State board OKs $561M tax incentive to billionaire Amway families for 3 tower project: Mayor LaGrand celebrates this decision

The Michigan Strategic Fund Board approved $561 million in state tax incentives for the DeVos and Van Andel three tower project that hopes to break ground in the summer of 2026, according to a recent Crain’s Grand Rapids Business article.

The unanimous decision by the Michigan Strategic Fund Board should not surprise anyone who pays attention to this group, which is made up of a few government appointment officials, but mostly corporate representatives. In fact, there are two people who are based in Grand Rapids that have a direct connection to the DeVos and Van Andel families. One is Randy Thelen, President and CEO of the Right Place Inc., which has an Amway Corporation and Van Andel Institute representative on their Board of Directors. The other person is Dan Meyering, CEO of Trillium Investments, which not only just expanded their control over apartment complex ownership in West MI, plus he is also part of the West Michigan Policy Forum, which the DeVos and Van Andel families were instrumental in creating in 2009.

The other aspect of this story has to do with how Mayor LaGrand responded to the news. First, it must be pointed out that LaGrand attended the Michigan Strategic Fund Board meeting and spoke during public comment. According to the Crain’s article, LaGrand stated, the 700 housing units proposed in the project will “achieve an objective that’s near and dear to my heart, which is to get people living in our downtown core.”

What makes this all the more absurd and infuriating is that the development will include 76 condos – which will no doubt only be affordable to those with deep pockets and a 130-room hotel, with rates that start at $400 a night. But wait, it gets even more disgusting. There will be 595 market-rate apartments that will cost the following:

For a studio apartment, that would be $2,643 per month, $2,833 for a one-bedroom, and $3,401 for a two-bedroom.

When the Mayor says that he wants people to live in downtown Grand Rapids, he left out the fact that the three towers project will be specifically be for members of the professional class, as they are the only ones likely to afford the cost of the apartments and the condos that will be built. This is also not surprising, since Grand Rapids officials have been consistently pushing to attract “talent”, meaning people who will demand higher salaries and people who will be more likely to embrace a more normalized,  business as usual way of seeing the world.

The billionaire DeVos and Van Andel families certainly want to attract these kinds of people, people who celebrate capitalism and don’t want to be bothered by the rabble masses who are more prone to dissent and challenge the increasing power and influence of the local oligarchy that continues to use public money to expand their wealth. Shame on Mayor LaGrand for endorsing this billionaire theft of public funds!