Crain's Detroit Business, Aug. 15, 2022, issue by Crain's Detroit Business

Is coalmine?canarybankruptcysupplierin

It’s a complicated question that depends on who you ask as the city balances the bene ts of the dazzling new skyscraper with the need to maintain housing availability for low-income residents. e calculus used to determine community benets agreements, as they are known, involves multiple factors and doesn’t lend itself to tidy conclusions. For its part, Bedrock maintains it has over-performed on a past

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NEWSPAPER VOL. 38, NO. 31 l COPYRIGHT 2022 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CRAINSDETROIT.COM I AUGUST 15, 2022 TRAIN STATION REHAB Ford project inopportunities,buildschangesCorktown. PAGE 3 SMALL BUSINESS 313 Industries works to make a di erence in people’s lives. PAGE 8 SECOND LIFE : Historic Frederick Stearns house reopens as a dance studio and inn. PAGE 3 The Hudson’s site worksite on Aug. 4. BUSINESSDETROITPINHO/CRAIN’SKIRK

BY KURT NAGL In ation, production woes taking bite out of auto supply chain

What that means is that, at least when it comes to a ordable housing, Bedrock doesn’t have to do much of anything di erently than it currently is doing in exchange for the controversial 10-year tax break at the former J.L. Hudson’s department store site development on Woodward Avenue. And notably, Bedrock won’t have to include any a ordable units in the Hudson’s site project at all. So did the city’s new requirements for Detroit’s most powerful landlord go far enough?

DEAL

Detroit City Council members who supported a $60 million tax break for billionaire developer Dan Gilbert’s Hudson’s site project last month made it a point to stress that stricter requirements for a ordable housing would be part of the deal. But it turns out Gilbert’s real estate company, Bedrock LLC, is almost entirely in compliance with those requirements already, according to a Crain’s analysis.

BY KIRK PINHO THE BEDROCK PROJECT WON A TAX BREAK BUT WON’T HAVE TO INCLUDE ANY ENOUGH.REQUIREMENTSASKHOUSINGAFFORDABLEUNITS.SOMEIFCITY’SNEWGOFAR THE UP AND UP Mortgage companies lead our list of businesses.fastest-growing50 HUDSON’S SUPPLIERS

DIGGING INTO HUDSON’STHE

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Michigan manufacturers have yet to nd the light at the end of the snarled supply chain, and some are running out of time. Gissing North America LLC is the latest casualty of the in ation and production volatility that has de ned the automotive industry over the past two years. As the rst metro Detroit-based supplier to le for bankruptcy in recent years, it could be a harbinger of other small- and midsize suppliers caving to nancial pressures.“Ithink you’re starting to see the compression happening. Consumer confidence is declining,” said Van Conway, CEO of Birmingham-based turnaround firm Van Conway & Partners. “It’s somewhat unanimous across the board dealing with these middle-market lenders that they think a storm is coming.”Bankruptcy lawyers and restructuring specialists have been forecasting that storm for months. While there has been some restructuring and distressed M&A, there have been few bankruptcies. e fallout from the semiconductor shortage and other supply chain problems has been nothing close to what many had feared.

e Detroit Tigers have red Executive Vice President and General Manager Al Avila, the team announced. Avila’s termination marks the end of seven seasons at the helm that ended with a failed rebuild and calls from fans for new leadership. “Once I decided to make a change, I sat down with Al and thanked him for his nearly 22 years of service to our organization,” Christo pher Ilitch, Detroit Tigers Chairman and CEO, said in a statement.

“Al’s loyalty and dedication has served as an example to all during his time as a leader in our baseball operations department.” Ilitch said he would oversee the search process for another gener al manager.Alongtime assistant general manager, Avila was promoted to GM and executive vice president of baseball operations in 2015, suc ceeding Dave Dombrowski.

PABST OPENS ‘80S-THEMED MOTEL IN TRAVERSE CITY THE NEWS: Pabst Blue Ribbon is raising the nostalgia bar even higher with its latest campaign: PBR-themed motel rooms that transport visitors to the ’80s. Located within the mom-andpop-owned Grand Traverse Motel in Traverse City, three rooms replicate a dive bar, arcade and rec room. ey’re adorned with vintage gadgets includ ing old school game consoles, shag carpeting, a record player, jukebox and even a blue ribbon trophy case that discreetly stores PBR cans.

CEDAR POINT TO CREATE ‘BOARDWALK,’ ADD COASTER

WHY IT MATTERS: e motel is part of a larger campaign that spans across social media platforms, TV and out door advertising. From July to Sep tember, the advertisements will be targeting 17 local markets.

WHY IT MATTERS: City Winery Detroit LLC, the purchasing entity, now con trols most of the triangle-shaped block bounded by Vernor Highway, Saint Anne Street and Newark Street. It bought the property from an entity, West Vernor Holdings LLC, regis tered to Detroit real estate investor and developer Christos Moisides.

WHY IT MATTERS: e project, scheduled to start in 2024, is intended to tie into Ford Motor Co.’s renovation of Michi gan Central Station, the nation’s rst wireless EV-charging road and the broader vision of creating a “connected corridor” from Detroit to Ann Arbor.

THE NEWS: City Winery appears to have found its southwest Detroit lo cation. An entity tied to the national music, food and wine venue pur chased a large chunk of property south of Michigan Central Station in the Central Southwest neighborhood at its border with Corktown for an es timated $2.343 million in late June, according to property records led in Wayne County.

THE NEWS: e future of Cedar Point — at least as far as 2023 goes — is in a feature that celebrates the past. e Sandusky amusement park, owned by Cedar Fair L.P. (NYSE: FUN) un veiled the new features that guests can look forward to next year. e centerpiece: e Boardwalk, which is on the Lake Erie shoreline and is de scribed as “a modern interpretation of the Cedar Point of yesteryear.” ere’s also a new ride on the way, and a two-level Grand Pavilion set for the former Lakeside Midway.

2 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | AUG UST 15, 2022

WHY IT MATTERS: Cedar Fair said capi tal investments for 2023 across all its parks “will be the largest ever, at ap proximately $200 million.”

WHY IT MATTERS: e store, called Lions Supply, is the centerpiece of a new multiyear extension of a deal with Fa natics, which operates the team’s on line sales and will manage the store.

THE WEEK IN REVIEW, WITH AN EYE ON WHAT’S NEXT NEED TO KNOW BUSINESS

Detroit Tigers re GM Avila

The Detroit Tigers parted ways with General Manager Al Avila with a little less than two months left to go in a disastrous 2022 season for the team.

NEW LIONS STORE, SELFSERVE BEER AT FORD FIELD

| FRANK FRANKLIN II/ASSOCIATED PRESS AUG 18 | 1PM TOP 100 MICHIGAN EMPLOYERS RANKED Employees have been surveyed, results tallied and winners determined. Now it’s time to reveal who’s on the list! REGISTER crainsdetroit.com/cool-revealTODAY VIRTUAL EVENT COOL 2022 PLACES TO WORK SPONSORSUPPORTING

CORKTOWN’S MICHIGAN AVENUE TO UNDERGO OVERHAUL

THE NEWS: e two-mile corridor of Michigan Avenue through Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood is slated for a $50 million overhaul that will in clude dedicated lanes for autono mous vehicles, raised bike lanes and the removal and repurposing of its beloved red brick pavers.

CITY WINERY BUYS PROPERTY BY TRAIN STATION

THE NEWS: is season Detroit Lions fans will have more opportunity to buy merchandise and season ticket holders will have a new hangout at Ford Field — with self-serve beer — thanks to a deal with Fanatics Inc. e Jacksonville, Fla.-based sports retailer and the NFL franchise are teaming to open a new 6,000-squarefoot merchandise shop at Ford Field for the upcoming season.

SPORTS

See AUCTIONS on Page 19 See STEARNS on Page 5 See SOUTHWEST on Page 18

REAL ESTATEREAL ESTATE

Counties join others with internet sales

Rachel Mitchell, enamored with ballroom dance, wanted to open a studio. Four years later, she got her wish — plus a historic inn and a pri vate club, to boot. Mitchell and her husband Eric bought the 120-year-old Frederick Stearns house on East Je erson Ave nue for $1.3 million in 2018, and brie y considered living in the 16,000-squarefoot mansion. Very brie y. Instead, they spent four years reno vating the Alpheus W. Chittenden-de signed home, which had been used for o ces before they purchased it, and setting the stage to welcome others to view the house, and their handiwork. “Everything fell into place within the rst half hour” of seeing the house, Mitchell said. She quickly had a vision for the home as “a gathering place for people all over the world.” Mitchell, who was born in China, said she fell in love with Detroit — its historical buildings, its culture, its heri tage. An interior designer — she owns Rachel’s Home and Garden in Troy — she did a lot of the renovation and de sign herself and with her crew. “It’s an investment, but it’s also art; it’s a restoration project,” she said of the home which opened for business on June 11. “It’s very satisfying.” In addition to the 10 ower-themed rooms that rent for between $300 and $600 a night and are furnished with an tiques and other materials that Mitchell sought from around the city, the base ment has been converted into a pub complete with darts, a wine and cigar storage room and a karaoke machine.

As the hulking skeleton of the Michigan Central Depot in Cork town continues to undergo a $740 million rehabilitation by Ford Mo tor Company into an EV campus and “innovation district,” other de velopments along that stretch to the south have followed suit. The influx of development and outside dollars has some long-standing community mem bers and business owners search ing for a place amid the changes. And as new residents flow into the neighborhoods, that’s raised wor ries about whether the culture at the heart of the community may get lost among the bricks and back hoes.Southwest Detroit, the borders of which have long been in debate but generally stretch southwest from the train station and includes the ZIP codes 48216, 48209, 48210 and 48217, is a community rich in Lati no culture, says Charlotte Carrillo, vice president of the Southwest De troit Business Administration. “I think that by inviting these new businesses they start to appre ciate our culture, they start to learn our culture, they start to honor our culture (and) I think that that’s im portant,” Carrillo said. SDBA, a coalition of small busi nesses in southwest Detroit, was established in 1957 and has helped facilitate community engagement in its boundaries ever since. Cur rently the SDBA operates the Mexi can Town Main Street program, West Vernor and Springwells Busi ness Improvement District and the commercial corridors of Michigan Avenue between I-96 and I-75. Ford is on schedule to complete the rehab of Michigan Central Sta tion by mid-2023 and surrounding businesses are growing to match the newSDBAcampus.islaunching its La Joya Gardens project, which will be a majority-affordable housing apart ment complex on W. Vernor High way; 42 of the 53 units will be af fordable, said Carrillo, and the project is expected to break ground this“Itfall.will be a mixed used (building) so a ordable, fair market, and then we’ve got some commercial proper ty going in there as well,” Carrillo said. “So, it’s about two blocks and the rst oor front will be commer cial.”

