Grand Rapids Tech Hub

[gvsusean]

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2022/09/plan-to-grow-grand-rapids-into-major-midwestern-tech-hub-outlined-by-the-right-place.html
 

Hopefully this will become a major thread here in the coming years! I could see the Northside becoming the “medical mile” for the tech industry…

[GRDadof3]

17 minutes ago, gvsusean said:

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2022/09/plan-to-grow-grand-rapids-into-major-midwestern-tech-hub-outlined-by-the-right-place.html
 

Hopefully this will become a major thread here in the coming years! I could see the Northside becoming the “medical mile” for the tech industry…

Here's the actual strategy from the Right Place's website:

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://rightplace.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/production/uploads/downloads/public-resources/Tech-Report-iPDF-FINAL.pdf

 

I was looking for a little more meat as to how they're going to add 20,000 workers in the tech industry. Still reading... 

[joeDowntown]

Six months of research and the President or Right Place didn't know who the biggest tech employer is in the region. Doesn't necessarily inspire confidence if they haven't identified the big tech players. Need to read the full report first. The one thing all tech centers have is a strong research University that they can pull talent from. I think some of this will be on the shoulders of GVSU. 

Joe

[Eggbeater357]

Let's hope this plan goes better than the previous one from State and local planners for the Las Vegas-based data center operator Switch (now privately owned by DigitalBridge and IFM) in the former Steelcase Pyramid in Gaines Township.

[GR_Urbanist]

I mean, this is nice and all, but does it actually mean anything outside of sending out brochures to tech firms in California with big glossy stock photos of the area with boilerplate statistics boiling down to us being a place "where all women are strong, all men are good looking and all children are above average", like every city in the midwest is doing for years?

And I thought something like this was done before already.

 

Edited September 6, 2022 by GR_Urbanist

[MJLO]

I’d think accrisure could help move the statistics on this front.  They seem to have a more tech based strategy going forward.  I would think the area would need one or two more big players.  

[cstonesparty]

Columbus took aim at this niche more than 10 years ago and brought in VC $$$ from Silicon Valley, transplanting some key players who have made a big difference.  Not sure Right Place is playing in the same league…

[cstonesparty]

4 minutes ago, cstonesparty said:

Columbus took aim at this niche more than 10 years ago and brought in VC $$$ from Silicon Valley, transplanting some key players who have made a big difference.  Not sure Right Place is playing in the same league…

https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/01/columbus-ohio-is-quickly-becoming-the-midwests-tech-hub/

[GR8scott]

2 hours ago, Eggbeater357 said:

Let's hope this plan goes better than the previous one from State and local planners for the Las Vegas-based data center operator Switch (now privately owned by DigitalBridge and IFM) in the former Steelcase Pyramid in Gaines Township.

that was obviously overplayed from day 1....the promises of all the high paying jobs and hotels ect......for a large computer???? 

[GRDadof3]

4 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

Six months of research and the President or Right Place didn't know who the biggest tech employer is in the region. Doesn't necessarily inspire confidence if they haven't identified the big tech players. Need to read the full report first. The one thing all tech centers have is a strong research University that they can pull talent from. I think some of this will be on the shoulders of GVSU. 

Joe

If you read the report (which reads like a marketing piece and not a white paper), they do talk about GVSU and a lot of other education initiatives. But I too am skeptical. 

It basically boils down to 3 strategies:

) Talent (improving tech training and education in the area). Feel like I've heard that one many times in the last 20 years...

) Hold a bunch of events and create incubators. You mean like StartGarden and that biotech up on the hill were supposed to launch the area into the future?

) Growth. Increase actual internet infrastructure. 

 

 

4 hours ago, Eggbeater357 said:

Let's hope this plan goes better than the previous one from State and local planners for the Las Vegas-based data center operator Switch (now privately owned by DigitalBridge and IFM) in the former Steelcase Pyramid in Gaines Township.

Hey, they've finally started on one of the ancilliary buildings now!!

[Jonesey]

Did they specify the Northside?  

There's a lot of people leaving Cali, maybe companies will too?  With WFH do you even need a physical headquarters?

We do have one advantage over Columbus, we're not in Ohio.

[Pattmost20]

I think it is wise to invest in the infrastructure now, at the very least I think we'll see a bump in growth 10-20 years down the line as water continues to dry up out west and temperatures continue to rise. City wide fiber internet, a few tech business incubators, or some VC firms that target tech companies would be good ideas. At the very least GR could act as a landing pad for tech workers as people decide $5k a month for a studio isn't worth it when they can only use a set amount of water and they get locked out of their thermostats by their utilities company. 

