From the Forgotten Corner to Tapestry Square

In the 1990s, ICCF, Southeast Community Association (SECA), and other community stakeholders began conversations about the neighborhood radiating out to the southeast from the corner of Division Ave. and Wealthy St. Once a bustling residential community alive with schools, churches, and over 40 businesses, by the late 1990s this area had become known as the Forgotten Corner Neighborhood, having lost over 80% of its residents and all but one of its businesses. 

With a vision for full neighborhood revitalization, ICCF began to acquire vacant parcels and dilapidated structures in the four-block area to the southeast of that Division/Wealthy intersection. At the same time, with funding and assistance from a number of businesses and foundations, as well as city and state governments, a plan was developed to recapture the energy of this once healthy neighborhood, informed by community research, stakeholder surveys, urban planning best practices, and a Biblical vision for shalom. 

In 2012, ICCF chose to name this emerging revitalized neighborhood “Tapestry Square.” Like a tapestry which is made both strong and beautiful by the diversity of materials that are interwoven, Tapestry Square seeks to be a strong, healthy, vibrant urban neighborhood where a diverse group of people live, work, shop, thrive, and enjoy life. Today, after three decades of planning and construction, Tapestry Square contains more than 200 housing units, 9,000 SF of retail space, and the innovative Grand Rapids University Preparatory Academy for grades 6–12.