LANSING — When Pat Gillespie talks to restaurant groups, hotels and retail chains about the future of the former Sears property off East Michigan Avenue, it isn’t his company’s vision for the site in shadow of Frandor that they question.
Gillespie’s company, Lansing-based The Gillespie Group, has owned the 14-acre property for over 16 years, and he’s been promoting his vision for it since 2023. Its redevelopment will transform it into ROECO, a mixed-use entertainment destination that could house several different commercial businesses.
There are renderings of what it could look like, along with information about the area’s demographics and neighboring businesses. Gillespie shares it all with the companies they hope will buy into what is expected to be a $60 million to $100 million project.
Then potential tenants ask when they could move into the property.
“That’s everyone’s number one question,” Gillespie said. “When could I be there? And that’s what we’ve had trouble answering.”
An ongoing remapping of the area’s flood plain by the U.S. Geological Survey and Federal Emergency Management Agency has prevented Gillespie from providing a timeline. The $380,000 effort could impact which properties remain in the flood plain and change the height requirements for redevelopment within the zone.
The drafted map was completed in early August. Now FEMA officials are sharing it with local officials, impacted residents and business owners. It’s part of a public review period, which includes a three-month appeal and comment period to allow municipalities to provide new information, or challenge any determinations.
“This gives us a little more surety,” Gillespie said. “We can give them an estimated date now.”
Maps could be finalized in spring
The property offers 196,000 square feet of commercial space. Sears occupied the space at 3131 E. Michigan Ave. for more than six decades after moving from a spot in downtown Lansing in the fall of 1954. The store was a fixture in Greater Lansing for 66 years before it closed in 2020. It was used during the pandemic by University of Michigan Health – Sparrow as a drive-thru COVID testing site, but otherwise has been vacant.
Gillespie said the flood plain remapping, which covers much of Greater Lansing, including Lansing, East Lansing and Meridian Township, could be finalized by spring of 2027.
It means that by next spring or summer The Gillespie Group could begin seeking site plan approvals for the property’s redevelopment.
The company won’t wait that long to sign letters of intent for leases at the property, Gillespie said. That will instead begin happening soon.
“We’d love to have things signed and sealed before that date so that once that date came, hopefully (the date) gets hit, we could rock and roll right from there,” he said. “We talk to someone every week right now.
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Redevelopment could start in the fall
What the redevelopment of the property looks like will depend heavily on which companies sign letters of intent to be part of ROECO, Gillespie said.
Right now officials with The Gillespie Group is talking to a variety of companies.
“We’re in active engagement with lots of different users and they’re all in that, ‘Let us know when you have a date stage,'” Gilespie said. “Lots of folks are interested so we’re working on that right now. The ones we’re hearing a lot from are food and beverage, hospitality. We’re hearing from some student housing groups, and we’re hearing from some grocery.”
Letters of intent that are signed now will be contingent upon the finalization of new flood plain maps, he said.
“If, for some reason, that doesn’t happen both parties can back out,” Gillespie said.
It’s possible active redevelopment of the property will begin in the fall of 2027, he said.
It’s unclear whether the existing building will be redeveloped, partially demolished or completely town down, Gillespie said. That will be determined by the demands of the companies signing letters of intent.
“If we’re keeping the building and rehabbing parts of it, it’d be nice to see progress going on the rehab” sometime next fall, Gillespie said.
Contact Reporter Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on X @GrecoatLSJ.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Grocery? Hotels? Restaurants? What will former Lansing Sears store be?
Reporting by Rachel Greco, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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By Rachel Greco, Lansing State Journal | USA TODAY Network
