Crain's Detroit Business, March 4, 2024

Workers assemble the Lucid Air prototype electric vehicle, manufactured by Lucid Motors Inc., at the company’s headquarters in Newark, Calif., in 2020. BLOOMBERG

California-based electric vehicle startup Lucid Motors is planning to invest $10 million and create 262 jobs at a new engineering research and development center in South eld.

e Michigan Strategic Fund board approved on Feb. 27 a $6 million performance-based grant for the electric vehicle

startup’s new engineering center in the Travelers Towers at 26533 Evergreen Road.

e EV manufacturer plans a 30,000-square-foot o ce space initially, with intentions to expand with an additional 50,00075,000 square feet, according to a Michigan Economic Development Corp. brie ng memo.

By | Kurt Nagl

e company anticipates employing 262 workers by 2026, with an average wage of $51 per hour. e company had been exploring sites for more than a year, and about half a dozen states were vying for the project, sources said.

See STARTUP on Page 15

Legislators aim to get serious about improving public transit

LANSING — Lawmakers who want Michigan to get serious about public transportation are banding together in hopes of better funding the system and elevating its importance in the Capitol.

e newly formed transit caucus, a group of around four-

See TRANSIT on Page 17

state’s stagnant population. A robust, well-functioning transit system is critical to the state’s future ability to compete for jobs and talent, particularly as young people are driving less, according to the report sent to the Democratic governor in December. CRAINSDETROIT.COM I MARCH 4, 2024 DEVELOPMENT

3 apartment buildings aim for big-city feel in Lansing.

City airport vision

By Kirk Pinho

A city-led e ort to create an 80-acre development site at Coleman A. Young International Airport on Detroit’s east side has received a major nancial jolt.

e Michigan Strategic Fund has signed o on granting the Detroit Brown eld Redevelopment Authority an additional $12.45 million in Strategic Site Readiness Program funding for work leading to the removal of the Crosswinds Runway at city airport. An MSF board brie ng memo describes the property as “one of the last remaining publicly owned large scale industrial sites” in Detroit.

e DBRA had previously received $510,000 from the $100 million SSRP program in a late January MSF board approval, but after the Michigan Economic Development Corp., which sta s the MSF, received “updated details (that) brought additional clarity to the proposed project in both scope and intent,” the board on Feb. 27 to amend the January DBRA award to $12.96 million.

e runway abuts the Conrail railroad tracks in the southeast portion of the airport, which sits on 300 acres around Gratiot

Avenue and Conner Street.  at amendment fully deploys the $100 million pot available for the SSRP grant program, which was created in 2021. e MSF board approved about $87.5 million in grants for 18 properties around the state in late January, Crain’s reported at the time. ose projects include sites within the Detroit Regional Aerotropolis surrounding Detroit Metropolitan Airport as well as a pair of old General Motors properties in Flint and Lansing.

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plans mark shift in downtown landscape.

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Crain’s celebrates opening of Grand Rapids Business

By Crain’s Staff

Crain Communications celebrated the opening of its newest City Brand, Crain’s Grand Rapids Business, at an open house for business and civic leaders held Monday, Feb. 26.

KC Crain, president and CEO of Crain Communications, hosted the leaders at an open house in the new o ce of Crain’s Grand Rapids Business in the Waters Center in downtown Grand Rapids.

Crain Communications entered the West Michigan market in late summer 2022 when it acquired the Grand Rapids Business Journal. Four months later, Crain purchased another Grand Rapids-based business publication, MiBiz.

After merging the two operations, Crain’s Grand Rapids Business was launched in April 2023. e newly combined newsroom and sales sta moved into their new downtown o ce in November.

Grand Rapids joins Crain’s Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and New York in the stable of Crain City Brands.

“A great business market deserves an equally strong news organization to keep it informed,” Crain said. “ e o cial opening of our doors in Grand Rapids marks a signi cant milestone in the Crain’s Business expansion.”

“A great business market deserves an equally strong news organization to keep it informed.”

KC Crain, president and CEO of Crain Communications

KC Crain, president and CEO of Crain Communications (top right) and Jim Kirk (bottom right), group publisher and executive editor, speak to business and civic leaders during an open house at Crain’s Grand Rapids Business’ of ces. |

PHOTOS BY SETH THOMPSON

3 apartment buildings aim for big-city feel in Lansing

By Nick Manes

e developers behind a planned $228 million mixeduse development spread across three buildings in downtown Lansing — among the largest ever in Michigan’s capital city — are moving forward.

Executives with New Vision Lansing LLC have been quiet since last summer when the development was rst announced.

tering a $40 million appropriation for the project the Michigan Legislature funded last year.

Current plans call for:

◗ e 22-story Tower on Grand, roughly two blocks to the southeast of the state Capitol. e building located directly on the Grand River would have 250 apartments as well as most of the project’s amenities.

“We have some working here, no one living here and very few shopping here.”

Paul Gentilozzi, Gentilozzi Real Estate Inc.

Now, the project is moving into the public phase after a presentation to Lansing City Council Feb. 26 and a vote by the city’s governing body expected this month.

e city of Lansing is adminis-

e six-story Capitol Tower on Walnut Street, kitty-corner from the Capitol, calls for 80 apartment units, seven townhouses and a rooftop deck, as well as two oors of o ce space.

A redevelopment of the building at 100 South Washington Square, one block south of the Capitol, as well as construction of a new, smaller building next door.

New Vision consists of fatherson team Paul and John Gentilozzi of Lansing-based Gentilozzi

Real Estate Inc. and JFK Investment Co., owned by the Kosik family of Bloom eld Hills and led by Joseph Kosik.

Lansing’s central business district, which typically clears out after normal business hours, has felt considerable pain since the COVID-19 pandemic when the state canceled some 350,000 square feet of o ce leases while employees worked from home.

“ ey teach you in college — in urban planning — that to have a successful central business district, you have to have people work there, then you have to have them live there and then you can succeed and have them shop there,” Paul Gentilozzi said Feb. 26 during a media brie ng ahead of the presentation to city council. “Well, we have some working here, no one living here and very few shopping here.”

Suppliers, after years of racking up debt amid uneven production schedules and rising costs, should be in a better position this year to get debt under control, though signi cant uncertainty remains, according to supplier executives and analysts.

Getting debt ratios under control has been a major focus for suppliers in recent months as inationary pressures ease and companies prepare for more electric vehicle production. In the fourth quarter of 2023, Magna International Inc., North America’s largest parts maker, reported adjusted debt of about $7.4 billion, along with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $3.9 billion, giving it a debt-toearnings ratio of 1.89-to-1. at’s above the company’s target of between 1-to-1 and 1.5-to-1 but also represents an improvement from ratios of 2.19 and 2.02-to-1 it reported in the second and third quarters of 2023.

Magna expects that gure to

continue to fall through 2024.

“We anticipate a reduction of our leverage ratio to be back within our targeted range during 2025,” Magna CFO Pat McCann said on a Feb. 9 call with investors. “Our balance sheet continues to be strong, with investment-grade ratings from the major credit agencies.”

Average net debt for suppliers spiked following the COVID-19 pandemic, as parts shortages, higher material and labor costs and the need to make major investments for EV-related parts production took their tolls.

Mike Tirico has been all over the country covering the NFL and all over the globe covering its biggest sporting events. But the New York City native, for a quarter-century, has called Ann Arbor home.  In about two months approximately 45 minutes to the east, Detroit will play host to the 2024 NFL Draft, projected to bring hundreds of thousands to downtown April 25-27.  He spoke with Crain’s Detroit

Business prior to a Downtown Detroit Partnership meeting on Feb. 22 at MGM Grand Detroit.

Let’s talk a little bit about the draft’s signi cance to the area. Let me take it on a couple levels.

First o , I have about 30 years of covering the NFL, so I get to every NFL city and I’ve seen every event grow in the NFL, from the Super Bowl to just playo games to the combine to the draft. I hosted TV coverage of the draft during my ESPN time in the 1990s when it was still done in a hotel ballroom in New York City on a weekday. So to watch it go from that, to Radio

John

Fast-food plans mark shift in downtown landscape

For years, the prevailing mantra surrounding downtown Detroit retail was that its most dominant landlords — er, landlord — almost exclusively sought rst- oor retail tenants that were unique to the market or considered a destination capable of bringing in shoppers from around the region.

And for years, that’s what happened. Big soft goods brands with serious pull — Nike, Gucci, Under Armour, H&M, Bonobos, Warby Parker, Le Labo, Shinola and Lululemon, among others — opened stores in the central business district. ey were coupled with other unique retailers, such as John Varvatos and Savage X Fenty, to create a mix of big name brands and smaller shops, some of which are no longer open.

e same couldn't really be said for food. ere were plenty of "You Can Only Get is Here" o erings, with few chain restaurants in sight, minus, for example, a Coldstone, a Starbucks or two, and an Applebee's/IHOP combination.

at seems to have shifted of late.

In the last six months, Dan Gil-

bert’s Bedrock LLC has landed leases for three of perhaps the chainiest of chains. Chick- l-A Inc. (total locations: 3,000-plus) is coming downtown, as are Chipot-

le Mexican Grill Inc. (more than 3,400) and Dunkin’ (over 13,200).

You might have been laughed out of the room if you brought up those names at Bedrock’s headquarters six or seven years ago.

Ivy Greaner, Bedrock’s COO and executive vice president, said in an interview that there were portions of the dining population downtown “that were being left out.”

“Chipotle, Chick- l-A and Dunkin' are unique to the marketplace,” Greaner said. “We don’t really have enough limitedservice o erings at certain price points for everybody. While they may have national brand recognition, people are so excited about having things that are just straight down the fairway as well … to supplement all of the restaurants we have done here. … We need to broaden everywhere.”

Chipotle lovers can get their ll downtown at 630 Woodward Ave. starting the rst week in April, Greaner said. e Chick- l-A is expected to open in May or June in the First National Building at 660 Woodward Ave. following the NFL Draft, and the Dunkin' location is expected to open in March at 1043 Woodward Ave. in the former Slices Pizza and Salad Creations spot.  Outside retail experts have also noted the change.

