No, that was not the plan, the old chillers are now an emergency operations center. I just asked my dad and he said the new chillers are going directly to the south of the old chillers.
I went down and photographed what's going to be part of the project. It appeared they may have been doing interior demolition in the Grand Building, but other than that I didn't see much going on when I went out and photographed the area, Sunday:
Grand Building
North Grand Parking Structure Annex - I assume they are bringing this down when the other garage in completed.
Jeremy W. Steele • jwsteele@lsj.com • October 9, 2008 • From LSJ.com
Crews began demolition work today at the site of Accident Fund Insurance Co. of America’s $182 million headquarters.
Officials expect much of the Grand Building immediately north of downtown Lansing’s Ottawa Power Station to be razed by the end of the day.
Accident Fund, part of Detroit-based insurer Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan, plans to use the idled power plant and surrounding 7-acre site along the Grand River, to create a 330,000-square-foot office building and build a 1,000-car parking structure.
That work is expected to take 2-1/2 years.
“Then, we’re going to have one of the greatest national headquarters across the country,” Elizabeth Haar, Accident Fund’s president and chief executive officer, told about 100 workers who gathered at the site this morning to watch demolition begin.
Officials announced the plans nearly a year ago, giving new life to the historic power plant, which was decommissioned in 1992 and has sat largely vacant since.
The building will have space to house about 1,100 workers, about 500 more than Accident Fund currently employs at its downtown headquarters.
Lansing-based Christman Co. is the project’s developer.
The Grand Building immediately north of the Ottawa Power station is completely gone...just rubble left. It's nice to see progress and real steps being taken. Another way to put it is: it is nice to see concrete steps being taken. Sorry for the pun.
Comments
Grand Building
North Grand Parking Structure Annex - I assume they are bringing this down when the other garage in completed.
Ottawa Street Station
View of the Lansing Center from the site:
• October 2007: Accident Fund announced it will move into the Ottawa Power Station.
• December 2007: Power plant's smokestack removed.
• Thursday: Demolition of the building at 300 N. Grand Ave. began.
• This month: Interior demolition and renovations expected to begin inside Ottawa Power Station.
• March 2009: Foundation work for building addition.
• September 2009: Demolition of adjacent parking structure over Grand Avenue.
• October 2009: Demolition of rooftop chiller plant.
• September 2010: Campus river walk completion.
• October 2010: Grand Avenue streetscape completion.
• January 2011: Work on addition, 1,000-car parking deck and Ottawa Power Station completed.
• April 2011: Accident Fund employees move in.