LANSING, Mich. — Christopher Stralkowski had childhood memories on the south side of Lansing that he’ll never forget.
“There was roller skating rink over here that my wife and I actually roller skated at when we were in junior high, so it was nice living over here,” he said.
Years later, Stralkowski still finds strong ties to this side of town. He now works at Ferguson Development, and the company is planning to start a multi-million dollar redevelopment project to the former Pleasant Grove Elementary School.
“So, our proposal to the city, and as well to the state, is to take the building down, re purpose some of the materials, we have some nice lime stones all around the building and use some of those materials in the new build,” Stralkowski said.
The nearly $14 million redevelopment project will build two buildings on the land. The first building will be a community center.
“That includes access to medical care, that includes access to technology, that includes access to financial empowerment,” Stralkowski said.
The second building will sit on the school’s former playground and will be used for housing.
“It will be housing that is based in 80 to 100% income-based, it’ll be brand new. We will focus on veterans, we will focus on seniors and we will also focus on young professionals,” Stralkowski said.
The project has already gotten support from officials on the local level, but there needs to be more approvals made before it can be finalized.
Stralkowski is optimistic everything will go as planned.
"We started this in 2019, we will like to see this building demoed in end of second quarter of this year and that means we can begin construction by next spring,” he said.