“ ere’s no question that Dan Gilbert’s team for a long time thought that, in order to be successful downtown, you had to have unique tenants,” said Jim Bieri, principal of Detroit-based brokerage rm Stokas-Bieri Real Estate. “Tenants that were not elsewhere in the marketplace."

Benji Rosenzweig, who is a vice president in the Royal Oak o ce of Toronto-based brokerage house Colliers International Inc., said the new restaurant chains mark a “clear shift in policy” at Bedrock.

It's a welcome one, he said.

Rosenzweig, a retail real estate broker, said at times it was “frustrating” bringing prospective tenants to Bedrock over the years and being told that they weren’t what the company wanted on Woodward Avenue or in its buildings downtown more broadly.

“' at’s good for the suburbs, but we want a more curated experience downtown,’” Rosenzweig said he remembers being told. “ at was frustrating because a thriving ecosystem includes Townhouse, -320° Co ee & Creamery and unique experiences, but sometimes people just want a fast, reliable and consistent product that they know and don’t have to think about. Chipotle, Chick- l-A and Dunkin’ are a quick, easy and fast and reliable option, and there is nothing wrong with that.”

Bieri also said he believes restaurant business downtown has become more dependent on weekend visitors from the suburbs because many o ce workers remain on hybrid work schedules, decreasing their time in the central business district.

Even so, Greaner said, there still have been concerns from people that there aren't enough spots for lunch downtown, particularly places where you don't have to sit down.

son said. Greaner said that is about 85% to 90% leased.

Late last year, Gilbert, during public discussion in Birmingham, said Bedrock continues to try to recruit an Apple store downtown (considered a major retail win if it ever happens), and has also had talks with Levi's to open a denim store and Lego to open a location in the central business district. Others of note Gilbert mentioned as targets were Alo Yoga, a yoga apparel company, as well as Lush, the cosmetics brand.

Greaner said talks continue with a variety of retailers, including Lego, but nothing is nalized yet.

" e personality of a city often rests big time on what you do with retail," Greaner said.

"It's what Dan said 10 years ago when he said we want to bring

“We don’t really have enough limited-service offerings at certain price points for everybody. . . .We need to broaden everywhere.”

Ivy Greaner, Bedrock’s COO and executive vice president

"Chick- l-A and Dunkin Donuts and Chipotle are gonna serve that need," Greaner said.   She also noted that other restaurants within Bedrock's tenant roster are expanding and opening, including Mootz Pizzeria and Eatori, plus the Leña, a Spanish concept, and Easy Peasy, a cocktail bar.

Bedrock has about 250,000 square feet of retail space in its roughly 17 million-square-foot real estate portfolio, a spokesper-

unique product. We don't want, what I would have called earlier in my career, the homogenization of America ... We don't want Detroit to be that. We want to continue to have a lot of unique product. It doesn't mean that we don't want nationals. It doesn't mean that we don't want locals. A great city that has a personality is because it has all of that. It is making sure you're curating that and also so that it doesn't descend into any one particular thing. We still strive to make sure Detroit maintains it's unique personality."

Kirk Pinho

The downtown Detroit retail and restaurant scene is changing. | GETTY

Penske helped set downtown Detroit in motion

It was 2000. e Detroit Lions were working to build a new stadium. And the city was looking to host the nation’s biggest sporting event.

So Bill Ford made a call to nd someone to captain that bid for the Super Bowl. Roger Penske answered.  e ripple e ects from the “yes” that followed are still being felt.

Penske brought that tale and more examples of the power of “leading from yes” to vivid life in a talk at the Downtown Detroit Partnership’s recent annual meeting. But it’s worth looking at what has followed from a man whose very nickname is “the Captain.”

In 2000, Penske had plenty going on. Racing-team titan. Industrialist and shipping magnate. Car repair and auto dealerships. He was legendary for long, globetrotting workdays. His plants were renowned for being so clean you could eat o the oor — an e ect of Penske’s attention to detail.

Leading a Super Bowl bid and the massive cleanup of downtown Detroit that followed — which, incidentally, took place while Penske was ghting bladder cancer — wasn’t something he needed to do to burnish his reputation.

But Detroit is damn lucky he did.

In the years since, Penske has had a

major hand in many of the most positive developments to happen to downtown Detroit, despite his companies being based in the suburbs and elsewhere.

He helped helm the creation of the QLine streetcar, kicking in $7 million of his own money to help pay for it. Brought the Detroit Grand Prix back from the dead, rst on Belle Isle and, now, back down-

town. Put $10 million toward the Grand Bargain that helped the city emerge from its historic bankruptcy.

And he did all that while continuing to build one of the world’s largest auto dealership chains, one of the world’s largest logistics companies — oh, and buying the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The type of hands-on, get-it-done,

culture-of-yes leadership that Penske has represented in so many efforts over the years is something all business leaders should aspire to. And it’s that type of leadership that Detroit will need going forward, because he’s not going to live forever.

Many leaders talk a good game, but those who step in and MAKE real things happen, in the mold of a Penske or a Dan Gilbert, are rare. We can de nitely use more of them.

At 87 years old, Penske is still a man in motion. Just a month ago, he was celebrating his a victory at the 24 Hours At Daytona endurance race by his racing team’s Felix Nasr.

In a 1999 pro le in Crain’s, Penske looked forward to what “retirement” might look like for him.

“More and more, I hear all these guys my age going to Florida and buying a boat,” Penske said. “I like to go boating ... but I just don't see that in my horizon. I guess that I want to be able to sit behind my desk on my last day, somewhere in my companies. I may not be worth much then, but hopefully, they'll have a spot for me where I can park my car and a desk that I can sit behind.”

Penske will always have that place in Detroit.

Newsmaker events demonstrate business community’s impact

“Are you going to write a positive story?”

I can’t tell you how many times I heard that comment, or a version of it, when I was a reporter. Often it was said by someone who didn’t really understand the news business or was making it in half-jest as a clumsy way to probe on what the angle of my story might be.

My response was always that I don’t set out to write positive, or negative, stories when covering the news. e news was the news, of course, and I would let others decide how to interpret it.

e reality is there are a lot of people working hard to make our communities better places. No, not everything is roses. But if you pause for a moment, as we do at these Newsmaker events, and take stock of what’s happened over the past year, it’s hard not to see the collective impact.

City council approved a tax hike? Taxpayers may not love the hit to their wallets, but may appreciate smoother streets or better re services. e state o ers grants to manufacturers? Likely good news for those companies and the people they hire, but perhaps frowned upon by those who wish for government to play a more limited role in the private sector.

News is often much more nuanced or detail-driven than to be simply categorized as “positive” or “negative.”

All of this said, I can’t help but having had an overwhelmingly positive feeling after handing out Crain’s Newsmaker awards recently in Grand Rapids. And I expect a similar vibe at our upcoming event in Detroit.

Whether it’s Tim Streit and Grand Ventures raising $50 million to invest in ntech startups, or Philomena Mantella and Grand Valley State University planning new downtown developments, or Guillermo Cisneros and the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce plotting a major expansion, each of those are important individual stories. But when they, and many others like them, are in one room together hearing about each others’ e orts and having conversations with fellow leaders, the feeling of the forward momentum is inescapable.

At the Grand Rapids event, Crain Communications CEO KC Crain interviewed Carol Van Andel, co-chair of Grand Action 2.0, in front of the audience of 300 people. Grand Action is simultaneously developing a 12,000-capacity amphitheater and an 8,500-seat soccer stadium in downtown Grand Rapids.

In Detroit, we will hold our annual Newsmakers event on March 21, where Henry Ford Health CEO Bob Riney will

be our keynote and sit in the hot seat across from KC.

Henry Ford Health is planning a new $2.5 billion hospital tower and, along with the Detroit Pistons and Michigan State University, other nearby developments that would transform that section of Detroit’s New Center neighborhood. We will hear from the contractor building Detroit’s newest skyscraper, the visionary who helped transform the riverfront, and small-business restaurateurs who keep getting nominated for prestigious James Beard Awards.

Individually, these are all remarkable stories in their own right. But to hear them collectively, and to see these leaders together, will demonstrate the impact the business community has when it comes to pushing the city, and state, forward.

So whether each of these stories is viewed as positive, negative, or some variation in between is up to each person’s interpretation. But this brings to mind a phrase I do embrace as a writer, which is: Show me, don’t tell me. In the case of Crain’s Newsmakers, you are welcome to come see for yourself.

Mickey Ciokajlo is executive editor of Crain’s Detroit Business and Crain’s Grand Rapids Business.

Roger Penske | AP

About 300 people attended the recent Crain’s Grand Rapids Business event. | SETH THOMPSON

Michigan plastic toy manufacturer nds a buyer

By Don Loepp, Plastics News

A 62-year-old Michigan-based plastic toy company has a new owner who is excited about the business.

E ective Feb. 16, American Plastic Toys Inc., based in Walled Lake, was acquired by Northville Plastics Inc., a new platform company registered with the state of Michigan in Plymouth headed by private equity investor Jon Carlson.

"We're very excited. It's a great t for us," Carlson said in an interview with Plastics News

Carlson also heads up Orchard Creek Capital LLC, which has made a series of acquisitions of plastic injection-molding companies in recent years.

American Plastic Toys was founded by the Littleton and Yoquelet families in 1962. e company has about 200 employees and 45 injection presses, with plants in Walled Lake and Rose City in Michigan, as well as in Olive Branch, Miss.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

John Gessert, who joined the company in 1982, is staying on as president, along with the rest of the management team. David Littleton, the company chairman, will maintain his o ce at the Walled Lake location and will assist in the transition for the balance of 2024.

"David Littleton is excited to

transfer the company to a next chapter, to people who know the plastics business and are very excited about toys. We like the product," Carlson said. In a letter to employees, Littleton said "the post-pandemic years have

been di cult for APT to regain the market share we held prior to COVID."

He called Northville Plastics "a local company founded by a group of seasoned investors who have been dedicated to the domestic plastics

industry for nearly a decade. American Plastic Toys is the fth plastics company that the local team has successfully partnered with.

