LANSING, Mich. — The former Sam’s Club building on East Edgewood Boulevard is pretty big. While the future of the building is still up in the air, during a council meeting Monday, Lansing City Council made it clear that it will not be converted to a self-storage facility.
“The public is not in favor of another self-storage space, especially not there,” said resident Loretta Stanaway.
During the meeting on Feb.13, one by one residents approached the podium with opposition about the building being transformed into a storage space.
A few months ago, Devon Self-Storage, an out-of-state company, submitted a proposal for a special land use permit to transform the building. We’re told Devan Self-Storage has multiple locations in Michigan.
“We’ve got seven facilities currently here in Michigan. Four in Grand Rapids, two in Holland, one in Genesis and two in Detroit,” said Mike Olsen with Devon Self-Storage.
The decision was ultimately left up to City Council, which Monday voted unanimously not to give the project the green light.
“Through our economic development efforts, we are committed to doing a better job,” said councilman Adam Hussain.
Hussain said he decided not to support the project because of the lack of economic development that will benefit Lansing.
“The owner is based in California and that means most of the money will be going out of state, and it will only create two jobs that pay $17 an hour,” Hussain said.
FOX 47 reached out to Devon Self-Storage after the decision was made, but they did not get back to us.
