November 16, 2015
DGRI plan reshapes downtown
The GR Forward plan is moving ahead with full support from the Downtown Development Authority and Monroe North Tax Increment Financing Authority. In a joint meeting Wednesday morning, the DDA and TIFA unanimously voted to recommend the final draft of GR Forward, a plan to reshape downtown Grand Rapids around the River Corridor, and one […]
Speaker offers game plan for successful women
Women in the business world don’t need to act like men to succeed; they need to act like athletes. That’s the message of the book “New Rules of the Game: 10 Strategies for Women in the Workplace,” by Susan Packard, a powerhouse in the entertainment industry. Packard, who helped build well-known brands such as HBO, […]
Urban farmers prepare for move to new center
Urban Roots is planning to put down roots in a new home. The Grand Rapids-based urban farming and permaculture design social enterprise recently announced plans to renovate and move into a building at 1316 Madison Ave. SE. Currently located at 1059 Wealthy St. SE, Urban Roots has plans to move out of this location and […]
Opponents say energy bills would benefit utility companies
LANSING — A pair of Senate bills would shift the state’s focus away from renewable energy to the benefit of large utility companies — and Michigan’s budding renewable market could be left out in the cold, according to opponents like the Sierra Club. “Essentially, these bills would destroy our current system of supporting renewables, efficiency […]
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Partnership keeps electronics out of landfill
A partnership between Spectrum Health and an electronics recycling firm is helping to keep 150,000 pounds of electronics out of landfills. Sarah Chartier, sustainability program manager for Spectrum Health, said that number represents just one year’s worth of electronics diverted from landfills, thanks to the partnership between Spectrum Health and Valley City Electronics Recycling. The […]
Event offers wine, beer and food
The 8th Annual Grand Rapids International Wine, Beer & Food Festival returns this weekend. The event runs Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 19-21, at DeVos Place. Single-day advance tickets are $15; a three-day pass is $40. Sampling tickets are 50 cents. This year, The Vineyard in the main ballroom will have more than 1,200 wines to […]
County budget heads to commissioners for final vote
The 2016 annual budget will go in front of the Kent County Board of Commissioners Thursday. Next year’s budget includes a 0.4 percent increase over the 2015 budget, with a gross expenditure requirement of $382.586 million, including $6.2 million in capital improvements. Total revenues from all funds are expected to be $379.586 million. The general […]
Labor agreements enter county’s approval process
Three expiring labor agreements have entered the approval process with Kent County. New deals with the Kent County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Association, Teamsters State, County and Municipal Workers – Public Health Nurses and United Auto Workers Local 2600 – General Unit were approved by the Kent County Commission Legislative & Human Resources Committee. The agreements […]
What do you do when workplace ‘change’ happens?
For most people, “change” is a mixture of what was, what used to be, what is present, what I’m being faced with now, what I believe the future holds and what I have to change to face that future. In short, how does this change affect me, my family, my lifestyle and my position? That’s […]
Street Talk: Homeward bound
Business Journal 40 Under Forty honoree Graci Harkema is on the journey of a lifetime. Harkema boarded a plane last Thursday bound for Africa, where she was born in a mud hut, weighing in at only three pounds and with little expectation of surviving infancy. Both she and her birth mother were extremely ill at […]
Public Record
MORTGAGES Selected mortgages filed with Kent County Register of Deeds BABCOCK, Robert A. et al, Fifth Third Bank, Condo-Watermark, $325,000 BRANDNER, Nathan et al, Quicken Loans, Condo-Clarkland Estates, $255,000 GRABINSKI, Brandon et al, Mortgage 1, Condo-Hidden Ponds, $275,793 SPRAGUE, John D. Jr. et al, Fifth Third Mortgage, Bonnell's Sub., Lot 39, $468,000 VERHAGEN, Aaron John-Ballard […]
West Michigan economy remains slightly ahead of national numbers
Slow growth is still the best way to describe the West Michigan economy, according to data and comments collected in the last two weeks of October. Our index of New Orders edged slightly lower to +9 from +13. The Production index retreated to +3 from +12. Activity in the purchasing offices rose modestly to +6 […]
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Change Ups: Lectronix engineering design center based in GR
Lansing-based technology and engineering firm Lectronix Inc. will lease for five years a 1,482-square-foot space at 2627 East Beltline Ave. NE that will serve as its engineering design center. The building is a former Bank of America location. Lectronix serves technology companies in a variety of industries from automotive to health care. NAI Wisinksi of […]
