The City of East Lansing will mark the beginning of Hannah Middle School’s shift into a community center tomorrow with a Reconstruction Kick-off.

The event will include speeches by several city officials and a slide presentation by construction officials from The Christman Co. and architects from Mitchell and Mouat. More than 150 invitations were sent out to community members for the kickoff, but the event is open to the public.

Mayor Mark Meadows, who will open the event, said the kickoff will mark the beginning of a new phase for the community center. Demolition on the building has already been completed.

“We’re going to have a pile of rubble to kick around,” Meadows said. “We’ve deconstructed those portions of the interior that need to be deconstructed, and now we’re ready to build.”

The center is being built with a $7 million bond approved by residents of the city in 1998. When its doors open this December, the center will include a teen center, senior center, swimming pool, auditorium, several classrooms and two gymnasiums.

Tim McCaffrey, Parks and Recreation facilities director, said the event will give residents a chance to see what work has been done to update the building.

Each of the building contracts have been awarded, except for the swimming pool.

“Oftentimes you have a groundbreaking when you begin construction on a new building,” McCaffery said. “We have an existing building, but we still want to have an opportunity to get folks excited about the project and get it out into the community.

“They’ll see a shell of a 75 year old building. You’ll be able to see the guts of the building - a lot of things that you won’t see when the building opens.”