The Capital Region
The Lansing Mall on West Saginaw Highway is one of two in the Capital Region. During a visit on July 16th, WKAR's news team found that a third of stores in the mall were unoccupied.
Delta Township Supervisor Fonda Brewer said the mall needs some love.
"It truly does," Brewer said. "I'm not going to say that that's not in the minds of Summit Properties, who is the current owner.”
New York City-based Summit did not answer repeated requests for an interview, but Brewer says the firm has expressed interest in improving the Lansing Mall. She said a few ideas have been discussed by community leaders.
“Maybe move into more of a combined type of property," Brewer said. "Maybe there's some housing, maybe there's some retail space, maybe there's business space.”
The other indoor mall in the Lansing area, Meridian Mall, has also had talks of renovations and is currently in a similar situation with WKAR observing 34% of storefronts vacant on July 11th.
Meridian Township Supervisor Scott Hendrickson said new tenants are coming, and there are big ideas floating around for the huge piece of property like adding apartments and other retailers to its expansive parking lot.
Recently Schuler Books relocated to a larger space in the mall and Hendrickson said that Ashley Furniture will move to the mall as a new anchor store.
Chattanooga, Tennessee-based CBL Properties, who manages the mall, did not answer numerous requests for an interview. Hendrickson said he is already receiving pitches from potential developers about the future of the Meridian Mall property.