AUGUST 15, 2022 | CRAIN’ S DE T ROI T B USINESS 3

DEVELOPMENT

AMELIA BENAVIDES-COLÓN

BUSINESS

ARIELLE KASS

‘THE WHOLE HOUSE IS LIKE A MUSEUM’

Frederick Stearns house in Detroit reopens as dance studio, inn ARIELLE KASS

Train station rehab builds opportunities for Southwest Detroit

For the rst time ever, there will no longer be an auctioneer eyeing raised bid cards to determine who will be purchasing the foreclosed properties on o er in Oakland and Macomb counties.Instead, the bidding is going on line.It’s a shift for the two metro Detroit governments, which had held-inperson auctions until the start of the coronavirus pandemic. But Oakland County Treasurer Robert Wittenberg said a con uence of events made the switch make sense: Mortgage lender UWM bought Ultimate Soccer Are nas, where the auction had been held, to expand its campus. e county’s longtime auctioneer was no longer available. And so much has al ready moved online. “ e auctioneer retired and we didn’t know anyone else,” he said. “To me, it made sense.” No one at the Macomb County Trea surer’s o ce responded to a request for an interview about their deci sion-making process, but the depart ment did con rm that Macomb, too, would be going online for the rst time. Oakland’s auction was held Friday; Macomb’s is Aug. 23. ey join the rest of metro Detroit — and most of the state — in moving to an online property sale. e bene ts, others say, are myriad. “It’s easier, much easier,” said Eric Sabree, the Wayne County treasurer whose auction has been online for more than a decade. is year’s rst auction will be held in September. Catherine McClary, the Washten aw County treasurer, said that coun ty’s auction has been online since the turn of the century.

AMELIA

—RachelFrederickpresidentMitchell,andCEO,,Stearnshouse

Je rey Rakowski (left), general manager of the Frederick Stearns inn and dance director for the studio, with President and CEO Rachel Mitchell. | QUINN BANKS/ CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

goauctionsMacombOakland,online

Denise Lopez, left, and Diane Brown, owners of The Michigan Squeeze Station, pose at their storefront location at Michigan Avenue and Martin Street in southwest Detroit. BENAVIDES-COLÓN / CRAIN’S DETROIT “IT’S INVESTMENT,AN BUT IT’S ALSO ART; IT’S A VERYPROJECT...RESTORATIONIT’SSATISFYING.”

4 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | AUGUST 15, 2022 Is the Penobscot Buildingnally, at long last, taking a step in the right direction?Or is its ownership — an outcast among the cadre of downtown ofce landlords who have been steadily renovating and lling up their buildings the last 10-plus years — merely doing what’s required after being forced by the city, and now attempting to elbow its way, little by little, to the grown-ups’ table? e answer to both of those questions, actually, may be “yes.”

LARRY A. PEPLIN/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Is real change nally coming to the Penobscot Building? “WE FELT THE NEED TO REALLY HIGHLIGHT WHAT DETROIT IS NOW TO PEOPLE OUT OF THE CITY, A LOT OF COMPANIES OUT OF THE STATE AND INTERNATIONAL.”EVEN —Matt Schi man, CEO/managing member, P.A. Commercial Kirk PINHO INDUSTRY ACHIEVERS ADVANCING THEIR CAREERS Recognize them in Crain’s For listing opportunities, contact Debora Stein at dstein@crain.com or submit directly to CRAINSDETROIT.COM/PEOPLEMOVES Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender. | All loans subject to credit approval. NMLS# 520256 TREASURY MANAGEMENT REDEFINING RELATIONSHIP BANKING Today’s business moves fast. You need a bank who will help keep you ahead of the curve. With products like Same Day ACH Origination, Remote Deposit Capture and world-class fraud prevention tools, the experienced team at Waterford is available to address your needs quickly and efficiently. Troy – 5600 New King Dr. Suite 150 Troy, MI 48098 248-886-0086 Toll-free: 866-707-2871 www.waterfordbankna.com

To start, the Toronto family that owns the Penobscot has hired — for the rst time in several years — a company to market it for lease to tenants. at’s important because, according to data from CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service, it’s just 35 percentPerhapsoccupied.thatmetric is just one sign that handling that key task in-house, like it had been with few results since 2018, just wasn’t cutting it. But obviously, there is more to that gure than just that. In addition, perusing through the 56-page marketing brochure produced by its new South eld-based brokerage rm P.A. Commercial, there’s something I’ve not seen in such a packet before: Two pages speci cally devoted to highlighting metro Detroit’s racial and ethnic diversity, as well as some pockets of the region’s friendliness to the LGBTQ+ community.at’sgenuinely encouraging to see, and I hope more brokerage rms and landlords see those for what they are: Not only key issues to many employers perhaps considering locating here, but of course also their employees and the region as a whole. “Sensitivity to what potential tenants are looking for may be advantageous to both sides,” said Terence Edmondson, a longtime Detroit ofce broker and senior partner for Exclusive Realty TrumpetingLLC.those two things is an intentional play, said Matt Schiman, the new CEO/managing member of P.A. Commercial, who has the listing along with a colleague, Mike Gunn.Schi man noted that the property’s owner, the Apostolopoulos family’s Triple Properties, signed o on the materials and was in favor of including pages bringing those issues to the Tripleforefront.Properties did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Asign of forward thinking, perhaps, from a company that has kept the Penobscot trapped in the dark ages for years. “We felt the need to really highlight what Detroit is now to people out of the city, a lot of companies out of the state and even international,” Schiman said. “We thought highlighting the region’s diversity was important. Everyone has an image of Detroit locally but we thought it was important to highlight that.” Which brings us to the bitter pill. Detroit’s image outside of the region is one thing, but it’s hard to imagine a more di cult o ce space climate, a more di cult downtown Detroit property with a more troubled recent past. You can’t really gloss over the 10plus years of mismanagement at the iconic complex, which consists of the original 13-story building, a 22-story annex and the 47-story skyscraper, the eye-catcher that for a half-century was that tallest building in the city before its crown was taken by the 727-foot Marriott hotel at the RenaissanceWe’reCenter.talking a series of upkeep failures ranging from nonworking toilets accumulating human excrement to people trapped in elevators hundreds of feet above the ground; from other debris and waste piling up and people shivering in the cold during a recent winter without workingButheat.Schi man says steps have been taken to bring the property into the 21st Century. He said the ownership has spent $5.5 million to $6 million on improvements in the last two years.Nine of the property’s 26 elevators have been “modernized,” Schi man said, with new safety controls and new cabling and other infrastructure. Sump pumps have been upgraded to prevent ooding, as was a problem in the past. New systems are in place to deal with toilet issues. Heat and air conditioning, Schi man says, are improved with things like upgrades to steam systems, new valves and pressure controls.ecitysays Triple Properties has paid $48,515 in blight ticket fees to date with an outstanding balance of $4,475, and that Triple has “complied with” addressing the issues. A certicate of compliance can be issued once the outstanding balance is paid. Regardless, it’ll take serious e ort on the part of Triple Properties and P.A. Commercial to overcome the years of mismanagement and horror stories from o ce tenants. And while Triple may have hired a professional brokerage team to lure new users to the building, it has not hired an outside management rm to run it. at’s not lost on some brokers I spoke with. Or, apparently, on the building’s website, which seems to indicate Triple Properties knows there is much work to be done. On the right-hand side of every page, there’s the same message: “We are constantly working to raise the bar on services.”

our

REAL ESTATE INSIDER The

Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB Penobscot Building downtown has a new brokerage rm marketing it for lease.

e owner of the Southland Center mall in Taylor has defaulted on its commercial mortgage-backed secu rities loan, putting the future of the property’s ownership up in the air. Fitch Ratings Inc., based in New York City, said Brook eld Properties defaulted on its July maturity pay ment on a 10-year loan and was add ed to an index of CMBS loans that are delinquent.eToronto-based Brook eld, whose website says has more than 200 retail properties around the world totaling more than 155 million square feet, has a $78.75 million Bar clay’s loan from 2012, according to CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service.Itowes nearly $65.1 million on it, according to CoStar data. Southland, which opened in 1970, becomes the latest regional shopping center to face nancial duress in the years leading up to and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, net operating income last year grew to $8.97 million, up from $5.42 million in 2020 and $7.95 million in 2019, largely as a result of slashing operating expenses from $11 million in 2020 to $7.04 million last year, CoStar data says. Southland Center is 905,000 square feet and its largest tenant is JCPenney, which represents about 35 percent of the net rentable area, according to Co Star. Other anchors include Best Buy, Cinemark and Macy’s. Brook eld acquired Southland in 2016 when it purchased New York City-based Rouse Properties Inc., the mall’s previous owner, in an all-cash deal reportedly valued at $2.8 billion. Messages were left with Brook eld as well as Southland General Manag er Amy Jurecki last week. Southland is one of four regional malls built by the J.L. Hudson’s de partment store company. Two of those malls are now in a state of rede velopment into new uses: Northland Center in South eld, primarily as mixed-use residential, and Eastland Center in Harper Woods, as industri al/warehouse space. Northland, Southland, Eastland and Westland centers were designed by Victor Gruen. Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB ESTATE

KIRK PINHO Brook eld Properties misses July payment on commercial mortgage-backed security loan

