Developers want to bring apartments, movie theater to downtown East Lansing

Haley Hansen | Lansing State Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption 3 projects to watch in downtown East Lansing Here are three projects that are reshaping downtown East Lansing.

EAST LANSING — Developers want to build two new high-rises in downtown East Lansing and a movie theater, as well.

Okemos-based Vlahakis Companies and Royal Properties of Champaign, Illinois have proposed two buildings near the corner of Abbot Road and Albert Avenue that would hold 235 apartments and 28 condos.

The new project, called "Park Place" would be a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units. Preliminary plans also call for automated parking and retail and office space.

The developer would tear down the current Dublin Square building and reincorporate the bar and restaurant into a new building.

"You have a concentration of people living, working and shopping in East Lansing," developer Paul Vlahakis said. "It’s certainly good to add something (like a movie theater)."

Royal Properties has constructed student housing in Texas, Arizona, Kentucky and Florida. The development group would be the majority owner of the project, Vlahakis said.

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Vlahakis said a final price tag for the project hasn't been set but the overall cost should be more than $100 million.

The developers have not submitted a site plan for the project because they are trying to purchase properties along Evergreen Avenue owned by the Downtown Development Authority. The DDA purchased the properties at 314-340 Evergreen Avenue in 2009.

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The proposed plan

The plan calls for one 13-story building at the corner of Abbot Road and Albert Avenue, which would replace the current Dublin Square site. That building would have about 25,000 square feet of office space.

A second, 10-story building that would have a movie theater on the first floor would sit adjacent to the first along Evergreen Avenue. The two buildings would be connected by a skyway over the alleyway.

The project would sit adjacent to the $105 million Park District development along Grand River Avenue, which would add hundreds of hotel rooms and residents to downtown East Lansing. The East Lansing City Council approved a site plan for the Park District earlier this month.

In a little more than a year, the city has approved site plans for four 10-story or higher buildings in downtown. Still, Vlahakis said that East Lansing is ripe for development and that the city has made it clear that it's open to redeveloping its downtown.

“(East Lansing is) very underdeveloped right now if you compare it to other university towns," he said. "It’s certainly going to change in the next five years.”

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Vlahakis presented his plans to the Downtown Development Authority on Thursday.

At that meeting, the DDA voted to create a committee to advise the DDA on marketing the Evergreen Avenue properties.

"I really like a lot of the ideas expressed by Mr. Vlahakis and his partners," DDA Chair Peter Dewan said. "But the DDA is not going to act because we don’t have anything before us. We have some beautiful renderings, but we haven’t had a really thorough analysis.”

Vlahakis said the developers are hoping to submit plans to the city by the end of the month. He said some version of the project will go forward even if the developers can't purchase the DDA properties.

Contact reporter Haley Hansen at (517) 267-1344 or hhansen@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @halehansen.