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| Q: Your title is changing. |
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| A: I'm going to move from the Chairman of Bank One, West Michigan to Advisor to the current staff of Bank One, West Michigan. But the legacy is the Frey family in the Union Bank and a three generation progression, merging in the mid 1980's with the National Bank of Detroit, NBD Bank Corp. And then First Chicago Corporation, then most recently, Bank One Corporation. |
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| Q: Talk a little bit about who started the bank and how long your family's been here (Grand Rapids)? |
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| A: Well, my children are the fifth generation. The bank was started in 1918 by my paternal grandfather, John Frey. And then it was chaired by my father and Jim Carpenter. And then myself in the late 70's, early 80's. And we merged with the National Bank of Detroit, mid 1980's, and two significant mergers in the meantime with the First Chicago Corporation and Bank One. We now are Bank One Corporation with a huge national footprint. In fact, an international footprint in 12 foreign countries and 14 states. |
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| Q: And you have a large philanthropic organization here? |
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| A: We have three major foundations. Actually more than that, but the three traditional foundations with the most profile, I think currently, you'd have to say would be the Grand Rapids Foundation, the Steel Case Foundation, which is a corporate foundation, and the Frey Foundation, which is a private foundation which my late parents established in 1974. Which was funded in 1988 when my father passed away. |
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| Q: Before we get into the modern times, tell us from your perspective what happened to downtown Grand Rapids prior to the resurgence. |
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| A: I think we have to go back before we can go forward. And to go back we should go back to the early 1960's, when the area that we are currently actually sitting was a lot of older, 19th century buildings, many occupied, many not. And we passed and received some federal support, state support, to redevelop this area. And it's now called Vandenberg Center after Senator Arthur Vandenberg, a prominent United States senator. That was the first step in recapturing the city. It was very successful. The space is inhabited by city and county government buildings. The principal banks, financial institutions, as well as the largest and most prominent accounting firms and law firms. Now that, through the 60's and 70's, was our first effort to recapture and maintain a vibrant core city. And the later chapters of this ongoing book, we developed the President Ford Museum in 1980. We developed a new Grand Center, a convention center complex about the same time. And then a few years later, we developed the Van Andel Public Museum. And that kind of brings us up to where we are today in terms of the city and its growth. Throughout that 20, 30 year period the one thing that wasn't happening is we were not really developing urban living units, dwellings, for the young, the college students, or even the empty-nesters. So we had a city that was nine to five, and it lacked a lot of the activities that make cities vibrant, exciting, attractive to all ages, whether they're going to college, or whether they're in the post-retirement years. It was really the formation of the Grant Action Committee almost 10 years ago with a very specific plan to construct an arena and expand our convention facilities that has been this next-- next chapter, if you will, in this book and it has resulted-- I think it has captured a lot of imagination of the metropolitan area and the surrounding west Michigan counties. It's really a regional facility. It is in a downtown environment, it is surrounded by 19th century buildings. And what has happened as a result of the creation, the building of the arena has been not only do we get great entertainment, which is in and of itself exciting and brings a lot of folks from all over the upper mid west, but it has stimulated a tremendous amount of private investment in the area surrounding it. And it is now, you know, an entertainment district. We have restaurants, we have loft apartments, we have all kinds of antique stores, a variety of activities, educational institutions, college campuses that are all now, in the surrounding areas, we've recaptured an abandoned area and it's been enormously exciting. I think it's created far more excitement and investment than we ever envisioned. And I must say, anecdotally, that the arena itself has been a huge success financially, which is very unusual. We pack them in. We get the best acts, the best athletic, the best entertainment, the best music from across the country because we're situated between Chicago and Detroit and we can get the very best entertainment on its way west or on its way east and it's been a wonderful, exuberant experience. |
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| Q: For something like that to happen there has to be something unique about a city or its people. |
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| A: Grand Rapids has a high incidence of privately owned family businesses. There's a tremendous allegiance, over many generations, to this city and to the region. And these corporations, and the owners of the corporations, and the employees take a special pride in the region. And they continually reinvest. It's a remarkable story of not only leadership in the terms of human capital, but the leadership in terms of financial capital. And it's a marriage of companies with the region and the metropolitan area that have produced this ongoing legacy of commitment to and philanthropy on behalf of keeping a vibrant, exciting, thoughtful, economically viable metropolitan area. |
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| Q: What has the relation historically been between the city and its surrounding communities? |
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| A: I think there's always a healthy competition. And I think we all understand that we're inter-dependent. You can't live on an island and the city of Grand Rapids, like many cities around the country, is surrounded by at least one or two rings of separately incorporated cities. But there is a sense of cooperation in terms of public transportation, education, and other regional activities and initiatives that require cooperation. And I think we've, for whatever reason, have been able to keep that special kind of cohesiveness in place and avoid some of the pitfalls that others have experienced. We really are dependent upon each other for our own success. And we just walk the talk and have been able to convince each other that there are certain issues, not all issues, but certain issues that require us to talk and act as one. |
