History

Garrett Family Community Partners is an emerging developer whose mission is to develop real estate in communities that are underserved by traditional real estate development activities.

​

In 2023 Garrett Family Community Partners (GFCP) was founded by Carolyn Garrett. Carolyn Garrett and her husband Michael have been active in the work of mission driven non-profit organizations for decades. In addition to monetarily supporting many organizations involved in affordable housing, refugee services, and substance use issues, Carolyn served for over 10 years on the board and as the Board Chair of Partners in Compassionate Care, a non-profit Carolyn’s parents co-founded that serves the people of South Sudan. In 2019, seeing opportunity to help restore a blighted historic campus in Michigan, Michael and Carolyn Garrett acquired the campus of the former St. Joseph Seminary in Grand Rapids. The bold plan for the project was to create a "Campus of Hope" that would serve various groups of underserved members of the community and create a home for several local non-profits to execute their missions. Now, five years later and after more than $45M of total development costs invested by multiple non profit driven projects, the campus serves as a beacon of hope for what non-profits can achieve. The campus functions as home to various services including Bethany Christian Services, Samaritas’ Western Michigan Headquarters, the development of 53 units of senior affordable housing, and the largest community land trust in the state of Michigan with the construction of 42 homes (Dwelling Place). Today, the campus is a hive of activity serving individuals from all walks of life and is well positioned to do so for the future.

​

Through their local connections, and because the Garretts are known to support affordable housing organizations, they began to get requests for advice from many of the underserved rural communities in western and northwestern Michigan. Many of the requests were similar, expressing a need for affordable housing and often a desire to redevelop abandoned or underutilized historic buildings. Many of these communities do not have non-profit organizations with capacity to meet these needs and many of the organizations supported by the Garretts do not have capacity to work in these communities. After stepping down from her board position in 2022, Carolyn began to explore creating a new non-profit with the mission of providing affordable housing and the redevelopment of underutilized, blighted and historic assets in western Michigan. In 2023 Garrett Family Community Partners (GFCP) was founded.

 

Garrett Family Community Partners is overseen by a Board of Directors, the directors are David DeVelder, Pastor Jon Sherrill and Pastor Brian Telzerow. These board members bring a depth of experience in housing development and breadth of experience serving the disadvantaged. They know firsthand the value of having a stable home and the necessity of stability in order to build community.