[LMich]

This is moving faster than I originally thought it would:

BWL gets green light on new Lansing plant

Barbara Wieland • bwieland@lsj.com • December 9, 2010 • From Lansing State Journal

The Lansing Board of Water & Light has received the permits it needs to begin construction on a $182 million electric and steam plant in Lansing's REO Town area.


The permits from the state's Department of Natural Resources and Energy give the utility company the green light to move forward with plans to construct a natural gas-powered plant that will replace the coal-fired Moores Park Steam Plant.

The BWL next plans to secure funding for the project by issuing bonds, utility spokesman Mark Nixon said.

Construction is scheduled to start in the late spring or early summer of 2011, and the plant would be operational by early 2013.

The project will employ 1,000 construction workers, and approximately 180 utility employees will work at the plant.

The facility also will expand the BWL's ability to sell steam to customers in the downtown Lansing area.

...

Once constructed, the REO Town Cogeneration Facility will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent compared with the existing Moores Park plant.

The facility also will reduce the emissions of air pollutants such as mercury and sulfur and nitrogen compounds.

The plant will have a solar panel array and wind turbines on the facility's roof, adding to the amount of renewable energy generated by the BWL.

Y mas...

Arialink moving headquarters to downtown Lansing

Melissa Domsic • mdomsic@lsj.com • December 9, 2010 • From Lansing State Journal

Internet and telephone service provider Arialink is moving its headquarters to downtown Lansing from Delta Township as a primary tenant of the former Michigan Dental Association building.

The three-story, 40,000- square-foot building at 230 N. Washington Square, now called 230 North, was left empty last fall when the MDA moved to Meridian Township.

Karp and Associates, led by developer Richard Karp, bought the building for $575,000 and has spent an undisclosed amount of money on renovations. Now, Karp said, he is in the process of filling much of the building.

Arialink, with about 50 employees, has moved about 25 employees into the new building. It plans to house a total of 40 employees there once offices are consolidated.

...

Arialink is temporarily occupying part of the approximately 11,000-square-foot third floor. It will move into 7,500 square feet of the second floor, which also spans about 11,000 square feet, once renovations are completed in the next couple of months.

Manny Lentine Inc., a lobbying firm, moved into half of the approximately 9,000-square-foot first floor. Karp said another unnamed lobbying firm should move into the rest of the first floor by early January.

That would leave space on part of the second floor Arialink does not take and the third floor.

There also is a basement tenants can use.

Karp said he is talking a few potential tenants he would not name.

"I would say our leasing activity is uncharacteristically robust for the downtown Lansing office market," Karp said.

...

Photo of the former MDA Building:


Self-taken