There is a new building being built in Eastwood on Lake Lansing Road where a bank stood before. There was no signage saying what was going up there, but there were a lot of workers on the site, it seems they are like working at fast pace as much of the foundation has already been poured. I don't really know what to hope for out there, but it will probably be another big chain restaurant, like we need another. Across from Culvers in the back lot of Eastwood, they have installed maybe 12 electric charging stations. They look kind of cool with big Mercades emblems on each station.
I've been wondering what will go there as well. I continue to be surprised by what they tear down these days, that bank building was kinda nice for what it was. That the economics of it all makes sense to demolish it is amazing to me.
The LSJ.com has another one of their "projects to watch" in Lansing articles. It is interesting to see the timelines that say people will be moving into the new city housing in June, moving into the new City Hall in a few months, and the steel being erected at the Ovation site in June. There are notes about other sites as well. I have been kind of holding my breath hoping to see the progress continue, also hoping the current crazy economic situation does not stop the progress we are seeing.
Two restaurants are moving into the renovated train station on Michigan Ave, downtown. The Morning Post a breakfast place and D'Nulffos a seafood and chop house. They will employ 30 people. Great News for that growing neighborhood. They run the same named restaurants in Brookfield Plaza on EL.
I saw that the business the is going in at the former bank site on Lake Lansing in Eastwood is going to be a Chick-fil-A restaurant, soon every block will have at least one chicken take-out restaurant! and a Carhart store is going into a vacant storefront there. There is another Aldi is also being built near Eastwood. It is great that these big businesses are building even more outlets in the Greater Lansing area, although it seems like urban sprawl to me with the homogenization of our neighborhoods and civic identity with chain stores and restaurants, also with the replacement of our green belts around the city with surface blacktop parking lots and big box stores. The "town center" concept is a failure IMO especially in the case of Eastwood. Not in an economic sense perhaps, they seem to be doing well in that, way providing jobs shopping restaurants and entertainment which is a good thing. However pleasant looking it is rare to see people gather there in a sort of a "downtown way" and one could take a picture and ask, "where is this?" and no one could answer. [Think Silver Bells or 4th of July fireworks they are urban/city gatherings] Mostly just walking to and from their cars is the only time you see people in Eastwood Just like every other shopping center, which are for cars and parking, would it be a bad idea to plan a "town center" that actually was unique" and did work as an urban neighborhood. I do go to Eastwood to pick up my hubby, but I really enjoy being in the downtowns of EL and Lansing and Old town and REO-Town a lot more, and I would like to see more big business urban centric investment in the urban districts of our community to add to local businesses not destroy them, and not just more of the same spreading out in ever larger rings. Meijer's did it downtown Lansing and Target in downtown EL and I think those stores are successful.
I'm not sure how much of a success Eastwood even is in a retail sense. I feel like the concept was becoming out dated when they built it, and it was poorly executed. I really don't know anyone that really shops there. Maybe the occasional restaurant visit, but those aren't even that great out there. I'm one of those people that will go out of the way to support local places I like though and skip the chains...so I could be bias lol.
Even the best of these outdoor shopping centers, like Easton in Columbus, Ohio are having their struggles in various areas. I think retail is really going to change drastically with online and delivery. People just don't shop the same anymore.
Also, can we stop with the Chick-fil-A already? Over rated, over done, horrible company. Definitely one place that will never get my money.
Well, I guess they are somewhat successful at getting the lots developed, but I agree that the place is not a place that I often shop even though my husband works there at the Gap, which is where he ended up after Banana Republic closed. The Gap is planning to re-brand the store into a Gap Factory store which is a more warehouse type of store. Why I don't know. The kind of customer that they built that place for [high end] is not coming to shop a Gap Factory Store. I think landlords are going to have to recalibrate their rents for retail spaces so the tenants can make a little more profit and stay open as a "bricks and mortar" real 3-D shop. Of all the chicken take out shops we have to choose from, I never choose Chick-fil-A. Detroit Wings and the Kimchee Bowl have the best wings in downtown EL.
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Even the best of these outdoor shopping centers, like Easton in Columbus, Ohio are having their struggles in various areas. I think retail is really going to change drastically with online and delivery. People just don't shop the same anymore.
Also, can we stop with the Chick-fil-A already? Over rated, over done, horrible company. Definitely one place that will never get my money.