Last week, we made an abbreviated trip to Grand Rapids to learn a little bit more about Michigan’s second largest city. The Michigan Colleges Foundation board meeting was being held at Aquinas in the afternoon, so we used the time before the meeting to look at a few more places that make Grand Rapids great.
We were given a behind-the-scenes hard hat tour of the new Downtown Market. This new market, recently featured in the New York Times, will be an epicenter for all things food. This 130,000 square ft. building will be home to plenty of market space, a restaurant, a brewery, a farmer’s market, retail shops, a commercial kitchen, a rooftop greenhouse and the country’s first hands-on kitchen for kids. They plan to open in the summer of 2013.
From there we visited the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital where we learned about the transformation of the Medical Mile and the impact it has had on patients, the community and the health care system. The health care industry in Grand Rapids accounts for about 86,097 jobs and is continuing to grow. Check out this interactive map of the Medical Mile.
Our last stop of the morning was at Start Garden. We met with the Start Garden team including the brains behind the organization (and ArtPrize), Rick DeVos. Start Garden leaders discussed how they are investing in ideas from the public that they think have the potential to be successful businesses. This idea of investing in entrepreneurs, Start Garden leaders believe, will help to create a new business environment in Michigan that transforms our state and our cities.
As we saw in our previous visit to Grand Rapids, this city is a great place for young professionals to get their start and build a life.
