. It’s been talked about, talked aboutand talked about some more. The Impression 5/Museum deal was a niceidea in 2008, but voters said "no."

Something needs to be done and if it’snot done now, will it be another 10 years before we get another descentoffer? The mayor was within his rights to cut the deal. It’s time tomove on it. 

The clock has been ticking for 10 years. If anyone has any other better ideas, let’s see them now.


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