Grand Valley to launch new innovation hub and co-working space

Grand Valley is opening a new co-working space in its business innovation center located in downtown Muskegon. This new space will help build and launch innovative businesses throughout the region.

The Muskegon Innovation Hub at Grand Valley, formerly the Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center, will provide all types of business support services for entrepreneurs, startups and growing businesses. The new co-working space, named CoLaunch, is specifically designed to create a community where entrepreneurs and startups can work in a collaborative environment as they build their businesses. CoLaunch will be available on a drop-in or month-to-month subscription basis and will provide a wide variety of amenities.

"With this new co-working space and making our business incubation efforts more broad to include more than just alternative energy, we're really hoping to attract people who are doing things that are new and different and helping them get off the ground successfully," said Kevin Ricco, director of the Muskegon Innovation Hub and CoLaunch.

Ricco said the Muskegon Innovation Hub is customer-service oriented and offers a highly personalized experience for each tenant. The Hub has experts available to help with product development, technology, product commercialization, entrepreneurship, business planning and modeling, and more. Tenants also have access to in-house expertise from the Michigan Small Business Development Center, as well as other business resource partners.

The Muskegon Innovation Hub will hold a community open house June 20 to showcase the Hub's capabilities and allow the public to explore the new CoLaunch space. The casual open house will run from 5-7 p.m. Refreshments and entertainment will be provided.

The Muskegon Innovation Hub also creates custom business development solutions for each individual client and provide programming and resources that match individual needs, an approach that isn't provided by all business incubators.

"By expanding the scope of our business development efforts, we think that the new Muskegon Innovation Hub will provide useful tools and expertise to entrepreneurs and innovators all across the region who are looking for custom business support," said Ricco.

For more information, visit gvsu.edu/mihub