CRAINSDETROIT.COM I JANUARY 22, 2024
Henry Ford Health’s Bob Riney tops the list of 10 who made an impact in 2023.
State’s weed market tops $3B in 2023 Michigan’s per capita spend beats rival states By Dustin Walsh
Michigan ended 2023 as the nation’s unofficial weed king. In 2023, the state’s cannabis industry sold nearly $3.06 billion in medical and adult-recreational use marijuana — or about $305 worth of marijuana for every man, woman and child in the state for the year — according to data released Jan. 16 by the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency. Michigan’s weed sales total last year is more than the gross domestic product of 51 nations, nearly reaching the GDP of the African nation of Burundi. For context, corn is planted on 4% of all the land in the state of Michigan, but sales totaled $2.16 billion in 2022. The yearly total got a boost from the best sales month on record in December. Michigan operators sold $279.9 million worth of marijuana in December, up from $260.5 million in November. The state’s per capita spend on marijuana in 2023 surpassed all
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Weed sales hit new high last year Michigan cannabis sales topped $3 billion for the first time. Medical cannabis sales Adult-use cannabis sales $3 billion
2
1
0
2020
2021
2022
2023
Source: Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency
other rival states, based on yearend estimates. Californians were projected to spend $5.9 billion in marijuana last year, or roughly $150 per capita. Colorado remains closest to Michigan, at about $290 per capita spending on marijuana last year. See CANNABIS on Page 20
On the bench for the Super Bowl ad blitz Detroit’s ascending NFL Along with automakers, whether team will secure a spot in the big Rocket, UWM sit it out game next month, consumers will By Nick Manes
Clockwise from left: Detroit Lions’ principal owner Sheila Ford Hamp, Baobab Fare owners Hamissa Mamba and Nadia Nijimbere, Detroit Riverfront Conservancy chairman Matt Cullen and House Speaker Joe Tate.
VOL. 40, 39, NO. 3XXl COPYRIGHT l COPYRIGHT2024 2023CRAIN CRAINCOMMUNICATIONS COMMUNICATIONSINC. INC.l ALL l ALLRIGHTS RIGHTSRESERVED RESERVED
In the midst of a Detroit Lions playoffs run, metro Detroit’s brand-name, national mortgage companies and other local businesses are sitting on the bench when it comes to Super Bowl advertising this year. While it remains to be seen
not see the likes of Rocket Mortgage, United Wholesale Mortgage or the Detroit 3 domestic automakers during the title game. Similar to the mortgage lenders in the region — among the nation’s largest — Stellantis, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. are also sitting out the See SUPER BOWL on Page 20
CASHING IN Restaurants, grocers mix it up to meet demand for healthy options.
REAL ESTATE Emagine’s Detroit movie theater plan on back burner.
CONVERSATION Former Navy, NASA doctor on mission to expand MSU’s health care reach.
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Viral Stanley tumblers are selling like mad on StockX By Anna Fifelski
StockX, an online marketplace and clothing reseller, began listing Stanley tumblers for sale in November. Now, some versions of the trendy cups are going for hundreds of dollars on the site. The Detroit-based company was founded in 2015 by Dan Gilbert, Josh Luber, Greg Schwartz and Chris Kaufman as a sneaker resale marketplace, but over time has steadily expanded the range of collectible goods it offers. StockX began listing Stanley cups after the brand announced limited collaborations with Starbucks and Lainey Wilson, StockX Merchandising Director Drew Haines told Crain’s in an email. “Since then, we've received requests from sellers to expand our offerings, and our catalog team has closely monitored the performance of subsequent collaborations,” Haines said. “While the first tumblers were added in November, we’ve seen everything take off in the last few weeks.” The Stanley Flowstate Quencher H2.0 Tumbler took over the social media platform TikTok as fans of all ages have shown off the different colors and designs of the cup. The steel vacuum-insulated tumbler can keep ice water cold for up to 40 hours, the website claims.
Stanley Quencher H2.0 Flowstate Tumblers | STANLEY
According to CNBC, the Stanley brand saw a $676 million increase in revenue from 2019 to 2023. Haines said that the scarcity model that Stanley has adopted equates it to mainstay sneaker and streetwear brands, which works to the company’s advantage and makes it a perfect fit for StockX. “At its core, StockX has always been about empowering everyone to trade what they love and providing access to products that are otherwise hard to find,” Haines said. “We expanded the amount of Stanley listings in our product cat-
alog in response to the virality the brand has managed to create, as it was clear that our buyers and sellers alike wanted to trade these products.” According to the StockX website, items are verified on-site at one of the company’s Verification Centers by staff who receive constant training in order to remain industry experts. All products sold on the website must be brand new and never used. On Dec. 31 as part of Target’s “Galentine’s Collection,” Stanley released limited edition Cosmo
Pink and Target Red tumblers, which are already reselling on StockX for over $90 — more than double the original $45 price. The Stanley x Starbucks collaboration Winter Pink tumbler has a lowest offer on StockX for $245 and is one of the top traded products on the website, followed by the Stanley x Lainey Wilson “Country Gold” Quencher and the Target Valentine’s Day exclusive Quencher, according to StockX. “By releasing limited collaborations and retailer exclusives with the likes of Starbucks and Target, Stanley has been able to drive scarcity-fueled hype,” Haines said. “As a bonus, we’re in the middle of a massive cultural shift towards hydration and wellness. The hashtag #WaterTok has 1 billion views on TikTok, and The New York Times just highlighted ‘premium hydration’ as a key trend in 2024. So the timing couldn’t be more perfect.” According to data from StockX provided to Crain’s, the average resale price across all Stanley products on StockX is $111, or $116 for Quenchers. The Stanley x Lainey Wilson “Watermelon Moonshine” Quencher resales for an average of $215, followed by the Stanley x Starbucks collaboration Quenchers in pink and red at $186. 35 Stanley products are avail-
able to trade, or sell, on StockX, 27 of which are Quenchers. To date, StockX has had over 2,300 individual sales of Stanley products and 92% of those have been Quenchers. StockX has seen more than 2,000 trades of Stanley products in three weeks alone, from Dec. 19, 2023 to Jan. 9. “We’ve seen trades of Stanley products on StockX in the past — including collaborations with Supreme and Human Made — but those were in a more limited capacity,” Haines said. “Combined, those products drove around 160 trades over the last year. As a comparison, the Quenchers have seen more than 2,000 trades, and most have been on the platform for less than a month.” StockX also hosts listings for accessories, apparel, electronics, collectibles, and trading cards. Stanley products fall under the "accessories" category. StockX was sued by Nike in 2022 after its entry into the NFT, or nonfungible tokens, market. Oregon-based Nike claimed it did not give StockX authorization or approval for use of its trademarks. On August 11, 2023, U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn ordered StockX to reveal information about users who sold counterfeit sneakers through the resale platform.
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2 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | JANUARY 22, 2024
DMS to diversify after Forvia exits joint venture By Kurt Nagl
A Breadless salad and warm bowl. | BREADLESS
Cashing in on New Year’s resolutions Restaurants, grocers mix it up to meet demand for healthy options By Anna Fifelski
New Year, new you? The venerable New Year’s resolution, now joined by the “Dry January” alcohol-free movement, really does change what customers buy, restaurants and grocers say. And they’re changing up their own offerings to cater to the health-conscious. Many people tie their resolutions to improving their physical health. According to a survey by
Forbes Health, 48% of those who set resolutions in 2024 want to focus on physical fitness, while 34% want to lose weight and 32% want to improve their diets. Businesses in Detroit are focused on making the most out of people’s New Year’s resolutions. Restaurants and stores are promoting their health foods and introducing new menu items in January in hopes of attracting new customers who are looking for healthy options.
Foods that customers consider healthy are already on the upswing. According to the 2023 Food and Health Survey, 40% of Americans said they regularly bought products labeled as “natural” and 29% bought products labeled with “clean ingredients.” Rohani Foulkes, the co-founder of Folk in Corktown, said the new year does change the choices customers make. See RESOLUTIONS on Page 21
Detroit Manufacturing Systems is working to win new electric vehicle charging contracts and defense business following automotive supplier Forvia’s exit from the venture. It marks the next chapter for Scott Cieslak Bruce Smith the Detroit-based contract manufacturer, founded in 2012 as a charging. The deal is for 1,000 JV between Andra Rush and units in the first year, representing the French auto parts supplier, about $1 million in annual revewhich has a base in Auburn Hills. nue with the expectation of a 20% Rush sold her majority share increase each year. It presents big in 2018 to Chairman and CEO opportunity for both sides. “As they were starting to land Bruce Smith, who last June quietly bought out Forvia’s more and more business, they stake, creating independence needed someone to partner with for DMS, a certified, minority- and scale up,” Cieslak said. “We’re helping them become the owned company. “That was the first step in the bigger company that they can be, next evolution of who we are,” and that’s good for us too.” InductEV is moving its manuScott Cieslak, EVP, sales, purchasfacturing from a small prototype ing and strategy, told Crain’s. The next step is diversifying shop to DMS, which has the abilthe company, whose biggest ity to help industrialize the prodbusiness is supplying instrument uct. At the same time, DMS is panels for Ford Motor Co. F-150 used to high-volume, traditional and F-150 Lightning pickup automotive parts, so the new trucks. It also has work upcom- contract can help it spread its wings and build on its $1.3 ing with Volvo’s Mack Trucks. It notched a big win on the di- billion-a-year top line. “Having a relationship with versification front by landing a contract to supply EV wireless battery charging systems for Pennsylvania-based startup InductEV, the company announced Jan. 9. It is also working toward new business in the — Scott Cieslak, EVP, Detroit Manufacturing Systems defense space, Cieslak said. Under the EV charging agreement, DMS will manufac- (InductEV) gives us an inroad to ture power coils designed for the helping some of these other supundercarriage of commercial ve- pliers out there,” Cieslak said. In addition to InductEV, the hicles as well as the ground pads to charge them. The power coils contract manufacturer signed a are juiced up through inductive deal in 2022 with Detroit-based charging when resting over the EV charging startup Plug Zen ground pads, just like a smart- LLC and has had discussions phone charging wirelessly. It’s with Dunamis Charge Inc., anthe same premise as the wireless other Detroit-based EV charging charging road adjacent to Michi- startup. gan Central Station in Detroit. It marks DMS’s first foray into See DMS on Page 21
“That was the first step in the next evolution of who we are.”
Henry Ford Health sues feds over denials of worker visas By Dustin Walsh
Henry Ford Health is taking on the feds. The Detroit health system sued the nation’s top immigration officials after work visas of two of its Canadian employees were denied entry at the Detroit border last year and later their visas revoked, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Ann Arbor and obtained by Crain's.
HFH alleges the federal government, specifically CBP at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, capriciously misinterpreted the rules governing TN work visas under the U.S. Mexico-Canada Act trade agreement to deny entry into the U.S. by the two employees. The federal government, who responded to the lawsuit last week, claims the work visas were issued in error, despite six prior approvals for one HFH employee
alone, dating back to 2009. At issue is whether radiologic technologists, which both HFH employees are, qualify as an approved classification under the USMCA — HFH employs 1,200 Canadians, including 800 nurses, that cross the U.S., Canadian border under TN visas — and more importantly, why after so many years of approvals, the See HFH on Page 21
Henry Ford Health employs 1,200 Canadians across the health system, including 800 nurses. | NIC ANTAYA JANUARY 22, 2024 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 3
REAL ESTATE INSIDER
Emagine’s Detroit movie theater on back burner
T
he long-stalled Emagine Entertainment Inc. movie theater in Detroit is on the back burner given rising costs of construction for the company. Originally proposed to have 1012 screens at a cost of about $25 million, the Troy-based chain is also looking to scale back the size of the project to make it economically viable given what is now a $35 million-plus price tag, CEO Anthony LaVerde said. But it’s not time to roll the end credits just yet. LaVerde stopped short of Kirk Pinho saying the project is dead, although efforts to lower its cost are being explored, including reducing the total number of seats. A site has not been secured, although Emagine, founded by Chairman Paul Glantz, has looked in the New Center area and Midtown, including a Wayne State University-owned site that ultimately didn’t pan out. LaVerde said the challenges facing the Detroit plans are unique to that project. Business has been solid, he said, and Emagine has opened three theaters in other
In February 2018, Emagine and Big Sean revealed plans to build the Sean Anderson Theatre Powered by Emagine.
Big Sean performs at Michigan Central Station in 2018 during Ford Motor Co.’s announcement of its plans at Michigan Central Station. | LARRY PEPLIN
states in less than a year. The Emagine plan is one of the prominent Detroit construction projects that has yet to come to fruition. This month, Minneapolis-based Target Corp. said it was backing out of a plan to put a small-format
Emagine Entertainment is still trying to lock down a site in Detroit for a new movie theater. A F e e - O n l y We a l t h M a n a g e m e n t G r o u p
Michigan’s #1 Financial Advisor by both Barron’s* and Forbes** Charles C. Zhang CFP®, MBA, MSFS, ChFC, CLU Founder and President
Charles is the highest ranked Fee-Only Advisor on Forbes’ list of America’s Top Wealth Advisors**
store in the city at the southeast corner of Woodward and Mack avenues due to what it called “ongoing delays and complications” with the project. It’s also not the only proposed new movie theater in Detroit to face unforeseen challenges. There had been plans for a nine-screen Detroit location of Austin-based Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas LLC on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard west of Woodward, but Alamo backed out of those plans four years ago, citing parking concerns.
