May 6, 2019
Study finds affordable housing is lacking
The supply of affordable homes for sale in Michigan is not meeting demand, and the share of Michigan citizens who own a home is falling as a result, according to a homeownership study commissioned by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. The study was conducted by an advisory committee of key stakeholders in government, finance, […]
GR office real estate market continues to tighten
Looking back on the first quarter of 2019, the office market continues to tighten up, according to local real estate market reports. For the first time in 30 years, Colliers International West Michigan observed a vacancy rate for both the central business district and suburban office markets below 10%. Downtown Grand Rapids is at 9.4% […]
App raises mental health awareness
Mental health help may be as close as your fingertips. In April, Kendra McComb and Linda Anderson launched Cosmic JUJU, a mental health and wellness app. The app allows individuals who are seeking help for mental health issues to create profiles and have access to a directory that is composed of contact information of professionals […]
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Inside Track: VonMyhr’s mission: Access to tech
Garry VonMyhr is doing his part to ensure every child has access to technology. As co-founder and CEO of Tech Defenders, he’s been at the helm of a rapidly growing tech repair company in West Michigan with a mission to give back to the community. VonMyhr first got into the business of technology repair through […]
Public Record
BANKRUPTCY 19-00909 – SHORT, William C. IV & Brooke L., 3160 Dorais NE, Rebecca L. Johnson-Ellis (Ch. 7) 19-00910 – CARD, Jadiza S., 4375 Wimbledon SW, Grandville, Angie J. Bailey-Hobbs (Ch. 7) 19-00911 – JACKSON, Delia A., 941 Eastern SE, Jacob T. Tighe (Ch. 7) 19-00919 – WHITEHEAD, Eric J., 928 Garfield NW, Jacob T. […]
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Change Ups: Lakewood Construction receives national Excellence in Construction Award
Holland-based Lakewood Construction’s work on the West Coast Chamber of Commerce in Holland earned the company a National Excellence in Construction Eagle Award from Associated Builders and Contractors in the category of Renovation – Less than $5 Million. The 7,300-square-foot building’s new features include a flexible Learning Lab meeting space, collaborative office space and ample […]
Street Talk: Hudsonville is home
News of a combined $25-million investment by a pair of manufacturers in Jamestown Township has the area southwest of Grand Rapids humming. Royal Technologies and MFP Automation Engineering both are expanding their operations in the community, and executives from both firms used the term “home” to describe part of the decision-making process. The industrial expansions […]
New rules for transferring business real property without uncapping
Will transferring business real property from one family entity to another trigger higher property taxes? That depends on whether the receiving entity is under “common control” with the conveying entity. Previously, for two entities to be under common control, there needed to be, among other things, overlapping ownership of not less than 80%. Now, under […]
Higher education system needs fundamental redesign
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, with lots of bi-partisan and business community support, has established the goal of 60% of Michigan adults having a postsecondary credential by 2030. The Lumina Foundation — which has been at the center of the national effort to get to 60% — calculates that in 2017, 45% of 25-to-64-year-olds in Michigan had […]
Entrepreneurs launching wine and spirits company
Grand Rapids entrepreneurs Jonathan Jelks, Jamiel Robinson and recording artist Willie “Willie The Kid” Jackson are partnering to launch Motu Viget Spirits, a wine and spirits company that will develop and release sparkling wine, wine and other spirits in collaboration with local beverage companies. “The concept is to come up with really good beverages that are […]
BL2END hosts workforce barriers presentation
Women of color face much more resistance in their careers than is represented by the decades-old term “glass ceiling,” according to a local educator. Brandy Lovelady Mitchell — a longtime educational consultant and now inaugural director of diversity, equity and inclusion at Kent Intermediate School District as of last June — spoke to a full […]
LRE at risk again of losing state contract
For a second time, the organization that handles Medicaid funding for five community mental health centers in West Michigan is at risk of having its state contract canceled. Lakeshore Regional Entity has 30 days from April 25 to correct “governance and severe financial instability,” or its contract with the state will be canceled Sept. 30, […]
ALICE sends mixed signals
An updated report by United Way shows poverty in Kent County is decreasing, but the number of those living paycheck to paycheck is doing the opposite. The nonprofit’s latest ALICE report shows that 9% of Kent County households were in poverty in 2017, down 5% from 2014, while the rate of those within the ALICE […]
WMEAC opposes Grand River Waterway
The proposed Grand River Waterway project has dug up a number of environmental opponents. The West Michigan Environmental Action Council is the most recent in a long list of state, municipal and community organizations opposed to the project on environmental and economic grounds. The WMEAC Board of Directors expressed concerns that the Grand River Waterway […]
