UPDATE: Lansing City Council President Carol Wood reached out to 6 News Thursday to provide some historical context on the 2017 renaming of Lansing City Hall to the David Hollister City Hall. The resolution, approved by council, calls for any future city hall location to be named in honor of Hollister. Neither Hollister nor his wife was aware of this.
LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – Lansing’s new City Hall will be named in honor of former Mayor David Hollister.
Scott Bean, spokesman for current Lansing Mayor Andy Schor, tells 6 News the former mayor has served as “a friend, advisor, and mentor.”
“Mayor Hollister served this city with distinction, and as plans for a new city hall have been developed, Mayor Schor has been clear that wherever Lansing’s city government is located it will be known as the David Hollister City Hall, as the current building is known,” Bean says.
6 News informed Hollister of the news Wednesday during an interview about keeping GM in Lansing and the current UAW strike. He gave a thumbs up at the news as his eyes welled with tears.
Asked if it was exciting, the 81-year-old former mayor sat silent for a few seconds, then quietly responded, “Yes.”
Hollister tells 6 News having city hall named in his honor in 2017 was one of his “greatest honors” from his time serving the city. He was mayor from 1994 to 2003.
Last month, Schor announced the city will renovate the former Masonic Temple, 217 S. Capital Ave. to serve as the new city hall.
The city will pay the Boji Group $40 million to purchase the property as well as revamp it for city uses. The money for the project was provided to the city in the most recent budget passed by the state legislature. The money becomes available on Oct. 1, coinciding with the state’s fiscal year.
Lansing officials have been actively working to ditch the current building, built in 1958, since 2017. A proposal accepted by then-Mayor Virg Bernero would see the mid-century modern building purchased by Chicago real-estate investor J. Paul Beitler. The plans hit a snag when Schor took office in 2018 because officials didn’t know where the city’s police department, courts and lock-up would be relocated.
In November of last year, voters approved a $175 million bond proposal to construct a public safety facility. The facility will be built on South Washington Ave. where the South Washington Office Complex is located currently.
Beitler has expressed interest in moving forward with his delayed proposal, and Schor has acknowledged he “really, really likes” the developer’s plan.
