How Beer Helps Drive Grand Rapids’ Success
In honor of Grand Rapids Beer Month, JLL released a specialty report, “What Beer Can Do for Your Town,” to tell Grand Rapids’ success story in the beer industry
GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN, Feb 19, 2018 — In honor of Grand Rapids Beer Month, JLL released a specialty report, “What Beer Can Do for Your Town,” to tell Grand Rapids’ success story in the beer industry.
As a top five pint producer in the United States, Grand Rapids is home to a lot of breweries. But, the concentration of breweries and gastropubs doesn’t just mean endless happy hour. Rather, they’re spurring economic development and job creation. We’ll cheers to that.
The report highlights how the beer industry boosts tourism in the Grand Rapids (think: beer-museums, festivals, classes and more), bringing in more than 42,000 visitors and $7.05 million each year.
Currently, there are 38 craft breweries in Grand Rapids but this number keeps growing. This trend, paired with the expensive barriers to entry (breweries require at least $750,000 of invested capital in machinery and industrial space to operate), it is evident that funding is still readily available in the area.
When it comes to occupying space, Grand Rapids braumeisters are getting crafty through adaptive-reuse projects. Underutilized spaces such as dry cleaners and auto garages offer cheaper rents and low build-out costs. Brewery occupancy is more saturated on the outskirts of town, where rents run nearly $6.63 per square foot lower than the median retail.
For a copy of the full report, please visit JLL's Craft Beer Guidebook to Real Estate.
About JLL
JLL (NYSE: JLL) is a leading professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management. Our vision is to reimagine the world of real estate, creating rewarding opportunities and amazing spaces where people can achieve their ambitions. In doing so, we will build a better tomorrow for our clients, our people and our communities. JLL is a Fortune 500 company with annual revenue of $16.3 billion, operations in over 80 countries and a global workforce of over 90,000 as of December 31, 2018. JLL is the brand name, and a registered trademark, of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. For further information, visit jll.com.