Market makeover

The survey of 412 city and non-city residents has given the Lansing Entertainment and Public Facilities Authority, which owns and manages the facility, a clearer sense of how people view the market and what they want. It also illustrates the challenge of accommodating divergent needs and interests.

Summarizing the results, Scott Keith, LEPFA´s president and chief executive officer, said some people want the City Market to provide entertainment. Others want a place to meet or maybe buy lunch. And there is interest in the market´s original purpose: a place to purchase fruits, vegetables and groceries. The survey drew respondents from sources as diverse as its Facebook page followers, the Lansing Lugnuts mailing list and residents in the Gillespie Group´s new Marketplace Apartments adjacent to the market. Officials also conduced one-on-one interviews with vendors.

Keith said that one of the goals of the survey was to determine how people view the City Market. Its major findings showed that:

• 58 percent of respondents still define it as a farmers market

• 40 percent define it as place to get a meal or something to eat

• 31 percent expect to find specialty products

• Other comments identified the market as a location for entertainment and socializing

“This shows that we have a little bit of work to do on this to make it more an urban market and less of a farmers market,” Keith said. LEPFA plans to refocus its marketing effort, in a sense, reintroducing the facility to the public.

Since opening in 2010 with virtually all of the 40-some retail spaces occupied, the market has battled vendor turnover and middling sales, with lfewer than a dozen spots filled now. Construction of the Marketplace Apartments, which sprawled across the property east of the market and north of the Lansing Center, exacerbated the problem by eliminating what had been ample and easy market parking. Also, the new apartment building blocked the view of the market from Cedar Street. But the area is more settled now and residents from the Gillespie project are seen as likely market patrons.

The parking issue remains, at least according to those surveyed. “We asked what would increase patron frequency, and the answer was more free parking.” Keith said.

There is ample free parking at no charge in the nearby Lansing Center lots. And there is limited parking right next to the market. But the parking policy and the various options are daunting. The market devoted a full page on its website to the hows and wheres of parking, such the difference between parking with an attendant or without an attendant at the Lansing Center. Said Keith: “Nobody reads it.”

“It´s the biggest argument I hear — no parking,” said Carol Davis, owner of MamaC´s eatery. She has been in the market for two months. She said it is difficult to park at the Lansing Center and the lots are often filled. “You can park there if you can get in. But the parking here tends to be for the bar,” referring to the parking right outside of the market itself.

Keith acknowledges the parking issue. “We need to do a better job educating people. We have signs around the market, but it is something ingrained in people,” he said.

The survey also found that shoppers want more vendors and more variety in product offerings. Some also want the market to expand its hours, which are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Keith is hoping that more housing in and around the market can build traffic for after work shopping. The LEPFA staff has been talking with vendors, all but one who said they would be willing to try expanded hours.

John Decker, owner of Hickory Corners Greenhouse, has been with the old and new City Market for 20 years. He bemoans the vacancies in the market but also sees it as an opportunity for reinvention and even, as he terms it, “out-of-the-box thinking.” He sees the market trending toward entertainment. “We are all right with that. The market is continuing to evolve.”

One solution to improving the market is a better relationship between market vendors and the city. The construction of the apartment building exacerbated the already sour mood of many merchants in the market. Keith believes this can be improved.

But he also wants the market to be more selective in whom it signs as tenants. He said LEPFA wants to begin more careful vetting merchants to ensure that they have the experience and financing to sustain their retail initiatives.

Decker noted that some vendors, especially retirees, have had trouble conforming with the market´s rules and regulations, such as operating hours.

The City Market might also begin hosting a mid-week farmers market, possibly in the evening. And there will be more musical programming. LEPFA and the market merchants have begun discussing the survey results and changes are expected during as the market shifts into the summer season.