Content area
Full Text
Up to now, according to Mayor Jack Poll of Wyoming, the history of 28th Street in the Wyoming "downtown" zone from Clyde Park to Burlingame Avenue has been "retail, retail, retail."
That has changed dramatically in recent years, with the demise of such well-known businesses as Classic Chevrolet, Studio 28, Rogers Department Store and now Klingman's. As Poll puts it, there are now "a large number of acres" of empty buildings and parking lots along the well-known thoroughfare that once drew consumers from throughout West Michigan.
As for the vacant properties, he said, "We could fill them up but it's not with what we want to fill them up with, so let's have a game plan."
Shoppers still cruise 28th Street, but instead of a suit or a new car, they are more often interested in a used car or new tattoo.
There is a game plan, however, called Turn on 28th Street, a program funded by the Wyoming DDA that started taking shape
earlier this year. The first phase is a preliminary market assessment of the street completed recently by LandUse/USA, a Lansing-area consulting firm headed by Sharon Woods, who will be at the Wyoming City Council meeting tonight to answer questions about the preliminary market assessment.
"Monday night will be a really great review of what has transpired to this point and is still happening, and where we are going to go from here,"...