Mitchell is charging $100 a month for club membership, with discounts for those in the neighborhood and a yearlong commitment, which gets members access to the bar space, as well as to the bed and breakfast’s pri vate chef. Je rey Rakowski, the gener al manager of the inn and dance di rector for the studio, said there are plans for regular live music, as well. He hopes it will be a draw for artists. “We want it to be that social club, gathering spot,” he said. “We want to bring the community together.” On a tour of the inn last month, the pair recounted Stearns’ history as a president of the Detroit National Baseball Club, founder of the city’s art museum, pharmaceutical executive and avid musician, who was a mem ber of the Detroit Philharmonic Soci ety and donated his vast collection of instruments to the University of Mich igan.What is now the Frederick Stearns’ Dance Studio was a music room, and like elsewhere in the house, Mitchell worked to make it an inviting space. A glass block window was bricked up and a panel window that had been bricked over was restored. Trim was added to windows separating the room from a sun porch that’s now be ing treated as a reception area. And throughout the house, Mitchell re stored plaster, stripped away layers of carpet, paint and stain and added de tails to the already-elaborate decor. She created a crest to complement the one that Stearns had on some win dows, and covered a basement re place with Pewabic tile that echoed a tile-covered hearth oven in the dining area that predates that company. “What Detroit has is world-class stu that no one can copy, no one can replicate,” she said. “ e whole house is like a Barbaramuseum.”Winder, a partner in e Collective — another business in an old home, at 8325 E. Je erson St. just down the street from the inn at 8109 — has spent a lot of time in the Fred erick Stearns space. She ran a janitori al company that had its o ce in the home’s ballroom and says converting the house into a bed and breakfast is an “excellent idea.” “ e craftsmanship is too perfect, the ambiance is too valuable,” Winder said. “It was gorgeous. ... I can’t wait to see it.” e Collective’s space, which Winder has occupied since 2008, was previously a lawyer’s o ce and a boarding school for boys before she took it over, and was a boarding house for nearly 40 years, she said. Now, it’s a retail establishment where a mas seuse, a barber and various designers rent out the 10 suites. A mansion is ideal for such a group, Winder said. “When a tenant moves out, all you have to do is clean up and close the door,” she said. Winder said she is proud of the concentration of Black businesses e Collective hosts, and noted a number of Indian Village homes now have commercial uses. But that’s not the case elsewhere in the city, she said — perhaps because highly residential areas would be re sistant to the necessary zoning changes that would lead to the con version of homes. at doesn’t mean it never hap pens. e Inn on Ferry Street is a col lection of old homes that have similar ly been repurposed for visitors. Trinity Austin, the house manager there, said the space is “well-suited for a hotel” and she values seeing guests appreci ate the historic houses. “It’s great because everyone should have the opportunity to be part of something so grand,” she said. “It’s better than closing it down or keeping it private property.” Rakowski called the Stearns house “a gem,” and said he’s been amazed by the experience since coming on board in April. “Once you step inside, time stops,” he said. “It’s nice to be part of the revi talization. It has a nice spark inside.” Mitchell wouldn’t estimate how much money she’s put into the home, but said additions like an ele vator and an outdoor lift to make the historic home compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act were unexpected expenses. It took twice as long as she planned but said she’s glad to be able to nally begin to share the space, which she called a diamond in the rough she wants to show o to others. “It was a challenging but fun proj ect,” she said of the restoration. “If I have been gone for a week and come back, I think, Wow, this is beautiful.”

Contact: arielle.kass@crain.com; (313) 446-6774; @ArielleKassCDB Page 3

STEARNS From

Master servicers are generally tasked with collecting monthly pay ments, while special servicers are generally brought in upon default. e special servicer can determine whether to foreclose on a loan or ar range a workout agreement or loan modiCoStarcation.says that Southland reve nue has fallen from $18.53 million in 2019 to $16.5 million in 2020; it dipped again last year to $16 million.

The Frederick Stearns House and Historic Inn Dance Studio located on East Je erson in Detroit. QUINN BANKS / CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

The library and study of the Frederick Stearns House and Historic Inn Dance Studio located on East Je erson in Detroit.| QUINN BANKS/ CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

The owner of the Southland Center shopping mall in Taylor has default on its CMBS loan upon maturity. COSTAR GROUP INC.

AUGUST 15, 2022 | CRAIN’ S DE T ROI T B USINESS 5

Most recently, Fairlane Town Cen ter in Dearborn came under new ownership following a loan default; e Mall at Partridge Creek in Clin ton Township has also faced CMBS debt issues and fell into receivership. Loan commentary on CoStar from June says Brook eld “has indicated to MS (master servicer) that they may be unable to payo prior to maturity (on July 6),” and that the master ser vicer “is discussing with Rialto as SS (special servicer).”

REAL

Southland Center at risk after owner defaults on $78.75M loan

Cannabis oversupply could lead to weed deserts

he timeline for controlling global warming can be shortened by America supporting a policy of supporting nuclear pow er to complement renew able energy in replacing fossilNuclearfuels. power is a proven and reliable sub stitute in generating elec tricity. Unwisely, plans are being made to phase it out, just as natural di sasters from global warming are increasing in intensity and frequency. After World War II, America pioneered the development of nuclear power as a new form of clean energy to produce electricity. Walker Sisler, chairman of Detroit Edison, was in the forefront of advocating for its development. e rst operational nuclear power plant was in Pennsylvania in 1957. ereafter, in the 1960s the nuclear indus try grew rapidly, before slowing in the 1970s and 1980s over safety, waste disposal and en vironmental issues. Nonetheless, by the early 1990s America had twice as many operating nuclear power plants as any other country, contributing 22 percent of America’s electric ity. It contributes 20 percent today. However, as America moves to electrifying all sectors of its economy (industrial, com mercial, residential and transportation) use of electricity now approximating 30 percent of total energy will increase exponentially. e sole clean energy alternative promoted to replace fossil fuels is renewable energy in its many forms (wind, hydroelectric, solar collectors, photovoltaic cells, geothermal, etc.). It also provides approximately 20 per cent of America’s electricity today; however. hydroelectricity, with little opportunity to ex pand, contributes nearly one-third. Phasing out nuclear power means that renewable en ergy is left to tackle global warming on its own, lengthening the time for natural disas ters to occur. In 1979, a partial meltdown occurred at the ree Mile Island Nuclear Plant in Penn sylvania. e result was the release of small amounts of radioactive gasses and radioac tive iodine into the environment. Research was inconclusive with respect to whether the release had any signi cant impact on public health.Butopponents became galvanized to pre vent future nuclear power development and scientists became focused on identifying the causes and e ects of the accident and estab lishing stricter safety standards. After the ac cident, no new nuclear plants were autho rized until 2012, and 51 of those already permitted were canceled. en, global warming was not the critical issue. e concerns were that the world would run out of fossil fuels to support in creased productivity and living standards for an expanding global population and utilizing coal, in particular, presented risks to human health and the environment. In the past four decades, major advances have been made in nuclear reactor design, operations and safety. No signi cant acci dents a ecting human health, safety and the environment have occurred in the U.S. How ever, a major obstacle remains upon which no progress has been made — nuclear waste disposal. e reason is that the federal gov ernment has failed to act. e nation has 85,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel from power plants that is the re sponsibility of the U.S. Department of Ener gy. e DOE and Congress have been at an impasse on how to ful ll this responsibility. Meanwhile, spent nuclear fuel continues to be temporarily stored at commercial utili ty sites around the country, itself a potential danger, and increases at 2,000 metric tons annually.esolution is for Congress to authorize a process for siting a permanent repository, breaking the impasse and returning nuclear power to a robust path of development. A majority of members have not been con vinced that backing nuclear power would be in their best interest. It is time that they are. e risk of global warming to America’s fu ture is great and nuclear power never better positioned to help control it.

BUSINESSDETROITANTAYA/CRAIN’SNIC

See WALSH on Page 7

6 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | AU G UST 15, 2022

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The leaves of an overwatered plant yel low and curl. e too-wet soil restricts the oxygen from reaching its roots and stunts its growth. Counterintuitively, the leaves burn and become dry as if under drought conditions. A ood of product is leading to a drought of opportunity here in Michigan, where the state’s once- ourishing marijuana operations are now under stress. Prices have collapsed nearly 75 percent since January 2020 to $121.58 per ounce of recre ational marijuana ower in July, according to data from the Michigan Cannabis Regula tory Agency.eresult is withered margins. ere’s simply too much product being grown and processed and not enough places to sell it. “During the outdoor grow harvest in late summer and early fall last year, some grow ers weren’t able to sell any product at any price,” said Lance Boldrey, partner at De troit-based law rm Dykema Gossett PLLC and part of the legal team that designed the legalization framework. Some would call this rabid dog-eat-dog scenario free-market capitalism in the per fect American sense. But to investors in the industry, billions of dollars are at stake and there is nowhere to retreat from this dollarMarijuanadrought.remains a Schedule 1 narcotic under the federal Controlled Substanc es Act, leaving mari juana businesses without the bene t of protection under U.S. bankruptcy code. ose that can’t ex their muscle in a verti cally-integrated manner like large marijuana growers, who also sell direct to their own re tail establishments, are faced with returning to their investors for a handout to continue operations or liquidate a product that may have cost more to grow than can be achieved in the market. e result is major losses. “Nobody is making a lot of money and many are losing money,” Boldrey said. “We are seeing a ton of consolidation out of ne cessity. We expected that as the industry ma tured, but now that it’s been here a while it’s just tough. We’re starting to see outright business failures. Cannabis ( rms) cannot avail themselves in bankruptcy, so we’re go ing to end up with some of these failing busi nesses selling for pennies on the dollar if they can be sold at all.” It’s hard to sell a business in an oversup plied market if your books demonstrate no proKevints. Keuthe, chief cultivation o cer for the state’s largest marijuana company Lume Cannabis Co., told me in the spring he was receiving calls from small growers hoping to be bought out. “What am I going to do with 10,000-squarefeet?,” Keuthe quipped from Lume’s 250,000-square-foot grow operation in Evart. Lume already announced a 150,000-square-foot expansion of its Evart facilities. Acquiring a patchwork of unpro t able smaller operations they’d have to invest in to improve margins isn’t of interest. Complicating factors further for small op erators is the fact that their operations are also barred from business deductions by the Inter nal Revenue Service — again, weed is federal ly illegal. E ective tax rates can reach as high as 70 percent for some operators, a tough pill to swallow when product isn’t moving and margins have all but died on the vine.

