Lansing community leaders and residents met in the rain Tuesday at the East Village construction site to celebrate the coming of the city's first new neighborhood in 40 years.
"This is a very exciting day for Lansing," Lansing Mayor Tony Benavides said during a speech. "It's a new beginning. It's a plus for all of us."
The 25-acre East Village neighborhood, which sits next to Lansing Catholic Central High School, 501 Marshall St., will be filled with 177 condominiums when the construction finishes in two or three years, said Stephen Taglione, president of Abbey Homes, the contractor for the project.
The prices for the condominiums will range from $130,000 to $180,000.
"There has been a lot of revitalization that had already gone on here in the east side. I think that these 177 new homes will further catapult the economic significance and vitality of this area," Taglione said.
The construction started early this summer, but the area had to be cleaned first, said Jim Ruff, director of the Department of Planning and Neighborhood Development.
Taglione said the first buildings will be finished this fall and people could move into them in the spring.
The area had been occupied by the Boy's Training School complex from the 1800s to 1971, said Lansing resident Dave Muylle, who was on the Boy's Training School committee that had been promoting residential use of the land.
"This is a piece of urban ground that has a lot of history," he said.
Since the school closed, however, the area has been left mostly unused, with a portion being used as a community garden.
The city began to look into developing the area in 1988, but the plans fell through as developers - focusing on the commercial use of the land - faced the opposition of residents who wanted a residential use, Benavides said.
"This neighborhood has been very aggressive, very determined that they are going to be vocal on what they planned for this area," he said. "This is the one, I'm happy today, that we had an agreement on."
Some local residents came to the event to show their support.
"I'm very excited and pleased," said Joan Nelson, who has been living in Lansing for 30 years. "It's been a long-time coming."
