Neighborhood Ventures

Mission - Neighborhood Ventures is an emerging nonprofit economic development organization whose mission is to “interject vitality into the heart of each neighborhood by revitalizing its business district”.

Background

Neighborhood Ventures was recently created by the Neighborhood Business Alliance (NBA), a business member advocacy organization comprised of twenty neighborhood business districts in the core city of Grand Rapids, to take neighborhood economic development to a new level in Grand Rapids. The NBA’s dreams of building successful, vibrant, walkable neighborhood commercial centers begins with Neighborhood Ventures, because of its broad community support. 

This new nonprofit economic development organization, with a winning board of community volunteers and a staff of trained economic development experts, has created an organization with a captivating work plan, using proven redevelopment models to revitalize our neighborhood business districts. Neighborhood Ventures is committed to working with all area stakeholders to revitalize a neighborhood business districts.

Currently, Neighborhood Ventures is the only organization in Grand Rapids that does this kind of neighborhood economic development work. The success of historic neighborhood business districts is the main and only focus of Neighborhood Ventures.

Goals:

Neighborhood Ventures goals are to:

• Capture entrepreneurs and create successful businesses in neighborhood business districts.
• Implement effective, sustainable economic development tools for neighborhood business districts.
• Improve public and private infrastructure in neighborhood business districts.
• Improve image of neighborhood business districts and increase use of individual businesses.

The “So What” Effect

Neighborhood Ventures works in partnership with local areas to assist them in achieving their goals, revitalizing business districts! By providing technical assistance, tangible trainings and services, and assisting in bringing to fruition sustainable economic development tools, local businesses and neighborhoods can be greatly improved while maintaining grassroots control of their areas. Neighborhood Ventures is here to provide many of the tools and resources needed to comprehensively revitalize the heart of each neighborhood, which is its business district.

There is significant opportunity to reinvent our local and regional economy through growing our own local businesses, right here in the core of the city, in the heart of our region. The “so what” effect of Neighborhood Ventures is that the dream of successful, vibrant, walkable, diverse, sustainable neighborhood commercial centers throughout the city’s neighborhoods will become a reality - creating jobs and creating communities!