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| Q: Do you think that regional cooperation is vital to metro regions like this? |
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| A: I think particularly if you look at the topography and geography of central west Michigan, and you look at what we call, I call, the golden triangle area which goes-- the northern Muskegon would be the northern point, it goes down the lake shore, through Grand Haven, to Holland and Zeeland, and then over to Grand Rapids. And that golden triangle is in fact becoming one demographic unit. And there's a growing realization that regional planning in the four county area is a must. It's not a want to have, it's a got to have regional planning if we are going to maintain the economic momentum that's currently in place. This region is the fastest growing region in the State of Michigan. And in fact, the fastest growing region in a five state area. We want to do it thoughtfully. We don't want to be overwhelmed by the growth. We want to mange the growth, not be managed by it. And if we want to be successful in maintaining the infrastructure, we have to have solid, thoughtful regional planning. And we think we do that. |
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| Q: How much do aesthetics play into this? I'm talking about what a place looks like, how livable it is, how drivable it is. |
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| A: I think there's a growing sense that aesthetics are critical to the mix to attract and retain employers, employees, senior management, and political leadership. I mean there's a certain sense that quality of life makes a difference. There are lots of pieces to why people live where they do and why corporations invest where they do. But certainly the quality of life is moving up the ladder very quickly. And we need to have attractive areas for people to live and to work. |
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| Q: So many institutions avoid inner cities. Why is it that people are so willing to invest in this town? |
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| A: Well I think it goes back to the sense of civic pride, this legacy of leadership, pride of the region and I think we had the right projects at the right time on the Grant Action committee as co-chaired by John Canipa, the former Chairman of Oakland Financial, Dick DeVos, the President of Amway, and myself. And we did some very thoughtful studies in the early 1990's and came up with two recommendations. One, to build an arena in an urban-- on an urban site, identified by our architectural firm. And two, expand the convention facility. We built the arena. It's on an urban site of eight acres. It's been a marvelous success story in and of itself and created tons of investment in the area surrounding it. And we are now in the early stages of expanding the convention center. A million square feet, $200,000,000 of a mix of private funds and public funds. And we think it will create seven to ten thousand jobs just as the convention center starts to take hold and ripple through the economy. It's a belief in the future, a belief that cities are important. We think we have a wonderful mix of great medicine, great education in the urban environment. With the new DeVos Center, which is Grand Valley State University's new downtown campus, fabulous facility. Great hotels, great restaurants, and great specialty retail. And the real key, and the next critical component of livable cities, is urban dwelling units. And we're in the process of creating more and more dwelling units. Not only loft apartments, upper scale, mid scale condominiums, that's the true test of urban livability. Where people will actually commit equity to their living units, in many cases, because they think the area's safe, it's exciting, it's culturally challenging, it's fun, it's all of those things that you want. And I think there's some trends out there that suggest that the new generation want to be urban dwellers. That they're more excited by the prospect of what cities can be and how challenging and intellectually stimulating they can be. And we think that we can be a truly great mid size city. We think we know our place. We've got to carve out a niche and we're going to become as good a mid size city as you can be in the Midwest, if not beyond. |
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| Q: What does the Maya Lynn monument contribute to the city? |
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| A: I think it's a-- it's a piece of public art, in some respects. We believe that public art is important to make urban areas interesting, stimulating, exciting. And Maya Lynn, who is a world class architect, sculptor, has created we think a very unusual, very interesting, very stimulating pocket park with interesting pieces to it that have not been done before with and ice rink/amphitheater, some water elements that will be attractive. It will be a gathering place throughout the year, whatever month of the year you happen to be there. And it's right in the heart of the city. So we think it's got lots of potential go gain national acclaim and I think it's-- it's one of the great gifts, if you will, that my parents left when they funded the Frey Foundation, which the Foundation is pleased to give to the City of Grand Rapids as its ongoing efforts to be a partner with the city in the next chapter in this great book that we're trying to write. |
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| Q: What does it say about a city like Grand Rapids that it brings in Maya Lynn? |
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| A: Well, we had a search committee and we interviewed lots of architects and sculptors and she was chosen, not just by the trustees of the Frey Foundation, but others who have a distinct and real interest in the future of the city. I think it says that if you want to have great cities you need private leadership, you need private leadership not only in terms of human capital, but corporate philanthropy and foundation philanthropy. And it's the partnership that works. And all of the projects, the Maya Lynn project aside for a second, when I talk about the arena or the convention center, other major public institutions, like the Van Andel Public Museum and others, it's been the private dollars who've led the way. We've always gone out and raised the private dollars first. And those private dollars typically come from individuals, foundations, and corporations. And then we're able to go to the public entities, the city, the county, the state, and Washington and say to our good, elected friends and officials, here's what we have committed from the private sector. We want you to be our partner and pony up with us, match our private gifts in some relationship that will get this project done. And we have been successful. I think we've been successful because the private sector is there first. And we found a very willing and loyal partner in the public sector, in the city and the county, and where needs be, the state and our friends in Washington as well. |
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