The West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is building a new headquarter at 1101 Godfrey Avenue SW. That’s where the chamber is investing $9.5 million converting an old, 17,000-square-foot industrial building into its new HQ.
“We don’t have strong infrastructures of color in West Michigan led by people of color, for people of color.”
Guillermo Cisneros is President and CEO of the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce he tells us the infrastructure supports economic advancement of Latino owned businesses. Particularly, business and talent development.
“For our business development piece, we bring business allocation, tools, connections, and we want to surround our Latino businesses with all of the resources that they need, in their own language, to be able for them to thrive.”
The new chamber headquarters will also be a launching pad for talent to thrive.
“In 2018, we had over 6,000 Latino college students in the local area colleges that graduated from college, and they don’t find employment. There’s a disconnect between the employers and these Latino graduates. So, we want to solve these problems through putting relevant programming in place.”
Scaling up programs creating a pipeline connecting graduates with area employers. The goal is to open the new headquarters housing top-notch technology and space for business assistance and events by the end of 2024.