In February 2018, Emagine and Big Sean revealed plans to build what is officially known as the Sean Anderson Theatre Powered by Emagine. It was originally supposed to open in 2020. However, there was no site lined up and the Emagine team has spent the last six years trying to settle on a location, not to mention grappling with the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which movie theaters were shut down for weeks at a time. “We are looking around right
Hall, Bonner picked for Fed board By Kirk Pinho
www.zhangfinancial.com 101 West Big Beaver Road, 14th Floor Troy, MI 48084 (248) 687-1258 Minimum Investment Requirement: $1,000,000 in Michigan $2,000,000 outside of Michigan. Assets under custody of LPL Financial and Charles Schwab. *As reported in Barron’s March 11, 2023. Rankings based on assets under management, revenue generated for the advisors’ firms, quality of practices, and other factors. **As reported in Forbes April 4, 2023. The rankings, developed by Shook Research, are based on in-person and telephone due diligence meetings and a ranking algorithm for advisors who have a minimum of seven years of experience. Other factors include client retention, industry experience, compliance records, firm nominations, assets under management, revenue generated for their firms, and other factors. See zhangfinancial.com/disclosure for full ranking criteria.
4 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | JANUARY 22, 2024
now and we have a few options we are really interested in,” Big Sean said during the February 2018 announcement. “Definitely looking at downtown, Midtown, but wherever we choose, we hope everyone will come out and make an effort to really support it.” Glantz also said during the announcement that he was hoping it “will help us scout all the available locations.” “So for those who have real estate available that they think may be suitable for this very fine venue, we hope that you come forward as a result of our announcement,” Glantz said. There had been talks about putting it around Ford Motor Co.’s autonomous and electric vehicle campus in Corktown several years ago around the time the Dearborn-based automaker announced its vision for Michigan Central Station and other properties. Emagine had also been in the running to build the theater on what’s called Lot 22, a Wayne State-owned site off I-94 near the law school, but that plan also fizzled. Detroit has few movie theaters. There’s Bel Air 10 on Eight Mile Road on the city’s northeast side and the Redford Theatre on the northwest side. Cinema Detroit, which used to operate on Third Avenue in Midtown, has moved to a pop-up model while seeking permanent space elsewhere, according to its website. The Ren Cen 4 theater closed in 2015 after almost three decades in operation. It was on the second floor of the Renaissance Center’s Tower 200 and was 18,000 square feet.
The leaders of two major Detroit companies have been appointed to the board for the Detroit branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Automotive supplier Bridgewater Interiors LLC’s Ronald Hall, president and CEO, is returning to the Detroit Branch board; and real estate company Bedrock LLC’s Kofi Bonner is joining for the first time. Both are serving the remaining two years on a pair of unexpired terms, effective Jan. 1, with Hall also becoming the board’s chair, the Fed announced Jan. 17. It's not known who Hall and Bonner are replacing on the seven-mem-
Ronald Hall
Kofi Bonner
ber board. Detroit Regional Chamber CEO Sandy Baruah was the previous chairman of the board. Questions were sent to a Fed spokesperson on Jan. 17. Requests for comment were sent to Hall and a spokesperson for Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock. The Detroit Branch board is made up of four members ap-
pointed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s board of directors, and three appointed by Federal Reserve System’s board of governors. The Chicago board also signs off on the board chair. In addition to Hall's and Bonner's appointments, JoAnn Chavez, senior vice president and chief legal officer for Detroit-based DTE Energy Co., and Kevin Nowlan, executive vice president and CFO for Auburn Hills-based supplier BorgWarner Inc., received Chicago board approval for three-year terms. The Chicago Fed is one of a dozen regional banks in the Federal Reserve System. Its district is made of up Iowa, plus most of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Oakland University exceeds $150M campaign goal By Sherri Welch
Oakland University has exceeded the $150 million fundraising goal in its largest campaign and completed the campaign six months ahead of schedule. The university raised just shy of $152 million in the campaign it launched in 2018. Last year alone, it brought in $36.1 million, the most the university has raised in a single year. The majority of gifts made to the campaign were less than $1,000 each, bucking the softening in small and mid-sized gifts the nonprofit sector overall is seeing, and 60% of gifts were from first-time donors to the university, leaders said. Proceeds from the campaign are largely supporting student success and scholarship; local workforce development needs, especially in nursing; OU’s permanent endowment, and capital projects. “I’m really proud of how the university has fared under challenging circumstances,” OU President Ora Hirsch Pescovitz said. “With a small team (and) a relatively young university ... we are doing really well. We have managed to weather very difficult circumstances before COVID ... and since.” Of the total amount raised:
◗ $73.3 million, or nearly half, is go-
ing to scholarships and student support. ◗ $20.4 million will support innovative programs. ◗ $21.9 million is going to teaching and research. ◗ $20 million is supporting facilities and university expansion, including a new augmented reality center, nursing labs, pre-design of the new Center for Sustainability, renovations to the School of Business and Varner Hall, new baseball and softball fields and the new visitors center at Meadow Brook Hall, a project that’s set to break ground in the coming weeks, Pescovitz said.. ◗ $16.2 million for community collaboration. Across those areas, donors contributed $35.5 million to the university’s permanent endowment, bringing it to $142.7 million as of Dec. 31, said Michael Westfall, vice president of advancement. Corewell Health made the lead gift in the campaign, a $20.6 million contribution split between academic assistance for new nursing students and infrastructure such as new labs to help train 500 new nurses and address the shortage of nurses in the state, Pescovitz said. Corporate gifts totaled $49.1
A $20.6 million gift from Corewell Health, made as part of Oakland University’s $150 million campaign, is supporting the education and training of 500 new nurses. | OAKLAND UNIVERSITY
million, or nearly a third of total campaign support, OU said. They included a total of $1 million from 10 companies to create the augmented reality center to respond to workforce needs. Faculty, staff and retirees contributed $14.3 million to the campaign — including $1.8 million from Pescovitz. Despite the toll the pandemic took on giving in the later years and the decline in small and midsized gifts the nonprofit sector has
faced more recently, nearly 89% of the gifts made during the seven-year campaign were gifts of less than $1,000, Westfall said. And first-time donors exceeded industry benchmarks accounting for 62% of the nearly 20,000 total donors to the campaign. The high number of first-time donors to the campaign “bodes well for the future as we continue to scale and meet the aspirations of the president and the board,” he said.
OU’s advancement team’s intentionality in communicating compelling cases for support enabled the university to buck the national challenge of donor acquisition, Westfall said. “Given OU’s consistent evidence of regional impact and accolades and a president that was rewarded with an extension through 2031, OU donors are motivated to support the university, our programs, and most importantly, our students,” he said.
In another down VC year, Michigan avoids sharpest drops By Mark Sanchez
Venture capital investing dipped again in Michigan in 2023, trailing a sharp national decline in deal volume and funds invested. Last year, venture capital investors put $1.05 billion into 169 deals for Michigan-based companies — the second straight year of decline, according to a quarterly report by PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association. The 2023 results compare to $1.08 billion invested in 186 Michigan-based companies in 2022. While both annual deal volume and funds invested were down from a peak in 2021, they remained well above any year prior to 2020. Michigan largely avoided the nearly 30% decline in venture capital deals nationally. The amount of capital invested in Michigan fell just 2.8% compared with 10.3% across the country. Paul D’Amato, the CEO and a managing director at Michigan Capital Network, wrote in an email to Crain’s Grand Rapids Business that last year followed a 2022 that was still one of the strongest years for venture capital nationally, and the best year ever for the Grand Rapids-based investment firm. “So, to have 2023 come very
Michigan venture capital investing Here’s a look at venture capital investing in Michigan over the past five years. Years Deals Amount invested 2023
169 186
2022
214
2021
190
2020 2019
$1.05 billion
149
$1.08 billion $1.09 billion $1.01 billion $719.9 million
Source: PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association
close to those peak levels is great to see and may be a sign of economic recovery,” D’Amato said. “Michigan does appear to be doing well versus the rest of the country.” Michigan Capital Network manages four venture capital funds and five angel investor groups: Grand Angels in Grand Rapids, Ka-zoo Angels in Kalamazoo, Woodward Angels in Detroit, Flint Angels, and BlueWater Angels in Midland. The firm last year closed on a $37.5 million raise for its fourth venture capital fund, and in November began raising a targeted $10 million for the new Michigan Capital Network Opportunity Fund L.P. to make follow-on investments in existing portfolio companies.
The first half of 2023 was “quite slow” for Michigan Capital Network, D’Amato said. Activity picked up in the latter half of the year, and the fourth quarter was “quite busy,” he said. Michigan Capital Network invested $10 million in 2023, down $10.5 million the year prior over a similar number of deals, according to D’Amato. Dale Grogan, a managing director at Michigan Capital Network, said 2023 was “arguably somewhere off the euphoria of 2021 and 2022, there are fewer new financings — mostly follow-on rounds of existing portfolio companies — which would dampen the overall deal count.” Michigan “is a bit of a laggard as it relates to VC trends as compared to the coasts,” Grogan said. That’s
because of “the velocity of deals, including pace and amount, is substantially more volatile on the coasts as compared to the Midwest.” He added that startup businesses receiving VC investments in the Midwest are generally life sciences, advanced manufacturing and technology companies that “tend to have financings that are attached to longer, more specific benchmarks with less volatility. “But ultimately, Michigan plods. Not too flashy, but … just quietly getting the job done,” Grogan said. In the fourth quarter alone, Michigan saw 25 venture capital deals worth $216.6 million, compared to $231.4 million in 45 deals in the final three months of 2022.
Biggest quarterly deals The largest venture capital deal in the state in the fourth quarter involved May Mobility Inc., an Ann Arbor-based autonomous vehicle company that closed on a $105 million Series D round, according to PitchBook and the NVCA. Censys Inc., a cybersecurity and internet intelligence company also based in Ann Arbor, had the second-largest deal with a $75
million Series C funding round that closed in October. Among the top West Michigan deals in the quarter was $2.7 million for Antrum Inc., a Grand Rapids-based sensor technology company that specializes in indoor air quality monitoring for commercial HVAC systems. Antrum closed on the later-stage funding round in mid December. Nationally, the NVCA and PitchBook counted 15,766 venture capital deals for all of 2023 worth $170.6 billion, down from 17,592 deals worth $242.2 billion the year prior. In the fourth quarter alone, venture capital investors pumped $37.5 million into 2,879 deals, down from $39.8 billion across 3,787 deals in the final three months of 2022. Venture capital fundraising and exits also declined nationally last year. “While the continued drop in activity does not lend itself to optimism, it would be a mistake to declare the market in crisis. Rather, the market has changed,” NVCA President and CEO Bobby Franklin wrote in the fourth quarter Venture Monitor report. “From interest rates to foreign conflict, the world looks very different than it did two years ago, and a new set of problems needs to be solved for.” JANUARY 22, 2024 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 5
EDITORIAL
Focus on a prosperous future for Michigan A n awful lot of attention has been placed lately on Michigan’s slow population growth. There are good reasons for that, as has been welldocumented: Michigan’s sluggish growth means we will fall behind, economically and politically. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer created a council last year to study the problem and it issued a report that recommended three core strategies: Make Michigan the innovation hub of the Midwest, promote lifelong education and develop thriving communities that attract young talent. The report, its takeaways and ideas for advancing the cause of growing the population were the focus of the recent daylong Detroit Policy Conference put on by the Detroit Regional Chamber. After all of the PowerPoints and panel discussions, the most poignant headline of the day belonged to John Rakolta Jr., the co-chair of the Growing Michigan Together Council and the chairman of construction company Walbridge. Rakolta said we need to accept the fact that Michigan’s population is not going to grow, at least not in the next few decades. Demographic forces are simply stacked against the state, with births not keeping up with deaths and outmigration. Rakolta by no means backed away from the findings and recommendations in the report. Rather, he was setting expectations with a blunt, realistic assessment. He didn’t stop there. The kicker was that even though we must be honest about our ability to grow population, we can still make positive change for those who do live in Michigan. We can, right now, start focusing on growing our productivity, which will lead to more prosperity for everyone in the state.
Growing Michigan Together Council co-chairs John Rakolta Jr. and Shirley Stancato speak at the Detroit Policy Conference this month. | ANDREW POTTER/DETROIT REGIONAL CHAMBER
“The good news is that what takes place to grow population over 100 years and all of the things in the report are exactly what has to happen for us to increase the prosperity,” said Rakolta, according to Crain’s senior reporter David Eggert. “So let’s not focus on population growth. It’s an outcome of what we have to do to increase our prosperity. We should focus more on per-capita income. . . .We’ve got to do a much better job of increasing productivity.” The council supported two extra years of free education after high school, regional public transit systems and changes to how education is governed in the state, among other proposals. Republicans have criticized Whitmer
and the council, saying it was just a ruse to raise taxes. Rakolta, a Republican who served as ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, pushed back on his party, calling the claim of higher taxes a “red herring” meant to distract from the main issue at hand. He said the state, with its $80 billion budget, should be able to find 5% to 10% of waste that could offset costs needed to make improvements cited by the council. Michigan’s future prosperity is not a partisan issue. Rakolta’s realistic focus on productivity and prosperity is wise, as is his dismissal of knee-jerk partisan criticism. Retrenching to partisan talking points is
easy. The harder stuff, and what we should all strive for, is looking for areas of common ground where we can make tangible progress to improve Michigan. Areas of talent attraction, education and transit seem like sensible places to focus. It hasn’t been established that the population council was intended to be a tax grab, as some Republicans claim. In fact, Rakolta says that’s simply not the case. But even if some Democrats are working that angle behind the scenes, let’s heed Rakolta’s advice and target productivity and prosperity as benchmarks for success. If any legitimate revenue needs are proposed later, we first must look to savings within the existing budget to pay for them.
