Apartment Choice

The Mobile City Council has approved the sale of the Water Street building known as City Hall North , clearing its way for redevelopment as an apartment complex , and a consultant on the project said that groundbreaking could come next spring. District 2 Councilman Levon Manzie announced his "100 percent support" for the project and pledged to assist developers any way he could. "I can't think of a better way to describe 350 St. Joseph Street than to say it's not now needed for public or municipal purposes," Manzie said as the council voted. "It has been a blight on that corner of DeTonti Square for a long time. And that entrance is one of the gateways to our beautiful city." "I know those employees who worked at old City Hall North are not sad to see it go," commented Council President Gina Gregory . "It will be a tremendous improvement." Occupying a roughly triangular lot where St. Joseph Street hits Water Street , the bu...

On Aug. 9, 2007, Lansing police discovered the beaten body of 46-year-old Debra Renfors in her apartment in the 1000 block of North Washington Street . Renfors was the third woman to be bludgeoned to death in the city in two weeks, and a grim reality was beginning to set in. Det. Sgt. Joey Dionise confronted Captain Ray Hall , giving voice to a fear that had been bubbling for days. “Captain,” Dionise said, ”We have a serial killer. Years later, Hall still remembers the “sinking feeling” that accompanied that moment. Ten years ago this month, Lansing was in the grip of a killer who preyed on single women, using whatever was convenient to murder them, and, in some instances, sexually assaulting them. Before police caught him, he had killed five women in just over four weeks. A sixth woman would survive. Matthew Emmanuel Macon , then 27, was eventually convicted of two of the murders, and the assault of the surviving victim. When detectives got Macon in an interview room, it would take ...

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler promised during his 2016 campaign that he would tackle the city's affordable housing crisis if elected. His second day in office, he took over the housing bureau , putting himself in charge of its big decisions on top of his already ambitious workload. But eight months into his term, the mayor has little to show for it. No groundbreakings. A single deal to bring an affordable apartment complex to Northeast Portland . A key policy position on his staff vacant five months after his housing expert quit . He has yet to tell developers what the city will fund if they work to put roofs over needy Portlanders' heads. Wheeler's insistence on painstaking public involvement and the lack of housing expertise on his staff have hampered progress on what he said was an urgent priority. The mayor has also made no decisions about how the city should spend the largest pool of money ever available to address Portland's affordable housing shortage . Wheeler ...

A busy intersection in Shaker Heights is being transformed through the redevelopment of the Warrensville- Van Aken business district . The former Van Aken Center will connect with nearby Shaker Plaza to create the Van Aken District , a new downtown and community- gathering place for the city. Phase one of the $97.2 million project, under construction near the intersection of Warrensville Center Road and Van Aken and Chagrin boulevards, is due to be completed next summer. “There really has been nothing like this in Shaker Heights,” said Jack Bialosky Jr ., senior and managing principal of Bialosky Cleveland, the architectural firm responsible for planning the project and designing most of the buildings in phase one. “It’s a mixed-use, urban development which will really provide public space for the community, all organized around a central triangular park . “It’s going to be a place where the community can come, shop, dine and recreate. It will be a beautifully scaled, contained s...

Sign up for the Sandy Springs Patch newsletter ! --- After two and a half hours of discussions and debate, the Sandy Springs City Council voted to approve a large mixed-use development that will accommodate the relocation of Mercedes Benz USA headquarters to the city. Council members on Tuesday voted 5 -1, with Graham McDonald opposing , a request from Ashton Woods to rezone 75.752 acres at 6615 and 6565 Glenridge Drive from R-2 (residential) to MIX to construct a mixed-use development featuring office and commercial space , single family residences and multi- family residential units . The audience, which totaled well over 100 people, included many residents in opposition and many stakeholders from the Sandy Springs business and civic communities who expressed their desires to see the project approved . Assistant City Manager Jim Tolbert provided the audience and Council a brief overview of the project, which he called “a very complex case.” City leaders approved the project w...