Villa brings fashion, community outreach to East Lansing

The shoe and apparel retailer Villa recently celebrated the grand opening of their second Lansing-area location in downtown East Lansing last week. The new store is the twelfth for the Philadelphia-based retail store. 

 

"We just wanted to bring something a little bit closer to the college and give it a little different vibe than the Lansing store," says Matthew Caputo, who manages a number of Detroit area store. "We felt there was potential for a good store here."

 

The Lansing Villa opened about six months ago on Martin Luther King Blvd. The retailer is known for being more than just a place for clothes and shoes for the 18- to 25-year-old market. The company becomes involved in the communities, offering open computers and internet to those who stop in the store. 

 

"As a company we pride ourselves on doing a 1,000 hours of community service per year," Caputo says. "If a basketball court needs to be redone, we'll do that."

 

Detroit area stores have supplied turkeys to families during the holidays and participated in truancy prevention programs with area schools. Each Villa store employs between nine and 20 employees. According to Caputo, the company plans to expand to 250 stores in then next three to five years with more than 70 in Michigan.