" is new opportunity provides a way for us to coordinate and cooperate with several other plastic companies and to work with experienced plastic professionals to continue to revitalize American Plastic Toys," Littleton said.

Carlson emphasized that Northville Plastics is a separate platform company from his other plastics businesses and has di erent investors. He is also president of Northville-based private equity rm Orchard Creek Capital LLC, which has acquired four plastics companies since 2018. Selected Orchard Creek-owned plastics companies will do some

molding for American Plastic Toys, Carlson said. And Northville Plastics plans to operate all three APT plants.

"Our principal move is we're going to be adding key senior management," Carlson said.

Carlson, who has a background in nancial management in manufacturing, including 10 years at Ford Motor Co., said it took about six months to complete this deal. He and Gessert are longtime friends.

APT's operations are large — the Olive Branch plant has 475,000 square feet of space and Walled Lake has 375,000 square feet. All the plants do molding and assembly, and the two larger facilities are also the company's primary distribution centers.

American Plastic Toys primarily serves mass merchants such as Walmart, Target and Amazon. In addition to its own branded toys, it also makes private-label toys for some key customers.

Carlson said having proprietary products was attractive to the Northville Plastics investors.

In plastics circles, APT is well known for participating in an annual free toy partnership in Detroit that's coordinated with the Society of Plastics Engineers. e company has made well over 1 million toys for that project.

Each day, our Bed & Bread trucks make their way through Detroit feeding the hungry, while our shelters provide a safe and warm place to sleep. anks to the generosity of the Metro Detroit community, this essential program will continue to provide a hand up to those who need it.

Jon Carlson | PHOTOS BY AMERICAN PLASTIC TOYS

American Plastic Toys has two plants in Michigan and one in Mississippi.

Lawmakers want to ban utilities’ political spending

LANSING — Liberal lawmakers on Feb. 22 proposed banning political spending by state-regulated utilities, including giants DTE Energy and Consumers Energy, contending they have too much in uence in the capital.

House Bills 5520-5521 would prohibit the companies and a liated “dark money” nonpro t 501(c)(4) or 527 political groups from contributing to candidates, parties, political and independent committees. ey also could not give to nonpro t organizations tied to candidates, elected or appointed state o cials, and former state elected o cials.

“It’s simple. We need to break the stranglehold that utilities have over our Legislature, and it’s time for the people of Michigan to take the power back,” the sponsor, Democratic Rep. Dylan Wegela of Garden City, said at a news conference while complaining about lengthy power outages and high rates.

e event was organized by the Taking Back Our Power, a new coalition whose members include environmental, racial justice,

community organizing and voter groups. A second event, featuring U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ro Khanna, was scheduled to be held Feb. 22 at a United Auto Workers union hall in Dearborn.

Utilities, which have a lot of sway in the Democratic-controlled Capitol, typically contribute to candidates, o ceholders and related funds in both parties and spend heavily on lobbying and issue advocacy.

“ is is going to be an uphill battle,” Wegela said. “ ese corporations donate to both sides of the aisle. But for us, we’re going to keep advocating because the people of Michigan want these bills.”

Asked about the constitutionali-

ty of the legislation, he said it could withstand a court challenge and pointed to laws in other states.

Combined, the investor-owned DTE and Consumers serve more than 80% of all electric and natural gas customers statewide.

“DTE’s political giving is transparent and within all campaignnance limits. Like most other organizations, DTE participates in the electoral process to advocate to provide safe, reliable, a ordable and clean energy for the 3 million-plus Michigan residents and businesses it serves every day,” DTE spokesperson Peter Ternes said in a statement.

Consumers spokesperson Katie Carey said: “We strive to conduct

our business in a transparent way, including our participation in the legislative and political process.”

She said contributions to elected o cials can come from one of two places: shareholder pro ts or voluntary contributions made by employees to the Employees for Better Government PAC, not customer dollars.

“ e EBG PAC is nonpro t, nonpartisan, and governed by an employee-run steering committee that is independent of the Corporation’s o cers and Board,” she said in a statement. “Participation in the PAC is voluntary and gives employees a voice in the political process, and all PAC contributions are publicly disclosed on the Secretary of State’s website.”

Legislators backing the legislation include Democratic Reps. Emily Dievendorf of Lansing, Donovan McKinney of Detroit, Alabas Farhat of Dearborn, Jason Morgan of Ann Arbor and Democratic Sen. Je Irwin of Ann Arbor.

Irwin said regulated monopolies’ money “has poisoned the political process, and it’s made it difcult for people like me to successfully ght for clean air and

clean water and the protection of our environment, the protection of our health.”

Detroit Action political director Scott Holiday said DTE and Consumers “have dumped millions into Lansing to escape accountability.” e coalition also is working to get legislation introduced to bar government contractors and prospective contractors — a potentially large swatch of businesses — from donating to political committees starting 18 months before the negotiation of a contract, during the contract’s term and 18 months after its termination.

Utilities’ political spending has gotten attention in recent years.

Starting this year, DTE will disclose on its website political donations totaling $5,000 or more, including to 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) nonpro ts, as part of an agreement with state regulators on its long-range electricity plan. In 2019, Consumers agreed to a temporary ban on giving to 501(c)(4) or 527 entities after it poured more than $43 million into one run by current and former executives and a political consultant.

David Eggert

Rep. Dylan Wegela, D-Garden City, speaks in support of his bill to ban utilities’ political spending on Feb. 22 at Central United Methodist Church across the street from the Capitol in Lansing. Joining him were legislators and members of the newly formed Taking Back Our Power coalition. DAVID EGGERT

CONSUMERS ENERGY

New laws toughen penalties for assaulting health workers

By Mark Sanchez

Health care professional Shawn Bolen has been punched, kicked, spit on and had objects thrown at him while on the job.

A clinical urgent care coordinator at University of Michigan Health-West, Bolen describes incidents that have become all too common for nurses and other health care workers at hospitals, who have endured an alarming rise in verbal and physical abuse and violent incidents in the years since the start of the pandemic. Visitor restrictions and mandates that were in place during the pandemic such as wearing face masks have added to the problem.

Two state laws that take e ect March 4 aim to address those incidents.

At a minimum, Bolen hopes the laws and the signage they require hospitals to post informing people of the heightened penalties will create an awareness that can help to stem the problem.

“ is is, hopefully, going to shed a light on what the health care industry is going through with workplace violence,” said Bolen, who co-chairs University of Michigan Health-West’s workplace violence committee.

State legislators last November enacted and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in December signed into law two bipartisan bills that double the penalties and nes for assaulting a health care worker or volunteer providing care to a patient. Abuse and violence have been a growing problem in health care for many years that worsened in the pandemic, as frustrations, stress and anxiety boiled over and led to increased verbal abuse, threats and outright assaults.

Verbal abuse “happens every single day,” and physical abuse occurs “often enough that it’s created a crisis in health care and trying to keep people in the health care industry that want to take care of people,” Bolen said.

Quite often, sta members accept abuse and threats as some-

versity of Michigan Health-West who’s been bitten on the job and threatened that she “would not be safe going out to my car” after her shift.

Schoolmeester also describes witnessing a physician getting punched in the jaw after declining to write a patient a prescription for a narcotic.

Hospitals and care providers have been working to alter the sentiment that violence is “part of the job” through training and awareness, and now the two state laws.

“We are trying to educate and change our health care team members, understanding that workplace violence should not be a part of their job,” Schoolmeester said.

Sending a signal

As enacted, the state laws would allow a court to impose a 93-day jail sentence and up to a $1,000 ne on a person convicted of assaulting or battering a health care professional or medical volunteer while they are performing their job. If an incident results in “great bodily harm” to a health care worker or volunteer, the penalty rises to up to a year in jail and a $2,000 ne.

If the assault involves a weapon, the penalties go to up to four years in prison with a $4,000 ne.

“Workplace violence in health care has been an issue for a very long time, and for too long health care workers accepted it as part of their job.”

Mandi Schoolmeester, clinical nurse specialist, University of Michigan Health-West

thing they have to tolerate and are hesitant to report an incident or le a police report.

“Workplace violence in health care has been an issue for a very long time, and for too long health care workers accepted it as part of their job, and since COVID and this subsequent crisis workplace violence has just risen exponentially,” said Mandi Schoolmeester, a clinical nurse specialist at Uni-

While the higher penalties may not completely eliminate or deter all “bad actors,” they do “send a signal to those who might otherwise believe that it’s OK (and) that’s there’s no consequences to this sort of bad behavior,” said Brian Peters, CEO of the Michigan Health & Hospital Association.

“It is at out inappropriate to physically attack a health care employee and there are going to be consequences if and when it happens,” Peters said. “It’s a signal that we’re not going to tolerate this anymore.”

e higher penalties would not apply if the assault was committed by a patient receiving care from the victim, although patients who

charges if the incident is reported to police.

As enacted, the heightened penalties in the laws apply to visitors and families of patients. Provisions in the laws recognize that sometimes a patient who lashes out while receiving care lacks the ability to control themselves.

“We’re not looking to punish the people that are in crisis,” Bolen said. “We are just trying to protect health care workers more.”

‘Serious things’

assault a health worker or volunteer could still face criminal

Michelle Pena, chief nursing ofcer at Trinity Health Grand Rapids, calls the state legislation “a start” toward addressing work-

place violence in health care, although she would like to see legislators eventually add language that applies the higher penalties to patients who intentionally lash out.

Pena understands why the exception was built into the laws.

“Nobody in health care wants to prosecute or kick out a patient that does not have decisional capacity,” Pena said. “Many, many patients don’t even know what they’re doing.”

Still, there’s “a good chunk of people that know what they’re doing that we could decrease injuries by,” she said.

See ASSAULT on Page 12

New state laws require hospitals to post signs informing people of the heightened penalties for assaulting a health care worker. MICHIGAN HEALTH & HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION

LARGEST MICHIGAN LAW FIRMS

ResearchedbySonyaD.Hill:shill@crain.com|Thislistisanapproximatecompilationofthelargestlaw rmsinMichigan.Totalnumberofattorneysdoesnotinclude"ofcounsel."Itisnotacomplete listingbutthemostcomprehensiveavailable.Informationwasprovidedbythelaw rmsorgatheredfromtheirwebsites.Firmswithheadquarterselsewherearelistedwiththeaddressandtopexecutive oftheirmainMichiganof ce.NA=notavailable. 1. FormerlyJaffeRaittHeuer&WeissPC.Enteredintoanagreementtomergewiththe rmofTaftStettinius&HollisterLLPinadealthatwasannounced in September 2022. The deal was nalized Dec. 31, 2022.

