By SUZANNE ROOK
Posted: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 1:32 am

NORTHFIELD — Forget what you heard. The Lansings aren’t going away. They’re just moving up the street.

While Lansing Hardware closes up shop today after 34 years in business, David Lansing and his father, Lee Lansing, are planning for their newest venture, an as yet unnamed lawn and garden shop on the corner of Division and Sixth streets.

Earlier this week, a greenhouse







and plant racks were installed at the former Tires Plus site. On Tuesday, the building’s exterior was getting a shiny coat of emerald green paint and Lee Lansing, whose first shop in Northfield opened in 1974, was assessing the work yet to be done. More paint, more cleaning, he said of what’s to come.

In a couple of weeks, with hundreds of bedding plants and hanging baskets adorning the exterior, the shop won’t look anything like it does today, said Lansing.

The store will also sell garden accessories and equipment: plant pots, lawn art, potting soils, fertilizers, hand tools and more.

Lansing said a lawn and garden store is a natural offshoot of his son’s former business. Those supplies and equipment accounted for a large chunk of the shop’s sales, he said.

And, he said, the store will remain a part of the city’s downtown.

The new store may open as early as next week, Lansing said, grateful that it has been a late spring. That, he said, will make their debut more timely. And just in time for Mother’s Day.

Lansing said he’s a bit melancholy about the closing, but equally excited about the new business.

“It’s going to be great,” he said.

Change is coming

The owners of the hardware store building say they plan to move forward with renovations to the structure they’ll now call The Phoenix Building. Now that a legal dispute between the Lansings and the building’s owners is settled the two residential condominiums on the building’s second floor are currently on the market, said co-owner Randy Lutz.

Construction of a second building to the north will depend on how quickly the condos and the former hardware store site are leased or sold.

“We’re very excited that we’re going to continue as we’ve always planned,” he said. “It has been a long time coming.”



— Suzanne Rook can be reached at srook@northfieldnews.com or 645-1113.