Cornerstone Alliance has given community leaders and business owners a glimpse of all the things it did in 2025 to help develop the Southwest Michigan economy with its annual meeting, held on Thursday in St. Joseph.
Cornerstone Alliance President Marla Schneider tells us about 160 people gathered to learn the latest and hear information from the yearly report. She says Cornerstone directed its efforts at four key areas.
“That’s economic development, community development, housing, and entrepreneurial services,” Schneider said. “So we reported out on our metrics from those four key strategic priorities. And then we also had a keynote speaker. His name is Matt Elliott. He is the former president of Bank of America of Michigan.”
Schneider says Elliott talked about leadership.
In the area of economic development, Schneider says Cornerstone has some things to be proud of.
“For economic development, we realized $3.5 million in capital investment through projects that were done across the county. We worked on site readiness. So for the Lake Michigan Industrial Park, we had been awarded by the MEDC $4.3 million in funding to help get that site ready through infrastructure improvements, environmental surveys.”
Schneider says Cornerstone Alliance also made supporting new business owners a big priority in 2025.
“We graduated 16 entrepreneurs out of our business plan certified program, which gets them ready for financing to start their business. We launched three businesses with a grand opening and supported 14 new business starts through our year last year.”
Schneider says other major accomplishments in 2025 include 112 municipal capacity-building engagements across Berrien County; its Developer Day that attracted more than 55 developers, bankers, and regional partners, generating four active development leads; $4.3 million secured in state funding for the Lake Michigan Industrial Park; the creation of Canal Commons in Benton Harbor; and the completion of a major housing needs assessment. Cornerstone will soon be hiring someone specifically to work on housing issues in Berrien County.
While the economy faced some challenges in 2025, she says things look up for 2026.
“2025, I think from the industrial side of things, was a bit slower than we all wanted to see but we are really seeing an uptick in 2026 with projects getting back online and so we’re pretty optimistic as far as what we’re seeing from economic growth and then with this industrial park site readiness effort that we have underway, we’re really setting the stage for projects to come in.”
Looking ahead, Cornerstone has announced a new partnership with Emerge Innovation Hub to expand entrepreneurial resources, along with plans for a shared satellite office with the Harbor Country Chamber of Commerce opening this summer.
“I worked with CopperRock Construction to negotiate this in-kind investment and donation of the use of their space in the Harbor Country area in New Buffalo. And so we’re both able to graciously use that space for office hours and having a presence there.”
To learn more about the latest activities of Cornerstone Alliance, read its annual report right here. Schneider says 2026 should continue to bring a host of new developments that Cornerstone looks forward to encouraging.
“Cornerstone is just getting warmed up, and I think people will start to see a tremendous amount of momentum coming out of this organization, and we’re really excited about the look ahead.”