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LARGEST MICHIGAN LAW FIRMS CRAIN’S LIST

Ranked by

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in Michigan as of January

Clothing manufacturer Detroit Sewn to close

A metro Detroit clothing factory is closing up shop after nearly nine years in business.

Detroit Sewn owner Karen Buscemi in a Feb. 25 social media post announced she’s shutting down the Pontiac factory that did contract clothing manufacturing.

Buscemi said in the post that she’s selling everything at her Pontiac factory, including machinery, fabric and trims, lamps, and bins. Appointments to see the items can be made by email. An asset list is available for outof-town businesses interested in the items.

Detroit Sewn produced clothing for government and military contracts, clothing brands, and home goods companies. e

company, at 67 N. Saginaw St. in Pontiac, opened in 2015.

Detroit Sewn in 2020 began o ering sustainable personal protection equipment.

Buscemi did not immediately respond to a Crain’s request for more information.

Buscemi, a past Crain’s Notable Women in Design honoree, in the Feb. 25 post said running the business has given her great pleasure.

“One of the greatest joys of owning the factory has been seeing the visions of so many individuals come to life,” Buscemi said. “I thank you for putting your trust in us and I wish you all the best.”

Buscemi, who also founded the Detroit Garment Group, told Crain’s in 2017 that she started Detroit Sewn because of the lack of garment manufacturing in the state. “I was getting daily inquiries about where you could produce garments locally,” she said at the time.

e closing of Detroit Sewn is the latest in a string of retailer and clothing manufacturing moves.

Jeans maker Detroit Denim Co. on Jan. 30 announced it would close after 14 years in business. Midtown Detroit streetwear retail shop Detroit Clothing Circle closed on Feb. 5 after nine years in business.

Ross wants to cash in on Miami Dolphins after value surges

Stephen Ross said he’s looking to sell a portion of the Miami Dolphins, after the value of National Football League teams surged in recent years.

“I’m looking at now to monetize a portion of it,” the billionaire real estate developer, Detroit native and prominent University of Michigan donor said at the FII Priority event in Miami Beach. “I never dreamed we’d be so fast at the valuations that are out there today.”

A Miami Dolphins stake sale could surpass the $6 billion valuation a group led by investor Josh Harris paid for the Washington Commanders last year, Bloomberg News reported.

e new comments by Ross conrm earlier reports he was looking to sell a minority stake of his sports empire, which along with the Dolphins includes the Hard Rock Stadium and the F1 Miami Grand Prix. Citadel founder Ken Gri n is in talks to purchase it, Bloomberg reported in November.

Ross, 83, paid $1 billion for 95% of the franchise in 2009, while also pouring $730 million into renovating the Hard Rock Stadium and surrounding areas. He has other sports ventures including a soccer commercial rights agency, which has a joint venture with LaLiga.

“ e community wants an owner who wants to win and will spend the resources to bring that,” said Ross, who’s worth $8.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Ross made his comments at a two-day conference backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment

Fund, which holds about $700 billion of sovereign money and is a key investor across the globe. Topics ranged from AI and real estate to sports, and attendees ran the gamut of investors, politicians and celebrities, including Gwyneth Paltrow.

Minutes before Ross went on stage, Josh Harris said he didn’t overpay for the Commanders, at the time the biggest sports transaction in history.

“People will look back at the purchase of the Commanders and say, ‘Wow, that was bargain’,” said Harris, who runs 26North Partners and previously was a co-founder of Apollo Global Management Inc.

A day earlier, FIFA President Gianni Infantino made a last-minute appearance at the event from Dubai to talk up the 2026 World Cup, as the world’s largest sport event heads to Saudi Arabia in 2034.

“ is year there’s a lot of sports because frankly there’s a lot of money in sports,” said Richard Attias, chief executive of the FII Institute, organizer of the Miami Beach event.

Internal data at Trinity Health Grand Rapids indicate that one-quarter of patients who are involved in incidents “have a hundred percent decisional capacity. ey’re choosing to do it,” Pena said.

Pena testi ed last June in support of the bills. She told lawmakers that co-workers have had to take time o because of concussions, broken jaws, and other injuries su ered when they were assaulted on the job. One colleague su ered fractured facial bones in an assault and required surgery, Pena said.

“We’ve had colleagues that have had to become patients in the hospital,” she told Crain’s Grand Rapids Business. “We’ve had some serious things.”

Workplace violence and threats have been cited as key contributors to nurses and other health care professionals leaving the industry,

worsening a sta ng shortage.

In a 2022 University of Michigan School of Nursing survey, more than nine out of 10 respondents said that they were emotionally exhausted. Among the top reasons for their burnout was physical abuse in the workplace.

As well, Pena cites an October 2023 report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality that detailed how health care workers are ve times more likely to su er an injury from workplace

violence than other professions.

‘An issue literally everywhere’

e nursing labor union National Nurses United found in a 2023 survey that “nurses across the nation continue to experience extremely high rates of workplace violence and that those rates have increased.”

More than eight out 10 nurses reported experiencing at least one violent workplace incident in the

past year, according to National Nurses United. Nearly half said they have seen an increase in workplace violence in their hospital unit.

Among physicians, 85% of ER doctors answering a 2022 survey by the American College of Emergency Physicians said they believe violence in emergency departments nationally had increased over ve years, while 45% said it has greatly increased.

e higher incidents rates have been occurring nationally, from large urban hospitals to small rural facilities, Peters said.

“ is is an issue literally everywhere,” he said. “Every single day we have people that are punching, kicking and all sorts of abuse of our nurses and other front-line caregivers. It’s a huge issue and one that’s getting in the way of our ability to recruit and retain hospital employees. How do you recruit and retain people if they don’t feel safe in the workplace?”

Legislation pending in Congress would make assaulting a health

care worker a federal felony and treat incidents similarly to abuse against ight attendants and commercial airline employees. e MHA supports the proposed Safety from Violence for Healthcare Employees Act, or SAVE.

Hospitals have increased sta training, including how to de-escalate a situation before it becomes violent, how to identify when somebody is about to lash out, and how to assess patients for potential threats. e union asserts that they could do more to prevent workplace incidents.

About once a week, a team at Trinity Health Grand Rapids responds to a situation in which a patient is verbally threatening or violent. e team talks to the patient and tells them that “we will not tolerate this (and) it is not acceptable.”

In most cases, the team that includes the attending physician can calm them and the patient “resets themselves and is ne, and starts to allow us to care for them,” Pena said.

Karen Buscemi

Felipe Marques and Gillian Tan, Bloomberg News

Stephen Ross | BLOOMBERG

UWM posts rst full-year loss as public company

By Nick Manes

The instability of interest rates last year helped bring upon the first full-year loss for United Wholesale Mortgage as a publicly traded company.

The Pontiac-based wholesale mortgage lender reported a loss of $69.8 million for all of 2023, compared to nearly $1 billion in profit the previous year, according to an earnings release Feb. 28.

Rival lender Detroit-based Rocket Companies Inc. (NYSE: RKT) last month reported a net loss of $390 million for all of last year — also its first full-year loss since it went public in 2020 — although its fourth-quarter earnings showed signs of improvement from one year earlier.

UWM’s total mortgage originations last year were about $108.3 billion, a 15% drop from 2022 when mortgage interest rates were around 5% for much of the year. By the latter part of 2023,

rates had climbed to around 8%.

Roughly 87% of the company’s originations last year were purchase loans, meaning mortgages to buy a home as opposed to refinancing. The record purchase volume for the company underscores the current barren landscape for refinancing activity amid heightened interest rates as the U.S. Federal Reserve continues to fight inflation, which remains slightly above its 2% target.

The overall loss is largely one on paper, and the company remains “operationally profitable,” CEO Mat Ishbia said in a statement, attributing the loss to fluctuating interest rates, which can decrease the value of mortgage servicing rights a lender holds.

“2023 was one of the best years in UWM history,” Ishbia said on a Feb. 28 call for financial analysts and investors. “It wasn’t the standout from a financial perspective, but from a dominance perspective. We separated from

our competitors significantly on market share, growing operational earnings and strategic investments.”

To that end, the UWM earnings report shows that the company’s full-year gain-on-sale margin — a key indicator of profitability showing what a lender makes when it sells a loan on the secondary market — grew 15 basis points from a year earlier to 0.92%.

In the fourth quarter of 2023, UWM reported a net loss of about $461 million, compared to more than $300 million in profit the previous quarter. Total originations in the final quarter of

2023 were about $24.4 billion, down 3% from one year earlier and about 18% from the previous quarter.

“Overall, both volumes and margins exceeded our forecast and margin guidance is moving towards the high-end of historical levels, despite ongoing macro challenges,” analyst Kyle Joseph with investment banking firm Jefferies wrote in an investor note Feb. 28 following the earnings release.

The company’s adjusted earnings per share of negative 23 cents fell well short of analyst expectations of 29 cents.

UWM had about 6,000 em-

ployees, according to Crain’s data from July. That represents a decline of about 25% from a year earlier. On the Feb. 28 call, Ishbia said the company now stands at about 7,000 employees.

UWM’s earnings release showed expenses related to salaries, commissions and benefits declined about 4% in 2023 from a year earlier, totaling about $530 million.

Looking ahead to the first quarter of 2024, UWM’s earnings report anticipates quarterly loan production in the range of $22 billion to $28 billion, with gain margins of between 80 and 105 basis points.

Sexy Steak, new event space open inside GAR Building

Jay Davis

e newest restaurant and event space from a local hospitality group is now open inside a historic Detroit space.

