I took these photos years and years ago, now, at Tower on Grand. It just feels so weird to finally see construction after so many false starts. Still miss the old City Club building, though. At the time, it was the one of the oldest remaining buildings in town, and they tore it down for a few extra parking spaces.
Building next door was old, too, but had long since been stripped of its exterior beyond recognition.
That was a cool little building. In a different universe I could see the original portion still there, sandwiched between two skyscrapers. That being said, I can't say that I'd be arguing too much against its demolition even today if it still existed. It is a little sad that we had to see old buildings razed for new development on a street with virtually all surfacing parking with a bonus aging riverfront parking garage.
I snapped a picture of the beginnings of work on the fish ladder amphitheater early last week (below). I'll be around getting pictures of all the major goings-ons again at some point this week: both the LHC apartments have nearly completed elevator cores, work appears back underway at Ovation, a small crane is up at Tower on Grand, more work at the fish ladder, West Hillsdale apartments, MSU projects... It's good to have a list like that.
It is almost unbelievable to see all of these projects are actually happening, the fish ladder had become an eyesore imo, the plan looks great. It looks like this was always going to be an amphitheater but was never finished. It is cool that I have lived long enough to see this area go from industrial waste land to this great outdoor community green space and diverse active neighborhood.
I grabbed pics of a lot of the construction going on around downtown and out at MSU...
Grand Vista Place : The first elevator shaft is topped out
City Hall: The old parking lot has been tore up and footings are being drilled & poured
Riverview 220: The first elevator shaft is rising
Tower on Grand: There's a large drilling rig onsite, I think they've already been digging/pouring. Lots of rebar and caisson forms lying around
Walter Neller Building soon to be demolished:
Fish Ladder Music Park construction is in full swing, it'll be difficult to get good pictures of the progress:
Speaking of difficult to get pictures, the Student Wellness Center at MSU continues to be hard to capture:
MSU's new Outdoor Tennis Courts appear to be a bigger to do than I imagined. The new Digital Innovation Center should be getting underway next door as soon as Trustees authorize to proceed:
Plant and Environmental Science building is above ground:
The completed Multicultural Center and Farm Lane Bridge:
Great Pics! thank you. I believe that the new landscaping by the Farm Lane Bridge was just put in last week, it looks great! It looks like the "Greater Lansing's great graffiti artist" waited until school was out to tag the walls under this bridge. If you take note of the poor style and subject of these tags, I'd say that it is the same person who tags walls and buildings all over Lansing. I hope that criminal gets busted one day and has to pay for cleaning up all the messes they made.
One last photo update before things get interesting and these projects start going above ground. Here's to 3+ years of having multiple major buildings going up downtown:
It looks as if they may be done with foundation drilling for Tower on Grand, the base for the tower crane has been installed and one section of the crane is lying on site
Footings are poured for the new City Hall, there's currently a hole where I assume the elevator tower will rise:
All the elevator/stairwell towers at Riverview 220 appear complete, no wall panels on site here yet. On the left of the second pictures you can see that Grand Vista Place does have wall panels on site, so I expect we'll see that start to rise this week or next:
The lone loader recently delivered to the site of The Ovation:
...A few other construction updates while I'm at it:
I also noticed a dumpster and some fencing over at the Prudden Building at Washington & Michigan a couple weeks ago so I think we can call that one officially underway as well. Not activity yet at the Capitol Tower site, although they still have until the end of the month before they're even behind their initially scheduled start (Q2 2025). Sparrow seems very unrushed to make progress on any of their proposed projects. No visible work at The Iris/900 block of W Saginaw despite getting state grant money, hopefully it actually happens. Nothing happening at the Wheel District yet and I haven't checked on the new Prudden Wheel Lofts (if anyone has lmk). I rarely drive by the the new Public Safety Complex, but last time I did it appeared topped out. Walter French has gotten some solar carports and looks as though exterior work on the back section is finally done, it has turned out great. Miller's Crossing has completed one row of the single family homes facing Aurelius and two duplexes on a side street, not moving as fast as I expected after seeing their start.
If anyone knows of anything I've missed, including suburban projects, I'd like to hear about it. Anyone know if McLaren Grand Ledge is done yet? Sparrow Grand Ledge started? Bass Pro Shops underway? Haslett Village Square doing any major work? Anything happening at Dewitt Crossings (Clark & Airport)? Etc...?