[joeDowntown]

Not an expert, but I have thought about this for several years (decades?).

I think the city to look at is Salt Lake City. How did a VERY conservative city (note: one of the pre-requisites for landing the 2002 Olympics was to allow alcohol sales, which had been tightly restricted even twenty years ago) with few homegrown mega corporations (except the mormon church) become a hotbed for tech? 

1) I think they have the mountains. Provo, Park City and Moab are nearby. They were once a cheaper version of Colorado. So I think livability factors in. Grand Rapids/West Michigan would need to continue to develop and push hard on the natural beauty / outdoor lifestyle that a lot of tech workers are looking for. And good housing stock. 

2) Vibrant downtown. Salt Lake started dumping a ton of money into their downtown before and after the 2002 Olympics, including a mall (funded by the mormon church - so they had a rich benefactor, similar to what GR has experienced over the years)

3. They have BYU, University of Utah and Utah State all within a short distance of the city. All are R1 or R2 research universities (Michigan State and U of M are R1;  CMU , EMU WMU and even Michigan Tech are R2 universities). West Michigan doesn't have any universities that are classified as R1 or R2, so not a lot of high-level research being done in the area (which tends to attract the brightest, and probably up levels your homegrown talent). 

4. Salt Lake City worked really hard to bring companies to the area. eBay, Adobe, Intel all have a lot of employees in the area. You don't need to land the HQ to be a player.

I actually think Grand Rapids could achieve what Salt Lake is doing, but I think it will take a lot of heavy lifting and massive investment in infrastructure (better universities, more amenities that make a city livable:

a) Make our schools R1/R2 schools (or at least start playing in the same league). I think MSU GR has done a great job with medical. I think GVSU could be leaning further into Computer Sciences, Engineering, Artificial Intelligence. High level courses, Doctoral degrees. I think a brilliant path for a university in GR would be in Artificial Intelligence as it relates to medicine / medical research (partnering with the momentum that VAI and Medical Mile has built).

b) Keep protecting / expanding our natural resources. We don't have mountains, but we have great lakes and an abundance of water, wildlife and outdoor recreational opportunities. And we have to promote the s*it out of it. I work in tech (remote), and most of the people I work with are from NYC, Silicon Valley, or Texas. The only thing they "know" about Michigan is 1) Ann Arbor 2) the rest of the state is an abandoned auto factory. I showed someone a photo of Grand Haven State Park in July, and they seriously didn't believe it was Michigan. Quality of life is HUGE when factoring where to move. Maybe our slogan should be "We have fresh water. You don't (or won't).

c) Stop focusing on the small stuff. Let's admit it; Start Garden is "cute". It helps local entrepreneurs get started with their cupcake business or D2C dog biscuit company (small business is important). But seriously, can you name one company that out of Start Garden and is now a major (or even mid-minor) employer? Me neither. It serves it's purpose, but if we're going to start talking about tech incubators, it's a whole different scale. Same with Hello West Michigan (both touted in the presentation, which is why I'm picking on them), They are great little programs, but if we're looking to move the needle, they should be a footnote in the preso...

We either need to be landing some big whales, or start nurturing our own. But these need to be big swings (building a niche iPhone app or building out a Shopify site are not big swings).

d) Primary and secondary education is important (and I actually think we already do a pretty good job of this; always room for improvement). I think the real problem is, we have a lot of smart kids who grow up, go away to school, and don't come back (either because Grand Rapids is "too small to be big, too big to be small" or the opportunities are elsewhere. We do suffer a brain drain. Some boomerang back, but definitely not all of them. We absolutely need to continue pushing for a complete, quality education for all, but that again seems like a footnote

I hate reading plans to fundamentally change the economy of West Michigan, then read about a bunch of cute and quaint programs that they think will move the needle significantly (and everyone knows that every city with the same aspirations all ready have the same programs in place).

Rant over. LOL

Joe

[Khorasaurus1]

One nit on the SLC example - while SLC does have the University of Utah, Utah State is the same distance from SLC as Ann Arbor is from GR, and BYU is the same distance from GR as East Lansing. So I wouldn't count those two schools as advantages over GR. We have lots of great research universities close by - just not one in town. 

Otherwise I think the comparison works. Fresh water and lack of natural disasters will be our number one economic drivers over the next 30-50 years, I think. Which sucks as far as the larger state of the world, but will definitely be good for growth in Michigan...

