West Michigan's Economic Outlook

Andria Romkema with The Right Place joins us to discuss West Michigan's economic outlook for 2025. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ripped from the news and into the studio. This is
West Michigan's Morning News. Steve Kelly and Ret Keita Andria
Ramkama is with the Right Place back in studio with us. Andrea,
thanks for doing this today.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Thanks for having me on, Steve.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Yesterday you hosted the economic Outlook for twenty twenty six
in the Greater Grand Rapids region, and we have to
report some kind of cool things from twenty twenty five
before we look to the future. What was your favorite
accomplishment as you look back at twenty twenty five.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Oh, my gosh, so many accomplishments. It's hard to pick
just one. But I would say when I look back
at this year, this was our third year of our
strategic Plan, which means it was the final year of
this plan, and we hit all of our metrics for
the community in this plan this year, so had over
four thousand jobs that we helped support, over eight hundred

(00:54):
million in investment, and the wages on those jobs over thirty.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Dollars an hour.

Speaker 3 (00:59):
So I can't I can't pick just one, so I'll
pick all those That number that represents all the projects
and accomplishments that went into it.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
So really really excited for the year. We are remarkable and.

Speaker 4 (01:12):
As we talk about too, it's not just about Grand Rapids.
I mean, this is a seven county collaborative and so
the state of Region report was interesting. We have a
population growth, like Steve mentioned, coming in but also I
want to go to this number because it's just so unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
It's been this way for a little bit.

Speaker 4 (01:27):
Industrial vacancy rate, I mean we are way down in
a good way compared to the national rate of what
just three point one percent.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Yes, yes, three point one percent. That's actually raised a
little bit over the last couple of years. We have
a really tight industrial market. We are a heavy manufacturing community.
We make a lot of things here. It's great for
our economy. But the downside is if we want more
companies to come here, or we want our current manufacturers

(01:57):
to grow, it can be a challenge because there's not
a lot of industrial vacancy. We actually in previous and
this year we had the lowest in the nation in
terms of industrial vacancy. But that does speak to this
is a place that it's great to do business here
and people want to be here, and.

Speaker 4 (02:13):
You're starting to see places either renovate or old buildings
being taken over because of their setup and new companies
coming in, right.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
Yes, yeah, So well, if you don't have a lot
of green fields to build whatever you would like on, right,
you need to get creative and use some of our
space already. And we have a lot of great facilities
here that just need a little bit of renovation and
they can be activated.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Again, there aren't a lot.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Of areas in the state of Michigan that can boast
growth people. Right in the last ten years, there are
more people here. That's kind of cool.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
Yeah, And I'll add to that, and I'll say there
are not a lot of areas in Michigan, but there
are also not a lot of areas in the Midwest
even I mean you can count on one hand the
other cities that have been seeing growth like we have.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
So we are really.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Unique here in the Greater Grand Rapids region, and that
we do have a growing population. I mean demographic trends.
You look around the nation and the world, we have aging,
aging population and.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Lower birth rates.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
So the cities that are able to keep young people,
retain their college grads, grow their population, they're going to
see success here.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Lastly, give us more about the spirit of collaboration that
you in the Right Place help develop. Right. There are
so many groups and sectors that work together and that's
what makes this such an attractive area to be in.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yes, yes, no, that is our secret here. I believe too.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
How we have become such a strong economy here in
the region is that collaboration.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
It's truly.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
I've worked in other markets and everybody says they're collaborative, right,
But at the end of the day, Greater Grand Rapids
is a community that is truly collaborated.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Are collaborative.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
We could do our work in economic development if we
didn't have the support of the community, active and engaged
partners and people who have invested in our mission.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Let's not waste the fact that there is a Meryl
logo on what she is wearing right now too.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yes, yeah, it's got to represent local.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Where they're headquarters is senior vice president of business Development
at the Right Place, Andrea Ramkama. Thanks for coming in today.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Thanks for having me on