Crain's Detroit Business, April 15, 2024

FLOOD FIGHT

As storms surge in the Midwest, cities struggle to contain all that water

UM Health creating additional capacity

System aims to ease the constraints in Ann Arbor

By Dustin Walsh

Michigan is seeing a boom in health care investment and consolidation. e latest being University of Michigan Health’s recent announcement that it would build an outpatient center on the former Kmart headquarters site in Troy.

Yet while competing systems are making moves to expand the funnel to boost patient populations, such as Henry Ford Health’s acquisition of eight As-

cension hospitals, UM Health and its parent Michigan Medicine are creating more capacity to alleviate constraints at its agship operations in Ann Arbor. Roughly 180,000 residents from Oakland, Wayne and Macomb counties descend on Ann Arbor annually to seek health care at UM, said David Miller, president of UM Health and executive vice dean for clinical affairs at UM Medical School.

See UM on Page 15

UM deal opens door at former Kmart HQ

By Kirk Pinho

A surprise move by University of Michigan Health sets the stage for the future redevelopment of one of metro Detroit’s most desired properties. More complementary uses are to sure come at the former Kmart Corp. headquarters site in Troy.

e 40-acre plot is being razed after years of idling at West Big Beaver and Coolidge Highway, near the premier shopping center, Somerset Collection, along a vaunted business corridor with retail, restaurants and o c-

es.  e university is paying $4.42 million for 7.28 acres of the site, or roughly about $607,000 per acre.

Real estate experts say UM Health’s proposed multi-specialty ambulatory center for clinical and diagnostic services is the opening salvo toward the broader reuse of that West Big Beaver site. UM Health and its parent Michigan Medicine are creating more capacity to alleviate constraints at its agship operations in Ann Arbor.

First pieces of cultural district on Detroit’s east side to open in May.

workforce as EVs challenge power grid.

Black-owned coffee shop to open in riverfront apartment building

A Black woman-owned co ee shop is expanding into a prime location in downtown Detroit. is summer, Charity Dean plans to open a second Rosa Cafe + Market co ee shop in a groundoor space of the recently opened 496-unit Residences at Water Square apartment complex at 222 3rd Ave. e announcement comes a little less than two years after the original Rosa opened at 19810 Grand River Ave. in Detroit’s Rosedale Park section. Detroit-based Sterling Group operates the waterfront apartment building.

dent and CEO of the Metro Detroit Black Business Alliance, told Crain’s the expansion is a bit unexpected.

“It all kind of just happened,” Dean said. “I wasn’t really looking (to expand) to be honest. e folks who own the building wanted to make sure they had a Black-owned co ee shop. It’s just an amazing opportunity.”

e new co eehouse will run out of an 800-square-foot space with 12 to 15 seats and have a sta of ve workers. e downtown Rosa will have additional seats on an outdoor patio. e menu will feature Ethiopian house roast co ee from Detroit-based Faust Haus Roasting Co., along with some grab-and-go snacks and ready-to-eat food options. Bucky Willis of Detroit-based Crane and Boom is designing the space. Dean, who also serves as presi-

Dean, a past Crain’s Most In uential Women and 40 Under 40 honoree, did not disclose terms of the lease on the space or the investment into the new location. e new co ee shop is about half the size of the Rosedale Park location.

“It’s going to be open to the residents of the building, open to the public,” Dean said. “I think we’ll be the only co ee shop on the west riverfront.”

In a statement, Sterling Group chief development o cer Danny Samson called Rosa Cafe + Market a great addition to e Residences at Water Square.

“We are delighted to welcome Rosa Cafe + Market to our community. eir commitment to excellence aligns perfectly with the

lifestyle experience we strive to o er our residents and visitors,” Samson said. “With its enticing market fare and inviting outdoor seating boasting picturesque riverfront views, Rosa Cafe & Market is poised to become a cherished destination within our vibrant neighborhood.”

Rosa is named in honor of Dean’s great-grandmother, Rosa Malone. Malone lived in Rosedale Park for 46 years until her death in 2019 and is believed to have been in one of the rst Black families to own a home in the area. Dean now lives in the Grandmont-Rosedale section of northwest Detroit.

Business is steady at the Rosedale Park location, Dean said. Its twoyear anniversary is on June 11. at milestone comes with some changes.

e Grand River Avenue co eehouse recently received a liquor license and is adding hand-poured cocktails like mimosas, espresso martinis and Irish co ees. Dean said residents in the area had hoped she’d add a liquor license, with about 200 residents making that known through a survey before the co ee shop opened.

“One thing that was important for us at that location was to make

Black

sure we got a liquor license,” Dean said. “ at changes the game. If you look at some of the more successful co ee shops in the city, like e Congregation, they have a liquor license. is will make a big di erence for us because even though Rosedale Park is a densely populated area there’s not a lot of businesses like ours in the neighborhood.”

In bringing Rosa to a new neighborhood, Dean sees a great opportunity for the business. She said it will help a new clientele learn her great-grandmother’s story. Co ee and branded merchandise is also available for shipping through the company website.

Dean said she’s open to the possibility of further expansion.

“I’m open to whatever God has planned for me and this business,” Dean said. “Rosa is authentically Detroit. It’s a story of Detroit, a sto-

ry of resilience. I’m grateful for this opportunity and I’m open to any opportunity that helps Black businesses.

“I think the Rosa brand is growing. We have people who buy our co ee who aren’t in Detroit. I think we have the best co ee in the city and more people are going to see that.”

Corrections

◗ A pro le in Crain’s Notable Leaders in Sustainability published on April 8 inaccurately stated Matt Elliot’s role in Bank of America’s $1.5 trillion sustainable nance commitment. Elliot supported the initiative. Sam Ashley’s pro le incorrectly listed the size of the JST project, which is 85,000 square feet. e VelRay X, Accelerated Filtration’s water ltration device, was misspelled in Scott Burr’s pro le.

The

layout.

Charity Dean

Cultural district to open on east side in May

By Sherri Welch

e rst pieces of an ambitious cultural district taking shape on Detroit’s east side will open to the public in May.

e project is anchored by the former Good Shepherd Catholic church in Detroit’s East Village neighborhood at Agnes and Parkview streets.

Adaptive reuse of those buildings and 3.5 acres around the church will add new art gallery space for the Library Street Collective and its co-founders, Anthony and JJ Curis, along with community o erings including

artists’ studios, performance spaces, restaurants, a bar or two, a bed-and-breakfast and a skate park designed by Tony Hawk and artist McArthur Binion.

e e orts are part of a larger neighborhood development leaders have dubbed “Little Village.”

“We really wanted this to feel less like a commercial gallery… (and) more like a cultural art center, and very collaborative... working with a lot of di erent galleries, institutions, nonprofits, and so many others,” Anthony Curis said.

“We really wanted this to feel less like a commercial gallery… (and) more like a cultural art center, and very collaborative.”

Anthony Curtis, co-founder, Library Street Collective

WeWork keeps two locations open in Detroit

By Kirk Pinho

WeWork Inc.’s two remaining Detroit locations will stay open following its exit from bankruptcy in New Jersey.

e New York City-based coworking space company said April 8 that, pending court approval, it is keeping its locations totaling close to 90,000 square feet in Dan Gilbertowned buildings at 1001 Woodward Ave. and 1449 Woodward Ave. (sometimes known as 19 Cli ord) with no lease amendments, ending months of uncertainty about their ultimate fate.

That makes the two spots among the roughly 150 or so that WeWork will seek no changes to as it seeks to restructure and exit bankruptcy by May 31. As part of the case, WeWork is closing about 150 locations and seeking to amend the lease terms for about 150 more with reduced rents or shorter lease terms, among other modifications, Reuters reported. About 50 more remain in negotiations with landlords. The company says it has saved $8 billion

through lease negotiations so far, a spokesperson said.

According to CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.based real estate information service, WeWork has 54,700 square feet in the 317,000square-foot 1001 Woodward office tower and 35,100 square feet in the 48,000-square-foot building at 1449 Woodward.

“We’ve seen strong demand from both enterprise companies and small businesses at our downtown Detroit locations due to their central location, buzzing community and premium building quality,” said Peter Greenspan, global head of real estate at WeWork, in a statement. “Bedrock has been a strong partner since we entered the market and we’re con dent that together, we can continue to deliver exceptional exible workspaces and services for local businesses in Detroit.”

“Since WeWork came to Detroit in 2017, its workspaces at 1001 Woodward Avenue and 19 Cli ord Street have become an important part of the city’s

Michigan looks to bolster production of a greener jet fuel

By David Eggert

LANSING — Lawmakers are looking to help Michigan capitalize on airlines’ demand for low-carbon jet fuel to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, proposing a tax credit to buy the fuel. e move, supporters say, would bolster the purchase, production and blending of sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, which can reduce carbon emissions by up to 80% but is a nascent, expensive product. It can be made from non-petroleum feedstocks including corn ethanol, trash, wood waste and used cooking oil.

SAF accounts for under 0.1% of fuel used by major U.S. airlines but is expected to grow as they target “net-zero” emissions by 2050. Delta Air Lines, which has a hub in Detroit, plans to go from buying 3 million gallons of sustainable jet fuel annually to 4 billion — its entire supply — over 25-plus years.

“ is is an opportunity for us to make an impact on jet fuel and the emissions that that is creating,” said Sen. Sam Singh, an East Lansing Democrat who is sponsoring Senate Bill 447. e legislation would create a refundable income-tax credit for a business’ in-state purchase of SAF

for use in ights departing the state. e subsidy would be $1 per gallon, increase by 2 cents for each additional 1% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions above 50% and be capped at $2 a gallon. If the law is enacted, Michigan would join Illinois, Minnesota and Washington state as among the rst states with a SAF-speci c incentive.  A federal credit was created by the 2022 In ation Reduction Act. Proponents say states have a key role to play in scaling the market for SAF, particularly beyond the West Coast.

The Shepherd, a renovated former church, is anchoring a 3.5-acre cultural district taking shape on Detroit’s east side. It includes a skate park and an art gallery. | LIBRARY STREET COLLECTIVE

WeWork Inc. space at 1001 Woodward Ave. in downtown Detroit. COSTAR GROUP

Delta Air Lines is lobbying for Michigan legislation that would provide a tax credit for the purchase of sustainable aviation fuel, an alternative that has a smaller carbon footprint.

Plans scrapped for of ce building at old brass factory

Mixed-use is the name of the game now for a large Corktown development site owned by an a liate of Ford Motor Co.’s real estate arm. Originally slated for a large new building geared toward o ce and research space, the site of a now-demolished former brass factory in the shadow of Michigan Central Station is now in the early phases of being reimagined.  at’s according to Josh Sirefman, CEO of Michigan Central, the district anchored by Michigan Central Station, which opens in less than two months after years of construction.

“We’d love to see over time, if there is an opportunity for additional commercial, but also opportunities for residential, whether that’s mixed income or whatever that may be,” Sirefman said in a meeting with Crain’s reporters and editors last month.

“It’s a great opportunity for that. We’re very early and we’ve got our hands full, so we’re just now turning our attention to what would be subsequent phases (of Michigan Central) and start to re-

A

ally understand what that mix of uses might look like,” Sirefman said.

Dan Austin, director of com-

munications for Michigan Central, said they are “actively studying mixed-use possibilities on the site and look forward to having

conversations with the community about the future of the property.”  ere have been varying vi-

sions dating back several years for the property, which is about 3.84 acres and is generally bounded by Rosa Parks, Dalzelle, Vermont and Marantette.

Executives of Ford Land Development Co. said in 2018 that the plan was to create a 290,000-square-foot, four-story building with 247,500 square feet of o ce and lab space, along with 42,250 square feet of commercial space. And one point earlier in the planning process, the building had been envisioned to be twice that size, or about 500,000 to 600,000 square feet.

