Grand Rapids Economy and Job Market -- Bucking the State Trend? (Flint: sales, real estate market)

[Bhaalspawn]

We've all heard that Michigan's economy is in the dumps and many of us have (painfully) experienced the state's economic malaise. But is the economic malaise a feature of Southeastern Michigan and perhaps the Upper Penninsula, or does it also include Grand Rapids?

So, how is the Grand Rapids economy and job market? Has the state's economic malaise had a negative effect on Grand Rapids? Is the metropolitain area's population still growing and is the real estate market (for sellers) healthy?

Might a contrarian strategy for someone who is seeking a better job market be to move to Grand Rapids as opposed to following the herd to North Carolina or Texas? Has anyone who reads this forum searched for a job in Grand Rapids recently? Has Grand Rapids attracted any large employers recently? Has it brought in any new companies that have knowledge-based jobs? Has it brought in any businesses that provide goods and/or services to the rest of the country?

Although I've been a Michigan moan 'n' groaner, I'm intrigued by the possiblity of relocating to a city that has the potential to grow and to become one of the nation's "hot cities" if it can weather the rest of the state's malaise.

[MittenDweller82]

Yes the skyline of GR with its construction cranes provides hope that something may be moving in the right direction, although if the Devo's were absent from the town I doubt it would be happening. Not bucking GR, I've never lived there, I've traveled through to sip numerous pints at Founders, and pondered graduate school at GVSU at one point. Great feel, but like other cities in the mitten, is connected to one thing: people. GVSU of course creates what in urban studies is called "Renaissance". The same thing happens in A2, U of M is the reason its a destination, and the reason for the money, diversity, etc The people who are permanent residents in A2 don't have the money..its the kids of wealthy families who send them from big cities across the world that bring it into the economy. GR is growing due to GVSU's continued increasing enrollment, and the presence of young professionals. If we look at cities without this....Flint, Jackson, Battle Creek, and others, there really is no base, and things fall apart. Lets hope it does continue to break the trend of the state average, but it will need more people to continue to move to the area, in order to attract more firms. I would consider moving from Ann Arbor to GR if their was more employment in my field, and if my wife could find suitable work in hers. Moderator cut: linking to competitors sites is not allowed Peace and good luck

[magellan]

Grand Rapids is a lot more than construction cranes downtown and Amway. It is made up of a broad array of companies in just about every classification of industry. And thankfully, many of them are now doing pretty well after having a 2 - 3 year drought a few years ago. Some action from local corporate HQ's:

- X-Rite, xrite.com, color management systems - just recently purchased their European rival Gretag MacBeth, growth and profitability mode, now close to 700 GR employees at their HQ
- Steelcase, steelcase.com, largest office furniture company in the U.S. - after shedding 10,000 jobs back in 2002 or so, is now consistently throwing down some of their best revenue and profitability quarters, highest sales in 5 years
- Herman Miller (office furniture), hermanmiller.com, I think they are on 16 straight quarters of year-over-year growth
- Haworth (office furniture), haworth.com, Building new $42 Million HQ and adding 200 jobs, and possibly 1000 more over the next few years.
- Wolverine World Wide, shoes and sporting goods, wolverineworldwide.com, Merrill, Merrill-Patagonia, Harley Davidson boots, Hush Puppies - keeps reporting record sales, keeps growing, might be a Nike takeover target (let's hope not)
- Smith's Aerospace - smiths-aerospace.com, growing at break-neck speed through multiple Boeing contracts, can't fill engineering positions (need avionics or aerospace systems engineering background I believe), recently purchased by General Electric and expected to expand
- Meijer, meijer.com - still growing and expanding in Chicago and Indiana, and invested $463 Million in Michigan from 2004 - 2007
- United Solar Ovonics (actually based in Auburn Hills), uni-solar.com, two new solar film plants underway with plans for 4 more and 1000 employees, $729 Million investment in Greenville
- Universal Forest Products -ufpi.com, nation's largest wood products manufacturer to the building industry (HQ in GR but no plants) - record year in 2006
- Spartan Stores, spartanstores.com, recently bought out rivals D&W, Family Fare, and now buying out Felpausch
- Konica Minolta Graphic Imaging, gi.konicaminolta.us - moving HQ from NY to GR
- Priority Health, priorityhealth.com - WM's largest healthcare provider, recently bought out Care Choices in SE Michigan
- Tiara Yachts, tiarayachts.com, - massive expansion underway in Holland adding 400 jobs, introducing new 58 footer (? someone might correct me on that) yacht
- Perrigo (generic drug maker), perrigo.com - growth and acquisition mode, revenue and profitablity growth
- Surefil, surefil.com, - in process of adding 3 new plants and hiring 370 new people
- Gentex (Zeeland), gentex.com, auto-dimming mirrors, continues to kick the pants off everyone else in this category, lost track of how many plants they have built in the past five years, plus new HQ's, has hired 470 people since 2002,
- West Pharmaceutical (medical devices), expanding and adding 160 new jobs
- Dematic (Rapistan), dematic.us, material handling systems, after a rough few years, has its largest backlog of orders of $400 Million in the company's history right now, Wal-Mart and Pepsico some of its largest customers
- Global Forex (online stock trading) gftforex.com - One of the fastest growing tech companies, Deloitte Tech500, over the last five years - 647% revenue growth, 154% employment growth in six worldwide offices, 85% trading volume growth (a friend of mine works there and they are always hiring, but not sure what positions)

