Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States

🇺🇸 Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city ranks as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the central city of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area.

Situated along the Grand River approximately 25 miles (40 km) east of Lake Michigan, it is the economic and cultural hub of West Michigan, as well as one of the fastest-growing cities in the Midwest. A historic furniture manufacturing centre, Grand Rapids is home to five of the world's leading office furniture companies and is nicknamed "Furniture City". Other nicknames include "River City" and more recently, "Beer City" (the latter given by USA Today and adopted by the city as a brand). The city and surrounding communities are economically diverse, based in the health care, information technology, automotive, aviation, and consumer goods manufacturing industries, among others.

Grand Rapids was the childhood home of U.S. President Gerald Ford, who is buried with his wife Betty on the grounds of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in the city. The city's Gerald R. Ford International Airport and Gerald R. Ford Freeway are named after him.

Economy Headquartered in Grand Rapids, Spectrum Health is West Michigan's largest employer, with 25,600 staff and 1,700 physicians in 2017. Spectrum Health's Meijer Heart Center, Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion, and Butterworth Hospital, a level I trauma centre, are on the Grand Rapids Medical Mile, which has world-class facilities that focus on the health sciences. They include the Van Andel Research Institute, Grand Valley State University's Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences, and the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine medical school's Secchia Center, along with Ferris State University's College of Pharmacy. Nearly a billion dollars has been invested in the Spectrum Health Cancer Pavilion, the Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Children's Hospital, and the expansion to the Van Andel Institute. These facilities have attracted many health science businesses to the area.

Grand Rapids has long been a centre manufacturing, dating back to its original roots in furniture manufacturing. Office furniture manufacturers such as American Seating, Steelcase (and its subsidiaries Coalesse and Turnstone), Haworth, and Herman Miller are based in and around the Grand Rapids area. In 1881, the Furniture Manufacturers Association (FMA) was organized in Grand Rapids; making it the country's first furniture manufacturing advocacy group. The Kindel Furniture Company and the Hekman Furniture Company have been designing and manufacturing furniture in Grand Rapids since 1912 and 1922 respectively.

The Grand Rapids area is also known for its automobile and aviation manufacturing industries, with GE Aviation Systems having a location in the city.

The Grand Rapids area is home to a number of well-known companies including Alticor/Amway (a multi-level marketing company), Acrisure (the fastest-growing insurance brokerage in industry history), Bissell (a privately owned vacuum cleaner and floor care product manufacturer), Highlight Industries (an industry leader in stretch wrap equipment), SpartanNash (a food distributor and grocery store chain), Foremost Insurance Company (a speciality lines insurance company), Meijer (a regional super-center chain), GE Aviation (formerly Smiths Industries, an aerospace products company), Wolverine World Wide (a designer and manufacturer of shoes, boots and clothing), Universal Forest Products (a building materials company), and Schuler Books & Music, one of the country's largest independent bookstores.

The city is known as a centre of Christian publishing, home to Zondervan, Baker Books, Kregel Publications, Eerdmans Publishing and Our Daily Bread Ministries.

The city and its surrounding region house a successful food processing and agribusiness industry, which has experienced a 10-year job growth rate of 45% from 2009-2019. With Michigan being the second most agriculturally diverse state in the nation, the Greater Grand Rapids region is well-known for its fruit production. Due to its proximity to Lake Michigan, the climate is considered especially prime for apple, peach, and blueberry farming. Greater Grand Rapids produces 1/3 of Michigan's total agricultural sales.

In 2010 Grand Rapids was named the "most sustainable midsize city in the U.S". by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Civic Leadership Center and Siemens Corp. Grand Rapids was chosen over finalist cities Davenport, Iowa and Hoover, Alabama. The city has also been named in several other notable rankings since, including: • No.1 Cities with the Most Manufacturing Jobs - Grand Rapids/Kentwood (Smartest Dollar, 2020) • No.1 Mid-Sized Metro for Economic Growth Potential - Grand Rapids (Business Facilities, 2019) • No. 1 Top Metro for Sustainable Development - Grand Rapids, (Site Selection Magazine, 2019) • Top 20 Cities for 7-Year Job Growth - Grand Rapids (Reuters, 2019)

Top Employers in Grand Rapids Metro include: Spectrum Health; Meijer; Mercy Health; Gentex; Gordon Food Service; Amway Corporation; Herman Miller; Perrigo Company; Steelcase Inc.; Farmers Insurance Group; Grand Valley State University; Lacks Enterprises; Grand Rapids Public Schools; Arconic; Hope Network; Metro Health Hospital; Roskam Baking Co.; Fifth Third Bank; Haworth; SpartanNash.