If residential is ultimately put on the old brass factory site, most recently known as The Alchemy, it would add to the growing list of options for the neighborhood west of downtown, joining the Perennial Corktown, The Corner, The Brooke and other large mixed-use new construction focused on apartments, along with historic redevelopments, in the areas surrounding Michigan Central Station.

e overall Michigan Central project — not just the redevelopment of the train station, but also the redevelopment of a former Detroit Public Schools book depository and other work — clocks in at $950 million, Sirefman said last month.

Planned EV battery plant in Detroit sparks concern from residents

By Kurt Nagl

Plans for a $210 million electric vehicle battery factory in Detroit call for industrial rejuvenation and an in ux of new jobs — but some in the community feel they have been kept in the dark about the project.

e Fortescue WAE plant, pegged for the city’s Milwaukee Junction neighborhood, was approved by the state for $12.7 million in incentives in January, a month after getting the OK for an $11 million brown eld reimbursement. e project is expected to create up to 600 jobs paying an annual wage of $45,760.

e problem is that the rst the public heard about it was after incentives were approved, which is not the correct order of operations, said eo Pride, community organizer for activist group Detroit People’s Platform.

A project of that size — especially one with environmental and safety concerns — should be presented formally to the community before being blessed by state and local o cials, said Pride, whose activist group received a $2 million grant last month from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.

“It’s out of order,” Pride told Crain’s. “Residents don’t even know that an EV battery plant is coming to their neighborhood. We

all know the environmental issues with battery manufacturing or manufacturing in general.”

Pride’s group and the city of Detroit disagree on whether the project of this size with subsidies would trigger Detroit’s community bene ts ordinance. e project’s basic characteristics appear to trigger the ordinance, a piece of legislation approved by voters in 2016 and amended by City Council in 2021. It requires developers to “proactively engage” with the community and address potential negative impacts of development projects, and it calls for the formation of a neighborhood advisory council, according to the city.

ments and $106 million in machinery and equipment, according to the MEDC memo.

And it is line to receive property tax abatements. e project was approved for local support including a $7.7 million Industrial Facilities Tax Abatement and a Browneld TIF valued at $4.2 million.

But the city says the project does not meet the criteria of the community bene ts ordinance, at least as it has been presented to the planning department, but declined to explain why.

“We are still waiting on Fortes-

“Residents don’t even know that an EV battery plant is coming to their neighborhood.”

Theo

Pride, community organizer, Detroit People’s Platform

Under the ordinance, a project applies “if it is $75 million or more in value, receives $1 million or more in property tax abatements or receives $1 million or more in value of city land sale or transfer.”

According to project details laid out in a Michigan Economic Development Corp. memorandum, the Fortescue battery plant ts the bill.

Its overall cost is nearly triple the value threshold, with planned investment including $20 million for the building purchase, $84 million in real property improve-

cue to formally submit their CBO form to (the planning and development department), however, based on the economic development team’s conversations with the company, the development will not trigger a Tier 1 CBO,” spokesman John Roach said in an email to Crain’s.

e city’s community bene ts manager and Detroit City Council President Pro-Tem James Tate did not respond to requests for comment April 9. A Fortescue spokesman did not respond to an inquiry.

Kirk Pinho

former brass factory site in the shadow of Michigan Central Station in Corktown is now being eyed for a mixed-use development project that could include residential space. KIRK PINHO

Customs seizes legal weed in New Mexico. Is Michigan next?

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is reportedly cracking down on the state-legal marijuana industry, targeting product moving through tra c checkpoints in New Mexico.

It’s unclear if the seizures reported in recent months stem from a federal directive or if the New Mexico CBP is operating independently under its authority to seize the federally illegal products.

But the reports coming from the southwest could trigger concern here in Michigan, which shares 721 miles of border with Ontario, Canada. In fact, a large chunk of the state falls within CBP’s authority that’s de ned as within 100 miles of an international border.

In New Mexico, CBP seized 22 pounds of legal marijuana product from Top Crop Cannabis Co., who operates under a marijuana license in the state, on Feb. 14, according to reporting from TV news organization KTSM.

e product had a market value of $139,000 and the company’s general manager was detained by

CBP for four hours, the news channel reported. Other seizures have been reported in the state.

CBP operates six permanent interior checkpoints in New Mexico, in stark contrast to Michigan.

CBP is actually very unlikely to begin seizing marijuana in the interior of Michigan, Youssef Fawaz, a CBP spokesperson for the Michigan region, told Crain’s.

e reason is relatively simple: there are no interior checkpoints outside the U.S.-Canada border in the state.

at should come as a relief to Michigan’s booming marijuana industry, which sold nearly $3.1 billion worth of product in 2023.

Wayne County, which borders Canada, dominates the adult-recreational marijuana market in Michigan, accounting for nearly 11% of the state’s $259 million in adult-recreational sales in February this year.

A interior checkpoint that leads to seizures in the county could seriously disrupt the entire industry in the state. In fact, adult-use sales in the 18 counties from the umb to the north, Lansing to the west,

Ohio to the south and the Canadian border to the east account for more than 53% of the total marijuana sales. Every one of those counties fall within CBP authority.

In New Mexico, and other states bordering a foreign country, CBP has the authority to search for and seize federally illegal products at these checkpoints as part of its mission. e agency is permitted to question and search vehicle occupants in search of illegal immigrants, terrorists and drug smugglers at will.

e marijuana seized in New Mexico was done so at these roadside checkpoints.

CBP operates at least 70 checkpoints across the U.S., but only a handful on the U.S.-Canada border in states such as Maine and New York.

Immigration events just happen far more regularly at the border

with Mexico, not Canada — hence the lack of checkpoints in Northern states. Last year, there were 189,042 encounters with CBP from immigrants with no legal status in the U.S. at the Canadian border. Conversely, there were more than 2 million recorded encounters with CBP at the border with Mexico, according to data from the CBP.

Fawaz said CBP is not seeking to create new checkpoints in Michigan, but said the agency continues to seize marijuana, even legally acquired, at the Canadian border. It remains illegal to cross the border into the U.S. from Canada with marijuana, and it’s illegal to bring marijuana from the U.S. into Canada unless the individual has a prescription authorized by Canadian health authorities.

At issue in New Mexico is not just that marijuana remains a Schedule 1 narcotic federally, but also that

it’s likely di cult for CBP to determine whether marijuana in the state is under a regulated market. Simply put, the federal agents aren’t trained in New Mexico state regulations and likely seize the product with a viewpoint that it’s less risky to seize state-legal product than to allow potentially smuggled drugs to pass through.

But the seizures seem at odds with the federal government’s direction on state-legal marijuana.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a memo asking the Drug Enforcement Agency to reschedule marijuana from a Schedule 1 narcotic to a Schedule 3, which would make the drug on par with anabolic steroids and Tylenol with codeine.  at decision is expected to happen in the coming months and could make these CBP seizures far less common.

Customizing the Health Care Experience with Blue Cross Coordinated Care

By Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan

When Ricardo from White Lake was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, he knew he needed to make a health change. He had become increasingly overweight due to stress and poor eating habits, which led to a decline in his sleep and overall mood. As a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan member with diabetes, Ricardo found he was eligible to participate in the Blue Cross Coordinated Care program at no additional cost and called the customer service number on the back of his member ID card to get started.

Blue Cross Coordinated Care o ers comprehensive and personalized support from a nurse-led care team that helps members better navigate their health care. e innovative program o ers several levels of support which include tailored features that best t the needs of a diverse workforce. Blue Cross Nurse Care Managers guide members in organizing and accessing medical, behavioral, pharmacy and social

services according to each member’s unique needs.

Ricardo’s care manager, Amber, saw that he was struggling, and encouraged him to take charge of his health by connecting him with a registered dietitian to get his diet under control. rough the process, Ricardo learned how to better manage his diabetes by tracking his carbohydrate intake and overall calories, as well as increasing his exercise and daily steps. He’s now exercising two to three days per week and completing around 10,000 steps per day. Fitness classes and meal planning with his wife have become weekly activities now, too.

Almost a year later, Ricardo has lost over 85 pounds and reduced his body mass index and blood glucose levels. He credits the Blue Cross Coordinated Care program with providing him the momentum he needed to make a sustainable change in his health that has helped him maintain a healthy weight with good nutrition and activity.

Blue Cross Coordinated Care guides participants through every step of their health care experience, from the doctor’s o ce to the pharmacy, to specialized treatment centers and community resources. Since the program was rst introduced in 2020, it has led to improved health outcomes driving savings that o en exceed $3,100 per person.

and increased productivity in the workplace.

Well-being is also closely linked to physical and mental health, as well as productivity. Research shows workplace wellness programs and care management resources can increase overall employee well-being, which results in reduced absenteeism

For more information on how the Blue Cross Coordinated Care portfolio can help meet the unique needs of any company and deliver a simpli ed and personalized care experience for employees and their families, visit www.bcbsm.com/ care-management.

Ricardo, left, and his Blue Cross Coordinated Care care manager, Amber

Dustin Walsh

A U.S. Border Patrol agent checks vehicles at the Eagle Pass/Carrizo Springs interior checkpoint near Eagle Pass, Texas, in 2014. | BLOOMBERG

Why UM’s Oakland County push matters

The University of Michigan’s health system is planting a big ag in central Oakland County

e project at the former Kmart headquarters property in Troy has meaning for Southeast Michigan well beyond adding another place to get an MRI or cancer treatment.

UM’s plan to buy land at the former headquarters of what was once the world’s largest retailer and is now nearly defunct has symbolic meaning, a future-forward rebirth for a long-moribund site on a major commercial corridor.

e sprawling Kmart o ce complex, built in 1969 and mostly empty since 2006, was a grim reminder of a once-powerful company that squandered its advantages, sending it into bankruptcy and a merger destined to amount to Kmart being stripped for parts.

e demolition of the Kmart headquarters complex, whose maze-like structure was often used as a metaphor for Kmart’s organizational dysfunction, last fall has now set the stage for future development on the site’s remaining 33 acres.

Arbor are any guide, the Oakland County center will make for excellent care coordination, a one-stop shop for lab work, imaging and treatment for a host of conditions. Michigan Medicine has a strong track record for delivering this kind of care. Making it more accessible to more people is a good thing.

Another less-obvious bene t of the expansion is that it amps up health care competition in Oakland County.

Among states, Michigan enjoys relatively low health care costs. One big factor in that: Southeast Michigan is an outlier in that the vast majority of our hospital systems are nonpro ts that have to compete against each other, and none of them are so big as to be dominant players.

UM’s project diversi es the Big Beaver strip, which is o ce- and retail-heavy at a time when those sectors are under pressure. e rest of the property could o er potential for further variety with the UM development as a catalyst. e outpatient center also is promising for the future of health care in metro Detroit. It marks a major expansion for the state’s premier provider of medical care into territory where it hasn’t had a major presence previously.

COMMENTARY

at will add access for more people,

easing overcrowding and long waits for appointments at UM’s agship hospital and clinics. e university points out that many people from the tri-county area already trek to Ann Arbor for care; the new center will make it that much easier to get.

And if UM’s outpatient centers in Ann

e pending exit of Catholic health care giant Ascension Health from the market does portend a reduction in that competition. UM’s Oakland County expansion brings new competitive repower to the market, which can only help hold costs in check.

at’s good for those who pay the bills — not least Southeast Michigan’s employers.

We welcome UM’s expansion e ort and are rooting for its success in catalyzing further development in a critical region for metro Detroit’s economy.

A costly and complicated anti-small business law

The so-called Corporate Transparency Act is an obnoxiously vague and overly complex law that treats millions of law-abiding small business owners like criminals.

e Small Business Association of Michigan, together with the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce, led a lawsuit recently against the federal government to protect entrepreneurs. A big step, but a necessary one to protect hundreds of thousands of small businesses across Michigan from extensive overreach by a federal entity known as FinCEN: the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, situated within the U.S. Department of Treasury.

