Lansing Is Moving City Hall. What Happens to the Other Two Buildings?

By Chelsea Wooton

By mid-November, Lansing's city government is expected to begin moving into its new headquarters at 425 S. Grand Ave., across from the CATA Transportation Center.

Getting there took years, several proposals and one very consequential 4-4 vote.

The city considered renovating its 1950s-era City Hall. It considered buying the historic Masonic Temple on Capitol Avenue. Instead, Lansing is building new while leaving two downtown buildings with very different futures.

124 W. Michigan Ave.: The City Hall Lansing is leaving

Lansing's current City Hall has been showing its age for years.

A March 2024 city cost study found that renovating the building would require hazardous-material abatement and replacement of mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems that had reached the end of their useful lives. The study also included full replacement of the windows and roof, repairs to the below-grade parking structure and plaza, updated technology and security systems, and temporary relocation of city employees during construction.

The price tag? The city has estimated nearly $80 million to keep the building operating as City Hall.

And much of that space would no longer be necessary.

Police headquarters, lockup and court operations are moving to the new public-safety complex on Washington Avenue. The city's own 2024 study found that the departments remaining at City Hall would need only about 78,000 square feet of the existing roughly 158,000-square-foot office building.

So Lansing's replacement City Hall is considerably smaller.

The old building also has a buyer.

The City Council approved a $2.78 million sale to Chicago developer J. Paul Beitler, who plans to convert it into a hotel with roughly 180 rooms, restaurant and retail space.

That won't happen immediately. City officials expect the current building to remain open into January 2027, until police and courts have relocated.

Then the former seat of Lansing government gets a new job.

217 S. Capitol Ave.: The City Hall that never happened

The Masonic Temple at 217 S. Capitol Ave. was built in 1924 and later housed Cooley Law School. The seven-story Classical Revival building has about 109,826 square feet.

Mayor Andy Schor's administration proposed purchasing it from the Boji Group for $3.65 million and using the state's $40 million allocation to renovate it as City Hall.

Then the vote happened.

In March 2024, the City Council rejected the purchase on a 4-4 vote. Council members who opposed the deal cited concerns about the process and said they wanted more time and public input before committing to the purchase.

Two months later, Lansing announced a different plan: build City Hall on the city-owned parking lot at Grand and Lenawee.

The Masonic Temple was out.

Its future is still a question mark.

The property remains privately owned, and there is no publicly announced redevelopment project replacing the failed City Hall proposal. City Pulse reported in 2025 that the building had been empty for years and identified it as a historic property at risk. It doesn't currently have a public redevelopment plan.

For a seven-story historic building a block from the Capitol, that's a fairly large downtown question mark.

425 S. Grand Ave.: The City Hall Lansing is moving into

After the Masonic proposal failed, Lansing went with land it already owned: the former parking lot at Grand Avenue and Lenawee Street.

Construction began in April 2025. The new building is about 65,000 square feet and three stories.

It's designed around a different idea of how residents interact with city government.

The first floor will include a centralized customer-service center for services currently spread across multiple locations. City Council chambers will seat about 170 people, with hallway space available for overflow.

And then there's the location: directly across from the CATA Transportation Center.

For residents who depend on public transportation, that's not a decorative detail. It's a practical change.

The city is targeting mid-November for the move, with most departments expected to relocate over a weekend. Officials say they don't anticipate extended closures of in-person services.

Why this version of City Hall?

Lansing had a building requiring an estimated nearly $80 million in rehabilitation, a $40 million state allocation for a new City Hall and a shrinking need for office space once police and courts move elsewhere.

The Masonic Temple would have meant buying and adapting an existing historic building. The City Council rejected that purchase.

The Grand Avenue site meant Lansing could build on land it already owned and design a facility around the departments that will actually remain in City Hall.

Construction is now well underway.

The timeline tells most of the story

1950s: Current City Hall opens at 124 W. Michigan Ave.

2023: Lansing receives $40 million in state funding for a new City Hall.

March 2024: Council rejects the proposed Masonic Temple purchase, 4-4.

May 2024: Lansing pivots to the city-owned Grand Avenue parking lot.

July 2024: Council approves the $2.78 million sale of the current City Hall.

April 2025: Construction begins at 425 S. Grand Ave.

November 2026: City officials are targeting the move.

January 2027: The current City Hall is expected to close after police and courts relocate.

Afterward: The old City Hall is slated for hotel redevelopment. The Masonic Temple remains without a publicly announced new use.

Three buildings. One very long City Hall saga.

Lansing spent years deciding where its government should operate. That part is finally settled.

The harder questions are downtown.

Can the old City Hall become the hotel envisioned by its buyer? Can the Masonic Temple find a viable second life before another historic building becomes another downtown problem? And will the new City Hall actually make city government easier for the people who have to use it?

After all the meetings, proposals and votes, Lansing is about to find out whether the shuffle was worth it.