Commercial Real Estate in East Lansing, Michigan

About East Lansing

The college came before the town. The state created the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan in 1855, and a settlement known as Collegeville grew up around it, then part of Meridian Township. When residents sought a charter in 1907, College Park was among the names on the table, but the legislature chose East Lansing. The first several mayors were college professors or employees, and the city and the school, now Michigan State University, have been tied together ever since.

Grand River Avenue began as a plank road between Lansing and Detroit, and it remains the main street. Together with Michigan Avenue, it separates campus from the rest of the city, so the downtown business district faces the university across a single road. Street-level retail and restaurants occupy its busiest blocks, with upper-floor offices above them, and Abbot Road runs north from the same corner.

North of downtown, the city stretches toward I-69 and into Clinton County, partly through land agreements with Bath and DeWitt Townships. Lake Lansing Road and Abbot Road carry much of the neighborhood retail there. Office and research space also sits south of campus at the Hannah Technology and Research Center on Hagadorn Road, and the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams is on campus itself.