The building has finally landed another grond-floor business (besides the Runway fashion incubator). An Ohio-based sandwich shop will open on the other side of the Washtenaw entrance with a scheduled April opening:
LANSING – A deli will move into the Knapp’s Centre downtown this spring.
JB’s Sarnie Shoppe has signed an agreement with the Eyde Co. to lease 2,300 square feet on the building's first floor, which has been vacant since the company renovated it in late 2014, said project developer Nick Eyde.
“I like the idea of having breakfast for folks in the building that has grab-and-go or sit-down options,” Eyde said. “It’s a really unique restaurant.”
The deli started in Perrysburg, Ohio. Owner Gareth Jones met Nick Eyde while looking to add a location in downtown Toledo, Ohio. That’s when he learned about the space in the Knapp's buidling.
I'll feel even better when the Washington frontage is filled.
This sounds great, I guess this sounds like a high end deli maybe with table service as well as counter to go. My first thought was "another sandwich shop?' But hey if that is what we need I hope it's a nice one. The city also needs to replant all the missing trees on Washtenaw and Kalamazoo. That would make the area around Knapp's have bit less overlooked feeling.
They need to finish the south Washington streetscaping, it was supposed to be done now. I don't understand why stopping the CSO project meant stopping the streetscaping project.
What is the CSO project?
I checked out the web-site for the new deli and it looks pretty nice. It looks like they may have table service, which I hope they do so that maybe it will be a step above just another sandwich shop.
I do not know what they planned to landscape, but a nice tall hedge row would be nice for the surface lot next to Knapp's. I wonder what happened to the store front buildings that were there? That brake makes it feel like that is the end of downtown.
Some more shade trees and benches down that block and the next would really help. The folks who are standing in front of the party store would have a place to sit and perhaps make it seem a bit less scary to not have to walk through a crowd of people standing in front of a liquor store. They don't scare me but it could be scary for others.
@gbinlansing CSO stands for Combined Sewer Overflow, there's a detailed overview of what it was here: The CSO Story. If I remember right it was halted because federal mandates were changed so they needed a new program to meet the new mandate (I think it's called the SSO).
I wasn't around to see the buildings next to Knapps myself, but apparently they were the same early 1900's 2 floor buildings found elsewhere on Washington. It's my understanding that they were tore down for Cooley's parking lot with no greater intentions (I think this was in the early to mid 90's).
I believe CSO separation was discontinued not because of a federal change, but because the city wanted to spend less money than they found a way to work within the rules to do that. So instead of separating every combined sewer, they will instead ramp up things like bioswales, rain gardens, permeable surfaces, wetlands, etc...to keep stormwater out of the sewers in the first place, which will prevent them from being overtaxed during storms in the first place. I can't find any media articles on it, but I seem to remember Virg saying that it was time to go in another more natural (and cheaper, that was the biggest thing) direction.
Comments
I'll feel even better when the Washington frontage is filled.
I checked out the web-site for the new deli and it looks pretty nice. It looks like they may have table service, which I hope they do so that maybe it will be a step above just another sandwich shop.
I do not know what they planned to landscape, but a nice tall hedge row would be nice for the surface lot next to Knapp's. I wonder what happened to the store front buildings that were there? That brake makes it feel like that is the end of downtown.
Some more shade trees and benches down that block and the next would really help. The folks who are standing in front of the party store would have a place to sit and perhaps make it seem a bit less scary to not have to walk through a crowd of people standing in front of a liquor store. They don't scare me but it could be scary for others.
I wasn't around to see the buildings next to Knapps myself, but apparently they were the same early 1900's 2 floor buildings found elsewhere on Washington. It's my understanding that they were tore down for Cooley's parking lot with no greater intentions (I think this was in the early to mid 90's).