Kicking up dust

Tuesday, May 14 — It only took six years and the threat of a legal action by the city, but developer Pat Gillespie has officially begun to work on his Market Place project in downtown Lansing. He expects the project to be complete in late 2014.

Gillespie said the early stages of cleaning up the site, which is along Cedar Street between the Lansing Center and Shiawassee Street, began Monday morning. He said crews have set up perimeter fencing and have begun tearing up vegetation and old asphalt, which should take about a week.

After the site has been cleaned up, environmental cleanup will take place for about 60 days, he said. The process usually involves digging up contaminated soil and bringing in new dirt.

Once the new dirt is in the ground, crews can start digging the foundation. The first building to go up will be a four-story apartment building, with commercial construction phasing in later. Gillespie said they plan on wrapping up construction near the end of 2014

Market Place was introduced in 2007 by Gillespie, but it stalled for six years because of, Gillespie said, “the bad economy.” Earlier this month, the city was contemplating legal action if Gillespie didn’t get the project going, but that was averted by an arranged construction timeline between the developer and the city.

Early estimates were that construction was supposed to start in fall 2009. The original price tag for the project was $23 million. The project is a scaled back version of what was originally proposed.

Here is the original rendering of Market Place:

As for Ball Park North, another Gillespie development that was supposed to be paired with Market Place, Gillespie said he’s “still waiting for the market to turn around and see what the market needs are.”