Edited September 6, 2022 by Khorasaurus1

[MJLO]

1 hour ago, joeDowntown said:

c) Stop focusing on the small stuff. Let's admit it; Start Garden is "cute". It helps local entrepreneurs get started with their cupcake business or D2C dog biscuit company (small business is important). But seriously, can you name one company that out of Start Garden and is now a major (or even mid-minor) employer? Me neither. It serves it's purpose, but if we're going to start talking about tech incubators, it's a whole different scale. Same with Hello West Michigan (both touted in the presentation, which is why I'm picking on them), They are great little programs, but if we're looking to move the needle, they should be a footnote in the preso...

We either need to be landing some big whales, or start nurturing our own. But these need to be big swings (building a niche iPhone app or building out a Shopify site are not big swings).

FWIW I enjoyed reading your rant and I agree.  It does seem like they focus on the small stuff that hasn't really made an impact.  Admittedly I don't enough about how things work at that level to have a meaningful opinion.  I would think just about region of even nominal size would be pursuing a plan like this.  It seems like the folks in Grand Rapids are pursuing a model that was used by some of the aforementioned cities(Austin, Nashville, SLC etc.).   

I think GR has some of the needed ingredients already incubating over the last couple of decades.  The growth of Grand Valley State has been very impressive in terms of economic impact, and the emergence of the bio med sectors has already transformed the regions economy.  I can't remember where, but there was a statistic I saw a few years ago that the amount of the workforce with a bachelors degree or higher had almost doubled since 2000(fastest growth rate in educated workforce nationally).  The city has also developed many intangible elements as well that help attract a modern work force in that time.    I think the biggest obstacle to attracting a decent sized relocation is a lack of exposure.  As you mentioned Grand Rapids is not well known outside of the immediate Great Lakes region.  The other issue is that it's still a smaller market than most of those companies are looking to invest in.   

After you remove the obvious difference in size, the next biggest difference between GR and the cities that have built themselves up into tech hubs is the states they are in.  They are all located in states that have very competitive tax structures, and have been very aggressive at pursuing corporate relo's, with a specific focus on tech.  Michigan's tax structure while not the worst, is not at all competitive in the same manner.  The model the state government has pursued has been to attract manufacturing investment over tech anyway.   I would think this an obstacle for the goals in GR.  If Michigan did get aggressive on tech my assumption is that it would be more aggressive at getting this investment in the Detroit area over GR.   Grand Rapids does have access to some pretty deep pockets, it would almost entirely be up to the ambitions of regional leaders to make something big happen.   Ultimately I think something more organic/homegrown(al a Acrisure) is the most likely scenario for these goals to come to fruition. 

[GRDadof3]

16 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

Not an expert, but I have thought about this for several years (decades?).

I think the city to look at is Salt Lake City. How did a VERY conservative city (note: one of the pre-requisites for landing the 2002 Olympics was to allow alcohol sales, which had been tightly restricted even twenty years ago) with few homegrown mega corporations (except the mormon church) become a hotbed for tech? 

1) I think they have the mountains. Provo, Park City and Moab are nearby. They were once a cheaper version of Colorado. So I think livability factors in. Grand Rapids/West Michigan would need to continue to develop and push hard on the natural beauty / outdoor lifestyle that a lot of tech workers are looking for. And good housing stock. 

2) Vibrant downtown. Salt Lake started dumping a ton of money into their downtown before and after the 2002 Olympics, including a mall (funded by the mormon church - so they had a rich benefactor, similar to what GR has experienced over the years)

3. They have BYU, University of Utah and Utah State all within a short distance of the city. All are R1 or R2 research universities (Michigan State and U of M are R1;  CMU , EMU WMU and even Michigan Tech are R2 universities). West Michigan doesn't have any universities that are classified as R1 or R2, so not a lot of high-level research being done in the area (which tends to attract the brightest, and probably up levels your homegrown talent). 

4. Salt Lake City worked really hard to bring companies to the area. eBay, Adobe, Intel all have a lot of employees in the area. You don't need to land the HQ to be a player.

