Drive south on Torrence Avenue past the Landings Shopping Center this month and you will pass at least three storefronts that were something else a year ago, one that has gone quiet on the phone for close to a year and a half, and a bar a few blocks off the main strip that some longtime regulars still are not sure is actually open. If you live in Lansing, you already know this feeling. The corridor rearranges itself constantly, and nobody sends out a memo.
What does not rearrange itself is Fox Pointe. The amphitheater at 18138 Henry Street has already printed its 2026 lineup, date by date, months in advance. That contrast is the useful thing to understand about a Lansing summer: the retail strip is a moving target, and the free concert series is the one thing on the calendar that reliably shows up when it says it will.
The Empty Boxes Have A Pattern Now
Construction fencing went up last fall at 17923-17927 Torrence Ave, the old Cafe Borgia site on the east side of the street just north of an apartment building, with Taco Bell and Starbucks immediately to the south. That is where Smoothie King has been headed, pending final sign-off from the Illinois Department of Transportation on sidewalk slope and drainage. Village Administrator Dan Podgorski told The Lansing Journal last fall that once those approvals cleared, crews were hoping to get footings and foundation in before the ground froze, with an eye toward a spring 2026 opening.
A few blocks away, the old LA Fitness at 17365 Torrence Ave, a building that was a Dominick's grocery store before that, has been lined up for Sky Zone, the indoor trampoline park. That project also carried a spring 2026 target, and it came with its own small logistics puzzle: Sky Zone's ownership team has been working with the village to move the entrance and exit to the east side of the building, because the north side now belongs to a busy QuikTrip gas station and convenience store that took over the old customer flow.
Podgorski's comment about the pattern is worth sitting with: "That style of redevelopment is what we're looking to continue on Torrence Avenue." Read plainly, that is the village naming its own playbook. A vacant big box does not sit empty for years waiting on a single anchor tenant. It gets carved up, reused for family entertainment or quick-service food, and paired with whatever gas station or drive-through already anchors the lot. If you are trying to guess what happens next to any of the other half-empty buildings on this stretch, that is the formula to watch for, not a wholesale redevelopment announcement.
If you have driven past either site recently, you likely know more than this article does about whether Smoothie King or Sky Zone actually opened on schedule. Spring came and went months ago. Worth a look next time you are on that stretch.
Two Storefronts Everyone Is Still Asking About
Not every project on Torrence follows the timeline the village hopes for. KYNGZ, a restaurant proposed for 16731 Torrence Ave in the Landings Shopping Center, has been in a kind of limbo for a long stretch. As of last fall, nobody had answered a call to the number posted on the window, and Podgorski estimated the village had not heard from anyone connected to the project in at least eight months. Nothing in the record since suggests that changed. If you have been waiting on that one, you are not the only one wondering.
A different kind of delay hit Cork & Oak, the wine and whiskey bar owner Shena Hawkins described wanting to bring to Lansing as a trendy spot for tapas and small plates, with an indoor entertainment permit approved by the Planning & Zoning Board of Appeals back in January 2025. Hawkins had originally hoped to open by the end of March 2025. A small fire broke out in the back of the shared building, in the space occupied by Ooo Wee Chicken & Ribs, and smoke damage on the Cork & Oak side pushed the renovation timeline back further. That is the kind of setback that never makes it into a press release but explains exactly why a place you have been curious about still has paper on the windows.
The Bar That Isn't Quite In Lansing
Here is a detail that clears up something a lot of longtime residents have wondered about without ever quite looking it up. The building at 1696 Thornton Lansing Road, home to Bottoms Up Bar & Grill for more than three decades, sits in unincorporated Cook County rather than inside Lansing village limits. That distinction is not just a line on a map. Lansing regulates closing times for its bars and restaurants. The unincorporated parcel does not answer to those same village rules, which is part of why Bottoms Up could stay open later than its neighbors for thirty-plus years.
In 2024, longtime Lansing resident Jeff Kiester bought the building and reopened it as Rita's Bar & Grill, named for his late mother, with a Southwestern Tex-Mex menu and more conventional hours than the late-night bar it replaced. Kiester is not new to the business. He previously ran Jack's Sports Pub and Eatery on Ridge Road, the space now occupied by Bulldog Ale House. But by last fall, even Podgorski sounded unsure about where things stood, telling The Lansing Journal, "I think Rita's might have been open for a very, very short time." If you have wondered whether that building is still serving Tex-Mex or whether it quietly went dark again, you are asking the same question the village administrator was asking.
What You Can Actually Count On This Summer
Set the retail turnover aside for a minute, because Fox Pointe operates on a completely different rhythm. It is the outdoor amphitheater the village built to be the premier venue in the south suburbs, and its schedule does not wait on permits, ownership changes, or fire damage. The 2026 season opened June 3 with Sixteen Candles, an 1980s tribute act performing since 2003, in a show sponsored by the Lansing Public Library. From there the summer lineup has run on a set schedule:
| Date | Show |
|---|---|
| June 3 | Sixteen Candles (season opener) |
| June 24 | The Chicago Experience, a tribute to the band Chicago |
| July 8 | Hairbanger's Ball |
| July 17 | Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra |
| Aug 8 | Shining Star, an Earth, Wind & Fire tribute |
| Aug 19 | Elton Jeff & The Honky Cats |
| Sept 2 | Dick Diamond and the Dusters |
Alongside the concerts, Fox Pointe runs a farmers market every Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. from June through September, with vendors rotating week to week. None of it requires guessing whether a permit cleared or a phone call got returned. It is printed, and it happens.
That is really the thing worth knowing if you live in Lansing right now. The village is visibly mid-transformation along its commercial spine, trading empty boxes for smoothie counters and trampoline parks, sorting through a fire-delayed wine bar and a restaurant nobody can reach, and quietly untangling which bar down the road even answers to village hours. Meanwhile Calumet Bakery, a fixture at 18349 Torrence Ave known for its donuts and Polish pastries, has not budged through any of it. Somewhere between those two speeds, the corridor keeps reinventing itself while Fox Pointe just keeps showing up on schedule.
If any of this corridor's changes end up affecting a move you're considering, whether that's a property near Torrence Avenue or somewhere else in Lansing's south suburbs, Trademarks & Associates LLC has been tracking this market long enough to help you make sense of it. Let's Connect.