COMMENTARY
Protect pharmacy benefits for mental health patients
H
research, millions more Americans — my patients included — now have access to prescription drugs that, in conjunction with crisis. counseling, allows them to live According to 2021 research by full and healthy lives. This is why the National Alliance on Mental I’ve always been a strong supIllness, over 1.3 million adults in porter of pharmacy benefits; they Michigan have a mental health lower the cost of prescription condition and about 38% do not drugs and increase patients’ acreceive the care they need. I be- Laurel cess to these treatments through came a mental health counselor Backing, convenient options like home in Michigan two years ago be- M.A., is a delivery. cause I believe that everyone de- mental health As the need for mental health serves access to quality mental counselor support has grown, so has the health care. based in Mental health care looks differ- Comstock Park. cost of health care — and mental health care is no exception. ent for all my patients. For some, Thankfully, pharmacy benefits it means one-on-one counseling, while others benefit from exposure thera- help ensure affordable, accessible care, py, eye movement desensitization and re- saving Michiganders an average of more processing therapy, accelerated resolution than $1,000 per year. Those savings are essential for my patherapy, or medication. Thanks to medical breakthroughs and tients, especially with inflation still so ere in Michigan and across the country, we are facing a mental health
high. Many Michigan families also have access to pharmacy benefits that are proven to increase adherence. That includes options that deliver prescriptions right to your door and even cost less than having to go to a pharmacy to pick them up — a convenient and cost-effective win-win. For example, some plans offer delivery of three months’ worth of your prescription at the cost of only two months’ copay. The reality is patients don’t take their prescribed medications if they can’t afford them, even if it means neglecting their mental health — I’ve seen it firsthand many times. And with big drug companies increasing their prices year after year, it’s my hope that our lawmakers will prioritize protecting our pharmacy benefits and keeping prescription drug costs low for patients. Instead of attacking pharmacy benefits,
Write us: Crain’s welcomes responses from readers. Letters should be as brief as possible and may be edited for length or clarity. Send letters to Crain’s Detroit Business, 1155 Gratiot Ave, Detroit, MI 48207, or email crainsdetroit@crain.com. Please include your complete name, city from which you are writing and a phone number for fact-checking purposes. 6 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | JANUARY 22, 2024
lawmakers should focus on holding the pharmaceutical industry accountable for its role in rising health care costs. For the first time in my career, politicians now talk openly about the mental health crisis and what should be done to solve it. This is a big deal. As our lawmakers return to Lansing this legislative session, we can’t have
The reality is patients don’t take their medications if they can’t afford them, even if it means neglecting their mental health. them lose sight of protecting access to prescription drugs for Michiganders struggling with their mental health. We’ve come so far when it comes to normalizing and addressing mental health. Let’s not go backwards.
Sound off: Crain’s considers longer opinion pieces from guest writers on issues of interest to business readers. Email ideas to Managing Editor Michael Lee at malee@crain.com.
Comerica Bank seeks dismissal of GOP suit By David Eggert
An AmeriCorps member working in Detroit schools on behalf of City Year Detroit greets a youngster arriving at school. | CITY YEAR DETROIT
Partnership focuses on AmeriCorps housing plan By Sherri Welch
City Year Detroit is piloting housing stipends for its AmeriCorps members working in Detroit schools and collaborating with Brilliant Detroit to provide affordable housing for a handful of AmeriCorps members. Those members — many aspiring teachers — will have opportunities to work with the children in Brilliant Detroit’s program during non-school hours, benefiting the children and giving corps members another option to complete their service hours, Executive Director Sherisse Butler said. The goal is to help City Year Detroit retain corps members, typically young adults who commit to 1,700 hours of service over 10 months and receive $25,000 through a mix of private and public dollars to live on during the year or two they serve. Through a hyper-local focus, recruiting recent graduates from Wayne State University and local high schools, City Year Detroit is leading the nation in recruitment, Butler said. “We’ve out-recruited New York, Chicago and L.A. in terms of getting corps members to serve here," she said. Retention is another matter, though. City Year Detroit finished 2023 with a 67% retention rate for corps members, Butler said. It’s starting this year with about 100 members. “I want to make sure we finish with 80 (of them) finishing 10 months of service,” she
said. The housing supplement will help corps members pay for their housing while they are coaching and mentoring Detroit Public Schools Community District students in grades 3-9. The local affiliate, which is operating on a $7.4 million budget this year, is launching a pilot program that will provide a $2,500 housing stipend to members this year and $5,000 next year, Butler said. Aside from one-time housing stipends its Denver affiliate provided AmeriCorps members during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Detroit housing stipend is the first of its kind in the national City Year network, Butler said. At the same time, City Year Detroit is looking to create affordable housing for its corps members. Its former executive director, Andrew Stein (who left to lead the Children’s Foundation in October 2022), first approached Brilliant Detroit with the idea of securing affordable housing for a handful of AmeriCorps members at a time, Brilliant Detroit’s co-founder and CEO Cindy Eggleton said. The concept made sense, she said, given the alignment between their work. Brilliant Detroit owns 18 houses in central Detroit, 15 of them currently operating as in-neighborhood sites where families are served through programming in education, health and family support.
“Brilliant Detroit focuses on zero to 8 (years old); City Year focuses 8 on up,” Eggleton said. “This provides a beautiful pipeline for our kids.” Brilliant Detroit, which is operating on a $10 million budget this year, is looking for one house to start in the neighborhood around the Marygrove College campus, one that needs minimal updating and can be ready by summer to rent to about five AmeriCorps members. The Kresge Foundation and New York-based Ford Foundation have provided $135,000 to purchase the first house. Brilliant Detroit will own and manage the property — its first rental site — which will likely be located near another of its community hubs, Eggleton said, providing a volunteering opportunity for AmeriCorps members who commit to hundreds of hours of service each year. Corps members will be offered the housing at a discounted rate. “Because we have a lot of young people who want to be teachers, there’s a lot of synergy to connect the dots to the neighborhoods,” Butler said. Brilliant Detroit isn’t looking at the rental house as a revenue generator. The arrangement will help it address shortages of volunteers, especially in the area of literacy, Eggleton said. “We’re really looking at it as a partnership to deepen impact in neighborhoods and communities, alongside City Year.”
brief. The GOP did not respond to the demand letter and has been in default for more than 120 days. The attorneys noted that both exchair Ron Weiser and former chief of staff Paul Cordes were authorized to procure loans on the party’s behalf and that Cordes signed the loan contract. They also said the main disputes outlined in the complaint, which entity owns the headquarters and whether the party’s trademark rights were infringed, “have nothing to do with Comerica.” Even if the bank were a proper party in the suit, the lawyers wrote, the GOP did not make allegations about the loan that would form a cause of action against the bank. It also did not seek to rescind the loan, according to Comerica, “because that would require the MRP to restore Comerica to the same position that it occupied before the Note was created, i.e., to return to Comerica the money that it loaned to the MRP.” Ingham County Circuit Judge Wanda Stokes has scheduled a Feb. 22 hearing to consider if the case should proceed or be tossed. The trust also is asking that it be dismissed and that the party be sanctioned and forced to pay the trust’s attorneys’ fees and costs. For two consecutive weekends, Republicans met amid upheaval within the state committee. Kristina Karamo says she remains the chair despite a Jan. 6 vote to remove her. Committee members convened Jan. 13 and voted to keep her on the
LANSING — Comerica Bank is seeking dismissal of a “befuddling” lawsuit in a dispute over ownership of the Michigan Republican Party’s former headquarters, contending it is caught in the crossfire and not a proper defendant. As of early December, the GOP owed the bank more than $520,000, including $509,000 in principal debt and over $11,000 in interest and late fees. Eyeing a sale of the Lansing building to pay back the loan, the cash-strapped party last month sued a trust of former GOP chairs that controls a limited liability company that owns the property, which is valued at $730,000. It also filed suit against Comerica, requesting a declaration that it has no responsibility for the credit, which the prior administration obtained in 2022. Such debt is not unusual in an election year and is typically repaid in the following year, but the GOP has had trouble raising money and most recently is embroiled in a fight over who leads it. The Michigan Republican Party “has not adequately articulated a cause of action against Comerica about its obligation under the note,” the bank’s lawyers, Thomas Cranmer, Scott Eldridge and Erica Jilek of Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone in Lansing, wrote in a filing this month. “Instead, the MRP asserts contradictory, befuddling, and factually unsupported allegations about the Note and other loan documents; for example, that one of the documents is either not valid, was revoked, was never revoked, simply does not exist, or that the signatory lacked authority to sign it. The allegations are so poorly and inconsistently pled that it is almost impossible to interpret what the MRP — Comerica filing claims regarding its oblijob, she announced. Nine of 13 Regation under the Note.” The bank sent a default letter to publican congressional district the party’s general counsel, Dan chairs, however, issued a statement Hartman, on Nov. 22. The party did saying they recognize co-chair Manot respond and did not make its linda Pego as the leader until a new December payment, prompting Co- chair is elected. The matter could end up in court, merica to send a demand letter on Dec. 12, according to the bank’s too.
“The (Michigan Republican Party) asserts contradictory, befuddling, and factually unsupported allegations about the Note and other loan documents.”
Comerica Bank, which is owed money by the Michigan Republican Party, is asking to be dismissed from a lawsuit in which the GOP seeks ownership of a former headquarters building and a declaration that it is not obligated to repay the loan. | DAVID EGGERT JANUARY 22, 2024 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 7
Big visions. Big deals. Big impact. That’s what Crain’s Detroit Business’ top Newsmakers brought to metro Detroit in 2023. The list of the top 10 Newsmakers of the year, including Newsmaker of the Year Bob Riney of Henry Ford Health, were selected by Crain’s journalists for their influence on moving the region and state forward during the year.
NIC ANTAYA
Crain’s will honor Riney and all of our Newsmakers at a luncheon March 21 at MGM Grand Detroit. Tickets can be purchased for the luncheon and all Crain’s events at crainsdetroit.com/events.
Bob Riney President & CEO, Henry Ford Health By Dustin Walsh
Bob Riney was Mr. Detroit in 2023. He’s affable and speaks of the city and region as an underdog, deserving of a brighter future and better services. Riney can be seen at Detroit Pistons games and nearly every major business conference waxing eloquent about Henry Ford Health’s aspirations, the city’s aspirations. The Henry Ford Health CEO — who has spent nearly 46 years, his entire career, at the Detroit health system — is quarterbacking the system’s ambitious $4.9 billion expansion throughout Southeast Michigan. All announced last year. In February, Riney and the system outlined a $3 billion hospital expansion that includes a new hospital tower across from its 8 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | JANUARY 22, 2024
legacy hospital on West Grand Boulevard in the city. Part of that new tower will include the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, the only offshoot of the world-renowned rehabilitation hospital in Chicago, a win for the community and the health system thanks to nearly $400 million from Dan Gilbert’s foundation. Gilbert spent months at Shirley Ryan following his stroke in 2019. The Detroit Pistons and its owner Tom Gores are taking part in the system’s efforts by taking over HFH’s existing headquarters in New Center with the aim of creating a new neighborhood with residential and retail offerings. Then in October, HFH announced it planned to merge itself into a new parent company along with eight Ascension Health hospitals across Southeast Michigan in a no-cash deal
that would create the secondlargest health system in the state with 50,000 employees across 550 locations. “In many ways, 2023 was the convergence of a couple of major strategic decisions that had been in the works for a long period of time,” Riney said. “It’s a rare opportunity to move forward with those initiatives at the same time. In an ideal setting, they wouldn’t be coming to fruition at the exact same moment, but we couldn’t pass on the opportunities.” Riney and HFH made the bold moves as part of a larger strategy — make the regional health system a national player with the likes of the Mayo Clinic or Johns Hopkins or Cleveland Clinic. “We already have an incredible reputation nationally for our specialty care, centered at Henry
Ford Hospital in Detroit,” Riney said. “We’ll now have an environment that matches that talent. Part that means not just have clinical expertise but the amenities and environment for the patients and families searching for top notch care.” But it’s easy to talk about aspirations. It’s much harder to make them a reality. This year, Riney will spend his time planning and fundraising. “2024 is going to be the launch of our efforts,” Riney said. “2024 will be a great year of planning and forming a collaborative team-based approach to positioning the organization for the next several decades.” The $4.9 billion in capital expenditures will be funded primarily by operational revenue. The breakdown is such: 66% of the expenditures will come from
operations; 9%, or more than $500 million, will come from philanthropy; 10%, or as much as $400 million, from new debt; and 7%, or about $265 million, from federal energy subsidies. Riney has said the new hospital is expected to be emission-free with its own dedicated electric power plant. But the system still needs an additional $300 million to complete its plans. That’s what Riney will be focused this year as well as juggling the complicated task of integrating the Ascension hospitals and ensuring the system is profitable in a challenging health care economic environment. All leading up to the grand opening of the new tower in 2029, when Riney turns 70. When asked if he is planning to still be at Henry Ford by then, he responded: “I absolutely am.”
