Johnny’s Lunch, 101 E. Grand River Ave., and Spartan Gyros, 565 E. Grand River Ave., will fit this description when they open in the next few weeks, Pozsgay said. Both restaurants were scheduled to open in August but are still undergoing construction indoors.

Jawed John Razmal, co-owner of New York Deli & Buffet, 547 E. Grand River Ave., which opened during Welcome Week, said he opened his sub, sandwich and salad shop because of his interest in the student crowd. Razmal grew up in Lansing and opened a restaurant in Las Vegas two years ago.

“I came back for the students,” Razmal said. “I like the college people.”

Tim Dempsey, East Lansing’s community and economic development administrator, compared the ever-changing business landscape near Grand River Avenue to a shopping mall.

“The difference here is that everything is much more visible,” Dempsey said. “If a store opens or goes out of business, you don’t know unless you’re inside the mall. If something is going on in East Lansing, everybody knows.”

New juice bar California Juice Company, 549 E. Grand River Ave., planned to open in July but still opened in time for Welcome Week, co-owner Erin Horton said.

“We wanted to get the kinks out before the students came back, but it didn’t work out,” Horton said.

Inspections of the store took longer than expected, she said. Those setbacks delayed the process of bringing in blenders and other equipment and painting the walls inside.

“It would have been nice to open when we had planned, but from what I heard from other businesses around here, it was a slow summer,” she said.

Horton said the pace of customers coming in for smoothies has been anything but slow. The store has ran out of strawberries and bananas several times.

Bubble Island, 515 E. Grand River Ave., co-owner Dave Lin said he has no worries that another juice bar opening just a few doors away would interfere with his business.

“We’ve dealt with new businesses popping up all the way up and down the street and we’ve weathered them before,” Lin said. “We haven’t seen any difference in our number of customers yet, but it’s a little too early to tell.”

Dempsey said new businesses have to set themselves apart from what existing stores already offer to have success.

“With 45,000 students returning to campus this time of year, businesses think they can just open in the fall and tap into that market,” Dempsey said. “The challenge for these places is that running a business is more than just opening your doors – they need to offer a unique product to survive.”