As your local resource, we’re here to help your business succeed and grow—with support for funding, site selection, local incentives, development, and data to back your project.
Our experienced team guides your project from start to finish—assessing your goals, identifying opportunities, and ensuring successful, on-track completion.
We help secure grants and loans for equipment, site readiness, expansion, workforce housing, and more. We connect you with financing and manage grants from various partners.
Financial incentives exist to encourage business location and expansion. Our team is experienced in providing support applying for and navigating the process for tax abatements, tax credits, opportunity zones, and other incentives for expansion and site rehabilitation.
We monitor and manage site opportunities across our four-county service area. As your local and regional navigator, we can help connect you to site opportunities that meet your location, space, and infrastructure needs.
Development is local—and so are we. As a key connection between the public and private sectors, we help you navigate site selection, zoning, and local development hurdles with ease. Our strong community ties and expertise ensure your project moves forward smoothly and efficiently.
We gather and analyze regional data to help you strategize, shape your project, or make the case for expansion and growth. Data support can help strengthen your application for funding and incentives, and demonstrate the economic and community impact of your project.
Our events, roundtables, trainings, and industry groups will connect you with industry experts and business counterparts to learn and collaborate around shared challenges and solutions.
If you are looking for support to grow and succeed, we are your local go-to resource in Antrim, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, and Emmet Counties, whether you’re an existing business or in the process of starting a business. We will match you to the appropriate partners and programs depending on your needs, saving you time and money.
If we can’t address your challenge directly, we’ll connect you with people or organizations that can.
We can help match your project needs to the appropriate grant programs, financing options, and incentive opportunities.
From 2014–2019, NLEA supported several expansion projects for Daifuku Jervis B Webb in Emmet County. As the company ultimately outgrew its three regional facilities, it chose a Charlevoix County site for consolidation, but the location lacked necessary infrastructure. In 2021, NLEA facilitated a 425 agreement between Boyne City and Boyne Valley Township to extend water service, enabling a $26 million investment in a new 225,000-square-foot plant. This collaboration helped retain and grow a major regional employer.
In 2024, NLEA had the opportunity to support Aster Brands, a division of the Manthei Group, which specializes in sales, marketing, and intellectual property to grow opportunities for concrete manufacturers globally. To accommodate the company’s growth, Aster Brands needed a larger facility. To support that move, the NLEA assisted the company with successfully securing a $750,000 grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. As a result, this project will reactivate and improve the vacant industrial site, bring more than $7M in new direct investment to the community, and create 15 new family-sustaining career opportunities for the NLEA region.
When a devastating fire halted operations at Manthei Wood Products in 2017 (then Manthei Veneer), NLEA quickly mobilized local, regional, and state partners to assist. NLEA helped secure a temporary production site in the Upper Peninsula and funding to build a new mill in Resort Township, Emmet County. NLEA supported a successful MEDC grant application, tax abatement approval, and 0% interest loan financing from Great Lakes Energy and USDA to successfully rebuild. Since then, Manthei Wood Products has expanded with new technologies, jobs, and operations, with NLEA continuing to support its growth through ongoing projects.
In 2017, the NLEA helped Van Dam Custom Boats secure a 12-year tax abatement to support a 7,000+ square foot expansion of their production facility and office space allowing the company to accommodate larger boat construction projects and expand their team. Van Dam Custom Boats, a home-grown and family-owned business continues to custom design and build the world’s finest wooden boats in Boyne City.
Contact our Director of Business Growth, Dave Kronberg to start the conversation about how NLEA can help your business thrive!
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