Dustin WALSH Falling cannabis prices are making scale more critical for the industry to protect pro t margins.

SOME WOULD CALL THIS AMERICANTHECAPITALISMMARKETSCENARIODOG-EAT-DOGRABIDFREE-INPERFECTSENSE.

COMMENTARY

John Mogk is School.UniversityatservicedistinguishedaprofessorWayneStateLaw

Nuclear energy can help control global warming

DTE Energy Co. operates the Fermi 2 nuclear plant in Monroe County on the shores of Lake Erie.

COMMENTARY

BY JOHN MOGK

CO.ENERGYDTE

WALSH From Page 6

Motown Museum celebrates reopening and $5M Gilbert donation STAFF AND WIRE SERVICES Luminaries mark Hitsville Next, a creative hub and educational space, and Rocket Plaza

AUGUST 15, 2022 | CRAIN’ S DE T ROI T B USINESS 7

Contact: swelch@crain.com; (313) 446-1694; @SherriWelch

Lighthouse moving food distribution to Pontiac

NONPROFITSSHERRIWELCH

STATE ORGANIZEDREGULATORSAROUND THE IDEA THAT CAPITALISM IS KING AND THAT THERE WOULD BE NO LIMITS ON THE NUMBERS OF LICENSES IT WOULD GRANT FOR GROWERS OR SELLERS. Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan is making its Pontiac warehouse available to Light house, its largest food distribution partner in Oakland County . e Detroit-based food bank, which consolidated much of its food distribu tion operations to a new Taylor com plex it acquired last year, had been us ing the warehouse for storage, cross-docking, volunteer work and as a base for food pantries to pick up food.“Partnerships are incredibly im portant to Gleaners. When Lighthouse expressed the need for a more stable, a ordable facility to centralize their operations, we agreed Gleaners’ Ponti ac facility presents a positive arrange ment for both of our organizations to have greater community impact and expanded reach,” Gleaners President and CEO Gerry Brisson said in a re lease.Lighthouse will assume operating costs and maintenance and have the option to purchase the 22,000-squarefoot building at 120 E. Columbia Ave. It plans to move its Waterford Town ship-based emergency food program to the new site. Last year, the program distributed 2 million pounds of food. e Pontiac site will also continue to house Gleaners’ agency partner pick ups, the Kroger Reclamation Center, and food storage space for Oakland Livingston Human Service Agency.

NONPROFITS

Hitsville Next, which will be home to camps, workshops, master classes and community events. It represents the rst phase of the museum’s ex pansion.Phase two is Rocket Plaza, an im mersive outdoor plaza that will serve as a community gathering place and a welcome destination for museum visitors.“is plaza is the new front porch to Motown,” said Robin Terry, Motown Museum chairwoman and CEO. e museum announced the proj ect in 2016 and began the rst phase in Matt2019. Rizik, chief tax o cer at Gil bert holding company Rock Ventures LLC, joined Monday’s celebration. “Rocket Companies and the Gilbert Family Foundation are dedicated to making philanthropic investments that build a strong social and eco nomic foundation for all Detroiters,” Rizik said in a news release. “ e his tory of Motown is inextricably linked with the history and legacy of Detroit, and we are proud to support the ex pansion of the Motown Museum. is expansion will both celebrate our his tory and will be a strong foundation for the next generation of musicians, entrepreneurs and proud Detroiters.” Hitsville Next and the Rocket Plaza were designed by Detroit-based ar chitectural rm Hamilton Anderson & Associates. e expansion design is led by the North Carolina practice of global architecture and design rm Perkins & Will. Gordy launched Motown in 1959. His late sister, Esther Gordy Edwards, founded the museum in the former Hitsville headquarters in 1985. In ad dition to Robinson and e Tempta tions, Stevie Wonder, e Supremes, Marvin Gaye and many others record ed hits there before Motown moved to California in 1972. With the rst two phases of the project completed, the museum is de veloping plans for the next phase con struction of a new building behind Hitsville U.S.A. It will include interac tive exhibits, a performance theater, expanded retail and meeting spaces. e museum has not yet released a timeline for the third phase. e North Carolina practice of glob al architecture and design rm Per kins&Will is lead designer on the ex pansion project. Hitsville Next and the Motown Museum plaza were designed by Detroit-based architectural rm Hamilton Anderson & Associates. Motown Museum is still consider ing how a nearly 36,000-square-foot o ce building it acquired early this year will t into the project. e prop erty, less than a mile away on West Grand Boulevard, was not part of the original expansion plan. “ e museum is anticipating the needs for our expanded operations parking and programmatic space, (and) the board is evaluating the best uses for the building,” Chairman and CEO Robin Terry said in a statement emailed to Crain’s. — e Associated Press and Crain’s Detroit Business senior reporter Sherri Welch contributed to this report.

e historic section of Detroit where Motown Records founder Ber ry Gordy Jr. built his music empire six decades ago is looking better than ever — thanks in part to a new $5 mil lion donation from Dan Gilbert. Motown legend — and Gordy’s best friend — Smokey Robinson was among those who visited the newly improved Motown Museum site Monday night for an event celebrating the completion of the rst two phases of the museum’s expansion. Robinson was joined by Otis Wil liams, Martha Reeves and other Mo town luminaries in celebrating the grand opening of Hitsville Next, an educational programming and cre ative hub, and the newly established Rocket Plaza, made possible by a $5 million contribution from Rocket Companies Inc. and the Gilbert Fami ly Foundation that was announced Monday.Motown Museum has now raised $43 million of a $55 million capital campaign to fund the project. “Kids who aren’t even born yet will be aware of Motown,” Robinson told e Associated Press during an inter view ahead of the event held near the entrance to the museum. “Some of their parents weren’t even born when we started this. But it’s a wonderful thing.”e festivities included comments from Robinson and Williams, an orig inal founding member of e Tempta tions who gifted microphones to the museum from his personal collection. ey concluded with a perfor mance of the Temptations classic “My Girl,” performed by the cast of the mu sical “Ain’t Too Proud,” and intro duced by Marcus Paul James, who portrays Williams in the show. “I am very happy to be part of something — this here, Motown — (that will) outlast us all,” Williams said. e museum will continue to be housed in the famed Hitsville U.S.A building at 2648 W. Grand Blvd. But three nearby Motown-era buildings have been transformed into

Motown Museum Chairwoman and CEO Robin Terry on Monday thanked the “many generous and committed supporters” for helping make the vision for the project rst announced in 2016 a reality. MOTOWN MUSEUM Along with the bright indoor atrium, the rst phase of the Motown Museum expansion project — Hitsville Next — features professional recording pods and a community activation space. | MOTOWN MUSEUM is leads to the largest hurdle the state’s regulatory body, the Cannabis Regulatory Agency, has faced.When voters established the le galization of recreational marijua na in 2018, state regulators orga nized around the idea that capitalism is king and that there would be no limits on the numbers of licenses it would grant for grow ers or sellers. But local municipali ties must approve those business to locate in their community even af ter a state license is achieved. In turn, communities have been more apt to accept the unmarked, dis crete grow ops instead of the signed storefronts of retail operations. e result is many, many grow operations with not enough retail establishments to support the product, hence the decline in pric es.Andrew Brisbo, executive direc tor of the CRA, is leaving the post in September, and industry advocates are all but begging for a cap on grower licenses to arti cially choke supply and raise prices. “I think that’s what everyone is looking at (capping licenses),” said Shelly Edgerton, former director of LARA and board chair for the Mich igan Cannabis Manufacturers Asso ciation. “We’ve had those discus sions with the CRA and legislators. Michigan is an unlimited license state and we don’t want to become an Oregon or Colorado during their early days. We have to gure out how this industry continues to ben e t everyone in the future.” e MCMA would prefer Brisbo be replaced with an ex-legislator or someone with legislative experi ence because it’s going to be the heaviest lift the industry has en dured to cap licenses. e move would require a two-thirds vote of Michigan legislators to amend the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act. But it’s unlikely to see a new gov ernor-appointed regulatory head any time soon. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is up for reelection in No vember, so a permanent replace ment won’t likely want to step into the role with the appointment at risk under a potential new gover nor.So while the industry continues to ood the market, operators un able to withstand severe price pres sures will watch businesses fade. Prices will rise, but consumers may see weed availability dry up in their own community. Contact: dwalsh@crain.com; (313) 446-6042; @dustinpwalsh

—Rita Fields, CEO, 313 Industries Jay DAVIS

OTHERSFORACREATINGLANE

As the co-owner of manufacturing company 313 Industries, Rita Fields is trying to change the game. e Warren-based company, which makes parts and kits for defense, mass transit and commercial vehicles, is a certi ed woman-owned business, woman-owned small business federal contractor and minority-owned business. at’s rare in the eld of manufacturing. Among manufacturing jobs in the U.S., 72 percent are lled by men. Meanwhile, 66 percent of manufacturers are white and less than 11 percent are Black, according to a Zippia analysis of Census data. “We know what this industry has been. We know what it can be,” Fields said. “We started this business with that in mind. We want to create a lane in this eld for people who may not know how good it is.”

Every business wants to be pro table and make a name for itself. With 313 Industries, it’s about more than that. e Black woman-owned and operated parts manufacturer is working not for a seat at a table traditionally reserved for white males, but to build a new table with seats for anyone who wants to put in the work. e company also places major emphasis on giving back to the less fortunate. “As a business owner, I think you should want to do more than turn a pro t,” Fields said. “If that’s all you’re doing, then you’re not really doing anything.”

SPOTLIGHTBUSINESSSMALL READ ALL OF CRAIN’S SBS PROFILES AT CRAINSDETROIT.COM/SMALLBUSINESSSPOTLIGHT

Mary Taul, 44, a quality specialist inspects materials before moving on to the next phase of production.

