$11M Outfield apartments to be open by summer 2016

LANSING – You don’t have to be a season ticket holder to get good seats to Lansing Lugnuts’ games.

By opening day in April, the top level of the $11 million Outfield apartments is expected to be completed, with 14 of 28 apartments looking toward home plate at Cooley Law School Stadium.

“You’re not going to miss anything with this view,” said developer Patrick Gillespie as he stood on one of the unfinished balconies. “When the field is full and the lights are on, it’s a cool view.”

By June, all 84 rooms will be finished on The Gillespie Group's three-story development, which is built on top of a one-story concourse that includes the stadium’s craft restaurant Good Hops and a banquet facility called The View. Half the apartments face the ballpark, with the other half overlooking the Lansing Brewing Co.

The city finished construction on the first level last year as part of $13.5 million in improvements to modernize the stadium, which includes the restaurant, banquet facility, picnic terrace, updated scoreboards, seats and locker rooms. Gillespie’s development brings the total investment at the stadium to more than $24 million. The apartments are financed in part by a $2.5 million equity investment by the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

"We're leveraging one of the greatest assets in the city and building on top of it, literally," said Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero. "When (former Mayor David) Hollister built this stadium, it was a big deal. The stadium brought people back to downtown. The next step is not just bringing in people on a transitory basis but having them live here permanently."

26 apartments leased so far

Gillespie’s 78,000 square-foot development includes one- and-two-bedroom apartments as well as six units with Murphy wall beds. The apartments range from roughly 500 to 800 square feet. They cost between $875 and $1,700 a month. So far 26 have been leased.

Apartments on the second and third floors include roughly 50 square feet of window space in the living rooms that look out to the balconies. The fourth floor apartments have cathedral ceilings which incline toward the balcony to a height of 16 feet doubling the window space. Windows are shatterproof so residents don’t have to worry about baseballs flying through their apartment.

During the last baseball season, Gillespie said they found eight baseballs in the building before they put the windows in.

“We found out the players would stand at second base and try to drill the building with the ball,” he laughed.

Each unit will feature hardwood floors, granite counter tops, washers and dryers.

The development was a tough sell at first, recalls Bob Trezise, president and CEO of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership.

Under its contract with the Lugnuts, the city is obligated to maintain the stadium. In 2012, it was time for improvements to be made, Trezise said.

“There were major budget concerns over how the city was going to afford that,” he said.

So Trezise came up with the idea to have a developer build a private building in the public stadium to offset the city’s costs. The developer’s property taxes would pay for some of the city’s improvements.

“It was a wild idea,” Trezise said. “I didn’t know at the time that no professional baseball stadium had done this before.”

The city approached four developers in town to work on the project.

“Three of four said ‘No way, it’s too expensive,’” Trezise said. “One said, 'I love this vision, let’s give it a try.’ And that was Gillespie. A mayor and developer taking a risk on a wild idea is pretty remarkable.”

For the next 20 years after the building is complete, Gillespie’s property taxes will help pay off part of the improvements the city made to support his development, such as the construction of the concourse.The rest of the $13.5 million the city borrowed for the project will be paid by the city and the shared revenue from the Lugnuts, Trezise said.

Trezise said the Outfield is the type of housing the city needs to attract and retain talent.

“It also helps the Lugnuts provide affordable family entertainment to the community,” he said.

'It gets loud here'

Gillespie said the Outfield is not for those seeking peace and quiet.

“It gets loud here,” he said. “Music plays until 1:30 a.m. and the lights are on until 2 a.m. Fireworks will be right in your face. This will be a fun area.”

The apartment complex will have its own bar next to The View, where people can watch the game from inside through glass garage doors.

Gillespie said since the Outfield is the first residential development in a professional baseball stadium, that he’s gotten a lot of interest from other teams.

“It’s very unique,” he said. “I’ve been getting calls from other minor league teams asking what’s working.”

After gauging interest and working around the design challenges a stadium poses, Gillespie said he’ll implement what he’s learned on future developments.

“People are liking smaller units,” he said. “A creative, eclectic place where they can entertain guests.”

Contact Alexander Alusheff at (517) 388-5973 or aalusheff@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexalusheff.