East Lansing city officials will close Charles Street on Monday near the City Center Project so that construction on the project can continue.
The crane being used to build the parking structure for the $35 million project will be moved onto Charles Street, forcing East Lansing to close the area between Grand River Avenue and Albert Avenue.
Lori VanOmmeran, a city urban planner and community analyst, said the street will re-open by the end of March. Although it will cut out the on-street parking, VanOmmeran said the city and businesses are prepared.
“We’ve known this would happen for a while, and we’ve anticipated it,” VanOmmeran said. “I think it’s a necessary inconvenience.”
Don Staley, the site manager for the City Center parking structure, said the Christman Company tried to avoid closing the street, but to no avail.
“Every alternative has been explored at this point,” Staley said. “The only way physically possible to erect this thing was by closing Charles Street to move the crane out there.”
Lansing’s The Christman Company, the City Center Project’s construction company, has been working with the city to develop the project. The City Center Project’s 730-space parking structure is expected to open in mid-August.
“We’re on schedule for the fall completion,” Staley said. “We’re pretty much right on track. It’s just the growing pains of getting this thing done.”
Businesses like the Student Book Store, 421 E. Grand River Ave., will have to adapt to the lack of parking and road space when Charles Street closes.
Bookstore owner Howard Ballein said the delivery trucks that normally come down Charles Street will still find a way in.
“We’ll just have to work around it,” he said. “I think most business people have a good spirit and a good mind that we’re going to help our neighbors as much as we can.
“I think having construction going on almost next door doesn’t help anyone, but we can at least see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Ballein said he thinks the City Center Project will revitalize East Lansing more than any other efforts have. Ballein has watched changes to the city since the book store opened in 1960.
“We’ve done a lot,” Ballein said. “In five years, you probably won’t know this place. I think you’re going to see a lot more changes, and this thing will really kick it off.”
