Grand Rapids DDA lines up new grant programs, marketing to attract retailers to downtown

Deborah Johnson Wood

The Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority has launched a new marketing campaign and developed two new grant programs in an effort to attract more retail businesses to the downtown business district. The DDA says that more than 20 businesses opened in downtown last year, but most of them were restaurants and more retail is needed.

A new flipbook brochure notes downtown's unique characteristics: daytime demographics, six distinct business corridors and key entities downtown such as cultural, medical, government and schools. The DDA developed the brochure in collaboration with area brokerage firms to create a tool they would want to use to sell or lease commercial properties downtown.

"We're putting it in their hands so everyone has the same story about Grand Rapids, otherwise everyone looks at the census data and that's missing a lot about downtown Grand Rapids," says Anne Marie Bessette, DDA development specialist.

"We have over 36,000 employees in the central business district, and what, perhaps, is more is interesting is that we have 31,000 college students that attend class within downtown's one square mile," she says. "Those are huge numbers that people don't realize we have and these numbers don't show up in the census numbers."

The brochure, available online at www.grcity.us/departments/dda/flipbook, points readers to a central commercial properties web site where they can view all available downtown properties and the broker contact information.

In addition, to the marketing, the DDA hopes that two new grant programs established late last year will encourage business owners to set up shop downtown by helping them tackle some of the costs associated with remodeling a façade or obtaining signage. The grants vary from $2,000 up to $25,000 depending on the type of business and the project.

"New businesses coming in have a challenge," Bessette says. "Not only do they have to set up shop and have all the merchandising and marketing down, but if they have to renovate the building, it's really a challenge."

Source: Anne Marie Bessette, Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected]. Have a development news tip for Rapid Growth? Contact us at [email protected].