Niowave vote on hold

Friday, March 22 — Lansing City Council President Carol Wood said there will not be a final vote on Niowave Inc.’s requested tax abatement by the Council on Monday, as has been planned for several weeks.

Lansing Economic Area Partnership officials said earlier this week that it had hired local architecture firm C2AE to draw up a redesign of Niowave’s new 14,000-square-foot research facility that caused a dispute with Walnut Neighborhood residents who are upset over the pole barn’s appearance. LEAP’s effort was meant to bring the opposing sides together on a solution.

It’s possible the façade changes will be required as part of Niowave’s six-year, $550,000 personal property tax exemption request, LEAP President and CEO Bob Trezise said earlier this week. Among questions Trezise had was what a new design would look like and how much it’d cost.

At Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting, the Council voted to table the resolution until a design and cost is figured out. The Council tentatively planned to delay the vote for a week. LEAP had hoped the solution would be ready before Monday’s meeting, but it looks like that’s not the case, Wood said.

LEAP officials could not immediately be reached for comment.