Page 17 - LRCC November 2022 Focus

The $260 million Red Cedar Project has been hailed as one of the most
economically impactful projects in the region.

The employee feedback led to the development of Farm Bureau Insurance Company of Michigan provides
“neighborhoods” throughout the building where like a full range of insurance services, including life, home,
departments could be close to one another and created in a auto, farm, business, retirement, Lake Estate, and
way to encourage maximum collaboration. more. The company protects Michigan residents with
more than 660,000 insurance policies statewide. Farm
The open-space design of the building allows for several Bureau Insurance’s parent company, Michigan Farm
conference rooms with a variety of layouts, a social atrium Bureau (MFB), advocates on behalf of the interests
that opens up to all three floors of the building, a social hub, and priorities of more than 40,000 farmer members
resource centers, and focus booths meant for solo work and statewide.
quick phone calls.
Ferguson Development
“We have over 200,000 members who can utilize this The Transformational Red Cedar Project
building and we wanted to view this as a collaboration
space and community center,” said Simon. Few developments have created as
much excitement and offered more
Farm Bureau also wanted to ensure the renovation potential for regional transformation
incorporates some environmentally friendly elements, than the Red Cedar Project, a mixed-
including a solar field on the south side of the building and use development by Continental/
solar panels on the roof. Ferguson LLC. The 35.5-acre, $260
million project is located on the long-
“We are very proud of the fact that after we gutted our abandoned Red Cedar golf course
building, 95 percent of the material did not go to a landfill,” along Michigan Avenue and U.S. 127.
said Simon. “We donated furniture to school systems and Anderson Economic Group (AEG)
area non-profits to make sure everything was repurposed.” hailed the project as “one of the Stralkowski

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