Lansing's Impression 5 Science Center Shooting for New $48.1 Million Partnership

Impression 5 Science Center and the Capital Area District Library are working together to get the city, citizens and investors on board with a projected $48.1 million joint downtown library and science center.

According to excerpts from the article:

Science center officials, along with officials from the Capital Area District Library, earlier this year announced they were looking into a potential $48.1-million joint downtown library and science center.

This only a few years after Impression 5 nearly folded. The science center faced a budget deficit of nearly $400,000 in the late 1990s.

Staff was trimmed to the bone in response. It wasn't uncommon for the five or six staffers left to be at the science center around the clock, said Erik Larson, who became Impression 5's executive director in March 2005 after years as a volunteer and staff member.

But those tough times have passed, he said.

It's now wrapping up its second year in the black.

New grants, donations and increased admission revenue are allowing the science center to add programs and grow its budget from about $839,000 a year ago to nearly $1 million this year.

Attendance has grown nearly 28 percent from a year earlier to 96,000 people during the science center's fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, Larson said. That's up from 75,000 people during its 2005-06 fiscal year. Those figures include people who participated in outreach programs throughout the community.

"Our product is better and we're telling the story better," said Impression 5’s Executive Director Erik Larson. "We are trying to operate Impression 5 on a good business model that allows us to invest and be sustainable."

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