Former Sears property near Frandor to be marketed as 'mixed-use entertainment destination'
LANSING - Two years after Sears closed its East Michigan Avenue store near the Frandor Shopping Center the property's owner has begun working with a commercial real estate agency to market the site to "hundreds of national retailers and restaurants," said Pat Gillespie, president of The Gillespie Group.
The Lansing-based developer wants to redevelop the nearly 200,000-square-foot building as ROECO, "a regional mixed-use entertainment destination," according to a news release.
CBRE is actively marketing the property, Gillespie said.
The move comes more than a year after the company hired Washington D.C.-based consulting firm Streetsense to study the area’s demographics and complete a market analysis of what would succeed there.
The Gillespie Group bought the property at 3131 E. Michigan Ave. 13 years ago.
Sparrow Health System in May of 2020 opened a coronavirus testing site inside a portion of the building which is still operational. The hospital leases space from The Gillespie Group.
The 14-acre property is largely vacant but full of potential, Gillespie said.
Area residents have said they want to see "good dining options" and retail there, he said, and experts agree that the community would support both.
"Now that we've heard that we put a plan together to take it to these retailers and restaurants ... and to say, if we bring this, is this someplace that you would locate?" Gillespie said. "If they say yes, which we're hoping they do, we can go in on it. We're going after some of the national prospects that are out there in bigger cities entertainment-wise."
Concept calls for restaurants, retail
Sears occupied the space for more than six decades after moving from a spot in downtown Lansing in the fall of 1954. It was a fixture in Greater Lansing for 66 years before it closed in 2020. Last summer Gillespie said the property's redevelopment could cost anywhere from $60 million to $190 million.
Conceptual renderings of what ROECO could look like if realized show a redeveloped building that houses a restaurant with rooftop dining and retail stores.
The renderings are being shared with national companies The Gillespie Group is marketing the property to, said Megan Weber, the company's real estate coordinator.
"Our goal is to keep the existing building," Weber said, but the company is exploring what interest there is from national companies. "Nothing is set in stone that this is going to happen on a certain timeline."
If the company can secure tenants, concept plans call for the demolition of about 15,000 square feet of the existing building largely from the East Michigan Avenue side, Gillespie said, and adding square footage to the existing structure as well.
"We would love to see some commitments in the next six months," he said.
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Drawing in users
The timeline and look of the building's redevelopment could change depending on its occupants, said Ashley Brzezinski, The Gillespie Group's director of marketing.
The hope Gillespie's company has for the former Sears building isn't far-fetched, he said.
"People want to be entertained and they want to have unique places to do that," Gillespie said.
Signage on the building since last year advertising its availability has attracted initial interest, he said, and pursuing national companies is the next step.
"We've had a lot of preliminary interest before we've taken to the market," Gillespie said. "The goal is to do a great marketing package and put together the right plans by professionals in a great location and to draw them in."
Contact Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ .
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Former Sears near Frandor being marketed to national restaurants, retailers
