A new task force will devise strategies for bringing more automotive manufacturing to the Lansing area, and redeveloping former General Motors properties that have been idle for years.
There’s some 400 acres of vacant land in Lansing, Lansing Township and Delta Township where auto plants and suppliers once stood just a decade ago. Now, a task force led by the Lansing Economic Area Partnership, or LEAP, will coordinate an effort to redevelop the sites for future use. LEAP president and CEO Bob Trezise calls the initiative a “once in 50 years opportunity.”
“In an urban, landlocked environment, it’s not often where you have several hundred acres where you can kind of have a clean slate and think about how that could be redeveloped," says Trezise. "So, it’s quite an opportunity, and if we all pull together, we can do something magnificent on the site.”
The task force will work with RACER Trust, which owns the former GM properties. Trezise says the task force will include input from neighborhood associations and local businesses before committing to any plans.