$20M Metro Place project moves forward in Lansing

LANSING – A long-stalled development on the site of the former downtown Lansing YMCA is moving forward now that developers have received the last of the funding needed to build it.

The four-story, $20 million Metro Place project will be 99,000 square feet and consist of 156 apartments and more than 7,400 square feet of commercial space when it opens in 2016, Mayor Virg Bernero's administration said Tuesday.

On Tuesday, developers received a final $3 million chunk of funding needed to break ground next spring, a loan from the Michigan Strategic Fund, an arm of the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

The YMCA building, at 301 W. Lenawee St. near Townsend Street and Reutter Park, is expected to be razed in the spring. The six-story building was constructed in 1951.

The apartments will include studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units and are expected to range in price from $650to $1,250 per month, depending on floor plan, said developer Dan Essa, of Okemos-based real estate firm Lawton Group Development LLC.

The units will be marketed to young professionals or graduate students and will feature granite countertops, hardwood floors, private balconies and a washer and dryer in every unit, Essa said.

A coffee shop, fitness gym and local attorneys have inquired about leasing some of the commercial space, he said.

"The market has picked up. There is quite a bit of demand in downtown Lansing," Essa said. "I'm positive it's going to happen."

Metro Place is the latest proposal to redevelop the YMCA site. Previous plans were casualties of the lending crisis during the recession.

In 2008, Essa proposed an office building called The Lenawee, but funding dried up along with demand for office space.

A second project, called Reutter Park Place, was estimated to cost nearly $29 million and would have included 234 apartments and retail space, along with a parking deck paid for with city bonds. The ramp was controversial.

That project never happened, in part because it was discovered in 2012 that the developers had received brownfield incentives despite owing more than $40,000 in back property taxes on the building. Those taxes have been paid.

Metro Place is a scaled-back version of Reutter Park Place. It includes fewer apartment units and won't have a parking deck, said Randy Hannan, Bernero's executive assistant, but will have enough surface parking to accommodate residents.

Bernero is glad to see the project advance, Hannan said.

"It's been a very difficult five or six years for developers who are seeking bank financing for projects like this, but the sky is opening up and we're seeing more and more projects that we had more or less left for dead in the past coming back to life," he said.

The lion's share of the funding comes from a $13 million construction loan for multifamily housing backed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The city also is contributing roughly $500,000 for environmental cleanup.

A 2011 brownfield plan will capture new property taxes at Metro Place to reimburse developers for some of the project's costs. That plan will not need to be amended for the new project, Hannan said.

Lansing State Journal reporter Christopher Behnan contributed to this report.

At a glance

The Michigan Strategic Fund, an arm of the Michigan Economic Development Corp., on Tuesday approved a $3 million loan for the Metro Place project on the site of the former downtown Lansing YMCA on Lenawee Street.

Other local projects receiving funding Tuesday:

The Outfield, an $11 million residential development in the outfield of Cooley Law School Stadium in downtown Lansing, received $2.5 million from the Michigan Community Revitalization Program. Developer Pat Gillespie is building 84 apartments on three upper floors and food and event space on the ground floor that will be leased to the Lansing Lugnuts minor league baseball team.

Trowbridge Village LLC won approval of a $1.9 million brownfield tax incentive from the city of East Lansing to redevelop the Trowbridge Plaza shopping center at Harrison and Trowbridge roads. The $17 million project from developer Kevin McGraw, which is already underway, will put a new facade on the shopping center and include a new four-story, mixed-use building with apartments.