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The Opportunities Analysis helps
identify a range of potential economic positioning
and real estate strategies that inform the physical
design plan for the DDA district. Its purpose
is to raise awareness of some of the untapped
market potentials within the region that could
help develop a focused identity for the district
and help differentiate it within the regional
market. By focusing on these untapped markets,
the growth of the East Towne Village area will
not depend on the decline of other areas within
the region.
In short, the Opportunities
Analysis helps answer the question, “What
economic role will the DDA district play within
the metropolitan area and the central Michigan
region?” It also shows, conceptually, how
and where these opportunities can materialize
on the land, and equally important, the Opportunities
Analysis will explore strategies to help the lifestyle
center, and the entire DDA district, retain its
economic vitality over time
MARKET
SUSTAINABILITY
The addition of Eastwood Towne Center
to the DDA district poses many strong opportunities
as well as challenges. It has emerged as a major
shopping attraction within the metropolitan Lansing
area and stimulated a great deal of investment
interest throughout the district and surrounding
communities.
At present, it appears the investor/developer
community views the area primarily as a magnet
for further retail development because of its
retail success. While this position may hold the
promise of a significant and immediate amount
of new development, it could very easily result
in the district becoming a single-use zone dominated
by automobiles, without a built-in market of customers
who might actually live and/or work in the immediate
area. However, such a captive market will help
sustain the retail component, and insure it against
marginalization or outright abandonment when the
next new thing in retail is developed elsewhere
in the region. Experience shows that the most
successful shopping environments are part of a
distinct community that contains other uses and
activities, such as employment, recreation, and
housing. Stand alone commercial centers - including
many built fairly recently - have proven to be
vulnerable to the fickle fads and fashions of
the highly competitive retail industry. This vulnerability
is especially apparent in projects that position
themselves principally as regional centers.
In general, the larger trade
area from which a project draws, the higher its
susceptibility to being cannibalized by a new
regional center. (If people were willing to drive
30 minutes or more to Eastwood, they would be
just as willing to drive 30 minutes to experience
the next new regional retail center.) In response,
many new lifestyle centers include upscale grocery
stores as anchor, or primary tenants. This stable
land use provides a hedge, and casts the lifestyle
center in a dual role as both regional center
and local service area.
CREATING
PLACE
The idea of ‘placemaking’
is central to Governor Granholm’s Cool Cities
Initiative. Although the lifestyle center literally
put the DDA district on the regional economic
map, and is a vast improvement in both the quality
and mix of retail development in the region, it
still lacks many of the ingredients and activities
that define a place. Missing pieces include non-retail
employment, housing, recreation, and civic uses,
as well as a genuine public realm where people
can gather and socialize without having to make
a purchase. Other ingredients include a balance
of evening and daytime activities, a greater complement
of entertainment and recreation opportunities,
community-wide walkability, and consistent attention
to high-quality design.
AN
URBAN VILLAGE FOR AN URBAN LIFESTYLE
A major factor driving the success of many mixed
use communities, including many new or restored
downtown developments, is the country’s
changing demographic patterns. Trends show a general
aging of the population along with higher numbers
of smaller households including single person/parent
households. Another factor has to do with a widespread
general dissatisfaction with suburban living.
The convention of a detached single family house
on a large lot in the suburbs simply does not
meet the lifestyle needs or social expectations
of many empty nesters, retirees, young professionals,
and dual-income couples without children. Many
of these groups crave alternative scenes and neighborhoods,
and have flocked to communities where there is
a richness of activities, diversity, identity,
and architecture. The desire to live in non-suburban
alternatives has fueled the well documented back-to-the-city
phenomenon of the past twenty years, which has
manifested itself in a plethora of exciting downtown
warehouse districts, neo-traditional neighborhoods,
and new, mixed use urban villages.
In addition to downtown living,
a market tested format that appeals to many younger
professionals and retirees is the “Urban
Village” or satellite district that is tethered
to downtown via a major transportation spine.
Although the Lansing area has been quite slow
to respond to this trend, there is evidence that
a fledgling market for this type of lifestyle
does exist here (e.g. Old Town, the Hawks Nest
development in East Lansing's Northern Tier, and
the recently announced Stockwell neo-traditional
project in Meridian Township). As a capitol/university
city, the area also has a demographic profile
and a regional stature that is favorable to alternative,
urban-oriented lifestyles. The planning and design
of such a district is the focus of this DDA district
master plan.
The lack of condominium and
loft conversion projects in Downtown Lansing suggests
that downtown suffers from a weak real estate
market that could be attributed to perceptions
of safety, lack of shopping, and poor public services.
It could also suggest that the local development
community is extremely conservative and/or suffers
from a general lack of vision. In either case,
the dearth of downtown residential redevelopment
suggests that this market may be quicker to take
root in a place like the DDA district, which is
close to downtown yet remains at a comfortable
arm’s length.
SPECIAL
MARKET OPPORTUNITIES
This plan was developed in conjunction with, and
informed by, a detailed market strategy study
performed by Anderson Economic Group. The purpose
of the study was to gauge the relative strengths
and weaknesses of the local market over a range
of land use categories and business types; offer
professional opinions on the competitive position
of the DDA district relative to the region; and
approximate the capacity of the market to absorb
new growth (measured in terms of square footage
per land use category) to the year 2010. The study
evaluated traditional market sectors as well as
specific niche markets that are expected to create
symbiotic relationships with existing and proposed
land uses. The opportunities identified through
this analysis are for new market creation, not
cannibalization of markets from other locations
in the Lansing area.
Although the study covered a
trade area that is much larger than the DDA district,
it provided a useful barometer in guiding the
mix and the amount of various land uses shown
in the plan. A complete copy of the study is included
as Appendix A. The consultant team believes that
the incorporation of niche markets into the district
will reinforce the strength of the retail components
and differentiate its offerings from those in
the metro area and region. The niche markets explored
included:
• DESIGN
CENTER - A design center concept for the
northern extension of the lifestyle center that
would include high-end home furnishings and renovation
products, with supporting professional services,
such as interior design and architecture
• RETIREMENT
HOUSING - An age-in-place community in
the Medical Campus that would provide a continuum
of senior housing and assisted living options
in a high amenity environment with access to local
medical services
• MEDICAL
OFFICE CLUSTER - Such development would
build on the existing group of medical buildings
west of Wood Road and would be further supported
by adjacent retirement housing
• CORPORATE
FLAGSHIP - A corporate headquarters and
high quality hotel for a portion of land abutting
U.S.127 that could capitalize on the convenient
access from, and market visibility of this location
as well as the amenities of the lifestyle center
and future residential, and proximity to the airport
and MSU
• URBAN
LIFESTYLE HOUSING - Centrally located housing,
including low- to middensity condominiums, townhouses,
and apartments, within mixed use areas and along
an extension of the Groesbeck Golf Course/Greenway
• SPECIALTY
FOODS - Boutique grocery for the area surrounding
the Krispy Kreme that capitalizes on the growing
“slow food” trend of higher quality
and organic foods, wine, and kitchen equipment.
This area could be linked with potential for greenhouse
farming on the reclaimed portions of the Granger
Landfill
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