West Michigan In The News

Plans are under way to break ground in May for a $100 million milk processing facility on the site of the former Delphi automotive plant in Coopersville, says Steve Cooper, who is leading the effort.

Cooper hopes to have the Continental Dairy operational by December 2011 with as many as 70 employees.

According to excerpts from the story:

Cooper said Continental Dairy has already invested close to $10 million in the facility, with $3 million of that being spent on equipment that is already on site for the new plant.

The plant will process up to four million pounds (500,000 gallons) of milk into dry milk daily, and will have the capacity to store up to 30 days' worth of product at the plant. Dry milk is used in everything from candy to infant formula, Cooper said.

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Non-profit organizations ranging from Goodwill Industries of Grand Rapids to those affiliated with United Way campaigns in Kent and Ottawa counties are benefiting from the growing number of volunteers in West Michigan.

According to excerpts from the story:

Swelling the ranks in particular are skilled workers whose jobs were cut, Baby Boomers forced into early retirement; and families seeking a Disney promotion that offers a day of free admission to its amusement parks in exchange for volunteering.

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A Brooklyn, N.Y. woman was so impressed with Holland's image in a recent ABC newscast that she sent Mayor Kurt Dykstra a check for $250 to be distributed as $25 gifts for 10 individuals. Ramona Smith says she was moved by the spirit of the town.

According to excerpts from the story:

"The story touched me and the people," Scott said of recent media reports about Holland ranking second in the nation on a well-being index. "The main thing that touched me was the winter snow."

A fan of winter — "I love the winter; people think I'm crazy," she said — Scott thought the piece on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer showed Holland area residents to be community-minded and "a friendly little town."

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A new pilot program selects high school students as jurors for an alternative sentencing program for juvenile nonviolent offenders, instead of going through the traditional justice system. One up-side is that the offenders have the possibility of wiping their offenses off their records.

According to excerpts from the story:

No 16-year-old sips alcohol for the first time during second hour.

A jury made up entirely of Creston High School students kept circling back to that belief while deciding the punishment for a girl who admitted bringing alcohol to school.

"If this is what she's doing at school, I can only imagine what she's doing outside of school," said jury member Crystal Baird, a senior.

The jurors were taking part in a recent Teen Court -- a new alternative sentencing program for 11- to 16-year-olds who are nonviolent offenders and have admitted guilt. Rather than going through juvenile court, the offenders are sentenced by local high school students who are studying the legal system. Offenders who successfully complete their punishment get their criminal records scrubbed clean.

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Several West Michigan downtown developers shared ideas and visions for recruiting new businesses and building the economies of their downtowns at a recent conference in Grand Rapids. Developing relevant marketing materials and relationships with commercial real estate brokers topped Grand Rapids developers' list.

According to excerpts from the story:

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was doomed to push a boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down and have to start over every day.

Downtown Kalamazoo Inc. Business Recruitment and Retention Director Rob Peterson compared Sisyphus' fate to the task of attracting retail businesses to central business districts.

"There are days we all feel that way," Peterson joked at the International Council of Shopping Centers West Michigan Alliance program last week in Grand Rapids.

He led the roundtable "Sisyphus Speaks: Recruiting Retailers to the Urban Environment" with Anne Marie Bessette, development specialist for the Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority.

With the current economy, and the struggles of retail especially, it has become even more important for downtown development organizations to work closely with brokers and property owners to attract and retain businesses.

A few years ago, the Grand Rapids DDA decided to make retaining and attracting businesses downtown a priority, Bessette said. One of its efforts last year included building a database of available storefronts, and the DDA works with brokerage firms to keep that up to date.

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A new state initiative to spur economic development has selected Muskegon Heights as one of a handful of Michigan towns that will receive training to develop strategies to revitalize their downtowns and commercial districts.

According to excerpts from the story:

A new state initiative designed to help revitalize traditional downtowns is being rolled out in seven Michigan communities, including Muskegon Heights.

Called the Downtowns of Promise, the program is expected to rely heavily on an action-oriented strategy and personal accountability to improve the downtowns and their use. Among the goals of the program spearheaded by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, in conjunction with the Michigan Municipal League, are increasing the amount of people who live in and the level of private investment in the downtowns.

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A petition drive launched by a Southfield-based group aimed at letting the voters decide on whether to amend the state's constitution could be the first step in opening a corporate casino in Muskegon.

If the group is successful and voters approve the proposal in November, the change would allow up to seven corporate, non-American-Indian casinos, including one in Muskegon.

According to excerpts from the story:

The proposal features some bold ideas, such as making sports betting legal at casinos -- including the three existing ones in Detroit and all of the state's Indian casinos.


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While many West Michigan residents have focused on the unsightly aesthetics of erecting a large scale wind farm on Lake Michigan, economic development officials say the potential for creating thousands of much-needed jobs gets nearly lost in the discussion.

Norwegian development company Scandia Wind LLC proposes a 1,000-megawatt Aegir Wind Farm for Lake Michigan off the Oceana-Mason county line.