Italian steak house Sexy Steak and event space Castle Hall are now open inside the Grand Army of the Republic Building in downtown Detroit. e Grand Army of the Republic building, at 1942 Grand River Ave., was formerly home to Parks & Rec Diner and Republic Tavern restaurants.

e venture comes from Prime Concepts Detroit, which also owns and operates restaurants including Prime29 Steakhouse and Pao supper club in downtown Detroit, and Aurora Italiana in West Bloom eld.

Prime Concepts is a division of Barbat Holdings LLC, owned by developer Joe Barbat, who bought the ve-story, castle-like GAR Building early last year. e purchase price was not disclosed.

Sexy Steak occupies the rst two oors of the building. A burger concept, Sexy Burger, originally planned as part of the project, is on the back burner for now, according to a Prime Concepts spokesperson. Private event space Castle Hall operates on the third and fourth oors of the 30,000-square-foot building.

Sexy Steak lls 4,000 square feet on the rst oor and has seating for 120. e second- oor space is more of a bar and lounge, in a 3,000-square-foot space with seat-

ing for 100 guests, and a 12-seat bar.

Sexy Steak features a traditional

Italian steakhouse menu with modern in uences and an oyster bar. e menu includes fresh pas-

ta, veal, seafood and USDA prime steaks. A section of the rst- oor dining room features a Himalayan salt-lined case that showcases premium cuts of beef, allowing guests to choose their own steak. All beef and poultry items served in the restaurant are halal-certi ed.

Prime Concepts Detroit is hiring 75 sta ers for front- and back-ofhouse positions. Investment into the property and annual revenue projections were not disclosed.

Event spaces take up the rest of the building.

e third oor features two rooms, named Cass Hall and Adams Hall after neighboring streets, that can together hold 120 seated guests or 180 strolling. e fourth

oor Grand Ballroom has space for 120 seated guests and 250 strolling. e Grand Ballroom, named after Grand River Avenue, o ers views of various parts of the city.

Royal Oak-based Art Harrison Interiors and the Barbat Holdings development team partnered on the design of the space. Some of the original elements of the building remain in place, like the original windows, staircase and tile ooring at the ground oor entrance.

A public memorial displaying building artifacts from the past 150 years is also on site, with Prime Concepts working with a Grand Army of the Republic building historian on preserving the pieces.

“Guests will have their senses ignited from the moment they walk in — from the sculptures they see, the music they hear, the aromas they smell, and the avors they taste,” Prime Concepts Detroit managing partner and director of operations Stolion Liti said in a statement.

e Grand Army of the Republic Building was built starting in 1899 and ending in 1901, e ectively as a “hangout for the city’s Civil War veterans,” according to Historic Detroit, which tracks Detroit buildings and architecture.

Sexy Steak is open 5 p.m.-10 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, ursday and Sunday and 5 p.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. It’s closed on Tuesday.

Sexy Steak lls 4,000 square feet on the ground oor of the Grand Army of the Republic Building. The second- oor space is more of a bar and lounge. | PRIME CONCEPTS DETROIT

Italian steakhouse Sexy Steak occupies the rst two oors at 1942 Grand River Ave.

PRIME CONCEPTS DETROIT AND COSTAR GROUP

United Wholesale Mortgage is based in Pontiac.

UM formalizes test-optional admissions policy

e University of Michigan has o cially adopted a test-optional policy for undergraduate admissions.

The move formalizes an approach similiar to the university’s “test-flexible” policy adopted during the pandemic, something the university said has helped it develop a more diverse student body.

Moving away from overreliance on standardized test scores that often track with privilege and socioeconomic status is among the strategies UM has turned to in the wake of the state a rmative action ban and U.S. Supreme Court ban on the practice last year, university President Santa Ono told Crain’s last summer.

UM announced its new policy on Feb. 21, just a day before Yale University took the opposite view, saying it will require standardized test scores for admission for students applying to enter in the fall of 2025 but allow them to submit scores from subject-based Advance Placement or International Baccalaureate tests in lieu of SAT or ACT sores.

Yale o cials said the university’s shift to test-optional policies might have unwittingly harmed students from lower-income families whose test scores could have helped their chances, the New York Times reported on Feb. 22.

Dartmouth College in February also ended a test-optional admissions policy put in place during COVID after it found that hundreds of students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who had scored in the 1,400 range on the SAT did not submit them, fearing that they fell too far below the perfect 1,600, according to the New York Times report.

“Our commitment today to a test-optional policy for undergraduate admissions demonstrates our focus on providing

access to high-achieving students from all backgrounds,” said Adele Brumfield, vice provost for enrollment management at UM, in a release.

”Provost Laurie McCauley and I hope this action provides clarity on our process and helps students prepare for applying to UM in 2025 and beyond.”

UM started the “test- exible” policy in June 2020 due to the variability that existed for prospective undergraduate students to access standardized testing locally, nationally and internationally because of the pandemic. It has seen a signi cant increase in applications from students from all backgrounds since fall 2020.

“ is suggests that a more exible testing policy, paired with other e orts introduced during this time like virtual events, targeted communications, and individualized outreach, has helped the university develop a more diverse campus community,” UM said.

Under the new policy, which takes e ect with the winter 2025 admissions, undergraduate applicants are not required to submit standardized test scores but can if they want to. But with the new “test-optional” policy, prospective students can submit only ACT and SAT scores. UM will no longer consider PSAT, AP and IB test scores in their place.

UM said national benchmarking indicated that the majority of its peer institutions and other public universities in Michigan remain test-optional.

e state’s other two largest public universities, Michigan State University and Wayne State University are among them, per their websites.

e nearly two dozen private college and university members of Michigan Independent Colleges & Universities are also test-optional, and many were test-optional before the pandemic, association President Robert LeFevre said.

Northville Downs sues Plymouth Township over relocation dispute

By Kirk Pinho

Northville Downs has sued Plymouth Township over what it says is an illegal demand for a community bene ts agreement to move forward with its proposed relocation there.

e federal lawsuit comes about a month after the township board voted to scrap discussions with the Carlo family, which owns Northville Downs, over what was described as an “impasse” over a proposed bene ts agreement.

Mike Cox, the Livonia-based attorney for Northville Downs, wrote in the complaint that the bene ts agreement amounts to “extortion” totaling millions of dollars.

e lawsuit says requiring a community bene ts agreement for the project not only ies in the face of township and state zoning laws, but also would be the only time Plymouth Township has ever required such an agreement from a developer. Northville Downs is seeking damages north of $10 million from the township, as well as a court ruling requiring that the township grant approval for the project to move forward.

At issue is a proposed CBA with provisions that included Northville Downs giving up $5 million over the course of 10 years; a Fourth of July drone show friendly for veterans and pets; up to six arts and cultural shows; and other things, such as soccer elds and pickleball courts.

Township Supervisor Kurt Heise described the complaint as “a remarkable piece of political ction based almost exclusively on hearsay and events which did not transpire the way as articulated” in the lawsuit. He also disputed the monetary gure sought from the project.

Cox said in an email that the township’s requirement “... is municipal extortion that would not be attempted against Ford or Meijer or LA Fitness because they are too big and powerful, but Plymouth Township thought it could do so against NVD (Northville Downs).”

e complaint says that township o cials began courting Northville Downs to a new township site more than three years ago, with Heise and Gary Heitman, a board member for the Michigan International Technology Corridor (MITC) area where the track would be built, going out for dinner with two members of the Carlo family in January 2021.

During that meeting, Heise and Heitman assured swift approvals — within 60 to 90 days — from the township board and planning commission, the lawsuit says. e complaint said assurances of quick approvals were enticing to the Carlos, who wanted to minimize and eliminate business interruption after the track their family has operated in Northville for decades closed.  Discussion also went to benefits the development would provide the community, according to the complaint. The men discussed things like breakage fees, which are collected from winning bets at the track, as well as other things the track would provide, like property taxes and free hosting of civic events, the lawsuit says. A community benefits agreement, according to the complaint, would have been voluntary but not mandatory to secure PUD approval.

Ultimately, the originally planned Plymouth Township site was not a viable option for the project, according to the complaint.

in December 2022.

Early in 2023, Northville Downs began going through the rst part of a planned-unit development process, securing the needed Planning Commission and township board approvals as the complaint says Heise told the Carlos would happen.

e board authorized Heise and the township’s legal counsel to create a community bene ts agreement. And several months later during a Planning Commission meeting in June, the commission conditioned its unanimous approval of a revised PUD on approval of a community bene ts agreement, the lawsuit says.

Ultimately, in January, the board voted to terminate negotiations on the proposal.

Heise said Cox and the Carlos were made aware of the community bene ts agreement plan as far back as October 2022.

“ e community bene ts agreement has been made clear to them from Day 1,” Heise told Crain’s on Feb. 27. “Frankly we made it very clear we were going to have a CBA because this is a controversial project. We knew there would be citizen opposition to this. We wanted to make sure

In January, the Plymouth Township board voted to terminate negotiations on the proposal.

But, it says, after that determination was made, o cials pointed the Carlos to a di erent 128acre chunk of property in the MITC area, which is the former Detroit House of Corrections property, sometimes known as DeHoCo, located in Plymouth and Northville townships. at property had been targeted for a large warehouse development project with multiple buildings that eventually fell through.

The Carlos then pursued and purchased the 128-acre property for about $10 million

the citizens of Plymouth Township got the best deal possible. I have no regrets that we demanded a community bene ts agreement.”

He also disputed the $5 million gure cited by Northville Downs, saying it was $3 million — $1 million total in the rst two years, then $250,000 each year for the following eight.

e existing Northville Downs site is expected to be torn down to clear the way for a $250 million mixed-use project with residential, park and retail space by Farmington Hills-based developer Hunter Pasteur Homes.

Sherri Welch

The owners of Northville Downs on Feb. 27 led a lawsuit in federal court over a community bene ts agreement dispute related to a proposal to relocate their horse racing track to Plymouth Township. | PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP

PLC Detroit opening shoe manufacturing lab

By Sherri Welch

PLC Detroit, Michigan’s only historically Black college or university, is opening a studio in Detroit to teach students the art of making shoes.

Located in the Icon building on Detroit’s east riverfront, the new Foot Locker Footwear Creation Stu/deo will largely focus on athletic footwear but also touch on lifestyle, casual, dress shoe and boot production, said D’Wayne Edwards, a noted athletic shoe designer and president of PLC Detroit, which has its roots as the Lewis College of Business.

