I'm starting to get a little nervous about Ovation's future. The equipment that was once on site did very little work before stopping and eventually being taken away. There's been ribbons up on the roof of the existing building they're supposed to renovate for over a week yet I've seen no activity. The site looks desolate, the existing building is still sitting there with a boarded up window and weeds growing up everywhere. Not a good look.
Is this just another example of the ineptitude/politically motivated timing that have reared their head throughout this project or are there actual problems afoot that may cause significant delay/downsizing/cancellation? I'm really wondering what's going on.
Probably just another failure brought to you by Schor...
I've been surprised how long that site has just sat, fenced off. If only he could've gotten this pushed through as quickly as he did that shitty excuse for a City Hall.
It would be great if the folks who develop and build projects at MSU could develop and build public projects in Lansing. I know that these are two different forms of administration, I think that the University projects have to go through similar steps for proposing and building their projects as the city, somehow once the project is approved, they get it built. In other words, "what are you waiting for?". The same goes for E. Michigan Ave, what are they waiting for? Millions spent on the drain project and the Red Cedar development, and they can't pave a quarter mile of city street for years? A lot of people who now live in the downtown neighborhood that have had to look at the big empty dirty lot where the Ovation should be the burned-out liquor store and closed bus station across the street for a very long time, years! Around the corner Rutter Park looks neglected with the fountain dry again this summer[as of last week, is it running now?], while a lot of adult men use the park and that is fine, it would be nice to see everyone who now lives in the area could feel comfortable using a brighter sunnier flower filled park with a cooling fountain putting on a light and water show in the evenings. What is the problem with that concept, seems pretty simple to me. Just get it done please!
...And just like that a lone front-end loader showed up on site today. I guess we'll see what next week brings.
@gbinlansing Unfortunately the Reutter Park Fountain will probably not be working this year. I talked to a councilmember (Spadafore, I think?) at a parks open house and he said that getting the fountain restored was his pet project and he was going to get it done. There was some city money committed and I can't remember if he said they already got grant money or were expecting to receive it, but there is someone that cares at the city level.
I am happy to hear people do care; it could be such a nice attraction for downtown. We would go downtown in the early evenings to watch the fountain's light and water show when I was a kid in the '60s. Even back then the park had a 'reputation"; in the later evenings, back in the day gay men would come to the park to meet other gay men, some of whom were having "fun" staying at the YMCA! There were also a few ladies of the "night" walking the square. No one ever bothered us, of course we were not there at midnight. After a big expose in the LSJ the cops put an end to that activity.
They now have some more serious equipment on site here and they are tearing up the parking lot/leveling the site. Hopefully it's not another false start, it doesn't appear that way.
That Schor would even attempt to blame tariffs for the city's ineptitude in getting this project off the ground in a timely manner is insulting to our collective intelligence. Perhaps it's just bluster from Schor, which is all the more reason to not like him and makes the appalling lack of options in the mayoral race all the more depressing.
The Ovation Facebook account says they're now aiming for Q1 2027 opening and that there will be more to share soon.
Geez! I really try to have little faith that the mayor is doing the right thing for Lansing, but he is concerned with something else it seems. Why didn't he notice after the orange destroyer was put in office and all his talk of tariffs coming, he did not start the project, if he had a clue in the first place he should have caught this one and started this project before all this BS started this past spring.
Comments
Is this just another example of the ineptitude/politically motivated timing that have reared their head throughout this project or are there actual problems afoot that may cause significant delay/downsizing/cancellation? I'm really wondering what's going on.
I've been surprised how long that site has just sat, fenced off. If only he could've gotten this pushed through as quickly as he did that shitty excuse for a City Hall.
@gbinlansing Unfortunately the Reutter Park Fountain will probably not be working this year. I talked to a councilmember (Spadafore, I think?) at a parks open house and he said that getting the fountain restored was his pet project and he was going to get it done. There was some city money committed and I can't remember if he said they already got grant money or were expecting to receive it, but there is someone that cares at the city level.
https://www.wkar.org/wkar-news/2025-08-01/lansing-mayor-says-tariffs-could-threaten-construction-of-ovation-performing-arts-center?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAYnJpZBExUEJWZ3MxVDhzMlNUZ3NOMAEe8IxlrLKqkwknmQzhPFjOCRoSMGbaYTr2bJ3mocQC98qJo_zj_kHhLrR-0l4_aem_v19FRGF-ZHyhCd9h0kDUhA
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19NTmso6gh/
That Schor would even attempt to blame tariffs for the city's ineptitude in getting this project off the ground in a timely manner is insulting to our collective intelligence. Perhaps it's just bluster from Schor, which is all the more reason to not like him and makes the appalling lack of options in the mayoral race all the more depressing.
The Ovation Facebook account says they're now aiming for Q1 2027 opening and that there will be more to share soon.