Michigan sells former Senate office building to Boji Group for $4.5 million

Justin A. Hinkley | Lansing State Journal

LANSING – The Boji Group will take over another prime corner in downtown Lansing when it picks up the state Senate's old office building for $4.5 million cash.

The Billie S. Farnum Building at the corner of West Allegan Street and South Capitol Avenue is likely is likely to remain office space, though final plans have not yet been decided, Boji family spokesman John Truscott said Friday.

Until early last year, the building — named for Michigan's last publicly elected auditor general — housed the offices of the state Senate.

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But Senators moved into seven of nine floors in the Capitol View Building (another Boji-owned facility) on the corner of West Allegan and Townsend streets because the Farnum was in disrepair and Senate leaders said the building wasn't worth the effort.

The purchase means the Farnum will go back onto the tax rolls for the state and the city.

The Bojis are likely to keep but upgrade the existing building, first erected in 1959, Truscott said.

"It needs significant renovation, but the plan at this point is to keep the structure the same but the inside will look a lot different," Truscott said.

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The Bojis beat out one other offer, a $2.5 million bid from Gentilozzi Real Estate, to get the building, according to records obtained by the State Journal through state open records laws.

State officials had earlier said they'd hoped to get $7 million for the facility.

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Great views of the Michigan State Capital from the Farnum Building The Senate early last year moved out of the Billie S. Farnum Building located at 125 West Allegan Street in downtown Lansing. The building offers amazing views of the Capital, high ceilings and open office space.

The Bojis actually offered the state two options: The straight $4.5 million cash, or an estimated $6 million option that included $4 million up front plus a $1 million reduction in the Boji's asking price for the remaining two floors of Capitol View and the rights to build on top of Capitol View, which the Bojis said had an estimated value of nearly $1 million.

The state decided to go with the option that gave them cash in hand and didn't require them to buy anything else, Caleb Buhs, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget, said Friday.

"We truly believe we received the best deal for the value of the building," Buhs said.

The Senate's move was controversial, criticized by Democrats and some Republicans, because some said the long-term cost of the Capitol View floors — more than $130 million over 30 years — was too high and because the Bojis are registered lobbyists and active political donors.

Contact Justin A. Hinkley at (517) 377-1195 or jhinkley@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinHinkley. Sign up for his email newsletter, SoM Weekly, at on.lsj.com/somsignup.