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NEWSMAKERS OF THE YEAR
Kofi Bonner
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By Kirk Pinho
Not many commercial real estate executives were busier in 2023 than Kofi Bonner, CEO of Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock LLC. Bonner, who came to Bedrock in September 2020, has overseen the team, brought the haunting Italian Renaissance-style Book Tower and Book Building back online after years of abandonment, and marked continued progress to the Hudson’s site development on Woodward Avenue. Couple that with bringing forward a revamped development plan for the project now called The Development on Cadillac Square — perhaps more widely known by its previous name, the Monroe Blocks — as well as near completion on the new Wayne County Consolidated Jail project, and there’s been no shortage news to come out of the Bedrock camp this year. (Wayne County officials have argued that the jail is not yet done.) That’s also not including the company making progress on landing glass manufacturing startup LuxWall Inc. to one of Bedrock’s industrial properties in southwest Detroit as well as adding new retail space downtown (although there have been several Woodward Avenue tenants that
have shuttered downtown in the last year or so). To get the Book Tower project across the finish line marks perhaps the most complex and significant commercial redevelopment downtown since the $180 million redevelopment of the Westin Book Cadillac, just to the south on Washington Boulevard. Work began on the Louis Kamper-designed Book Tower back in 2016, with clearing the building out and other tasks. And since, through the challenges that come with a project that complex not to mention a global pandemic, the building has been turned into a mix of residential, hospitality, coworking and food and beverage options. “It’s just good to know that it has a deep sort of rightful place in Detroit, as a memorable place one must visit,” Bonner said. The same could be said of the Hudson’s department store in its heyday, before its 1998 implosion. That one had not come out of the ground when Bonner had arrived over three years ago. “And right smack dab in the middle of the pandemic,” Bonner said. “The complexity of the building structure, the viscosity of resources, both labor and supplies, certainly added complexity to an
already complicated building. Managing our way through that certainly taxed the soul. But we’re almost there.” As of early December, the skyscraper rising in its place was about 560 feet, or a little over 80% of the way toward its final height of about 685 feet, making it the secondtallest building in the state. “You crane your neck back now, we’re almost there. It’s moving along,” Bonner said. The Hudson’s project, which also consists of a smaller new building to the north with 400,000plus square feet of office space, is expected to come online in phases, likely with the office component first, perhaps this year, followed by a luxury Edition hotel and for-sale condominium space. And The Development on Cadillac Square project — a reimagining of the $830 million Monroe Blocks project that had a December 2018 groundbreaking but never truly got underway — is now slated to start this year following the NFL Draft in April. The first phase is expected to include incorporating the old National Theatre façade into a new 2,000-seat entertainment venue, plus a market hall-type concept. “We’re working feverishly on drawings,” Bonner said.
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Matt Cullen Chairman, Detroit Riverfront Conservancy and JACK Entertainment It was the late 1990s when Matt Cullen, then a general manager for real estate at General Motors, was looking out a window from his office in the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit. He could see beautiful park spaces and pathways for walking and biking across the Detroit River in Windsor, but only crumbling and abandoned buildings and immovable cement silos on the Detroit side. He thought about how growing up in the city he and others only knew the river was there if they went to Belle Isle. There was no public access to the river and no reason to even try to get to it. Cullen’s view that day spurred a more than 20-year passion project to reinvigorate Detroit’s riverfront and ensure the public could get to and enjoy it. In 2023, with Cullen as founding chair, the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy completed the first piece of the vision: the 3.5-mile east RiverWalk and a connected system of seven parks created through additional leveraged investment. The view of Detroit’s waterfront from the RenCen is very different today, Cullen said. “We went from bombed-out buildings to the best riverwalk in the United States three years in a 10 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | JANUARY 22, 2024
NADIR ALI
By Sherri Welch
row, right? I mean, it’s just incredible,” he said. “And it doesn’t happen without … great folks involved at every level.” Back then, Cullen saw opportunity when plans to put casinos on the Detroit River fell through. He pulled together a long list of public and private groups, from GM to the Kresge Foundation to the city of Detroit, to bring to life a vision to redevelop 5.5 miles of riverfront from the MacArthur Bridge to Belle Isle to the east to the
Ambassador Bridge to the west. Cullen led formation of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy in 2003 and helped secure the first piece of the RiverWalk — the GM Plaza in front of the RenCen. He was also front and center on fundraising and with his wife, Karen, contributed $4 million to the project. From the very beginning, the strategy included raising money for a permanent endowment to ensure the riverfront would be
cared for long after he and other leaders were gone. After 20 years, more than $300 million has been invested in the RiverWalk so far. “It is very gratifying to me to be able to feel that when we’re done with the project … it’s something that is not only just transformational, but it’s going to stand the test of time,” Cullen said. The conservancy is now working to complete the remaining 2 miles of the west RiverWalk and riverfront, including the Ralph C.
Wilson Jr. Centennial Park, and negotiating with the Moroun family for access to the last pieces of land needed. When fully completed, direct and leveraged investment in the RiverWalk and waterfront will exceed $1 billion, said Cullen, now chairman of Jack Entertainment gaming company once affiliated with Dan Gilbert. But Cullen isn’t stopping there. As the 29.5-mile Joe Louis Greenway began to take shape to connect 23 Detroit neighborhoods and the cities of Highland Park, Hamtramck and Dearborn to each other and Detroit’s waterfront, he saw the potential to leverage the success seen on the riverfront. He led the founding of the Unified Greenway Campaign, a partnership of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, city of Detroit and Joe Louis Greenway Partnership. He brought fundraising for the two organizations together, with a goal to raise $350 million to complete the riverfront and greenway and create and expand permanent endowments. The Unified Greenway Campaign effort has raised about $270 million of that joint goal to date, Cullen said. He hopes to see completion of the riverfront and the Joe Louis Greenway by the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy’s 25th anniversary five years from now.
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April Clobes President & CEO, Michigan State University Federal Credit Union By Anna Fifelski
Michigan State University Federal Credit Union is expanding its reach — not only outside its home state, but in the venture capital space as well. April Clobes, 51, has been the president and CEO of MSUFCU since 2015, but last year she marked the credit union’s 86th anniversary with an expansion to Chicago with the acquisition of two banks in the Chicago suburbs; McHenry Savings Bank and Algonquin State Bank. “For us, it is critically important that we locate where our members are located,” Clobes said. “We have measured growth plans. Michigan State alumni reside in very specific regions of the U.S. and so I could see us, in the long term, evaluating if we need to be closer to those members. But at the moment, we’re very focused on the Midwest, the state of Michigan and our growth in Illinois. And then we measure each year where the migration of members is and then if we see a reasonable enough population then we will consider a location in that region.”
startup mode, you may not be able to scope and grow as quickly to serve an institution of our size, so then we also provide investments to the fintechs in order for them to be able to scale and grow their operations,” Clobes said. “And that’s beneficial for us because they now are part of the credit union service industry. They are able to provide needed disruption and products and services that our
members are looking for and so that’s been a benefit for us and really helping us be relevant for the future.” Clobes has no plans on slowing down in 2024. She told Crain’s that MSUFCU will be keeping with their expansion plan and opening two new stores in Brighton and Novi as well as outfitting and rebranding the physical stores of the Chicagoarea acquisitions.
“For us, it is critically important that we locate where our members are located. We have measured growth plans.” — April Clobes Clobes was chosen as a 2023 Crain’s Newsmaker of the Year because of her leadership and vision behind the growth of MSUFCU but also in the credit union market in general. MSUFCU is the second-largest credit union in Michigan by assets and the largest universitybased credit union in the world. Its size allows the organization to expand in more ways than physical. In collaboration with the MSU Research Foundation and the Eli Broad College of Business Insurance and Risk Management Program, the Conquer Finance and Insurance Accelerator will be training financial and technology startups with the goal of making East Lansing a hub for entrepreneurs. MSUFCU will be hosting the onsite segments of the Conquer Finance and Insurance Accelerator program in a new building at 311 Abbot Road in East Lansing. Clobes said part of the investment was motivated by MSUFCU members’ growing interest in the new technologies startups could provide. “Oftentimes, when you’re in a JANUARY 22, 2024 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 11
NEWSMAKERS OF THE YEAR
Sheila Ford Hamp Principal owner & chair, Detroit Lions Detroit Lions principal owner and Chair Sheila Ford Hamp had an interesting 2023. Ford Hamp at the start of the year saw her team end the season on a high note before just missing out on the playoffs. The Lions in the spring drafted a slew of players who are now major contributors to a team that won its first division title in three decades. Dating back to the second half of last season, Detroit is 20-7 in its last 27 regular season contests. The 72-year-old Ford Hamp, who took over ownership of the team in 2020 from her mother Martha Ford, told Crain’s a lot of parties deserve credit for the team’s turnaround. “Any credit that comes our way is definitely shared because in this business no one succeeds by themself,” Ford Hamp said. “I honestly see my role as the easy part: set a vision, find the best people to bring that vision to life, and give them the tools they need to do their job. “(President Rod Wood, general manager Brad Holmes, special assistant to the president/CEO Chris Spielman and head coach Dan Campbell) spend every day with their staff bringing that vision to life. Collectively, we’re excited about where we are heading and know the future of the Lions will be written by everyone who works here — not just one person.” Lots of people believed in the Lions this season. The 2023 campaign marked the first time the team sold its full allotment of season tickets since it moved to Ford Field in 2002. Despite past missteps, Ford
AP
By Jay Davis
“I find joy in knowing that young girls out there can see all of us in these positions and know that it’s possible for them to lead an NFL team one day if that’s where their passion leads them.” — Sheila Ford Hamp Hamp said she’s not surprised by the increased interest in the team. “Honestly, I wasn’t shocked. We have amazing fans in Detroit and I’ve always believed that if
we gave them a team that worked hard and represented the city well that they’d fill Ford Field and we’ve seen that this year. “What has surprised me is the overwhelming support we’ve
seen on the road. There’s truly been a Honolulu blue wave that’s followed us throughout the season and we couldn’t be more appreciative. I see photos every week of packed airplanes heading to our games and fans in blue filling concourses and tailgates. It’s so fun to watch.” Ford Hamp is watching from an interesting position. She’s one of nine women who own an NFL team. That fact is not lost on the Lions owner. “It’s amazing to see so many women at the helm of NFL teams,” Ford Hamp said. “I’ve
told a story about not being able to get a job in the league when I graduated from Yale even though my father was an owner and I was friends with (then-commissioner Pete Rozelle). The league has come a long way since then. “I find joy in knowing that young girls out there can see all of us in these positions and know that it’s possible for them to lead an NFL team one day if that’s where their passion leads them. I know the first female commissioner of the NFL is out there somewhere, and I hope we’re creating a path for her.”
from his stroke — to Detroit. Another $240 million will create and fund the Nick Gilbert Neurofibromatosis Research Institute, aimed at curing the disease that killed their son. The pledge will include construction-
related payments tied to the estimated $50 million cost to build the institute, as well as roughly $190 million in grants over 10 years to be made to a yet-to-be established nonprofit that will operate the institute. The pledges made for the fourth largest philanthropic gifts of 2023 in the United States, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. The idea to bring an outpost of the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab to Detroit, Jennifer Gilbert said, dates back to 2019 when her husband had a stroke. The origins of the NF research institute come from the struggles that Nick Gilbert faced as a result of his disease. “We didn’t start working on this in June and make the announcement in September,” Jennifer Gilbert said of the initiatives. “It really has evolved over time.”
Jennifer Gilbert
Co-founder, Gilbert Family Foundation
By Nick Manes
To call 2023 a challenging year for Jennifer Gilbert and her family would be an understatement. However, the tragic death in May of 26-year-old Nick Gilbert — son of Dan and Jennifer, Detroit’s most prominent business and civic couple — did bring about one of the largest philanthropic gifts of the year, with a clear goal to eradicate the disease that brought about the death of their son. “I think what keeps people going — and especially what keeps me going — is the fact that it isn’t all bad,” Jennifer Gilbert told Crain’s of how they harnessed the tragedy into action. “Even though we lost our son — and there’s nothing good about that — it’s 12 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | JANUARY 22, 2024
what you do in the in-between times … (and) gives you places to place the grief and do something with it.” Five months after the death of their son — and more than four years after Dan Gilbert suffered a stroke that resulted in months of recovery in a Chicago area rehab facility — the Gilberts stood on a stage in the newly opened Book Tower in downtown Detroit in September and outlined nearly $400 million in gifts aimed at treating both illnesses. In total, Dan and Jennifer Gilbert — through their Gilbert Family Foundation — pledged $374 million toward two different health ventures, as well as an additional $25 million paid over 10 years toward planning efforts for the roughly $3 billion expansion
of Henry Ford Health. For the pledges, the Gilberts have committed a total of $134 million to Henry Ford to bring Shirley Ryan AbilityLab — a rehabilitation facility near Chicago where Dan Gilbert recovered
Congratulations
TERESA K. WOODRUFF 2023 CRAIN’S NEWSMAKER
Congratulations to Interim President Teresa K. Woodruff and all our fellow Spartans and friends on being named a Crain’s 2023 Newsmaker of the Year. Thank you for your unwavering support of and contributions to our global Spartan community.
