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By Andrew Domino | MiBiz
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WEST MICHIGAN — Local businesses and city governments run side-by-side in every community in Michigan, but it’s much more of a challenge to make sure they work together.

A new study from the University of Michigan-Dearborn shows several West Michigan cities and townships have been succeeding at that challenge. Cities from Grand Haven to Marshall were recognized as four-star and five-star communities by iLabs, UMD’s Center for Innovation Research.

The 2011 eCities study looked at 89 locations across the state for characteristics such as positive property growth and tax rates. Information on the communities with the highest marks was released in November. The full study is expected in late January. Businesses can still participate in the study by visiting the iLabs website at www.umdilabs.com/ecities.

Collecting hard evidence of economic growth was just the first step in the process, said Tim Davis, iLabs director.

“Many places have a business-to-consumer message: ‘Our town is a great place to live, a great place to shop,’” Davis said. “They need a business-to-business message.”

Several entrepreneurs ranked the candidate city, village and township governments for, essentially, their skills at marketing to local businesses. They asked several questions, Davis said.

“How easy is it for business to grow? Who is the best person in city hall to talk to about property?” he said. “They wanted governments that are positive about their communities, not ones saying, ‘We are toughing it out, and if you locate here, you’ll do all right.’”

Pavan Muzumdar, CEO of MV Software in Clawson and one of the entrepreneurs making the final selection on communities, said local governments have resources for companies, but their success in marketing those resources is varied.

“If you have a clear, succinct message, (businesses) are more likely to see it,” he said.

High ratings on the iLabs study went especially to communities where government officials are regularly in touch with business, making sure they have what they need to survive and grow. Davis said nearly every business gets support from its local government in passive ways, like fire and emergency services, as well as water and electric service. Communities that had more to offer — and made sure to offer it — were the ones iLabs was looking for. Most businesses hear from local government less than twice a year, aside from standard utilities bills and similar mailings.

“Some said they’d love to get communication as much as once every other month,” Davis said.

Since the main requirement for a top rating in the iLabs study was to show a strong line of communication from a local government to local businesses, the communities earning high marks could be any size and have any kind of a commercial industrial base. Major cities like Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids made the list, but so did cities where only small businesses set up shop, like Marshall and Grand Haven.

“We still resemble a (Norman) Rockwell world,” said Mike Hindenach, manager of economic development for Marshall. “We’re comfortable in our own skin. For companies looking for that kind of thing, we do it as well as anybody.”

Hindenach said the city has leveraged its local business incentives and tax abatements capabilities as well as the packages of incentives from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. to help Marshall’s business climate.

In 2010, Marshall, Battle Creek and their neighboring townships centralized 911 service into a single entity for Calhoun County. Marshall’s assessing department is combined with the county’s department as well. Both were moves for cost-savings and efficiency, but they also have the side effect of bringing the local governments closer, Hindenach said.

He said that each year, his department holds a kind of “performance review” with businesses in Marshall, when company owners and entrepreneurs talk about what they’d like to see from the city. A comment from one company led to the installation of fiber-optic lines throughout Marshall’s industrial park.

“They came to me and said that’s what we need to grow,” Hindenach said.

Davis said Grand Rapids made the final list of communities in part because local officials know a lot about supply chains for major industries like office furniture and biomedical research. Kalamazoo has a strong business incubator, and many small businesses linked to its life sciences industry are also doing well.

Entrepreneur Muzumdar said communities he studied had something to offer that other cities and townships didn’t, in many cases. Port Huron has the Blue Water Bridge, linking the thumb area city with traffic and business in Canada. While no point in West Michigan leads to Canada, many cities are home to universities and have access to the Great Lakes and other resources.

“If you have a natural resource, it’s about how you can make best use of that resource and draw attention to your city,” Muzumdar said.

Davis said researchers wanted to consider hard numbers, like the amount of construction taking place in city limits, as well as business reinvestment in the community, both financially and socially.

“It’s about how communities are providing resources for entrepreneurs,” he said.

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• battle creek
• grand haven
• ilabs
• mike hindenach
• pavan muzumdar
• tim davis
• west michigan