It also goes on to include “important decision makers” and anyone with “substantial control” as “bene cial owners.” At what point does authority exercised by non-owner management become “substantial control”? Who knows?

But you better get it right because failure to comply comes with heavy nancial penalties and is a two-year felony.

corner grocer, veterinarians, brewers, farmers. Even the guy renting paddle boards at the beach must report to FinCEN annually. Is this really necessary under threat of prison time?

Beginning on Jan. 1, 2024, most small businesses in the U.S. must report sensitive and private information about their “bene cial owners.” True to form, the feds are de ning “bene cial owner” in an overly complex yet vague way.  Only in federal law could you be considered a “bene cial owner” without having any ownership interests at all.

How’s that? Under this unconstitutional law, non-owner employees with certain titles are considered “bene cial owners.”

Once you gure out who is subject to the law, then you must le sensitive information such as their Social Security number, driver’s license, passport number and address annually with FinCEN. And you must le a new report within 30 days of any change. So, if an employee moves, retires or is promoted to a position featuring “substantial control,” a new reporting requirement is triggered.

ey say that this law was created to make it harder for bad actors to hide. But invading privacy and treating small business owners and their employees like suspects is not a reasonable way to root out nancial crimes.

Whether you are a small business owner or not, take a moment to think who small business owners are. Yoga studios, the

Want to study up on what you need to do to comply? No worries. Start with the 47-page guide on the FinCEN website consisting of six chapters, seven charts, and more than 25 checklists. e density of this federal legalese may surprise small businesses expecting FinCEN to “minimize burdens on reporting companies associated with the collection of bene cial ownership information” as set forth in the “Sense of Congress” when enacting the CTA.

In exasperation and a desire to protect themselves from nes and prison time, most small business owners will likely pay attorneys thousands of dollars to le and amend reports each and every year. FinCEN’s own estimate of the aggregate cost of this law over the next 10 years is $55.7 billion to $64.8 billion. All so that they can make sure that small businesses like your local bowling alley aren’t nancing a terrorist plot.

within its enumerated powers. It issued an injunction barring enforcement of the CTA, but only for the parties named in the lawsuit. Until Congress walks back the CTA, or unless our lawsuit is successful, those who own and operate small businesses in Michigan still have the burden of full compliance.

Like the NSBA, we are arguing that Congress lacked the authority to pass this law, but additionally, we believe there are very serious violations of our Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights.

It is unreasonable and insulting to treat small businesses and their employees this way.

A lawsuit led in Alabama by the National Small Business Association was successful, with the court nding that Congress lacked authority to pass this law

If the goal of this law is to have a chilling e ect on the smallest, most-loved businesses that employ millions of Michiganders, Congress has succeeded. It is unreasonable and insulting to treat small businesses and their employees this way. Moreover, it isn’t constitutional to require private citizens to disclose highly personal information to federal government entities without the slightest presumption of wrongdoing.

For more information on the CTA and SBAM’s lawsuit, visit sbam.org.

Brian Calley is president and CEO of the Small Business Association of Michigan and a former lieutenant governor of Michigan.

Much of the former Kmart Corp. headquarters property has been cleared since demolition began in fall 2023. | KIRK PINHO

Of ce property to go up for auction next month

Kirk Pinho

Credit Acceptance Corp. is attempting to sell a large portion of its South eld o ce portfolio.

An auction of the 297,000-squarefoot Raleigh O centre at 2530025330 Telegraph Road between West 10 Mile Road and Civic Center Drive opens for bids May 13, according to CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service.

e starting bid for Raleigh Ocentre is $1.5 million. e reserve price is not known.  Raleigh O centre sits on 14.6 acres with some 1,235 parking spaces. Credit Acceptance bought it for $15 million in 2018.

Credit Acceptance and brokerage rm Farbman Group “determined to put the building up for auction to extend the reach to quali ed buyers locally, nationally and internationally through a platform that has signi cant reach,” according to a statement from Credit Acceptance.

As the company “went through the pandemic, we found that productivity was pretty good and team members liked the exibility of being able to work remotely.”

Douglas

Busk, Credit Acceptance’s

chief treasury of cer

A year and a half ago, Credit Acceptance put its multi-building South eld campus up for sale or lease, a move the auto lender attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and changing work trends. e late 2022 o ering included not only the Raleigh O centre, but also the 144,000-square-foot property known as the Silver Triangle Building. at property sits on about 10.2 acres with nearly 600 parking spaces at 25505 W. 12 Mile Road west of Telegraph.

Douglas Busk, Credit Acceptance’s chief treasury o cer, said at the time that as the company “went through the pandemic, we found that productivity was pretty good and team members liked the exibility of being able to work remotely.”  Busk said in November 2022 that Credit Acceptance (NASDAQ: CACC) had about 1,300 employees across its three South eld buildings at the onset of the pandemic.

Credit Acceptance reported its net income plunged in 2023, falling from $535.8 million in 2022 to $286.1 million, a plunge of 46.6%. Net income also plummeted in the fourth quarter, dropping from $127.3 million in Q4 2022 to $93.6 million in Q4 last year, a drop of 26.5%.

Some prominent Oakland County o ce buildings have been auctioned o through the Ten-X platform during the pandemic, in-

cluding 1075 Entrance Drive in Auburn Hills, 901 Tower Drive in the North Troy Corporate Park and the Butter eld O ce Center, also in Troy, said Barry Swatsenbarg, an executive vice president in the Royal Oak o ce of brokerage house Colliers International Inc.

“It’s not an uncommon theme, to move inventory on that (auction) platform,” Swatsenbarg said. “And I think, given the location and quality of Raleigh, I’m sure Bill (Bubniak of Farbman Group) will nd a way to sell it.”

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The 297,000-square-foot Raleigh Of centre at 25300-25330 Telegraph Road in South eld between West 10 Mile Road and Civic Center Drive | COSTAR GROUP

FLOOD FIGHT

July 2, 2023, was a wet one in Chicago. What the National Weather Service called “multiple nearly stationary bands of showers and thunderstorms” dumped up to 9.1 inches of rain in some parts of the metro area. No injuries were reported, but ash oods inundated roadways, more than 10,000 homes reported ood-related damage, and preliminary estimates of losses totaled a half-billion dollars. A federal disaster was declared.

Chicago wasn’t alone in its misery. A few weeks later and a few hundred miles to the east, the city of Cleveland saw its own deluge on Aug. 23. Cleveland’s west side saw so many vital underpasses ooded that the neighborhood was virtually cut o for hours.

And Detroiters often deal with periodic heavy rains and power outages, with speci c neighborhoods feeling the brunt during individual storms. e last widespread, catastrophic event, in June 2021,

inundated parts of the Grosse Pointes, Detroit’s east side and Dearborn.

It’s a situation that is likely to intensify in Illinois, Michigan and Ohio, creating recurring threats to property, health and nances — for residents, and for cities and states.

With chronic deluges occurring far more often than decades ago, there’s no escaping today’s reality: Climate changes and their e ects mean that ooding in urban centers can no longer be ignored as rare acts of nature. Indeed, the Chicago area saw a virtual repeat of July 2’s ooding just weeks later in mid-September.

Images of torrential rainfall that ooded New York City streets and subway lines last September also increase awareness of how widespread urban ooding has become. e question for cities now is what to do about it.

According to the Fifth National Climate Assessment, the U.S. government’s report on climate change, heavy storms became

As storms surge in the Midwest, cities struggle to contain all that water

By John Gallagher

45% more frequent in the Midwest from 1958 to 2021. Aaron Wilson, Ohio’s state hydrologist, said Cleveland Hopkins International Airport got more than 3 inches of rain in a day just four times in the 55 years from 1950 through 2004; that more than doubled to nine times in just the next 19 years.

In and around Grand Rapids, rain has increased more than 18% over the last 100 years, with nearly 25% more falling in areas just north and east of the city, some of the biggest precipitation increases in the state of Michigan, according to precipitation data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“We’re getting much heavier rain, and the intensity of the rain is incredible,” Candice Miller, public works commissioner for Macomb County outside Detroit, told Crain’s. “We’re struggling with it just like everybody else. We have to think how we can position ourselves for the future.”

Predicting such events with precision is di cult because, as the weather service notes, the most extreme rainfall is often quite isolated. e di erence of a few miles can mean rain falling harmlessly or devastating ooding, and that devastation has real consequences.

Brian Kazy, a Cleveland Ward 16 city councilman, told News 5 Cleveland after the August 2023 storm: “I was out last night until after 2 a.m., and I saw the look in people’s eyes who couldn’t get home and (were) trying to get out, and it was scary,” he said. “We just got to come up with something, and we’ve got to do it quickly; this has just become too often a problem.”

Accurately de ne the issues

Flooding certainly can involve a river over owing its banks, but urban ooding See

June 25-27, 2021: A low pressure system produced 3-5 inches of rain across a wide swath of metro Detroit, while some localized areas saw 6-8 inches. AP IMAGES

Stormwater management must be a priority

Few people in southeast Michigan will forget the ooding that resulted from the intense, heavy rainstorm of Aug. 11, 2014.

More than 4 inches of rain — up to 6 inches of some areas — turned freeways into rivers dotted by abandoned vehicles. Major roads and neighborhood streets were impacted as well.

Locally and regionally, much work needs to be done if we want to reduce urban ooding. at means investment — whether it be construction of more retention basins, daylighting of enclosed drains, green infrastructure and better stormwater management standards.

Homeowners, businesses and governments su ered extensive property damages. Equipment, furniture, cherished family heirlooms and other personal property ruined by ood water and sanitary sewage were piled at curbs as homeowners and businesses dealt with the cleanup for weeks.

In Michigan, much is said of the condition of many roads and bridges and subdivision streets, and the need for repairs — and rightly so. However, just because our underground infrastructure is out of sight, it cannot be out of mind.

No stormwater system is capable of fully handling the torrential rain like that seen in 2014 or 2021. A rainstorm of 4 inches — let alone 6-12 inches — in a short period of time will overwhelm major interceptor pipes, pump stations, basins and more.

In just the past few years, the Macomb County Public Works O ce has designed and started more than $183 million in stormwater management projects, including efforts to dramatically reduce — and hopefully eliminate — combined sewer over ow discharges into Lake St. Clair. ese projects will be transformative. ey will better position Macomb County to deal with heavy rain events while keeping our environment clean and improving water quality.

Beyond the impact to buildings and property, ooding also impacts our rivers and lakes. In Macomb County, it’s our mission to improve quality of life by improving water quality. Our o ce has jurisdiction over 475 drains. Within 330 miles of enclosed drains, we inspect the pipes and partner with our local municipalities to share the cost to maintain, rehabilitate and remove sediment from the sewers, especially in the older, more densely populated areas where open drains were enclosed 50 or more years ago for new development. e same cost-sharing arrangement is used to pay for maintenance in our 400 miles of open channels by removing logjams, debris and re-

establishing the banks to reduce erosion and improve stormwater drainage.

We’ve won awards for some of our major “green infrastructure” projects, like the Sterling Relief Drain, a 5-mile-long, very wide drain that drains almost 25% of Sterling Heights. We removed the old, corrugated metal pipes, allowing Mother Nature to act as a natural sponge, removing thousands of pounds of nitrogen and phosphorus and sedimentation from entering our waterways. We planted thousands of trees, shrubs and native grasses, creating a 3-mile-long butter y yway for our pollinator friends.

Something is de nitely happening with our weather patterns and the frequency and intensity of heavy rainstorms appear to be a new normal. Improvement and investment in our underground infrastructure requires not only discussion, but actual commitment and action.After all, it’s not a question of “if” such heavy, intense storms will occur, but “when.”

Miller previously held other elected posts, including as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Michigan secretary of state.

Working to advance racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in the Great Lakes region.

Candice S. Miller is the Macomb County Public Works commissioner.

