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Kalamazoo and People’s Food Co-Op partner on $1.7 million expansion

People's Food Co-Op, a 40-year-old natural grocery business currently at 436 S. Burdick St. in Kalamazoo, is working with the city's Brownfield Redevelopment Authority to relocate and expand into a block-long, mostly food-business development at 507 Harrison Street in the River's Edge district.People's Food Co-Op will build a larger 6,000-square-foot building and hire at least six part-time employees. The new store would be located near MacKenzie's Bakery and One Way Products, two other brownfield relocation and redevelopment projects meant to make the most of land that was contaminated by a paper factory while also bringing cohesiveness to similar businesses.The new facility will increase People's Food Co-Op by more than four times its current size and will make room for a larger prepared foods section, with seating, as well as the addition of a fresh meat section and expanded local and organic produce, grocery, bulk foods, frozen, and refrigerated items.By expanding its storefront, the Co-Op expects to increase the amount it purchases from local farms and processors by more the $100,000 it spent in 2009 and to expand on existing programs, including the relocation of the 100-Mile Farmers Market to the new site. In addition, the project will include 1,400 square feet of space to be leased to Fair Food Matters' Can-Do Kitchen, a food business incubator which will expand their support of local entrepreneurs in the creation of unique products for resale.People's Food Co-Op is a community-owned business with over 750 individuals and families owning a shares and receiving discounts and rebates as a return on their investment.People's Co-op hopes to raise at least $450,000 in loans and equity from owner-members."We are so excited to be able to offer a way for the community to invest in good food, in local farming, and in our own economic success" says Chris Dilley, General Manager of People's Food Co-Op.Writer: Kim North ShineSource: City of Kalamazoo, People's Food Co-Op

Benton Harbor Arts District starts to jump

About 75 people packed the Livery Thursday (March 4) for a town hall-style session to get ideas on rejuvenating the Benton Harbor Arts District, reports the Herald-Palladium. The event was hosted by New Territory Arts Association Executive Director Julie Katz and board President Herb Caldwell. The pair spent about two hours taking suggestions about things that people want to see happening in the Arts District.Excerpt:"We're bringing Art Hop back, because we've heard from the community, 'bring Art Hop back' - so I'll need a bus to get around to some of the locations," Katz said.Other suggestions focused on needs that are being overlooked, and finding spaces for them.Krasl Art Center Education Director Julia Gourley asked what could be done to house digital art and media, which is something that "I have people asking me every day," she said.To find out more suggestions read the whole story about revitalizing the Arts District.Source: Herald-Palladium Southwest Michigan

Downtown event center debate is on

A culinary school, urban farms, spaces for artists, retailers andentertainers could be neighborhood spinoffs of an event center plannedfor downtown Kalamazoo, reports the Kalamazoo Gazette.Kalamazoo County Commissioners must decide whether to proceed with theproject by asking voters whether they can agree to a 1 percent tax onfood and drink at restaurants and bars, and an increase in the hoteltax from 5 to 6 percent to fund construction of a 6,800-seat, $81million arena. The county has until May 25 to make a decision onwhether to place the question on the August ballot. Commissioners began weighing their options after a committee recommended proceeding with the event center.Excerpt: The proposed downtown Kalamazoo arena is feasible because ofconservative cost estimates, said Bob Beam, the retired vice president ofbusiness and finance at Western Michigan University.The committee took a conservative approach, estimating the restauranttax would generate about $4 million a year initially and grow by 1.75percent a year, Beam said."We think we have been careful in our revenue estimates," he said. To find out more, read the whole story on the downtown arena proposal.Source: Kalamazoo Gazette

Job retraining program in national spotlight

Job retraining programs in Benton Harbor and other parts of Southwest Michigan were the focus of a Fox News story on successes from the No Worker Left Behind Act, Fox News repoorts. The state and federal funding that comes from NWLB has put put new nurses, hotel managers and a variety of other occupations back into the workforce since it began retraining displaced workers in 2007.Excerpt from Lake Michigan College spokesperson: "Seventy-two percent of people in programs like this one have new jobs."To see the full story visit Fox News.  Source: Fox News

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