I actually think Grand Rapids could achieve what Salt Lake is doing, but I think it will take a lot of heavy lifting and massive investment in infrastructure (better universities, more amenities that make a city livable:

a) Make our schools R1/R2 schools (or at least start playing in the same league). I think MSU GR has done a great job with medical. I think GVSU could be leaning further into Computer Sciences, Engineering, Artificial Intelligence. High level courses, Doctoral degrees. I think a brilliant path for a university in GR would be in Artificial Intelligence as it relates to medicine / medical research (partnering with the momentum that VAI and Medical Mile has built).

b) Keep protecting / expanding our natural resources. We don't have mountains, but we have great lakes and an abundance of water, wildlife and outdoor recreational opportunities. And we have to promote the s*it out of it. I work in tech (remote), and most of the people I work with are from NYC, Silicon Valley, or Texas. The only thing they "know" about Michigan is 1) Ann Arbor 2) the rest of the state is an abandoned auto factory. I showed someone a photo of Grand Haven State Park in July, and they seriously didn't believe it was Michigan. Quality of life is HUGE when factoring where to move. Maybe our slogan should be "We have fresh water. You don't (or won't).

c) Stop focusing on the small stuff. Let's admit it; Start Garden is "cute". It helps local entrepreneurs get started with their cupcake business or D2C dog biscuit company (small business is important). But seriously, can you name one company that out of Start Garden and is now a major (or even mid-minor) employer? Me neither. It serves it's purpose, but if we're going to start talking about tech incubators, it's a whole different scale. Same with Hello West Michigan (both touted in the presentation, which is why I'm picking on them), They are great little programs, but if we're looking to move the needle, they should be a footnote in the preso...

We either need to be landing some big whales, or start nurturing our own. But these need to be big swings (building a niche iPhone app or building out a Shopify site are not big swings).

d) Primary and secondary education is important (and I actually think we already do a pretty good job of this; always room for improvement). I think the real problem is, we have a lot of smart kids who grow up, go away to school, and don't come back (either because Grand Rapids is "too small to be big, too big to be small" or the opportunities are elsewhere. We do suffer a brain drain. Some boomerang back, but definitely not all of them. We absolutely need to continue pushing for a complete, quality education for all, but that again seems like a footnote

I hate reading plans to fundamentally change the economy of West Michigan, then read about a bunch of cute and quaint programs that they think will move the needle significantly (and everyone knows that every city with the same aspirations all ready have the same programs in place).

Rant over. LOL

Joe

Totally agree Joe. The Medical Mile wouldn't be anything like it is today without MSU and Spectrum Health doing all of the heavy lifting. I haven't heard of anything really coming out of the incubator that was in the Cook Devos Center. So you really need GVSU and another higher ed institution and a big tech player to take the reigns if you're ever going to get 20,000 more tech workers in 10 years. 

BTW, what is the largest tech player in Grand Rapids now? 

[demhem]

1 hour ago, GRDadof3 said:

Totally agree Joe. The Medical Mile wouldn't be anything like it is today without MSU and Spectrum Health doing all of the heavy lifting. I haven't heard of anything really coming out of the incubator that was in the Cook Devos Center. So you really need GVSU and another higher ed institution and a big tech player to take the reigns if you're ever going to get 20,000 more tech workers in 10 years. 

BTW, what is the largest tech player in Grand Rapids now? 

Van Andel Institute and GVSU both played a notable role with their investment in that corridor in the early 2000s. I would argue that helped to get the ball rolling initially, along with the long-standing hospital presence. 

Regarding GVSU filling a large research role: When I attended GVSU, their institutional strategic plan was to remain a "teaching focused" university, so unless that strategy has changed, I'm not sure you will see them strive to become a research institution. They did/do research, but that was not the number one goal. From the brief conversations that I had with admin there through my student involvement, they expressed that "GVSU knows what it is good at," and doesn't want to try and compete with big research dogs like MSU and UM. GVSU being a teaching-focused university is one of the primary reasons why I attended over MSU or other places. You are taught by faculty that actually enjoy teaching instead of graduate assistants filling the role or faculty that have their strength in research and not teaching. They have a new strategic plan out, but I have not had the chance to read it. 

[joeDowntown]

9 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:BTW, what is the largest tech player in Grand Rapids now? 

If I had to guess, I’d say Spectrum. Meijer is definitely top 5. Other than that, I don’t know. Amway at one point? But that’s been shrinking for a while. I think there are a lot of mid sized companies, but I can’t think of many companies that are “tech first”, as opposed to a Meijer or Spectrum that is supported heavily by tech. 

Joe

[MJLO]

1 hour ago, joeDowntown said:

If I had to guess, I’d say Spectrum. Meijer is definitely top 5. Other than that, I don’t know. Amway at one point? But that’s been shrinking for a while. I think there are a lot of mid sized companies, but I can’t think of many companies that are “tech first”, as opposed to a Meijer or Spectrum that is supported heavily by tech. 