It will serve as the college’s home for small footwear production capabilities, shoemaking workshops and sample-making services.

Merchandisers and buyers from Foot Locker, a supporter of the college since 2015, will work with students to market their products, Edwards said.

e new 5,000-square-foot studio is the rst of several new spaces PLC plans to lease and open this year in the building at 200 Walker St., Edwards said.

“ e space we’re building out is equivalent to what you’d nd at a major corporation like Nike or New Balance … very few schools have the space we have,” he said.

e new studio “will inspire the

STARTUP

From Page 1

Josh Hundt, MEDC’s chief business development o cer and EVP, said winning the project helps solidify the engineering prowess of Michigan, home to 75% of the country’s automotive R&D.

“ is company is establishing their rst non-manufacturing hub to be here in Michigan,” Hundt told Crain’s in an interview. “What it represents is that Michigan is continuing to lead the way in terms of the electri cation of the automotive industry, and we’re continuing to lead the way in terms of research and development.”

Lucid’s expansion in metro Detroit will strengthen the region’s position as a mobility leader, said Maureen Donohue Krauss, president and CEO of the Detroit Regional Partnership, which served as lead on the project.

“ e technology in the latest EV is mind-blowing, and Lucid is really pushing the innovation envelope with the Gravity,” Krauss said in an emailed statement. “ is is exactly the kind of company we want to add to our automotive and mobility sector. As they innovate, they will grow, expand their footprint, create more jobs, and attract other innovators; strengthening our position as the Global Epicenter of Mobility.”.

e project represents a struggling Silicon Valley startup coming to the Motor City to plant a ag. Lucid is among the ballyhooed EV startups, like Rivian, now facing

next generation of footwear creators and design visionaries, providing them with the resources and education to excel in the industry,” Edwards said.

“We’re thrilled to once again partner with PLC Detroit to foster innovation and promote diversity in design through the opening of the Foot Locker Footwear Creation Stu/deo,” Elliott Rodgers, executive vice president and COO at Foot Locker, said in a news release. “ is space further demonstrates our commitment to invest in and provide opportunity for creatives to excel in the fashion industry.”

Edwards moved his Portland, Ore.-based Pensole Design Academy plan to Detroit in 2022 after acquiring a majority stake in the

former HBCU Lewis College of Business in fall 2021. He renamed it the Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design and operated initially from the College for Creative Studies in Midtown before leasing space at the Icon. e school is now operating as PLC Detroit.

Support came from Target Corp. and the Gilbert Family Foundation. e Gilbert organization provided $10 million over ve years to support the reopening of the state’s and city’s only HBCU.

“Detroit is a birthplace of innovation and creation — and this spirit thrives at Pensole as they continue inspiring the next generation of creative thinkers and achievers,” Gilbert said in the re-

the reality check of consumer demand that isn’t growing as quickly as some hoped.

Lucid lost $2.8 billion last year, according to its fourth-quarter earnings report, and it laid o 1,300 employees. Executives said on the earnings call last month that the company expects to make just 9,000 vehicles this year as interest rates hamper demand, Automotive News reported.

Lucid already has about 25 Michigan-based employees working remotely as the company looks to open its o ce, a source said.

e luxury Lucid Air, its only vehicle on the market, starts at about $70,000. It aims to launch production of the Gravity later this year.

For Michigan, the Lucid deal marks another win in securing white collar corporate investment, a key priority for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration as a new R&D tax credit nears legislative approval. Michigan is the only state in the Midwest without such a credit, putting it at an economic

lease. “Dr. Edwards’ passion, experience and love of design is unmatched. His work with innovators like Michael Jordan, Nike and others, helps PLC students become the designers of tomorrow. ( e Feb. 28) announcement with Foot Locker is another example of the pathways to success that Detroit’s HBCU are opening for students in our city.”

e college o ers revolving master classes —  ve weeks on, three weeks o — throughout the year for students. All of its programs are sponsored by major corporations, from Nike and New Balance to Jimmy Choo.

“ ey cover housing and tuition for our students … with the idea that students will matriculate into internships and full-time positions with those companies,” Edwards said.

Since its launch, PLC has placed more than 700 students in jobs at those companies, he said. By the end of this year, the Detroit school will have served about 150 students.

“We’re growing at a steady pace,” he said, projecting PLC Detroit will see a total of 600 in-person students within five years and another 1,500 virtually.

PLC plans to launch a degree program by the end of 2025 and open several new spaces at the Icon this year, Edwards said.

sponded to multiple recent requests for comment about its current Michigan footprint.

Lucid’s South eld o ce is its third employment hub in the U.S. e company’s footprint is anchored by a 300,000-square-foot HQ in Newark, Calif., and it has a manufacturing plant in Arizona and one in Saudi Arabia.

Lucid was founded by an ex-

AIRPORT

From Page 1

Removing the crosswinds runway, which clocks in at more than 3,700 feet in length, has drawn some pushback, including from the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum, which said in October 2022 that student pilots need it for educational purposes.

Making the 80 acres development-ready is expected to cost $27.2 million, with $900,000 in public funding other than the SSRP grant committed to the project, according to the MSF memo. Crain’s has inquired with the city about additional funding sources and project timelines.

e SSRP provides grants for properties for which an end user has not been identi ed. Crain’s reported recently that, for the $100 million pot, the state received 72 applications totaling $420 million.

In 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration signed o on a new airport layout plan that was to unlock some $100 million in funding over the next decade, Mayor Mike Duggan said at the time. e plan had been in the works for years.

In the spring last year, Crain’s reported that the airport was in contention for a $500 million ying-taxi manufacturing, research and development facility by Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Joby Aviation, but ultimately that project went to Dayton.

Tesla executive in 2007 as Atieva Inc., an EV battery and powertrain developer. It launched the Air in 2016, claiming in 2021 to hit a record 520 miles on a single charge.

e carmaker has joined others, including Tesla, in cutting prices of the Air as demand cools. Executives are betting that the upcoming Gravity will appeal to a wider audience and goose sales.

development disadvantage, ocials have said.

Electric truck manufacturer Scout Motors Inc. said late last year it planned to invest $11 million and create 200 jobs with a new R&D center in Novi. It is planning the center in tandem with a new $2 billion factory being constructed in South Carolina.

“As we design and engineer our vehicles, Michigan is the perfect place to establish our Innovation Center due to its deep automotive roots,” Scout CEO Scott Keogh said in a statement at the time.

Lucid is far from alone in its EV upstart troubles. Rivian said last month it would cut 10% of its sta after reporting a $1.5 billion loss last year and anticipating at production this year. at comes after hundreds of jobs eliminated in 2022.

In 2021, a Rivian spokesperson told Crain’s it doubled its headcount to 600 in Plymouth Township, where it has an engineering center. e company has not re-

A Lucid showroom in Tysons, Va. The company had been exploring sites for an R&D facility more than a year, and about half a dozen states were vying for the project. | BLOOMBERG

PLC Detroit has leased additional space in the Icon Building on the Detroit riverfront owned by Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock Detroit to house the new Foot Locker Footwear Creation Stu/deo. | BEDROCK DETROIT

Penske still bullish on Detroit as he talks QLine, Draft

By Kurt Nagl

As automotive and transportation titan Roger Penske puts it, everything Detroit has accomplished over recent decades — hosting Super Bowl XL, emerging from bankruptcy, beautifying downtown, building a world-class riverfront, etc. — is a catalyst for what’s to come.

And big things are coming, Penske said. at could include an expansion of the Qline, a more connected city and more large events. But that’s getting a bit ahead of what Detroit has on the docket this year, including what’s promised to be its biggest event in years. Penske shared his thoughts about the city’s past and future alongside Dan Loepp, president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan; Eric Larson, CEO of the Downtown Detroit Partnership; and renowned sportscaster Mike Tirico.

e executives spoke on a variety of Detroit-speci c topics Feb. 22 during the DDP’s annual meeting, highlighting accomplishments in 2023 and what’s happening in 2024.

e most imminent event is the NFL Draft, scheduled for April 2527 and expected to bring hundreds of thousands of visitors and tens of millions of dollars downtown. To understand how Detroit landed the opportunity, it’s helpful to revisit the city’s path to the present — a path that often had Penske driving the pace car.

Super Bowl XL

Penske entered Detroit in a big way in 1988 with his company’s acquisition of Detroit Diesel. Since then, he has become a key gure in the city’s resurgence while building Bloom eld Hills-based Penske Corp. into the largest local privately held business with $37 billion in annual revenue.

Shortly after Ford Field opened in 2002, Penske got a call from Ford Motor Co. Chairman Bill Ford, who asked him to chair the host committee for Super Bowl XL, Penske said. He gave an answer that would guide his attitude toward civic en-

gagement for decades to come: Yes.

“First we had to go to the NFL owners and sell them on Detroit,” Penske recalled. “We were painting buildings, we were putting graphics on Woodward Avenue, everything we could to show we were a real city.”

e Super Bowl itself, Feb. 5, 2006, turned out to be a watershed moment for the city. It showed outsiders that Detroit was more than the headlines often make it out to be, and it showed the local community what it was capable of accomplishing.

“ at was just the catalyst,” Penske said. “It’s what followed. And this is what followed.”

NFL Draft

Tirico couldn’t help but to liken the city’s trajectory to that of its sports teams, and he has a point.

“Sports matter, and if you ever doubt it, look at our city,” Tirico said. “Look at what the Lions did for our city. Sports brings a community together in a unique way.”

e Lions’ pair of playo games at Ford Field plunged $40 million into downtown businesses, by some estimates, and it set the stage nicely for the NFL Draft, the second-most important date on the league’s schedule and possibly a bigger economic boon than the Super Bowl.

“You come down here now and you think about what it was and what it’s turned out to be,” Tirico said of the city.

e city of Detroit, DDP, NFL, downtown business and various other stakeholders are working hard to give Detroit the presentation it deserves come Draft time, Larson said. Local small businesses are getting in the game, along with myriad popups, activations, entertainment and other plans yet to be unveiled.