SPARTANS WILL.
MSU Trailblazers and Valued Partners: Crain’s 2023 Newsmakers APRIL CLOBES
MSU Federal Credit Union President & CEO MSU Alum
JENNIFER GILBERT
Gilbert Family Foundation Founder MSU Alum
RYAN MAIBACH Barton Malow CEO Valued Partner
BOB RINEY
Henry Ford Health President & CEO Valued Partner Crain’s Newsmaker of the Year
JOE TATE
Michigan House of Representatives Speaker of the House MSU Alum
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NEWSMAKERS OF THE YEAR
Hamissi Mamba and Nadia Nijimbere Owners, Baobab Fare By Jay Davis
Baobab Fare owners, and husband and wife Hamissi Mamba and Nadia Nijimbere saw their stars shine in 2023. A little more than two years after the East African restaurant opened in Detroit’s New Center area, the couple garnered some strong notoriety. Baobab Fare in 2023 earned a James Beard Foundation nomination. Mamba in March won an episode of the Food Network’s “Chopped.” The entrepreneurs didn’t set out to become stars, but anything that helps the couple educate more people on their home country of Burundi and its cuisine is a plus. “Things have been great,” Mamba told Crain’s. “Everything has been a blessing. This was a dream for us for a long time. Coming to Detroit as a refugee, leaving Freedom House, I couldn’t get a job. This is the American dream, and that dream is for everyone. Not only are we selling food, we’re telling our story. I think the only place things can happen like that is in Detroit.” Mamba and Nijimbere will eventually have another place to tell that story. The Baobab Fare owners this year plan to open a second location at 16900 E. Warren Ave. after purchasing the building from the city of Detroit for $145,000. The 3,100-square-foot east side space was built in 1956. It’s about 1,000 square feet larger than Baobab Fare’s current location at 6568 Woodward Ave. Mamba said the new location could open in December 2024. He said street food from their Waka
“We’re working to provide good food at good prices. We’re trying to make sure we pay good prices to the farms so we can continue to offer food at affordable prices.” to offer meals at schools. “We don’t have a contract or anything like that. It’s something we talk about, though,” Mamba
said. “People complain about what the kids are eating, so we just want to help.” Mamba doesn’t think he and Nijimbere will slow down anytime soon. The couple in 2023 made trips to Africa and Central America to meet with food growers and farmers, as the restaurant owners work to keep prices down. Along with the new restaurant, Mamba and Nijimbere have their sights set on
owning their own grocery store, too, and offering their own line of East African products. “What we accomplished this year gives us motivation to do more,” Mamba said. “We’re working to provide good food at good prices. We’re trying to make sure we pay good prices to the farms so we can continue to offer food at affordable prices. We just really felt motivated. This was a year of confirmation for us.”
not really supposed to have a favorite necessarily.” But there are plenty to pick from. There are those that point to
the future: the Hudson’s site skyscraper in downtown Detroit, a symbol of the city’s continued rise, and electric vehicle battery plants completed or in development for Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co., representing the future of mobility. Others have cemented their place in history and withstood the test of time, such as Ford’s Woodhaven Stamping Plant, constructed in 1964. Every once in a while, a project marries the past and the future. For Maibach, one of those developments is Henry Ford Health’s planned $1.8 billion, 1 millionsquare-foot New Center campus, which Barton Malow was tapped to build. One of Maibach’s first major projects was an expansion of Henry Ford’s facilities in Detroit around 30 years ago, when he did concrete layout work as an intern. “It’s very local, and I think per-
sonal, the type of work that we do,” Maibach said. And of course, some projects are just plain cool. The Exchange building in downtown Detroit, constructed from top down, fits the bill. Adopting principles of the automotive assembly line, crews assembled each floor of the building on the ground before hoisting it into place. Akin to just-in-time manufacturing, prefab materials were brought to the site on an as-needed basis. The method is being applied to other projects of different shapes and sizes — even EV battery plants, in a horizontal sense, Maibach said. It’s all in the spirit of driving innovation and efficiencies. “Construction represents a huge chunk of GDP,” Maibach said. “There’s a responsibility to society really to be better stewards of capital.”
— Hamissi Mamba brand will be a part of the concept. The Baobab Fare owners are working to establish a relationship with Detroit public schools in an effort
Ryan Maibach President & CEO, Barton Malow By Kurt Nagl
Any construction worker knows the best part of the job is seeing the finished product. For Ryan Maibach, president and CEO of construction behemoth Barton Malow Holdings, the fun is in finding new ways to shape steel and concrete into the built environment. “One of the coolest things about our business is the sense of pride and ownership you have in the projects that you create,” Maibach said during an interview at his Southfield office. It means even more than that, though. Buildings create identity for communities and capture the imagination. People feel an attachment to them. That’s definitely true for Maibach, the fourth generation of his family to work for Barton Malow, which has rapidly grown to $4.8 billion in revenue in 2023 and is behind some of 14 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | JANUARY 22, 2024
the most high profile construction projects in the country. “I do often joke that projects are like kids,” Maibach said. “You’re
MAKING EVERY DAY BETTER SINCE 1852 YMCA OF METROPOLITAN DETROIT
Today we acknowledge key milestones for our organization, leadership, and volunteers from 2023 that support our commitment to youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility.
MARCH 2023 The YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit was honored as the Detroit Free Press Best of Detroit for Summer Day Camps. We are truly grateful for all the community votes to receive this people’s choice recognition. Every summer thousands of Detroit children are actively engaged in YMCA summer camps.
APRIL 2023 Eric Huffman was elected as the 58th Chair of the Board for the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit. Huffman is the first African American to serve as the organization’s Chief Volunteer Officer. Huffman’s career began as a State Farm claims manager and advanced to an agent owner where he served metropolitan Detroiters for over 27 years.
AUGUST 2023 Ben Maibach was recognized as a YMCA Achiever Champion and presented the Leo B. Marsh Honor in recognition of outstanding Philanthropy with a proven record of leadership, civic engagement, and exceptional generosity with the YMCA Achievers Program. Maibach has been an unwavering volunteer of our YMCA for four decades. Maibach has nearly 60 years of experience in construction at Barton Malow from laborer in 1962 to President and CEO.
NOVEMBER 2023 Parrish Underwood was selected as the 15th President and CEO of the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit. Underwood is the first African American to serve as the organization’s President and CEO. To date, Underwood spent his 31-year career with YMCA affiliates, helping YMCAs secure substantial philanthropic support and achieve organizational sustainability.
NOVEMBER 2023 The YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit earned the prestigious Praesidium Accreditation for child safety lead by Lisa Mullin, Vice President of Human Resources and Risk Management, who has earned the coveted Praesidium Guardian honor. Praesidium Accreditation® is a prestigious honor that publicly demonstrates the organization has worked to achieve the highest industry standards in abuse prevention. WANT TO HELP THE YMCA HELP OTHERS? BECOME A YMCA EVERYDAY HERO TODAY.
SCAN TO LEARN MORE ABOUT YMCA’S IMPACT AND MEET OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM
NOVEMBER 2023 The YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit Revitalize and Thrive Campaign raised over 14 million dollars to improve program quality by modernizing our spaces and services to meet evolving community needs. The campaign was chaired by James M. Nicholson. James B. and Ann Nicholson/PVS Chemical were awarded the Max M. Fisher Award for Outstanding Philanthropist, by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). In addition, Ron Deneweth has served as the YMCA Annual Campaign Chair for over a decade raising nearly ten million dollars. Ron is a senior partner with Deneweth, Vittiglio, and Sassak. He was also honored by AFP and received the Distinguished Volunteer award. IN SUMMARY The YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit has over 18,000 members, 155 full time employees, over 400 part time and seasonal team members, over 900 volunteers, and over 100 community partners. Together, we serve over 50,000 Metropolitan Detroiters. Over 10,000 of the children and seniors we serve are not YMCA members. We are truly here for the community.
@YMCADetroit
NEWSMAKERS OF THE YEAR
Joe Tate Speaker, Michigan House of Representatives By David Eggert
When Joe Tate took the helm at the Michigan House, he was the first Democratic speaker to be sworn in in 14 years. With a slim majority, the Detroit native helped to usher through a major package of tax cuts and economic development funding, prounion laws, clean-energy policies, gun-control and abortion-rights measures, and expanded civil rights protections in his first year as leader. “I think 2023, we’ll look back as probably one of the most consequential years that we’ve had in the Michigan Legislature. I mean, we hit the ground running,” Tate told Crain’s. “My caucus, we want to focus on creating and passing meaningful policy and how we’re putting people first.” He enters year two planning an early focus on economic development, prescription drug prices and the budget. Once Democrats regain their 56-54 edge this spring following a temporary deadlock, he hopes to keep and expand it in the fall election. He is the first Detroit-area legislator to hold the gavel in either chamber since the 2009-10 session, which probably benefited his hometown — the state’s largest city
House Speaker Joe Tate (left) and House Minority Leader Matt Hall (second from right) are shown in the chamber in March. | DALE G. YOUNG
— in the first budget that was enacted by a Democratic governor and Democratic-led Legislature in 40 years. He also is the first Black lawmaker to ever lead a majority caucus. There were some setbacks. His push for Mayor Mike Dugganbacked bills to let Detroit voters decide whether to change the city’s
property tax system by reducing the levy on buildings and raising it on land stalled, though he will try again in 2024. He faces a delicate test as Democrats push to revise Michigan’s marquee business-attraction fund that is used for large-scale projects, incentives that have critics in both parties despite support from Gov.
Gretchen Whitmer and prominent economic development and business organizations. The package could be paired with the creation of a research-and-development tax credit and the restoration of tax credits for adding good-paying jobs He also is starting the year with control of the agenda but, due to the 54-54 split until April special
elections to fill Democratic-heavy seats, an inability to pass legislation from the floor without Republican support. “I want to pick up where we left off,” said Tate, who said he has no regrets about 2023. “I think there are a lot of opportunities for bipartisanship and want to make sure that we’re getting to work.”
team about how to prevent sexual abuse and misbehavior came to light months into a university investigation. Tucker was suspended then fired for bringing ridicule to the school and breaching his contract. He, too, is suing the university. The following month, Woodruff and other MSU leaders scrambled to apologize after a pre-game trivia question featuring a photograph of Adolf Hitler flashed on a Spartan Stadium screen before the matchup with the University of Michigan. Despite everything, Woodruff, who will hand the reins to MSU’s new President Kevin Guskiewicz in March, said she’d do it all again. “When I came to the university (in August 2020) as the provost, it was one of one of the best decisions I ever made,” she said. “My hope is that people will see this 16 months in that positive light of transition and transformation that has stabilized the foundation that will allow the incoming president to succeed.” After she steps down, Woodruff will return to the MSU faculty to focus on women’s health research on fertility management for young cancer patients and a joint discov-
ery made with her husband, Tom O’Halloran, University Foundation professor of chemistry and professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at MSU, and a Northwest-
ern University graduate student on the “zinc spark” that’s released from the egg at the time of fertilization and must be present for fertilization.
Teresa Woodruff Interim president, Michigan State University By Sherri Welch
Michigan State University’s interim president Teresa Woodruff has faced more in her short tenure than many university presidents see during years of service. The year 2023 started with positive news. In February new details emerged on an MSU-Henry Ford Health $100 million+ research center taking shape in Detroit. “The premise that we all base this on is that we can do health science in a way that aligns with health equity, that we can do cutting-edge scholarship that understands participant-based and community-based thinking,” Woodruff said. “By doing it with Henry Ford in Detroit, it’s going to be I think a model for others to emulate.” In June, in another move showing MSU is bullish on Detroit, the university announced its endowment’s purchase of a 79% stake in the city’s iconic Fisher Building not far from the Henry Ford campus. But the list of challenges Woodruff, who was named interim president in October 2022, faced during 2023 was much longer. In the wake of the fatal mass shooting on MSU’s East Lansing 16 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | JANUARY 22, 2024
campus in February, “our Spartan hearts were broken, and it was unimaginable what happened that night,” she said. “Helping to navigate people’s place and purpose and make sure that we could get back to the learning and teaching and research that was so necessary, was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. But we were able to do it together.” Still reeling from the shootings, Woodruff was among those sued by former business school dean Sanjay Gupta for allegedly orchestrating an effort to eliminate him as a competitor for the interim president position and ultimately, for removing him from his deanship. An independent investigation in April found MSU’s discipline of Gupta was “disproportionate.” The lawsuit is ongoing. Woodruff dropped out of the running to serve as MSU’s new president in August. It did not appear she would have had enough support from the eight-member board for the permanent position. In September, allegations that head football coach Mel Tucker had sexually harassed a prominent rape survivor and consultant hired to speak with the Spartans football
UM to expand entrepreneurship program By Sherri Welch
The University of Michigan’s Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project said it will expand the number of supervising faculty in Detroit to boost its capacity to serve entrepreneurs in the city and offer hands-on experience for students. The move comes as part of the program’s shift to the Stephen Ross School of Business from UM’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, where it has operated since launching in 2016. Over the past seven years, the program, an accelerator for small businesses, has helped nearly 700 of them in Detroit. “DNEP was successfully incubated at the Ford School as a race/ wealth gap intervention as about 90% of the businesses we work with are minority-owned. Ford gave us an economic and community development lens for our work,” Christie Ayotte Baer, managing director of DNEP and assistant executive director for the UM Center on Finance, Law and Policy, said in a news release. “As the program grew, it made
sense to shift the focus to tapping greater entrepreneurship expertise, and move to the Ross School,” where accounting services and a summer internship program are housed, she said. Shifting the program to the Ross School will enable Detroit startups to better connect to the entrepreneurial offerings available at the business school, Baer said. Those programs include the Impact Studio incubator focused on student-led, impact businesses; a graduate course focused on spurring green businesses in Detroit and a summer internship program that supports Detroit businesses. Since inception, the program has been a collaborative effort involving faculty from Ford, Ross and other schools and students from UM’s engineering, art and design, law and information science schools. “We try to stay with businesses until they can afford to hire professional staff. We want to help them with accounting, legal, business strategy, marketing — whatever they need,” Baer said. It recently added a new course
Chris Mueller, a lecturer in business administration in the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, talks with a group participating in the University of Michigan Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project. | UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
at the college of engineering to place businesses with industrial engineering students under the supervision of professors in that department and is talks with two business faculty members about new classes, as well, Baer said in an email to Crain’s. In recent years, the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project has focused on the Jefferson Chalmers, Southwest and Six Mile/Livernois neighborhoods in Detroit, recruiting businesses to those areas in addition to assisting
startups in them. It’s more intentionally partnering with community development organizations in targeted neighborhoods to identify businesses it can assist as clients, Baer said. By leaning on the expertise of local community development organizations whose members live in the neighborhoods and know which businesses are important to their neighborhoods, DNEP is working to develop clusters of businesses to go through the program’s classes together, she said.
