By Rob South, WKAR News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-960175.mp3
LANSING, MI –
The Accident Fund Insurance Company's grand opening of its new corporate headquarters in downtown Lansing caps off more than two years of construction and rehabilitation of the city's riverfront and one of its most recognized landmarks, the Ottawa Street Power Station.
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It has been called one of the most complicated development deals in the country. Nearly $200 million of environmental clean-up, historic rehabilitation and new construction. Bob Trezise is the head of the Lansing Economic Development Corporation. He says the renovation of the Ottawa Street Power Station property it is one of the most significant development projects the city has seen in more than a decade.
"To move $20 million in chiller systems, to take down a ramp, to clean up a site that was so dirty, to turn an entire riverfront around, to bring all those moving pieces together to make it work where it didn't cost the taxpayer a single penny," says Trezise. "And here we are today with the building saved. Two new buildings, it is remarkable to think about and Lansing did it."
Steve Reynolds is the Accident Fund's Vice President of Strategic Planning. He says the transformation of the Power Station, from a coal-fired power plant to modern office space, was incredible.
"I have to say the first time that I came into the Ottawa Street Station, I was amazed at what a facility it was," he says. "For those who hadn't been in it, it was a very industrial-type facility. It took an incredible amount of vision for the folks who were involved before me to be able to see, in that industrial building, that it could be a class A office space that is really one of the premier workplaces in Downtown Lansing now."
But the power station redevelopment is only part of the story. The Accident Fund needed more space than the landmark could provide. Historic preservation concerns meant considerable care was needed to plan and build an office building directly connected to the station. Reynolds says the new addition was designed to complement the art-deco lines of the historic site.
"It is joined to the Ottawa Street Station," Reynolds says. "There was a lot of focus from both a historic preservation standpoint but in a continuity standpoint of how you bring the two together. It had to appear different than the Ottawa Street Station. The Ottawa Station is a historical landmark and it had to stand on its own."
Reynolds says the combined space can accommodate as many as 1200 employees. He says it was a priority from the start to ensure that all workers were comfortable, healthy and happy. Even in the renovated power station each worker has the ability to control lighting and even the temperature of their workspace. But it's still an open environment that encourages collaboration.
"Contemporary offices and buildings use different design principals around panel height, light penetration into the building," says Reynolds. "We know that makes for a healthier happier workplace."
Accident fund employees will start moving into the space in April.
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