GRAND RAPIDS AREA INFORMATION

Greater Grand Rapids, perhaps more than any other region its size, offers an incredible breadth and depth of lifestyle options. Here you will find a thriving arts community, entertainment that runs from baseball to alternative music, plus a recreational playground with unmatched possibilities season after season. Active, Diverse Arts Community Grand Rapids’ soul is expressed through its diverse range of museums, theater, events, and galleries attended by more than 1.5 million people annually. Their combined annual budgets exceed $12 million and all contribute to an unusually active, culturally diverse community. Annual Festivals Each year, ethnic and arts festivals, complete with authentic music, foods and traditions, highlight Greater Grand Rapids’ rich cultural diversity.

Entertainment A re-born central city, combined with thriving suburban communities, make for an unusually diverse range of entertainment options, virtually any day – or night – of the week. Dining options abound – elegant, trendy, gourmet, or casual – and everything in between. The downtown area has a full range of clubs for every age group and taste – from the thriving blues and alternative music scene to jazz and dance. Grand Rapids offers multiple large multiplex movie theaters, as well as an IMAX theater. One of Greater Grand Rapids’ premier entertainment centers is Van Andel Arena. This world class, 12,000-seat venue hosts the Grand Rapids Rampage arena football team, and the Grand Rapids Griffins, a minor-league hockey team of the Detroit Red Wings. The venue also attracts major national and international music, ice and celebrity performers. And if that’s not enough sports, Greater Grand Rapids is also home to the West Michigan Whitecaps, a Class A minor league baseball team of the Detroit Tigers, which plays in a facility built specifically for baseball that is the envy of the minor leagues.

Recreation Greater Grand Rapids is a recreational wonderland. Whatever your pleasure – sailing, fishing, swimming, water-skiing – beautiful Lake Michigan, with its white-sand beaches, and the countless inland rivers, lakes and streams, make West Michigan a natural recreational haven. The rolling foothills that edge the lake offer tennis, skiing, camping, hang-gliding, and golf. With more daily-fee golf courses than anywhere in the nation, except California, Michigan is one of the world’s great golf destinations. -taken from www.rightplace.org

West Michigan and Business:

The right workforce, business culture, supply chain … the math just works for companies in West Michigan. With a collective median income among the highest in the U.S., business here are more efficient, innovative and technically proficient than nearly anywhere else. We have:

Industry Highlights:

• More than 70 international companies
• The world headquarters for such companies as Amway, BISSELL, Steelcase, Herman Miller, and Wolverine World Wide
• 8th largest biopharmaceuticals cluster in the U.S.
• 14th among U.S. cities for wind generation as a power source
• 7th among U.S. states for investment in R&D
• Five local universities with alternative energy programs
• National leadership in the construction of LEED-certified buildings
• The second most diverse agricultural market in the U.S.

Centers of Excellence

With one of the country’s most diverse industrial economies, many of the hottest industries today are growing in West Michigan. OEMs of all sizes turn to companies here for their expertise in industrial design, technology development, as well as plastics and metalforming precision. West Michigan also has significant and growing industry clusters in:

• Alternative Energy
• Advanced Manufacturing
• Life Sciences
• Aerospace and Defense
• Agribusiness/Food Processing

 Taken from www.rightplace.org  

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