“Our hope and expectation is that this will allow us to better measure impact within certain geographic areas,” Baer said. Most business owners in the neighborhood served by Jefferson East Inc. are microbusiness owners “or solopreneurs, if you will,” said Lutalo Sanifu, director of neighborhood resilience, safety and business district services. “Having extra minds at the table to help build out their process is critical to their success,” Sanifu said.
Economic Outlook Survey mildly positive for Michigan By Anna Fifelski
The 12th annual Michigan Economic Outlook Survey was unveiled at the Detroit Economic Club’s annual meeting Jan. 16 at the MotorCity Hotel and Casino. The survey ran from Nov. 14, 2023, to Dec. 16, 2023, and involved input from over 1,000 business people and many associations throughout the state. The report found that 42% of people have a positive perception of Michigan’s economy, as compared to 30% who had a negative outlook. Michigan’s rating as a “great place for young professionals” continues to slip, dropping to an average rating of 64 from 65 a year prior and 67 in 2022. Michigan’s Chief Growth Officer Hilary Doe; Quentin Messer, Michigan Economic Development Corporation CEO; and Gabriel Ehrlich, director of the research seminar in quantitative economics at the University of Michigan, discussed the implications of the report. Daniel Howes, a senior editor at The Detroit News, moderated the panel. According to the report, people were less optimistic about their organization or business six months in the future than they were about one or three year time frames. “We do expect Michigan to have a little bit of a soft patch for economic growth in the first half of
Quentin Messer (left), Michigan Economic Development Corporation CEO; Michigan’s Chief Growth Officer, Hilary Doe; Gabriel Ehrlich, director of the research seminar in quantitative economics at the University of Michigan; and Daniel Howes, senior editor at The Detroit News. | ANNA FIFELSKI
the year,” Ehrlich said. “The reality is high interest rates are gonna make it tough. It’s a challenge for the mortgage industry, the auto industry, (and) the building trades. The good news is inflation is falling right now. That’s going to get the Federal Reserve space to pivot away from fighting inflation and towards supporting growth a little more and that should give some relief to Michigan. We expect growth to start picking up in the second half of this year and then into 2025.” Ehrlich said analysts often track Michigan’s economic growth based on how the state compares to before the COVID-19 pandem-
ic, however, he said Michigan is only just beginning to recover from the impact the pandemic had on unemployment. “Michigan lost a lot more jobs at the start of the pandemic. The historical pattern is when the national economy catches a cold, Michigan gets the flu,” Ehrlich said. “If you look at the data, inflation is slowing down. We’re not going to see prices go back to where they were before the pandemic, but we can see the prices get back to where the Federal Reserve wants it to be, which is about 2% per year.” It will take a year or two to see a real difference in Michigan’s net migration numbers, Doe told Crain’s.
“We’ve done some comparative analysis relative to faster-growing states to identify where we need to improve our metrics to undergird our growth and speed it up,” Doe said. “In particular, where we can be more supportive of attracting talent. And what we’ve been hearing from folks, is that it’s not a single thing anymore, in terms of jobs, the great opportunities, great places and welcoming communities.” In essence, the “package” of a place matters. Messer said that he can see Michigan succeeding in attracting young people if they can “win” in regard to people, places and projects. “I think ultimately businessmen and businesswomen make decisions about where they see an upward trajectory, where they see energy and civic engagement, where they can, especially now in this generation of leadership, where they can have an impact, highly defined impact.” Messer is optimistic about Michigan’s future, but he believes that how Michigan residents speak about their home state is feeding the loss of young people. He said he’s seen a trend that many people will choose to be humble about Michigan’s accomplishments as opposed to other growing states like Texas. “I think Michiganders have
been like, ‘The product will speak for itself. Our excellence will speak for itself,’” Messer said. “Whether it’s in higher education, whether it’s in our ability to manufacture anything from cars to things in aerospace, to furniture, to clothes, whatever. It will speak for itself. But I think sometimes we forget the importance of messaging. . . . There is something to be said about just the power of just relentlessly thinking you’re going to win.” Doe told Crain’s that she doesn’t think the outcome of the 2024 presidential election will impact Michigan’s growth plan, but it is necessary that the growth plan needs to last beyond any gubernatorial administration. A critical component of Michigan’s growth story, Doe said, is scholar attraction, retention, and small business entrepreneurship. Ehrlich said the United Auto Workers union strike had less of an impact on the state than many people anticipated, though it will take time before all the strike’s implications are known. “We really got lucky that the strike was wrapping up by late October,” Ehrlich said. “I do think that if it had gone longer, it would have gone into the holiday season. It would have had more of an impact on Michigan’s economy, but those spillover effects take time to materialize.” JANUARY 22, 2024 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 17
Seniors to see tax exemptions on retirement income LANSING — Starting this tax season, Michiganders with retirement benefits will pay less income tax under a new law being phased in over four years. The plan is expected to save 500,000 households an average of $1,000 a year by the time it is fully implemented. It will benefit one in every eight households. The law, which takes effect Feb. 13, essentially will restore for most taxpayers an exemption for pension and other retirement income that was in place before the 2012 tax year. That is when it was eliminated or scaled back, based on a retiree’s age, as part of a broader measure that also slashed business taxes and ended various exemptions and deductions for individuals. A look at the changes:
Options In 2011, then-Gov. Rick Snyder and Republican legislators created
a three-tier, age-based system under which many taxpayers could not exempt retirement income from taxation until they turn 67. Now they will be able to use an existing $20,000 deduction for single filers or $40,000 for joint filers, or a new one that will both get bigger and expand to younger and younger seniors over time. Certain retirees — state and local police, firefighters and county corrections officers — will be able to fully subtract their pension immediately. Depending on their birth year, others with public or private retirement income such as a pension or 401(k) will be allowed to exempt a greater percentage of a $61,518 cap for single filers and a $123,036 cap for joint filers that are in place for older seniors who were grandfathered in more than a decade ago: 25% for the 2023 tax year, 50% for the 2024 tax year, 75% for the 2025 tax year and 100% for the 2026 tax year. That cap increases each year with inflation.
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By David Eggert
Savings Advertising Section
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
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We are pleased to announce that Misty Pleiness has been promoted to Partner at RSM here in Detroit. Misty brings over 18 years of experience in internal audit support, IT external audit, SOC reporting, ERP implementation, and data analytics to the ownership team. She focuses primarily on global public companies across manufacturing, technology, and life sciences industries.
Justin Hadley has been promoted to Market Leader of the Michigan emerging markets team. In his new role, he will lead a team that focuses primarily on Private Equity and M & A Markets. His responsibilities include driving growth & innovation in the emerging market segment for our MI team. Justin specializes in driving Total Reward and Compensation strategy for self-insured mid & large employers. He has an extensive background in managing Private Equity & Family Office portfolios.
Trial attorney R.J. Cronkhite has founded Cronkhite Counsel PLLC in downtown Birmingham, Michigan. The firm Cronkhite specializes in commercial real estate matters, representing both national and local REITs, property managers, and landlords. Cronkhite is former chair of the Michigan State Bar’s Litigation Section. Best Lawyers® perennially recognizes Cronkhite for his real estate Juras expertise. Cronkhite Counsel PLLC (cronkhitelaw.com) is thrilled to announce the addition of Danielle Juras. Juras is a certified paralegal with a decade of experience in sophisticated legal matters. Juras and Cronkhite most recently teamed up together at a national Am Law 200 firm.
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Gallagher Benefit Services Michael Hagerty has been promoted to Market Leader, Grand Rapids. In this role, Mike will lead a team of benefit consultants and have primary responsibility over driving growth in the Western Michigan Commercial & Consortium Markets. Mike joined the Gallagher team in 2019 after serving 20 years in public school finance. He is key strategist in the areas of claims analytics, investments, and membership growth/retention.
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Each retiree will benefit differently. Raising the amount that can be deducted saves taxpayers a smaller amount on average than lowering the age at which they become eligible, said Ron Leix, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Treasury. In year one, taxpayers born after 1945 and before 1959 will be able to subtract up to 25% of the maximum. In year two, those born after 1945 and before 1963 will qualify to deduct up to 50%. In year three, those born after 1945 and before 1967 will be eligible for the 75% exemption. In year four and beyond, all will qualify for the 100% deduction. Average savings are estimated at around $600 in the first tax year, $850 in the second, $950 in the third and $1,000 in the fourth, Leix said.
Complexity
changes in March after long vowing to repeal the “retirement tax.” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she heard about the importance of rescinding it “over and over again” on the campaign trail. “I’m really proud that this repeal of the retirement tax equalized the exemption for public and private pensions. So whether you’re an autoworker, a police officer, teacher, firefighter or plumber, you’re going to be able to keep more of your hardearned dollars,” she said this month while celebrating the law with the AARP in Lansing. “Because when you work for a lifetime, play by the rules and have retired, you should be able to count on that retirement.” Some Republicans also supported the repeal but voted no because they opposed other parts of the sweeping 2023 law that also boosted a business-attraction fund and potentially would have replaced an income tax cut trigger with a tax rebate. Snyder has said the old tax system was unfair to younger workers. It fully exempted pub-
While the law is effective Feb. 13, Treasury says it will ensure all eligible taxpayers can take advantage this tax season even if returns are filed before that date. The state’s 2023 tax return forms and instructions incorporate the old and new ex— Gov. Gretchen Whitmer emption options. Treasury has put information about the changes lic pensions and partially exonline. It will post a retirement empted private pensions and and pension subtraction esti- certain 401(k) distributions up mator on Feb. 12 to help retirees to a specific threshold. He has calculate the best tax treatment said the 2011 overhaul still left for their income. The tax code, Michigan with one of the most however, is complex and people senior-friendly tax schemes in may have to consult with a tax the U.S. The latest change will reduce professional for guidance. revenue by $281 million this fiscal year, $350 million in the next Long-sought change year and $453 million in the Democrats, who had full con- 2025-26 budget year, according trol in Lansing for the first time to the nonpartisan House Fiscal in decades, enacted the tax Agency.
“When you work for a lifetime, play by the rules and have retired, you should be able to count on that retirement.”
Northville Downs, which opened in 1944, will cease operations Feb. 3. The racetrack is slated to be demolished for redevelopment of the site. | NORTHVILLE DOWNS
Northville Downs racetrack to close By Crain’s Detroit Business
New-home construction coming online could help alleviate inventory woes that have crimped home sales in metro Detroit. | MICHAEL LEE
More homes are changing hands in U.S., but not yet in metro Detroit By Nick Manes
While the rest of the country saw a bump in home sales in recent months — as interest rates have fallen below 7%, albeit ticking up again in recent weeks — metro Detroit experienced the opposite. Two new reports show that the general trend of 2023 in Southeast Michigan, of home sales falling year-over-year while prices continued to increase, also played out in the final month of the year. By comparison, home sales around the country are on the uptick, largely attributed to expanding inventory providing hungry buyers with more options than they’ve had in years. Though not yet the case in metro Detroit, it soon could be, according to Jeanette Schneider, the president of Troy-based residential brokerage Re/Max of Southeast Michigan. And would-be buyers around Michigan are also getting little help from new home construction, according to a separate report. Around the country, existHEALTH BENEFITS ing-home sales rose from a 13-year
MARKET PLACE
of sales fell nearly 4% in December from the previous month, according to a Re/Max report. Similarly, a report from Farmington Hillsbased multiple listing service Realcomp II Ltd. showed December sales fell by nearly 8% from a month earlier. The two reports, each released monthly, track slightly different metrics so often show different data. The four counties tracked in the Re/Max report — Livingston, Macomb, Oakland and Wayne — all experienced a year-over-year drop in overall sales, ranging from 11% to more than 30%, according to Schneider. “When you have all four counties kind of in the same boat with inventory just not coming to market, I believe that is certainly one of the major factors why we’re not seeing a little bump in the home sales numbers just yet,” she said. While unlikely to be “a flood,” according to Schneider, there are signs that buyers in the region could soon have more options. Realcomp’s data shows that new listings in the region have now increased for two consecutive months, up 12.8% in December from a year earlier. “It is quite interesting to see new listings increase, and significantly, in December — a month where traditionally houses come temporarily ‘off market’ to avoid scheduled showings over the holiday,” Karen Kage, CEO of Realcomp, said in a statement. “This would seem to indicate a renewed confidence in the marketplace by those looking to sell. Very good news for those
Two reports show that the general trend of 2023 in Southeast Michigan, of home sales falling year-over-year while prices continued to EAL increase, also played out in STATE December.
