MCL is a journalistic-lifestyle blog. Follow us & get a 1st hand look into what it's like to live, work and raise a family in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
OUR STORY
We are your typical Midwestern couple living and working in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This is where we met, married and are raising our family. In 2014 we moved from our urban loft in the heart of the city into our first home just east of downtown. We’re now settled into our forever home in the Ottawa Hills Neighborhood which is, in our very bias opinion, the best hood in GR.
The community here is top notch which is a big reason why we chose to raise our family here. We have two energetic kids: Natalie (age 8) and Thomas (age 6).
We are very social, are big fans of our great state of Michigan and we love travel, sports, games and really anything you might consider competitive. Mid City Love is about us, our city, and our lives within.
OUR CITY
About 25 miles east of Lake Michigan sits the mid sized city of Grand Rapids, Michigan. With a metropolitan population of approximately 750,000 it’s Michigan’s second largest city. GR is known as Beer City USA and is the home of the worlds largest publicly juried art competition, ArtPrize – the reason Nichole moved to Grand Rapids. Urban GR is a mix of young professionals affiliated with national and international corporations all headquartered here (Steelcase, Amway, Meijer - just to name a few), students (mostly GVSU), as well as creatives and seasoned business professionals. They call GR family friendly - in 2012 it was named the number one place in America to raise a family and has appeared on nearly every top 10 list since. It's chalked full of unique events, culture, clean streets, friendly people, tasty menus, and a vigorously growing urban living community. We love it here.
ABOUT NICHOLE
Nichole is a social instigator and a huge advocate for the city of Grand Rapids. With a past in multimedia and communications, she leads the Marketing Team at Mercantile Bank as their CMO. In previous roles, Nichole joined the teams at Steelcase and before that at Baas Creative where she focused on digital marketing and video production. She also worked at Pomegranate Studios where she added projects like Start Garden, ArtPrize and 5×5 Night to her resume. Prior to her move to Grand Rapids, Nichole lived on the East side of the state and worked for the Detroit Pistons in multimedia and promotions. She holds a BA in Communications from Western Michigan University and was named Top 40 Under 40 Business Leaders in Grand Rapids in 2012.
Nichole has a Type A personality and seldom sits still. She is also the Secretary of the Board of Directors for Grace’s Table, an Elite ‘Yelper’ five years running and recently achieved one of her life long dreams of owning a hot tub.
ABOUT JEFF
Jeff is a Grand Rapids native. He grew up just west of downtown in Grandville and attended college at Grand Valley State University where he acquired his masters in Business Administration and Management. After graduation Jeff joined the Peace Corps for nearly three years where he worked as a Small Enterprise Director in Vanuatu - a small chain of islands off the coast of Australia. In 2011 he returned home and was hired as the Director of Business Development at Pro Legal Systems. In 2015 he became partner. After 8.5 years of leading at Pro Legal Jeff was ready for the next chapter in his career, stepped down as Director and sold his shares in the company. Jeff now leads as the President of DJs Landscape Management.
Jeff spends much of his free time playing golf - his first love. He's a huge fan U of M sports, playing bartender at home and sleeping in on weekends - unless of course he has a tee time.
