LANSING — Paul Gentilozzi parked his vehicle on South Washington Square in front of the Atrium Building on a recent Monday, making his way through the inside of the restored, century-old former theater his company owns.
Donning a hard hat, he exited at the back of the Atrium and walked through a large gate into the bustling construction site for Tower on Grand.
It’s been nearly a year since Gentilozzi Real Estate started construction on the 28-story skyscraper taking shape between the Grand Tower at 235 S. Grand Ave., where West Washtenaw Street dead-ends into Grand Avenue, and a parking garage to the north. Thirteen of the tower’s concrete floors have been poured.
Gentilozzi took a construction elevator up the side of the partially-constructed tower to the seventh floor of the yet-to-be enclosed $180 million building. When finished it will stand over 300 feet, the city’s tallest building.
“Everyone here will get a view,” he said, looking east along the Grand River.
The tower will house more than 200 of the approximately 560 new apartments Gentilozzi’s company plans to add to the city in the next few years, part of five new housing projects referred to as New Vision Lansing.
And it’s one of several major developments under construction and taking shape in the city’s downtown.
As summer arrives, that construction continues around the State Capitol. The projects include Lansing’s new City Hall on Grand Avenue and the public safety complex on S. Washington Avenue south of Interstate 496; two new Lansing Housing Commission apartment buildings containing more than 100 affordable housing units; and the new Ovation Center for Music and Arts.
Both of the housing commission’s affordable housing projects will open their doors in June.
Here’s a closer look at where each project stands and what residents can expect to see happening in the coming months.
Ovation Center for Music and Arts
The $3 million renovation of a building housing the new offices for the staff of the city’s Ovation Center for Music and Arts and Lansing Public Media Center will open to the public later this month, just as construction of Ovation goes vertical.
A ribbon cutting for the three-story, 12,000-square-foot building at 520 S. Washington Ave. is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on May 29.
About 20 people will work at the renovated building, a former Lake Trust Credit Union property previously used for document storage. It will house podcast and music recording studios available for public use, along with recording equipment as part of the new home for Lansing Public Media Center, a community resource housing video equipment and music and podcast studios available for use by the public.
“It was a pretty extensive build out,” Dominic Cochran, Ovation’s founding director, said.
While the city celebrates the completion of that building construction workers will have finished laying the groundwork on Ovation’s site, Cochran said.
Steel will be in the ground for the two-story, 49,000-square-foot Ovation in June, he said.
“The goal is to have a fully enclosed building by the dead of winter,” Cochran said, more specifically pointing to the end of November. “We don’t want to go through the winter with an open building.”
Ovation should be fully enclosed by the end of November, he said.
Officials aim to finish the approximately $32 million project, which includes the property purchase, the center’s construction and the renovation of the existing building, by the end of June 2027, Cochran said. It could open its doors by August of 2027.
The facility’s largest space will accommodate 2,100 people for concerts and events, about 1,450 people if everyone is seated. A smaller room will house 250 people, Cochran said.
An additional space inside Ovation will be built for use by a restaurant as well, he said.
Tower on Grand
Prep work on the site of Tower on Grand started in May of 2025. That included the placement of a caisson foundation that extends 50 feet below ground. It stabilizes the tower, Gentilozzi said.
For the last three months one additional floor, made of concrete, has been poured each week. It takes several days to prepare for each new floor and a day to complete the pour. That work will continue over the summer, Gentilozzi said.
His company has been planning Tower on Grand for three years. They’re “100% committed” to the project, convincing local and state officials it would be good for Lansing before then turning to lenders.
The entire New Vision Lansing project, which includes Tower on Grand, is financed in significant part by public dollars, including about $200 million in various tax and other incentives. The state Legislature committed $40 million in tax dollars for it in early 2025.
Residents of the city will need convincing too, but Gentilozzi believes his company can do it.
“We’re three generations, 68 years total, of believing and developing downtown and we’re betting eveything,” he said. “Simple as that.”
Gentilozzi Real Estate will move its offices into the tower when it opens. It will also house a 3,000-square-foot restaurant on the first floor and more than 200 apartments, ranging in price from $800 for a studio apartment to $8,000 a month for a penthouse.
The tower will feature several amenities, including a pool, gym, public gathering spaces, meeting rooms, concierge services and a dedicated parking garage accessible without leaving the building.
