November 25, 2013
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Grassroots effort to increase PDR funding fails
Although the turnout to talk about farmland preservation was down from the previous county commission meeting, the message was the same. Instead of the 30 who showed up last time, a dozen individuals urged commissioners last week to allocate more than the $25,000 that is in the 2014 general fund budget for the county’s Purchase […]
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Land bank bills making the rounds in Lansing
Apparently, Republican lawmakers in different areas of the state see land bank authorities in a different light. State Rep. Ken Yonker, R-Caledonia, introduced a bill in the House last April that would severely punish a land bank authority if it is found violating the state’s Land Bank Fast Track Act. But recently Republican State Sen. […]
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Perrigo donates $275K in support of Allegan
Perrigo Co. is giving its hometown of Allegan an early Christmas present. Perrigo Company Charitable Foundation announced a donation of $275,000 to be divided between the city of Allegan and five local organizations as part of the global health care supplier’s 125th anniversary celebration. “Perrigo is strongly committed to West Michigan,” said Perrigo Chairman and […]
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City to hear details of 616 Lofts on Michigan
The latest project from 616 Development has a doubleheader scheduled at City Hall. City commissioners will hold two public hearings on the same evening next month to hear the details of 616 Lofts on Michigan, a $16 million mixed-use development the firm is proposing for 740 Michigan St. NE and an adjacent parking lot. Both […]
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Public Record
MORTGAGES Selected mortgages filed with Kent County Register of Deeds ELENBAAS, Charles et al, Huntington National Bank, Plainfield Twp., 35-8-11, $216,650 DRY DOCKED PROPERTIES LLC, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Grand Rapids, 11-6-11, $680,000 SUTLIFFE, Chad A. et al, Independent Bank, Evergreen Meadows No. 3, Lot 80, $205,200 POST, David J. et al, Lake Michigan Credit […]
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Council submits prosperity grant application
It’s quite a major undertaking. In fact, the geographic region involved is about the size of New Jersey. Whether the amount of money that is involved will be worth the effort is another story, however, and only time will write that one. Still, the Grand Valley Metro Council accepted its role as the program’s fiduciary […]
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Forest Heroes urges Kellogg to become more sustainable
The Forest Heroes Campaign delivered petitions to Kellogg Co. last week encouraging a “Michigan institution that champions the values of social responsibility and sustainability that Michiganders hold dear” to continue to seek alternatives to using palm oil. The group, which organized several months ago, held rallies at Kellogg’s Battle Creek offices last week to protest […]
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Homeowners save green by going green
By taking steps to reduce energy consumption, homeowners protected their wallets, and they protect the environment. The state of Michigan estimates that for every $1 used for energy efficiency or “optimization,” utility customers see a return of $3.83 in avoided energy costs. We’re doing well in Michigan when it comes to energy efficiency, but we […]
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City transfers two tax breaks for Precision
When Precision Aerospace Corp. announced last summer it was leaving its Crofton Street address on the city’s southeast side and moving to Cascade Township, Grand Rapids city commissioners were faced with transferring a pair of industrial tax exemptions they granted the company years ago. They did so last week: Precision Aerospace now can take the […]
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KCTA unveils tax rate/school performance website
The Kent County Taxpayers Alliance, a non-partisan, nonprofit advocacy group that formed in 2007, has recently revitalized a free online presence the organization hopes will draw a lot of virtual attention. The website, opengovernmentproject.org, allows residents to compare the average tax rate for 93 taxing jurisdictions in the county, along with the graduation and spending […]
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Business insights on coordinating, collaboration and capital
If reinvention was the theme at the recent TEDxMuskegon 2013, it begs the question: What is being reinvented? The answer for three of the event’s presenters was the business world, or at least pieces of the business world. The three Michigan professionals — Mark Peters, CEO of Butterball Farms; Todd Conrad, a teacher and football […]
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What are you thinking? Here are a few of my thoughts
The minute I get a thought, I capture it. For the past year or so, I've been texting myself through voice dictation. It works. It's the same way I am writing this column — voice to text. It works. I'm about to share with you some of those random thoughts. They are in no particular […]
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Toasters and roasters fill DeVos Place
Kent County Convention and Arena Authority spent the weekend counting heads and revenues from the annual Wine, Beer & Food Festival at DeVos Place. At top left, CAA Chairman Steven Heacock congratulates Gemini Publications owner John Zwarensteyn for the company’s CAA award for sponsorship since inception six years ago. Additions this year included an expansive […]
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Realtor misled condominium buyers
LANSING — A couple who bought a South Haven condo built on contaminated land two blocks from Lake Michigan is entitled to about $470,000 in damages from the realtor and her real estate agency that handled the deal, the Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled. The realtor who handled the deal knew that sales brochure […]
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City and Rockford agree on land purchase option
The city of Grand Rapids entered into a two-year property purchase agreement last week with Rockford Development LLC for a one-acre parcel on the near southwest side, not far from the downtown campus of Grand Valley State University. The option is for a city-owned vacant parcel at 30 Lexington Ave. SW, just south of Fulton […]
