Updated on May 10, 2023 at 5:10 a.m. ET
Downtown Lansing will soon be home to a new food business incubator program.
The Macotta Club will be located in the historic Knapp’s Centre building. More than a dozen different culinary startups will operate in the 20,000-square-foot space.
Plans include a commercial kitchen, a full-service bar as well as room for six restaurants, five food trucks and five wholesale food makers.
The name of the Macotta Club comes from the historic blue and yellow tiling on the outside of the building. It's called Macotta tile.
Julie Reinhardt with Downtown Lansing Inc. says this project comes after the success of the organization’s retail incubator program.
She says the goal is to offer a lower risk option for businesses just getting off the ground.
"Those that are just about ready to get their own space, but maybe need a low cost or lower some barriers to entry to that because owning a restaurant is really expensive."
She adds that will in turn make downtown more of a destination.
"As we are transforming downtown post COVID, we're designing a neighborhood," she said.
"Prior to COVID, we serviced one customer which was the daytime worker. That's different for us now post COVID."
Reinhardt says the startups that will have space in the building have not yet been finalized, but several businesses have already expressed interest.
The Macotta Club is set to open in the spring of next year.
WKAR's Arjun Thakkar contributed to this report.
