The former office space on the first floor of The State News at 439 E. Grand River Avenue has found new tenants — Asian fast casual restaurant Panda Express and Huntington Bank.
Panda Express is tentatively scheduled to open during the last week of October, senior real estate manager at Panda Restaurant Group Jim Tarpey said.
Huntington Bank is projected to open in the first quarter of 2017, Huntington Bank corporate public relations director Brent Wilder said via email.
The space has been vacant since The State News moved upstairs last February.
“Grand River Avenue is the place to be,” Tarpey said. “Our latest and greatest design, I think, is super contemporary. ... (There will) be TVs in there, lots of great food ... as well as internet.”
The restaurant chain currently has two locations in the Lansing area — one in the International Center on campus and the other in the food court at Meridian Mall.
“The (East Lansing) downtown itself right now is very vibrant,” Tarpey said. “We think we’ll fit right in with the retailers there, and it’ll be an opportunity for more great food in the area.”
Microbiology and molecular genetics junior Amber Marie Bedore said she did not know about the new location, but is a regular customer at the International Center’s Panda Express.
“I’ll absolutely go,” Bedore said. “I live off campus now, but when I lived on campus I ate (there) twice a week.”
Wilder said the Huntington Bank branch opening on Grand River Avenue will be one of three in East Lansing. The first is an in-store Meijer branch at 1350 W. Lake Lansing Road and the second is the FirstMerit branch at 1331 E. Grand River Avenue, which is in the process of converting to a Huntington Bank branch.
The branch will include a 24-hour lobby for Huntington Bank members to use the ATM and two customer service stations, Wilder said.
In addition to the restaurant and bank, a currently unknown third business will open in the space.
The State News filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the city of East Lansing to obtain information on the third business and is still waiting for a response. City Clerk Marie Wicks said via email that a response should arrive no later than Oct. 7.
