A great grocer to have would be the Whole Foods 365 concept that they opened in Brooklyn last year. It's a lower cost Whole Foods, https://www.365bywholefoods.com/
This is pretty major news, but I really wish that the grocery store would go on one surface parking lots closer to Washington Square, such as on the parking lot at Grand and Michigan Ave or replacing the vacant building at Allegan and Grand.
In regard to the location, I think it’s out east enough to potentially allow for another grocer closer to the capitol in the future, especially as more residential developments go up. This one can probably sustain itself with the immediate neighbors (all the apartments), the Eastside, and all the people willing to make the trip to whatever “name-brand” grocery it is.
There’s still the Walnut, Genesee, and Cherry Hill neighborhoods, all the residential in the southwest part of the downtown (not sure if that has an official name), plus the work week commuters that could be more likely to go to something a little closer.
I think a mini Horrocks downtown would do great. They could sell all their soups, sandwiches, pizza, sushi, coffee, and donuts to the lunch and breakfast crowd, be an option for commuters to pick up a few things while walking to their cars, and better serve the neighborhoods mentioned above.
Though I doubt Horrocks would want to risk any sort of cannibalization. They have a pretty good thing going out there, and they seem to be investing a lot in that location.
There are a lot of negative comments on the facebook page about the developer. I do wish a lot of different companies were putting up new buildings in Lansing, but this is the company that we have and is the one who is actually building. I hope he will listen to the community input and build a quality development on this huge spot. I would shop at a grocery there, it would have to be competitive in prices to be successful. Maybe an "urban" Meijers is coming.
It's really amazing what Gillespie and Potent Potables has done for this community. They've been crucial in creating a critical mass of development of Lansing. Though we're still plagued by the occasional rash of closings, the good news is starting to seriously outweigh the bad.
I can't think of one truly bad thing Gillespie has done, except for tearing down the original Lansing City Market. That was boneheaded and the city is still paying for that.
I am hoping that the Red Cedar development will be the end of it's better than nothing way of thinking here, and will mean that others will have to step up their game.
It seems like they are renting the new wing of the Market Place at a good pace, perhaps this will spur the building of the third phase along Cedar and Shiawassee. The drawing I saw briefly in the windows of "intrigue" featured an L shaped building built to the sidewalk/street with a small plaza where the walking man sculpture is now.
lansplant - oddly enough, I did talk to one of the managers at Horrocks about a similar idea a couple years back - opening up a small Horrocks in East Lansing or the Eastside of Lansing. He was friendly about the idea, but was keenly aware of the competition from othe indie/specialty-type grocers (Fresh Tyme @ Trowbrige, Mert's Meats on the Eastside... now defuct, etc.). As for downtown, I'm not sure they'd want to compete with the City Market, even though it is practically empty.
Mich - I agree that Gillespie really needs to revise their planning on parking... Not sure whether that will happen any time soon though.
That is great news about the parks and trails. I have to hope that the recent tree cuts near GM and the new substation are part of this because they sure left an ugly mess of fallen trees over there.
I think they could naturalize the river banks by sloping them into the river channel rather than the rock cages they used here. The river is not that deep here and has already built some slopping banks of sand and stones during the last floods. The river bottom seems like it was scrubbed out and the water is running quite clear and fast.
GM [I guess] put a storm drain on their side of the fence at the bottom of the drive there. This will help reduce the erosion there caused by the runoff from all that cement next to the trail. If you are into steam the new pipes really stand out! come down to REOtown and check them out!
This looks like it could actually be pretty helpful as an incentive for investment. It allows people who own a property for 10 years or more to pay no capital gains on appreciation and it if you invest assets that you currently owe capital gains on into opportunity zones you can defer (and reduce by up to 15%) the tax until sale or 2026.
I read that the cheese vendor in the City Market is leaving. The LJS story said that Lansing has rejected the urban farmer's market concept. I would say that Lansing has rejected The City Market. The city built a cheap looking building with all the charm of a warehouse inside on this kind of backlot with only one-way street access and wonders how it all went wrong. To fix it I would start by tearing down that pole barn. Then take a look at other succsessful urban/farmers markets for ideas on what worked for them. I don't think it is very complcated, you need a destanation building, one that is enjoyable just to visit. Then offer leases at prices that would allow vendors to make a porfit. Why would a farmer pay for a spot downtown when many nieghborhood markets offer free space and more traffic? The only answer is, if the farmer/vendor can make money there. It might be a good idea to get out of that business all together sell that space for a hotel and have night and weekend and farmers/hoilday markets on the streets of downtown.
Yes, from what I've seen the Allen Farmers Market is doing OK, better than The City Market at this point. Bottom line is if Flint can have successful new farmers market, than Lansing can too.
