GR Chamber of Commerce Policy Conference benefits the business class, regular people are on their own

I used to be be able to attend these conferences, but the GR Chamber of Commerce and the West MI Policy Forum gatherings are off limits to media that are critical of the Capitalist Class. I would have been able to attend, but only if I paid the $250 registration fee for a morning only policy conference.

Last week, the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce held their annual policy conference, with the usual suspects in business, along with politicians that they have bought. What follows is the line up of people who presented:

• Hannah Naltner, Senior Vice President of Organizational Strategy and General Counsel, RDV Corp. (DeVos-owned)
• Joshua Lunger, Vice President of Government Affairs, Grand Rapids Chamber
• David LaGrand, Mayor, City of Grand Rapids
• Mark Washington, City Manager, City of Grand Rapids
• Ben Greene, Chair of Board of Commissioners, Kent County
• Speaker Matt Hall, Michigan House of Representatives
• Brooke Oosterman, Executive Director, Housing Next
• Sam Cummings, Managing Partner, CWD
• Marc Eichenbaum, Former Special Advisor to the Mayor of Houston, Texas
• Rick Baker, President & CEO, Grand Rapids Chamber

All three politicians that spoke, Mayor LaGrand, County Commissioner Greene and State Representative Hall, have all been funded by the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce. In the 2024 election cycle, LaGrand received $2000 from the GR Chamber, along with plenty of money from other GR Chamber members. Kent County Commissioner Ben Greene received $3500 from the GR Chamber, along with hefty amounts from members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure. State Rep. Matt Hall hasn’t received as much from the GR Chamber of Commerce, but he has received $43,550 from the MI Chamber of Commerce during his career as State Representative.

Since I was unable to attend the policy conference, I am relying on what other news reported and from what the GR Chamber of Commerce posted on their social media. 

As was listed above, Grand Rapids Power Structure member Sam Cummings spoke during the Policy Conference, primarily to promote his conversion of the Fifth Third Bank building from office space to apartments. The building conversion that Cummings talked about was due to a state law change in 2023 amending the Brownfield Redevelopment Financing Act. Housing development activities are now eligible activities for brownfield capture, like the 111 Lyons building that is owned by Cummings. Essentially this means that there will public subsidies available to people like Cummings, who has a long history of benefiting from public funding, as GRIID has noted in a previous posting.

The conversion of the Fifth Third Bank building will result in 140 apartments, according to Cummings. Former Mayor Rosalynn Bliss praised this conversion and current Mayor David LaGrand said it would help make the downtown a “real, living neighborhood.” However, no where in the coverage of this building conversion did it talk about what the 140 apartments would cost. Considering where the building is and the fact that Cummings, Wierda and DeVos (CWD) owns the building, the cost will be affordable only to members of the professional and Capitalist classes. 

State Rep. Matt Hall also spoke at the Chamber’s Policy Conference, but he was not cited in any of the local news stories. Rep. Hall, you might recall, recently pushed a resolution that would threaten to block funding from the state if communities adopted Sanctuary policies in opposition to the Trump Administration’s threat of mass deportation. Too bad we don’t know for certain where the GR Chamber of Commerce stands on this matter, unlike their previous push to criminalize the unhoused in downtown Grand Rapids.

In the end, despite the claims from the GR Chamber of Commerce that they want to build a “thriving, prosperous West Michigan for all,” they continue to only represent the class they are part of, the Capitalist Class.