WEDNESDAY, Sept. 13 —The historic Masonic Temple on Capitol Avenue will be the home of Lansing’s new City Hall if the City Council approves, the Schor administration will announce today.
Mayor Andy Schor said that he expects the empty 99-year-old building, at 217 S. Capitol, will cost “$40 million-ish” to convert. The state has appropriated $40 million to Lansing for a new city hall. He hopes to move city offices into it in “two years or so or less.”
Schor said that the Boji Group, which owns the building, submitted a plan in 2022 after the city sought requests for proposals for a new city hall. Boji Group bought it for $1.75 million from Cooley Law School in 2021, which had vacated it and put it on the market in 2014.
“We’ve been trying to find something for that space for quite a while,” Schor said in an interview yesterday with City Pulse. That “something” once included a possible performing arts center.
“What a great space to use for City Hall. It’s beautiful, and it’s repurposing and revitalizing existing space, so it checks a lot of boxes.”
The formal announcement will be made at a 1 p.m. press conference.
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