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Change Ups: Ottawa County tapped for public health award
The Ottawa County Department of Public Health has received the 2013 Michigan Department of Community Health Director’s Award for Excellence in Local Public Health. The department was selected for its innovative collaboration and leadership efforts demonstrated by the Beach Health Educational Campaign developed by its environmental health team and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The […]
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Street Talk: Local governments: stuck at the bottom of the food chain
The University of Michigan is one of the highest-level educational institutions in the U.S., known for being all about the big stuff. But one department is focused on the little people who play key roles: the hundreds of local governments in Michigan’s counties and communities. “They are at the bottom of the food chain. And […]
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1031 exchange transactions seem to be picking up speed
The Grand Rapids office of Cohen Financial extended its reach to arrange financing for a deal that involved a building in Cottage Grove, Ore. Cathy Bronkema, a partner and managing director of the local Cohen Financial office, secured a $4.15 million loan from an unspecified national bank so Walgreens could buy the property about 20 […]
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Healthy mortgage market may continue
West Michigan is in the midst of a good mortgage market with a bright future. Dan Grzywacz described the area’s mortgage market as “healthy” with both refinances and sales trending upward from half a dozen years ago. Grzywacz is a senior vice president at Mortgage 1 Inc. and past president of the Michigan Mortgage Lenders […]
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Gun Lake’s fall payment more than $8.7 million
The 1,578 slot machines at the Gun Lake Casino south of Grand Rapids just generated a fall revenue-sharing payment to the state and local governments of more than $8.79 million, according to the Gun Lake Band of Pottawatomi Indians. The tribe’s fall revenue-sharing payments announced last week, covering the period from April 1 to Sept. […]
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Learning studio brings neuroscience to business
(As seen on WZZM TV 13) Businesses can learn a lot from neuroscience, according to Denise VanEck, owner of the newly opened Thought Design Learning Studio in Rockford. VanEck opened what she calls a fitness center for the mind in May after several years of studying the latest neuroscience research findings on adult learning and […]
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Transforming knowledge into building blocks of wisdom
Wisdom results from our application of knowledge, from using what we know to change (or intentionally stabilize) a situation, alter the life of another, or accomplish something that had not yet been considered. Simply knowing many facts and answers to hard questions may make us smart, but unless and until we apply the facts we […]
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Nation’s fifth-largest CU mortgage originator located here
Now in its 80th year, Lake Michigan Credit Union has announced it is the largest financial institution headquartered in West Michigan and also the region’s largest mortgage originator. It also just expanded its charter, allowing it to serve people living in every county in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. “We used to be just western Michigan,” said […]
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Michigan needs to learn a lesson about prosperity
Michigan Future’s new report, “The New Path to Prosperity: Lessons for Michigan From Two Decades of Economic Change,” is about how the American economy has been transformed from 1990-2011 — largely, we believe, due to globalization and technology. And how Michigan and Minnesota (the Great Lakes region’s most prosperous state) have fared compared to the […]
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Broker puts together commercial brokerage
A new commercial real estate brokerage is opening here, led by a veteran commercial real estate broker who has worked in the local field for the past 16 years. However, Chip Hurley feels the firm won’t actually be a “new” player in the standard sense. Hurley recently became managing director of Newmark Grubb Cressy & […]
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A one, two, three economy
Mitch Stapley and John Augustine of Fifth Third Bank see the national economy “finally gathering strength,” and say the country may enjoy a “one, two, three economy” over the next couple of years — if there aren’t too many headwinds whipped up by the federal government. Stapley, chief investment officer at the bank, and Augustine, […]
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Inside Track: Darcie helps everyone understand beer better
When Ben Darcie decided to leave his kitchen job at Electric Cheetah last year, he had no leads for a new job. Since he was 15, he had relied on cooking to make money, but eventually the workload and pressure built up, forcing him to leave his 10 years of job experience behind. “I put […]
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Giving thanks for West Michigan’s most valuable source of capital
Business owners annually strive, in this week of the Thanksgiving holiday and throughout the holiday season, to balance valuable customer demands and continued business profits with employee work/life balance. In a week that gives Americans pause to give thanks for the result of such balance, the Business Journal notes that a day put aside for […]
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Hope College grad is doing what she always wanted to do
Unlike some college students, Becky Renner Anderson knew when she enrolled at Hope College what she wanted to do: work as an Edward Jones financial advisor. That motivation, plus the planning and preparation she put behind it, are probably among the reasons she has become the first million dollar woman financial advisor for the Edward […]
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CWD expands its presence on city’s southeast side
It appears the reason CWD Real Estate Investment bought the building that houses the Michigan Athletic Club and the property it sits on is that both are close to some sites the firm already owns. The MAC is at 2500 Burton St. SE in Grand Rapids, near Breton Village Mall and other parcels CWD recently […]