R E
low COMMERCIAL in the month PROPERTY of November, climbing 0.8% from the previous month and breaking a five-month streak in which sales declined, according to the National Association of Realtors. But in metro Detroit, the number
looking to buy as we move into 2024.” The depleted housing inventory for those looking to buy can, in part, be attributed to the so-called “golden handcuffs,” those that bought or refinanced in 2020 and 2021 when interest rates were at historic lows and found little financial incentive to sell their homes. National data shows that people are, slowly, starting to unlock themselves from those handcuffs. Online brokerage and listing service Redfin reported Jan. 12 that 88.5% of U.S. homeowners with mortgages have an interest rate below 6%, down from a record high of 92.8% in mid-2022. While the limited inventory has pushed some to seek out new-construction housing, data released earlier this month by the Lansing-based trade group Home Builders Association of Michigan indicates that consumers might also face tight competition in that space as well. The early-January data from HBAM forecasts that new home construction activity is expected to decrease 2.5% this year from a year earlier, with an anticipated 13,964 new permits issued for single-family homes in the state. The expected 14,330 permits in 2023 would be a drop of about 1.6% from the previous year. HBAM CEO Bob Filka attributes the decline to several regulatory hurdles builders face. “We believe our production numbers would be higher if we weren’t seeing regulatory and utility connection delays,” Filka said in a news release. “It is taking longer and longer for local permitting and inspection turnarounds and utility connection delays have worsened as well.”
Northville Downs — the last horse racing track in Michigan — will cease operations at its current location on Feb. 3 after 80 years, the Michigan Gaming Control Board said in a news release. Northville Downs is expected to be demolished for a $250 million redevelopment project that would include hundreds of new homes as well as parks and commercial space. Northville Downs purchased 128 acres of land near the southwest corner of Five Mile and Ridge roads in Plymouth Township to build a new harness racing facility, pending approval of the township board. The proposed new site of Northville Downs is situated within the Michigan International Technology Corridor, which consists of the former Detroit House of Corrections site — sometimes called DeHoCo — in Plymouth and Northville townships, Crain’s previously reported. That area consists of 800 acres across 15 different chunks of land both north and south of Five Mile Road spanning between Napier Road to the west and Beck Road to the east. The site Northville Downs is considering is about 40 acres on the easterly portion of a 128-acre swath of the broader site near Five Mile and Ridge. On Dec. 15, Hometown Life reported that Plymouth Township officials had seen little action by the developers of the new North-
ville Downs site, with a planned unit development option facing a Feb. 28 expiration date. Mike Cox, an attorney for Northville Downs, said plans are being stalled by township demands for “illegal requests for extra money” in exchange for plan approvals, Hometown Life reported Jan. 12. Cox called on the township to drop its demand for a community benefit agreement and move ahead with a vote on the agreement at its Jan. 23 meeting. “The Michigan Gaming Control Board expresses our deepest gratitude to all of the Northville Downs patrons who have made each race day memorable and thrilling,” MGCB Executive Director Henry Williams said in the release. “We appreciate the support of those who have kept Northville Downs going for 80 years and look forward to the next chapter of horse racing in Michigan at a new location.” Horse racing enthusiasts will continue to be able to place mobile bets anytime through authorized providers Churchill Downs/ TwinSpires, NYRA Bets, Xpressbet and FanDuel Racing (TVG). Simulcast wagering will return after Northville Downs opens its new location. Customers have until Feb. 10 to cash in any winning wagers at the race track at 301 S. Center St. Winning tickets can also be mailed to: Northville Downs, 47526 Clipper St., P.O. Box 701220, Plymouth, MI 48170.
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JANUARY 22, 2024 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 19
Here’s who dominates the market for large homes
SUPER BOWL From Page 1
Feb. 11 game, at least in part as a result of increased costs from the recent United Auto Workers strike and new contracts. Super Bowl ad inventory was virtually sold out in early November, a Paramount spokeswoman told Ad Age at the time. Commercials are going for about $7 million for a 30-second unit, similar to the 2023 game. Ad Age’s definition of a Super Bowl commercial includes all national spots between the coin toss and end of play. Rocket Mortgage, part of the Detroit-based consumer finance umbrella company Rocket Companies Inc. (NYSE: RKT), has long been a key advertiser in past Super Bowl games — and won an industry award for a 2022 ad — but will sit out this year. Pontiac-based UMW (NYSE: UWMC) has aired commercials in two previous games, but will also skip this year. Spokespeople and executives at the companies attribute their decisions to sit out this year to a variety of reasons, but the choice also comes as the overall home lending industry faces lingering challenges from still-elevated interest rates as well as limited housing inventory. Industry trade group Mortgage Bankers Association forecasts about $1.64 trillion in total mortgage lending last year; far down from the 2021 peak of more than $4.5 trillion. Neither company has reported full-year earnings for 2023, but profits have been curtailed from the peak 2020 and 2021 period.
By Jack Grieve
Rocket Mortgage won an advertising industry award for its 2022 Super Bowl ad starring actress Anna Kendrick, but will sit out the big game this year. | ROCKET MORTGAGE
At Rocket, the company is in the process of onboarding a new chief marketing officer, Jonathan Mildenhall, who started the position early this month. “I value what the Super Bowl represents, but we’re not ready to be in the Super Bowl this year because, candidly speaking, we haven’t done the work to define the strategic idea for the brand and ultimately the creative idea for the brand,” Mildenhall told Ad Age in a report last week. “We’re skipping this year and we might be back next year.” Mildenhall, a veteran marketing executive at brands including Coca-Cola and Airbnb, previously told Crain’s about his own ex-
periences working on Super Bowl commercials. “The Super Bowl is something that I very much respect, and I know it can be used to drive significant business,” he said. While acknowledging the impact a Super Bowl ad can have, UWM officials have “identified other marketing and advertising efforts for 2024 that we believe will be more impactful,” according to spokeswoman Nicole Roberts. Specifically, Roberts pointed to the rebrand announced Jan. 17 of UWM’s FindAMortgageBroker. com, which is now called Mortgage Matchup. The consumerfacing website run by UWM, a
CANNABIS From Page 1
Marijuana sales in Colorado have peaked. The state’s operators sold $2.23 billion worth of marijuana in 2021, well above the 2022 total of $1.77 billion. The state was projected to fall short of the 2022 total in 2023. California, however, saw more marijuana sales in 2023 than in 2022, but the state is plagued by the well-established illicit market that thrived before legalization in 2018. Michigan’s market has yet to peak. Marijuana sales appeared to slow and stabilize in August for the first time since legalization, but December’s totals pushed the market to new heights, with average monthly sales of $254.8 million for the year. The market opened the year in January 2023 with $207.3 million in sales, more than 41% below December’s total. Previous expert projections have estimated that Michigan’s market will peak at $3.1 billion or $3.2 billion. This year will likely determine whether the market plateaus or surpasses those projections. Michigan’s success in the marijuana game is correlated directly to the state’s regulatory, tax and overall business framework. Following the legalization of 20 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | JANUARY 22, 2024
The reality is there are fewer dispensaries selling medical marijuana in Michigan as demand for adult-use recreational marijuana dominates. | GETTY VIA BLOOMBERG
There still are problems Michigan’s success in quickly. with local municipality business the marijuana game is licensing, but those roadblocks are eroding. correlated directly to Michigan also taxes consumers among the lowest in the U.S. with the state’s regulatory, a 10% excise tax on recreational marijuana sales. Colorado has a tax and overall 15% excise tax on wholesale and business framework. retail sales. California has a 15% adult-use recreational marijuana by voters in 2018, Michigan’s framework solidified it into an unlimited licensure state with comparatively low taxes. The unlimited licensure allowed businesses to get approved to operate grow operations, processing plants and retail stores
excise tax on wholesale and a per ounce tax on fresh plants and cultivation. Other top players like Washington and Oregon have a 37% excise tax and 17% excise tax on retail, respectively. Though the state likely surpassed $1 billion in tax revenue last year from marijuana sales since the first recreational mari-
mortgage wholesaler that works exclusively with independent brokers, serves as an educational tool for those looking to buy or refinance a home and provides a database of mortgage brokers with whom they can work on their lending needs. “We carefully review and analyze our marketing budget to determine where our funds are best spent and what makes the most impact,” Roberts wrote in an email to Crain’s. “From a consumer standpoint, our goal is to help borrowers save thousands of dollars on their mortgage by connecting them with an independent mortgage broker in their area.” juana dispensary opened in December 2019. In fact, weed is more lucrative to the state and communities than booze. During the 2023 fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30, the state of Michigan collected $73.6 million more in recreational marijuana excise taxes in fiscal year 2023 than beer, wine and liquor taxes combined, according to a House Fiscal Agency report released in November. The marijuana tax totaled $266.2 million, a 49.1% increase over the year prior, and 38% higher than the $192.6 million collected from the sales of beer, wine and liquor in the state during the fiscal year. The growing gap between beer, wine and liquor and recreational marijuana is representative of Michigan’s powerful marijuana consumer market, but also in how taxes are collected for each product. Recreational marijuana is taxed at a 10% excise tax at the wholesale and consumer level. Alcohol wholesales are responsible for a $6.30 per 31-gallon barrel excise tax on beer and a $0.51-per-gallon excise tax on wine and champagne. None of those taxes include the state’s 6 percent sales tax, which is collected on both cannabis and alcohol on top of any excise taxes.
When it comes to the generational breakdown of who owns large homes in the U.S., empty nester baby boomers dominate the market, and metro Detroit is no exception. Nationwide, empty nesters between the ages of 58 and 76 years old own about 28% of large homes — or those with three or more bedrooms. In metro Detroit, that number is 27.6%. Next in line are millennials with kids. Folks between the ages of 26 and 41 years old with children living at home own about 14% of the country’s larger homes; it’s 13.7% in metro Detroit. Those numbers are according to a new report from online real estate brokerage Redfin, which draws on 2022 Census data to analyze homeownership trends. Redfin defines “empty nesters” as households headed by baby boomers with one or two adults living in the home. “An additional 7.5% of the country’s large homes are owned by baby boomers with households of three adults or more; this category likely consists mostly of adult children living with their boomer parents,” according to the report. Empty nesters’ share of large homes has nearly doubled nationwide over the last 10 years, according to the report, with millennial parents in most metro areas struggling to keep up. That includes major metros like Los Angeles, where millennial parents make up just 9.4% of large-home owners. “Many young families are renting large homes,” the report said. “Millennials with kids take up one-quarter (24.8%) of the threebedroom-plus rentals in the U.S., the largest share of any generational category, followed by millennials without kids (11.6%).” That equates to roughly 1 in 10 millennial families with children living in three-bedroom-plus rentals. The report notes that boomers dominate the market for larger homes nationwide despite the fact that millennials make up the largest share of any generation. No metro area’s market for larger homes is dominated by empty nesters more than Pittsburgh, where 32.1% of large-home owners fall into that subcategory. As Bloomberg reported this month, the housing market has shown more signs of life after a decline in mortgage rates at the end of last year eased some pressure for buyers. Redfin Corp.’s homebuyer demand index — which measures tour requests and other buying services from its agents — rose 5% in the four weeks ended Jan. 7 from a month earlier. Contracts to buy homes had their smallest annual decline in two years, according to Redfin.
RESOLUTIONS From Page 3
“We definitely notice a change toward healthy consumption habits in January. Most notably a decline in consumption in sweet food such as pastry options and alcohol,” Foulkes said in an email to Crain’s. “Folk always provides health forward food and drink, but we make it a point to highlight healthy eating especially at times of the year when we know our customers are making very conscious decisions with their spending money to eat out.” Foulkes said the restaurant alters its marketing strategy in January in response to some New Year’s resolutions, like Dry January or commitments to healthier eating. “With this, in January we pay particular attention to offering non alcoholic options on our beverage menu, including various hot and cold beverages as well as nourishing focused food options such as wholesome soups, winter vegetable specials and more.” Since its debut in the U.K. in 2013, Dry January has developed a worldwide following. According to data from Statistica, a Germany-based global data and business intelligence platform, 15% of adults 21 and older in the U.S. avoided consuming alcohol during January in 2023. Other restaurants in Detroit, like Breadless, which specializes in lettuce wraps and other "breadless" sandwiches, are introducing new menu items in the new year for those focused on achieving their healthy-eating New Year’s resolutions.