BLOOMBERG

Urban ooding is the new norm; we need to rethink how we protect ourselves

Recurring, disruptive urban ooding is the new norm in Great Lakes cities. Multiple “500-year” rains have hit the Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago metros in the last decade, with Detroit getting socked twice in 2014 and 2021. Last September, 9 inches of rain fell in three hours around Chicago. A beleaguered engineer declared, “Nothing could be designed for that.”

And yet, because these events are no longer anomalies, we have to design our cities for that kind of storm. Another problem? e impacts of these events don’t fall evenly, with formerly redlined neighborhoods being among the hardest hit. e Joyce Foundation funded a 2019 analysis by the Center for Neighborhood Technology, which found that 87% of ood damage claims in Chicago were paid in communities of color.

What are some good next steps to protect residents and businesses from its devastating e ects?

Public- and private-sector leaders must plan for urban ooding the same way we’ve long planned for snowstorms. Consistent investment in human, gray and natural infrastructure is key. And the sooner we act, the more we’ll be shielded from the worst of these storms and the millions lost from their impact.

e good news is that we’re not starting from ground zero. Promising approaches to engineering, community engagement and design to address urban ooding are being deployed throughout the Great Lakes region. We need to scale, systematize and in-

vest in them. No small task. But with signicant new federal dollars available for water infrastructure, climate-ready planning and training for workers, we can reduce our vulnerability to these storms. Now is the time to ramp up this work.

Cleveland, Chicago and Detroit all have snow emergency plans that include provisions for notifying residents, getting plows on the streets and storing snow on vacant land. Comprehensive, public-facing, proactive plans to deal with severe rainstorms are just as important. For example, we need more e cient ways to notify residents and to have a workforce ready to fan out to clear storm drains to help reduce impacts on people and property. Building on successful community engagement programs like the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District’s Good Neighbor Ambassador program could be a place to start.

It’s also a mistake to leave local businesses and homeowners to fend for themselves in seeking federal assistance. Cities could help residents successfully access relief funds (with less stress), by having sta ready to provide application support. Expanding the capacity of existing entities, like already-sta ed Community Action Agencies, would help.

E ective ood resiliency requires both conventional ‘gray’ infrastructure and naturebased green infrastructure that soaks up rain where it falls. Pairing coordinated action on public and private property at the neighborhood level is also needed. Chicago has some promising examples, including Space to Grow, which transforms Chicago schoolyards to soak up the rain from storms and provide better places for kids to play and learn. e Center for Neighborhood Technology’s “RainReady” initiative works directly with homeowners and businesses to develop plans and site-speci c interventions to reduce ooding.

is approach has been so e ective that Cook County invested $6 million in RainReady in 2023.

Finally, better infrastructure, like smarter, modern sewers, is essential. South Bend, Indiana, installed sensors and other upgrades to divert water from one part of the system into another during heavy rains. Sensors not only reduce over ows (keeping sewage out of basements and waterways), but also help reduce costs. South Bend

saved more than $400 million in sewer upgrades because the sensors allow better water storage capacity.

We’ve gured out how to manage for big snowstorms — residents, businesses and government all play a part. More torrential rain is coming. We can choose to strand fewer drivers and ood fewer basements. We just have to fully deploy the smart strategies we already have tested in our region. Let’s not wait until the next 500-year storm to get going.

Flood-a ected neighborhoods should contribute to solution

When I talk about ooding to residents from Robbins, a Chicago suburb, they want solutions that x ooding AND catalyze multi-generational leadership, create economic opportunities, address food injustice and much more to create a thriving community.

That’s because urban flooding is a quality-oflife issue resulting from land-use decisions rooted in racist practices and grounded in capitalism. Putting in new pipes alone won’t undo these problems.

damage because redlining forced them to live in the region’s lowest point, which were previously wetlands. Naturally, stormwater pools there. is, coupled with delayed sewer system maintenance and undersized pipes, lead to worse ooding.

Analysis of ood damage payouts by the Center for Neighborhood Technology from 2007 to 2016, show that 87% of ood claim payouts went to communities of color in Chicago.

e deluge in the city in 2023 led to the Federal Emergency Management Agency setting up recovery centers throughout the South and West sides and in the west and south suburbs, because those areas su ered huge losses and are still recovering.

deindustrialization led to job loss. So, when they experience flooding — which occurs frequently because of those landuse decisions — residents have fewer finances to recover. Instead, the industrial legacy of pollution led to worse health outcomes, further degrading their financial resiliency. These cumulative impacts reduce people’s quality of life.

Increased development (i.e., more pavement) and intensified storms because of climate change contribute to increased flooding. Communities of color face worse impacts. And they’re best positioned to design the solutions.   Marginalized communities face more

Flooding impacts don’t happen in a vacuum. Regional leaders designed these communities using development strategies motivated by racially biased economic bene ts, such as tax incentives for corporations, the privatization of social safety measures and a polluting, industrial mono-economy. Because of this, when residents spend money, very little is recirculated to support community wealth building.

People lost financial security when

How do we address these quality-of-life issues? Community organizing.   Residents collectively amplify their ideas to government leaders. Decisionmakers listen and redirect funding to technical firms that are committed to working WITH resident leadership to solve flooding AND other cumulative impacts. In Chicago’s south suburbs, for example, CNT collaborated with residents to create the Urban Flooding Baseline tool, which mapped flooding risks and impacts with community knowledge at its center. They also participated in our Civic Innovation Hub leadership development program. Programs like these build community power in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and elsewhere.

Residents advocate that government

leaders should invest in gray stormwater infrastructure that builds community wealth: through local procurement and entrepreneurship opportunities. Investors can fund training programs with directhire pipelines by rms for gainful employment. Firms can work with community members and municipal sta to locate, design, install and maintain public sites for green stormwater infrastructure.  For example, at schools, students can participate in rain garden designs. In Robbins, residents noted that local youth could maintain sites and sell vegetables to fill grocery stores and the youth programming gap. Investors and government programs can finance local organizations to administer these programs.

To be sure, government leaders face many real conditions that seem to limit the holistic solutions, such as zoning specifications, funding limitations or legal barriers. But those are human-built problems. With community organizing, proper investment and technical expertise together, these challenges can be undone and overcome to better serve communities.

Cyatharine Alias is senior manager for community infrastructure and resilience at Chicago’s Center for Neighborhood Technology.

Elizabeth Cisar is the Joyce Foundation’s Environment Program director.

Lori Wainwright walks through the ooded basement of a friend’s home after almost 9 inches of rain fell within three hours last September in Calumet City, Illinois. GETTY IMAGES

Detroit needs to invest in green infrastructure

Following a July 2021 rain event that ooded over 30,000 Detroit homes, the city of Detroit developed a Public Action Plan for Community Development Block Grant — Disaster Recovery that itemized over $95 million in remediation expenditures. ese expenditures included sewer repair, a ordable housing, emergency shelter, protective infrastructure, administration and planning activities, all of which are necessary.

ural systems of native plants, trees and storage basins that either detain or retain excess water during storms.   Vacant land, as well as residential lawns and berms and commercial corridors are ideal locations for GSI. GSI  is not the only solution to ooding but experts on ooding as well as city o cials have recognized both direct bene ts and co-bene ts of improving air quality, reducing heat islands and improving the appearance of vacant land.

Targeted GSI is also less expensive than gray infrastructure upgrades of stormwater and sewage systems.

mit public investments in GSI in east-side neighborhoods. e city has developed a GSI credit program to promote GSI investments by business owners, but there is no incentive in place for homeowners to build rain gardens, bioswales or rain barrels to reduce their fees.

As the planet warms, Detroit’s rainstorms are growing more intense and rainfall more frequent.   e impact is most acute in climate-vulnerable neighborhoods because of aging and neglected infrastructure, compacted soils, dense urban development, impervious surfaces and depleted vegetation.

But in a city with the highest concentration of vacant and underutilized land in the nation, not a single sentence was written, nor dollars allocated to promote increased investments in green stormwater infrastructure or GSI. GSI diverts stormwater from combined sewer systems that are overwhelmed during heavy rains into nat-

rough funding support from the Erb Foundation, my organization the Eastside Community Network has partnered with local universities to develop plans to install GSI on city-owned vacant land as well as a conceptual plan to incentivize land-locked corporations and businesses to invest in neighborhood green infrastructure.

Nonetheless, the city has not invested in green infrastructure on Detroit’s east side, outside of a few park and greenway improvements, and has not developed a watershed management plan that would per-

ey are also most extreme among socially vulnerable residents — people who don’t own their homes and homeowners who cannot a ord to repair and replace their roofs, gutters, porches, doors and windows; who don’t have resources to strengthen and waterproof their foundations; whose homes are uninsurable.

When it rains on Detroit’s east side, combined stormwater and raw sewage pours into the porous basements of low-income households and pollutes all of their contents. Furnaces, hot water tanks, keepsakes

and basement furnishings are destroyed along with carpeting, drywall and other building materials.  ose who are renting, uninsured or unable to document their losses receive little to no help from the government to clean and repair their homes, as well as replacing lost items. Some houses ood so frequently that basements never even fully dry and leave residue of black mold and bacteria that pollute indoor air and expose residents to any number of diseases. All too often, furnaces and hot water tanks sit idle in disrepair while residents are forced to use space heaters — sometimes kerosene — to heat their living spaces, which can worsen air quality and pose signi cant risks of re.

Detroit has many challenges and limits to how funds are invested, but there are also choices the city makes that can and should be revisited.  A city that proudly plans to spend $240 million to build the Joe Louis Greenway can surely plan to invest similar resources to green climate-vulnerable neighborhoods, including those on Detroit’s east side.

Water always wins, so let’s get behind it, lest we get run over...

Many years ago now, my daughter introduced me to her rst grade class as “a scientist that plays with mud and water.”

is is not too far o the mark. For many years, I’ve studied urbanized landscapes, their soils and how water moves — or doesn’t move — through our built environment. I came to Wayne State to continue an urban-serving mission after 18 years with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where I worked to address stormwater and wastewater, codeveloping solutions with communities across our nation.

If you are like me, and thousands of other Detroiters, we’ve each been a ected by ooding of one type or another.

Flooding can be visited upon us by way of a sewer backup, groundwater seep into basement or other sub-grade structures, surface runo from hard surfaces that builds up in our streets and nds its way into our houses and businesses through cracks and openings; and then river inundation. Whether one, some or all of these types, ooding is traumatic, and hits us where it hurts, in our homes and businesses, and in a larger sense, our habitat. e catastrophic ooding in the summer of 2021 was an equal-opportunity destroyer of health, wealth and property, creating denial of services that we’re still reeling from. ese tragic events showed that rainfall storm events were not like they used to be, and that many of us live in high wastewater tra c areas. We have very little functional redundancy in our current system. Wastewater ows from the north, the west, and gathers steam and volume along the coastal east side as it barrels toward our sole wastewater treatment plant located Downriver.  When there is not enough room for water, it makes room by ooding. We’re all in a sort

of sandwich generation for aging infrastructure and a changing climate. Remote sensing, digital models and real-time control are parts of the solution, but until we have good basic data to give these models some guardrails, we’re ying blind with no clear storm event or realistic constraints to design against.

We need data equity. How does water actually move around Detroit, and where do the di erent types of ooding occur? We know the least about the areas that have the highest vulnerability to ooding insults. We need to understand the full water cycle from rainfall going in, to the hard surfaces that turn rain into runo , the sewer plumbing, how our groundwater table can move up or down.

I’ve spent the majority of my career making measurements and guring out how to keep stormwater out of our over-taxed sewer systems. Green infrastructure has been touted as a magic bullet of sorts; yet, my extensive study on the subject indicates that we need to think through the placement of rain gardens and bioswales. is involves straightforward site assessments that give the data needed to tune the design of green stormwater infrastructure, and let it become more a natural part of its setting, move in sync with the landscape and the seasons, and so it can do its job.

I know we can close these data gaps, because I’ve worked with cities, state agencies and federal partners to gather and apply

this data.

