“My wife and I acquired this building in 2023. It checked off so many boxes for us in what we wanted in a space.”
Dallas Lenear is co-owner of Genesis Suites, a community hub in the 1300 block of Alger Street Southeast on Grand Rapids’ southeast side. He says when he and his wife bought the 72-year-old building three years ago, it already had event space and offices for community outreach organizations.
“The only thing that was missing, from our standpoint, was accessibility. The building was top notch, in terms of quality of construction, but it was built a long time ago, and so we wanted to add an elevator.”
Partnering with tenant the Black Impact Collaborative, the two entities installed a new elevator, making the hub accessible to community members of all abilities. A grant awarded to BIC also financed accessible restrooms and expanded on the building’s community gathering capabilities.
“That was the nature of the grant. It was a community center grant, and so it allowed us to do the structural changes, but that was not an end of its own: that opened the door for us to be able to do more community center activities.”
Genesis Suites is home to over six different community organizations.
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