HFH
From Page 3
government decided they no longer did. HFH is bringing the case directly to the top of the U.S. immigration infrastructure, naming as defendants: U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland; Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Ur Mendoza Jaddou, director of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; Laura Zuchowski, director of the Vermont Service Center division of USCIS and Homeland Security; Troy Miller, acting commissioner of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Diane Sabatino, acting executive assistant commissioner for USCIS; Christopher Perry, the recently departed director of field operations in Detroit for USCIS; and Devin Chamberlain, port director in Detroit for USCIS. “We don’t leave people behind,” said Patrick Irwin, vice president of human resources for HFH’s Detroit and Wyandotte hospitals. “While this only impacts two employees, we’re going to the mat for them. We have so many employees that cross that border. Tomorrow it could be a nurse or a physical therapist that can’t gain entry. We understand
“We budget and plan for these products. “We do generally see a lift in new offerings, like four new warm bowls and four new salads that are purchases around healthier eatgoing to be launching this January ing and healthier lifestyles as peoas well,” Marc Howland, the ple begin their health journeys co-founder and CEO of Breadless with a fresh start each January,” said. “We certainly take that uplift Cassise said. “Categories that we into consideration as it results in see an increase in are salads and an increase in the majority of our cooking vegetables as well as fresh cold pressed juice and berries.” offerings.” Plum Market has four largeBreadless opened in the Rivertown neighborhood in March format locations in Michigan and 2022 and opened a second, larger one in Florida, as well as smalllocation in Rochester Hills in Oc- format locations in Michigan, tober 2023. The new menu items Ohio, California, Texas, Indiana and Virginia. Headquartered in will be available at both stores. “Everybody wants to get into Farmington Hills, the privately their ‘New year, new me’ and shed owned multi-channel retail comsome pounds and get active and pany focused on “the highest Breadless has been a perfect es- quality natural, organic, and lotablishment for that,” Howland cally sourced foods, beverages said. “We typically see at least a and wellness essentials,” accord20% uplift in January relative to ing to the company’s website. the Q4 months and we do budget around that. We realize that people spend a lot of money over the holidays and so we emphasize our — Marc Howland, co-founder and CEO, Breadless value offerings that Cassise said he could not share you can get under $10 as well as think about it in terms of it's a proprietary sales figures, but said great time to give people fresh Plum Market sees an uptick in new offerings.” January across the produce deHowland also said Breadless partment as guests look to incorsees an uplift in catering orders in porate more raw foods and organJanuary because companies grav- ics into their diets. itate towards healthier options for “We will definitely start off the their employees. year featuring salads and our cold Restaurant owners aren’t the pressed juice program,” Cassise only ones noticing an increase in said. “We also try to pick items to health food consumption in Janu- feature seasonally based on what ary. Phil Cassise, vice president of the guest is looking for. We schedproduce for Plum Market, told ule in store sample demos on Crain’s in an email that the com- these items and feature in our digpany sees an increase in produce ital flyers as well as digital coupurchases each January and fo- pons to give more opportunities cuses its marketing efforts on pro- to our guests to achieve their moting the nutritional value of its goals.”
“Everybody wants to get into their ‘New year, new me.’”
there are rules, but you can’t just up and change the rules with no warning. We have to stand up, because if not, it’s a slippery slope.”
Trick or treaties TN visas allow for expedited work authorization in the country for Canadian and Mexican citizens per the trade treaty of the USMCA. TN visas are approved for workers in certain categories, usually in relation to whether there is a shortage of that employment category in the U.S. There are roughly 62 USMCA TN visa categories covering jobs from economists to dentists to hotel managers. Henry Ford uses about eight or nine classifications, said Marc Topoleski, managing attorney at Ellis Porter and HFH’s immigration attorney on the case against the feds. “The category of scientific technologists or technicians, that’s a category we’ve used for at least 15 years,” Topoleski said. “Nothing has changed in the treaty, nothing about our employees’ jobs duties or jobs have changed. We have no idea why they’ve revoked these visas. After multiple conversations with them (CBP), they are not being helpful. We have no choice but to go to court.” Topoleski is referencing longtime HFH employee, and Canadian, Tibor Hric, who has worked for HFH since 2009, when his first
TN visa was approved to work as a radiologic technologist in Detroit. Hric received his latest TN visa approval on April 15 last year, with status granted through April 30, 2026. However, Hric was denied entry into the U.S. at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel on May 2, with CBP declaring he had not presented a valid visa. The border agents told Hric that his visa “appears to have been issued in error,” the lawsuit alleges. A more than month-long back and forth between CBP and HFH’s attorneys resulted in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services revoking Hric’s visa, alleging that radiologic technologists do not qualify for a TN visa, noting a technologist must work in the fields of agricultural sciences, astronomy, biology, chemistry, engineering, forestry, geology, geophysics, meteorology or physics. HFH alleges this new interpretation is “wholly inconsistent with (USCIS’) prior interpretation of this requirement, and CBP’s prior interpretation of this requirement, in all six of their previous approvals of Mr. Hric’s applications for TN status with the same employer, and in the same position, since 2009.” HFH has fought for a return of status for Hric, including arguing radiologists apply under the TN category of medical physics. USCIS most recently denied Hric’s latest petition for a TN visa in late
Detroit Manufacturing Systems operates a 500,000-square-foot plant on Detroit’s west side. | DMS
DMS From Page 3
DMS started production of InductEV chargers last month at its 500,000-square-foot plant on Detroit’s west side, where roughly 1,200 union workers and 300 salaried employees work. The company sold its other plant in Toledo to Sterling Heights-based Mayco International a year ago. There will be one line and around a dozen operators dedicated to the new business. Cieslak said quoting activity and demand remains strong for EV charging work, despite EV sales growing more slowly than anticipated – a trend directly impacting the contract manufacturer. After tooling up for 150,000 F-150 Lightnings, DMS had to pivot when Ford slashed its volume projections for the pickup in July, denying he works under a physics discipline. “This new rule by which USCIS is seeking to utilize to adjudicate TN petition had not been published, promulgated, or otherwise made known to TN petitioners previousy,” the lawsuit reads. In August, USCIS denied the TN visa renewal of Alex Lau, another Canadian HFH radiologic technologist, under the same principle, saying his previous TN visa approvals were an error. “Due to the actions of defendants USCIS and CBP, plaintiff (HFH) has been unable to continue to employ Mr. Hric and Mr. Lau in the positions they had held since 2009 and 2017, respectively, and their absence has created critical staffing issues that have negatively impacted plaintiff’s ability to deliver patient care,” the lawsuit reads.
Dockets and drought There is a global shortage of radiologists as imaging equipment becomes more and more prevalent in identifying more and more illnesses. More than 80% of hospitals in the U.S. are reporting shortages in their radiology departments, according to a report in July from Imaging Technology News. In fact, the number of imaging requests grows by about 5% annually, but radiology residency only
half this year. It wasn’t the ideal scenario, but Cieslak said the supplier is learning to roll with the speedbumps. “Every supplier is going to be struggling with placing bets how this transition is going to take place. It’s going to be choppy,” he said. “As Ford scales and adjusts over the next couple years, we’ll be able to scale and adjust.” Likewise with EV chargers, there’s a risk the business doesn’t materialize as envisioned, but DMS is betting that its move deeper into electrification will pay off. “We look forward to bringing our manufacturing, quality and supply chain expertise to this partnership and creating a successful venture that will help reduce this sector’s carbon footprint at a considerable cost savings for all involved,” Smith, DMS CEO, said in a news release. grows 2% annually, according to CDC data. “These men work in a position that’s hard to recruit for and hard to fill,” Irwin said. “These people are doing hands on care to Americans. The impact is restricting health care to Americans. I can’t believe the Biden Administration would be in support of this. This has to be a rogue decision.” The U.S. attorney assigned to the case did not respond to an inquiry on the lawsuit. Topoleski worries if these denials become more prevalent, it’ll push Canadians from seeking employment in the U.S., which could damage the communities like Windsor over the border. HFH alone is the 11th-largest employer of residents from the Windosr-Essex region, he said. For HFH, this battle is as much an exercise in commitment to its employees as much as it is a moral clash. “Our employees watch us,” Irwin said. “They want the things you do and how you protect other employees. They look to see if you’re going to stand behind them or not. Our employees believe in us and we tell them we’re with them all the time. So we have to put up. How much does morale cost? They say no margin, no mission. But no people, no margin. You want a winning culture, win for your people. That’s what we intend to do.” JANUARY 22, 2024 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 21
THE CONVERSATION
He worked for the Navy and NASA. Now his mission is to expand MSU’s health care reach. Dr. Michael Weiner is all about new frontiers. The former U.S. Navy medical officer has served in several countries, including Greece, Japan and Italy, as well as on ships in the middle of the ocean. He was also the takeoff and landing physician for NASA’s space shuttle program. More domestically, he led IBM’s global health care division and was the chief medical officer for defense contractor Maximus and its 34,000 employees. Weiner now, however, is rounding out his career in East Lansing, serving as MSU Health Care’s chief medical officer and looking to expand the university’s health care reach beyond mid-Michigan. | By Dustin Walsh After such a storied career, why come to MSU? I think at the end of it, I still desire service to others and service to the nation. That doesn’t leave you. And what an opportunity to provide service to a renowned Big Ten university. All the things I had learned and seen and done in a 40-year career in the military and in the commercial world, I wanted to bring that to an organization that was growing and transforming and looking to reinvent itself. Is this as exciting as working for NASA and the Navy? It’s a very exciting time for us. The past was slow to move, slow to adopt and slow to change. But now it’s an empowering place to support care. MSU Health doesn’t have a hospital to run its innovations through. How will it grow? We do not have a hospital. But we are not burdened by a hospital. The future of medicine, not for just MSU, the future of medicine in America, is pushing to get patients out of the hospital and into outpatient settings. We are wonderfully set up to be part of that national transition — and lead some of it. We are focused on ambulatory surgical centers and primary care delivery and utilizing telemedicine. We now have our own lab and we have tele-physical therapy that we deliver across the state. If you get rid of the burden that is the hospital and just think about the
Dr. Michael Weiner
agility of what’s available without a hospital, we are primed for that. That is our strategic plan. We’re about to open our first ambulatory surgical center in the Lansing area and are breaking ground on another in East Lansing soon. MSU Health is a strategic partner with Henry Ford Health. We know about the research center and academic plans, but are there plans to have a greater presence for care in the Detroit area? It’s coming. We have a wonderful partnership with Henry Ford. I would foresee more relationships occurring with them. You’re definitely going to have the
chance to see the Spartan helmet in the Detroit area. I am not certain exactly how it’s going to roll out, but we’re going to grow with them. There will be more clinical integration in the days to come. What skills are you bringing to this expansion? Well, after a career in the military and with IBM and Maximus, I understand structure and the ability to create a strategy and vision and follow through on it. All of those organizations do that well and I want to bring that to the academic setting. (Colleges) are not set up to grow financially. It’s not been the core of the business. But in health care, we have to be financially viable. We
want to be here in 40 years and the only way to do that is to be able to adapt and evolve in the transforming health care market. So the mission is to extend the reach of MSU Health across the state and be a real bigger player in the market? Yes, because across America, health care systems are closing up shop because they have not figured out how to be financially viable. We need everyone operating and growing. There are more patients than we collectively can take care of. We can’t lose any of the people currently seeing patients and we need more. This is a big deal. The state needs us to grow and for us to be successful.
22 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | JANUARY 22, 2024
The donation is the largest ever in the history of Spelman College and for historically black colleges and universities, said Lovette Russell, the college’s board chair. The private liberal arts college, founded in 1881, has about 2,300 students. “We are invigorated and inspired by this incredible act of generosity,” Spelman College President Helene Gayle said. “This gift is a critical step in our school’s mission to eliminate financial barriers to starting and finishing a Spelman education. We can’t thank Ronda Stryker enough for her selflessness and support as both a trustee and friend. There’s no doubt that Spelman College is better because of her.” Spelman will use $75 million of the donation to support endowed
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Kalamazoo couple gives $100M to Spelman A billionaire couple from West Michigan is giving $100 million to Spelman College in Atlanta, which the private women’s school says is the largest single donation to a historically Black college or university. It’s the latest large donation made by Kalamazoo businesswoman and philanthropist Ronda Stryker and her husband, William Johnston, the chairman of Greenleaf Trust wealth management firm. Ronda Stryker has served as a Spelman trustee since 1997. She is also a director at Kalamazoobased Stryker Corp., where she is the largest individual shareholder, and as vice chair and a director at Greenleaf Trust.
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student scholarships and the remaining $25 million “to develop an academic focus on public policy and democracy, improve student housing and provide flexible funding to meet critical strategic needs,” according to a statement. The contribution continues a lengthy history of philanthropic work for Stryker and Johnston. Ronda Stryker ranked 128th on Forbes’ 2023 list of the wealthiest Americans, with a net worth of $7.4 billion. The couple a decade ago donated $100 million to the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, named after Stryker’s grandfather. In 2019, their Stryker Johnston Foundation donated $57.7 million to the Foundation for Excel-
lence, and another $28.2 million in 2020. The Foundation for Excellence was formed in 2017 to create a bridge between philanthropy and municipal finance in Kalamazoo. The Spelman donation “is really about securing the future young women who want to go to Spelman far into the future,” Gayle said during an appearance Jan. 18 on the “CBS Mornings” show. U.S. News & World Report has ranked Spelman No. 1 among historically black colleges and universities for 17 straight years. Spelman College also graduates the most Black women who go on to earn a doctorate degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics.
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