SOURCE: 313 INDUSTRIES Mounting hardware used for the U.S Army’s Stryker vehicle. | CYDNI ELLEDGE/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS Podcast: For the owners of 313 Industries, success goes beyond pro ts. Listen at crainsdetroit.comSee 313 INDUSTRIES on Page

Scaling up Fields and her husband Dan Kendall established 313 Industries in 2016, working out of their Southeld basement. Kendall has decades of experience in engineering, while Fields’ career has been in human resource management and executive leadership. Kendall had designs on starting a manufacturing company, and having a spouse familiar with the HR side of things made the process that much easier. 313 Industries moved to its current 3,500-square-foot location at 32518 Dequindre Road in Warren in 2018. It has another 3,500-square-foot shop in Warren at 30150 Ryan Road that opened in May. In the Dequindre Road space, employees work on parts for U.S. Department of Defense vehicles, including tactical military kits for installation in military vehicles. e company has manufactured prototype, service and production metal parts for various systems of armored ground vehicles. 313 Industries has also produced components for Howitzers — long-range weapons used in military combat — as well as parts for mass transit and commercial vehicles.

8 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | AUGUST 15, 2022

CYDNI ELLEDGE/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE“AS A BUSINESS OWNER, I THINK YOU SHOULD WANT TO DO MORE THAN TURN A PROFIT.”

Part of 313 Industries’ mission is to give back to the community. Here’s a look at how it does that: Helping the less fortunate 10 percent of the company’s gross revenue goes to those in need to: Feed the hungry, cloth the needy, counsel the lost, comfort the hurt, show up in a crisis and share the good news Supporting nonpro ts The manufacturer annually gives 5 percent of its net pro ts to CoalitionHumbleincluding:MichiganSoutheastnonprots,Lighthouse,Design,TheonTemporary Shelter (COTS, Detroit Downtown Boxing Gym and New Life Rescue Mission Fostering opportunity 313 Industries’ apprenticeship program with Macomb Community College o ers students 100 percent-paid: ` Apprenticeship class tuition ` Books and supplies ` Wages while in class as employees of 313 Industries ` Tuition reimbursement for post programapprenticeshipbachelor’sdegree

313 Industries makes parts — and a di erence in people’s lives

AUGUST 15, 2022 | CRAIN’ S DE T ROI T B USINESS 9 GUIDING THE NorthstarAtHome.comWAY Fees vary. Available to qualifying customers. Loans are subject to credit approval. Equal Housing Lender. Member FDIC BUSINESS BANKING CUSTOMIZED SOLUTIONS | LOCAL DECISIONS Call 866.269.8077 to speak with an Ag or Commercial Lender. Our bankers work with you to develop a relationship and deliver products and services that best fit the needs of your business. • Lines of Credit • Term Loans • Commercial Mortgages • Cash Management* We offer a full range of banking solutions. FOCUS | SMALL BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT

That reputation has earned 313 Industries a five-year contract with Warren-based Detroit Arsenal. The deal is for $19 million, but can bal loon to $100 million in the event of a major military conflict. So far, 313 Industries and three competitors have been awarded about $3.2 mil lion for their work, with $2.8 mil lion going to 313 Industries. “We look at this contract as we’re working to protect those service people and their families,” Kendall said. “We work hard on those parts and kits because we know what can happen if something goes wrong, and we don’t want that.” The manufacturer is working on parts and kits for current and up coming military armored ground vehicles, along with projects for Sterling Heights-based companies General Dynamic Land Systems and American Rheinmetall Vehi cles.Apersonal, low six-figure invest ment has turned into quite the en terprise for the 313 Industries own ers, who employ seven people. In 2019, revenue increased 200 per cent over the previous year. In 2020, revenue jumped 300 percent over 2019. Last year, revenue of more than $2.5 million was up 350 per cent year over year, according to Kendall.Fields and Kendall expect a slight dip in revenue this year, but not be cause of slow business. The compa ny this year has cut back on proj ects to focus on operations. The goal is to move into a 10,000- to 15,000-square-foot space, with all operations under one roof, within the next three years. The social work Profits are important for the growth of any business, but all of that comes secondary to 313 Indus tries’ real mission. “We’re a business, sure. We want to be profitable,” Kendall said. “But (Fields) has made it so we’re more of a social enterprise.” That social work includes donat ing 10 percent of gross revenue to the needy — about $400,000 since 2016. The company also contrib utes 5 percent of net profits to met ro Detroit nonprofits. The largest donation so far — $10,000 — has gone to Lighthouse, an Oakland County-based organization that works to aid those experiencing poverty. The 2021 gift, according to Lighthouse President and CEO Ryan Hertz, helped support costs for converting one of the nonprof it’s transitional housing properties into an emergency shelter for fami lies facing homelessness during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. “This gift meant much more than $10,000 to me,” Hertz said. “I was honored and moved by the opportunity to play a part in (Fields) making such a meaning ful nizationgiftphilanthropictotheorgathatas

313 INDUSTRIES From Page 8

sisted her in her own time of need, specifically for the purpose of pro viding emergency shelter to home lessFields’mothers.”relationship with Light house is a strong one. As a teen, she sought help from South Oakland Shelter, which merged with Light house of Oakland County in 2019. She had dropped out of school and left an abusive home while pregnant. For a stretch, she lived behind a gro cery store in Royal Oak. Following a stint at SOS, Fields returned to High land Park High School to earn her di ploma, then went on to college and a variety of careers in secondary edu cation, human resources and con sulting.Fields worked her way back to the nonpro t when 29 years later she was named chief talent and strategy o cer in August 2020 — a position she stillFieldsholds.and Kendall, himself a for mer drug addict and alcoholic who is now a minister, are deliberate with their philanthropy. e aim is to al ways help those who may be forgot ten“Iotherwise.neededthat help. We all need help at points in our lives,” said Fields, who previously served on the Lighthouse board of directors. “What we want to do is make sure everyone we can help gets that help, because people’s lives can see major turn arounds if they just have some sup port and someone to believe in them.”“is part is big for us. We’re here not only to run a successful compa ny, but to provide a beacon of hope for as many people, organizations as we can,” Kendall said. Building talent, diversity Cierra Hicks is a prime example of how 313 Industries is working to change the demographics of the manufacturing industry. Hicks, a Macomb Community Col lege freshman, is the rst student in the company’s fully funded machinist apprenticeship program. rough the federally registered program, a part nership with MCC, tuition, books and supplies are paid for by 313 Indus tries. Students who work at 313 Indus tries are paid a salary — even while in class. ose who complete the pro gram receive 100 percent tuition re imbursement if they seek a post-ap prenticeship bachelor’s degree. e apprenticeship program is a welcome opportunity for Hicks, who planned to pursue a career as a nurse. Kendall made Hicks aware of the program during her senior year at Warren Cousino High School. Hicks admits she initially didn’t think much of the program. “But when (Kendall) explained it to me I thought, ‘why not try it,’” Hicks said. “Honestly, I look at this as a blessing. College is a big thing. You’re thinking about tuition, books, and then someone comes along and gives you a great opportunity. ere are a lot of roads you can take in this eld. I’ll be able to do anything once I’m done with the program.” e hope is that Hicks stays with 313 Industries after completing school and the apprenticeship pro gram. Fields said the goal is to enroll more students into the apprentice ship program, which would provide them with a path into the manufac turing eld. “ is industry is run by mid dle-aged white men. ey’ve been picking from the same pool of candi dates for decades,” Fields said. “We’re going to continue to grow as a com pany, and we’re going to continue to grow the pool of candidates seeking jobs in this eld.”

Contact: jason.davis@crain.com (313) 446-1612; @JayDavis_1981 Rita Fields, CEO, and Dan Kendall, executive vice president, of 313 Industries.| CYDNI ELLEDGE/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS Hertz

The bulk of its business, though, comes from the U.S. government. “It took us some time to gather contracts because we’ve been in spaces where people would assume we’d do less-than-quality work be cause we’re a woman- and Blackowned business,” said Fields, who has a bachelor’s degree in English and psychology, a master’s in hu man resource management and a doctorate in executive leadership. “We know this is a space tradition ally not occupied by women or peo ple of color, so we’ve worked hard to build our reputation.”

10 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | AUG UST 15, 2022

UPANDUPTHEON

T he mortgage business hit a dizzying peak in 2021. And Crain’s Fast 50 list of fastest-growing businesses re ectsOne-twothat. on the list are met ro Detroit’s mortgage giants, Rocket Companies and UWM Holdings. Some other nan cial-services companies on the list, including Flagstar Ban corp, also specialize in mort gages.But that’s not the only busi ness that’s boomed. Perhaps most striking is the number of construction com panies on this year’s list — seven of the 50. ey’ve been helped by commercial invest ment, not least when it comes to the automotive industry’s massive investment in plants to produce electric vehicles. A word on how we calculate this list, which in some ways di ers from similar lists that look purely at a percentage rev enueOurincrease:listtakes that into ac count, but we also rank the companies for which we have data by the dollar amount of their revenue increase. is is because in our estimation, scale matters, and driving big sales increases at a large, estab lished company is no easy feat. So we rank each of the com panies for which we have data from 2017 to 2020 on their per centage revenue increase, as well as ranking them on the dollar increase. We add up those rankings to produce the nal list. Companies that do well on both scales do best. Pro tability matters, too. We ask each company to attest that it has been pro table, because driving up revenue is easy if you’re selling at a loss. Mortgage companies lead list of 50 fastestgrowing businesses IMAGESGETTY

UWM

FinTechDetroit platform company consisting of personal nance and consumer technology brands Financial services 2021 revenue: $12.91 billion 2018 revenue: $4.21 billion Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 207 percent Revenue growth 2021-2018: $8.7 billion Top executives: Jay Farner, vice chairman and CEO; Dan Gilbert, chairman and RocketfounderCompanies has seen strong demand for its real estate, mortgage and nancial services. Rocket Mortgage, Dan Gilbert’s mortgage company formerly known as Quicken Loans, had its best year ever last year in overall origination, with $351 billion in originations. Rocket Companies went public in 2020, netting $1.8 billion in an IPO.

2. UWM HOLDINGS CORP. (UNITED WHOLESALE MORTGAGE)

` 5. (TIE) AUTOMOTIVELAFONTAINEGROUP Highland 2021AutomobileTownshipdealershipsrevenue: $2 billion 2018 revenue: $1.02 billion Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 97 percent Revenue growth 2021-2018: $982.1 million Top executives: Michael LaFontaine, chairman and owner; Ryan LaFontaine, RyanCEO LaFontaine, CEO, said LaFontaine acquired ve dealerships last year and sold a record number of vehicles, which contributed to growth.

