LANSING — After years of decline, a new development may take the place of the lot once occupied by Pleasant Grove Elementary School, which civil rights leader Malcolm X attended as a kindergartner.
The proposed southwest Lansing development – with 30 housing units and 5,800 square feet of commercial space – would help to give the area a community hub, which developer Brent Forsberg said it doesn’t have.
“We’re looking at an area of the city almost built like a suburb,” he told Lansing City Council during a July 14 presentation. “It didn’t have those connections and nodes.”
Councilmembers listened to a presentation about the $9.6 million plan to re-develop the Pleasant Grove parcel and its surroundings but did not comment. The plan had already been referred to the council’s development and planning committee.
Forsberg is seeking to get brownfield tax funding for the project, about $3.8 million over 30 years. The City Council and state government would need to approve the brownfield money.
The development, Forsberg said, would include significant recognition of Malcolm X, who attended the now demolished Pleasant Grove school at Pleasant Grove and West Holmes roads nearly a century ago in 1931.
Forsberg said the site doesn’t memorialize Malcolm X at the moment but working to build a neighborhood hub would be one way to do that.
The development would be funded, at least in part, by everyday investors, said Chris Miller, CEO of National Coalition for Community Capital. Miller said investments are split into two categories, with the wealthy being able to invest in just about anything and most of the rest being able to invest in very little, especially local projects.
He said local banks and credit unions do some of this but his group picks specific projects that allow people to invest as little as $50.
Miller pointed to Commongrounds Cooperative, a mixed-use community center in Traverse City, which was financed in part with his group and has gotten national attention for a crowdfunding investment into housing.
Adam Hussain, the council member who represents the area, said two years ago that neighbors in the area were excited to see a transformation and there wasn’t much opposition to tearing down the old building if it is replaced with something helpful. The building was demolished last year.
Hussain did not respond to a phone call Tuesday.
The former school was run for a time as the New City Academy, but that closed in 2010.
The property has since been the target of development plans, including a 2022 version that would have built two buildings: One would have had 30 apartments, identical to the current plan, and the second building was to be 27,000 square feet of commercial, office or retail space.
The current plan calls for a fraction, about a fifth, of that multi-use space.
Contact Mike Ellis at mellis@lsj.com or 517-267-0415
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Developer proposes new housing on site of former Pleasant Grove School in Lansing
Reporting by Mike Ellis, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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