And the nominees for Best Re-use of a Building and Best Window Display are…

On Thursday, November 5th the 20th Annual Neighborhood Business Awards will honor businesses across the city that have been nominated for several "best of" categories, including Best Re-Use of a Building and Best Window Display. Rapid Growth spoke with two of the nominees.

Best Re-use of a Building: West Grand Neighborhood Organization
The West Grand Neighborhood Organization gladly moved into a 3,000-square-foot office space at 415 Leonard NW that is nearly four times the size of their former offices on Broadway.

"Because we have federal, state and city grants we give out to the neighborhood, we had to keep all the paperwork of what happened with the money," says Nola Jenner-Steketee, executive director. "We were climbing over boxes of paperwork. In order for someone to come in and talk to me, I had to climb over boxes to get in and out of my space. I used to say that was my exercise."

The WGNO kept the renovation simple in order to maintain the character of the old building. They preserved the original tin ceilings and wood floors, and kept office cubicles at a minimum by making them large enough to accommodate two or three employees.

"It made us feel so good to move in," Jenner-Steketee says. "Everybody comes in here and goes Ohhh! when they see how nice it looks."

Other nominees are:
Corez Wine Bar, 919 Cherry St
Eastern Floral, 818 Butterworth SW
Royal Martial Arts, 940 W Fulton St
The Winchester, 648 Wealthy St SE
Grand Rapids Community Foundation, 185 Oakes Street SW

Best Window Display: Imagination Creations
Old fashioned hobby horses repainted and adorned with glitter and wings "fly" overhead. A strapless gown fashioned out of a Twister Game mat adorns a mannequin on a high pedestal. And the rest of the space is so full of creative oddities one can hardly turn around.

"It's a curiosity shop, a bit of everything, something for everybody," says owner Heather McGartland of her shop at 120 S. Division Unit 126. "Some people think it's a head shop or voodoo shop because it's just so different, but it isn't. I specialize in reconstructed and recycled goods. Merchandise is discarded or gifted to us and we find the beauty in them and give them new life."

The "we" includes McGartland's mother, Susan Edwards, who works at the shop. McGartland has repurposed bubble wrap as a wedding dress, makes stylish clothing out of plastic six-pack rings and fashions children's bubble wands out of those rings using a Seal-A-Meal machine.

"Everything has to be 'Heatherized,'" she says with a grin.

A licensed hairdresser, McGartland specializes in applying hair attachments and clip-ins, and showing customers with dramatic hair loss how to do scarf wraps.

Other nominees are:
Blue Door Antiques, 946 E. Fulton
Bridge Street Electric, 812 Bridge St NW
Northwestern Home Furnishings, 637 Leonard St NW
Renee Austin, 444 Bridge St.
Venito's Clothing, 1951 Eastern Ave SE
Wealthy at Charles, 738 Wealthy St SE

The Neighborhood Business Awards are an event of the Neighborhood Business Alliance. Stay tuned to Rapid Growth for our online voting where you can vote for your favorite businesses. Those with the most online votes will receive a People's Choice Award sponsored by Rapid Growth.

The awards ceremony on November 5 is from 5 to 8 p.m. at Wealthy Theatre. The public is invited.

Source: Nola Jenner-Steketee, West Grand Neighborhood Organization; Heather McGartland, Imagination Creations; Sylvia Harris, Neighborhood Ventures

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth. She can be contacted at [email protected].