GRAND RAPIDS — Former Second Lady Jill Biden and congressional candidate Hillary Scholten visited the Kids’ Food Basket headquarters on Tuesday in Grand Rapids to highlight the growing issue of food insecurity.

GRAND RAPIDS — Grand Rapids Opportunity for Women is accepting applications through Sept. 26 for its ReStart Kent loan program. 

SAUGATUCK — Business and civic leaders along the West Michigan lakeshore realized in March that COVID-19-related shutdowns could have a devastating effect on the already short summer tourism season that fuels the beach towns’ local economies.

GRAND RAPIDS — Local housing nonprofits are beginning to vet dozens of vacant properties made available through the state’s Land Bank Authority in an effort to fill the city’s need for affordable housing.

GRAND RAPIDS — The owners of Brewery Vivant have gotten creative out of necessity when it comes to virtual schooling for their two children, sharing the responsibilities with two other families in their neighborhood.

Housing nonprofit leaders say the temporary halting of residential evictions issued recently by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a positive short-term move, but could cause a large wave of evictions at the end of the year.

GRAND RAPIDS — Interior design company and Haworth Inc. dealer Interphase Interiors is relocating its downtown headquarters to the ground floor of a $5 million office building under construction along the Leonard Street business corridor on the city’s West Side.

GRAND RAPIDS — Genesis Non-Profit Housing Corp. is planning a multi-family housing development with 38 apartment units earmarked for affordable housing on the city’s West Side.

GRAND RAPIDS TOWNSHIP — An Indianapolis-based developer is planning a 320-unit luxury apartment complex along Beltline Avenue northeast of Grand Rapids.

GRANDVILLE — U.S. Small Business Administration officials visiting Michigan this week say the federal agency has undergone a major transformation during the COVID-19 pandemic while recognizing inequities in a key relief program for small businesses.

LANSING — Small business owners and employees can access extra educational support for their children during this unprecedented school year as many classes will be held virtually because of COVID-19. 

GRAND RAPIDS — Nonprofit housing organizations will now have the ability to purchase and redevelop up to 60 different foreclosed properties for affordable housing projects.

GRAND RAPIDS — A tax incentive the city of Grand Rapids and an Indianapolis developer unsuccessfully pursued to transform publicly owned riverfront property has only been used twice in Michigan.

GRAND RAPIDS — Idled and deteriorating industrial buildings across the city are being transformed with multimillion dollar investments to support cannabis growing operations. 

HOLLAND — Business leaders and elected officials in Holland say the city’s recently approved anti-discrimination ordinance codifying protections for the LGBTQ community will be beneficial for retaining and attracting talent.

KALAMAZOO — Laurel and Terry Parrott sold Kalamazoo House Bed & Breakfast in 2014 and moved to Arizona, but the pandemic has brought them out of retirement to return as innkeepers of the historic building.

GRAND RAPIDS — The Grand Rapids City Commission has approved zoning changes and a community partnership agreement meant to enforce social equity for the planned Boston Square Together mixed use development on the city’s southeast side.

GRAND RAPIDS — The Michigan Strategic Fund board has approved brownfield tax incentives totaling $4.4 million for the renovation of the Vandenberg Center in downtown Grand Rapids to transform the underutilized properties.

GRAND RAPIDS — After the Grand Rapids City Commission voted last month to fast track recreational cannabis businesses, the U.S. Green Building Council of West Michigan recognized the city could soon see grow operations using massive amounts of energy.

GRAND RAPIDS — A developer’s plan to add a six-story affordable housing building to a historic structure in Grand Rapids’ Heartside neighborhood has stalled after failing to gain enough support from the city’s Historic Preservation Commission.

GRAND RAPIDS — Wyoming-based Grand Valley Wood Products and Surfaces of Michigan will soon relocate and consolidate operations of the commercial millwork and countertop companies in southeast Grand Rapids.

Designating outdoor drinking areas is not only a way to modernize Michigan’s alcohol regulations, but also extends a critical lifeline for restaurants and bars grappling with limited activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

DOUGLAS — About 15 people were hard at work on Aug. 7 hammering, sanding and painting away to construct what will become Isabel’s Market + Eatery — a specialty market, street food eatery and event space in Douglas.

MUSKEGON — Despite initially struggling to access COVID-19 relief funding, Ana Olson has kept Los Amigos Mexican Bar & Grill open with takeout orders throughout the entire pandemic.

The industrial sector in West Michigan has been the quickest in the real estate market to bounce back from the pandemic, nearly returning to where it was pre-COVID-19.

GRAND RAPIDS — An active Grand Rapids housing developer is planning a six-story apartment building that includes repurposing a historic structure in the downtown Heartside neighborhood.

GRAND RAPIDS — Developers are planning 48 units of senior housing on a vacant 7.3-acre property near Breton Village despite opposition from some surrounding neighbors.

GRAND RAPIDS — The city of Grand Rapids has hired an architecture firm to study the feasibility of relocating city operations from prime riverfront property near downtown that has been eyed for redevelopment for years.

When a California-based marketing firm consolidated 450 employees from Grand Rapids-area offices into a vacant commercial building three years ago, the move was celebrated by Wyoming city leaders and supported by a $550,000 state business development grant.

GRAND RAPIDS — Grand Rapids native Alita Kelly saw a market need on the south side of the city and formed a pickup and delivery food service that will mainly source from Black and Indigenous farmers, as well as women producers.