Chamber coworking space expanding in Grand Rapids

When the Grand Rapids Chamber moved offices in 2018, the relocation provided opportunities beyond a new view. The creation of a coworking space helped to align the facilities to the chamber’s strategy of being an epicenter of business activity for West Michigan. Fast forward to today, the chamber is expanding its member-driven collaborative workspace and launching a five-year investment campaign.

“Research indicates businesses will continue to have unique meeting and office space needs into the foreseeable future. Expanding our footprint will create more opportunities for our members to meet their changing workforce and space needs,” said Rick Baker, president & CEO. “In addition, it will support impactful programming, training and assistance to help our members and community grow.”

Access to the coworking space, which includes a café, is a benefit of chamber membership, and the chamber says the pandemic has increased its use. Since 2019, more than 7,000 members have taken advantage of the work café, along with over 600 reservations for the DTE Energy Board Room and an additional 175 reservations for the Steelcase Conference Center. Partnerships through naming rights and sponsorships covered the costs of the chamber’s initial move into the new space, and the importance of those connections continues. The first lead anchor investor supporting the expansion is Lake Michigan Credit Union.

The coworking space has been a success for the chamber on a variety of levels, including “casual collisions” between members, creating business-to-business opportunities. Two local healthcare companies that met in the chamber offices recently announced a partnership to provide concierge health services for patients who travel to a Grand Rapids location for cancer treatments.

Construction of the expanded spaces, including reconfigured workspaces and additional conference rooms, is scheduled to be completed in June 2023.