Advanced Technology Recycling moves to southeast Grand Rapids

Advanced Technology Recycling moves to southeast Grand Rapids

GRAND RAPIDS –– B&K Technology Solutions Inc. (which does business as Advanced Technology Recycling) has moved its Grand Rapids operations to a 25,000-square-foot facility on Cottage Grove St. SE, the company announced this week.

The electronics recycling and asset management company –– which relocated from a smaller site on Jefferson Avenue SE –– employs eight full-time staff members presently at the facility and plans to bring on four more people immediately with four to six new hires planned for later this year, the company said.

“This is the beginning of a new phase of growth,” Brodie Ehresman, national business development manager for ATR, said in a statement. “The larger facility will allow us to convert our existing operation from a ‘spoke’ to a ‘hub,’ and create even more jobs.”

ATR’s new facility falls within the area targeted for redevelopment by AmplifyGR — the Grand Rapids-based nonprofit founded with financial backing from the Doug and Maria DeVos Foundation, the Cheri DeVos Foundation and Rockford Construction Co. Inc. — for its real estate development initiatives.

The organization, which owns approximately 35 acres in southeast Grand Rapids, aims to increase jobs, housing, education and health care in three neighborhoods within the city’s southeast side, as MiBiz has previously reported.

Property records show that ATR’s new facility is owned by an affiliated company of Rockford Construction Company.

ATR said it is working with Michigan Works! and AmplifyGR to hire residents from those neighborhoods for its open positions.

“Residents of neighborhoods in southeast Grand Rapids have consistently named jobs as a top priority,” Jon Ippel, executive director of Amplify GR, said in a statement. “Jobs that pay a fair wage, with benefits and profit sharing, are especially valuable to people who are looking for stable employment and decent working conditions.”