In response to “Fire Marshal Review Missing…”:
Failing to follow proper procedure is same-old, same-old, for East Lansing development projects. Council, city manager, city attorney, and planning department have long been way in over their heads trying to tackle big projects, especially since their number one objective is to get new buildings up, not to protect the public interest. Obviously, failing to check fire safety is incredibly irresponsible, but these are basically the same people (minus Triplett) who fast-tracked approval of St. Anne’s Lofts after the floor collapse, because MSU move-in date took precedent over caution. You would think there would be a procedural checklist.
What interests me is the revelation there are 30 more beds than expected from the number of bedrooms. This means 30 more students needing public services. Remember, for this project, for once, they actually attempted to respond to anger over the cost of public services, paid for by taxpayers, for tax-giveaway rich-college-student apartments. The claim it would pay for public services was a crock, especially since mostly it was based on the lease for a fraction of what Lot 1 would have sold for, but at least they paid lip service to the truth that brownfield projects are not free money. (The latest brownfield for the Project Formerly Known as City Center II apparently has gone back to no money for public services, but that there was going to be another tax giveaway for that only emerged after approval of the income tax.)
On the other hand, what are these people thinking throwing an extra bed into a bedroom in what are supposed to be super-luxury student apartments? Even when I was in college 50 years ago, the privilege was getting a single in the dorm, and then moving out of the dorm to get your own bedroom (big enough for a double-bed, for obvious reasons). There still is some off-campus housing with not-conjugal shared bedrooms, but those are only for students who can’t afford their own bedroom in low-end housing.
Here is a link to Landmark College Park (University of Maryland) that shows pricing.
https://www.abodo.com/college-park-md/landmark-college-park
~$1500 per month studio, $1700 per month 1-bedroom, ~$1300-$1400 per month 2-bedrooms. Everyone gets own bath, including 4-bedroom units (of which there are none in Lotto 1 Landmark). These prices are about 50% more than what has been top end in MSU market.
Who is going to spend $700 per month for a shared bedroom-bath, even in luxury building, when there is ample near campus, modern, housing where you can get your own bedroom and bath for that price?
– Eliot Singer
