East Lansing Planning and Community Development Director Tim Dempsey said the city has continued its efforts to work with City Center Partners 2 LLC, the property owner, and The Christman Company, the property’s managing partner.

“There have been conversations with some prospects, but at this point, there is no one committed to the space,” Dempsey said, adding there is no definitive time frame for when the space might be filled.

East Lansing Community and Economic Development Administrator Lori Mullins said the city wants to fill the space as quickly as possible.

Dempsey said the site’s landlords do not want to disclose how many businesses have expressed interest in the site.

Christman CEO Steve Roznowski said in a statement the company is glad to see increased interest in the building.

“It’s a great building in a great location, and we’re continuing to work with our City Center partners to bring another great anchor tenant as expeditiously as possible,” he said in the statement.

Dempsey said officials are continuing to look at all options for potential tenants, but said they have specifically explored the potential for a grocery store or retail shop options.

“Really, we’re looking at the universe of retail,” he said.

He said a single tenant in the space would be ideal, as building costs would be reduced.
But construction costs could change depending on the final layout of the building and potential tenants, Dempsey said.

“It’s user-dependent — not every business will, for instance, want to maintain the escalator,” he said. “However, if a retailer wanted to keep that feature in the building, it would certainly reduce the build-out cost.”

Councilmember Don Power said if officials want to change downtown, the city needs to look into bringing a business in that would employ people who spend money and time in that area.

“I think what you have to look at is … what type of people do we want to come to the downtown East Lansing area?” he said. “I want a business that actually does something there.”

Power also said a grocery store or an additional retailer would not be viable options to draw new customers to downtown.

But social relations and policy junior Bruce Winters said a grocery store would be the best option to fill the space, as the area is currently lacking one, but said city officials should look to put in multiple businesses.

“It’s kind of hard to get access to cheap food here,” he said. “I think it would be better if they could put multiple things in — they should use as much (space) as they can.”