` 4. GOLLING AUTOMOTIVE GROUP Bloom eld AutomobileHillsdealership group 2021 revenue: $533 million 2018 revenue: $115.6 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 362 percent Revenue growth 2021-2018: $417.5 million Top executive: Bill Golling, president Michael Golling, vice president of Golling Automotive Group, said the company’s revenue increase is attributed to dealership expansions.

1. ROCKET COMPANIES INC.

One of Barton Malow’s company’s, LiftBuild LLC, is using new technology to build the Exchange building in Greektown from the top down. LIFTBUILD LLC Companies Inc. is ranked Number 1 on Crain’s Fast 50. | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS Holdings Corp. is second on Crain’s Fast 50 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS DAMICO AND SONYA D. HILL

MortgagePontiac lender 2021 revenue: $2.97 billion 2018 revenue: $1.34 billion Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 122 percent Revenue growth 2021-2018: $1.63 billion Top executive: Mathew Ishbia, chairman, president and CEO The wholesale mortgage lender achieved originations of $226.5 billion in 2021, a 24 percent increase from $182.5 billion in 2020. UWM became a publicly traded company last year, fueling further growth. SUN COMMUNITIES INC. South eld Real 2021estaterevenue: $2,27 billion 2018 revenue: $1,13 billion Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 102 percent Revenue growth 2021-2018: $1.15 billion Top executive: Gary Shi man, chairman and CEO Robust demand for a ordable homes and RV vacation destinations resulted in organic growth. Sun Communities has continued to expand its portfolio, completing acquisitions across manufactured housing communities, RV resorts and marinas as well as opening new ground-up development properties.

5. (TIE) BARTON MALOW HOLDINGS LLC South Generaleldcontracting, construction 2021managementrevenue: $3.34 billion 2018 revenue: $1.9 billion Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 76 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $1.44 billion Top executive: Ryan Maibach, president and CEO Barton Malow Holdings has acquired a record number of backlog projects and has seen growth from repeat clients. The holding company has also seen growth from its strategic entity expansion in 2020, when Barton Malow restructured from one entity to an entire family of companies. The entities include Barton Malow Co.; its industrial division, Barton Malow Builders; its commercial and institutional division, Barton Malow Holdings, where its core services live; and LiftBuild, its engineer ing technology division. The entity restructuring has allowed the company to grow into di erent market niches.

RACHELLE

Rocket

` 3.

AUGUST 15, 2022 | CRAIN’ S DE T ROI T B USINESS | 11

15. JIM RIEHL’S FRIENDLY AUTOMOTIVE GROUP INC. AutomobileWarren dealership 2021 revenue: $608.8 million 2018 revenue: $359.4 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 70 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $249.4 million Top executive: James Riehl Jr., president and CEO The automotive group has seen growth from its used vehicle sale departments as well as its nance and insurance o ces. It has also experi enced rising vehicle sales.

10. (TIE) THE SHYFT GROUP INC. 2021ManufacturerNovirevenue: $991.8 million 2018 revenue: $570.5 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 74 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $421.3 million

19. BORGWARNER INC. Auburn 2021AutomotiveHillssupplierrevenue: $14.84 billion 2018 revenue: $10.53 billion Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 41 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $4.3 billion Top executive: Frederic Lissalde, president, CEO and director BorgWarner achieved growth organically as well as inorganically through acquisitions. In 2020, BorgWarner purchased General Motors Co. spino Delphi Technologies, a U.K.-based maker of electronics and auto parts. The purchase helped strengthen BorgWarner’s electronics and power electronics products, capabilities and scale.

12. (TIE) ALTIMETRIK CORP. South eld Data and digital engineering services company 2021 revenue: $220.6 million 2018 revenue: $88.7 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 149 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $131.9 million Top executives: Uday Deo, chief transformation o cer, U.S. Central; Raj Vattikuti, executive chairman Altimetrik has expanded globally and seen ongoing demand from its clients as companies of all sizes have continued to scale their digitization e orts. Their clients’ needs for digitalization have increased due to the impact COVID-19 has had on businesses.

Cannatron’s growth over the past three years was organic, fueled by both expanding its distribution network nationwide and entering into distribution agreements with established brands.

10. (TIE) INTERNATIONALORLEANSINC. Farmington Hills Meat importing and trading 2021 revenue: $871 million 2018 revenue: $490 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 78 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $381 million Top executives: Earl Tushman, president and CEO; Larry Tushman, VP, Fromsecretary2018-2021, Orleans International increased volume due to an increased demand for domestic, import and export meats and meat by-products.

` 12. (TIE) GENERAL RV CENTER INC. RecreationalWixom vehicle dealership 2021 revenue: $1.61 billion 2018 revenue: $955.6 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 69 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $653.4 million Top executive: Robert Baidas, CEO; Loren Baidas, president General RV Center has grown from increased market share in its current dealerships. The company has also expanded its footprint with new store openings in Florida and Pennsylvania. The RV industry broadly also experi ence dramatic growth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

14. FLAGSTAR BANCORP INC. FinancialTroy institution 2021 revenue: $1.85 billion 2018 revenue: $1.12 billion Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 66 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $732 million Top executive: Alessandro DiNello, president, CEO and director Flagstar has seen growth from its banking and servicing businesses and has capitalized on a robust mortgage market.

8. FELDMAN AUTOMOTIVE INC. New 2021AutoHudsondealerrevenue: $1.56 billion 2018 revenue: $918 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 71 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $644.9 million

Top executives: Michael Haller, CEO; John Rakolta III. president Walbridge’s continued growth over the past three years was helped by the U.S. demand for computing capacity, vehicle electri cation, product distribution and U.S.-based manufac turing.

Top executive: Daryl Adams, president, CEO and director Organic growth and growth from acquisitions have contributed to The Shyft Group’s revenue growth. In 2020, the Shyft Group shifted its focus from emergency vehicles to walk-in vans and truck bodies used in e-commerce, fueling growth. Shyft has also scored major contracts with large parcel delivery eets. As the COVID-19 pandemic spiked home deliveries, Shyft has seen an increase in customer orders.

16. ATWELL LLC South eld Civil engineering, land surveying, land solutions, land planning, environmental consulting, natural resource management, program management and construction 2021managementrevenue: $250 million 2018 revenue: $127 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 97 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $123 million Top executive: Brian Wenzel, president and CEO Atwell has broadened its services in land solutions, geographic information systems, planning, environmental services and natural resources, engineering, and construction and program management. Atwell has recently expanded its presence in Florida, Texas, Arizona, and Colorado while continuing to invest in Michigan.

18. UNIVERSITY BANCORP INC. Ann FinancialArborservices provider 2021 revenue: $133.2 million 2018 revenue: $53.9 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 147 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $79.3 million Top executive: Stephen Lange Ranzini, president, CEO and director The publicly traded bank holding company cited rising mortgage originations as a contributing factor for growth, which was driven by record-low interest rates during the period.

9. AGREE REALTY CORP. Bloom eld Hills Real estate investment trust 2021 revenue: $339.3 million 2018 revenue: $137.1 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 148 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $202.2 million Top executive: Joel Agree, president, CEO and director The real estate investment trust, which concentrates on leased retail proper ties, has invested approximately $4.7 billion since 2018 with guidance of another $1.5 billion of acquisitions in 2022. Its portfolio spans over 1,500 properties across 47 states. The company is one of the nation’s largest landlords to Walmart Inc., O’Reilly Automotive Inc., AutoZone Inc., Dollar General Corp. and other prominent retailers.

7. WALBRIDGE GeneralDetroit contracting, design-build, construction management 2021 revenue: $2.26 billion 2018 revenue: $1.34 billion Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 69 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $922.3 million

` 17. CANNATRON (FORMERLY OOZE WHOLESALE) Oak CannabisPark manufacturer and 2021distributorrevenue: $100.7 million 2018 revenue: $25.9 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 289 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $74.8 million Top executives: Gjergj Sinishtaj, partner and CEO; Vincent Ayar

Shyft Group’s EV chassis and CEO Daryl Adams. | SHYFT GROUP

12 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | AUG UST 15, 2022

Top executives: Jay Feldman, chairman and CEO; Dave Katarski, COO and executive VP Jay Feldman, chairman and CEO, said revenue growth is attributed to same store sales growth and dealership acquisitions. Among other acquisi tions, Feldman Automotive acquired Jorgensen Ford in Detroit last year.

30. (TIE) EMPIRE REALTY GROUP CommercialDearborn and residential real 2021estaterevenue: $76.5 million 2018 revenue: $33 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 132 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $43.5 million Top executive: Ahmad Fawaz, broker Empire Realty experienced a 20 percent increase in home sales during the time period, with the average home sale price up 30 percent. In addition, the real estate company brought services in-house, including mortgage and title services.

28. THE CHRISTMAN CO. ConstructionDetroit management, general contracting, design/build, facilities planning and analysis, program management, real estate develop ment, self-perform skilled con struction trades 2021 revenue: $454.2 million 2018 revenue: $305.2 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 49 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $149 million Top executives: Joseph Luther, vice president and general manager, Southeast Michigan operations; Mary LeFevre, regional vice president of Business Development Growth is attributed to the company’s growing presence in the K-12 market, including Clawson, Dundee, Redford Township and Detroit schools. The company has also seen growth from securing work with repeat clients, including Detroit-based real estate companies Bedrock LLC and Olympia Development of Michigan, as well as Wayne State University.

FLAGSTAR General RV Center in Wixom. |GENERAL RV

24. ARROW STRATEGIES LLC South eld Talent acquisition rm 2021 revenue: $80.2 million 2018 revenue: $31.3 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 157 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $48.9 million Top executive: Je rey Styers, CEO The sta ng rm credits businesses diversi cation — including in IT, engineering, health care, and professional sta ng — as a contribut ing factor to its revenue growth. Arrow Strategies has also seen growth from processes it has put into place to source talent.

