Joanna Liu left Taiwan nearly 20 years ago to live with her parents in Okemos. She started off preparing sushi to be sold at Meijer. One day, she visited Michigan’s Capital City and became inspired by the activity there.
"I came to downtown and I [saw] a lot of people walk around," Liu said. "I told my mom, 'one day I want to have a business here.'"
Liu got the chance to open her own restaurant in Lansing along Washington Square in 2010, down the block from the state Capitol. AnQi Sushi Express launched with just sushi but has since expanded to offering bubble tea and Taiwanese meals.
"That's special ... not too many restaurants [have] Taiwanese food, so people like it," she said.
Most of her customers have been state employees that commute daily to Lansing. But the COVID-19 pandemic brought much of that traffic to a screeching halt.
The Lansing area has seen a number of businesses close since then, but Liu is thankful she’s been able to stay open.
“Fortunately I never closed," she said. "I just keep working because I know if I closed then that would be very difficult to come back.”
The importance of having a thriving downtown
Even prior to the pandemic, Liu acknowledged downtown has struggled to be a vibrant place beyond work hours.
Business and government leaders in Lansing often say having an active downtown is important to growing mid-Michigan — and they hope to see the neighborhood thrive beyond the 9 to 5 routine.
But the area is facing a number of challenges.
State and office employees aren’t commuting there for work as often as they used to, prompting a number of businesses to close their doors or relocate elsewhere.
Cathleen Edgerly, executive director of Downtown Lansing Inc., said you can think of downtown Lansing as the pulse of mid-Michigan.
"If a downtown is strong, typically as you look around, the surrounding neighborhoods are strong," she said. “If your heart is failing, the rest of your body is going to, after time, start to fail as well."
"We need to make sure that we have a strong downtown in order for our region and our state to continue to succeed."
She said with the rise of remote work, Lansing can’t assume office workers are always going to be there.
"We knew for years, quite frankly, for generations, that a downtown that was built around the hours of 8 to 5 was just not sustainable. But that business model worked for a long time until it didn't," she said.
She argued the central business district needs to continue positioning itself as a place for dining and entertainment — and boost its housing density for potential residents.
A Downtown Lansing Inc. analysis from last year indicated that increasing retail, housing, walkability and public spaces could transform the city. The study stated that downtown has enough housing demand to fill 1,100 new housing units each year the next five years.
Edgerly said repurposing old, unused spaces is one way to bring more amenities downtown.
“Where do we have underutilized spaces, whether it is a surface lot, whether it is just grassy patch, right? And how can we better utilize this space to serve the needs of those who are here within our city center?” she said.
And there are a lot of empty storefronts in Lansing. Edgerly said retail vacancy downtown is approaching 30 percent, and she estimates downtown has around 1 million square feet of vacant office space — enough space to fill 17 football fields.
The vacant space also includes surface parking lots. A sustainable transportation blog called Lansing a "parking crater complex" and placed the Capital City at the top of its list for American cities with the most space for vehicle parking.
Liu said parking enforcement is one reason she's seen fewer visitors, recounting how she used to have a customer who visited daily who stopped shopping there after he received a parking ticket. She said Lansing's parking demands differ from other "busy" cities in the state.
"When you go to Detroit, when you go to Ann Arbor ... you need to pay for it," Liu said. "But you come to downtown you can see, it's so quiet. Why [do] I need to pay for it?"
The chicken-or-egg scenario for customers
Many see downtown vibrancy as a chicken-or-egg scenario, where it's unclear what positive change has to happen first to generate new activity: would having more customers frequenting the area attract more businesses? Or would having more businesses open in the evenings and on weekends bring in more customers?
Burcay Gunguler wanted her Turkish restaurant to join the network of shops for visitors in downtown Lansing.
Gunguler and her husband first opened Social Sloth Cafe in Washington Square, hoping to bring unique flavors and dishes to the area.
"There are lots of different countries in the world, and we cannot travel to them all. But you can taste their food if it's in your city, right?" she said.
When the couple leased the space, they were under the impression that thousands of people would be working downtown. That was not the case when they opened in 2020 at the height of the pandemic.
“We thought that people who are working in downtown would come back. I mean, plans were like that, but it never happened,” she said.
Gunguler said the restaurant had to get creative to bring in customers. They started offering take-out and eventually cooking classes. Last year, they moved to a strip mall in Okemos for a bigger kitchen, but said the loss of foot traffic downtown also influenced their decision.
“You have to be near the business spots, or you have to be near the families or apartments," she said. "If it's both, it's great. But you don't have that choice.”
The restaurant in Okemos has more cooking space and dedicated parking. Gunguler said the Social Sloth Cafe still regularly sees customers who used to visit their downtown Lansing location who drive over to visit.
"They are trying their best," she said. "I know, it's not very near ... but [on] the weekends, they come with their families.”
Gunguler believes Lansing should become a destination for tourism, not just the seat of state government.
“It can't be only a capital for bureaucracy, right?" Gunguler said. "You don't visit anywhere, you don't eat somewhere, you don't see the museums and you just go when you finish your work.”
Officials and business leaders are making attempts to inject energy into the heart of mid-Michigan. That includes new housing projects, a performing arts venue and a new hotel being planned for downtown. But it remains to be seen whether those efforts benefit the businesses that are currently there.
Liu, owner of AnQi Sushi Express, said operating the restaurant has been difficult, but she's not going anywhere.
"Our customers feel like friends," she wrote in a message. "Even with fewer customers during and after the pandemic, their return always brings us joy and encouragement. Downtown is working hard to revitalize, and I'm happy to persevere alongside it."
