Flint, MI — New fencing is up on downtown Flint sidewalks, signaling the start of renovations at Genesee County’s coming office building.
The county’s new offices will stand at the corner of Saginaw Street and Union Street, in a tower of the former Citizens Bank complex.
While the Genesee County Board of Commissioners agreed to purchase the tower from the University of Michigan-Flint in December 2021, work to make the space home for multiple county departments has just begun.
“They’re starting demolition within the building,” Joshua Freeman, Genesee County Director of Administration, said on Monday, Sept. 25, 2023. “It’s a total renovation of the facility.”
Freeman said renovations were necessary as the tower was “very 1980s” and “chopped up in a way that was not going to work” for the many departments meant to relocate there, including the County Clerk, Register of Deeds, Treasurer and Board of Commissioners Offices.
He added that contractors will soon have equipment stationed behind the building in Buckham Alley, as well, to help clear out debris as demolition ramps up.
Freeman said the county hopes to see the whole building’s renovations completed within the first quarter of 2025, at which time it will begin transitioning departments to the updated facility.