LANSING — Guy Bazzani called the empty lot on Grand Rapids’ Lake Drive as a “scar in the neighborhood,” and he did something about it. The site of a former Shell station had been vacant for 15 years.

In 2004, with the help of a $100,000 Cool Cities Neighborhoods in Progress grant — and a $550,000 clean-up effort funded by Shell Oil Co. — his company, Bazzani Associates, transformed the “scar” into East Hills Center (of the Universe). The company gave half of the grant to nearby businesses to refurbish their storefronts.

The center takes its name from a sign local artist Reb Roberts placed at the site when it was still vacant.

“It’s the center of their universe,” Bazanni said.

The center is home to a Lebanese-American restaurant, a clothing boutique and the offices of the West Michigan Environmental Action Council.

It’s also a “green” building, independent of Grand Rapids’ storm sewer system. Rainwater is collected by plants on the building’s roof or filtered through a rain garden adjacent to the parking lot and returned to the ground.

East Hills Center (of the Universe) is one of 19 projects funded by the first round of Neighborhoods in Progress grants, awarded in 2003-2004 under the state’s Cool Cities Initiative. The initiative, introduced by Gov. Jennifer Granholm in 2003, has provided more than $6.3 million for community revitalization efforts across the state.

The purpose is to “create mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly cities that will be attractive to residents and to new businesses that will create jobs,” according to a Senate Fiscal Agency report.

Although Bazzani says the neighborhood around the East Hills Center feels warmer and more inviting after the completion of the project, the long-term effects of such efforts aren’t known.

Faron Supanich-Goldner of the Center for Community and Economic Development at Michigan State University cautions that it will take 10 to 20 years before the economic impact of the Cool Cities program can be properlyevaluated.

Key factors over time inclued variations in the job market, the economy and the state of the nation, he said

“How do you say, ‘Oh this project in Flint, that neighborhood still has a high unemployment rate?’ But on the other hand you could argue, ‘Well, it would have an even higher unemployment rate if these positive things weren’t happening,” Supanich-Goldner said.

He said one current indicator is the buzz and attention that the program generates, although that’s effective only if it shifts further resources and development towards urban areas and downtowns.

“Buzz can start that and contribute to that, but buzz alone isn’t going to move people downtown — it’s really just an arrow in the quiver,” he said.

Alpena assistant city manager Eric Cline said his city’s Cool Cities-funded Heritage Riverwalk — another first-year project — brought enough attention downtown to generate other projects such as an another walkway along the Thunder Bay River, a plan to connect four city parks via walkways and a second Cool Cities grant.

“It provided a needed shot in the arm for us,” he said.

The Heritage Riverwalk stretches from the city’s South Riverfront Park to Lake Huron. Cline said it took $180,000 — $100,000 of which was Cool Cities money — and six months to complete.

 However, that construction wasn’t free of glitches. Wrought iron rails placed along the riverwalk for safety and boat docking purposes proved too cumbersome for easy removal and had to be replaced with lighter pieces that can slide in and out of place.

“We’ve had a few learning experiences because of some of the amenities we put in,” Cline said.

Alpena’s second Cool Cities project, which received a Blueprints for Neighborhoods status, has been delayed by reorganization at the state level. Blueprints for Neighborhoods gives cities the chance to work with a consultant to revive a neighborhood in or near its downtown area.

Cline said that project is due to start this year.

While some cities are seeing benefits from such projects, Supanich-Goldner said the initiative alone is no answer to Michigan’s economic downfall.

“I have always seen it as one strand in a much more complicated web, in which there are other strands that are much thicker and have much more impact,” he said.

As examples, Supanich-Goldner cited state and local programs as thicker strands, such as economic development incentives, land use regulation and transportation funding.

Rex LaMore, director of MSU’s Center for Community and Economic Development, spoke similarly of the program’s emphasis on developing a “creative class.”

“By itself, a community that has a creative cultural context will be somewhat better off, but you need to have additional parts of it to be fully successful,” he said.

Those additional parts include access to the Internet, financial and venture capital at critical times, and an educated workforce.