Aerial Tour: Mid-Michigan Relics of Industry

[LMich]

Perhaps, not old enough to be called relics, in the past seven years of so, not unlike what they did in Flint and Detroit, General Motors, in a few fell swoops, shuttered the many automobile plants of Lansing, Michigan's capital city. Once, the self-proclaimed "Car Capital of North America", and a significant heavy industrial center making all kinds of automobile parts along with the autos, General Motors has wasted no time bringing these dinosaurs downs. While the transition is still on-going to a new economy, unlike Flint and Detroit, the area residents have had government and higher education jobs to fall back on, or, at least, lessen the blow. That, and General Motors built two new plants in the area: Lansing Grand River Assembly, downtown, in 2001, and Lansing Delta Township Assembly in suburban Delta Township in 2006.

All photos are courtesy of Cub Scenes Arial Photography of DeWitt, Michigan: http://www.cubscenes.com/

Lansing General Motors Building 150 at Lansing Car Assembly (Plant #1) - This small building of the Lansing Car Assembly Plant M, the oldest continually operated automobile plant in the country upon its shuttering in 2005, spans Martin Luther King Jurnior Boulevard. It was originally constructed in 1901, and underwent MANY expansions that eventually surrounded the old factory.







Lansing Car Assembly Plant M (far right and background) & the new Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant completed in 2001






(LansingGrand River Assembly - 2001)

Lansing Crafte Centre, completed in 1987, exists right on the border of Lansing and Lansing Township. It was shuttered in 2006. It produced many of GM's lower-volume vehicles.




(Lansing Car Assembly Verliden Plant seen in upper left)


(LCA Verliden on right, Lansing Craft Centre on left with Lansing Metal Stamping left and background)



Lansing Delta Township Assembly, completed in 2006, replaces Lansing Car Assembly and Lansing Craft Centre







Lansing Car Assembly - Verliden Street, also known as General Motors Fisher Body Plant, was located and Lansing's Far Westside, and was completed in 1920 as a Fisher Body plant. After that motor company's demise, GM bought the plant in 1935. Lansing Craft Centre, pictured earlier, was built right next door.







Lansing Grand River Assembly, built 2001, this replaced Lansing Car Assembly that's being demolished, next door, as well.


(Lansing Country Club can be seen in foreground)




(This photo parts of Lansing Grand River & Lansing Car Assembly in the foreground, and Lansing Car Assembly - Verlinden, Craft Centre, and Lansing Metal Stamping in te background)

Lansing Metal Stamping Center, built in 1951, was closed in 2005. It lies directly north of the Lansing Crafte Center in Lansing Township, right on the border with Lansing.




(Lansing Capital City Airport can be seen in the background)

Aerials from Google:

GM Lansing Assembly Plant #1 (under demolition) & Lansing Grand River Assembly





Lansing Car Assembly Plant #6 (under demolition, bottom right), Lansing Craft Centre (closed 2006, bottom left), & Lansing Metal Stamping Center (closed 2006, upper left)



I'll post some demolition progress on the ones currently going down, soon.

[LAsam]

So what typically happens to these things after they are abandoned? Are they demolished and the land developed for housing? Or do they develop the land into green space?

[LMich]

We wouldn't know; this hasn't happened anywhere near on this scale in the city before. GM has said that they will definitely be redeveloping the property, but beyond that, the future is unknown. BTW, I did say that most of these pictured, here, are either under demolition or will start within the next year.

GM Lansing Car Assembly Plant #1 Demolition

Novermber 2006

MichSt - http://www.flickr.com/photos/12299238@N00/

October 2006

churl - http://www.flickr.com/photos/churl/


churl - http://www.flickr.com/photos/churl/

GM Lansing Car Assembly Plant #6 - Verlinden - this is also under demolition, but I have no photos, nor can find any of that demolition. Craft Centre and Metal Stamping Center are slated for demolition, soon.

[James Bond Agent 007]

It's too bad they couldn't get Toyota or Honda to buy those plants and re-use them instead of them building new plants in the South (though of course the folks down South don't mind). Seems such a waste to just abandon them.

[LMich]

The new Lansing Delta Township plant and the Grand River Assembly Plant, both pictured above, essentially replaced a huge section of what was lossed. There has been major downsizing, but this is one of the very few existing regions where the Big 3 are actually building new plants. Most of those laid off where given first dibs on the jobs created at the new plant. Let's just put it this way, this is a much better restructuring than what they've done in say a Flint, Detroit, or other Midwest cities where they got rid of entire plants, entirely, without replacing ANY of the jobs.

In fact, not only did they build the two new plants (one downtown, one in the suburbs), but the 2 million square feet downtown (Lansing Grand River) plant was recently (2006) expanded by 120,000 square feet, and the Delta Township Plant (suburbs) has the ability, and will, expand over time. The Delta Township Plant includes a stamping facility, that will replace the Lansing Metal Stamping Plant pictured above. The only only surprises to the region were the shutting down of the successful and efficient Lansing Car Assembly (Plant #1 & #6).

Stats for the new plants:

Lansing Grand River Assembly (downtown):

- 2,000,000 square feet
- production 2006: 61,022 Cadillac CTS, 25,637 Cadillac SRX, 24,747 Cadillac STS
- hourly workers: 1,498
- salaried workers: 198

Lansing Delta Township Assembly (suburban):

- 3,400,000 square feet
- production 2006: 3,862 GMC Acadia, 3,047 Saturn Outlook (didn't come online until end of 2006)
- hourly workers: 2,928
- salaried workers: 265

[Wooster]

Very interesting thread.