In total, the tower will take two years to build, Gentilozzi said.
“In a few weeks, we’ll begin the glass enclosure of the building,” he said. That work will start this summer on the first floor, before the entire structure is up.
John Gentilozzi, the company’s vice president of development, explained that “109,000 square feet of glass” will enclose the building.
Drywall will follow, he said.
“And we just keep working our way up the building, and then eventually the elevators show up and a bunch of other larger infrastructure shows up,” John Gentilozzi said. “We will be 300-foot-tall by fall.”
Residents should be living in the building sometime in 2027.
Washington Square and the rest of New Vision
When Gentilozzi Real Estate bought the century-old, 10-story building at the corner of Michigan and Washington avenues 50 years ago it was home to the Michigan Court of Appeals. Now the company is renovating it to accommodate 66 new apartments.
“We’re well on our way in construction,” Paul Gentilozzi said. “The walls are up and we’re doing mechanical and electrical work.”
The company’s remaining New Vision projects, which all told will cost $320 million, include Capitol Tower at 201 N. Walnut. The new building will house more than 100 apartments with office space. It also includes renovation of the five-story Ingham Building at 116 W. Ottawa and a new residential building located at the north end of Turner Street in Old Town. That project will be the last to start in 2027.
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Lansing’s new City Hall
A new $40 million Lansing City Hall under construction downtown is just a few months away from welcoming staffers, according to Deputy Mayor Christopher Mumby.
“We’re certainly on schedule and on budget, which is an exciting thing to say as we’re only a few months away from moving in,” he said. “That’s very exciting to be year three of this project through planning and beginning construction to where we’re working on plans for who’s going to move first and who’s moving second and all that.”
The three-story, 65,000-square-foot City Hall is being built along Grand Avenue, across from the Capital Area Transportation Authority’s bus station, and just north of the Lansing Housing Commission’s two new four-story buildings. A groundbreaking for the facility took place in April.
Exterior brick work on three of the building’s four sides is currently underway, Mumby said. Inside, drywall work is happening, along with priming and painting. Windows will be installed in June or July, he said.
“We’re going to be receiving furniture beginning in late July, and the last furniture will be in place in late September,” he said.
Then some of the 250 staffers who will work there will begin moving into the new building, Mumby said. “It’ll be a transition over a period of several weeks,” he said.
Lansing’s public safety complex
The city’s new $175 million public safety complex is progressing on a slightly different timeline than City Hall but “incredible progress” is being made, Mumby said.
“Obviously it’s a larger facility, some more staff and a larger budget, but they are on track to be finished at the end of this year,” he said.
The complex will include a jail for short-term prisoners, Lansing Police Department headquarters, a fire station and the 54A District Court. The city’s detention center, LPD headquarters and 54A District are all currently housed in City Hall on Capitol Avenue. It will house about 300 staffers.
Work at the site behind the city’s South Washington Office Complex, at 2500 S. Washington Ave. south of Interstate 496, began in October of 2023.
The complex is expected to be complete in early January, Mumby said. Staff are expected to move in through February.
Riverview 220 and Grand Vista Place
Residents are expected to be moving into two largely affordable four-story apartment buildings in the city’s downtown this June.
Riverview 220, at the intersection of Kalamazoo Street and Grand Avenue, and Grand Vista Place, a block south at Grand Avenue and Lenawee Street, are Lansing Housing Commission projects. They’ll add more than 100 affordable, income-based apartments and a handful of market-rate apartments to the city.
Riverview 220 also offers 1,800 square feet of first-floor commercial space. The commission plans to occupy 800 square feet of that, according to Doug Fleming, the commission’s executive director. It’s unclear who will lease the remainder, he said.
Last week Fleming said the commission was waiting on final city inspections at both properties. They are expected to take place in late May, he said.
“Our expectation is people will begin moving in June 1,” Fleming said.
Waiting lists for the properties’ apartments have been largely full, with thousands of people signing up. There’s a huge demand for affordable housing, Fleming said.
There are income guidelines set to be considered for renters of the affordable apartments in both buildings and residents who qualify pay 30% of their income, which is certified annually.
An open house at both buildings is planned for June 22. Tours of the properties will be offered.
Contact Reporter Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on X @GrecoatLSJ.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: 7 major projects are changing downtown Lansing’s skyline this year
Reporting by Rachel Greco, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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