Acosta Speaks To Rotary About Downtown Buildings
November 8, 2016
By: Stephen Kent
Jennifer Acosta
Jennifer Acosta, well know in Bay City for her work on the old Crapo Building and the Bay City Times builds, spoke to Rotary about her
Neighborhood Development Co..
Acosta, currently living in Midland, has strong Bay City roots and a love for the city. That was not always the case. After graduating from Garber High School in 2002, she wanted nothing so much as to get out of the area. She earned a bachelor at Southern Illinois University, returned home for a while, then went to University of Miami for her masters.
Specializing in sustainable development, Acosta's studies lead to work with large international firms. Internships and jobs gave her a perspective on development that served her well. She later earned an accreditation in neighborhood development and is current one of three such people in the state of Michigan. She went on to specialize in affordable housing issues.
She eventually ended up in the family business and traveled the country doing business development for her father's health care company. Which bring the story home. Recently Acosta started her own development firm. "I wanted to take my approach and take what I know about community and environmental economics and apply it right her in my home town."
The "Triple Bottom Line" approach, also called "People, Planet, Profit". With buildings as the largest contributing factor to greenhouse gasses, the planet part is obvious. Buildings are connected to people as living and working places. The profit also represents the risk in the Real Estate and building sector.
Acosta then talked about three of her current projects. The Pavilion in Wenonah park is a key focus for a family oriented project in downtown. She talked about the potential of an ice skating facility among other features.
The most visible project is saving the landmark Crapo Building in the heart of downtown. Long the home of Chemical Bank in Bay City, the architecture of the historic building has been covered for years by a facade of aluminum panels. Part of those have been removed to show what is underneath and allow the designation as a historic building. Eventual restoration will bring the building back to a multi-use facility.
The third project is the conversion of the old Bay City Times building to a mixed use facility with residences and businesses.
Acosta and her company "The Neighborhood Development Co." has great plans for Bay City. While projects like the Pavilion have started a lively dialog with the public. The building restoration projects seem to have everyone's support.
For more information visit
www.citycenterliving.org
CLUB NEWS and ANNOUNCEMENTS
The club again met in the grill area of the Doubletree. The board met for their monthly meeting prior to the regular meeting. Besides the regular reports, two proposed members were approved by the board.
Lee Newton reported on the World Polio Day events last week. Our club raises some $2,300 and the Morning Club raised $1,400. Despite the lower number, the per-member amount gave the "win" to the Morning group in the informal contest. But the real winner is the Polio effort with $3,700 raised.
Andrea and Matt Felan updated the club on the success of Vocational Day last week, which hosted over 160 students.
The "Little Library" resulted in construction of four libraries by the Carlton High School. Small enough to be carried into the meeting, the libraries follow plans provided for the project and had a ten inch Rotary Wheel engraved on both ends. Four participating clubs will receive libraries for their communities.
The Philippines book collections are well underway. We have one box filled and another in progress. The deadline is March and the boxes will be shipped in May.
Andrea reported that an honorary Paul Harris Fellowship will be presented to Avram Golden at the District Gala.
Current and past
DISTRICT DISPATCH newsletters are available on the District site shown in the LINKS section below.
DATES TO REMEMBER
June 10-14, 2017 Rotary International Convention - Atlanta, Georgia, USA
www.RotaryConvention2017.org
OR
www.RIConvention.org
Dee Dee Wacksman, District Chair
Upcoming Programs
(See the official schedule at
RotaryBayCity.org )
Nov 15, 2016
Randy Ettema, Rotary's district Water & Sanitation Committee chair, has made several trips to the Dominican Republic including one at the beginning of November 2016. Clubs in our district have made a strong effort to impact several communities in the DR with improved water and sanitation infrastructure. Randy will tell us what he learned on his most recent trip.
Nov 22, 2016
Lynne Greathouse will speak about the
Bay City All Saints Robotic Team's participation in the First Robotics competition.
Nov 29, 2016
Misty Janks, YWCA Executive Director, will discuss the 125th birthday of the YWCA and the events surrounding the anniversary.
Rotary is an intimate affiliation of carefully selected business and professional people,
having as its objective the promotion of high ethical standards in private, commercial
and civic life, and dedicated to the ideal that the basis of all worthy endeavor is unselfish service.
Current and past
DISTRICT DISPATCH newsletters are available on the District site shown in the LINKS section below.
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