Re-imagining Downtown Lansing post COVID work restrictions

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) – The city of Lansing is taking empty buildings and creating new opportunities in downtown Lansing and other areas of the city. The COVID-19 pandemic forced more people to work from home, leaving a lot of buildings unoccupied.

Background: Lack of foot traffic in downtown Lansing is impacting businesses

Now, developers are working with sponsors, city officials, and investors to fill vacant buildings and bring foot traffic back downtown.

“We need more housing, look at the homeless,” said Kenneth Pruitt who lives in Lansing and sees all of the vacant buildings downtown. It’s an issue that Lansing’s Mayor Andy Schor wants to turn into an opportunity.

“Lansing was rated the number one place to remote work. So we’re seeing a lot of people who want to live here. When you live here and you remote work, after work you want to get out of the house.” Schor said the city is working with developers like Jeff Deehan to bring more businesses, nightlife, and housing to the area.

“We sought to re-purpose some of these old buildings into something that would bring vibrancy to the city and we identified that there was actually something like 2,000 housing units that needed to be constructed,” said Deehan. He worked with his partners to turn the old Lake Trust Credit Union office building into City View apartments.

A move that Pruitt said helps a lot of families and young people. “From what I could see from the outside, they’re nice.” He said the city needs more housing. “It’s a building, I think, down there and a few right here – closed, all boarded up…for what?”

April Clobes at the MSU Federal Credit Union said they are working with developers, too, and providing financial help where it’s needed. “So you may see some apartments and some other, I would say, entertainment venue space down here that we’ve worked with from our commercial lending standpoint.”

On Wednesday, a new live music and performance venue broke ground in downtown Lansing. The Lansing Ovation Center will hold about 2,100 people bringing more foot traffic and business to the area.

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