On this week’s edition of Money, I’m Home, Lynne discusses the exciting changes that are coming to the Grand Rapids area with Joe Agostinelli, the executive director of the Grand Rapids Area Revitalization Task Force.

 

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0:00:06.9 Lynne Jarman-Johnson (LJJ): Money, I’m home! Welcome in. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson, with Consumers Credit Union. From finance to fitness, we have it all. And today we have a very special guest, someone who was really digging deep into economies, business and making sure that our cities stay top-notch, Joe Agostinelli, is the Executive Director of the Grand Rapids Area Revitalization Task Force, which is a really cool title, Joe. Thanks for joining us.

0:00:33.2 Joe Agostinelli (JA): Thanks, Lynne, happy to be here.

0:00:34.6 LJJ: Tell us a little bit about exactly what that title means, Joe? And I’m going to back into after that a little bit about your background.

0:00:41.2 JA: My title is actually more closely aligned with the name of a meeting that Mayor Bliss started at the start of the pandemic, about a week after everything got shut down in 2020. She pulled together a group of community leaders, about 40 or so of them, working together to help us all get through the pandemic together. As you recall, really unprecedented times for everybody, and there was a lot of uncertainty, and a lot of things changing, and this revitalization task force was formed to help get the Grand Rapids community through the pandemic. And then very quickly that was becoming the mayor’s, I don’t know, third, or fourth full-time job. She’s a very busy lady, with a lot going on, and realized she needed some help and have somebody who’s day job it was to get up every day thinking about getting through, and then the recovery side of the pandemic. And so that’s where I was brought in, to help lead that effort.

0:01:41.9 LJJ: And Joe, I know you have an economic development background. Consumers is a strong partner of Southwest Michigan First, which is a location that you had also had on your resume. When you began, especially with the Mayor’s Office, for the City of Grand Rapids, did you think that here we are two years later and you’re still revitalizing?

0:02:07.2 JA: Signing up for an opportunity like this was… I joke, it was 90% exciting, 10% terrifying, because there was so much uncertainty at that time, and still is today, honestly, as we’re working through coming out of the effects of the pandemic. When I got started, the only thing that was certain was that we had no idea what the next year or two would bring, and that’s rang true, but we’ve made some really great progress as a community, as a state over the past year, and I think certainly our best days are ahead of us still. It would be fair to say we didn’t see a lot of the things coming, because none of us have lived through a global pandemic before.

0:02:50.2 LJJ: Joe, when you first began, and the meetings had started, obviously they were over Zoom, can you remember like the very first or second meetings where the mission was created, and what you’re most proud of in just the last few months?

0:03:08.2 JA: Yeah, sure. The task force, it’s important. The task force’s inception, and then my joining it had a fairly long-time horizon between the two. The task force got started in March of 2020, I didn’t start until October in my current role of 2020. So, if you think back to that time frame, we had gone through the whole shutdown of the economy and were starting to ramp things back up again last fall, before the fall spike started happening. So, when I got started in October of 2020, I had about six weeks of ability to meet with folks in person at coffee shops, and restaurants to try to build relationships with folks in the community, which is largely new to me. I live in Kalamazoo and I’m taking on this role in Grand Rapids, so there’s a lot of relationship building to be done in that time frame. But yes, lots of Zoom coffee hours [chuckle] was the name of the day for me for quite a while there.

0:04:14.1 JA: In terms of the mission of the task force, we were really focused on two things at the beginning. Was one, as I mentioned before, getting through the day-to-day, but also overarching goal of not wasting that crisis as an opportunity to come out better on the other side. And so that’s where the work has taken us now. And I would say the overarching focus as I met with folks in the community was a real true desire to focus on equity, as we came out of the pandemic, making sure that portions of the community and the economy are not left behind as other parts of the community are recovering at a more rapid rate. So, I’d say that’s been the overarching goal. Obviously, that’s a big issue, and not one simple answer to it, but that’s sort of the North Star that guides our work.

0:05:14.0 LJJ: I love the fact that the collaboration with that North Star, as you say, really focuses in on making sure the community… I always like to say, you know, you have an apple, and the core of that apple has to be extremely strong. And that core is filled with so many different seeds that make our city great, and you’re really focusing on making sure that continues.

0:05:39.8 JA: Yeah, absolutely.

0:05:41.2 LJJ: So, tell me, Joe, a little bit about your background, and when you were said, “Hey, I’d like to join the leaders… ” [laughter] Here we are, we’re in a pandemic, and I’m going to now start this new… Jump in with both feet on helping revitalize Grand Rapids, what’s your day-to-day like?

0:06:01.8 JA: As I jumped into this work, I came with an economic development background, had spent quite a few years in an organization in Kalamazoo, Southwest Michigan First. And at the time, I was really looking for an opportunity to stretch and grow my personal leadership in the work I was doing, but my role there in that organization was incredible, I was leading a lot of transactional deal-making, working on big projects, which was great, and transformative for the community. I was really looking for an opportunity to take on a bigger leadership role, so when I got a call from the recruiter my first response was, “What the heck is this that we’re talking about?” After more and more conversations, and then once you meet the mayor for the first time, you just can’t say no to her, and so…

0:06:53.0 LJJ: That is true.

