After three years of trying to pull together enough resources to renovate the 1712 building on Michigan Ave., the Women’s Center of Greater Lansing can finally mark the project complete.
The Women’s Center hosted the grand opening of its new facility last week, which includes 12 computers for a women’s computer class, space for nutritional cooking classes, a professional clothing closet and additional space for women to engage in job searches.
The women who work at and utilize the Women’s Center are grateful to have nearly triple the space, but the road getting there was long and hard. They started raising money for the expansion more than three years ago. The renovation started with an overhaul of the upstairs apartment, which is now occupied by a Women’s Center employee. Then, construction stopped and started in tandem with funding success.
“First we had to demo the entire building and that left us with basically studs and nothing else except for siding,” Alwood says. Once the Center convinced several businesses, including Liquid Web and developer Scott Gillespie to get involved in the project last winter, it took off.
“Now we’re doing the finishing touch type of work,” she says.
The renovated building is right next to the Women’s Center's current 1710 Michigan Ave. building. The two buildings together give the organization about 3,000 square feet of space. Though the addition will help the Center, they’ll have to expand again in a few years.
“We knew we were going to grow out of this space very quickly, but we knew it was what we could afford,” Alwood says.
Source: Cindie Alwood, Women’s Center of Greater Lansing
Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.