“I think what you’ll see in 2024 is a record number of visitors downtown,” he said. “ e way that we are maintaining an investing in our public spaces is very unique. It’s really amazing to see the country recognize the public spaces we’re creating.”

QLine

e opening of the QLine along Woodward Avenue in 2017 marked another pivotal moment for the city, long derided for its lacking mass transit. Penske was at the forefront of that, too, as a primary benefactor, kicking in $7 million toward its $187 million creation, and booster.

“To think about what it’s doing today for our city … $8 billion has been invested along Woodward Avenue because of the QLine.” Penske would like to see it go further. In recent years, there’s been chatter of possibly expanding the streetcar, but nothing rmed up. Penske indicated he could see that changing.

“And what’s going to happen is, as this success happens, we see it going east on Je erson, and it

could go further north on Woodward in the future, so again, we’re going to tie this together,” he said.

e QLine announced at the end of last year it could shift from a stand-alone independent nonpro t to “a fully integrated transit system” under a plan to transfer control to the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan.

QLine spokesman Dan Lijana told Crain’s that he’s not heard of any speci c plans for expansion.

Crain’s also reached out to the RTA for comment.

Belle Isle and the Grand Prix

e Penske-led Detroit Grand Prix took place on the streets of downtown last year for the rst time after years of running on Belle Isle. Its staging on the city’s island park was subject to criticism from environmentalists and some residents, but the event brought millions of dollars in investment.

Penske called the move downtown a “homerun” and said this year’s race, scheduled for May 31June 2, will be better than last year and build o momentum from the Draft. He does have concern for the race’s former home, though the Belle Isle Conservancy has said it is stepping up fundraising e orts in the absence of dollars from the race.

“I do worry about Belle Isle, quite honestly, going forward,” Penske said. “I think our involvement gave it a lift.”

City Music Hall, to prime time to moving it around the country, I’ve watched this thing grow to the biggest sporting event where nothing happens. ere’s no ball.

ere’s no scoreboard. ere’s no players, there’s no coach, yet hundreds of thousands of people now come in person over this stretch of time. To watch it grow has been extraordinary. To see it come to Detroit is a huge deal. Other than the Super Bowl, this is the biggest event the NFL has every year because it’s the one event with all 32 teams involved, and all the fan bases. I think the city, given its proximity … You can drive here from so many NFL cities, and given that it’s a Delta hub and you can y here from every other one with a direct ight, it really lends itself to (being) a great gathering space for this premier event in the NFL’s o season.

What should people who are local to the area expect? What should they be on the lookout for?

Certainly your daily life is a little di erent because there are detours, closures, things like that. But jump in, enjoy it. Be a part of it. Enjoy people coming from around the country to see your city. What a great chance to show people what Detroit is made of, in terms of its people, what the place has become, how foodies

from across the country come here. ere’s a lot of fans. One thing that will be cool is you’ll see a lot of fans downtown in every NFL jersey, representing all their teams. People come for this event from around the country. What other opportunity do they have to come to Detroit unless their team’s playing here, they have family here or they just want to come and visit? At the end of the day, that’s what we want. We want people to come here to visit and have a good time.

You live in this area and you’ve been in this area for a long time. Did you have any sort of point in time where you realized the city is ready based on hotel rooms, atmosphere, vibrancy? Was there a moment where the lights switched on, like, “Oh yeah, OK, we can do this?”

I’ve volunteered, for just about as long as it’s been going, with the Detroit Sports Commission that really has worked to try to get some of these events to town. Let’s go back and track it a little bit. e move to get the Tigers to Comerica Park in 2000. e Lions move downtown in 2002. Building Little Caesars Arena. All those were important. But the Super Bowl was that one big ag, and the Final Four. So getting Ford Field built, and getting the Lions downtown, allowed those mega events to take place here. From those events, both the Super Bowl, the NFL Draft, the Final Four, have grown in size in that

15-year stretch, so the city needed to make some steps and growth in terms of public safety, hotels, restaurants, entertainment, bars, the things that people sample when they come from out of the state and around the country to this event and events like this. Working with the Detroit Sports Commission, and seeing the time put in on the bids and the growth … I was there with Mayor Duggan in Boston when we pitched the Final Four for Detroit and didn’t get the event, and now the Final Four is coming back. I was not on this pitch trip, but the Final Four is coming back in 2027. at shows that the city has grown big enough now to handle the size and the infrastructure of those mega events. I would say that stretch of working with the Sports Commission has really given me a window to see incremental steps were being made. I still think one of the big things will be a large hotel. I think we still need, for events like this and conventions, that other hotel. We keep reading a big one is on the way. at momentum is important for the next step, as we go from the 2020s out to the 2030s. Sounds silly, but that’s the way you plan for these events. We really need one of those large hotels downtown to keep more of those people here to support the restaurants and bars and other entertainment that comes from these.

These are really big economic drivers, as well. What are

the sort of ripple effects of something like this in the cities where you’ve seen them, in the days, and months that follow?

Indianapolis is a city I’ve been to for a lot of events, the Super Bowl, Big 10 tournament, Final Four over the years. Indianapolis’s infrastructure — civic, corporate, their sports commission — have done a great job in attracting events. Indy has punched above its weight in terms population and city size for those events. Why? Because they got the hospitality part right. e hotels, restaurants and a walkable downtown. e other part has been there’s been some infrastructure on the nancial side. I’m a little over my skis on this, but I know that many governments have helped subsidize the e ort to get an event here. And it’s an investment that really has given a return in these sports events. When you’re down here and you see a fan of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers y up here for three days of the draft and enjoy the draft and all that, that’s great. at’s a win. at’s somebody who otherwise would not have come. ose things, I think, are important investments. On the state Legislature side, as well, an investment in foundational funding to get these events here, we’ve seen that in places like Indiana and Arizona, and it has helped them get events. I think that becomes an important part of that. e o shoot is the ROI, which is signi cant.

Just a little more general. I think you’re from New York originally and went to Syracuse. Can you walk us through how you ended up here? I grew up in the New York City area. Syracuse for college. Met my wife there. She is from Trenton [Mich.] We worked in Connecticut for eight years at ESPN in the building. en I started traveling around. At that time we had the opportunity to move somewhere and we moved back home for her, back to this area. at took us to Southeast Michigan. It’s 25 years now. We’ve kind of adopted this as our home. Our kids were born, raised and schooled here, and we absolutely love living here. We get up north during the summers and enjoy the area yearround. It’s a special place and special people and I always will tell people when they ask where I’m from that I grew up in New York. I guess I’m of New York. But I feel like I’m from Michigan now. is is my home. is is our home state. I have that same sense of pride. You can’t show it during the sports broadcast because of neutrality, but I have that same great sense of pride in watching the turnaround of Detroit, to see the neighborhoods come through bankruptcy. To see a thriving city. When my friends who I interact with on the PGA Tour are here for the Rocket Mortgage Classic, they go, “ is is a great place. Love it here.” It makes me feel proud. Even though I’m not from here, this is home.

Roger Penske entered Detroit in a big way in 1988 with his company’s acquisition of Detroit Diesel and has since become a key gure in the city’s resurgence. | GLENN TRIEST/ AUTOMOTIVE NEWS

APARTMENTS

e weekday lunch rush accounts for nearly the only time people are out and about from their o ces, he said.

“We have an hour a day of active retail.”

e goal of New Vision Lansing, Paul Gentilozzi said, is to introduce a project that matches the quality of the newly opened Residences at Water Square on the former site of the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit — where rents start in excess of $2,000 — but at Lansing prices.

Speci c rent gures have not been disclosed.

To do that, the developers have built up a capital stack of $40 million in equity, a $40 million state appropriation, $140 million in guaranteed debt and $8 million from the state’s Missing Middle housing program.

e hope is to attract a wide mix of people — o ce workers, students and other young professionals — to live in the 460 planned units in buildings located in the shadow of the state Capitol, Lansing City Hall and other o ce buildings. e campus of Michigan State University sits just three miles to the east down Michigan Avenue, the developers noted.

Apartments would include 150 “workforce” housing units targeted at those earning incomes above what typically quali es for subsidized housing. Incorporat-

ing “workforce” units is critical for the future success of downtown Lansing, Paul Gentilozzi said, adding that the goal is to ensure people aren’t spending more than 30% of their income on housing.

Beyond apartments, New Vision is planning 76,000 square feet of new and renovated o ce space and nearly 18,000 square feet of restaurant and retail real estate.

e developers, who aren’t pursuing speculative o ce space due to Lansing’s excess of canceled state leases, said they’re in advanced talks with potential, unnamed o ce tenants.

New Vision’s plan includes 530 parking spaces with 417 located in newly built underground or garage facilities.

e developers also plan a wide mix of amenities, including an outdoor deck with pickleball courts, dog walking areas, indoor and outdoor swimming pools and event spaces for larger gatherings.

Construction on each of the three projects is expected to be underway by later this year.

“ e people that work (in downtown Lansing) leave at 5 o’clock,” Paul Gentilozzi said.

“ e reporters from the (Lansing State) Journal or the television stations don’t want to come downtown. In every other city, that’s where the restaurants and bars are. But we don’t have restaurants and bars because we don’t have people. So, we have this silly cycle we have to break.”

DEBT

From Page 3

According to AlixPartners, debt among the top 300 suppliers rose by 27 percent between 2021 and 2022, and remained elevated into the rst half of 2023, even as automaker net debt declined.

“ ere are still a lot of companies with a lot of debt,” said Dan Hearsch, Americas co-leader of the automotive and industrial practice at AlixPartners.

TRANSIT

From Page 1

“Our goal with this is to be very targeted and say, ‘What are shortterm and long-term priorities that we can advance to support public transit throughout the state of Michigan’ and to just get at it and start doing it,” said Rep. Jason Morgan, a one-term Ann Arbor Democrat who formed the caucus with rst-term Democratic Rep. Mike McFall of Hazel Park.

Public transportation, supporters say, helps residents get to work and school without a car, is important for young people, protects the environment and is an economic engine.

