Northern Lakes Economic Alliance

The Northern Lakes Economic Alliance (NLEA), established in 1984, is a public/private non-profit organization serving Antrim, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, and Emmet Counties in Northern Michigan.

The NLEA works directly with local units of government on infrastructure projects, facilitates local company growth and expansion, and assists many local companies on a wide range of issues that help retain existing jobs and create new jobs.

We proactively approach economic development as a “team sport” and work hard to strengthen partner relationships, network public and private sectors, and work collaboratively to address economic development challenges and opportunities in our area.

We assist businesses and entrepreneurs and have a variety of tools and resources targeting new and existing businesses that possess the desire and potential to create family-supporting jobs (base jobs) with benefits.
We assist communities in finding the most effective approach to meet their needs to support business, industry retention, and growth.