Eastside : Development News

With a thriving location already in Edgewood Town Centre, the fashion retailer Dots had their eye on Lansing for a place to locate second store for some time. According to Jennifer Marrara, Marketing Manager for the Ohio-based company, Dots spent nine months on the project that would eventually lead to the August 25 opening of a new store in Frandor.
 
“The Frandor Mall has strong traffic and dense population,” says Marrara. “This was also an ideal location for us, with it being so close to Michigan State University.”
 
The 5,600 square foot store offers low-cost, trendy clothes for women ranging from size zero to 24. Dots now employs 15 workers at the newly opened store.
 
Nationwide, Dots now operates more than 400 stores. The company has recently announced it is partnering with Susan G. Komen for the Cure® during October for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month to raise awareness of the importance of breast cancer prevention, detection and treatment with the "Girlfriends Giving Back" program.

America’s Best, a national optical retailer headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, has been making Lansing one of its newest homes over the past couple of years. After the opening of a Delta Township location in 2009, the company is now celebrating the opening of a new, 3,587 store in Frandor.
 
““We are very excited to expand more into the Lansing area,” says Reade Fahs, president and CEO of America’s Best. “We carefully selected these vibrant locations to make quality eyecare at low prices accessible for area residents.”
 
The new America’s best opened in late June and now employs approximately nine employees. Nationally, America’s Best is the fastest growing optical retailer with over 300 stores. The company is known for it’s low-cost glasses, contacts and eye exams.
 
“We look forward to serving our new customers and becoming an integral part of the community,” says Fahs.

Since its inception, the Information Technology Empowerment Center has been busy all over Lansing, implementing technology education programs all over the city, from local schools to the YMCA to Impression 5. With the announcement of the new ITEC headquarters in the Foster Community Center, the group now offers a location for the community to come to them.
 
“ITEC is a community organization and we need to have presence in the community,” says Kirk Riley, ITEC Executive Director. “We want to be where people need us.”
 
While ITEC’s remote programs will continue, the two cutting-edge computer labs located in the new headquarters will bring a new community service to Lansing’s East Side. The facilities will be home to Everyday Digital, ITEC’s newest education program designed to teach both job-seeking and curious adults basic computer literacy.
 
“We’ll be working with underemployed and unemployed adults, and others who just want to learn more about computer,” says Riley. “We’ll seniors who simply want to learn how to download and look at pictures of their grandchildren, and we welcome them too.”
 
In addition to the two new computer labs, the 2,000 square foot location will also provide a place for ITEC to have a headquarters inside the community. The organization was previously provided office space at Michigan State University.
 
“ITEC is here to serve the people of Lansing and to build capacity for participating with technology,” says Riley. “This is a really important transition we’re making to have that impact in the community.” 

The Allen Neighborhood Center has big plans in the works to transform the Allen Street Farmers Market into a year-round Food Resource Center including an incubator kitchen and food storage facility. The estimated $300,000 project has recently been helped along by a $75,000 grant from the Capital Region Community Foundation.

"Our mission includes crafting programs that support the health, stability and economic well-being of Eastside residents and other stakeholders," says Joan Nelson, director of the Allen Neighborhood Center. "The Food Resource Center will further this by supporting year round access to locally grown and nutritious foods while creating varied and extensive economic opportunities for emerging and aspiring food entrepreneurs."

Work on the project is expected to begin this fall with help from Lansing Community College's Design and Construction Technologies Program. Nelson hopes to open the kitchen in late spring or early summer of 2012, install food storage areas by the following September, and bring the market indoors in November.

According to Nelson, the Allen Neighborhood Center is excited for the new facility's potential to enhance their current programming and become the impetus for new initiatives.

"We believe that the Center will catalyze a whole new set of food, energy, entrepreneurial, and health related initiatives to enrich public and private life in the region," she says.

Allen Neighborhood Center intends the center to be located in a 5,000-square foot facility near the current Allen Street Market. Nelson expects to increase staff to accommodate the increase in space and programming.

The new, 1,350 square foot Fountain of Wellness on Clippert in Frandor serves smoothies, hosts weight loss challenges and one-on-one nutrition counseling. But it wasn't owner Driscilla McCourtie's intention to get into the wellness business.

After struggling with her weight for years, however, she finally found a system that worked for her in the Herbalife product line and became a distributor just so she could get a discount.

"I did not want to sell," says McCourtie. "But people came to me. So then it was suggested that I start running Weight Loss Challenges in Lansing."

The success of her Weight Loss Challenges pushed McCourtie to make a career in wellness. She and partner Mark Ives now operate the Fountain of Wellness.

"We're here to make a difference in people's lives," McCourtie says. It's about more than weight loss. I've helped people with fibromyalgia pain, allergies, cholesterol, all sorts of things."

The insurance industry has had some ups and downs over the past few years, but for the third-generation insurance family and owners of the Keibler McCoy NuStar Insurance Agency, the key to success was changing to fit the economy. After operating out of their home office since 2008, husband and wife team Todd McCoy and Lisa Kiebler-McCoy are moving into 1,078 square foot storefront in the Haslett Village.

"Well we both grew up in the Haslett and East Lansing area," says Todd McCoy. "It's close to home, it's close to where we grew up, and it's a good place to start to grow our business."

The Kiebler McCoy NuStart Insurance Agency will open later this summer, and McCoy hopes to have one employee hired and trained prior to that opening date. Additional hiring may occur after they open.

Their decision to open in the Haslett Village shopping center was aided by CB Richard Ellis/Martin.

"We wanted a storefront area, as opposed to being in a office building," says McCoy. "We wanted a retail storefront type look. It's a nice, growing area."

According to Doug Winkler, most businesses that offer tanning and salon services are one of two things.

"Most places are tanning businesses where they play around with a little hair or hair salons where they play around with a little tanning," he says.

Not so with he and his wife Pam Winkler's new Frandor business The Oasis. The newly renovated 5,000 square foot facility will be the combined home of their former businesses, Guys and Dolls Salon and Spa and Tanzmania Tanning. Not only will the businesses, which the Winklers have owned for 20 and 10 years respectively, be in one location, but they're also each expanding in scope and size.

"we literally relocated and rebuilt both businesses.For the most poart we've pretty much doubled the size of both buseiess

The tanning side of the business will offer 25 new tanning rooms with more tanning options for customers. The salon side has already doubled in staff up to 18, and Winkler expects they'll double staff again within in two years. The tanning side currently has 12 employees.

"We've done a very significant expansion into the spa category," says Winkler. "We have licensed aestheticians, massage therapists and people who are doing all forms of body waxing."

The grand opening for the Oasis will take place this week. Winkler adds that the physical renovation of the space is just as exciting as the business upgrades.

"The facility itself is beautiful," he says. "We're excited and proud."