Russell said she considered moving to other sites in the downtown area, but rent prices, space needed for classes and other factors prompted her to look elsewhere in East Lansing for her studio’s new home.

“We were hoping to be able to stay downtown, (but) there wasn’t anything that really worked,” Russell said.

The dance center was popular among community members and likely will be missed by some residents in the downtown, East Lansing Community Development Specialist Heather Pope said in an e-mail.

“We heard a lot of positive feedback about Spartan Dance Center from downtown businesses and the users of the dance center,” Pope said. “They brought additional people to downtown East Lansing by providing a service not currently offered by another business.”

Pope said the redevelopment project in the Spartan Dance Center’s former Ann Street location likely would be completed in 2011 and will include retail, commercial and residential space.

Wittney Ransome, a hospitality business senior who has taken her daughter to classes at Spartan Dance Center, said the new location would be more convenient for her because of its close proximity to her home. But she said the studio might lose some business from students living closer to downtown East Lansing.

“The location they were in was prime, with all the college students around,” Ransome said.
Ransome said she had considered signing her daughter up for classes again before she heard the studio was moving, but now is confident she’s going to because it’s so close.

Russell said she was not too worried about potential loss of customers because of the largely positive feedback she’s received about the move. She said of the nearly 600 people in her studio’s customer database, only 23 complained of the move and wished the new location was closer to campus, and many were pleased the center was moving so they wouldn’t have to pay for parking in the city.

“Everyone was very excited about the free parking,” Russell said. “We’re still close to a huge base of our student population, a lot of (whom) were already driving to get here.”

She said the center likely would prosper on Abbot Road because of the current growth in that part of East Lansing.

“(There’s) so much housing growth and student growth — everything is moving (in) this direction of the city,” Russell said. “We’re very excited we made this decision.”