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Activist inspires downtown grocery effort

July 29, 2007
By Dave Alexander
Muskegon Chronicle

A group of Muskegon downtown neighborhood promoters are searching for the local version of Mattie Jordan-Woods, the head of the Kalamazoo Northside Association for Community Development, worked tirelessly to bring a full-service grocery store

to her urban neighborhood.

The Muskegon Community Development Alliance Inc. brought Jordan-Woods to Muskegon recently to help kick-start the years-long effort to locate a grocery store in the downtown Muskegon area.

“She is so enthusiastic ... she’s been a community organizer for 20 years,” said Faye Redmond, a Sheldon Park Neighborhood activist in Muskegon and a semi-retired attorney leading the Muskegon Community Development Alliance board.

Jordan-Woods worked three straight years to put together the coalition of community support, financial investors and a grocery store operator that resulted in the northside Kalamazoo Felpausch Food Center. It opened in 2003 and now is a part of the Spartan Stores Inc. grocery operation.

“A grocery store is a social place ... it’s where people meet each other,” Jordan-Woods told the Muskegon group. “But remember that this is an economic development tool that will help create jobs.”

Jordan-Woods described a predominately African-American neighborhood along Park Street and the U.S. 131 business route in Kalamazoo that is the north entrance to the central business district. In 1995, when her community organization began looking at the issue, there were no grocery stores in the downtown area. Residents had to travel to Meijer or D&W Food Stores in the suburbs.

The Kalamazoo neighborhood group approached grocery operators only to be told that the Northside neighborhood was too poor, had too much crime and not enough traffic, she said.

It took a neighborhood-funded market analysis from Dakota Worldwide Inc. to understand the urban market and quantify the economic power of the local residents, Jordan-Woods said.

“I have always believed that you don’t have to move out of a black community to live a good life,” the African-American neighborhood leader said.

The Kalamazoo neighborhood of 6,100 residents and 1,700 households was able to cobble together a $3.7 million funding package. The Michigan Economic Development Corp. came through with a $1 million loan — in the form of an 18-year mortgage at a below-market 3 percent interest rate.

Other support came from the city of Kalamazoo, the Irving S. Gilmore Corp., the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, Fifth Third Bank and National City Bank, along with the contributions of neighborhood residents.

Jordan-Woods told the Muskegon group to remain flexible as a business plan evolves. Over the three years of fundraising, the financial plan changed several times before it was formalized, she said.

By late 2003, the neighborhood group was able to build a 29,000-square-foot commercial building that houses the Felpausch store, a beauty supply retail shop, a banquet room and a nonprofit health agency.

The first phase of the neighborhood development has created 30 permanent jobs, Jordan-Woods said.

With the risk of the real estate development being shouldered by the neighborhood group, Felpausch was willing to sign a 10-year contract to lease the space. The grocery chain put a $1 million inventory into the new store that has a deli along with fresh produce and meats, she said.

The Felpausch-led development has attracted a Family Dollar and a Little Caesars pizza outlet in the neighborhood. The neighborhood group now is looking at housing, youth center and urban farming projects.

Muskegon Community Development Alliance leaders were given plenty to think about.

“It is very unfortunate there is no place in downtown Muskegon to buy fresh produce or meat,” Redmond said. “The majority of the people in the city are limited to Walgreen’s or party stores. That’s very sad. If Montague can have a downtown grocery store, why not Muskegon?”

Muskegon Main Street Manager Dan Rinsema-Sybenga said Muskegon needs to assemble a development team from the downtown neighborhoods, local business community and city government. Then Rinsema-Sybenga suggested a marketing study from a group that understands urban markets.

“We have to determine how serious we are in wanting to pursue this,” Rinsema-Sybenga said. “It’s not going to happen on the power of natural market forces.”

Redmond said the alliance is ready to push ahead.

“I think it’s worth the effort to keep trying,” she said. “We have to get more organized and find the willing (grocery) operator. We need community support.”