That's just a few.

We did lose a Lear plant, Delphi plant, and Electrolux (Frigidaire) over the last couple of years which were all blows to the jobs market.

Grand Rapids - Wyoming MSA added 2700 jobs last year in 2006, while the state lost jobs overrall. Population of the metro area is still growing but mainly due to twice as many births to deaths. There are still more people leaving then coming unfortunately, but population is in growth mode.

Sociologist is right that GVSU is growing like crazy. It's the fastest growing university in Michigan and one of the fastest growing in the country, with their main campus in Allendale, and a business school downtown on the West side and a health sciences center on health hill

Before you pack your bags, the housing market the past 1 1/2 years has sucked. It does seem to be getting a bit better though so far this Spring, according to friends in the business, but nowhere nearly as bad as some of the stuff I read here happening in Southeast Michigan. I wouldn't move here without a job first personally.

And yes, the Amway families continue to dump hundreds of millions into projects downtown with their affiliation with Spectrum Health and the Van Andel Institute. There's close to $1 Billion in healthcare and health research facilities under construction downtown right now, but much of it won't be finished until 2009 - 2010, adding about 3000 new jobs.

As part of this development, Michigan State University will be moving most of their medical school to Grand Rapids, and starting five new research specialties that they did not offer before, and will increase their enrollment to about 400.

Hope that helps. Whew.

(Try KForce Staffing if you are in technology, and like Sociologist, try a Founder's Brewery Dirty Bastard while you're here)

[MittenDweller82]

Originally Posted by magellan

Grand Rapids is a lot more than construction cranes downtown and Amway. It is made up of a broad array of companies in just about every classification of industry. And thankfully, many of them are now doing pretty well after having a 2 - 3 year drought a few years ago. Some action from local corporate HQ's:

