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Grand Action Committee founders and Co-Chairs retiring roles

Downtown Grand Rapids
Rachel Kramer | CC BY 2.0
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Wikimedia.org

The Grand Rapids organization responsible for the development of Van Andel Arena, DeVos Place Convention Center, Downtown Market and the renovation and expansion of the Civic Theatre’s Meijer Majestic Theatre, just to name a few, is putting its mission on hold.

Grand Action Committee Co-Chairs John Canepa, Dick DeVos and David Frey are retiring their roles at the end of the year. Since the early 1990s the trio has lead the charge conducting feasibility studies, private fundraising, public funding, designing and constructing a number of iconic projects. Include the improvements to DeVos Performance Hall and establishing Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine’s Secchia Center and the Grand Action Committee secured $420 million in investments with $130 million in private philanthropy.

Dick DeVos explains, “We are not shutting off the engine, but rather keeping it in idle in case the role Grand Action played in the past is needed again in the future.”

Patrick joined WGVU Public Media in December, 2008 after eight years of investigative reporting at Grand Rapids' WOOD-TV8 and three years at WYTV News Channel 33 in Youngstown, Ohio. As News and Public Affairs Director, Patrick manages our daily radio news operation and public interest television programming. An award-winning reporter, Patrick has won multiple Michigan Associated Press Best Reporter/Anchor awards and is a three-time Academy of Television Arts & Sciences EMMY Award winner with 14 nominations.