The rooms and hallways of the East Lansing Hannah Community Center are still filled with workmen and tools of the trade, but a feeling of excitement is mounting among city staff.
The center, 819 Abbott Road, now scheduled to open in mid-January after originally being scheduled to open Saturday. Still, City Manager Ted Staton said the project is not too far off its original time frame.
“When you start a renovation of this scope and this size, nearly a $9 million project, you do your best to guess when everyone will get finished,” he said. “In this case we’re only running about six weeks late, which makes it virtually on time and schedule.”
The project, which consisted of several years of planning, funding and this year’s construction, began when East Lansing residents passed a $67 million bond in November of 1998. Ground was broken on renovations to the 73-year-old school building on Feb. 15, 2001.
By the time its doors are opened, the center will feature 191 parking spaces, soccer fields and extensive landscaping outside. The inside will hold several rentable classrooms or meeting rooms, banquet rooms with a warming area-type kitchen, a three-to-four room senior center, a two-room teen center, two gymnasiums, one with a stage, a large pool with slide, a health center featuring 18-20 cardiovascular machines and televisions, an expanded auditorium and more.
“Clearly the banquet room will be a draw, the auditorium will be a huge draw and, I think, the fitness center will be a draw for people who aren’t hard-core Gold’s Gym bodybuilders, but just looking for an area to exercise,” Staton said.
But perhaps one of the most impressive changes in the metamorphosis from a school to a community center are the entranceway structural changes.
City Councilmember Vic Loomis, who toured the site Tuesday for the first time since he attended middle school in the building, was nearly speechless over the changes.
“Wow, this is wonderful,” he said. “I don’t recognize any part of this.”
The first and second floor ceilings had been removed to allow for a high entrance ceiling, and an open view of gallery spaces on the second floor overlooks the entrance.
“We wanted to have a wow factor right when people came into the building and combat the school building feel,” Staton said of the decision.
Along with the new ceiling, tile accents in blues, tans, greens and yellows were put into the floor and in the floors, carpets and walls throughout the building. Tim McCaffrey, parks and recreation facilities director for the city, said the color choices and many of the subtle features of the center came from the hard work of one particular group.
“There’s been a lot of effort by a lot of volunteers, namely the Hannah Building Committee, who were insistent on getting a lot of things done in this building,” he said.
