After a seven-year career in tribal economic development at Waséyabek Development Co. LLC for his tribe, Jimmy TenBrink now finds himself heading up operations for a familiar tribal partner. 

WAYLAND — In his four and a half years running Gun Lake Casino, Sal Semola has been an architect of growth in helping the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians strategically expand and solidify its gaming enterprise.

When the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians sought to establish its first 8(a) certified contracting company, the tribe’s economic development arm turned to a key partner within the state of Michigan for help. 

Deidra Mitchell looks back on 2021 as a pivotal year in many ways for Waséyabek Development Co., the Grand Rapids-based investment arm of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi.

Throughout his more than 35-year career at the helm of Bell’s Brewery Inc., Larry Bell was known for being one of the most outspoken proponents for independently owned craft breweries in the United States. 

For generations, Grand Rapids was known as the Furniture City, a nod to the area’s legacy industry that specialized in employing craftsmen to turn lumber plucked from the state’s hardwood forests into high-end furnishings. 

GRAND RAPIDS — One would be hard pressed to deny the existence of the Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians, whose ancestors were signatories of numerous agreements with the federal government, starting in 1795 with the Treaty of Greenville.

WASHINGTON — Former Bay Mills Indian Community Chairperson Bryan Newland told a Senate committee how his firsthand experience growing up on a reservation in Michigan’s eastern Upper Peninsula would shape his perspective if confirmed to lead the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

ROCKFORD — Rockford Brewing Co. LLC has unveiled plans to renovate a nearby historic building and expand with the new Malph’s Pizza Pub concept. 

The Biden administration on Thursday nominated former Bay Mills Indian Community Chairperson Bryan Newland to the top leadership position for the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. 

Growing up in the rural eastern Upper Peninsula, David Goodreau saw his father and grandfathers support their families by starting and operating small businesses. 

Part of Sault Tribe Economic Development Corp.’s push with Sault Tribe Thrive is to find ways to leverage the advantage of tribal sovereignty within the business community. 

The seeds for the joint purchase of the iconic McKay Tower building in downtown Grand Rapids took root years ago when the CEOs at Waséyabek Development Co. LLC and Gun Lake Investments started talking about doing deals together. 

The experience of living through the COVID-19 pandemic and helping manage a small business during a (hopefully) once-in-a-lifetime crisis has me leaning heavily on lessons I learned decades ago chasing winter steelhead with my dad on the Manistee River. 

GRAND RAPIDS — Former Lakeshore Advantage CEO Randy Thelen is returning to West Michigan to lead regional economic development firm The Right Place Inc.

HOLLAND TOWNSHIP — An award-winning spirits brand backed by the DeVos family is relocating to West Michigan from Washington, D.C.

FRUITPORT TWP. — Federal action expected tomorrow will move the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians one step closer to being able to develop a $180 million casino on land it owns in Muskegon Country.

PENINSULA TOWNSHIP — A group of Northern Michigan wineries and a trade group representing them have filed a federal lawsuit against Peninsula Township alleging that their businesses are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars per year because of the municipality’s allegedly unconstitutional ordinances.

SCOTTS — The owners of a Southwest Michigan meat processing company and cattle operation say the businesses have fallen victim to the tight credit market brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

GRAND RAPIDS — Waséyabek Development Co., the non-gaming economic development arm of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi Indians, continues to build out its portfolio of companies with the acquisition of a Muskegon-based manufacturer. 

BRIMLEY — The Bay Mills Indian Community views the marijuana industry as a key way for the tribe to diversify its economy, which has been devastated by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

SAULT STE. MARIE — Lume Cannabis Co. has figured out a way to open retail marijuana dispensaries within communities that have blocked businesses that participate in Michigan’s adult-use market. 

More than four months into the COVID-19 pandemic, Michigan’s 12 federally recognized tribes have fared better from a health care perspective than many other Native American tribes nationally.

As a citizen of the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians and CEO of its non-gaming enterprise, Kurtis Trevan wants to leverage other corporations’ diversity and inclusion goals to the economic benefit of his fellow tribe members, as well as further the tribe’s own inclusionary spending. 

In mid March of this year, all 24 of Michigan’s tribally operated casinos fell silent, their more than 22,280 slot machines spitting out their final paydays for lucky patrons or taking one last injection of cash for the house.

GRAND RAPIDS — A partnership of Mason Asset Management and Namdar Realty Group has acquired the majority of the assets of Goodrich Quality Theaters Inc., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February. 

Republic National Distributing Co. has agreed to pay $3 million to settle a dispute with the state over dozens of violations that led to widespread liquor shortages in November and December of 2019. 

As they’ve taken steps to diversify their revenues away from casinos in recent years, Michigan’s Native American tribes have built growing business ventures that in 2019 contributed nearly $288.8 million to the state economy. 

KENTWOOD — A Cleveland-based developer with properties elsewhere in Michigan has made its first entry into the greater Grand Rapids market with the purchase of an industrial complex from office furniture maker Knoll Inc. 

After a brief hiatus from the market, one of the pioneering brands in the Michigan craft beer industry will once again be back on store shelves.