More than three months after opening in the Northern Tier, Maggy's Sports Grill remains the only bar and restaurant combination in the area - battling safety concerns and a thriving downtown bar scene.
Maggy's is part of the Chandler Crossing Retail Center, 16800 S. Chandler Road, a development home to a variety of other retail stores designed to cater to Northern Tier residents. The bar offers visitors live entertainment, including DJs on Saturday nights and sports games shown on televisions throughout the bar, as well as pool tables and arcade-style games.
Kitchen manager Tanner Tacey said that as more stores have opened in the center, business at Maggy's during the day has been steadily increasing.
"We don't have the constant student traffic like in downtown with people bar hopping," the advertising senior said.
"If you're at this bar, you're here, and you don't hop around to other bars."
Most of Maggy's clientele are students drawn from the surrounding apartments, Tacey said.
"If you live by a bar, there's a good chance you'll be at that bar more frequently," he said. "With the surrounding student community, it's tough not to get business.
"It's a unique location."
Jim van Ravensway, director of planning and community development for East Lansing, said that many Northern Tier residents would likely walk to Maggy's - a situation he says could be "problematic" for students living in apartments across the 45-mph road.
Communication and sociology junior and Northern Tier resident Ashley Ogonowski said while Maggy's location is convenient, she's worried about the lack of sidewalks and crosswalks in the area.
"It's an accident waiting to happen for people walking home drunk," she said.
But Tacey said he doesn't foresee any safety hazards.
"We have plenty of parking, and everything is well lit," he said. "We don't have a lot of people walking here, but in the winter, when road conditions worsen, it will drive business up because we are in walking distance."
Aside from Maggy's, many new developments are springing up in the area.
Van Ravensway said 80-100 single family homes are under construction, 3,400 bedrooms will be available once the student complex behind Maggy's is completed and Bath Township officials have approved the construction of another student complex.
Despite further developments in the Northern Tier, van Ravensway said it isn't likely that another bar will be built in the area, but another restaurant would fit in due to the growing population.
"There's already an entrenched market down here, and it's going to be hard to pull a lot of kids from downtown," he said. "There's too much competition from downtown. If another bar were to go up there, it would probably be stretching the market because people prefer to go downtown."
