West Michigan/Grand Rapids Economy

[GRDadof3]

Not sure why this popped up on my radar, but Spectrum Health is now the largest private employer in Michigan outside of the Detroit MSA, and the fastest growing (the State of Michigan is the largest, big shocker). This list was from numbers from 2014, will be interesting to see what the numbers look like from 2015. 

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/assets/PDF/CD9826626.PDF

If you included Detroit metro area employers, it would be around 6th or 7th in the State (after Ford, Fiat-Chrysler, GM, State of Michigan, and Detroit Public Schools). 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_metropolitan_Detroit

 

[GRDadof3]

$20 Million bump in Kent County hotel revenues last year. 

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2016/01/hotel_rents_in_grand_rapids_up.html

[john_denver]

And 70% occupancy...that pretty good right?

What kind of occupancy was expected/projected?

I assume we may see a few more hotels?  I wonder how many more rooms the experts say we need?

[GRDadof3]

2 hours ago, john_denver said:

And 70% occupancy...that pretty good right?

What kind of occupancy was expected/projected?

I assume we may see a few more hotels?  I wonder how many more rooms the experts say we need?

Sounds like it's REALLY good to be over 70% occupancy. Especially with more hotels on the market and still experiencing positive growth.

http://www.grbj.com/articles/83793-a-70-percent-town

 

 

[GRDadof3]

The French firm Hutchinson, which already has a presence here (used to be Paulstra CRC, at 196 and Fuller), just opened an innovation center at their Fuller location called the 616 FAB House. Pretty cool. Detroit usually gets all the automotive innovation centers. 

http://www.wzzm13.com/story/news/local/grand-rapids-central/2016/01/20/hutchinson-opens-first-innovation-center-grand-rapids/79066158/

Hard to tell if it's just a showroom for customers or if they're hiring R&D folk? 

http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2016/01/french_automotive_and_aerospac.html

 

[GR8scott]

On 1/18/2016 at 10:09 AM, GRDadof3 said:

Sounds like it's REALLY good to be over 70% occupancy. Especially with more hotels on the market and still experiencing positive growth.

http://www.grbj.com/articles/83793-a-70-percent-town

 

Hope that means at least ONE flagship brand hotel to the city, GR has none at this time, Im talking about a regular full-service Hilton, Marriott, Raddison, Hyatt, Wyndham, Sheridan or Weston.

 

[GRDadof3]

http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2015/12/west_michigan_jobless_rate_clo.html

[arcturus]

Forbes just ranked Grand Rapids the best place in the country to buy a house.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erincarlyle/2016/01/27/best-buy-cities-where-to-invest-in-housing-in-2016/#7c72d8cd2429

Question (again) the methodology if you want but all these high rankings are starting to pile up.

[The ATX]

54 minutes ago, arcturus said:

Forbes just ranked Grand Rapids the best place in the country to buy a house.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erincarlyle/2016/01/27/best-buy-cities-where-to-invest-in-housing-in-2016/#7c72d8cd2429

Question (again) the methodology if you want but all these high rankings are starting to pile up.

Now we just need the population growth rate to be higher than the national average (maybe it is already?), and we can start talking about a real boom.

[GRDadof3]

19 hours ago, The ATX said:

Now we just need the population growth rate to be higher than the national average (maybe it is already?), and we can start talking about a real boom.

It's way higher than the national average. 3rd in the country, averaging 3.7 to 4% for the last couple of years.

Edit: sorry, that's job growth, not population growth. You're right, it's pretty healthy but still around 1.7% a year. 

[MJLO]

The growth rate is still above the National average I thought.

[GRDadof3]

5 hours ago, MJLO said:

The growth rate is still above the National average I thought.

Yes, true. National average is .7%. 

[sfloria]

Sorry for the crudeness of the sketch but I wanted to see where all of these new apartments/condos were going to be located around downtown.  I was surprised the NW quadrant had the most. 

[thebeerqueer]

See Scott, its perfect for UP.

[MJLO]

It guess I never thought about it, but it makes sense that the NW quadrant has the most.  Downtown, NoMo, Westside all mostly fall North of Fulton and West of Division.

[joeDowntown]

Great map! One addition to the southwest side, Lake Michigan Drive and Seward. Don't remember how many units they're going for. 

Joe

[GRDadof3]

4 hours ago, MJLO said:

It guess I never thought about it, but it makes sense that the NW quadrant has the most.  Downtown, NoMo, Westside all mostly fall North of Fulton and West of Division.

I think it's weird to think of most of center city and Monroe North as the "Northwest" quadrant, but technically it is. 

1 hour ago, joeDowntown said:

Great map! One addition to the southwest side, Lake Michigan Drive and Seward. Don't remember how many units they're going for. 

Joe

63 market rate, according to the latest. 

There are also several new projects going up in Southtown/SE/Baxter area. I think one is along Eastern and another is an old church down in Burton Heights? 

The map also doesn't contain all of the Creston apartments, but great job. 

[organsnyder]

10 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

There are also several new projects going up in Southtown/SE/Baxter area. I think one is along Eastern and another is an old church down in Burton Heights? 

The Burton Heights one is the old Burton Heights UMC at Burton and Francis. LINC has purchased the building (or an option on it, at least), and has proposed tearing down the church and building an apartment building. This is the same property that Dwelling Place was proposing building on, that was not popular in the neighborhood. I'm no longer on the GPNA board, but from what I hear the LINC proposal is more popular. Few want to see the church torn down, but it is already at least somewhat on the way toward demolition by neglect, unfortunately.

[Ted]

2 hours ago, organsnyder said:

The Burton Heights one is the old Burton Heights UMC at Burton and Francis. LINC has purchased the building (or an option on it, at least), and has proposed tearing down the church and building an apartment building. This is the same property that Dwelling Place was proposing building on, that was not popular in the neighborhood. I'm no longer on the GPNA board, but from what I hear the LINC proposal is more popular. Few want to see the church torn down, but it is already at least somewhat on the way toward demolition by neglect, unfortunately.

The church is fine. It could be easily saved.

[GRDadof3]

On 2/10/2016 at 9:20 AM, Ted said:

The church is fine. It could be easily saved.

Here's what's being proposed to replace the church on Burton:

 

[x99]

Wow.  Classy. Like Walmart's classy.

[wingbert]

[GRDadof3]

3 hours ago, x99 said:

Wow.  Classy. Like Walmart's classy.

What are you talking about. It looks like a perfectly fine SpringHill Suites hotel...

[getemngo]

On 2/10/2016 at 9:20 AM, Ted said:

The church is fine. It could be easily saved.

I seem to recall hearing that the church building could be saved without much trouble, but the attached school is much worse?

[GRDadof3]

The Mackinac Center is flummoxed as to why Snyder's policies have not translated to the entire State. 

Grand Rapids: Michigan's Boomtown

http://www.mackinac.org/22205