We’re sure you’ll find our wacky mix of business owners and residents to be welcoming and supportive as you establish yourself in our little corner of the world. This packet contains a bunch of useful information that should help to jumpstart that process, including important contact information, the schedule of our board of directors’ meetings, and our annual calendar of events!

The REO Town commercial corridor is named after the automobile visionary Ransom Eli Olds, founder of Oldsmobile and the REO Motor Company. REO Town is considered to be the birthplace of the commercial automobile in the United States and R.E. Olds was the first entrepreneur to employ the assembly line in automobile manufacturing, greatly reducing the cost of and expanding the market for automobiles. Going back even further, REO Town was also the birthplace of Lansing (originally known as Biddle City, though the origin of those settlers is widely misrepresented) and was settled as a small community in 1835 before it was designated the state capital and development moved north to our pals in Old Town in 1847.

The REO Town Commercial Association was formed in 2001 (coining the term ‘REO Town’ at that time), in what was then an overlooked and underutilized section of the city, and the association has been hard at work reviving the economic and cultural energy that has established the area ever since. Originally a quasi-city entity, the RTCA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and is supported completely by membership dues, grants, event income, and a whole lot of volunteer muscle power (more on that later!).