LANSING, Mich. — Construction on Lansing Community College's Gannon Ramp is scheduled to be complete by August of 2022, and when it's done, it will have more than 1,700 parking spaces.
The original Gannon Parking Ramp was built in 1976 and was demolished about six months ago. It had about 1,000 spaces.
But the additional 700 spaces won't mean that LCC will stop using the 12 surface lots it owns around Lansing's downtown, said Chris MacKersie, the executive director of the Administrative Services Division.
"The college over the years has had to lease additional parking lot space from regional partners to reach the numbers that we needed to support our students. And so, we have several hundred additional spaces over the years that we have leased," MacKersie said. "And so, with this ramp, we won't have to do that, and we will still be able to meet our capacity needs for students."
There were close to 22,000 students enrolled at LCC in the fall of 2010,but, come the fall of 2020, that number dropped to 10,306.
The new ramp also will have access directly off Saginaw Street and North Grand Avenue.
"We only had one-way access in and out. And this will have in and out access at several different locations," Mackersie said.
The $51 million project includes the ramp along with upgrades and renovations to several of the school's surface parking lots.
Alexis Habeck will be an incoming LCC student this fall. She said she's looking forward to the ramp being complete and says it will be easy access to the school.
"It will be nice because I won't have to worry about parking every day on campus," Habeck said. "Which isn't too bad now with covid restrictions and online courses, but maybe in the future when classes are more in person, it will matter more."
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