According to excerpts from the story:

A study found that the West Michigan region could generate 4,000 jobs and an $800 million investment by producing alternative energy components.

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Michigan's top private-sector employer, the health care industry, generated nearly 10,000 jobs from 2006 to 2008 in Kent County alone, jumping to 69,473 people and bringing with it an annual $4.53 billion impact on the economy, according to a new report.

In a biannual economic-impact report from the Partnership for Michigan's Health, health care employed more than 900,000 in Michigan by 2008 and became an even bigger force on the state's economy.

According to excerpts from the story:

"This is a time when we can help provide some stability, even at a time when we've seen some huge declines in other employment sectors," said Peter Schonfeld, senior vice president for policy and data services at the Michigan Health & Hospital Association.

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AirTran's recent announcement that it will soon serve the Gerald Ford International Airport has given the region another advantage to attract national business conferences.

According to excerpts from the story:

The only way for Grand Rapids to grow its meetings and conventions industry is for it to play at a national level. To do so requires the region to raise its brand awareness, but also make it easy for visitors and conventioneers to get to town.

In that sense, the Grand Rapids/Kent County Convention and Visitors Bureau's job should be somewhat easier now that AirTran announced that it would begin serving Gerald Ford International Airport starting in May. AirTran's arrival will bring a much-needed low-cost networked carrier to the region, as well as place downward pressure on the price of all fares, according to airline and airport officials.

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If passed in the Michigan legislature, several proposed tax breaks for LEED-certified new construction and building rehabs could prompt developers to invest more of their green in green buildings.

According to excerpts from the story:

Even though redevelopment of a former Fifth Third bank site in Eastown is ready to break ground this spring, Bazzani Associates Inc. might hold off awhile. Proposed legislation, expected to hit the floor of the state Senate by spring break, would offer tax breaks for new construction and building rehabilitations that achieve certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED.

"I would probably delay (the building) a bit in waiting for this," said Guy Bazzani, who helped write a package of bills introduced this month by lawmakers, including Sens. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, and Patty Birkholz, R-Saugatuck Township.

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Entrepreneurs from around West Michigan met last week with Governor Granholm to voice their experience about the FastTrac program that puts displaced workers in charge of their own small businesses quickly, giving them the opportunity to get back on their feet.

According to excerpts from the story:

After a career in human resources, talent developer Scott Patchin found himself out of work.

"Last April, for the first time in 20 years, I was without a job," Patchin told a crowded room at an entrepreneurial roundtable Wednesday. "Two weeks within losing my job, a friend said, 'I heard about this program.' That's where it all started."

His business, The trU Group LLC, was one of five spotlighted at the roundtable, led by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Patchin said he enlisted in a veritable boot camp for entrepreneurs, the FastTrac program run by the Small Business and Technology Development Council, based at Grand Valley State University. Wednesday's session was in GVSU's DeVos Center downtown. After his experiences working for big auto suppliers, a bank, and a hospital system, Patchin figured he was primed to go out on his own.

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As state lawmakers work on the 2011 state budget, Grand Valley University President Thomas Haas reminded them of their constitutional and moral obligation to fund higher education, saying that it's "apparent that higher education is no longer the funding priority it once was" after years of cutbacks.

"These are strong words, and I mean them," he testified last Friday before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Higher Education in Saginaw last week. Cuts in funding leaves administrators with little recourse but to raise tuition, which means a tax increase to students and their parents.

According to excerpts from the story:

"All but one of you attended a Michigan public university. This you were able to do because your parents and grandparents paid taxes to create and sustain the finest group of public universities in the country. You benefited personally from their willingness to support higher education."

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Goodwill Industries of Greater Grand Rapids is no longer the rundown retail store where the elderly and poor shop for everyday items. Through dedicated efforts, it has grown into a strong community cornerstone in the training and retaining of the area's workforce for green-industry jobs, a natural extension of Goodwill's commitment to sustainability, Goodwill Industries officials say.

Most recently it has built partnerships with two new green-job initiatives that have been awarded federal stimulus Pathways out of Poverty grants, according Jill Wallace, vice president of communications for Goodwill Industries of Greater Grand Rapids.

According to excerpts from the story:

"We are looking to assist individuals in becoming self-sufficient so they can lead a sustainable life," Wallace said of the green-training efforts. "Goodwill is also the largest recycler in the world, so, from a green standpoint, we are a very sustainable organization. So it comes full circle. … It makes sense for us to take a look at green jobs."

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Grand Rapids Community College and Holland's Energetx Composites are uniting efforts to train students in the making of composites by the introduction of an intense college four-week class starting March 8.

Two-thirds of the 80-hour intensive program will be hands-on lab training on the shop floor at Energetx, the first time school officials say GRCC has used a manufacturing facility as a classroom.

According to excerpts from the story:

Energetx, which expects to create 1,000 new jobs over several years, plans to hire 162 workers this year. Most will be from the pool of students who complete the GRCC program, said Steve Busch, Energetx's human resources director.

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