“We make all our dressings in-house from scratch. We make our own dough. We actually make our own cheese in-house every day,” Howey said. “We try to do everything in-house versus Blaze or Mod or some of the other ‘build-your-own’ models out there.”

Cosi, the last restaurant to occupy that space, closed after it filed bankruptcy in 2016 on short notice. Since then, the space has been vacant even though signage remains. Snap Pizza owners say they are pushing the East Lansing location to open in the first months of 2020.

“Our pizzas are fresh with fresh ingredients,” said co-owner Rob Wasserman. “Each person just gets to come up there, choose the ingredients they want, watch it cook and it’s all for one price.”

Snap Pizza will occupy a premiere spot in East Lansing's downtown, said Thomas Fehrenbach, director of the East Lansing Department of Planning, Building and Development.

“It’s been vacant for too long, so I think there’s a lot of excitement that a good restaurant is taking over that space and hopefully will help activate the core of downtown East Lansing even more,” Fehrenbach said.

Snap Pizza is known for being near college campuses, as it is in multiple locations, including several areas of Philadelphia, Newark and a recent store in Ann Arbor.

Howey said the company's goal is to bring high quality products to students and residents for a fair price.

“I think that when you get into higher quality, better for you, clean foods, a lot of times you are paying a real premium price for that,” Howey said. "We really have a great intersection of quality and pricing.”

Howey and Wasserman are both excited to bring Snap Pizza to the East Lansing community.

“We’re really excited to be part of the community,” Howey said. “I think there’s a lot of great changes going on in East Lansing, and it seems like we’re coming into a great time in the community where there’s a lot of exciting things going on. We’re just really trying to be a part of it.”