Hope springs eternal, but residents are also ratepayers and demand e ective action toward reducing vulnerability to ooding, and that have tangible outcomes. For example, DWSD is innovating on these problems. eir program to protect from basement sewer backups and explore the repair of sewer laterals are a visionary step in the right direction and needs to be expanded.  We can endlessly relitigate the e ects of a broken infrastructure and who loses or wins, but the fact is, without comprehensive, resident-engaged redress, we all lose. If we are in front of water, we’re always looking backwards, and we’ll continue to be run over.

Bill Shuster is chair of the civil and environmental engineering department at Wayne State University.

Donna Givens Davidson is president and CEO of Detroit’s Eastside Community Network.

URBAN FLOODING

FLOODING

From Page 8

often stems from other causes and requires other solutions. As a 2019 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council put it, “Urban ooding has little to do with bodies of water.” Rather, says Anna Weber, an NRDC senior policy analyst, urban ooding results from excessive rainfall and the inability of the existing capacity in our stormwater systems — gray infrastructure — to deal with it.

For example, in the 2021 event in Detroit, the failure of electric power to a key pumping station on the city’s east side contributed to massive back ow of rainwater into streets and basements in the Grosse Pointes. But even if the power hadn’t failed, so much rain fell that the existing pipes and pumps couldn’t have handled it all.

Flooding was inevitable, o cials said later.

What makes the problem worse is that in many older cities, the underground drains, pipes and pumps that carry away rainwater is the same setup that deals with sewage. Newer suburban communities often separate the stormwater and sewer systems. But in older neighborhoods, heavy rain mixes with sewage and sometimes backs up into basements, streets and nearby waterways.

Whether combined or separated, these urban water and sewer systems are vastly complex networks that carry freshwater into homes and businesses and carry away waste as well as rain runo and snowmelt. Across Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland, millions of homes and businesses connect to these underground networks. ese systems were built over many decades and are hugely expensive to maintain and upgrade.

And here’s the rub: e cities designed and built their underground infrastructure for the kind of rainstorms they saw 50 or a 100 years ago, not for today’s increasingly more severe storms. When the rain comes tumbling down, it often has no place to ow except where it hurts humans the most: streets and basements.

Protect the most vulnerable

Losses from urban ooding can run into the billions of dollars in property damage. Beyond that, urban ooding can also create health concerns ranging from stress to asthma stemming from mold exposure. Actual losses may be even greater than o cial estimates of property damage once health impacts and loss of gross domestic product are considered.

In the Midwest, the impact of excessive rain — urban ooding — often hurts poorer neighborhoods of color the most.

One study conducted by the nonpro t Center for Neighborhood Technology found that just 13 ZIP codes on Chicago’s South and West sides accounted for nearly 75% of ood damage claims in the 2007-16 period. In those areas, more than 90% of residents

Yearly U.S. precipitation vs. average annual precipitation

The number of inches above or below average

Source: NOAA, 2022

Note: Data is for the contiguous 48 states. 0 equals the average precipitation from 1901 to 2000.

U.S. land experiencing extreme single-day precipitation

The percentage land area where a much greater than normal portion of total annual precipitation has come from single-day events

Change in U.S. precipitation, 1901-2021

Precipitation changes by U.S. climate divisions, as de ned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

federal aid. As the 2019 NRDC report put it, “ is limits the public assistance available to victims, who are then left on their own to deal with the aftermath, over and over again.”

Such complaints are heard in many cities. Residents of the Delray neighborhood in southwest Detroit have long complained about bearing the brunt of heavy industry and the problems it brings. Expansion, growth and development upstream can often cause oods downstream. As Ohio hydrologist Wilson said, “More vulnerable, poor communities tend to be in the lowerlying areas.”

Improve the infrastructure

Attempts to build out of the ooding problem with expanded systems are chasing the increasing impacts of climate change. Who is to say the 9 inches of rain Chicago received last summer will be the peak — is it just a harbinger of even worse to come?

But while the cities are working, often with federal relief dollars, to upgrade their stormwater systems, installing bigger pipes and more efcient pumps, Weber of the NRDC contends that these “gray infrastructure” projects, while necessary, are insu cient to deal with today’s urban ooding.

at’s because many of the biggest problems stem from heavy rainfall exacerbating other issues — inadequate housing, poverty, health risks, lack of green spaces and underlying contamination from prior industrial uses.

“None of these questions exist in a silo,” Weber said. “When you’re talking about ooding, you can’t be just talking about ooding. Flooding a ects everything in a community, so you need to be thinking about these holistic solutions. We need to look at solutions that have multiple bene ts.”

Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Note: All data is for the contiguous 48 states. The map was last updated in 2022. The yearly precipitation data is from 2022, and 0 equals the average precipitation from 1901 to 2000. The single day data is from 2021 and is a nine-year moving average.

were people of color. Cyatharine Alias, a senior manager for community infrastructure and resilience with Chicago’s CNT, said many things explain the racial disparities. Among them: poorer Black neighborhoods tend to be in more natural ood plains, a legacy of where people of color were allowed to live during the “Great Mi-

gration” of the 20th century. Poorer communities of color are also less likely to be covered by ood insurance, as another report by the Natural Resources Defense Council makes clear.

en, too, economically poorer areas often are locales of more heavy industry, paved over with asphalt and with fewer natural

greenspaces to absorb heavy rains. And low-income areas tend to see fewer upgrades and less reinvestment in infrastructure. “ ere really hasn’t been a funding scheme to support low-income communities on the maintenance piece,” Alias said.

Finally, urban ooding is often too localized to draw in state or

Every region’s long-term goal is to better maintain the existing infrastructure and improve it as necessary.

e Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District has overseen $9 billion in improvements since its start in 1972, and its leaders expect to spend another $6 billion. ey intend their current and future tunnels to hold back 98% of the combined sewer over ow from a twoyear storm until there’s room at treatment plants downstream. ey say bigger tunnels would cost too much. As it is, the district has reduced untreated over ows from about 9 billion gallons per year to 4.5 billion, and it aims for 494 million by 2036.

In Southeast Michigan, the Michigan Department of Transportation has been installing new electric generators at each of its 144 pumping stations along Detroit-area freeways to help remove water from roadways.

Since the 2021 ooding in Detroit, the Great Lakes Water Authority, or GLWA, has mapped out hundreds of millions of dollars of upgrades to its stormwater system, many of them already underway. Among the steps: Upgrading

the electric power supply to pumping stations like the one at Conner Street and East Je erson Avenue, where power failures in 2021 contributed to the disastrous ooding on the east side. New pipes and pumping upgrades are underway elsewhere along the system as well. And o cials say communication lines with suburban systems have improved so that storm ows may be diverted from one part of the system to where more capacity is available. Sometimes it’s just a matter of keeping water out of underground systems by forging alternatives. Consider the new Gordie Howe International Bridge now under construction over the Detroit River to Canada, along with a 167-acre Port of Entry inspection complex in southwest Detroit. Initially, GLWA CEO Suzanne Co ey says, bridge planners had expected to direct stormwater runo from the facility into the underground pipes that the authority operates. But GLWA planners persuaded the bridge builders to direct heavy rain from the site into the river itself, sparing the underground system that extra burden. Still, as Co ey notes, the regional stormwater system was designed to handle about 3.3 inches of rain a day, not the 7 to 8 inches of rain at a time that sometimes deluges Detroit as it did in 2021. But the upgrades and better planning are paying o in greater resiliency.

“If we get 10 inches of rain, would we have ooding? Yes,” she says. “Are we much better prepared? You bet.”

In Detroit itself, the water department operates a machine known as a “nutcracker” to break up concrete that construction crews have dumped down drains at the end of a job to get rid of it. Blockages like that clog the stormwater system and can lead to backups and ooding.

In Macomb County outside Detroit, Public Works Commissioner Miller has been working to have hundreds of stormwater drains cleared of sediment, debris and junk.

“You can’t believe what you can nd when you start inspecting,” Miller said. “We have 500 drains, big drains, some enclosed, some not inspected since the 1960s. You have to spend money on inspecting old, enclosed drains and cleaning them out. Make sure all the assets you have are operating optimally.”

Encourage individuals to do their part

But upgraded and cleaned out pipes and greener rainwater basins aren’t enough, Weber argues. ere also needs to be a social component to any e orts to reduce the damage from urban ooding.

Residents of poorer districts should be able to get relocation aid so they can move to safer districts. Underlying problems like ground contamination from long-ago industrial uses must be addressed.

And disclosure of ood risks during property transactions can help, too.

“For people signing a lease for

an apartment, someone should tell them that neighborhood oods every time it rains, right?” Weber says. “Really, really simple solutions like that can have a big impact.”

Some of those solutions are being funded, in part, in Chicago by the city’s Climate Infrastructure Fund, which provides grants of $50,000 to $250,000 to nonpro t organizations and small businesses for climaterelated capital projects in priority areas such as green infrastructure. If the big solutions cost billions of dollars and require government action, individual homeowners can take steps, too, to protect themselves.

Homeowners can install backup protection valves that prevent sewer over ows from backing up into a basement. e city of Detroit, for example, publishes a handbook that o ers tips on maintenance and explains how residents of 11 Detroit neighborhoods prone to ooding are eligible for a program that includes services that help mitigate damages.

en, too, homeowners can regrade their yards so that rainwater ows away from the foundation, lessening basement ooding. Gutter downspouts can be disconnected from the sewer system and repositioned to ow rainwater into a nearby rainwater garden where plants can absorb the over ow.

Some communities let residents replace grass with native ground cover or vegetation. “To my way of thinking, it’s more attractive,” says Mayor William Tomko of Northeast Ohio’s Chagrin Falls. And homeowners can plant trees where roots will suck up excess groundwater.

One more thing o cials encourage: e next time a millage proposal shows up on the ballot to support stormwater system upgrades, vote “yes.”

With such a complex problem, the solutions have to come from many di erent quarters — government and business and nonpro ts and individuals. “We can’t be operating in silos,” Weber of the NRDC said. “Everybody has a role to play in these solutions and we all have to be learning from each other. Otherwise, we just keep reinventing the wheel.”

As Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells, who leads the Cleveland-area’s Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, says, “We got here by a thousand cuts. We’re only going to get out of here by a thousand steps.”

Some of those solutions may be hugely expensive, but Macomb County’s Miller says people can’t be discouraged.

“We have been behind the eight ball by not investing enough in our infrastructure. Everybody knows that,” she said, but added, “You can’t look at anything that way. You have to think about incremental changes and doing a better job, what you can a ord, and think creatively and utilize value engineering in any way you can. Like an elephant — one bite at a time.”

Cleveland reporter Grant Segall contributed to this story.

The role builders, residents and developers play in ood diversion

Green infrastructure plays big role in diverting Midwest ooding

By John Gallagher

Spending billions on new underground pipes and pumps is only part of the game plan for dealing with urban flooding. Increasingly, municipalities are implementing green infrastructure measures to complement the gray infrastructure of pipes, drains and processing facilities.

What it is

Green infrastructure refers to any intervention that attempts to restore part of the natural landscape to absorb, store, filter, reuse or evaporate stormwater to reduce the burden on drains and collection systems.

“Our streams are nature’s stormwater system,” says Derek Schafer, head of Northeast Ohio’s West Creek Conservancy.

Green infrastructure can include something as simple as open fields graded to capture water runoff from nearby paved surfaces. It can also include permeable surfaces that allow rainwater to seep down into the ground through holes in the hard surface. Channels that divert rainwater from paved areas to green areas can also be part of a greener system, as can rainwater gardens planted with water-absorbing plants in yards and around buildings and parking lots.

Often these green solutions are designed to absorb just enough rainwater to reduce the load on the underground pipes and pumps. In this way, both gray and green infrastructure work together to reduce urban flooding.

How it’s being used

◗ In Macomb County outside Detroit, new stormwater standards now require developers of any new project to reduce the amount of impervious surface — paved areas — so that rainwater can soak naturally into the ground.

