LANSING TWP. (WLNS) – Lansing Township is no longer on the hook for a development project that could have wiped it out financially. The Eastwood Towne Center – best known for its collection of stores, restaurants, and a movie theater – once threatened to cost the township around a quarter of a billion dollars.
Now – because of a lawsuit settled more than a year ago – the township is no longer part of the project. Township officials settled the $14 million lawsuit with Eastwood LLC and the Michael Eyde Trust for $5.5 million, to be paid out over the next decade.
The deal effectively ended a 99-year lease between the Township Downtown Development Authority, the township and the businesses.
Township officials have said the financial crush of the Eastwood Towne Center project never threatened to bankrupt the township. But other officials, including Ingham County Commissioner Mark Grebner when he was chair of the county’s Finance Committee, say the debt tied to the development was strangling the township.