As Michigan continues to try and retain talent, West Michigan businesses are putting themselves right in front of students. This Wednesday, come visit The B.O.B. in downtown Grand Rapids to meet with employers such as Herman Miller, Steelcase and Bissell and be reminded of all the quality-of-life amenities these West Michigan towns have to offer.
Encourage your friends to come and see Grand Rapids and meet first-hand with some of these great West Michigan companies!
Note: We’re pretty excited about our tour of Grand Rapids on November 19. In the coming days, we’ll highlight each of our destinations and talk a little bit about what we’re hoping to accomplish/learn at each stop.
Today: Medical Mile, Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital
Grand Rapids is becoming known for its immense amount of medical facilities. Often referred to as Medical Mile, Pill Hill or Health Hill, the stretch along Michigan Street in downtown Grand Rapids contains a medical research center, children’s hospital, heart center, cancer pavilion, MSU college of human medicine, and many more facilities.
The health care industry in Grand Rapids accounts for about 86,097 jobs. This industry continues to boom and Grand Rapids is building the infrastructure to continue this growth. One of the most recent development projects on Medical Mile is the new Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. Built in 2011, this new facility has 14 floors, accounts for 50+ specialties and serves more than 1 million children throughout Michigan. The Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital has a playful spirit that brings the colors and images of water, land, sky and sun to life on its walls and in its corridors. This environment is created to impart calm to children and parents who may be in frightening situations.
We are very excited to get a tour of this world-class facility. Watch the video below to get a sneak peek!
Note: We’re pretty excited about our tour of Grand Rapids on November 19. In the coming days, we’ll highlight each of our destinations and talk a little bit about what we’re hoping to accomplish/learn at each stop.
Today: Start Garden
Rick DeVos (the brains behind ArtPrize) has a new project which includes a $15 million seed accelerator fund that is based in Grand Rapids. He is hoping that this will launch more than 100 new business ideas into fruition each year.
Anyone with a new business idea can apply for funding by submitting their idea on the Start Garden website, startgarden.com. The chosen submission will get a $5,000 investment with a shot of getting $20,000. Each week one idea is selected by the Start Garden staff, and a second is chosen based on a public vote. Start Garden also makes larger investments of up to $500,000 in ideas that show promising traction.
For full details on Start Garden, watch this video.
Note: We’re pretty excited about our tour of Grand Rapids on November 19. In the coming days, we’ll highlight each of our destinations and talk a little bit about what we’re hoping to accomplish/learn at each stop.
Today: Downtown Market
In 2013, Grand Rapids will be home to a $30 million, 130,000-square-foot Downtown Market, a destination that is expected to attract 500,000 visitors a year. The three-story brick and glass building is intended by its developers to be a state-of-the art center of commerce for the culinary arts and fresh local foods.
The market will include 60 vendors, indoor and outdoor space for events, a greenhouse, a commercial kitchen and another to educate students in food, and space for two restaurants. A feasibility study showed that the market could achieve gross annual sales of around $25 million, and generate more than 600 jobs.
The New York Times just featured the Downtown Market specifically mentioning the young professionals in Grand Rapids. “Today, Grand Rapids is full of young professionals in good careers, who enjoy a low cost of living, first-rate restaurants with locally brewed beer and a variety of residential options near work. “
We’re excited to see this building before it becomes a crown jewel to the city and hear about all of the work that it takes to put together this project.
Note: Several members of the Van Andel Millennial Board will offer individual perspectives on the visit to Lansing. Some posts will recap the entire visit, while others will discuss individual tour stops.
By Erran Briggs, Kalamazoo College
Whenever I previously thought about Lansing, I only thought of one thing – green and white. In fact, it seemed as though the only things in Lansing were pertaining to the University. Luckily, I was wrong. After touring Lansing and seeing firsthand what it had to offer, I’ve definitely changed the way I feel about the city.
There are many new and exciting things going on in Lansing to help propel the city into a brighter, more productive future. For instance, we visited at one building that had previously served as a coal factory. The Accident Fund, a leading provider of workers’ compensation insurance, bought the building and renovated it, while preserving its original look and expanding the building with a more modern-looking addition. The building went from being a complete eyesore in the city of Lansing to one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen.
The people employed by the Accident Fund are energetic and excited about the steps Lansing is taking as a city. The company is primed for growth as well, as its headquarters is large enough to house many more employees. It will most likely be a source of increasing employment for the years to come.
Another interesting place that we visited in Lansing was called Old Town. This section of the city contains many old buildings, some of which may date back to the time of Lansing’s birth.
These buildings at one time were forgotten and rundown. Instead of remaining in disrepair, a group of nonprofits and small business owners have taken this small area of Lansing and turned it into a hub for growth. The people who work there include graphic art designers, film editors, and advertisers who reported that their businesses have actually picked up in the midst of the economic crisis.
All in all, I think that Lansing has a lot to offer and if we can just get people to see that, we should be able to retain more college graduates in this region.
Good news for the residents of Michigan, unemployment rates have dropped across the state with the state’s rate dipping to just 8.2%. This comes at 1.6% lower than the unemployment rate of the state last year.
Ann Arbor.com reports the city of Ann Arbor’s unemployment rate has fallen to a mere 5%. This is lower than the forecasted 2012 rate for the city.
Excerpt:
The unemployment rate for residents living in the Ann Arbor area fell from 5.8 percent in August and 6.4 percent in September 2011. That decrease comes at the same time as Ann Arbor’s labor force, a measure of how many people are actively working or seeking employment, has been rising.
To read the full story, click here.
Note: Several members of the Van Andel Millennial Board will offer individual perspectives on the visit to Lansing. Some posts will recap the entire visit, while others will discuss individual tour stops.
By: Josh Spratt, Alma College
While Lansing may be behind Grand Rapids and Detroit in urban renewal prospects, residents are now looking to make up for lost time. There is no doubt the city has some catching up to do; but with hard work from motivated individuals, I see the city making up ground in the next decade. Lansing is a great place for those who want to move in and have the opportunity to have a strong effect on their community from the get go.
Take, for example, The Center for New Enterprise Opportunity – a project put together relatively quickly with very low start-up costs due to the founder’s use of government grants. NEO opened its doors as Lansing first business incubator about a year ago and has the capacity to serve up to 21 tenants with affordable workspace at any given time. The founders of NEO look to help with networking, mentorship, business placement and creating a workspace conducive to creativity and innovation.
Another venue I found particularly interesting on our tour of Lansing was the Knapp Centre building. The former department store building built in the 1920s is currently under a multimillion dollar renovation project. While touring the gutted space, I couldn’t help but marvel at the architecture and intricate brick work of the old building. I look forward to going back next fall to see the finished product. The building will be an epicenter, housing a jazz club, restaurants, office and manufacturing space, and apartments. The Lansing Area Economic Partnership will have fashion incubator space where start-up clothing brands can manufacture products as well as put on runway shows. I see a growing fashion industry in the state of Michigan emerging during the next decade and, with this incubator, Lansing has the ability to be on the cutting edge of a potentially huge market.
Overall, I think the city of Lansing is making progress and moving forward. There are projects in the works right now that could positively impact the economic state of Michigan in the near future.