“As you might imagine we had a lot of developers say, ‘Oh, my gosh, we can’t do that, it’s going to be too expensive,’” said Candice Miller, public works commissioner for the county. “ at was a couple years ago. e conversations have pretty much stopped now. Nobody can argue with the fact of what is happening with the weather here.”

A trimmed lawn compacted over time won’t absorb much. Topsoil and aeration help. Lawns must still be mowed. Cleveland and Akron limit the grass’s height to 8 inches and many communities set that at 6. Last year, Cleveland Heights joined an international movement called “No Mow May,” suspending the limit, but some locals complained about scraggly lawns. At last report, the suburb had not announced plans for this May.

e city of Chicago Climate Infrastructure Fund helps fund green infrastructure projects. A $200,000 grant went to Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago’s Far South Side to create a permeable parking lot to reduce stormwater runo . And thanks to a $250,000 grant, the Gar eld Park Community Council was to construct a new nature play area that promotes healthy child development and physical activ-

ity, while also addressing ooding in the area.

◗ In Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District operates a program called Greenseams that buys and then permanently protects key lands containing water-absorbing soils in areas likely to see urban sprawl, especially along streams, shorelines and wetlands. To date, the Greenseams program has protected 149 properties, preserved more than 5,000 acres of land and planted nearly 120,000 trees.

e Milwaukee sewer district also advises homeowners on how they can contribute to the solution by, say, getting a rain barrel that captures water from downspouts and gutters. e homeowner can use this water for gardening while capturing stormwater that otherwise could burden the city’s sewers.

In the Cleveland area, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, or NEORSD, has had multiple projects completed or in the works to enhance the landscape’s ability to adsorb heavy rains. In the Fleet Avenue project in the city of Cleveland, a green infrastructure project was landscaped to allow 4.8 million gallons of stormwater per year to soak into soils. In another project with the community development corporation Burten, Bell, Carr Development Inc., a greening project was designed to absorb an estimated 12.4 million gallons of rain in a typical year.

e NEORSD gives credits to customers for sizable reductions in runo .

Grant Segall contributed.

Natural yards, like that of Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District CEO Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells, or lawns with longer grass absorb more water than trimmed lawns. | KYLE DREYFUSS-WELLS

Internet providers urge action as 1M set to lose access

By Anna Fifelski

Nearly 1 million Michigan residents are at risk of losing access to a ordable high-speed internet after April when a federal program o ering subsidies to eligible households is set to end — but major service providers are urging the government to nd a permanent solution to fund the program.

April is the last month for the Affordable Connectivity Program, which allowed qualifying households to get high-speed internet access for $30 o per month — or $75 o for those on qualifying Tribal land — and a one-time $100 o voucher for a laptop or tablet.

e ACP was established in December 2021 by the Federal Communications Commission and stopped accepting new applications in February as the program began winding down. In October, the Biden administration sent Congress a supplemental request for $6 billion to extend funding for the program through December 2024, though it has not yet been approved.

More than 23 million households in the U.S. utilize the ACP to access a ordable internet. at includes 941,244 people in Michigan, nearly 20% of whom are in Detroit, according to data from the Universal Service Administrative Company. e city leads the nation as the city with the highest percentage of households enrolled in the ACP.

Ryan McAnany, the director of the telecommunications division at the Michigan Public Service Commission, suggests that those who bene t from the ACP reach out to their service providers to determine what their new internet bill will be. ey can also switch providers if their bill is too high.

“Even though they have ACP with a broadband provider, it doesn’t mean they need to stick with them,” McAnany said. “As the ACP is winding down, if they want to switch to another broadband provider, they’re free to do so, but they need to communicate that with their current provider before this program ends.”

Major broadband service providers, including AT&T and Comcast, are calling on the federal government to act to continue to fund the program.

“We’ll work with customers enrolled in the ACP to nd the solution that’s right for them should funding end, but we urge the government to act on a more permanent solution,” Alexander Byers, director of communications for AT&T, said in an emailed statement to Crain’s. “If they fail to do so, we’re committed to providing options to help our customers ad-

just and have a variety of exible plans available at a great value.”

Comcast also is urging action, and has the following statement on its website: “We continue to urge Congress and the White House to renew ACP funding and keep these important resources available to the millions of consumers across the country who are using it to get and stay connected to broadband.”

AT&T continues to o er Access from AT&T, a low-cost internet option for eligible households, which o ers speeds up to 100 Mbps for $30 per month. Another option, McAnany said, is the Lifeline program, which provides a $9.25 discount — and up to $34.25 per month for those on Tribal lands — for eligible subscribers to put toward broadband or telephone services.

Households were eligible for the program if the household income is

at or below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines, participates in the Free and Reduced-Price School Lunch Program or School Breakfast Program, SNAP, Medicaid or meets other criteria. at income level would equate to $30,120 annual income for a single-person household or $62,400 for a family of four, based on current federal poverty guidelines.

In Detroit, a ordable internet access is a particular concern. Connect 313, a joint program between the city of Detroit, United Way for Southeastern Michigan, Rocket Mortgage and Microsoft, started in 2020 to address the digital divide in the city. e group had raced to sign up households for the ACP — and is now concerned about how the end of the program will a ect Detroiters.

“Pretty much everything requires the internet. From basic things like, calling 911 for emergencies to being able to pay your bills, interview for jobs, prepare, read the newspaper, keep up on daily events, make decisions for the upcoming elections,” said Vittoria Katanski, director of Connect 313. “All of those things require access to the internet to be given the information people need in order to make decisions for them personally, and not being given that access completely disconnects people from community.”

Katanski said those signed up for the program will still receive a partial discount in May, although the FCC has not disclosed what that number will be.

“We have nearly 185,000 Detroiters connected to ACP and that’s shy of some of the ZIP codes, so the number is probably much higher than that, which continues to be the highest percentage of enrollment for our size of city in the na-

tion,” Katanski said.

Being an election year, Katanski said she doesn’t know whether the program will be renewed before November.

“I think that the push that Detroit has made to show how important this is and how many of our citizens are eligible for the programming de nitely indicates a need,” Katanski said. “Ideally this will be a forefront of anybody’s campaign because it’s really not a political issue. It’s reality. People need to have access to the internet in order to conduct business on a daily basis.”

In February, the city of Detroit unveiled its rst eight Certi ed Tech Hubs, which o er free internet access to those within each district of Detroit. ree of those eight Tech Hubs are Comcast Lift Zones and another three are partnered with Human I-T, a technology services nonpro t.

On April 4, Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist II and the Michigan HighSpeed Internet O ce announced the approval of Michigan’s rst-ever digital equity plan, which will work to “eliminate the digital divide and ensure that every Michigan resident has access to a ordable, reliable high-speed internet,” according to a news release.

“Every Michigander deserves access to a ordable, fast internet, and the approval of Michigan’s rst-ever Digital Equity Plan will help us more e ciently and e ectively connect more individuals, families, and small business owners,” Gilchrist said in the release. “ e development of this plan will help us understand better where we need to target resources and make investments and how we can ensure a level playing eld for every Michigander no matter where they live.”

Hospital says it didn’t steal designs from architecture rm

Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital and the current architectural rm involved in a proposed $60 million pediatric hospital say a previous rm’s claims of copyright violations involving the project belong in arbitration, not in federal court.

Language in the original contract states that Mary Free Bed “owns all original copyrighted subject matter authored by” Detroit-based SmithGroup Inc., according to court lings.

e federal lawsuit that SmithGroup led March 11 claiming that Mary Free and Pure Architects violated federal copyright protections should rst go to arbitration to decide if a breach of contract occurred, attorneys argue in court documents.

SmithGroup partly based its claims on Mary Free Bed’s refusal to pay a licensing fee after terminating its contract on Sept. 8, 2023. In its rst response to the federal lawsuit, lawyers from Dickinson Wright PLLC’s Detroit o ce who

represent Mary Free Bed argue that an arbitrator rst needs to decide if their contract was actually breached and whether it owes the licensing and termination fees to SmithGroup before a federal court can hear the lawsuit.

In a court motion led March 28, Mary Free Bed’s attorneys asked Judge Robert Jonker to either dismiss the case — which has the potential to delay the project — or at least refer the matter to arbitration in accordance with language in their contract.

e contract “requires that all claims and causes of action arising

out of or related to the agreement shall be commenced in arbitration, and if a party’s claim is not commenced in accordance with the agreement, the party waives that claim,” attorneys at Dickinson Wright wrote in the motion. “Because Plainti did not commence its copyright claim in accordance with the agreement, it is waived and should be dismissed … for failure to state a claim.”

e ling o ered the rst legal response in the case from Mary Free Bed and Pure Architects and focuses for now on a narrow aspect in the lawsuit that Smith-

Group initiated in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan in Grand Rapids.

“We continue to believe the SmithGroup claim is without merit and have led a motion to dismiss,” the hospital said in a statement emailed to Crain’s Grand Rapids Business. “Mary Free Bed and Pure Architects are making signi cant progress in creating our nation’s new children’s rehabilitation hospital. is state-of-the-art facility will bring hope and healing to the children and families who seek care here.”

SmithGroup Inc. alleges in the lawsuit that the design for the Joan Secchia Children’s Rehabilitation Hospital is protected by federal copyright and was improperly copied and reproduced by Grand Rapids-based Pure Architects, which took over the design and engineering work on the Mary Free Bed project last September. e rm contends that Pure Architects’ design for the pediatric hospital is “substantially similar” to what it did.

SmithGroup, which has o ces in

Detroit and Ann Arbor, seeks a temporary injunction that directs Mary Free Bed “to cease and desist from any and all continued infringement of SmithGroup’s copyrighted architectural works, including but not limited to the copying, distribution, and publication of SmithGroup’s original works of authorship or derivative works thereof, and from the construction of any structures including SmithGroup’s copyrighted subject matter.”

SmithGroup claims it was due a licensing fee and 8% of its total fee after Mary Free Bed terminated its contract. e hospital has since declined to pay and argues in the March 28 court ling that the issue comes down to whether a breach of contract occurred, a question that should get settled through arbitration, according to Mary Free Bed’s court ling.

e contract “sets out the unambiguous mediation and arbitration procedures to which (SmithGroup) agreed,” Mary Free Bed’s attorneys said in court documents. “ ere is no question there is a valid agreement to arbitrate.”

Connect 313 Community Ambassador Shadora Ford helps a man up sign up for the Affordable Connectivity Program at a sign-up event at MACC Development, a neighborhood tech hub. | CONNECT 313

Mark Sanchez

Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital’s plans for a pediatric care facility | MARY FREE BED

“ ere is seemingly very strong demand for our services,” Miller said. “Our inpatient care in Ann Arbor is at 97% capacity on any given day. So we want to be more readily available for those in communities where our patients live. Our presence in Troy helps us do that.”

UM Health is paying $4.42 million for 7.28 acres of the 40-acre former Kmart headquarters at West Big Beaver and Coolidge Highway. e move sets the stage for the future redevelopment of one of metro Detroit’s most desired properties.

UM Health is among the topranked systems in the country — its Ann Arbor hospital ranked among the best 22 hospitals in the nation, alongside Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, Houston Methodist and oth-

ers, according to U.S. News and World Report’s Best Hospitals Rankings for 2023-2024 — and receives a mass of referrals, driving patients from all over the state to the college town. at demand translated to UM Health’s expansion in Metro Detroit in 2014 with its outpatient center at Haggerty and Seven Mile roads in Northville. at center offers primary care, lab services, cardiology, an allergy clinic, endocrinology and much more.

But it’s also overloaded. A call to the scheduling department revealed physicians there are not accepting new patients and there is no timeline as to when new patients will be accepted.

“We consider expansion all the time,” Miller said. “We have to expand local and statewide care because that growth allows us to ensure more services and access to

our existing patients.”

