After Years of Road Closures, Trowbridge Businesses Want to Remind Customers They’re Still Here

Trowbridge Road in East Lansing may seem like a means to an end for many motorists exiting US-127 and I-496 to get to Michigan State University, but business owners along the gateway passage are looking to showcase the area as a wellness district worth stopping for.

Later this month on Wednesday, Sept. 23 the Trowbridge Business Association is hosting a Trowbridge Thrift & Thrive event in Trowbridge Plaza, inviting the public to engage in giveaways, activities and demonstrations during an area shopping event from 11 a.m to 3 p.m.  

Trowbridge Plaza has surprising common threads of wellness between many of the businesses that call the area home, Susan Chalgian, who represents the Trowbridge Business Association told East Lansing Info. From Fresh Thyme Market to East Lansing Hot Yoga and Elegant Nails Salon, there’s a spectrum of businesses that focus on helping people take care of themselves.

“We’re just very excited with this event coming to fruition and bringing attention and developing the concept that this is a destination in East Lansing,” Chalgian said. “I would say more than other gateways, it definitely is a destination. … It’s a walkable area … and there’s a good variety of restaurants.”

Many of the businesses housed in the plaza will have tables set up for attendees to learn more about what’s being offered and receive samples, Chalgian said, but also neighboring entities will participate to support the area.

In the spirit of the “thrift” theme of the event, Seams Sewing & Mercantile, which has a nearby Lansing location, will host mending demonstrations and hand out free mending kits. Nearby thrift store Uptown Cheapskate and MSU’s Spartan Upcycle will have booths set up at the event to sell clothing and accessories

Other neighbors coming to the event who will represent the theme of “thrive” include the MSU Bikes Service Center, which will provide education on DIY bike repairs. McLaren Health Care will also be parking its Mobile Health Clinic in the Trowbridge Plaza parking lot during the Thrift & Thrive event and will provide an assortment of same-day services, including blood pressure checks, wellness exams, comprehensive health screenings and sports physicals.

For all that the Trowbridge area has to offer and all the support there is from local entities and organizations, the last few years have presented challenges for businesses. One of the biggest challenges has been the multi-year closure of the highway ramps off of Trowbridge Road have made the already tucked away corner of East Lansing even more invisible, Brooke Cummings, founder of Resilient Physical Therapy on Trowbridge Road told ELi. 

Just as Cummings was opening her business in the summer of 2024, with the goal of offering a one-on-one tailored environment for patients, the southbound US-127 and eastbound I-496 ramps to Trowbridge Road were closed down for long-term demolition and reconstruction.

And though the ramps were rebuilt and reopened in late 2025 as a part of a more than $200 million investment in public infrastructure by the Michigan Department of Transportation, the exits continue to be periodically closed in short bursts, Cummings said, making it hard for her patients to access care.

“This year it’s finally better. I will say, my first two years open, that was a little rough because Trowbridge was closed for the first year and a half that I opened up the clinic,” Cummings said. “It still gets closed at random times, and we don’t get any warning.”

Resilient Physical Therapy serves patients ranging from infants to older adults and Cummings said many of her clients get nervous about missing a turn because their route changes so often due to road work. Along with years of frequent road closures, many potential patrons have forgotten Trowbridge businesses exist.

“Everybody kind of forgets about this place … People just never get off the exit and so they don’t see what’s here. I know the gas station here has struggled for those couple years because they weren’t getting the drive-by fill-ups …, the eateries and coffee shops, all the same thing. They weren’t getting the regular commuters because people weren’t coming that way,” Cummings said.

The area’s been pretty resilient given the construction, but with the economic strain of the COVID-19 pandemic and other negative economic drivers, Cummings noted that Trowbridge, like the rest of East Lansing, has experienced a fair amount of turnover of businesses in recent years.

With the Thrift & Thrive event, Cummings said she hopes to showcase Resilient Physical Therapy and create a better understanding of what physical therapists can do for people. Someone doesn’t need to experience a traumatic event or sustain a life-altering physical injury to benefit from physical therapy, Cummings said. Much of the work Resilient does helps people deal with the regular wear and tear on their bodies, helping them navigate stress and anxiety and get back to the activities that sustain their lives.

As much as the highway construction has been a huge hindrance to business, David Zumberg, owner of New Style Salon, said the area has come a long way in the last few decades.

New Style Salon has been in the Trowbridge Plaza since 1991, formally housed with the historic Goodrich’s Shop-Rite grocery store, where Fresh Thyme now sits. 

Decades ago when MSU began phasing out student housing in the area, including Spartan Village, businesses in the Trowbridge area felt the impact. The loss of students living nearby meant a significant loss of customers and business for the area, Zumberg recalled. Spartan Village had originally been built to house students after World War II, when MSU’s student population nearly doubled from the previous year in 1946.

“It’s taken pretty much the last 20 years but it’s kind of come back around, where they’re doing more building out this way. We really have been seeing the beginnings of more traffic from the Student Recreation and Wellness Center,” Zumberg said of MSU’s recently opened fitness facility across Harrison Road.

But what really makes the Trowbridge area shine and what has sustained businesses like New Style Salon across the decades is a definition of community that is open to expansion, Zumberg said, noting that every year new students from places all over the world come to MSU and find his salon.

Trowbridge Plaza neighbors the Islamic Center of East Lansing, as well as other faith-based and cultural organizations, Zumberg said, and the plaza is fortunate to have numerous restaurants reflecting that cultural richness like Swagath Indian Cuisine and Korea House.

“It’s an old-fashioned melting pot where we have people from different cultures and countries that settle in this area … We’ve always been a little fortunate to meet people from all over the world … and different religious and cultural backgrounds,” Zumberg said. “It’s what I’ve enjoyed about this area the most in the past 30 years, learning about people and how they live in different countries and different areas of the world. It’s really terrific.”