With at least six huge development projects totaling more than $350 million on tap for the next several years, and a rapid succession of residential construction and façade improvements restoring Washington Square buildings, the question on a lot of people’s minds regarding downtown Lansing is this:
What happened? What makes now such a boom moment for downtown development?
Part of the story, at least, goes back to an adage relatively common among municipal officials, developers and real estate investors: public investment can help spark private investment.
At its most basic, the idea is that strategic applications of municipal resources in infrastructure, amenities and code reform can give private equity the sense of stability, momentum and, of course, return on investment, it needs to invest in an area. And once those private dollars start flowing, it sends signals to the market and other money jumps into the pool.
While it’s certainly not the whole story, part of downtown Lansing’s recent development boom can be traced back to simple investments that have made the place more attractive to people, and therefore more attractive to development dollars.
Downtown developer Pat Gillespie got that signal. His $12.3 million Stadium District project isn’t finished, but he’s already diving into another $60 million downtown investment, something he couldn’t have done without the city’s financial participation and sense of partnership.
“It furthers the momentum,” Gillespie says about public investment. “It helps to say we’re doing the right thing. We’re not the only ones taking a chance here.”
Little Things Matter
Some of the critical mass of municipal investments are likely little urban details—what development writer David Sucher calls “city comforts.” These, says Sucher, are the “small things that make urban life pleasant: places where people can meet; methods to tame cars and to make buildings good neighbors; art that infuses personality into locations and makes them into places.”
Sucher’s popular development guide called City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village, suggests that the “keys to transforming our cities into places of comfort and delight are in plain view and not in the least bit concealed or accessible only to obscure expertise. Like Poe’s purloined letter, they are so plainly visible that our eyes skip over them.”
The City of Lansing’s attention to these subtle improvements can be found along the Michigan Avenue corridor. For example, in the last year, the city’s added old fashioned street lights along the two mile corridor. Rain gardens have also been added to this corridor, and sidewalks reconstructed.
Street lights, city benches, flowers and rain gardens show developers that the city pays attention to detail and cares about its resurgence, says developer Pat Gillespie. This can give developers an extra push to put money in an area.
“It’s not a deciding factor,” says Gillespie. “It’s not like we say, ‘If you do the street lights we’re coming in.’ But it is big.”
Getting personal
“The future of cities lies in the possibility they offer for the chance encounter,” suggests Sucher. “The city provides a place of contact. The city is a place to make a business deal, enact rules and regulations, make friends, and even fall in love. The city is a place to communicate.”
So, to a large degree, a “city comfort” investment is one that makes the city easier to get around on foot, that facilitates spontaneous personal contact. So attention to the little things while building – and rebuilding – Lansing’s urban fabric is fundamental to the process of making Lansing an engaging and high-functioning New Economy city.
“The possibility of accidental meeting is what makes the city a fertile place,” Sucher writes. “From the chance conversation springs the new business idea. People position themselves in cities so as to be able to make contact with others who have common interests. It is the most basic work of a city.”
So how does a city focus on city comfort concepts? It’s the little things, like allowing mixed use development, putting in benches, encouraging business to build attractive facades that are right at the edge of the sidewalk, and making the building fronts more “permeable” by providing windows and doors instead of blank walls.
Examples abound in the redeveloping downtown. The Daily Bagel, Kelly’s Downtown, Byblo’s and Branigan Brothers are all undergoing façade improvements, as is the Hollister building, which is in the middle of a $4.5 million renovation. The Hollister building, the Arbaugh and other downtown iconic buildings are all being converted to mixed uses, with lofts on the upper floors and businesses on the street level. Such mixed use developments are part of keeping cities safe by ensuring that there is activity and "eyes on the street" at all hours, Sucher says.
Another "city comfort" principle is using bridges, which Sucher says are historically important. “Cities grew up around them,” he says. “Bridges – often difficult to build – are prizes and a focal point in any city.”
Lansing worked hard in the Old Town area updating the bridge over the Grand River near Turner Street, creating public benches for viewing the river, and creating pedestrian access to the Lansing River Trail below.
Sucher suggests carving out pedestrian space with traffic calming tools, such as the “bulbing” out of corners of intersections to create more pedestrian space, and narrowing the street and imagining it as a boulevard, all of which are in play in the recent Michigan Avenue upgrade.
Traffic calming concepts also help explain why the city recently added a traffic roundabout to its busiest intersection. The $3 million Michigan Avenue/Washington Street roundabout is a visual cue to drivers, and has stop signs to prevent them from blowing through the intersection. It also gives pedestrians wide crosswalks.
Other comfy recommendations already in action in Lansing include bike facilities and buses equipped to carry bicycles.
“No matter what the investment or the strategy, what is important for the individual human being is how the city works at the personal level,” writes Sucher. “Small details at the individual level are where a municipal strategy fails or succeeds.”
Following that strategy appears to be paying dividends in downtown Lansing, where tireless brainstorming, lobbying and innovation from city leaders, planners and developers has created a buzz and energy that’s making the city’s concrete changes very, very comfortable.
Ivy Hughes is the development editor for Capital Gains.
Brad Garmon is the managing editor.
Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of Trumpie Photography.
Photos:
Downtown streetlights
Flower plantings on Michigan Ave
Old Town benches
Downtown rain gardens
Hollister Building
Old Town bridge bench
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie