August 14, 2026: The second Friday of the month found Lansing Rotarians gathering for burgers and baked beans at LCC, and oh, we had both brownies AND lemon bars for dessert! All were welcomed by Linda Lynch before digging in and enjoying conversation around their tables.
President Susan Angel called the meeting to order, we all recited the 4-Way Test, and Ben Bakken delivered a reflection on manifesting good things by being good cheerleaders. While Ben takes being a cheerleader for the Lansing region seriously, he acknowledged our speaker, Bob Trezise, as the area’s greatest cheerleader.
Hari Kern played God Bless America on the piano as Rotarians sang along.
Chris Swope, the keeper of the blue box microphone, had to wait until our speaker’s Q&A to pass the box around as we had no visitors or guests. My apologies if I somehow missed anyone who was visiting!
Rotarians warmly welcomed Rebecca Bahar-Cook back to Rotary---she is healthy and well!
Lisa Smith introduced our special musician, Mike Eyia. Mike was born in Cuba and first lived at St. Vincent’s Home upon arriving in Lansing. In the 1970’s, he was inspired to create Orquesta Ritmo, a 5-piece band, to introduce and entertain the American public in the electrifying genre of Latin music. In the mid 80’s Orquesta Ritmo became the 10-piece group that currently performs. The Band has opened for several national and international acts, including such artists as Salsa great Oscar D’Leon, recording artists Los Lobos, The Bangles, Pete Escovído, and Wycliffe Gordon among others. At our meeting, Mike performed solo and entertained us with a great samba (click to listen to Mike’s samba performance) and the lovely ballad, ¿Cómo fue? (click to listen, but this recording isn’t Mike).
Volunteer opportunities were announced:
- Greater Lansing Food Bank on Tuesday, September 22, from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. located at 5600 Food Ct., Bath Township. Please let Jason Brunette know if you can help: Jason.Brunette@martincommercial.com
- The Annual Big Red Ball on Saturday, November 21, needs volunteers to help with the event. Shifts include event setup 2:30-5:30 pm, various shifts during the event from 5:30-10:00 pm, and event tear-down and clean-up from 9:30-11:30 pm. More information can be found here: https://signup.com/go/GpgGkpd.
Susan also asked if anyone had any other volunteer opportunities. Please let her know, and she’ll help put together a group.
Julie Pingston, our Chair of the Day and another great cheerleader for the Lansing area, introduced our speaker Bob Trezise.
Bob has been President and CEO of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP) since November 2011. LEAP is a private/public 501(c)6 representing Metro Lansing (Ingham, Eaton and Clinton counties). In 2021, LEAP was named one of the nation’s Top 20 economic development organizations by Site Selection magazine. Since Bob’s tenure, LEAP projects totaling more than $7.3 billion and ranging from Fortune 500 corporate headquarters and manufacturing plants to new high-tech firms have helped the private sector create over 10,800 direct jobs. During the pandemic, LEAP administered over $21 million in small business grants for the Lansing region.
Prior to LEAP, Bob served as President and CEO of the Lansing Economic Development Corporation (LEDC). Bob re-organized the LEDC into a dynamic organization, resulting in 50-year historic economic development achievements for the city and helping the private sector create over 7,000 jobs, rehab scores of abandoned buildings including the long vacant Power Station plant downtown into the national corporate headquarters for Accident Fund, all totaling over $2 billion in private investment in the city.
Bob grew up in the Lansing area and has been involved in economic development for 35 years. According to Bob, regionalism can be very difficult as municipal, county, and state leaders all have different views and perspectives; however, he stated that now is the time for the Lansing area to drive smart growth as regional leaders have never been better aligned. Working together, the MI Economic Development Corporation, MSU, LCC, Capital Area Michigan Works!, Lansing Regional Chamber, and others have helped to bring in new businesses to Lansing from outside the area, including foreign countries, to broaden our tax base.
