SOURCE: Lansing City Pulse
The new year will be one of transition.
Look for a noisy, dusty downtown Lansing as winter moves into spring groundbreaking weather. New Vision Lansing, which city leaders hope will kickstart downtown’s revitalization, promises to turn the first shovel of dirt on its 27-story apartment high rise along the Grand River, destined to be mid-Michigan tallest structure. The city will bust up the asphalt of one of its parking lots to launch work on a new city hall. The Ovation Center for Music and Arts will take shape with the guiding architectural hand of Detroit’s acclaimed Albert Kahn Associates. And those are just the bigger projects in the principal shopping district.
Look for demolition as well. Lansing will likely shed itself of its biggest eyesore, the old Walter Neller Building, red-tagged since 2016. Alas, it may well also lose a landmark: old Eastern High School, three years shy of 100. Owner University of Michigan Health-Sparrow gives no sign of relenting on plans to level it for a psychiatric facility.
Those development projects and others will undoubtedly be local history’s headlines when we look back on 2025 — a year of rebuilding for our community. What else is on the horizon these coming 12 months? Tyler Schneider prognosticates below in an over view so dominated by development that it proved best to divide his piece into two sections: Development and All the rest.
Happy New Year.