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0:06:54.0 JA: So, having the opportunity to come in and work in a new community, working alongside the mayor in this effort was really an exciting opportunity for me. So, what does the day-to-day look like? That’s been changing constantly throughout this work. When I first got started, we were coming up on the holiday season last year, so there’s a lot of effort around… As you recall, we had shut down bars and restaurants again, there were a lot of businesses really struggling, so we were focusing a lot of the work coming into the holiday season around intentionality of being hyper-local in your local purchasing and personal purchasing options. The easy thing to do was to double-down on your Amazon spending. And what we needed to be doing was supporting our local businesses, so there was a lot of marketing and PR efforts that we pulled together on that.

0:07:56.1 JA: As we got through the winter surge and into the spring, there was more of a focus on supporting local minority-owned small businesses. We pulled together a procurement summit trying to match large purchasers of goods and services in Grand Rapids with small women-and-veteran-owned businesses that could provide those goods and services. So, we had a great partnership with the Michigan Economic Development Corporations, Pure Michigan Business Connect program and a group of local business support organizations to make those matches happen. So that was a great effort. And today, my day-to-day is more focused on all of the recovery dollars that are coming out of the state and federal government through the various stimulus packages that are out there, and making sure we really understand those opportunities, which are really unprecedented, the amount of money that’s flowing through the system right now. And ensuring that we understand the opportunities and are being intentional about pursuing the ones that make the most sense for the community.

0:09:10.6 LJJ: You know, I had the pleasure of meeting you, Joe, when Quentin Messer, who is the MEDC CEO, was speaking at the Econ club. One of the things that was interesting to me was when he talked about the focus on CNBC’s study that says that we’re number 11 in business success in the state of Michigan, meaning the city. When you see that and you see all those monies, that is a job that’s really focused on making sure that you have the right bellwether. How are you deciding where those dollars are going, and ensuring that team effort that Quentin talked about is so important, that collaboration?

0:09:49.6 JA: I wish I had control of a big checkbook, but I certainly don’t. Where I’m focusing my efforts is understanding all the competitive funding programs that are out there, like for example, there’s $3 billion of funding through the United States Economic Development Administration that came through the stimulus package that was passed last spring, so those are competitive grant opportunities. So, making sure that we’re aligning the large visionary projects that are in various stages of preparedness in the community, and making sure that we’re understanding the funding opportunities that are there and doing that matchmaking and being intentional around if there’s an opportunity out there that we should or shouldn’t pursue. That we’re making a conscious choice to pursue it or not, as opposed to just being unaware. So, a lot of the works in that realm versus I’m thankful to not be having to make the hard choices of how to spend those dollars that have already came to the community.

0:10:53.6 LJJ: So, Joe, when you look at the opportunities of these grants, do you think that many of the small businesses, especially the minority businesses that we were just talking about, do they get invited to the table? Is this something where that’s where you’re really trying to help to make sure that if there’s dollars available out there, we can try to find that match.

0:11:14.3 JA: Exactly. I think we need to be very intentional about the outreach that occurs to both the individual businesses, but also the business organizations that are out there supporting various minority-owned businesses like the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and Grand Rapids Area Black Business, and the Asian American Pacific Chamber. The leaders of those groups are all members of the task force that I’m serving. And trying to make sure that we’re in regular conversation and understanding the projects that they’re working on as organizations to support those businesses, but then the businesses themselves. A lot of the stimulus dollars that are coming through are more I’d say system-focused than individual company-focused, if that makes sense? So, trying to make sure that we’re able to support the work of those organizations. Because the end goal obviously is, by supporting the organizations that allows them to support more businesses, and the jobs in the community that depend on that.

0:12:29.4 LJJ: I did a little bit of research on you, Joe, and I understand that you’re a sailboat racing fanatic. Does that help you in your day-to-day?

0:12:37.7 JA: That’s funny. I am, yeah. I grew up in Traverse City and had the slowest sailboat in Traverse City. We had an old 1956 wooden sailboat that if the wind blew hard enough we would win, and if it didn’t, we were last. So, it taught a lot of patience, certainly, but yeah, I do… My summers are spent on a friend’s boat in St. Joe. Big boat racing out on the big lake. And one thing that sailing has always taught me that I actually transition and use in my career is there’s a lot of things you can’t control and the only thing you can do is how you respond to the weather and activity that’s around you. And there’s also a lot of crises in sailboat racing, and you need to learn to be cool, calm, collected under pressure when the unexpected happens. So, there’s some great lessons to be learned out on the big lake with some friends, for sure.

0:13:50.5 LJJ: That’s an awesome background, Joe. And thank you, because what you’re doing is actually bringing that teamwork to West Michigan and Grand Rapids, and we sure do appreciate your time today.

0:14:01.2 JA: No problem, Lynne. I appreciate it.

0:14:03.3 LJJ: And thank you for listening. If you have a topic that you’d like, just send it our way. We would love to interview those that you find interesting, or maybe even a business that you’d like to highlight. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson. Thank you, Jake Esselink for your production skills, always tremendously valued. And we’ll see you next week. Money, I’m Home with Consumers Credit Union.

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