Old Town, new look

When Raymond Simanavicius first arrived in historic Old Town Lansing, he immediately saw its potential. “I just thought, ‘Oh my God, this is a place that’s going to be booming,’” Simanavicius said. “When you look at the history and the design and the architecture … It’s kind of trendy.”

Simanavicius, a project manager for Swedish furniture giant IKEA, is helping Old Town rebuild with the Small Businesses, Big Dreams contest. After the Old Town Commercial Association, or OTCA, submitted a three-minute video profiling the area, Old Town won the contest in September.

The community beat 49 other cities to win $50,000 in IKEA products and services.

The projects began Monday and are set to continue throughout the next two weeks.

“It was exciting. Things like that don’t happen every day,” said Amanda Hightree, the outreach coordinator for the Mackinac Chapter of the Sierra Club, 109 E. Grand River Ave., in Lansing, one of 10 businesses sharing the $50,000 prize.

“Being a nonprofit, we’re a lot different than some of the businesses in the area,” Hightree said. “All of our (furniture) is donated and it’s not often we get to select the stuff we need.”

The renovations are part of a renaissance in Old Town. Since the passing of Robert Busby, the owner of the Creole Gallery, 1218 Turner St., in Lansing, who was murdered in his shop early last year, 20 new businesses have opened.

“We were worried about (losing business),” said Jamie Schriner-Hooper, executive director of the OTCA. “But gratefully the exact opposite has happened.”

The OTCA, which spearheaded the movement, first learned of the contest through an e-mail from IKEA.

“One of our board members saw the contest was happening and thought it was a good thing to look into,” said Shannon Rolley, the OTCA’s communications director. “A couple people sat down and we threw the video together.”

The OTCA used local resource Such Video, 111 E. Grand River Ave., in Lansing, a video production company in Old Town, to make the winning entry, “Old Town Lansing — Just a little past normal.”

When the association was notified that Old Town was one of the 10 national finalists, the OTCA used JazzFest, Lansing’s annual music festival, as a platform to rally votes for the contest.

But JazzFest wasn’t the only source Old Town businesses used to spread the word. Stan Werbin, owner of Elderly Instruments, 1100 N. Washington Ave., in Lansing, used his widely visited Web site to inform loyal customers of the efforts going on in Old Town.

“I didn’t know we were one of the businesses at the time,” Werbin said. “We just put up the notice on our Web site to get voters.”

Elderly Instruments has been selling guitars and other instruments nationally since 1975. They moved into their Old Town location in 1983 and Werbin said he is welcoming the changes.

“They will primarily be working on the entranceway,” Werbin said. “They are going to paint, change the lighting and change the flooring.”

After being announced the winner, the owners of the 10 businesses were each assigned a designer who took them through the IKEA store in Canton.

Simanavicius said when the designers started working with the companies, the goal wasn’t to change the business completely.

“We didn’t want to infringe on the identity of the business,” Simanavicius said. “IKEA is just strengthening and reinforcing that.”

Simanavicius raved about the Old Town businesses and owners during the entire process.

“Vernadine (of Vernadine’s Soul Food Carry Out) was tearing up as we went through IKEA,” Simanavicius said. “It made us feel good that she was so happy.”

Published on Monday, January 7, 2008