Getting some more news on the Oliver Towers renovation from a recent council committee agenda. The number of units have been lowered slightly to 96, and the renovation is starting months earlier to beat the OPRA certificate deadline; it will now start in September instead of December with interior demolition already having occured. We also found out pricing. Units will go from $750-$910 which is crazy given it's literally two blocks north of the capitol. Units are going for over $1,000 in certain units in Gillespie's development in the stadium district neighborhood. Completion must be by the end of December of next year.
Oliver Towers by
NewCityOne, on Flickr
Deluxe Apartment in the Sky by
NewCityOne, on Flickr
Oliver Towers has a history. It was completed in 1971 as a senior citizens apartment building and included the headquarters of the Lansing Housing Commission on its expanded ground floor, probably as part of an "urban renewal" scheme. A deranged resident lit a fire in the building in February 2000 forcing all of the residents into other housing commission properties, and the building has been vacant since. Plenty of schemes have been proposed for it since since it was city owned and was part of a full block of city-owned land. Ultimately, a local developer bought it in 2015.
Oh, the facade will be completely changed, thank god, and the ground floor will included retail space as well as renovation of some of the existing office spaces for offices.