Lansing State Journal

Lansing State Journal
The Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce will move temporarily to downtown's Fifth Third Bank building while it waits for the new Stadium District building to be completed.

The business group has leased the third floor of a 38,700-square foot building at 300 E. Michigan Ave., but its 10-year lease expires this month. It will move by today and Friday into the seventh floor of the 50,000-square-foot Fifth Third building at 112 E. Allegan St., which was bought in August 2006 by Lansing-based Boji Group.

The chamber's offices will be closed until Monday for the move.

"It was an offer we couldn't refuse," chamber President William Sepic said. "It's going to be a little tighter quarters, but it still should work out very well."

The chamber's new space on the second floor of the $12.3 million Stadium District likely won't be ready until mid-2008.

The group had been looking to downsize. It has 15 employees - half of what it had when it leased its old Michigan Avenue space.

Developer Pat Gillespie said his Stadium District project should start to take shape next week, as stairwells and elevators shafts for the four-story building are blocked in. Steel should start rising in March, he said.

"Things are moving along great, except for the last four days when negative wind chills held us up," Gillespie said.

Most of the building's 30,000 square feet of office and retail space is taken, he said.

Demand also is strong for the project's 20 condominiums and 30 rental units, which Gillespie said could be marketed as soon as March.

Contact Jeremy W. Steele at 377-1015 or jwsteele @lsj.com.