- X-Rite, color management systems - just recently purchased their European rival Gretag MacBeth, growth and profitability mode, now close to 700 GR employees at their HQ
- Steelcase, largest office furniture company in the U.S. - after shedding 10,000 jobs back in 2002 or so, is now consistently throwing down some of their best revenue and profitability quarters, highest sales in 5 years
- Herman Miller (office furniture), I think they are on 16 straight quarters of year-over-year growth
- Haworth (office furniture) Building new $42 Million HQ and adding 200 jobs, and possibly 1000 more over the next few years.
- Wolverine World Wide, shoes and sporting goods, Merrill, Merrill-Patagonia, Harley Davidson boots, Hush Puppies - keeps reporting record sales, keeps growing, might be a Nike takeover target (let's hope not)
- Smith's Aerospace - growing at break-neck speed through multiple Boeing contracts, can't fill engineering positions (need avionics or aerospace systems engineering background I believe), recently purchased by General Electric and expected to expand
- Meijer - still growing and expanding in Chicago and Indiana, and invested $463 Million in Michigan from 2004 - 2007
- United Solar Ovonics (actually based in Auburn Hills) - two new solar film plants underway with plans for 4 more and 1000 employees, $729 Million investment in Greenville
- Universal Forest Products - nation's largest wood products manufacturer to the building industry (HQ in GR but no plants) - record year in 2006
- Spartan Stores - recently bought out rivals D&W, Family Fare, and now buying out Felpausch
- Konica Minolta Graphic Imaging - moving HQ from NY to GR
- Priority Health - WM's largest healthcare provider, recently bought out Care Choices in SE Michigan
- Tiara Yachts - massive expansion underway in Holland adding 400 jobs, introducing new 42 footer (? someone might correct me on that) yacht
- Perrigo (generic drug maker) - growth and acquisition mode, revenue and profitablity growth
- Surefil - in process of adding 3 new plants and hiring 370 new people
- Gentex (Zeeland), auto-dimming mirrors, continues to kick the pants off everyone else in this category, lost track of how many plants they have built in the past five years, plus new HQ's, has hired 470 people since 2002,
- West Pharmaceutical (medical devices), expanding and adding 160 new jobs
- Dematic (Rapistan), material handling systems, after a rough few years, has its largest backlog of orders of $400 Million in the company's history right now, Wal-Mart and Pepsico some of its largest customers
- Global Forex (online stock trading) - One of the fastest growing tech companies, Deloitte Tech500, over the last five years - 647% revenue growth, 154% employment growth in six worldwide offices, 85% trading volume growth (a friend of mine works there and they are always hiring, but not sure what positions)

That's just a few.

We did lose a Lear plant, Delphi plant, and Electrolux (Frigidaire) over the last couple of years which were all blows to the jobs market.

Grand Rapids - Wyoming MSA added 2700 jobs last year in 2006, while the state lost jobs overrall. Population of the metro area is still growing but mainly due to twice as many births to deaths. There are still more people leaving then coming unfortunately, but population is in growth mode.

Sociologist is right that GVSU is growing like crazy. It's the fastest growing university in Michigan and one of the fastest growing in the country, with their main campus in Allendale, and a business school downtown on the West side and a health sciences center on health hill

Before you pack your bags, the housing market the past 1 1/2 years has sucked. It does seem to be getting a bit better though so far this Spring, according to friends in the business, but nowhere nearly as bad as some of the stuff I read here happening in Southeast Michigan. I wouldn't move here without a job first personally.

And yes, the Amway families continue to dump hundreds of millions into projects downtown with their affiliation with Spectrum Health and the Van Andel Institute. There's close to $1 Billion in healthcare and health research facilities under construction downtown right now, but much of it won't be finished until 2009 - 2010, adding about 3000 new jobs.

As part of this development, Michigan State University will be moving most of their medical school to Grand Rapids, and starting five new research specialties that they did not offer before, and will increase their enrollment to about 400.

Hope that helps. Whew.

(Try KForce Staffing if you are in technology, and like Sociologist, try a Founder's Brewery Dirty Bastard while you're here)

Magellan.

Any considerations for employment in GR area for therapy or counseling fields (educational)? Know all about the bastard. If your a beer snob like myself you must try Ashley's, a 67 tap establishment in A2, all of Founders is on tap there, including centennial (hand pulled). Cheers, thanks for advice.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by Sociologist

Magellan.

Any considerations for employment in GR area for therapy or counseling fields (educational)? Know all about the bastard. If your a beer snob like myself you must try Ashley's, a 67 tap establishment in A2, all of Founders is on tap there, including centennial (hand pulled). Cheers, thanks for advice.

Not off hand. Most of the people I know are in business-related fields. If I think of anything, I'll post it. Are you looking for non-profit or institutional work? Teaching?

