DGRI and Arts Marketplace collaborate to cultivate retail downtown

Their goal: Grow dynamic new businesses that include underrepresented communities. 

Know an early-stage entrepreneur with a dream? Arts Marketplace at Studio Park and Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. are collaborating on a Retail Incubation program aimed at micro-entrepreneurs in the retail space with a $175,000 grant from the city’s Downtown Development Authority (DDA). 

The first 20 aspiring micro-entrepreneurs accepted into the program will be provided two years’ worth of assistance creating a business roadmap with skill and gap assessments; forging connections with local economic support organizations; and accessing training, education, success monitoring and continuing support. 

The nonprofits hope these fresh new commercial players will contribute to a vibrant and diverse downtown that reflects the broader community of Grand Rapids. 

Putting the pieces together

A focus on budding businesses is on brand for both nonprofits. Since 2013, DGRI has been responsible for the development and management of downtown improvement projects. In recent years, the organization has prioritized grants and programs to attract and retain small businesses, especially retailers. 

Arts Marketplace also works with retailers — smaller businesses who have obligations that make it hard to open their own downtown space. “We found that there is a gap in accessibility,” said Arts Marketplace Executive Director Molly Ketchum. “It’s so expensive to have a downtown retail space. We try to fill that gap for people who historically wouldn’t have that opportunity to have a downtown store.” Arts Marketplace’s brick-and-mortar space in Studio Park houses entrepreneurs who rent a table or shelf for their products. At the end of the month, all proceeds go to the creator. 

“On average, we have about 60 artists, vendors and makers within the Arts Marketplace who are selling their goods,” Ketchum said. 

For DGRI, the incubator is a chance to cultivate the next generation of downtown businesses. “Downtown retail has been a challenge for a variety of reasons,” DGRI Director of Operations Melvin Eledge told GO HEARTSIDE. To overcome those hurdles, he said,  “I’ve sort of looked at it as sort of three things. Attraction, which is what our retail grant does. And then retention, which is what our organization does in terms of creating an environment that’s good for businesses.” 

According to Eledge, this program aims to address the third piece of the puzzle.. “We’ve been missing this cultivation piece, finding local entrepreneurs who have great ideas, or some of the skills that they need to operate a retail business, but are lacking some things and really don’t know where to start.”

“You might bake a really good cake. It doesn’t mean you can run a bakery. It’s not the same skills,” Eledge said. “We have a very robust and economic support ecosystem in the city, and we’re very fortunate to have that. But I think sometimes, especially for new entrepreneurs, it can be really intimidating to jump into because you don’t know where to start or how to get involved.

An onramp to diversity

“Broadly, I’m passionate about building resilient places that are unique and draw people to come there,” Elege said. “It’s important to ensure that the broader community can share business ownership. If all the business owners look like me, that’s maybe not so inviting to everyone who doesn’t look like me.” For that reason, inclusivity informs how DGRI plans to fill out the downtown retail space, Eledge told GO HEARTSIDE. 

Arts Marketplace has been prioritizing diversity and inclusivity since it opened, Ketchum told GO HEARTSIDE. “Arts Marketplace’s mission is to kind of focus on people who have been undercapitalized in our city, and haven’t had as much investment poured into them, and help them get their start,” Ketchum told GO HEARTSIDE. “My dream is that the ownership of businesses in downtown Grand Rapids is more reflective of our population…I would love to walk out of Arts Marketplace, and next door is another retailer or small business—a local community member that I’m also going to see at the coffee shop.”

The training and resources provided by DGRI and Arts Marketplace through this new program will allow the two organizations to continue “cultivating and creating a space for creative, unique businesses that really understand how to operate in a downtown.”