Imagine a world where the dream of owning a home, once a cornerstone of the American Dream, is slipping away. Today, many families find themselves caught in a cycle where the opportunity to build wealth for future generations is disappearing right before our eyes. It's a troubling trend that begs the question: Are we making the American Dream impossible for the next generation?
Today’s guest on The Bottom-Up Revolution podcast is Jenifer Acosta, a community revitalizer and incremental developer working in the Tri-Cities region of Michigan, near the shores of Lake Huron. Her focus is on adaptive reuse projects—taking historic structures like old bank and newspaper buildings and turning them into updated housing and commercial spaces. She finds that sweet spot between preserving history while also modernizing and allowing these old buildings to take on new life so they can last another hundred years, even as the needs of a community change.
William Zank has a conversation with Jenifer Acosta, founder and President of Jenifer Acosta Development. Building dynamic communities and creating a sense of place are just two of Jen’s favorite things. Combine them and add a dash of determination, and you have one of the region’s most sought-after “matchmakers” in real estate.
Downtown Restaurant Investments, Jenifer Acosta Development and Mission Partners are launching a new beer garden and food truck park called Drift Shoreside Beer Garden located at 1019 N. Water St. in Bay City.
You know your downtown is hiding them everywhere. No need to be ashamed. Mine is too. It can be hard enough to get an owner to make the windows look simply presentable from the street view and here I am asking you to do more.
It’s time to get serious about the levels above your Main Street.
BAY CITY, MI -- Working at home one day, Jenifer Acosta saw her phone light up. She answered the call, hears the good news and is rushed with excitement. Acosta ran to her mother who was watching her children while she was working to tell her the news she just received.
Acosta and her company, Jenifer Acosta Development, had just won an award for preserving a historic building in Bay City.
The Times Lofts is being honored for its outstanding rehab work and for honoring Michigan's heritage.
The former home of the Bay City Times is now home to thirty one luxury apartments.
The Times Lofts won the tax credit award from The Michigan Historic Preservation Network for effective use of federal and local tax credits to restore historical buildings.
I am invested in Bay City.
But that investment goes far beyond the money and jobs accompanying my development of The Times Lofts and The Legacy in downtown Bay City.
I am also invested as a staunch advocate for Bay City, a diehard volunteer who wants to build upon a solid base of arts and culture to encourage further development in the coming years.
Redeveloping the 127-year-old Crapo Building located in the heart of downtown Bay City, Mich., began with a business plan one year ago.
Every good business plan should clearly outline the key stakeholders needed to bring a project to fruition. That’s because unless you’re building something entirely at your own risk using personal cash or credit, there’ll be other stakeholders in the mix: local government, banks, investment partners and end users, just to name a few.
I have no interest in growing a huge development firm.
This was my aha moment at the end of 2016. I came to the realization that if built a development firm, I would take on more projects (yay!), more risk (nay), and, if successful, would spend more time managing other people’s work rather than doing the work myself.
With a general contractor and award-winning architect secured, a historic bank building in the heart of downtown Bay City is nearly ready for a grandiose redevelopment.
Last month, Jenifer Acosta, the developer looking to transform the 125-year-old Crapo building at Center and Washington avenues into a multi-use structure with residential apartment rentals and commercial space, hired Saginaw-based Spence Brothers as the project's general manager. Quinn Evans Architecture, the same firm that designed renovations to Bay City Hall following a 2010 fire, was also hired for the redevelopment project...
An overflow of people crammed into its chic lobby, anxiously waiting to see the rebirth of an iconic Bay City building where news was broken, headlines were made and papers rolled off a press that rattled an entire city block.
After 106 years, the old Bay City Times building at the corner of Fifth and Adams streets in downtown Bay City is officially something new. Following a massive renovation project to convert the former newspaper building into luxury apartment rentals, appropriately called The Times Lofts, a ribbon was cut and glasses were raised to celebrate a new jewel in the city...
Bay City is changing and 2016 was a pivotal year filled with new businesses and festivals, multi-million dollar redevelopment projects and infrastructure improvements that community leaders hope lead to a better quality of life and attract more visitors.
The Uptown Bay City development dominated headlines in 2014 and 2015. In 2016, it was all about downtown Bay City.
Here's what shaped the city's ongoing renaissance this past year...
