Familiar Face Fills DDA Leadership Role
Lori Mullins was hired as executive director of the East Lansing Downtown Development Authority in February, bringing her career full circle.
Mullins is a two-time graduate of Michigan State University, with a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture and a master’s degree in urban and regional planning. She briefly practiced as a landscape architect in Kalamazoo after graduation, but from 1999 to 2017, she served as an urban designer for the City of East Lansing’s Planning Department.
She returns to city government after eight years of working at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
“I really like working more directly with the community,” she said. “This is where I live. My family is here, and I had the opportunity to come back and support the vibrancy of our downtown. That means a lot to me.”
Mullins said as DDA executive director, she will help develop ideas to improve the functionality of public spaces, support redevelopment efforts and fill vacant commercial spaces.
Most interesting to her, she said, is increasing engagement and building partnerships to advance the goals of the DDA board.
“I see the downtown as being a downtown for the entire community,” she said. “So continuing to diversify the housing types and businesses in the downtown — making it a place that serves the needs of the entire community — is important to me.”
As for redevelopment projects being considered for downtown, Mullins said she has learned that these projects take time and involve plenty of uncertainty. In a follow-up interview with ELi, she said a deal announced last year to sell the DDA’s Evergreen properties has fallen through.
The DDA took on $5.6 million in debt to acquire the properties in 2009, and interest and principal payments have been a significant weight on the body’s budget. The properties have drawn interest from developers because they provide rare space for a large project in downtown East Lansing, but past attempts to sell or develop the land have failed.
While City Council voted to effectively discontinue the blocked off Albert El Fresco space downtown that hosted games and seating the last several summers, Mullins said there are other opportunities to utilize downtown areas.
“I think our community is lucky that we have a downtown with Ann Street Plaza, Fountain Square, the plaza on the east side of the Marriott, as well as Valley Court Park and Bill Sharp Park,” she said. “I think it’s about enhancing those spaces that we already have.”
She said there may be opportunities for additional small spaces, like the Bailey Street surface parking lot behind Campbell’s market.
“It’s about finding some of those hidden treasures and improving upon them,” she said, “adding public art and other amenities that make them inviting and memorable.”