Behind an unassuming door on the third floor of the 616 Lofts at Grandville, located at the corner of Grandville Ave. and Cherry Street, interns and volunteers are busy creating fun, new entertainment events for Grand Rapids residents and visitors to enjoy.
The
Arena District (originally known as the Arena Zone), a nonprofit endeavor now in its eighth year, will have launched three brand new events in Grand Rapids by the end of 2012. This is in addition to publishing its annual "Tastes Grand Guide," monthly Culture Club gatherings and semi-annual Carnevale event. Surprisingly, the organization does all of this without any paid staff.
Originally, Dennis Moosbrugger, founder and president of the Arena District and owner of Bar Divani, says he began the organization as a way for the downtown Grand Rapids hospitality industry to co-op the market itself and draw more people from surrounding areas to downtown on the evenings and weekends. He had interest from about a dozen downtown bars and restaurants when he launched the "Tastes Grand Guide."
Today, more than 30 restaurants and bars are part of the Arena District collaboration and Moosbrugger has seen a vast improvement in people spending time downtown. What he would like to see now is more people making downtown Grand Rapids their home, renting apartments and purchasing condos. He thinks that more events can help add to the interest in living downtown.
"We need more people on the street, walking home from work, that can embrace an urban environment," Moosbrugger says. "That still hasn't grasped here yet, even though it's showing itself in apartment rentals."
Moosbrugger points to statistics that indicate nearly 86 percent of students from Grand Valley State University are remaining in West Michigan, rather than heading off to larger cities like Detroit, Chicago and the coasts.
"Now there is so much going on that they say, 'hey, there's low crime, it's easy to get around, it's clean.' We've got so much to do in a small town that we don't have to deal with all the other negative elements of an urban area," says Moosbrugger.
He points out that Grand Rapids already has everything a large city has, as well as great facilities and philanthropic support.
But, Moosbrugger says that what he really wants to see is those apartment renters committing to staying in downtown Grand Rapids with condo purchases. In order to make his vision a reality, Moosbrugger has enlisted a hearty supply of interns and volunteers to help develop, plan, manage and execute exciting signature events.
This August, the Arena District launched
GR's Got Talent, a talent competition in the vein of "America's Got Talent." The event began with a Battle of the Bands night earlier this month, followed by two days of auditions, where approximately 140 individuals showed off their unique talents. The winners will go on to compete at the finale show on August 18 at the Civic Theatre.
On Sept. 8, the organization will hold The Musical Chair Games, which Moosbrugger describes as a citywide outdoor musical chairs competition for people of any age. And, earlier this year, it held its first Cinco de Mayo Fiesta, which sold 1,200 tickets, despite a rainy day.
During these signature events, collaborating restaurants and bars have the opportunity to participate by offering drink and food specials and getting involved in the theme. One of the best examples is the semi-annual Carnevale event that has evolved over the years. This year, nearly a dozen restaurants and bars participated, and a group of traveling musicians wandered the streets and made visits to the bars throughout the evening.
Garry Boyd, Ringleader of Barfly Ventures, joined the Arena District in 2005 and became the organization's VP in 2007. He says he is excited by what the Arena District and other groups are doing to draw people downtown and introduce them to the many excellent bars and eateries.
"We have done a few events during the last couple years that I feel have been beneficial to creating some synergy with the downtown bars and restaurants," Boyd says. "Mardi Gras, Cinco De Mayo, the beer tent at the first Irish On Ionia, as well as our monthly Culture Club nights and our ArtPrize preview all have been successful at highlighting this great community of fun places to eat and drink. I think that anyone who looks at what is going on in this town looks to the bar and restaurant scene as a shining example of a thriving community. I know other towns look at what's going on here and use Grand Rapids as the model for growth and success. It keeps getting better."
The monthly Culture Club events are a particularly nice way for member organizations to show off their establishment. The events blend education and entertainment from the country being represented, and usually involve a speaker from Grand Rapids with ties to the country as well as a hands-on activity for patrons to take part in.
"Every month, we have a culture event where we highlight a culture and heritage and have food representative of that culture and live traditional entertainment," Graci Harkema, Arena District board member and media relations' director, says. "All of our speakers and our entertainers live in Grand Rapids, because we want there to be a strong local piece. We don't want to just bring in an outside person and say can you come to our event and talk about your culture. We want it to be a true tale of people who have immigrated from that country and chosen Grand Rapids as their home for a specific reason."
The Culture Clubs have been growing since they began a year and a half ago, with between 75-100 people showing up on average to each one.
Word of mouth has been the primary source for promoting the events and growing attendance, as well as social media avenues like Facebook and Twitter.
"We started exclusively using social media to get the word out, but now we are starting to get a lot of traditional media attention as well," Harkema says.
Because several of the events are quite new, finding sponsors remains one of the bigger challenges. Moosbrugger says that he's pretty much come to accept that sponsorship will increase once the events have proven themselves, so he hopes that next year, more sponsors will pop up to help cover the costs of the events.
Currently, the organization runs without any paid staff members. Besides community volunteers, interns from many of the local colleges are hired to support different events. An event like GR's Got Talent requires the help of about five to six people engaged in daily management of the event. The Mardi Gras event came together with the work of Moosbrugger and a single intern as well as the help of a steering committee. Each event has its own team of interns and volunteers, and the teams meet once a week to provide updates on their events.
"It's a challenge," Moosbrugger says. "It's work, but they are embracing something that is new and creative. A lot of them went to event planning in their backgrounds and resumes, so they want to show they can do something. I'm a teacher in the sense that I like to delegate. I like to say here's a project, here's what you need to do. Give them the basics and let them go for it."
"I think it's really cool that we are all volunteering our time," Harkema says. "It truly shows our passion for downtown and for seeing the growth and development, and especially the entertainment increasing."
For an organization with so much going on, it might seem like its time to sit back and just watch the event attendance grow, but that's not the Arena Districts style. Instead, they are always busy looking for ways to improve and make an event better.
Moosbrugger is also constantly brainstorming ways to encourage the more than 20,000 people who work downtown to stay past 5 p.m. He won't be satisfied until almost everyone spends at least one evening a week enjoying a restaurant, bar or other entertainment venue before heading home for night.
Charlsie Dewey is a professional writer located in Grand Rapids, MI.
Photography by
ADAM BIRD