Within ten years, the expansion of Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine from East Lansing into Grand Rapids is projected to help leverage more than $1 billion in advanced biotech research funding, increase personal incomes in the area by $1 billion, and generate some 2,800 new local jobs.
Jerry Kooiman, that lucky dog, landed the first one. And he’s feeling pretty good about things. Or at least he looks like he does.
Compared to his days in the Michigan Legislature, the former state Representative from GR carries a slimmed down physique, a chestnut brown tan, and some extra pep in his step. He looks like a poster boy for Club Med.
But he’s spent the past six months as the public face of MSU Med West. His duties include everything from representing the university in local development discussions to introducing the school to local neighborhood groups to working with the local transit agency to draw up bus routes that serve the needs of incoming students. So far, he relishes the role.
“The good news is that there is life after the Legislature,” Kooiman says. “From a stress and lifestyle standpoint, I’m really enjoying this.”
Kooiman is quick to point out that, at times, he still yearns for the energy and camaraderie of serving in the Michigan House. “That job consumed me for six years,” he says. “So I’m still learning to adjust. You’re at that level for so long, with the high tension and the adrenaline flowing, it takes a while to back away from it all.”
But he doesn’t miss the divisive partisan politics in the state capitol building, the grueling work schedule, or campaign activities like fundraising. And he’s excited by the potential for the new medical school to accelerate deindustrializing Grand Rapids’ transition to the knowledge economy.
Housed in the state-of-the-art $80 million Secchia Center rising at the corner of Michigan and Division, the College of Human Medicine is expected to have a spectacular influence on the economy and culture of greater Grand Rapids. In its first ten years the facility is projected to increase regional economic activity by $1.57 billion and generate some $61 million in tax revenues.
But the school, scheduled to open in 2010, also will ramp up the city’s intellectual capital by recruiting research scientists, faculty members, and bright young students from around the world. It’s expected to incubate and attract new business ventures that aim to translate groundbreaking discoveries in life science and biotechnology into lucrative new products and treatments. And the opening of a major medical school on Health Hill, Kooiman says, is guaranteed to bolster the region’s reputation as a hub for cutting edge world-class health care.
The potential affects are so far-reaching, in fact, Kooiman says it could be years before civic leaders fully understand what it really means to open a Big Ten-caliber research institution in downtown Grand Rapids.
“To our knowledge, there’s no other university that’s picked up a major medical school and relocated a significant portion of it to a completely different city,” Kooiman says. “So a lot of this is uncharted territory.”
Andy Guy, the managing editor at Rapid Growth Media, is a journalist who lives in Grand Rapids. He's also a project director at the Michigan Land Use Institute and authors a blog titled Great Lakes Guy.
Photos:
Jerry Kooiman in conversation inside his office
The MSU College of Human Medicine is rising above the newly constructed parking structure near the Van Andel Research Instititute
Photographs by Brian Kelly - All Rights Reserved
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