Revised Proposal for Downtown Apartment Shrinks Building Size, Removes Public Parking

A developer is pitching a 10-story apartment building off of Albert Avenue, where the Bailey Street surface parking lot currently sits.

The proposal is a revised version of a similar project Tareen Development Partners, or TDP, pitched to the City Council earlier this year. Plans have been amended to eliminate on-site parking, shrink the size of the apartment from 13 stories to 10 and reduce the occupancy from 505 to 436.

The apartment is planned to include a basketball court, game room, management office, fitness center, pet spa, coffee shop and outdoor courtyard with grilling stations. Additionally, the top floor includes a terrace and lounge.

A street level rendering of an apartment building proposed for downtown East Lansing. (From agenda packet)

The apartments will be expensive and largely marketed towards students, with a studio costing about $1,800 per month and a three-bedroom costing about $4,500 monthly to rent, TDP Vice President of Development Cody Dietrich said at Wednesday’s Planning Commission meeting, where a public hearing for the project was held.

In response to a question from the Planning Commission, Dietrich said that even with a different large apartment going through East Lansing’s approval process, TDP believes there is more than enough demand for student apartments in East Lansing.

A previous version of the proposal was largely held up due to challenges meeting a city requirement that 25% of units in new high rise housing developments downtown be affordable or meet another requirement to diversify the downtown housing stock. The current plan would not need to meet the diverse housing requirement because of the reduced height and other standards the developer is proposing it meet.

Since an apartment was proposed for the area, parking has been a concern for nearby business owners and residents, and that concern has grown for some as developers removed two stories of public parking, 83 spaces, that were included in the original plan. Dietrich said including the parking would have added significant costs and construction time to the project.

The apartment is planned to be built over about two-thirds of the Bailey Street surface parking lot, which has 86 spaces. The remaining portion of the lot would remain public parking, Senior Planner Alycia Reiten said at Wednesday’s meeting.

The apartment is proposed to be located where the Bailey Street surface parking lot is located. The apartment would cover about two-thirds of the lot, the remaining spaces would stay public parking. (From agenda packet)

Developers plan to lease about 110 parking spaces from underutilized city lots for tenants with cars, Reiten said. Previously, developers have said they expect most tenants will be Michigan State University students who walk to campus and do not have cars.

Still, some commissioners and residents at the meeting expressed concerns about tenants using nearby neighborhoods for parking. Commissioner Chuck Overbey, who is a member of the Bailey Community Association, said residents who live near large apartment The Hub have said that tenants park in the neighborhood, as there is not enough on-site parking.

“I anticipate that this will happen with this development,” Overbey said. “We’re going to have to count on the city to increase police enforcement in our neighborhoods, so that this spillover parking doesn’t clog up our neighborhoods.”

TDP’s apartment will have a higher ratio of parking spaces to tenants compared to other apartment buildings in the city. While the TDP proposal will have roughly 110 spaces for 436 tenants, The Hub only has about 80 spaces for 600 tenants, Dietrich said.

Another street level rendering of a 10-story apartment building proposed for downtown East Lansing. (From agenda packet)

Principal Planner Landon Bartley reminded the commission that parking is not allowed without a waiver in the zoning district the apartment is planned for and should not be a standard used when the commission eventually issues a recommendation on the project.

Chair Joseph Sullivan said at some point, especially if more big buildings are approved in East Lansing, the city needs to do a comprehensive review of street parking to determine if changes, such as expanding permit parking, are needed.

“I think it’s a valid point, but I think it’s outside of the developers’ control to a large extent,” Sullivan said.

The proposal will be back in front of the Planning Commission at its June 24 meeting, where the commission could vote whether or not to recommend the apartment.