Updated 10:45 a.m.
A Detroit-based development group that currently operates the Lansing Shuffle won’t have the opportunity to purchase the publicly owned riverfront property after voters rejected the sale Tuesday night.
City Council members would have negotiated the specific details of the buy-sell agreement with Detroit Rising Development.
The sale price was already set in the city’s lease. Detroit Rising would have been able to purchase the land for slightly more than $953,000, based on a 2018 appraisal of the property.
Detroit Rising co-owner Jon Hartzell previously explained that the group has invested more than $4 million to make the building, which formerly housed the City Market, suitable for its current use.
Selling the property at its current market value would amount to penalizing the developers for their previous investments, which likely increased its value, Hartzell said.
Hartzell said the building will soon need additional repairs, including replacing an aging HVAC system and its roof.
Owning the land would lower interest payments and give the developers more liquidity to make those repairs.
“Our goal was to buy the asset that we already invested $4.2 million into to help the liquidity to make it a stronger asset for the community,” Hartzell said. “So, it's all altruistic, good reasoning for everything we're doing, and it's hard to you know speak louder than the naysayers who have 20 years of voice and belief.”
Detroit Rising Development currently pays the city $2,000 a month to lease the property but can terminate the lease at any time.
Mayor Andy Schor said during a previous City Council meeting that the space has struggled in the past and would likely be vacant again if the Lansing Shuffle were to leave.
“It was empty. It was unused. You can go back and look and see we all talked about, ‘We’re going to active this space, we’re going to activate this space,’” Schor said. “Before it was empty, it was the Waterfront Bar and Grill, which we were subsidizing. We were subsidizing a fairly bad restaurant, which had a lot of violations.”
Some residents who oppose the sale have expressed concern at City Council meetings about reducing the amount of parkland in the city.
The Lansing Park Board voted against recommending placing the sale on the ballot while the Lansing Planning Commission voted in favor of recommending it.
One protection some City Council members may seek to include in the final buy-sell agreement would give the city the first chance to buy the land back if the new owners were to put it up for sale.
Hartzell said he will push to get the sale back on the ballot in the future.
“We’re going to struggle through the next year,” he said. “Hopefully, we can convince 1,800 people to say yes instead of no through relationship building and solving what that narrative is out there of parkland and the old market and the concept that the government is giving away things for cheap.”
WKAR News has reached out to the City of Lansing for comment.