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Wyoming embarks on master plan
The city of Wyoming launched the process of formulating a new master plan, and the plan will be informed by several sessions of community engagement and stakeholder input. The process, dubbed “Wyoming [re]Imagined,” kicked off with the first of several workshops May 2 at the Wyoming branch of the Kent District Library. Wyoming City Council […]
Kent hiring two lead inspectors
Kent County is adding two sanitarian positions to help identify lead exposure. The two proposed sanitarian positions will be trained and charged with conducting lead inspection and risk assessments of affected houses in Kent County, including checking people’s blood for elevated lead levels. Each sanitarian will be able to perform these services at 30-40 houses […]
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Women in Finance group hosts primer on board service
Citing Inforum’s 2017 report on women in Michigan’s public companies — which showed only 15% of board members and 13% of executive officers are female — a local association hosted a recent event to help change that. The Association for Corporate Growth Western Michigan, or ACG Western Michigan, a nonprofit membership organization for business and […]
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Server forms recovery nonprofit
For someone committed to getting sober, working in a restaurant or bar with the sights and smells of beer all day can be tough. That’s according to Nance McGorman, a server at HopCat who decided to start a local support group for others in her shoes two years ago. In February, the group received its […]
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Clark’s dementia care makes international connection
A speech therapist recently returned to her home country of Singapore after spending eight weeks studying the dementia program at Clark Retirement Communities in Grand Rapids. An An Chia is one of six professionals creating an outpatient group therapy program for eight to 10 dementia patients at the new Sengkang General Hospital in Singapore. The […]
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Locally made carts foster creative time for kids
A Muskegon manufacturer unknowingly designed the “perfect” tool for a nonprofit program that’s deploying in California and Chicago. Muskegon-based Geerpres, a maker of health care and cleaning industry solutions, has a product called the Enterprise EVS Modular Cart that was designed to be configurable for various cleaning protocols in health care. The Backyard Experience, a […]
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Prein&Newhof celebrates 50 years of notable projects
Prein&Newhof recently celebrated 50 years of serving West Michigan. The full-service civil and environmental engineering firm was founded on April 21, 1969, by H. Edward Prein and Thomas Newhof. Both engineers and natives of Grand Rapids, Prein and Newhof worked together before partnering to begin their own venture. Newhof attributed the birth of P&N to […]
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Commercial real estate a mixed bag for those looking for space
Depending on what you are looking for, the commercial real estate market in West Michigan may not be so favorable. According to some commercial real estate experts in the area, more properties are available for leasing, but fewer properties are available for sale. Jason Makowski, a partner and an office specialist at NAI Wisinski of […]
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Local family debuts mobile events business
A pair of Calvin College grads and their kids have moved back to West Michigan with an Airstream trailer and a vision in tow. Gwen Kwasteniet-Vogelzang and Tim Vogelzang — Chicago-area natives who graduated from Calvin in 2001 with degrees in communications and accounting, respectively — spent the past 16 years in Denver, where they […]
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Furniture components supplier doubles space
A maker of electronic and mechatronic systems for the furniture industry has moved into a new North American headquarters in Kentwood that is more than double the size of its former space. Deutschlandsberg, Austria-based LOGICDATA is moving into the region’s new HQ at 5300 Broadmoor Ave. SE on May 3. Its previous, 20,000-square-foot facility opened […]
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Employers inject value into Jamestown Township
Officials in the Jamestown Township area say it’s a good place to call “home” — and two local manufacturers appear to agree. West Michigan economic development agency Lakeshore Advantage last month announced MFP Automation Engineering and Royal Technologies are planning “major growth projects” in Jamestown Charter Township, representing $25 million total in private investment — […]
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Region’s water economy swells
(As seen on WZZM TV 13) A new study shows water-related tourism and industry creates an estimated annual economic impact of $666 million and supports nearly 6,300 jobs in West Michigan. Muskegon and Grand Haven were the two area cities analyzed in the study showing Michigan’s ports and harbors in 2017 had an impact of […]