21. CREDIT ACCEPTANCE CORP. South 2021Financialeldinstitutionrevenue: $1.86 billion 2018 revenue: $1.29 billion Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 45 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $570.2 million Top executive: Kenneth Booth, president and CEO The auto lender has continued to experience growth from consumer loan originations. ` 22. (TIE) PLANTE MORAN PLLC South Accountingeld and management consulting rm 2021 revenue: $812.3 million 2018 revenue: $542.6 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 50 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $269.7 million Top executive: James Proppe, managing partner Organically, Plante Moran has seen a signi cant increase in growth as its clients have increasingly relied on its consulting services during the pandemic and beyond. Additionally, the rm has seen an uptick in wealth management services and services provided to private equity clients. Its 2018 acquisition of Denver-based accounting rm EKS&H supported substantial expansion into the Rocky Mountain region.

25. DEVON INDUSTRIAL GROUP ConstructionDetroit management, general contracting, program management 2021 revenue: $202 million 2018 revenue: $121.3 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 67 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $80.7 million Top executives: David Burnley, president and co-CEO; Stephanie Burnley, co-CEO and general manager Devon Industrial Group has expanded into new markets and continues to see growth from current clients, including established higher education and health care clients.

26. (TIE) MASCO CORP. ManufacturesLivonia products for the home improvement and new home construction markets 2021 revenue: $8.38 billion 2018 revenue: $6.65 billion Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 26 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $1.72 billion Top executive: Keith Allman, CEO, president and director Masco says its portfolio of low-ticket repair and remodel products with market-leading brands, as well as product and geographic diversi ca tion, has provided growth and stability through economic cycles.

26. (TIE) NATIONAL FOOD GROUP INC. WholesaleNovi and retail food manufac turing/distribution with the focus on large volume accounts. 2021 revenue: $210 million 2018 revenue: $128.2 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 64 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $81.8 million Top executives: Sean Zecman, president and CEO; Jim Moore, senior vice NationalpresidentFood Group has seen growth from the industries it serves, including schools, correctional facilities, health care, recreation, entertainment food service and more. The company has seen strong demand from its Zee Zees health snack brand — which delivered over 1.5 billion servings across schools and retailers nationwide.

22. (TIE) CARHARTT INC. 2021ApparelDearbornmanufacturerrevenue: $1.35 billion 2018 revenue: $926.5 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 47 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $428.1 million Top executive: Mark Valade, chairman and CEO The workwear brand credits increased brand awareness with consumers as a contributing factor to its revenue growth. Carhartt has also seen growth from strategic diversi cation of its distribution model, which includes wholesale, direct-to-consumer and business-to-business.

29. DOMINO’S PIZZA INC. Ann RestaurantArbor franchisor 2021 revenue: $4.36 billion 2018 revenue: $3.43 billion Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 27 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $924.5 million Top executive: Russell Weiner, COO and president of Domino’s U.S. Domino’s has seen growth from increased same store sales growth as well as opening new stores interna tionally and in the U.S.

` 30. (TIE) KIRCO MANIX DesignTroy and build, construction 2021managementrevenue: $140 million 2018 revenue: $80 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 75 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $60 million Top executive: Douglas Manix, KircopresidentManix has continued to see growth from corporate real estate and senior living markets. The company has expanded its reach across the U.S., including Utah, Maryland, Alabama, North and South Carolina and Ohio. Flagstar Bancorp Inc. in Troy |

30. (TIE) EPITEC INC. South eld IT, engineering and professional sta ng 2021 revenue: $168.6 million 2018 revenue: $100 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 69 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $68.6 million Top executives: Josie Sheppard, president and CEO; Jerome Sheppard, Epitecchair has grown organically and through acquisition, increasing the number of customers it does business with while simultaneously expanding customer market share.

AUGUST 15, 2022 | CRAIN’ S DE T ROI T B USINESS | 13

` 20. LIPARI FOODS WholesaleWarren food distribution 2021 revenue: $1.29 billion 2018 revenue: $861 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 50 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $429 million Top executives: John Pawlowski, president and COO; Thom Lipari, CEO Thom Lipari, CEO, said Lipari Foods has gained market share with both its existing customers and in new geographies. The company has also seen growth from mergers and acquisitions.

37. (TIE) H.W. KAUFMAN GROUP INC./BURNS & WILCOX LTD. Farmington Hills Insurance services 2021 revenue: $2.8 billion 2018 revenue: $2.25 billion Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 25 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $550 million Top executives: Alan Jay Kaufman, chairman, president and CEO, Kaufman; Danny Kaufman, EVP, Kaufman, president, Burns & Wilcox

The global insurance company has grown through expanded product o erings, strategic acquisitions and investment in hiring quality, reve nue-producing talent.

percent Revenue growth 2018-2021:

` 45. SCRIPTGUIDERX Grosse Pointe Park Pharmacy bene t management and third party administrator 2021 revenue: $113.1 million 2018 revenue: $74.2 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 53 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $38.8 million Top executives: Ime Ekpenyong, CEO; Vikki Columbus, chief pharmacy o cer Organic growth, as well as expanding prescription bene t management services o ered to existing customers, have contributed to growth. The company has expanded its customer base to include private and public entities in more than 13 states. It has also grown its national network of pharmacies to more than 60,000 pharmacy locations nationwide, which includes major chains, independent stores, mail order and specialty pharmacy providers.

41. (TIE) SECURITIESMULTI-BANKINC. that $45.9 70 $31.9 million executives: Je Maccagnone, president; David Maccagnone, chairman and CEO Multi-Bank signi cantly expanded its underwriting capacity and diversi ed its xed-income product range over the past few years, which has contributed to growth. INFUSYSTEM MID-WEST CO. MaterialTaylor handling systems, construction, tooling/equipment installation, plant maintenance services, life-cycle improvement 2021 revenue: $295 million 2018 revenue: $217.7 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 36 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $77.3 million Top executive: Todd Begerowski, Dearbornpresident Mid-West Co. expanded its global footprint by opening up a division in Mexico to accommodate its customers there, which has expanded the company’s portfolio. The company has added about 25 employees in its engineering group during the time period, increasing technical expertise. The company also credits diversifying its customer base with revenue growth.

14 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | AUG UST 15, 2022 `

Top executive: Andra Rush, chairman and DakkotaCEO Integrated Systems has invested in OEM programs that are successful and have grown in scope. This year, Dakkota Integrated Systems expanded its manufacturing footprint by opening an instrument panel assembly plant in Detroit at the former Kettering High School site. The plant spans 345,000 square feet.

` 39. EXTRUSIONSINTERNATIONALINC. Garden ManufacturerCity of aluminum extruded pro les, powder-coat painting and fabrication facilities 2021 revenue: $161 million 2018 revenue: $101 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 60 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $60 million Top executive: Nicholas A.V.D. Noecker, president and CEO International Extrusions has experi enced growth from investing in new facilities and equipment that has increased its production capacity.

specializes in the sales, trading and underwriting of xed-income 2021securitiesrevenue: $77.8 million 2018 revenue:

41. (TIE) E.W. GROBBEL SONS INC. 2021MeatDetroitmanufacturerrevenue: $143 million 2018 revenue: $93 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 54 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $50 million Top executive: Jason Grobbel, Thepresident2017 acquisition of Detroit corned beef company United Meat and Deli Inc. and the 2018 acquisition of Detroit-based pickle company Topor’s Pickle Co. helped expand product o erings and fueled growth.

34. (TIE) INTEGRATEDDAKKOTASYSTEMS LLC

36. BELLE DISTRIBUTORSTIREINC. Allen RetailerParkof tires and automotive 2021servicesrevenue: $494 million 2018 revenue: $360 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 38 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $134 million Top executive: Jack Lawless III, CEO Belle Tire’s continued growth is a result of adding 15-20 stores per year in new markets as well as growing market share in existing locations, said Donald Barnes III, president.

Securities

ConstructionNovi manager, general contractor and design/build 2021 revenue: $124 million 2018 revenue: $72 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 73 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $52 million Top executives: Paul Oliver, principal; Paul Hatcher, president; Jason Salazar, senior vice president The company attributes growth to construction of signi cant distribution and logistics facilities within Southeast Michigan along with multiple high-end o ce build-outs.

33. DEVELOPMENTCONSTRUCTIONOLIVER/HATCHERANDINC.

HOLDINGS INC. Rochester Hills Health care services 2021 revenue: $103.4 million 2018 revenue: $67.1 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 54 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $36.2 million Top executive: Richard DiIorio, CEO and InfuSystemdirectorHoldings expanded its capabilities with the acquisitions of two biomedical service companies in 2021, contributing to growth. Its pain management therapy has also gained traction, treating a record number of patients. Additionally, InfuSystem has continued to gain market share in its oncology business. ` 44. DEARBORN

AutomotiveBrighton complex assembler and 2021sequencerrevenue: $907 million 2018 revenue: $675 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 35 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $232 million

Workers at Dakkota Integrated Systems LLC. DAKKOTA INTEGRATED SYSTEMS LLC VIA FACEBOOK

34. (TIE) LOC PERFORMANCE

million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021:

Top

` 43.

40. UHY ADVISORS INC. Farmington Hills Licensed CPA rm 2021 revenue: $221.5 million 2018 revenue: $148.3 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 50 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $73.2 million Top executive: Steven McCarty, CEO; Thomas Callan, Great Lakes regional managing director Mergers and acquisitions have contributed to growth, as well as cybersecurity and client accounting services. The rm’s China practice has also expanded, nearly doubling its size over the past few years.

37. (TIE) PAT MILLIKEN FORD INC. Redford 2021AutomobileTownshipdealershiprevenue: $280 million 2018 revenue: $195 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 44 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $85 million Top executives: Brian Godfrey, president; Bruce Godfrey, chairman From 2018-2021, the dealership grew in every area of its business, including vehicles sales, parts, service and collision. Its largest area of growth was pre-owned vehicle sales which more than doubled during the timeframe. In addition, the dealership opened a new collision center which has led to substantial growth.

