MSU Working with the Innovation Financing Roundtable on Community Corridor Revitalization
Print
EmailMichigan State University (MSU) --including the School of Planning, Design and Construction; and the Land Policy Institute -- are working with the Innovation Financing Roundtable (IFR) on strategies to rebuild cities in the Lake Erie Crescent.
By: SPDC Communications
Michigan State University (MSU )-- including the School of Planning, Design and Construction (SPDC); and the Land Policy Institute -- are working with the Innovation Financing Roundtable (IFR) on strategies to rebuild cities in the Lake Erie Crescent and other places in Michigan. Several cities bordering Lake Erie, including Detroit, Toledo, and Cleveland were once pivotal to the burgeoning economy of America, and brought many opportunities to their cities and metro regions. Now is the time to help these cities regain sustainable prosperity.
The IFR is a national organization, connected with multiple banking, bonding and innovation institutions, that works to protect and promote local and regional economies throughout the United States. It focuses at the community level, bringing in financial packages to projects that can stimulate the economy.
The MSU and the IFR plan to work together to look at these cities and their surrounding areas for investment opportunities in renewable resource and health-related industries. Together, these two groups will develop new economic investment models to break through the lack in investment in urban redevelopment.
There is a need to build public/private partnerships to address housing, energy, transportation, placemaking and commercial economic development needs of communities. The IFR, along with MSU, plans to design, promote and expand this financial ecosystem. The IFR brings opportunities to the private, academic and nonprofit sectors that will spur the creation of jobs and delivery of high-priority products, along with creating new asset classes for investment.
The School of Planning, Design and Construction recently invited the IFR to come to Michigan to see the research SPDC is doing on “World Class Corridors.” The purpose of these corridors is to create a world-class community by developing attractive, sustainable and diverse places. The SPDC is conducting studies on two corridors in Michigan for Michigan State University: the Michigan Ave./Grand River Ave. corridor that runs from the State Capitol East through downtown East Lansing, and the “Medical Mile” corridor in Grand Rapids.
The mission of the Michigan Ave/Grand River Ave. corridor project is to create a vision for how anchor institutions, such as MSU, medical facilities and government centers, can stimulate adjacent commercial, residential and institutional development in East Lansing, Lansing and Lansing Township. Goals from this study include an increase in jobs, housing and access to easier transport, such as a proposed streetcar rail system. The Medical Mile in Grand Rapids includes newly purchased properties for MSU’s growing biomedical research facility. According to Scott Witter, director of SPDC, “The SPDC is conducting research to create a vision for MSU and Grand Rapids as the center for biomedical research, clinical study and education in an attractive, sustainable and economically diverse community.”
