Ford Project Recalls Accident Fund's Power Plant Restoration in Lansing

Tuesday, June 26, 2018 | 0

Accident Fund Insurance Co.'s renovation of a 1930s coal power plant that is now the company’s national headquarters in Lansing, Michigan, is spotlighted this week in an article in Crain’s Detroit Business.

AF Group headquarters.
(Pinterest photo)

The article draws parallels between the workers’ comp carrier’s conversion of the building in the mid-2000s to Ford Motor Co.’s recently completed restoration of Michigan Central Station in Detroit.

The former Lansing Board of Water & Light plant on the banks of the Grand River had been mostly unused since it was decommissioned in 1992. It caught the eye of Accident Fund in 2007, when the company, now called AF Group, was crowded into office space it shared with parent company Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

During the three-year, $182 million restoration, pigeons were evicted, and new floors and structural steel beams were added. Tax incentives covered about a quarter of the cost.

AF Group employees moved into the renovated building in 2011. About 725 employees now work in the building along with 75 contractors and long-term vendors.