I've really been trying to think of what Flint did better. Offhand I can say that the location is better (tons of parking and very easy for downtown office workers to walk to) and the building is nicer. But is that it?
Comments
A great grocer to have would be the Whole Foods 365 concept that they opened in Brooklyn last year. It's a lower cost Whole Foods, https://www.365bywholefoods.com/
This is pretty major news, but I really wish that the grocery store would go on one surface parking lots closer to Washington Square, such as on the parking lot at Grand and Michigan Ave or replacing the vacant building at Allegan and Grand.
There’s still the Walnut, Genesee, and Cherry Hill neighborhoods, all the residential in the southwest part of the downtown (not sure if that has an official name), plus the work week commuters that could be more likely to go to something a little closer.
I think a mini Horrocks downtown would do great. They could sell all their soups, sandwiches, pizza, sushi, coffee, and donuts to the lunch and breakfast crowd, be an option for commuters to pick up a few things while walking to their cars, and better serve the neighborhoods mentioned above.
Though I doubt Horrocks would want to risk any sort of cannibalization. They have a pretty good thing going out there, and they seem to be investing a lot in that location.
There are a lot of negative comments on the facebook page about the developer. I do wish a lot of different companies were putting up new buildings in Lansing, but this is the company that we have and is the one who is actually building. I hope he will listen to the community input and build a quality development on this huge spot. I would shop at a grocery there, it would have to be competitive in prices to be successful. Maybe an "urban" Meijers is coming.
It's really amazing what Gillespie and Potent Potables has done for this community. They've been crucial in creating a critical mass of development of Lansing. Though we're still plagued by the occasional rash of closings, the good news is starting to seriously outweigh the bad.
I can't think of one truly bad thing Gillespie has done, except for tearing down the original Lansing City Market. That was boneheaded and the city is still paying for that.
I am hoping that the Red Cedar development will be the end of it's better than nothing way of thinking here, and will mean that others will have to step up their game.
It seems like they are renting the new wing of the Market Place at a good pace, perhaps this will spur the building of the third phase along Cedar and Shiawassee. The drawing I saw briefly in the windows of "intrigue" featured an L shaped building built to the sidewalk/street with a small plaza where the walking man sculpture is now.
lansplant - oddly enough, I did talk to one of the managers at Horrocks about a similar idea a couple years back - opening up a small Horrocks in East Lansing or the Eastside of Lansing. He was friendly about the idea, but was keenly aware of the competition from othe indie/specialty-type grocers (Fresh Tyme @ Trowbrige, Mert's Meats on the Eastside... now defuct, etc.). As for downtown, I'm not sure they'd want to compete with the City Market, even though it is practically empty.
Mich - I agree that Gillespie really needs to revise their planning on parking... Not sure whether that will happen any time soon though.
That is great news about the parks and trails. I have to hope that the recent tree cuts near GM and the new substation are part of this because they sure left an ugly mess of fallen trees over there.
I think they could naturalize the river banks by sloping them into the river channel rather than the rock cages they used here. The river is not that deep here and has already built some slopping banks of sand and stones during the last floods. The river bottom seems like it was scrubbed out and the water is running quite clear and fast.
GM [I guess] put a storm drain on their side of the fence at the bottom of the drive there. This will help reduce the erosion there caused by the runoff from all that cement next to the trail. If you are into steam the new pipes really stand out! come down to REOtown and check them out!
This looks like it could actually be pretty helpful as an incentive for investment. It allows people who own a property for 10 years or more to pay no capital gains on appreciation and it if you invest assets that you currently owe capital gains on into opportunity zones you can defer (and reduce by up to 15%) the tax until sale or 2026.
Opportunity Zones fact sheet - pdf
I read that the cheese vendor in the City Market is leaving. The LJS story said that Lansing has rejected the urban farmer's market concept. I would say that Lansing has rejected The City Market. The city built a cheap looking building with all the charm of a warehouse inside on this kind of backlot with only one-way street access and wonders how it all went wrong. To fix it I would start by tearing down that pole barn. Then take a look at other succsessful urban/farmers markets for ideas on what worked for them. I don't think it is very complcated, you need a destanation building, one that is enjoyable just to visit. Then offer leases at prices that would allow vendors to make a porfit. Why would a farmer pay for a spot downtown when many nieghborhood markets offer free space and more traffic? The only answer is, if the farmer/vendor can make money there. It might be a good idea to get out of that business all together sell that space for a hotel and have night and weekend and farmers/hoilday markets on the streets of downtown.
Yes, from what I've seen the Allen Farmers Market is doing OK, better than The City Market at this point. Bottom line is if Flint can have successful new farmers market, than Lansing can too.
I've really been trying to think of what Flint did better. Offhand I can say that the location is better (tons of parking and very easy for downtown office workers to walk to) and the building is nicer. But is that it?