GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — After two years of hard times for local businesses, downtown Grand Rapids is bouncing back in a big way. The city says shops, bars, restaurants and hotels downtown showed activity levels this summer that were at or better than years prior to the pandemic.
"I would never have painted the rosy scene that we're going through right now," says Doug Small, President and CEO of Experience Grand Rapids.
In 2019, he says the city set an all time record for hotel sales.
"Through September, we sold 1.5 million hotel rooms," Small says of 2019.
In 2022, they've already surpassed that total with two months to go. This comes as a big surprise to many.
"We were predicting maybe coming back to 2019 figures around 2024," says Small.
Hotel sales mean better business for shops, bars and restaurants. Social House is feeling the success, coming off its best summer ever.
"It's exciting. It was a great year for us," says Mandy Sala, Social House's operations manager.
The restaurant opened in 2019, having to shut down less than a year later because of the pandemic. August marked its first full year of being open.
"We're starting to see a really good trend of people coming out," says Sala.
And the summer was only the beginning for Social House. With the return of the Griffins and the newly relocated Grand Rapids Gold joining them at Van Andel Arena across the street, they expect crowds to only get bigger.
"Rising tides raise all ships," explains Sala. "So when The B.O.B. is doing well, when The Woods is doing well, when places around us are doing well, that means people are out and people are ready to experience Grand Rapids again."
In a press release, the city of Grand Rapids says this year, 21 news businesses have opened downtown. It goes on to say new downtown businesses ownership included 24% being owned by Black, Indigenous, and people of color and 48% owned by women, a big year for minority-owned businesses.
The city also reports a decrease in both aggravated assaults and crimes of intimidation in the downtown area.
Small says it's statistics like these that show Grand Rapids is on the upswing.
"While we're coming out of this better than I ever would've thought, the future is just incredibly bright for us to grow even more," he says.
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