Drive down Grand River Avenue and you'll see a narrow strip of one- and two-story brick buildings — bookstores, bars, bong shops and burrito joints — about what you'd expect in a midsize college town.

For better or worse, that's been the character of East Lansing's downtown for decades.

Not for much longer. Not if the city's planners have their way.

On the east side of the downtown stand the half-finished walls of a new retail and apartment development. On the west is City Center, the four-year-old home to Cosi and 39 condominiums. Each rises four stories above the surface streets, a beacon for the new downtown that is coming.

Bob Potvin sits at the window of his City Center condominium, sipping a glass of wine, looking out at the foot traffic along Grand River Avenue. Potvin, a broker in his 50s, says he doesn't mind the noise from below — "not one bit."

He and his wife moved into the center when it opened in 2002, and when asked what the disadvantages are to living downtown, he sits on his hands, forms a puzzled expression and fails to think of anything.

"I miss having access to my tools," he finally says.

He raves about being able to invite neighbors over for dinner at the spur of the moment, hold down a semi-permanent table at Beggar's Banquet, 218 Abbott Road, and "fall out the door" to one of East Lansing's summer festivals.

"It's that kind of thing that really makes this unique," he says.

Potvin, a former member of East Lansing's Downtown Development Authority, has a vision for the city's downtown, a place bustling with activity, where he could walk out to a corner bodega and buy a fresh head of lettuce — a neighborhood.

"The only difference between this neighborhood and other neighborhoods is this neighborhood goes up," he said.

Jim van Ravensway, the city's director of planning and community development, has a vision for the downtown, too.

He and the rest of the planning staff have been working to attract a number of multimillion dollar redevelopments, in the hopes of transforming East Lansing into an urban center, and drawing more people like Bob Potvin to the area in the years to come.

"The biggest change you're going to see is there's going to be a lot of people living downtown," van Ravensway said.

Stonehouse Village, on the corner of Grand River Avenue and Bailey Street, should be completed by August. Near Valley Court Park, new condominiums and retail space will begin construction this summer. The developer of City Center, Mike Bailey, is feeling confident he'll be able to proceed with plans for a similar project along Albert Avenue on the site of a city parking lot. That's just a sampling of what's in the works.

Retail is the other key component of the city's plans. New restaurants like Noodles & Co. and clothing stores like American Apparel have been the first wave. City officials hope to bring in places like Panera Bread and Potbelly Sandwich Works next, van Ravensway said.

But attracting developers downtown, where rebuilding costs can be astronomical, is a challenge in any city. East Lansing has been able to get projects off the ground with the help of tax increment financing, or TIF. A state-authorized method of stimulating redevelopment in downtowns, environmentally contaminated areas and technology zones. TIF money is raised by foregoing any raise in property taxes on new developments for a set period of time. The city is currently subsidizing a number of projects, mostly in the downtown, to the tune of more than $25 million. The city gave up $8.2 million in potential taxes to make City Center happen.

City Manager Ted Staton said without TIF dollars, which can be used for things like parking ramp construction or demolition of old buildings, downtown developments would "come to a screeching halt."

"Plenty of people argue that but for the TIF, the projects wouldn't be happening," Staton said. "It makes them financially feasible, it makes them politically feasible."

City Council outlined the types of projects it will support with TIF dollars in the future when it adopted a new downtown housing policy earlier this year. The policy places emphasis on for-sale condominiums and projects that mix residential and retail aspects.

City officials have discouraged developers from building traditional student rentals, the policy's lowest priority.

"Our city is filled with single-family homes and apartments," Mayor Sam Singh said. "There's a saturation of student housing options."

Singh said he'd prefer to see more condominiums and one-bedroom lofts built.

The conventional wisdom is that even if developers don't build the traditional four-bedroom apartments that cater to a student market, students will still find their way into new developments.

David Krause's Stonehouse Village project is comprised mainly of two-bedroom apartments, but he said about 75 percent of the renters next fall will be undergraduate students.

City officials say they're attempting to create a more diverse downtown, attracting empty nesters and young professionals by building for-sale units rather than rentals. A 2001 study commissioned by the city found there was an immediate demand for at least 130 such units.

Krause is investigating the feasibility of building for-sale condominiums in a second Stonehouse Village project located behind the one currently under construction.

But developers are hesitant to say if there's a strong enough market to sell all the units they have in the works.

"It's been proven once," Krause said, referring to City Center. "We'll probably be the next people to test it."

If history is any indicator, there is a pent-up demand for housing downtown. All 39 City Center condominiums sold out immediately — Potvin got his through a lottery. Krause's 24-unit Stonehouse Village is also completely rented for the fall.

"There's room for this kind of development downtown," Potvin said.

But Potvin said downtown redevelopment won't happen without continued government involvement.

"Five years ago, there were some problems with what it was becoming," he said. "The free market doesn't always get done what you want to have done.

"You have to have a city that's willing to step up to the plate."

As he's saying this, Matt Ligon, his cousin through marriage, shows up at the door.

"This is awesome," Ligon says, beaming, as he steps in and examines the apartment.

Soon Potvin and Ligon fall into discussing dinner plans — a table at Beggar's.