“We felt that the discussion needed to be elevated beyond the counties and the cities and up to the state level,” McFall said. “ at way we can make sure we can hopefully secure some additional funding and some reliable funding.”

e group is dominated by Democrats, who currently lead the Legislature. But a handful of Republicans are participating, too.

e focus comes as advocates and some lawmakers push back against Whitmer’s latest budget proposal.

have better ratings and stronger liquidity,” leaving suppliers open to re nancing risks.

S&P Global said it expects supplier margins and cash ow to improve this year as the cost in ations for raw materials and freight moderates and newvehicle production improves and becomes less choppy.

“There are still a lot of companies with a lot of debt.”

Dan Hearsch, AlixPartners

Higher debt levels have hit suppliers particularly hard as interest rates remain elevated.

According to a January report by S&P Global Ratings, higher interest rates are a “bigger credit risk for auto suppliers compared to automakers, which tend to

But margin improvements could remain limited because of higher labor costs, energy prices, added R&D costs and new capital expenditures associated with EV-related parts programs, S&P Global said in its Industry Credit Outlook 2024 report.

Funding for local bus operations would drop from $261 million to $221 million, mainly due to a one-time boost of federal pandemic aid ending. Environmental organizations and groups like Transportation Riders United, a Detroit-based nonpro t, are advocating for an increase to $276 million to account for in ation.

ey ultimately want the state to spend at least $350 million annually. at would bring its share of operating assistance reimbursements to 80 transit agencies to 50% in urban areas and 60% in rural areas, the ceilings under current law. e state funded 29% of urban costs and 35% of rural costs in the 2022-2023 scal year.

“ at is money that goes directly into our communities to improve bus service and accessibility,” Morgan said. “It doesn’t require a new program or a new fund. e bus operators throughout the entire state bene t. It’s a very tangible way to improve pub-

lic transit and to invest in it.”

Whitmer did propose $50 million more for a separate item, transit- and rail-related capital spending, which would be funded with federal money and increased restricted revenues. She also oated $30 million in grants for local transit agencies to spur “innovation” to connect Michiganders with new transportation options.

“How are we going to ask our transit agencies to do something innovative when we can’t even fund them properly for the operations and things they do already?” said Tim Minotas, deputy legislative and political director of the Sierra Club’s Michigan chapter.  He urged legislators to fund transit at higher levels on an ongoing, not one-time, basis. e size of the transit caucus, he said, is a “sign that there many in the Legislature that want to get serious on this issue.”

e problem is there are competing budget priorities, including in transportation. e County Road Association recently called for an extra $2.3 billion-plus in funding to property maintain and restore county roads and bridges, saying the need has grown by roughly $500 million in just two years.

Public transportation programs account for 12% of the transportation budget, roads and bridges 83%, according to the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency. e budget is largely funded with fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees, and Whitmer has ruled out a gas tax increase after the Legislature rejected her 45-cent hike in 2019. She has said she welcomes transit-funding talks as lawmakers consider her budget plan.

“We believe that there are more legislators who passionately support investing in public transit now than there have ever been,” Morgan said. “We also know that public transit is something that most people say that they support and they generally do, but it’s always a second priority for them rather than a top priority. We want to make sure that we are unifying folks around key priorities to make a di erence nally.”

While the transit caucus’ initial focus is funding, lawmakers also may look at other issues.

e population council, for instance, recommended that Michigan develop regional transit systems, including by legislatively authorizing additional regional transit authorities to coordinate across multiple jurisdictions.

e Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan, the only one in the state, was created through a 2012 law. Voters in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw counties, however, narrowly defeated the authority’s 2016 proposal to levy a 20-year property tax to bolster local transit budgets and facilitate bus rapid transit, regional rail and other projects.

ough various Detroit-area transportation systems have been growing and adding service, the region is far from having a uni ed transit infrastructure. Billionaire Dan Gilbert has said regional cooperation would boost the chances of the federal government funding a mass transit expansion.

Morgan hopes legislators give the RTA exibility to propose a three-county taxing region or perhaps an area that does not cover full counties. e 2016 initiative was defeated largely because of opposition in Macomb.

He stressed, though, that the broader focus is “expanding transit statewide as much as possible and identifying those opportunities as opposed to just one region.”

e population commission also urged the Whitmer administration to conduct a feasibility study on developing Amtrak service between Detroit and Grand Rapids and bettering service on the line between Detroit and Chicago.

Another proponent of spending more on transit is Sen. Mallory McMorrow, a Royal Oak Democrat who has long noted that a lack of transit was a reason why Amazon did not make Detroit a nalist for its second headquarters despite the state dangling $4 billion in incentives.

“Companies are telling us that this is what we need. Residents are telling us this is what we need. And now the population council is telling us this is what we need,” she said. “So we actually have to do it.”

NEW VISION L ANSING LLC

Public transportation, supporters say, helps residents get to work and school without a car, is important for young people, protects the environment and is an economic engine. NIC ANTAYA

For the king of vaccine lawsuits, the ght over COVID mandates isn't over

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By | Dustin Walsh

Noah Hurwitz received the COVID-19 vaccine. He also isn’t much for religion. But the Ann Arbor attorney of Hurwitz Law PLLC is among the largest plaintiff attorneys nationally suing employers on behalf of clients who were terminated for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of employment. The vast majority of Hurwitz’s clients sought a religious exemption. The former senior counsel for Rocket Cos., then called Quicken Loans, has made a name for himself by ling more than 400 lawsuits against employers over those mandates, including Ascension Health, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Motor City Casino. Some of those lawsuits have settled and others are still waiting for a court date, some two years after the original lings and long after many employers dropped the mandates. Last October, a judge ruled in favor of 2,700 employees of Ascension Health, many of whom Hurwitz represented, in a class action judgment against the national health care system. That case is on appeal.

How did you get involved in representing so many clients over vaccine mandates?

Early on, we identi ed that there were a great deal of terminations involving individuals who were refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine. And understanding employment law and the test for religious accommodations, it intrigued me. e test for religious accommodation has been one that historically favors the employee. So we were very interested in understanding the merits of these claims. Most of which were in late 2021 and early 2022. We came to realize the employers were not following religious accommodation law as closely as they should. is would include not engaging in an analysis of whether or not employees could be safety accommodated and employers not deferring to the alleged religious belief of the employees. ey seemed to substitute their own subjective opinions on those religious beliefs.

Look, I received the COVID-19 vaccine and I have no issue with the COVID-19 vaccine. But as a lawyer, we look for opportunities to help people where we feel the law has been violated. ere have been more mass terminations over this issue that violate Title VII (of the Civil Rights Act that prohibits employment discrimination based of race, color, sex, national origin and religion) than I’ve ever seen before. is was an extremely unique scenario, where the employer was terminating employees for what they were saying were their religious beliefs. It’s super unique.

How many cases have you led and have any been

resolved?

Normally, we’d have these cases entered under a class action suit, but so many of these cases were not suitable for that. So we have led lots of lawsuits against groups of employers.

So that blows up the numbers a little bit. But over the last two years, we’ve had maybe 400 or so lawsuits. A lot of our lawsuits have been settled. We have two cases that have been dismissed and on appeal, but the majority have been resolved. Some of them have involved a cash settlement, sometimes it’s (job) reinstatement, and sometimes it’s been both.

That means the vaccine accommodation lawsuits have been your whole life for the last two years?

It absolutely has. It has been a thing where we created tremendous e ciencies to handle a caseload this large.

Some of the cases have the same legal issues and some of the same factual issues, which helps. But there’s also been a sea change in the legal system since COVID. ere has been an increase in courts that allow for remote hearings as well as an increase in remote depositions. So I would say remote judicial proceedings more than anything else has freed up attorneys like me to help more people.

Do you think the remaining cases, like the more than 200 against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, will see a court date? And if so, do you think you can win?

I hope so. But it’s a long process. But this country is really founded on that free exercise of religion. It’s a slippery slope if employers

Read all the conversations at CrainsDetroit.com/TheConversation

start telling people what they can or cannot believe. We haven’t had a trial on any of these cases yet. But we will someday. e major test in these cases is whether or not somebody has a sincerely held religious belief that con icts with getting the COVID-19 vaccine. You’re going to have a lot of people on the stand defending their religious beliefs, which will be quite a scene. Religious beliefs in a vacuum can be second-guessed and called silly or that they have no basis in science. But it’s still one of those constitutionally protected rights, fundamental to this country.

ose rights drive our existence and make you who you are. I’m not a religious person, but I still nd it very interesting that pretty soon we will be putting somebody on the stand and making a case whether or not their religious beliefs are valid enough. I have been thinking about that moment for two years. It’s a trial lawyer’s dream.

The vaccine issue became a very hot-button issue and deeply troublesome for a lot of people. Did you experience any fallout from taking on these cases?  No, there hasn’t been any fallout. But I did have lunch with an attorney friend back in 2022 and he said my cases (defending those refusing to get vaccinated) were the reason the pandemic was never going to end. I completely disagree with that. History has been favorable to my clients. Getting vaccinated is a personal choice. I don’t think most people are that interested in whether their neighbors are vaccinated. People should be free to make that decision on their own.

A Detroit-based developer has purchased a large Royal Oak site for future retail development.

Broder Sachse Real Estate bought the 5.63-acre former MacLean-Fogg Components Solutions property at 3200 W. 14 Mile Road, west of Coolidge Highway, for an undisclosed price with plans

to raze existing buildings there and build new shopping space.

Speci cs about the plan are not yet known, nor is a demolition timeframe. Richard Broder, founder and partner of Broder Sachse, said multiple tenants are expected, but the size of the project is yet to be determined. Plans have not yet been submitted to the city, he said.

“It’s one of those sites that, if

somebody else got it, we’d be kicking ourselves,” Broder said. It sits south of several large retailers along Coolidge like Meijer, Home Depot, Kohl’s, Old Navy, Target and others.

South eld-based Signature Associates Inc. was the brokerage rm on the deal. Joe Banyai, vice president and principal for Signature, said the site has a pair of

buildings totaling around 85,000 square feet.

MacLean-Fogg vacated the property at the end of December 2022, Banyai said.

According to CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service, the asking price was $4.4 million. Banyai said it sold for “substantially less” than that.

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