GVSU generating problem-solvers
Grand Valley State University’s Design Thinking Initiative provides opportunities to gain an understanding of the collaborative, interdisciplinary and integrative problem-solving approach. While the initiative offers workshops, speaker series and projects that are open to anyone, GVSU students also can learn and practice design thinking through immersion experiences, specific courses and activities integrated into different classes. […]
Skin in the game: big business decisions versus small business
An experience buying a new notebook computer caused me to wonder who makes the big decisions in big business. I went from anger to wonderment at the methods they will use to increase sales. I needed to cut down on the hardware I was toting back and forth between Grand Rapids and Cheboygan. I had […]
It ain’t easy being green: Volkswagen is not alone
Here’s what I would ideally like my car to do: drive me in comfort, style and power wherever I wish to go, use very little fossil fuel, emit almost no climate-changing carbon dioxide and, finally, spew none of the toxic nitrogen dioxide gases that are known to shorten the lifespan of humans. No one backs […]
City’s transformation of business district to residential has consequential ramifications
Grand Rapids City Commissioners will, in just a few weeks, determine whether to approve the GR Forward plan, a massive reconstruction of the downtown from the Leonard Street area of Monroe North to beyond the Downtown Market — a plan far more elaborate than the failed 1970’s pedestrian mall “revitalized” in the late 1990s at […]
Downtown hotels launch informational TV channel
Three downtown hotels are introducing a new informational television channel to help visitors explore Grand Rapids. Amway Hotel Corp., which manages Amway Grand Plaza, JW Marriott and Downtown Courtyard by Marriott, has launched Solace TV, which will be hosted by Carrie Kolehouse, senior marketing manager. Similar to the hotel’s Solace magazine, the TV channel will […]
Customer service is big with Biggby franchise owner
Walk into Biggby Coffee on Gezon Parkway in Wyoming, and a “Hello!” is on its way. And it usually comes from Michelle Willis, the franchisee of the location at 1033 Gezon Parkway SW. The coffee shop had been open less than a year when Willis brought home the best customer service award at Biggby’s annual […]
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Inside Track: Brady is a lawyer by trade, but a volunteer by choice
If you ask Jim Brady about his community involvement, be ready for a long list. He’s been volunteering his time with professional and community organizations since he entered the legal profession in 1969. Some of the organizations he’s been involved with include Grand Rapids Jaycees, Catholic Charities West Michigan, Emmanuel Hospice and St. Ann’s Skilled […]
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‘Backyard’ winery helps push Michigan’s industry
Brian Lesperance would like to think of Fenn Valley Vineyards and Wine Cellar as Grand Rapids’ hometown winery. Lesperance, the winery’s marketing director, sometimes wonders why Grand Rapids wine lovers more closely associate with Traverse City wine country when Fenn Valley is less than an hour away. “Our proximity to Grand Rapids is something that […]
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A 70 percent town
In 2008, Kent County had hotel occupancy of 48 percent. That number was well below the national average, and Michigan ranked dead last in the nation, but Doug Small saw an opportunity. “There’s only one way to go but up, baby,” Small remembers telling his friends in Denver who questioned why he would want to […]
Two towers are on tap downtown
With Warner Norcross & Judd slated as its anchor tenant, a new two-tower development is planned to change the skyline of downtown Grand Rapids. Orion Real Estate Solutions announced the project last week, in partnership with Midtown Properties, Lansing-based DTN Management and Concept Design. The project will sit on the northeast corner of Ottawa Avenue […]
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Work to restore the Grand River surges ahead
(As seen on WZZM TV 13) Grand Rapids city officials approved an important next step in the process of restoring and revitalizing the Grand River during the Committee of the Whole meeting last week by authorizing the city engineer to sign and submit all permit applications for future improvement projects related to restoration, flood control […]
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Taking a swing at redevelopment
Prior to the 1980s, Benton Harbor was a bustling Rust Belt community. There were 550 acres of manufacturing facilities and a giant 24-acre cloverleaf interchange to allow for easier commutes for the 6,600 workers heading to the factories every day. But then, within an 18-month period, many of the factories, including Whirlpool Corp.’s main manufacturing […]