UM Health is also in the middle of constructing the $920 million D. Dan and Betty Kahn Health Care Pavilion on its Ann Arbor campus to alleviate the current capacity constraints. e 690,000-squarefoot, 12-story tower will add 154 new inpatient beds, with 110 additional beds relocated from its legacy hospital, as well as new surgical suites.

e Pavilion is expected to open in the fall of 2025.

In August last year, the health system nalized its acquisition of Lansing-based Sparrow Health with six hospitals across mid-Michigan. UM plans to invest $800 million into the Sparrow system over eight years.

It’s also opened new centers in metro Grand Rapids in recent years, including the home of Grand Valley State University in Allendale

Ballmers commit $47 million to new efforts in Detroit area

e philanthropy founded by former Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer and his wife, Connie, is putting $47 million this summer behind a free program for tens of thousands of Metro Detroit kids aimed at preventing ‘summer slide’ and introducing them to fun learning experiences.

Administered by United Way for Southeastern Michigan, “Summer Discovery” will provide high-quality programs for students currently in grades K-8 in high-need schools across Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

It will also provide nancial support for out-of-school education providers during their quietest months of the year.

Ballmer has made a three-year commitment to the program and will grant up to $47 million just for year one.

e Ballmers opened a philanthropic o ce in Detroit in 2017 to focus on economic mobility for children and families in the region. eir donor-advised fund, the Ballmer Group, had awarded more than $101.8 million in Southeast Michigan as of last September.

Steve Ballmer, a metro Detroit native and graduate of Detroit Country Day High School, ranks as the ninth-richest person on the planet as of the most recent Forbes ranking of billionaires, with a net worth of $125.8 billion.

“We’ve long been interested in education. We think education is one of the key pathways to economic mobility for children and families,” said Temeca Simpson, senior portfolio manager in Ballmer Group’s Southeast Michigan o ce.

With Summer Discovery, “ e vision is that every child will have the opportunity to have a really rigorous instruction over the summer in math and literacy and that they’ll be able to take part in really fun, safe and engaging enrich-

Students from around the region take part in the United Way STEM-Possible event at the Michigan Science Center in October 2023. Schools and community-based organizations hosting summer enrichment sites as part of the “Summer Discovery” program will get free access to eld trips and other

ment experiences in their community,” she said.

Many schools and community organizations want to o er the programs and they are terri c at them, but for every student taking part in an out-of-school program, there are four students waiting, said Simpson, citing a recent report from the Afterschool Alliance.

Parents said barriers, including cost and access, factored into their decision not to enroll their child in a summer program. But seat availability is also an issue, she said.

“ ere are longstanding challenges for caregivers really having to hustle to nd seats and seats that are safe and a ordable. Our hope is that we can contribute and create more accessiblity to summer learning.”

Working with national organization Building Impact Partners, United Way and Ballmer invited schools in the tri-county area to apply to be a Summer Discovery site in January. More than 100 schools and out-of-school providers with more than half of students qualifying for free lunches based on nancial need were selected for the coming summer.

Most schools plan to enroll students from their districts, said

in 2022. Most recently, UM HealthWest, based in Grand Rapids, signed a three-year a liation deal with Holland Hospital.

Miller said partnerships are now critical to the system’s mission, as increasing patient populations across the state bolsters its position as the top academic research organization.

“We’re always evaluating partnerships,” Miller said. “Some of that growth is to ensure the status of the research and academic mission in Ann Arbor. Taking care of larger populations enables us to continue important research here (in Ann Arbor).”

While it’s clear UM Health plans to dominate in all corners of the state — it has an a liation agreement with Marquette-based UP Health System — is it possible for the a state public university to consider out-of-state expansion?

Miller said while the system has no immediate plans for expansion outside of Michigan, it’s under consideration.

“We have had some outreach programs in Ohio and many of our patients spend time outside of Michigan, whether that’s living in Florida or elsewhere,” Miller said. “We are always considering outside of the state.”

Ellen Gilchrist, senior director, early childhood and educational services at United Way. “We (also) have a set of community-based organizations that have also been awarded grants ... (and) are taking students from across the tricounty area.”

Collectively, they’ll provide seats for up to 22,000 youth for the full-day programs that will include three hours of math and English instruction followed by fun learning experiences for students ranging from STEM activities like coding and ying a drone to theater and career exploration, gure skating, outdoor exploration and eld trips to the Detroit Zoo and Belle Isle.

Grants of up to $2,000 per student can be used to introduce or enhance existing programs or reduce barriers such as transportation.

Summer Discovery programs are expected to run for 20-25 days, with staggered start dates beginning in late June, and schools and community-based organizations that provide out-of-school programs will provide impact reports on attendance, academic progress and feedback from students and families, Gilchrist said.

Shelter Program Services 2024 (Re-Issued)

Response Due: April 23, 2024 Issued: April 10, 2024 REQUEST

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Software Developer: Analyze, dsgn, dvlp, test, implmnt, troubleshoot & maint of s/w apps using skills like C#, Asp.NET/MVC,.Net Core, VB.NET, Web API,WCF,MSTFS, Web API & WCF tech, XCODE 10.2and 11, Swift 4 & 5, Cocoa, iOSSDK, UIKit, UIView Controller, UITableView Controller, JSONModel, NS Objects, DesignStory Boards & Xibs, Android studio, Kotlin, Android SDK, & SQLite, JetPack, Google Analytics, New Relic, Retrofit, Deep knowl of Activity, Fragment, Service, Broadcast receiver, Intent, Content provider, Java, J2EE, JavaScript, C++, C, XML, SQL,PL/SQL, MS SQL Server, Oracle forms & rprts, Oracle EBS, Oracle, SAP, ABAP, Siebel, Sales Force, Mainframe Apps, Cobol, Informatica, CICS, DB2, Unix, Linux & Windows. Gather & analyze dtaild biz reqs estimation of dvlpng efforts.Dvlp,model&maintaincmplxrelations.Prfrm maint & modification of programs currently in prod to keep them responsive to prep, test data & thoroughly test coded programs to validate accuracy; Analyze prod programs to isolate prblms or to dtrmne more efficient methods.

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fun learning opportunities, along with math and English lessons. | SYDNEY KISPERT-BOSTICK

KMART

A slew of uses could all make sense, experts said.

“When you try to think of corners and sites, this is probably the best site in all of suburban Detroit,” said Daniel Canvasser, executive managing director in the local o ces of New York City-based brokerage house Newmark.

A captive market

e property’s current owners, a joint venture between the Forbes and Frankel families called Forbes/Frankel Troy Ventures LLC, have a captive market for things like multifamily housing, retail and perhaps hotel space.

Forbes, in particular, has been venturing more into multifamily development, working on projects in Detroit and Birmingham and Ann Arbor with other development partners. A chunk of the land could also be sold o to another developer to build on, bringing more housing to an area that commands higher rents and has lower vacancy than the region overall.

According to CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service, the Troy and Rochester area has average rents of $1,539 per month, compared to $1,258 for the broader metro region. e vacancy rate is 7.2% compared to 8%, according to CoStar.

It’s also the third-largest multifamily submarket in the region, with a smidge over 18,500 units, behind southwest Wayne County’s 22,000 and Macomb County’s 42,000. e region has about 230,300 units total.

“ at’s a great site for multifamily,” said Paul Choukourian, executive managing director in the Royal Oak o ce of Colliers International Inc., a brokerage house. “You have a lot of multifamily that’s very highly occupied.”

is could also be an opportunity for something holistic in its approach, said Michael Cooper, principal and president in Royal Oak for the architecture and planning rm HED.

at would include not only things like housing, but also wellness and research and incubator space, for example, in addition to retail, restaurants and other amenities.

“As this mixed-use community develops and evolves, it would begin to de ne the next phase of wants and needs,” Cooper said. “It is itself a community, but at the same time, is part of the larger Troy vision.”

Health center a catalyst for development

UM Health has also been a catalyst for other mixed-use projects in metro Detroit.

Twenty-two miles to the southwest, a joint venture between Livonia-based Schostak Bros. & Co. and Bloom eld Hills-based REI Investment Group Inc. redeveloped the 82-acre site of the former Northville Psychiatric Hospital, which closed in 2003. e project brought a 100,000-square-foot University of

Michigan Northville Health Center.  Je rey Schostak, president of Schostak Development, his family’s real estate company’s development arm, said the university’s project was a lure for other uses.

“U-of-M provided an outstanding brand to help kick off the development,” Schostak said in an email. “Having U-of-M as an anchor helped lease the property to restaurants and retailers, as well. It brings people to the property from all over southeast Michigan who may not have otherwise visited the shopping center.”

e property includes a Trader Joe’s grocery store as another anchor.

To Schostak, the Kmart property is ideal for restaurant and retail facing Big Beaver, with multifamily housing on the northern portion of the site.

Family ties to UM continue

This continues the ties between the Ann Arbor university and the two families that own the site.

The Frankel and Forbes families, both local commercial real estate royalty, of sorts, have long been UM Health boosters.

In 2007, the $215 million University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center opened with an anonymous gift and almost six years later, it was named the Frankel Cardiovascular Center after it was made public that the $25 million gift came from the Samuel and Jean Frankel Foundation.

The Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation donated for a $20 million fund called the Frankel Innovation Initiative, and Stuart Frankel’s brother, Stanley and his wife Judith, donated for the Stanley and Judith Frankel Institute for Heart and Brain Health. Stanley and Stuart Frankel are Samuel Frankel’s sons.

New life for a long-vacant

property

e former Kmart headquarters had long been vacant when demolition on the hulking, 1.1-million-square-foot former o ce complex began last fall.

After Kmart vacated it in the mid-2000s and moved to Illinois as a subsidiary of Sears Holding Corp. — continuing its well-doc-

“When you try to think of corners and sites, this is probably the best site in all of suburban Detroit.”

Daniel Canvasser, executive managing director in the local of ces of Newmark

Madeline and Sidney Forbes, the parents of Forbes Co. Managing Partner Nathan Forbes, are the namesakes of the Forbes Institute for Cancer Discovery, for which they donated $17.5 million.

Nathan Forbes and his wife, Catherine, are also heavily involved in UM fundraising. Both served on a committee for what ended up being the $5 billion-plus Victors for Michigan fundraising campaign.

umented implosion across state lines — the plan was to replace it with a $320 million redevelopment called the Pavilions of Troy.  Reston, Va.-based Richardson Development Group Inc. was to be the developer. New York Citybased equity fund BlackRock paid $40 million for the Kmart property in December 2005, according to CoStar.  at project would have in-

cluded 440,000 square feet of commercial and retail space, 132 residential units, a public ice rink, a 3,000-seat theater, restaurants and a grocery store. But under the weight of the economic recession, those plans collapsed.

Sidney Forbes, founder of Forbes Co., told Crain’s in 2012 that the purchase of the Kmart property “was a defensive move” after Farmington Hills-based Grand/Sakwa Development began courting Somerset Collection tenants for a retail development. “So when we had the opportunity to buy that land, we took it,” Forbes said in 2012.

Grand/Sakwa’s plans stalled at the Troy City Council and there has been little action on it since.

At its peak, the Kmart property accommodated 5,000 employees. When it was sold in 2005, it had fewer than 1,900, many of whom were transferred to Illinois.

Kmart’s last store in Michigan closed in November 2021, ending its run of nearly six decades after its rst store opened in 1962 in Garden City. Financial woes hampered the retailer the last two decades. It sought bankruptcy protection in 2002-03 and eventually merged with Sears, Roebuck & Co. in 2004.

Demolition crews work to take down the former Kmart Corp. headquarters in Troy in November 2023. | KIRK PINHO

The Samuel and Jean Frankel Cardiovascular Center at Michigan Medicine’s Ann Arbor campus | UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN HEALTH

The 100,000-square-foot University of Michigan Northville Health Center opened in 2014. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN HEALTH

CULTURAL

During a tour on April 8, he shared plans for a new patisserie owned by Warda Bouguettaya, a James Beard award winner the Curises “kind of stalked” to land the project in an old farmhouse on the property.