Thanks for the beer tip. I wouldn't consider myself a beer snob, but I certainly like my brew with a little kick.

[MittenDweller82]

Originally Posted by magellan

Not off hand. Most of the people I know are in business-related fields. If I think of anything, I'll post it. Are you looking for non-profit or institutional work? Teaching?

Thanks for the beer tip. I wouldn't consider myself a beer snob, but I certainly like my brew with a little kick.

I'm hoping to (once done with phd), either be in the educational sector, or being my own practice years down the road. Teaching is not out of the question but my tranining is directly in counseling. Ironically with the states condition I'm having a difficult time finding people that need therapy! I'll look at Borgess health care or the school districts or possibly GVSU. No non-profit, i'd like to afford more than mac n cheese for dinner. Thanks for responses

[magellan]

Originally Posted by Sociologist

I'm hoping to (once done with phd), either be in the educational sector, or being my own practice years down the road. Teaching is not out of the question but my tranining is directly in counseling. Ironically with the states condition I'm having a difficult time finding people that need therapy! I'll look at Borgess health care or the school districts or possibly GVSU. No non-profit, i'd like to afford more than mac n cheese for dinner. Thanks for responses

What, people don't eat Ramen anymore?

A lot of the counseling services in Grand Rapids are Christian-based, so they are mainly non-profit. Pine Rest is a big one on the South side of GR. This morning I thought of Cherry Street Health Services, or perhaps Spectrum Health through their vast array of campuses has mental health/psychological services. Western Michigan University also has a campus in downtown Grand Rapids that has a Counseling and Psychological Services program:

http://gr.wmich.edu/communityService...nselingCenter/

Good luck!

[summers19]

I am also in the counseling field looking into moving to Grand Rapids. I like the non-profit world and have looked on various websites to find agencies. There are many agencies, but not many are offering jobs right now.
I leave for GR tomorrow night for a long weekend vacation! I am looking forward to getting a dark beer at Founder's. I've never been there before. Someone mentioned 'bastard' beer? I like a dark amber beer.

[Wabbit]

I think its interesting that 'conservative' Grand Rapids leaves 'liberal' Ann Arbor in the dust when it comes to LEED ratings on its buildings. In fact Grand Rapids has become the green building capital of the USA.
Todays New York Times has a great article on the new Museum:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/28/ar...tner=BREITBART

Another article discussing Grand Rapids building boom said this:

"One thing they have in common is that all are certified, or are seeking to be certified, by the U.S. Green Building Council as embodying characteristics that make them “green.” Greater Grand Rapids, as it turns out, has an extraordinary number of certifiably green buildings, and so does the West Michigan region as a whole."

Not of interest to a lot of people but interesting none the less considering how mired in the past many posters here think Michigan is.

Oh, by the way, I guess I'm a beer traitor because my dainty tastes
prefer Bell's Oberon and Amber ale.

[MittenDweller82]

Originally Posted by Wabbit

I think its interesting that 'conservative' Grand Rapids leaves 'liberal' Ann Arbor in the dust when it comes to LEED ratings on its buildings. In fact Grand Rapids has become the green building capital of the USA.
Todays New York Times has a great article on the new Museum:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/28/ar...tner=BREITBART

Another article discussing Grand Rapids building boom said this:

"One thing they have in common is that all are certified, or are seeking to be certified, by the U.S. Green Building Council as embodying characteristics that make them “green.” Greater Grand Rapids, as it turns out, has an extraordinary number of certifiably green buildings, and so does the West Michigan region as a whole."

Not of interest to a lot of people but interesting none the less considering how mired in the past many posters here think Michigan is.

Oh, by the way, I guess I'm a beer traitor because my dainty tastes
prefer Bell's Oberon and Amber ale.

Buildings may be one aspect, but I can point out about 20 people who I personally know who have state of the art solar water and house heating systems that require virtually no electricity in A2. Also, many of the homes (older) in ann arbor are being renovated to meet green standards. Bells is decent, but Larry keeps altering his recipe (sorry, i'm too much of a beer snob). Peace