Displaying items by tag: Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce

If an employer follows the rules and complies with requirements to maintain a safe workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic, business advocates argue the company should not have to face liability claims if someone there contracts the coronavirus.

GRAND RAPIDS — The city of Grand Rapids needs to add nearly 9,000 housing units over the next five years to satisfy high market demand, according to a housing needs assessment prepared for city officials. 

GRAND RAPIDS — Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. is reallocating $50,000 it initially budgeted for ArtPrize 2020 toward a new event tentatively planned for September. 

GRAND RAPIDS — The Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce expects to receive up to 1,000 applications by the end of the week from across Kent County from small businesses seeking assistance from a $25 million grant fund set up to ease the economic crush of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Kent County small business relief program opened its second round of funding today, making grants available to companies that have already received COVID-19 assistance.

Kent County’s top official says it is “critically important” that a $25 million business relief program launched this week is accessible to minority-owned businesses, following recent criticism that the program isn’t properly compensating minority business and social equity groups for their assistance.

GRAND RAPIDS — Two organizations representing minority-owned businesses issued a public statement Wednesday condemning a Kent County program that’s distributing $25 million in federal CARES Act funding for small business relief.

After canceling this year’s ArtPrize because of concerns over COVID-19, organizers of Grand Rapids’ flagship arts event and the largest art competition in the world have avoided questions about whether it will return.

A landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling on June 15 bars workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and also highlights additional work that needs to be done in Michigan. 

Two Michigan congressmen behind legislation that would create a $50.5 billion relief fund for small businesses nationwide hope to get it included in the next federal aid package that may come before Congress this summer.

Forming a relief fund to aid small businesses hurting from the COVID-19 pandemic was an early idea Kent County commissioners pursued when they began considering two months ago what to do with $114.6 million in federal aid funding. 

  GRAND RAPIDS — In partnering on a $25 million small business relief fund, Kent County and the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce want to tap a number of community and entrepreneurial support organizations to get the word out to companies and provide volunteers to vet grant applicants. 

GRAND RAPIDS — Kent County and the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce partnered to form a $25 million relief fund for small businesses.

GRAND RAPIDS — The May 30 violence following protests against police brutality not only damaged dozens of downtown businesses on the verge of reopening, but also has caused local leaders to revisit efforts to mend the city’s historically strained police-community relations.

State lawmakers will consider a bill this week that waives penalties for property owners who defer payments on their summer property tax bills because of hardships caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The coronavirus pandemic never shut down D&M Metal Products Co. in Comstock Park, but it did change the way employees arrive at work.

Despite advanced degrees, ambition and experience, women of color in West Michigan continue to face unique challenges when it comes to getting hired and promoted, particularly for executive leadership roles, according to a new study.

The world around us — as we knew it in Michigan before March 10 — is going to look much different for the next 12 to 18 months.

MiBiz growth report for April 26, 2020.

The foundation for the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce wants to raise another $2 million for an emergency relief fund for small businesses affected by closures from the COVID-19 pandemic.

When looking to get Michigan back to business, the state must answer a variety of questions to assess the risk, according to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Seven regional governors, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, announced today they will partner on reopening sectors of the economy while making decisions “based on facts, science, and recommendations from experts in health care, business, labor and education.”

Michigan business organizations were publicly supportive of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-home order, although they surely want more clarity on how to proceed.

A series of recommendations from a state joint task force on reducing Michigan’s ballooning jail population can also address workforce development challenges, says a leading West Michigan business group.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s budget proposal would restore funding for a training program for skilled trades that the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce has championed for years.

The talent needs of employers are a constantly moving target that requires companies to foster and maintain close ties with educators to keep up with the demands of the 21st century economy. 

GRAND RAPIDS — For much of her career, Jacey Ehmann was the only woman in the room. 

GRAND RAPIDS — The Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce has hired a retail retention and attraction specialist to help attract regional and national retailers to the city.

More than a decade ago, Grand Rapids business leaders lobbied hard to block the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians, known locally as the Gun Lake Tribe, from opening a casino near Wayland. 

Groups like 23 is Enough and MichGO drove the narrative that any casino development south of Grand Rapids would “siphon off” jobs and investment from the city’s then-rebuilding downtown, limiting growth in entertainment options and economic opportunity alike. They cited a study commissioned by the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce in the early 2000s that estimated $880 million of “economic hemorrhaging” in the surrounding counties if Gun Lake Casino were ever allowed to move forward. 

Looking around downtown Grand Rapids today, it’s hard to find evidence that their worst fears were in any way realized. 

Corey Hart returned to Grand Rapids last September to find that support for entrepreneurship and startup companies had grown well beyond what it was when he left for California a decade earlier.