Next door, another yet-to-benamed restaurant will occupy renovated houses behind the church. On tap for the former garage behind the rectory is a new bar called Father Forgive Me, operated by Curis and Joe Robinson.

Across McClellan Avenue behind the church property is the former convent building, where work will begin in May to build out space for Louis Buhl & Co., a sister gallery to Library Street Collective moving to the neighborhood.

A 110-year-old church anchors the project

Anthony Curis, a real estate developer, and his wife, JJ, an accountant by trade, founded Library Street Collective a dozen years ago after they began collecting art. e gallery commissioned the murals for the Z parking garage in downtown Detroit and later created e Belt, a nearby alleyway now home to murals and arts installations curated by Library Street Collective.

e Curises bought the Good Shepherd property in 2019 and started on renovations designed by New York-based architecture rm Peterson Rich O ce in 2021. ey’ve invested an undisclosed amount to renovate the former Roman Catholic church buildings, nearby homes, a former bakery a couple blocks north and other properties in the years since. Work to mix old and new inside the 110-year-old church is nearly complete.

Inside, architects have created two galleries o the central part of the church along with performance, classroom and workshop spaces and the Little Village Arts Library of artists’ monographs, exhibition catalogs and research materials focused on Michigan artists of color. Library cubicles are making use of the former confessionals.

A mezzanine accessed by a winding staircase o ers additional seating and work space along with a view of the gallery below.

Library Street Collective is collaborating with the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit on the rst

JET FUEL

From Page 3

Amelia DeLuca, Delta’s chief sustainability o cer, told the Senate Energy and Environment Committee at an initial hearing last month that the Atlanta-based company would buy more SAF if not for “very challenging” supply shortcomings.

“You need a feedstock that can scale to that 4 billion gallons. Today, sustainable aviation fuel uses used cooking oil often as a feedstock. at has its limits and we’re

exhibition at the Shepherd — the arts center anchoring the broader campus — featuring work by Detroit artist Charles McGee. “Charles McGee: Time is Now,” opens May 18

approaching those limits pretty quickly, which is why we get excited about the production possibilities that come from feedstocks that are here in Michigan today: soybean and corn as an example,” she said. “In the future, you look towards a world of green hydrogen and captured carbon.”

e nonpartisan Senate Fiscal Agency estimates the bill would reduce general fund revenue by an unknown amount, depending on the price of di erent types of aviation fuel, how much is eligible for the credit and the level of credit claimed. If SAF reached 10% of

and runs through July 20.

e multi-media exhibit is accompanied by e Charles McGee Legacy Park, a sculpture park featuring larger-than-life pieces in-

sales, revenue would fall by $27 million and $54 million a year.

Backers include business and agricultural groups such as the Michigan Corn Growers Association, the Michigan Agri-Business Association, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, the Detroit Regional Chamber, UPS and Delta.

“We truly believe that this is a game-changer for the states that are rst or early adopters,” DeLuca said.

While no group voiced opposition at the opening Senate hearing, some Democrats on the panel raised questions about the poten-

Bed and breakfast in a rectory

Next door to the church, Library Street Collective is gearing up to open Aleo, a bed-and-breakfast with four open rooms on the rst two oors of the rectory.

The building features works by nearly 30 Detroit artists on its walls. McArthur Binion’s foundation, Modern Ancient Brown, which provides work and living space to BIPOC writers and artists, is occupying the third floor.

Project leaders will host a grand opening the evening of May 18, with performances by Detroit’s Urban Art Orchestra, a 20-piece collective led by Grammy-nominated composer De’Sean Jones.

Nonpro ts, record label in former bakery

Further up McClellan at Kercheval Avenue, the Curises arenalizing renovations of the Lantern, a former bakery site with three connected buildings.

spired by the artist’s work. at project is nancially supported by Dan and Jennifer Gilbert and the Curises through a partnership with Je erson East Inc. — a multi-service neighborhood organization that serves low-income populations on Detroit’s east side and ve adjoining historic neighborhoods, according to Library Street Collective — and executed in collaboration with the city of Detroit and other stakeholders.

McGee “in our opinion is…one of the most important artists in the last century or so,” Curis said. “He was a dear friend of ours who passed away a couple years ago. And so we actually built this sculpture garden in Charles’ honor, which was the last project that he actually worked on before he passed away.”

e Charles McGee Legacy Park opens in May. So does the skate park. But both are already attracting visitors, said Simon David, principal and creative director at O ce of Strategy+Design, the landscape designer on the project.

rough OSD’s designs, alleyways, parking lots and vacant land now ow together like the ghost rivers discovered beneath the site, David said — and a nearby grassy area with a hill presents opportunities for outdoor events.

tial impact on the diversity of Michigan’s crops and, more broadly, the negative environmental impacts of biofuel production and use. Other members, however, welcomed economic bene ts or environmental positives from moving away from fossil fuels.

Legislators could advance the measure as soon as this month.

John Delmotte, a corn farmer in Monroe County’s Raisinville Township, said SAF could provide future nancial stability for growers at a time of low corn prices. He noted that a former ethanol plant sits idle in Lenawee County’s Riga Town-

Two nonpro t arts tenants will be operating out of e Lantern by May: Signal-Return, a nonpro t focused on preserving and teaching traditional letterpress printing, and Progressive Art Studio Collective, which creates work and gallery space for artists with developmental disabilities and mental di erences.

Detroit-based music label Assemble Sound will also set up its studios and headquarters in the building.

Other plans for the Lantern — so-called for the roughly 1,500 holes punched in outer walls of the building and fitted with glass to let the light in — include a beer bar, fashion retail store and café, along with affordable studio space, 4,000 square feet for retail and food businesses, and a courtyard with community gathering space at the rear of the building.

e Little Village developments are attracting others to the neighborhood, too. Artists are moving into nearby homes, and the Curises have rehabbed about 10 in the area that are drawing new residents.

Two Library Street Collective leaders are living in a pair of the historic houses within the church site, and Isabelle Weiss of IM Weiss Gallery is living and working from another nearby. She’s set up a gallery with art curated from Detroit artists in her front room and plans to open it to the public this month.

ship, about an hour’s drive from Detroit Metro Airport.  “ is is good for farmers,” he said of the bill. “ is is good for rural Michigan. is is good for people in trades. is is good for people with technical jobs. is creates opportunities for tax income into small communities with production plants. e legislation is important because it lays a groundwork for a strong and viable market in the future. It sends a signal to those SAF producers that we are serious about this. is is an opportunity to say, ‘We’re putting our money where our mouth is.’”

The Tony Hawk-designed skate park | TOP AND MIDDLE PHOTOS BY JASON KEEN COURTESY OF LIBRARY STREET COLLECTIVE

A park honoring late Detroit artist Charles McGee is part of The Shepherd development anchoring the larger “Little Village” cultural district on Detroit’s east side.

The Shepherd, a former Catholic church, has been redesigned and renovated to include two new gallery spaces, along with performing arts, classroom and library spaces. SHERRI WELCH

E’Lois Thomas builds diverse energy workforce as EVs challenge power grid

Solutions for Energy Ef cient Logistics president E’Lois Thomas sees a lot of changes in the energy sector. Thomas, 52, has been with Detroit-based SEEL LCC for nearly 13 years and has seen an emphasis placed on blending energy with the auto industry and on making the eld more diverse. SEEL is a nationally certi ed, Black-owned energy ef ciency, training and weatherization provider. Thomas is responsible for growing the company. She discussed that and more in a Conversation with Crain’s. By | Jay Davis

How’s business for SEEL in the energy sector?

e energy sector is doing a lot of shifts, a lot of changes. Business has been steady for us. e energy sector is experiencing changes as we see a blend of energy and automotive, with things like EV charging stations a ecting the power grid. Energy is changing. It’s at the top of mind of the current presidential administration because of how it impacts the environment and the grid. ey’re having conversations about oil and gas, fossil fuels. We’re downsizing power plants.

What’s going to happen with gas and oil?

e auto industry is evolving. People are adopting more electric vehicle use, but the industry isn’t selling as many as it’d like. As the industry evolves, there’ll be more electric vehicles sold, and we’ll see grid reliance improve. We all have clean energy goals. At SEEL we’re just watching what’s going on and monitoring things to see what our role will be. We’ve been involved with energy e ciency since 2009, working to reduce home energy consumption and costs. We work with small businesses to help them reduce their footprint; save on their bottom line. It’s been quite the road for us. April 10 (was) our 15th anniversary. One of the things we struggled with the rst few years was that not a lot of people knew about energy. Myself, matriculating through Detroit Public Schools, I knew I wanted to be an accountant. I didn’t know there were jobs in energy outside of lineman or working for DTE. But I saw in the energy eld a need for accountants; marketing people. When I joined SEEL in 2011, I came in as a program manager. I saw that diversity and inclusion was low and thought we needed to change that trajectory. ere’s not a lot of

WEWORK

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professional community, and our properties. As office spaces change, WeWork will continue to offer new and creative solutions to people in Detroit,” said Naumann Idrees, senior vice president of leasing at Gilbert’s Bedrock LLC real estate company, in a statement.

A WeWork spokesperson declined to say whether both out-

opportunities, either, to get into the space. I’ve always been an advocate of going to college, so we’re pushing for more learning management systems and workforce development.

What’s SEEL doing to contribute to that workforce development? I pushed for our leaders to implement workforce development during the pandemic. ere are now more than 75,000 courses available in areas like building science training, customer service training and data management training. All of our employees are assigned to the courses. We have employees who may be in the call center, but who want to focus on a track to become a data coordinator or program manager. We want to invest in you so you can see the potential to grow with the organization. It’s helped us grow exponentially. It’s important for us to invest in human capital. If we can’t nd it, let’s train it.

Do those programs help with employee retention?

Interestingly enough, I was in a meeting with a training manager and we have assigned curriculums but people can also choose their own path. I’m amazed to see the aspirations people have for themselves. It’s important for us to allow them to do what they aspire to do. We’re able to see them stretch beyond their current roles so they can grow with us.

Are young people entering the eld and joining SEEL more now that the workforce development programs are available?

I’ve been attending a lot of college fairs, trade shows. We’re seeing an uptick in people coming into the eld, be it in customer service training or eld training. e numbers are up 12% to 15% since the

posts are profitable, but described them in an email as “well performing locations that are popular amongst enterprise companies (companies over 500 employees) and small businesses.” The spokesperson also declined to say how much time is remaining on the two leases.

The 1001 Woodward space picked up a major win in the spring 2022 when it lured Deloitte LLP out of its large, longtime Renaissance Center office totaling about 102,000 square

feet for a smaller footprint of about 35,000 square feet.

But in October 2022, it shuttered a 91,000-square-foot location at 6001 Cass Ave. in a building owned by The Platform LLC, which later became one of WeWork’s largest unsecured credits, owed north of $5.1 million, according to court documents.

That claim is still being worked out in court. WeWork filed for bankruptcy protection in November, claim -

don’t always get hired on but the

people make up only 9% of the energy workforce. What’s it like

Americans in the room. I was curious. I asked a lot

ere’s still so much work

and urban areas, I think about how the impact is greater. We

e ciency and saving money. We make sure the people educating

nalists for some projects. We’ve expanded into Louisville to cover well there. I’m excited about our

ing $15 billion in assets and $18.6 billion in liabilities. The filing capped a tumultuous several years as the company rapidly grew under eccentric co-founder and CEO Adam Neumann, fueled by billions in SoftBank money.

There was also a failed IPO in 2019 before the global health crisis. At one point, the company had been valued at $47 billion. Ultimately, it went public in 2021, with Neumann no longer at the helm.

Recognize an established leader under 40 who is making an impact.

START YOUR NOMINATION AT Nominations due April 19 CrainsDetroit.com/40Nominate