Displaying items by tag: economic development

State lawmakers have steered another $846.1 million into a state fund to support major economic development projects in Michigan.

MUSKEGON HEIGHTS — Construction began today on what will be the first new home built in Muskegon Heights in 17 years — a literal and symbolic step in the city’s revitalization, according to local officials.

The Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians, or Gun Lake Tribe, will receive a $1.5 million federal grant from the Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration for infrastructure investments to support economic growth.

Local officials in Mecosta County on Monday night approved long-term tax incentives for a potential electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant eyed for the Big Rapids area.

State and local economic development officials are in the process of luring a major Chinese electric vehicle battery manufacturer to Mecosta County that could result in thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in investment over the next decade.

Officials with the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and Michigan Municipal League have announced plans to speed up new housing projects across the state by focusing on solutions for infill development.

GRAND RAPIDS — Tribal Business News, a national publication headquartered in Grand Rapids that covers the $130 billion tribal economy, is hosting the first-ever Great Lakes Tribal Economic Summit on Oct. 6.

LANSING — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is turning to a veteran law enforcement professional to run the Cannabis Regulatory Agency as the state embarks on a national search to select a permanent executive director.

GRAND RAPIDS — The Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce today launched a new initiative that intends to create greater economic diversity and inclusion.

Here is the MiBiz Growth Report for September 12, 2022:

ZEELAND — Symbiote Inc., a designer and engineer of laboratory furniture for high-tech environments, has experienced a wave of changes since August 2019, and not entirely because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 A Q&A with Ana Gonzalez, director of the Family Owned Business Institute at GVSU

GRAND RAPIDS — The passion and soul that Mercedes Lopez puts into the food served at El Granjero Mexican Grill in Grand Rapids is evident to customers and the close-knit staff, which includes much of Lopez’s own family. 

GRAND RAPIDS — A meeting over coffee between the leaders of a pair of family-owned businesses in West Michigan ultimately led to a new collaboration involving their companies. 

Amid its many strains on companies, the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have prompted more owners to think about the future and eventually pass a family business down to the next generation.

A survey this year of hundreds of U.S. family-owned businesses showed that owners prioritized keeping employees on the payroll even as the pandemic disrupted their business and that most regularly give to local charities.

Grand Rapids, Muskegon and Berrien County will receive large chunks of funding to regrant to various housing projects that the state approved Wednesday through the Revitalization and Placemaking Program. 

Economic development agency The Right Place Inc. has launched plans to transform the greater Grand Rapids area into a technology and innovation hub over the next 10 years. 

GRAND RAPIDS — The development team behind a planned Grand Rapids amphitheater is in the preliminary stages of determining a site for a soccer stadium, including properties containing a city-owned surface parking lot on the city’s west side, MiBiz has learned.

Recent sales of major West Michigan craft breweries has led to new financial assets — as well as institutional knowledge — being redeployed as investments in startup companies and philanthropic programs.

Here is the MiBiz Growth Report for August 29, 2022:

Like virtually every other sector, Michigan’s life sciences industry faces a key obstacle in trying to attract and retain talent, many of whom are leaving for opportunities out of state. 

The world’s attention focused on Southwest Michigan in late 2020 as the region began producing the first COVID-19 vaccines.

Ateam of Grand Valley State University researchers has set out to catalog and measure the economic effects of more than $300 million in federal COVID-19 relief funding being dispersed across four West Michigan counties.

Successful exits from West Michigan-based craft breweries are allowing company founders and investors to put their proceeds to work in new ways that reinforce the region’s entrepreneurial culture. 

Economic development organization Lakeshore Advantage Corp. is seeking proposals for using a portion of federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to support local businesses.

HART — Backed by a new federal grant, the city of Hart in Oceana County plans to upgrade its wastewater treatment infrastructure to support the lakeshore region’s growing cluster of food processing companies. 

Seven Native American tribes and tribal entities in Michigan have received more than $1 million in U.S. Department of Labor funding to provide workforce development services to low-income adults and youth.

University of Michigan economists expect the U.S. economy to experience a “very mild decline” the rest of this year before slowing to near zero growth in 2023.

Here is the MiBiz Growth Report for August 15, 2022: