Here’s Capital Gains’ look at investing in Old Town Lansing. Also check out our guides to visiting and moving to Old Town.

Much of history begins at the water’s edge, and so it was with Old Town Lansing. 

In 1843, four years before the state’s capital was moved to Lansing, construction started on a dam and sawmill at an intersection of a major Native American trail. 

That’s the spot where Grand River Avenue now crosses the river in Old Town via a beautiful new bridge dedicated to a more recent Old Town pioneer, the late Robert Busby. Busby imagined and invested in Old Town in the 1980’s, when the area was little more than a few-block Victorian cityscape blemished by many closed and boarded up businesses.

Investing in Old Town has long been a labor of love as well as profit. With lots of sweat equity, Robert Busby, the late, honorary “Mayor of Old Town,” was the urban pioneer who opened the first art gallery, called Two Doors Down, and later what became Old Town’s art and performance landmark, the Creole Gallery.

At about the same time, developer Joel Ferguson turned a dollar into a renaissance—buying a tax-reverted and extremely run down Estes furniture warehouse from the city for a buck, on condition he would build office space, housing and open a restaurant.

That deal resulted in a row of beautiful condominiums on Turner Street, the Grand Café Sir Pizza on Grand River, and the spectacularly reconstructed warehouse, the Grand Center building, which housed Ferguson’s office, joined later by the Lansing Convention & Visitors Bureau, then Pace & Partners, a full-service marketing firm, and also high-tech firms like Control Room Technologies and Arialink, as well as attorney Stuart Shafer, one of a dozen law firms in Old Town.

Developers like Ferguson and Brian Huggler helped to germinate the current version of Old Town, creating an attractive cluster of law firms, retail, graphics design and marketing firms, in addition to the art galleries and eateries inspired by Busby.

More Than a Place

Ask Old Town business owners and they will tell you investing in Old Town has helped their businesses, and they’ve invested in a lot more than a building. Their hearts are into Old Town and the sense of place it continues to exude even as it grows.

It was Such Video and a host of other volunteers that created the video that swayed thousands of people across the planet to vote for Old Town in the IKEA makeover contest last summer.

The former Walnut School is also part of the boom of Old Town, now providing studio space to several working artists, as well as being the home of entrepreneurial enterprises like Niowave, which makes parts for cyclotrons. The classic old elementary school is also the home of LEAP, the Lansing Economic Area Partnership helping to shape mid-Michigan’s new economy growth.

Taken together, the business owners and investors in Old Town have created an inspiring place to live, work and play, and a destination for those looking for something with character and history.

And the attraction continues to gather momentum. Within a year, Old Town promises to also boast a brewery, as Zanders Old Town Brewery plans to begin brewing and distributing in a Clinton Street warehouse, including a small tap room where you can quaff the creations of Chris Zander.

Two tastings have been held there, but lots of work remains to be done on the facility, and Chris is offering many levels of investment to those who want to be part of the venture. (For a prospectus, drop an email to Chris here.)

Jamie Schriner-Hooper, executive director of the Old Town Commercial Association, says that realty companies don’t often deal in Old Town business properties or lofts, because demand is so high:  most are sold through word of mouth. “If the price is realistic, properties move quickly, she says.”  (Real estate opportunities currently available in Old Town can be found here.)

Style and Grace

While there's lots about Old Town that is a labor of love, many people also clearly see their investment as a capital generating idea.

Summer Schriner, Jamie's sister, has lived in Old Town for a total of eight years—first with Jamie, and then after she married.

“My husband and I decided that we loved Old Town and this was where we wanted to live,” she says.  She enjoys her short walk to work, biking the River Trail, and the proximity of everything in the community she cares so much about—especially the people.

While living in Old Town, Summer would sometimes help her friend, Aura Ozburn, who owns the famously successful eclectic specialties shop, October Moon, in Old Town. Schriner enjoyed the retail business and the Old Town experience, and dreamed of creating her own unique and wonderful woman’s boutique. Schriner has a law degree and does estate planning, but decided to take the plunge and open her own boutique in early 2007.

And that's the story of Grace, a place where retail fashion meets art

Investing in the business was scary, Schriner says, but she was certain that Grace would fill an unmet need in Old Town, creating a niche of its own.

For example, Grace offers Champagne Parties, where shoppers can gather to chat, sip, nibble truffles, and—of course—shop privately with their friends.

“To me, Grace is classic, elegant and graceful,” she says. “I like things that are different, and I only carry a couple of pieces in sizes that I think the piece was designed for and would look the best in. Overall, I actually carry pieces from size 0 to size 16. “

Today’s Old Town has attracted a unique blend of graphic and fine artists, as well as several galleries, each uniquely offering venues for local artists of all inclinations and media. These anchor a retail mix that includes fashionable women’s clothing, food and entertainment, as well as specialty and novelty shops.

Kathy Holcomb's Absolute Gallery has been open for five years, and she says she just finished her best month.

She had considered other locations for her gallery, but when she saw the space in Old Town, she snapped it up. “I felt like I was coming home.”

And, “It’s been getting better every year,” she says. “We’re about to sign a lease for another five years. We want to be here when it really takes off.”

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Jack Helder works as a writer/producer in Lansing, and is a lover of Old Town, showing his Salukis and fly fishing. 

Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of Trumpie Photography.

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Photos:

Aura Ozburn in October Moon

The Grand Center Building

Grace owner Summer Schriner

LEAP's offices in the rehabbed Walnut Street School

Absolute Gallery

All Photographs © Dave Trumpie