Joe

I'm still thinking Acrisure fits this.  They are over $4billion in revenue and still growing very fast.  From the research I am doing they have done several technology based acquisitions. They are classified as a  Fintech(financial technology) company.  Still not fully clear what their business model is but it seems to center around online exchanges, and technological interfaces to that end.    Do you not think they could be a significant player in growing that workforce locally? 

[GRLaker]

9 hours ago, demhem said:

Van Andel Institute and GVSU both played a notable role with their investment in that corridor in the early 2000s. I would argue that helped to get the ball rolling initially, along with the long-standing hospital presence. 

Regarding GVSU filling a large research role: When I attended GVSU, their institutional strategic plan was to remain a "teaching focused" university, so unless that strategy has changed, I'm not sure you will see them strive to become a research institution. They did/do research, but that was not the number one goal. From the brief conversations that I had with admin there through my student involvement, they expressed that "GVSU knows what it is good at," and doesn't want to try and compete with big research dogs like MSU and UM. GVSU being a teaching-focused university is one of the primary reasons why I attended over MSU or other places. You are taught by faculty that actually enjoy teaching instead of graduate assistants filling the role or faculty that have their strength in research and not teaching. They have a new strategic plan out, but I have not had the chance to read it. 

In my involvement with GVSU, I haven’t seen a shift in focus. The new President’s focus has been primarily on raising scholarship money for underserved communities and getting first generation students free or reduced educations. A great concept to be sure, but I haven’t seen anything from her that screams revolutionizing GVSU.

[joeDowntown]

Someone needs to do what Peter Secchia did and woo U of M to this side of the state. But with Detroit close by, that might be hard to pull a high tech program to this side of the state. 

AFAIK, acrisure is acquiring a lot of companies (including tech and AI), but they allow their acquisitions to stay semi autonomous / don’t pull up roots and move them. Maybe eventually? I think it’s great to see Acrisure grow,  but we still lack pure software development companies (as the right place presentation shows, we lag on that area quite significantly). 

[organsnyder]

Grand Rapids is already a decent place for tech workers to live, as long as they're working remotely. Until Grand Rapids employer culture stops being so worker-hostile, I don't see much success here. Local employers simply can't compete when remote work is factored in.

My remote software developer job pays double what the typical local salary is for the same position, and I get more PTO and flexibility than most local companies offer. This is not uncommon, and my employer is not known for being a top payer.

[organsnyder]

4 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

If I had to guess, I’d say Spectrum. Meijer is definitely top 5. Other than that, I don’t know. Amway at one point? But that’s been shrinking for a while. I think there are a lot of mid sized companies, but I can’t think of many companies that are “tech first”, as opposed to a Meijer or Spectrum that is supported heavily by tech. 

Joe

Spectrum has had one of the top (if not the top) software shops for some time, but they've been shifting away from custom in-house software toward integrating solutions from their vendors (which, as much as it pains me to admit as a former Spectrum software dev, is probably the right business decision). They still have tons of IS people doing integrations and support work, of course.

GFS and Dematic also probably belong on this list. Most of the local "tech first" companies that come to mind are consultancies (Atomic Object, OST...).

Michigan Labs out in Ada has been growing like crazy, but they're also (to my knowledge) a consultancy.

[Eggbeater357]

I think one of the issues not really talked about here is how do you define "Tech Hub" when a large portion of the Tech industry is virtual...the days of a massive Tech company locating in one city is dying or dead.  IMO, this idea of a "Tech Hub" in West Michigan is similar to chasing ghosts.  Tech infrastructure on the other hand, that is still very much in need of improvement in West Michigan...we all thought the SuperNAP was going to change that, it didn't, or hasn't yet.  Maybe under different leadership they can improve the services there.  I don't believe you can tie Amazon building a shipping hub close by as proof the SuperNAP is attracting new business here either, as Amazon nor Azure is co-locating S3 inside the Pyramid.

[joeDowntown]

While I agree, it remains to be seen if a 100% remote workforce will remain the norm. For the company I consult with (rhymes with poogle), they definitely seem to be pushing for in person collaboration. If a remote work DOES continue, then I think attracting people to a city will be all about quality of life outside of work. Affordable housing, nature, amenities, etc. 

I think to hedge bets, it’s got to be a variety of tactics. I still don’t think we get anywhere without access to a research university and the brain power that comes with it. If GVSU isn’t interested in research (as mentioned above), maybe we can convince MSU or U of M (like MSU has with medical). 

Joe