I was by Haslett Village Square a week or two ago and hadn't been that way in years. Noticed a big apartment building fronting Haslett Road, but nothing beyond that.
Yeah, they've been working on the Prudden Building/Washington Square Building since at least the start of Tower on Grand.
Anyone heard what they are going to do with the old commercial strip at the corner of Kalamazoo and Grand? I said it in another thread, but it appears it was sold to the Lansing Housing Commission last year. It was always kind of weird that they didn't get it sooner since it'd have been able to develop Riverview with that lot included.
At the neighborhood meeting we had with LHC they said that they bought the plaza and didn't know what they were going to do with it. I advocated for them to not build more housing in the area and will continue to do so. More LHC projects in my backyard would make it incredibly hard to stay in my neighborhood and if I'm forced out my neighborhood I will not be staying in the city.
Comments
I took these photos years and years ago, now, at Tower on Grand. It just feels so weird to finally see construction after so many false starts. Still miss the old City Club building, though. At the time, it was the one of the oldest remaining buildings in town, and they tore it down for a few extra parking spaces.
Building next door was old, too, but had long since been stripped of its exterior beyond recognition.
But, better days ahead, finally.
As you say, better days.
Grand Vista Place : The first elevator shaft is topped out
City Hall: The old parking lot has been tore up and footings are being drilled & poured
Riverview 220: The first elevator shaft is rising
Tower on Grand: There's a large drilling rig onsite, I think they've already been digging/pouring. Lots of rebar and caisson forms lying around
Walter Neller Building soon to be demolished:
Fish Ladder Music Park construction is in full swing, it'll be difficult to get good pictures of the progress:
Speaking of difficult to get pictures, the Student Wellness Center at MSU continues to be hard to capture:
MSU's new Outdoor Tennis Courts appear to be a bigger to do than I imagined. The new Digital Innovation Center should be getting underway next door as soon as Trustees authorize to proceed:
Plant and Environmental Science building is above ground:
The completed Multicultural Center and Farm Lane Bridge:
It looks as if they may be done with foundation drilling for Tower on Grand, the base for the tower crane has been installed and one section of the crane is lying on site
Footings are poured for the new City Hall, there's currently a hole where I assume the elevator tower will rise:
All the elevator/stairwell towers at Riverview 220 appear complete, no wall panels on site here yet. On the left of the second pictures you can see that Grand Vista Place does have wall panels on site, so I expect we'll see that start to rise this week or next:
The lone loader recently delivered to the site of The Ovation:
...A few other construction updates while I'm at it:
I also noticed a dumpster and some fencing over at the Prudden Building at Washington & Michigan a couple weeks ago so I think we can call that one officially underway as well. Not activity yet at the Capitol Tower site, although they still have until the end of the month before they're even behind their initially scheduled start (Q2 2025). Sparrow seems very unrushed to make progress on any of their proposed projects. No visible work at The Iris/900 block of W Saginaw despite getting state grant money, hopefully it actually happens. Nothing happening at the Wheel District yet and I haven't checked on the new Prudden Wheel Lofts (if anyone has lmk). I rarely drive by the the new Public Safety Complex, but last time I did it appeared topped out. Walter French has gotten some solar carports and looks as though exterior work on the back section is finally done, it has turned out great. Miller's Crossing has completed one row of the single family homes facing Aurelius and two duplexes on a side street, not moving as fast as I expected after seeing their start.
If anyone knows of anything I've missed, including suburban projects, I'd like to hear about it. Anyone know if McLaren Grand Ledge is done yet? Sparrow Grand Ledge started? Bass Pro Shops underway? Haslett Village Square doing any major work? Anything happening at Dewitt Crossings (Clark & Airport)? Etc...?
Yeah, they've been working on the Prudden Building/Washington Square Building since at least the start of Tower on Grand.
Anyone heard what they are going to do with the old commercial strip at the corner of Kalamazoo and Grand? I said it in another thread, but it appears it was sold to the Lansing Housing Commission last year. It was always kind of weird that they didn't get it sooner since it'd have been able to develop Riverview with that lot included.