People milling about in front of DeVos Place before a Grand Rapids Symphony event; Kristen Boonstra and Mackenzie Muste dance to the music of the Kari Lynch Band outside The BOB; dining al fresco at Tre Cugini on Monroe Center. Opposite page: A late night party scene at 25 Kitchen+Bar.
to come here without that hook.” But that wasn’t always the case. By the 1970s, downtown Grand Rapids had become a bleak place with too many vacant buildings. The old department stores had closed; there were very few nice restaurants. “No one was downtown,” said Dick DeVos, president of the Windquest Group Inc. and son of Amway co-founder Rich DeVos. “You could roll up the streets at night.” When hometown hero Gerald R. Ford was defeated by Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election, the community wanted to welcome him home with a parade. “The Secret Service almost cancelled it,” said Peter Secchia, local business leader and former U.S. Ambassador to Italy. “We had so many closed buildings and vacant lofts in upper floors that they didn’t have enough security personnel to staff them all.” It was a turning point. City leaders, including the late Dick Gillett, then chairman and CEO of Old Kent
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