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Grand Rapids on Forbes List of ‘Emerging Downtowns’

Posted at 8:17 AM, Mar 26, 2013
and last updated 2013-03-26 08:18:29-04

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – In an online feature, Forbes Magazine named Grand Rapids as one of 15 cities that all have something in common:  their downtowns are emerging and going through periods of revitalization.

Here is the Forbes write-up on Grand Rapids:

“Since the mid-1990s, the small Michigan city has drummed up billions in public-private funding. Investments have yielded the Van Andel Arena, the new $60 million home of the Grand Rapids Museum, a $220 million convention center, and $1 billion in new hospitals and new headquarters for Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine. Rockford Construction has converted more than a dozen abandoned warehouses and office buildings into 400,000 square feet of updated residential, retail and office space. This summer will welcome the $30 million Downtown Market (pictured above), a year-round culinary marketplace, spanning 130,000 square feet and the city plans to build a rapid transit bus line that will more easily cart people from the suburbs to Grand Rapids’ downtown.”

Other cities on the list include Detroit, Denver, and Birmingham, AL.