REO Town Development

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  • Sad to see the fire - I saw the fire trucks whizzing past my house and wondered what I'd hear on the news. But, the warehouse had been so altered over the years, it'd largely lost whatever little architectural value it had. Apparently, REO used to store cars in the place.

    Anyway, glad to hear that mural wasn't damaged, and it's reported that only the front end of the building was damaged heavily with the rest having minor smoke damage. Hopefully, it can be salvaged. QD for whatever else they are known for, it's not known for being particularly good to its properties, and I'm being nice. Congrats for them cleaning up their HQs down the street and redoing their Michigan Ave store in East Lansing, but beyond that, they are pretty horrible at property upkeep and renovations. In a perfect world, they'd sell this building and someone could do something else more befitting its history.

    It's really a shame what they did to the building. If one didn't know any better, they'd have figured it was abandoned or at least mostly so, because QD had boarded up the windows a long time ago.

  • Oh, I don't know about that - the QD near our home was redone, with a design by Studio Intrigue Architects actually: http://www.studiointrigue.com/quality-dairy-michigan-ave . (It still looks like a convenience store mind you but... clearly they care a little.)

  • edited July 2017

    I literally brought up that one as the exception. lol

    Congrats for them cleaning up their HQs down the street and redoing their Michigan Ave store in East Lansing

    And honestly, the only reason they did that was was because it's across the street from the university. Let's see them redo the one I grew up near at Cedar and Saginaw. I've been waiting for years. They still haven't demolished the old attached bakery they abandoned years ago. When a driver took out their sign on the corner, did they replace it? Nope. They've got an old sign off of Larch I'm not sure they even know is there.

    They are fairly terrible property owners, doing the bare minimum.

  • Oh. Yeah I saw that. Ahem.

  • It does seem like they do a minimum amount of upkeep on some of their buildings. They have recently re-painted the processing plant down the street from the warehouse site on S. Washington. It seems like it depends on which neighborhood the store is located as to how much upkeep or remodeling they do. I grew up going to the QD at Pattengill and Mt. Hope, it has been redone since then but it smells exactly like it did 40 years ago! They should have the same signage and cleanliness standards in every store, other chain stores seem to be able to do that.

  • A brewery and a pottery studio are coming to REO Town:

    LANSING - A vacant corner block in REO Town will be transformed into a brewery and pottery studio.

    Sleepwalker Spirits & Ale could open at 1101 S. Washington Ave. by the end of the year. Dan Nunez's Wheel House Studio, which will offer ceramics classes, could open by next spring at 1103 S. Washington Ave. Fusion Shows will open in August above Sleepwalker's storefront at the corner of Elm Street and Washington Avenue.

  • This will be great to have in the neighborhood adding to the foot traffic and bringing people to the other REOtown businesses. I like how REOtown is different than Old Town, in the feel of REOtown is Midwestern a wide sunny street with low rise brick buildings. Old Town being older of course has a more Eastern feel with narrow streets and taller buildings. I think it is good that all three of our classic downtown's have a different feel. Meanwhile in REOtown two small businesses have closed that sold vintage and re-purposed items. Also the recording studio has moved out on the same block so maybe they raised the rent there. Also up the street Corky's Detail Shop has closed. That would be a great place for a corner grocery/deli store. The Elm Street bridge is suppose to close today, I hope the repairs do not take long Elm Street is my favorite back way to get downtown.

  • edited August 2017

    The vintage resellers will be moving into "REO Marketplace" in the old Foliage Design building. It looks to be something like Ferndale's "Rust Belt" . Should be a definite addition to REO town.

  • I am hoping that the people redeveloping the "REO Marketplace" put some effort into place making for that building. Some kind of feeling that this is not just a big warehouse, but a fun and interesting destination. They really failed to do that at the City Market. They also need "real" vendors that will offer full shelves and high quality, not people doing a booth as a hobby or just setting up a table. It could be really cool if they do it right.

  • I had somehow missed or overlooked the news about the REO Town Marketplace, it sounds like it could be a really interesting place. I hope they do something with the facade of that building, I know there's some sort of brick underneath that paneling.

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