Notable recent projects include:
- Ionetix
- Matrix Engineering
- Markdom
- TechSmith
- Gestamp
- LG Energy Solutions
- ATESTO
- Niowave
The massive 2.8 million-square-foot LG Energy Solution battery plant project in Delta Township stands as the region's and the state’s single largest active industrial construction project. Read about their $4.3B contract with Tesla here. Bob emphasized that both brick and mortar are needed to support this growth, with “brick” representing businesses such as those listed above and “mortar” representing the “glue” that attracts people to the area and encourages them to stay such as affordable housing, childcare, public transportation, parks, arts, etc. LEAP’s initiatives such as the Capital Area Child Care Coalition and investments including $500,000 in 45 art installations throughout the Lansing region and another $500,000 in the DeWitt Farmers Market, are examples of LEAP’s “mortar” work.
Even with these great initiatives and investments, as well as “gems” unique to Lansing such as being the state’s capital, home to MSU and MSU’s FRIB, headquarters for multiple insurance companies, and much more, we (both Lansing and Michigan) aren’t seeing the growth that others with fewer of our gems have. In the last 25 years, Michigan has plummeted from the top 10 to the bottom 5 in rankings for population growth and median income. According to Bob, other states have better weather/fewer cloudy days and huge incentive and promotional programs while Michigan’s “toolbox” has been obliterated by our bi-partisan legislature. (Seen a Pure Michigan ad lately? Nope!)
Michigan’s population growth is expected to decline by 2% between now and 2050. And while Lansing’s population is expected to grow 5.8% and Grand Rapids by 14% during that time, cities such as Greenville, SC and Madison, WI are expected to grow at far greater rates, 30% and 50% respectively. In addition, Lansing is expected to add 30,000 seniors and lose 10,000 young workers and 14,000 school-age children---not a good prescription for keeping our area vibrant and strong.
Current trends contributing to this situation are:
- State revenue for municipalities and higher education is declining.
- Demand for local government services is growing while the funding is shrinking.
- Aging infrastructure is holding back development and new expansion is costly.
- Pressure is building for higher taxes and new millages just to maintain current services.
- An anti-growth sentiment is becoming a common refrain (Banana-ism: “Build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything”).
- Revenue deficits are blamed on incentives and TIFs; development is seen as a cost, not a gain.
Bob warned that the Lansing area is in a death cycle – a cycle in which growth and quality of place wanes, propelling loss among the young. There are three possible paths forward…
- Cut services from existing public budgets: This lowers the quality of life making the area less attractive to young people and businesses. When some leave, further budget cuts are needed.
- Raise taxes and millages: This may only maintain current service levels which will push people and business away, creating a need to raise more taxes from remaining residents.
- Pursue economic development: Well-designed economic incentives will attract more businesses, expand the tax base, and allow for higher and better services without raising taxes so that young people and businesses stay and grow. Clearly, pursuing economic development is the vital path forward, and Bob shared that people “have their heads in the sand” about the need to grow which is contributing to our death spiral. Alex Hernandez shared his similar concern based on his experience while canvassing Delta Township. He met many people who don’t want any more growth and have a “not in my backyard” attitude which is something he hasn’t encountered in the past.
During Q&A…
- Chris Holman made the point that Michigan’s cloudy weather has always existed, and yet the state did much better when initiatives such as the Pure Michigan ad campaign were funded underscoring the need to resurrect and invest in these types of initiatives.
- Lisa Smith commented on the negative impact the State of Michigan has had on Lansing by not requiring its workers to return to the office and allowing them to continue working remotely. This has been detrimental to downtown businesses and has also impeded the State’s responsiveness and ability to get work done efficiently.
Next week: Melissa Nay from Choose Lansing will speak on “The Importance Of Tourism In Our Region”.
President Susan adjourned the meeting at 1:30 p.m.
Email for Phyllis Riley: phyllisriley@msn.com