City Market Vote – Liveblogging – Market Approved!

18 08 2008

The City Council is taking up the issue of the City Market at tonight’s City Council Meeting…I got the TIVO going on this one, but it’s going to be a long, long night.  There are almost 70 people signed up for public comment on legislative matters and general matters.  The Council did vote to limit public comment to 2 minutes instead of 3, but if everyone speaks, that’s still 2 hours and 20 minutes of public comment.

Before that though, Mayor Bernero made a few comments about the project.

He said it will create jobs for 100’s of skilled trades people and opportunities for citizens.  It will grow the city’s taxbase and help pay for essential services.  It will also clean up historic environmental contamination along the riverfront. The new building will be a $1.6 million new facility that is energy efficient and more spacious. 

“This is the plan that will catapult the Lansing City Market to new heights of success”

Update 7:51 PM – There were some updates to the final development agreement over the weekend. 

  1. Added definition to not include strip malls.  No single story commercial structure
  2. Defined expected economic tools from city.  Struck Dept. of Environ. Quality loan.
  3. Developer may make application for incentives that will require approval from City.
  4. Developer has agreed to make good faith efforts to hire diverse Mid-Michigan workforce.  Developer agree to put in contract with construction manager language that reads “All contractors must adhere to the City of Lansing’s taxing regulations which include reporting income tax and wage detail information.”
  5. Some dates have been tweaked a little bit to bring in to unity time to complete the project. 
  6. Closing date was moved up by a month from May1 to April 1 to fit new payment schedule.  Full payment for property due April 1 so construction cannot be started before property is sold
  7. Prepayments will not returned if developer decides not to build before closing
  8. In a scenario in the future, if he were to sell the building or piece of property to any non tax paying entity, he would agree to pay the full millage rate on the property 63.63 mills for 15 years starting with the date of the occupancy permit being issued on whatever that project is.

Update 8:00 PM – Public comment starts and one of the first guys up come out yelling about historical buildings and bashing the mayor and threatens that everyone up there can be replaced. Read the rest of this entry »

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Categories : Food News, Lansing

Save-A-Lot

18 08 2008
  • 3222 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
  • Lansing, MI 48910
  • (517) 394-0396
  • Website
The Save-A-Lot store on Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. in Lansing.

The Save-A-Lot store on Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. in Lansing.

We moved to Lansing about five months ago and in that time, I’ve never really gone down Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.  Today, I needed to run to the Walgreens out that way, so I decided to drive around a little and check it out.  Usually, I go to the Walgreens on the corner of Jolly and Cedar, but they were having problems with their photo equipment.  I also needed to make a quick grocery store run to get a few things for dinner.  As I was leaving the parking lot of the Walgreens on MLK, I noticed the Save-A-Lot across the street.

I’ve never really been in a Save-A-Lot, so I didn’t know what to expect.  The only store in my old town was near a college, so I avoided it.  Today’s adventure is the first time I went in to shop.  The store is set up a lot like Aldi’s.  All the products are shipped in custom cartons that allow them to be product displays.  There’s not a whole lot of people stocking shelves.  They stores are also much smaller than most grocery stores.  The selection isn’t quite as big either.  There’s pretty much only one option for each product and there’s not a whole lot of sizes.  This is how they claim they can save you up to 40% on your grocery bill. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Chains, Grocery, Lansing, Michigan, Reviews

Maggie Moos Ice Cream and Treatery

18 08 2008
  • 1077 N. Wisner St.
  • Jackson, MI 49202
  • (517) 990-0579
  • Website
  • Menu
Maggie Moos Ice Cream and Treatery in Jackson

Maggie Moos Ice Cream and Treatery in Jackson

Funny story.  J and I are sitting in the press conference room at MIS waiting for Carl Edwards to come in.  By this point it had been almost six hours since we last ate.  She turned around and said she wanted a big meal, then ice cream.  I said we should go to Buffalo Barbeque Wings (review HERE) in Jackson for dinner then maybe we could search for an ice cream shop with her GPS.  We pull into the strip mall where Buffalo Barbeque Wings is located and two doors down is a Maggie Moos.  Ain’t that luck?

After dinner, she made a bee-line for the ice cream shop.  We were a little worried that wouldn’t be open at 8:00 on a Sunday night, but they actually stay open pretty late.  We made out way into the store where a few other groups had the same idea we did.  Today was must have been the day of imitators.  J was watching one of the guys make someone else’s ice cream when she turned to me and said, “this is just like Cold Stone.”  It is just like Cold Stone.  You pick your flavor and your mixins and they make it right in front of you the same way as we’re used to getting at the larger chain.  Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Chains, Ice Cream, Jackson, Reviews

Buffalo Barbeque Wings

18 08 2008
  • 1085 N. Wisner St.
  • Jackson, MI 49202
  • (517) 782-4344
  • Website
  • Menu
Buffalo Barbeque Wings in Jackson

Buffalo Barbeque Wings in Jackson

I first heard about Buffalo Barbeque Wings (yes, Barbeque, not Wild) a few months ago when the Jackson Citizen-Patriot ran a blurb about it’s opening.  I blogged about (here) and I have gotten hundreds of hits for that post.  When you type “Buffalo Barbecue (sic) Wings” in Google, that post is the first hit you get.  Seems there are a lot of people wanting to know more about this place but since they don’t have a website, they keep getting directed to my site.

My girlfriend and I were down in Brooklyn for the Sprint Cup race.  I was doing some work and we both had garage passes.  The concession stands in the pits suck and the media lunch was at noon, so by the time 6:00 rolled around, we were both starving.  As we were waiting for Carl Edwards to make his way to the conference room, J asked about dinner.  Since we were already going through Jackson, I asked her if she was up for some wings.  I figured if people are going to come to this blog looking for information, I might as well give it to them.

We avoided the mess on US 127 by staying on US 12 after leaving the track and cutting through the country on Jackson Rd.  We ended up only sitting in traffic for 20 minutes instead of the hour plus we did last time.  Since we took Jackson Rd, we ended up going all the way through town to get to where we were going.  That’s not necessary on a normal day.  We found on the way home Buffalo Barbecue Wings is less than a mile from I-94 and US 127.  We found the shop in a strip mall.  There was just a sign that marked the spot.  Had we not been looking for it, it would have been easy to miss.  It’s behind Biggby and that’s how I knew to start looking.  I saw the Biggby and turned into the parking lot.  After a quick scan of the storefronts, we found Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Bar, Chicken, Jackson, Local Flavor, Michigan, Restaurant, Reviews, Sports Bar, Wings