http://www.statenews.com Albert Place Condominiums are available to rent after the East Lansing City Council approved rental licenses for 12 of the 36 units at its meeting Tuesday night. The rental licenses were granted for units on the third and fourth floors of the complex, located at the corner of Albert Avenue and Bailey Street. en-us Gryphon 2.2.3b-tsn (woodward)/Foundry5 Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:22:32 -0500 webmaster@statenews.com http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29485 This developer has major problems to say the least. First of all, nobody in their right mind would purchase a condo in East Lansing of all places in this real estate market. Secondly, if you buy a condo there is a 66% chance you cannot rent it out, which is scary. Let’s face it, the whole building will have to go rental because nobody is going to purchase these condos. Can we not agree these condos were built at the peak of the bubble? The developer made a huge mistake. Wed, 03 Dec 2008 08:18:31 -0500 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29485 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29490 Agreed. I feel that the condos in east lansing area prime example of poor planning by developers, city planners, and investors alike. Wed, 03 Dec 2008 08:38:48 -0500 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29490 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29506 I am in complete agreement with John and Ben. People do not want these condos in East Lansing. Word is that West Village has one occupied unit. Now Strathmore is going to tear down a good portion of our town to build more condos. Extremely poor planning and I only hope this building can be stopped or done in stages so they can also see that it’s not wanted or needed here. Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:21:13 -0500 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29506 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29511 AEPi’s new house is a ‘10’ ;) Congrats boys! Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:44:02 -0500 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29511 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29512 The ignorance of the folks who comment on these stories is astonishing. First of all, the cost of city services — especially police and fire — is constantly going up. And labor costs, particularly in ths two areas, constitute more than 60% of the city’s budget. The rest of the budget is for fixed costs such as maintenance of the city fleet of trucks, etc. Also, the state is constantly reducing its revenue sharing with the city, and therefore, the revenue stream for teh city keeps going down, even though its costs are increasing. So, the only way to prevent budget probelms is to do one of three things: 1) Dramatically cut sity services such as police and fire protection. 2) Increase taxes. 3) Increase development to gain more tax revenue without raising taxes. The city has, understandibly, concluded that the least controversial and politically challenging of those 3 options is the third one. This means they have to pursue a somehwat pro-growth policy. But, not only that, developing the downtown is also good for the quality of life of the residents. More shops, restaurants, entertainment options, etc. The problem is, that the cost of doing these developments is astronomical, and the only way developers can recoup the money is by builing condos, etc. This is because urban planning and development experts all agree that the best way to develop a downtown is by building more mixed use projects that increase population density in these areas. It baffles me as to why people so strongly object to making the downtown a better place to live, work and enjoy for the residents. I suppose they would rather have a bunch of parking lots (which the Albert place development replaced), or a big, ugly, abandoned set of old buildings with boarded up windows and grafiti right on one of the main corners of the downtown area across from campus (where City Center II is to go). Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:44:29 -0500 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29512 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29520 Building housing that will lay fallow doesn’t improve the downtown – it just adds lots of empty space to it. However, I’m all for these condos getting rental licenses. There’s no chance I would pay 180k for a condo in downtown E.L. when I could buy a very nice house a couple miles away for less than that; I’d consider renting one, though, if the price is reasonable. Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:15:06 -0500 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29520 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29532 People object to making it a better place to live because no one can afford to live in the kinds of places they are building. Even if they give out rental licenses you know rent will be around $500-600 a person minimum. Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:32:49 -0500 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29532 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29544 First, City Council abuses Tax Increment Financing, to encourage developers to worsen the oversupply of housing, by building luxury condos that cannot sell. Next, City Council bails out the developers, grants them rental licenses, as they will likely do for the City Center II and the East Village Projects. They are more than QUADRUPLING our taxpayer obligation debt. Now we are at $55 Million Dollars, and City Center II and East Village projects will bring the total G.O. Bonds to $285 Million Dollars. This is PUBLIC DEBT not RESPONSIBLE GROWTH. They are driving our property values down, worsening the oversupply of housing, making the developers rich, and burdening the taxpayers with tons of debt. The answer to the East Lansing budget crisis is to shrink the size of government: cut spending. City Council failed to honor their word, to try to decrease rentals and increase owner-occupied housing. They are oblivious to the free market. If Albert Place lowers their astronomical asking prices for the condos, eventually someone will buy. Instead, City Council kowtows to the Developers, engages in Corporate Welfare, and grants them rental licenses—at the expense of the common taxpayers. City Council voted unanimously for the Rental Licenses and for City Center II, by ignoring the voices of legitimate opposition. Hans Larsen, IV (The Younger) Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:34:45 -0500 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29544 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29552 Take note that Hans Larsen (or Hans Larsen’s son) is essentially anti-student because of his stance on decreasing the availablity of rentals. Let’s keep that in mind when the Larsens pipe up from now on.. Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:43:43 -0500 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29552 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29586 Tim Dempsey, the head of economic development for East Lansing recently stated in the newspaper that there is an oversupply of rentals and that adding more rentals may cause more harm. Those are his words. If he points out the economic facts, does that make HIM anti-student? I love students. I love MSU. There are FOR RENT signs EVERYWHERE! City Council views students as the enemies who shall be controlled and crushed by Police in Riot Gear, Parking and Code Enforcement, and the City Code. There is no shortage of Student Rentals. Please check out how much rent is for Albert Place: $900 for a Studio and $1800 for a 2-Bedroom. These were supposed to be owner-occupied, luxury condominiums. Do the math and check the facts, rather than call people names, as you hide behind some initials, “JD.” My argument is clear: City Council encourages irresponsible development—using taxpayer money, worsens the oversupply of housing, drives down home values, bails out the developers, creates City Center II and East Village Student RENTALS, and is well on their way (according to their published calculations) to more than quadruple our taxpayer obligation debt from $55 Million to $285 Million Dollars. Hans Larsen, IV (The Younger) Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:36:52 -0500 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29586 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29591 Please do not attack my Dad, when he has said and done nothing. How would you like it if someone else attacked your Dad when he has said and done nothing. I wrote Hans Larsen, IV, to clarify that it is me and NOT my Dad, because people have mistakenly accused him of things that I wrote. HERE IS MR. DEMPSEY’s QUOTE Verbatim FROM THE STATE NEWS: MSU’s enrollment has remained fairly steady, which means there isn’t really a market for more rental units, Dempsey said. “If you add too many, you’re going to saturate the market, you’re going to see more vacancies, and you’re going to make more problems,” he said. Those are the facts. Hans Larsen, IV (The Younger) Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:22:32 -0500 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/29591