Lansing City Hall sale gets green light

LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – The sale of Lansing’s iconic City Hall passed the city council during a meeting Monday. This clears another hurdle before out-of-state developers can convert the building into a 183-room hotel in the heart of the capital city.

“I am thrilled that we can now move forward with a proposal that is another piece of downtown Lansing’s transformation. Selling City Hall to Beitler Real Estate and seeing us realize the vision to turn the building into a hotel and dining destination is fantastic for our city,” says Mayor Andy Schor in a statement shortly after the vote.

The plan envisioned by Beitler Real Estates Services has been on the table since 2017. But the question loomed to where to move city services. That changed this spring when the site for the next City Hall was finalized. That facility will sit on South Grand Avenue, right across the street from the main CATA station.

The renovations for the current City Hall will not only convert offices into hotels but also add a cocktail lounge on the 8 ^th floor as well as create a first-floor plaza with shops.

The potential of more customers is a hope among those who work downtown like Kenneth Wilson, who works at Veg Head, a restaurant a short walk from City Hall.

“It would be very good, especially for the businesses up here like bring in more traffic. Yeah, sounds like a good idea,” says Wilson.

The sales agreement puts a more than $2 million dollar price tag on the building which is what the value city hall was appraised at in 2023.

However, that value had some city council members at previous meetings concerned, asking if it could be worth more. During Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting, Council President Jeremy Garza said City Hall was in bad shape.

“From what I was told from when I talked to some of the maintenance, there was never any water treatment in the pipes so there are a bunch of bandaids on that right now. So the building definitely by far in need of love, some TLC,” he said.

Mayor Andy Schor says there’s concern that a new appraisal would actually depreciate the building further.

“Probably a million, million, million and a half every year just for the maintenance of this building. But you all work here you’ve seen the condition,” says Schor.

The sale passed with no further discussion during the city council meeting. The next step for the project is waiting for city officials to move out once the next city hall just down the road on South Grand Avenue is complete.

The new city hall is expected to be done by 2026 , making way for the facelift to the current building to be completed by 2027, according to developers.

See the plans for the project below:

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WLNS 6 News.