South Institutionaleld broker-dealer

ProviderPlymouthof track systems, mechani cal systems, armor products, fabricated structures and rubber products for the military, agricul ture and construction industries. 2021 revenue: $216 million 2018 revenue: $142 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 53 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $74 million Top executives: Chad Darr, chief marketing o cer; Jason Atkinson, chief operating o cer; Louis Burr, CEO Growth was enabled by large government programs and acquisi tions. In 2018, Loc secured a contract with the U.S. Army to make armored cabs for the Army Multiple Launch Rocket System. The company also won a $41 million order for spare track for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle in 2019. In 2019, Loc acquired the machining operations of Lapeer-based defense and aerospace rm Lapeer Industries, which included its defense customer base. In 2021, Loc acquired a St. Marys, Ohio, facility from German-based automotive manufacturer Continental AG. The facility provides track systems for the military, agricultural and construction industries.

million Top executive:

AUGUST 15, 2022 | CRAIN’ S DE T ROI T B USINESS | 15 Highlightyourcompany'sranking

options. MADEYOUNEWS IN CRAIN’S

RPM credits business diversi cation in its business-to-business customer base as a contributor to its revenue growth. Additionally, the company has focused on servicing larger customer groups as well as expanding its services, developing proprietary technologies in-house, and building an exclusive vehicle carrier marketplace. ` 50. EDUCATIONAL DATA SYSTEMS INC. WorkforceDearborn development and 2021consultingrevenue: $83 million 2018 revenue: $55 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 51 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $28 million Top executive:

EDSI has gained market share and additional contracts in existing and new regions. Loc Performance is Number 34 on the Crain’s Fast 50 list. |LOC PERFORMANCE E.W. Grobbel Sons Inc. is Number 41 on this year’s Crain’s Fast 50 | E.W. GROBBEL SONS INC.

` 46. (TIE) UNIVERSAL LOGISTICS HOLDINGS INC. TransportationWarren and logistics 2021 revenue: $1.75 billion 2018 revenue: $1.46 billion Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 20 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $289.3 million Top executive: Tim Phillips, president, CEO and director of the board The increase in performance can be attributed to a more stable operating environment and new business wins in Universal’s contract logistics segment, coupled with the overall strength in the transportation industry from strong consumer demand.

learn

Contact Laura Picariello at lpicariello@crain.com or (732) 723-0569 to more about commemorative Share your success with digital

` 46. (TIE) TRIMAS CORP. Bloom eld Hills Industrial machinery 2021 revenue: $857.1 million 2018 revenue: $705 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 22 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $152.1 million Top executive: Thomas Amato, president, CEO and director Organic growth, acquisition-related sales and a favorable currency exchange helped fuel growth.

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48. ACRO SERVICE CORP. StaLivoniang and technology rm 2021 revenue: $465.3 million 2018 revenue: $371 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 26 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $94.3 million Top executive: Ron Shahani, president and CEO Acro’s revenue growth was largely the result of a resilient U.S. economy, strong consumer demand and corporate balance sheets, a record number of job openings, improving supply of candidates as the pandemic wanes, and a high pace of wage in ation. ` 49. RPM Royal TransportationOak logistics provider 2021 revenue: $232 million 2018 revenue: $169.3 million Percentage change in revenue 2018-2021: 38 percent Revenue growth 2018-2021: $62.7 Sergio Gutierrez, CEO Kevin Schnieders, CEO

16 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | AUG UST 15, 2022 PHONE;ADDRESSCOMPANYWEBSITE TOP EXECUTIVE(S) RANKINGSGROWTHREVENUECOMBINED 20182021/($000,000)REVENUE 2021-2018%REVENUECHANGE 3-YEAR % CHANGE RANKING 2021-2018($000,000)GROWTHREVENUE RANKINGGROWTHREVENUE 1 ROCKET COMPANIESINC. 1050 Woodward 313-373-7990;rocketcompanies.comAve.,Detroit48226 viceJayFarnerchairman and CEO chairmanDanGilbertand founder 4 $4,210.0$12,914.5 207% 3 $8,704.5 1 2 UWM HOLDINGS CORP. (UNITED WHOLESALE MORTGAGE) 585 South Blvd. 800-981-8898;uwm.comEast,Pontiac48341 chairman,MathewIshbiapresident and CEO 16 $1,340.0$2,970.3 122% 11 $1,630.3 5 3 SUN COMMUNITIESINC. 27777 Franklin Road, Suite 200,South eld48034 248-208-2500;suncommunities.com GaryShi man chairman and CEO 20 $1,126.8$2,272.6 102% 12 $1,145.8 8 4 GOLLING AUTOMOTIVE GROUP 1 2405 S. Telegraph Road,Bloom eld Hills48302 248-334-3600;golling.com presidentBillGolling 22 $115.6$533.0 361% 1 $417.5 21 5 LAFONTAINE AUTOMOTIVE GROUP 4000 W. Highland 248-887-4747;thefamilydeal.comRoad,Highland48357 chairmanMichaelLaFontaineandowner 23 $1,021.9$2,004.1 96% 14 $982.1 9 5 BARTON MALOW HOLDINGSLLC 26500 American Drive,South 248-436-5000;bartonmalow.comeld48034 presidentRyanMaibachand CEO 23 $1,900.0$3,341.8 76% 17 $1,441.8 6 7 WALBRIDGE 777 Woodward Ave., Suite 313-963-8000;walbridge.com300,Detroit48226 presidentJohnRakoltaIIICEOMichaelHaller 35 $1,340.0$2,262.3 69% 24 $922.3 11 8 FELDMAN AUTOMOTIVEINC. 30400 Lyon Center Drive East,New Hudson48165 248-486-1900;feldmanauto.com chairmanJayFeldmanand CEO COODaveKatarskiandexecutive VP 36 $918.0$1,562.9 70% 21 $644.9 15 9 AGREE REALTYCORP. 70 East Long Lake Road,Bloom eld Hills48304 248-737-4190;agreerealty.com president,JoelAgree CEO and director 37 $137.1$339.3 147% 7 $202.2 30 10 ORLEANS INTERNATIONALINC. 30600 Northwestern Highway, Suite 300,Farmington Hills48334 248-855-5556;orleansintl.com presidentEarlTushmanand VP,LarryTushmanCEOsecretary 39 $490.0$871.0 78% 16 $381.0 23 10 THE SHYFT GROUPINC. 41280 Bridge 517-543-6400;theshyftgroup.comSt.,Novi48375 president,DarylAdamsCEO and director 39 $570.5$991.8 74% 19 $421.3 20 12 GENERAL RV CENTERINC. 25000 Assembly 248-349-0900;generalrv.comDrive,Wixom48393 presidentLorenBaidasCEORobertBaidas 40 $955.6$1,609.0 68% 26 $653.4 14 12 ALTIMETRIKCORP. 1000 Town Center, Suite 700,South eld48075 248-281-2500;altimetrik.com UdayDeo,chief transformation o cer, US RajVattikuti,executiveCentral; chairman 40 $88.7$220.6 149% 6 $131.9 34 14 FLAGSTAR BANCORPINC. 5151 Corporate Drive,Troy48098 248 312 2000; agstar.com president,AlessandroDiNelloCEOand director 42 $1,122.0$1,854.0 65% 29 $732.0 13 15 JIM RIEHL'S FRIENDLY AUTOMOTIVE GROUPINC. 32899 Van Dyke 586-979-8700;jimriehl.comAve.,Warren48093 presidentJamesRiehlJr.and CEO 49 $359.4$608.8 69% 23 $249.4 26 16 ATWELLLLC Two Towne Square, Suite 700,South eld48076 248-447-2000;atwell-group.com presidentBrianWenzeland CEO 50 $127.0$250.0 97% 13 $123.0 37 17 CANNATRON (FORMERLY OOZE WHOLESALE) 13231 Northend Ave.,Oak Park48237 ;cannatron.com VincentAyarpartnerGjergjSinishtajandCEO 51 $25.9$100.7 288% 2 $74.8 49 18 UNIVERSITY BANCORPINC. 2015 Washtenaw Ave.,Ann 734-741-5858;university-bank.comArbor48104 president,StephenRanziniCEOand director 52 $53.9$133.2 147% 8 $79.3 44 19 BORGWARNERINC. 3850 Hamlin Road,Auburn 248-754-9200;borgwarner.comHills48326 president,FredericLissaldeCEOand director 54 $10,530.0$14,838.0 41% 52 $4,308.0 2 20 LIPARI FOODS 26661 Bunert 586-447-3500;liparifoods.comRoad,Warren48089 CEOThomLiparipresidentJohnPawlowskiandCOO 57 $861.0$1,290.0 50% 39 $429.0 18 21 CREDIT ACCEPTANCECORP. 25505 W. 12 Mile Road,South 248-353-2700;creditacceptance.comeld48034 presidentKennethBoothandCEO 63 $1,285.8$1,856.0 44% 47 $570.2 16 22 CARHARTTINC. 5750 Mercury 313-271-8460;carhartt.comDrive,Dearborn48126 chairmanMarkValadeand CEO 65 $1,354.6 2 $926.5 46% 46 $428.1 19 22 PLANTE MORAN PLLC 3000 Town Center, Suite 100,South eld48075 248-352-2500;plantemoran.com managingJamesProppepartner 65 $542.6$812.3 50% 40 $269.7 25 24 ARROW STRATEGIESLLC 27777 Franklin Road, Suite 1200,South eld48034 248-502-2500;arrowstrategies.com Je CEOreyStyers 68 $31.3$80.2 156% 5 $48.9 63 25 DEVON INDUSTRIAL GROUP 535 Griswold St., Suite 313-221-1600;devonindustrial.com2050,Detroit48226 presidentDavidBurnleyand co-CEOStephanieBurnleyco-CEOandgeneralmanager 71 $121.3$202.0 67% 28 $80.7 43 THE FAST 50CRAIN'S LIST | Ranked by combined revenue growth rankings, 2018-2021 ResarchedbySonyaD.Hill:shill@crain.com |Thislistisanapproximatecompilationofthefastest-growingcompaniesinWayne,Oakland,Macomb,WashtenawandLivingstoncounties.NOTES: 1. FormerlyRosevilleChryslerJeepInc. 2. Changed its year-end from December to June. The company has restated its scal year performance for 2020 and 2021 due to this change in its scal year. Want the full Excel version of this list — and every list? Become a Data Member: CrainsDetroit.com/data

AUGUST 15, 2022 | CRAIN’ S DE T ROI T B USINESS | 17 PHONE;ADDRESSCOMPANYWEBSITE TOP EXECUTIVE(S) RANKINGSGROWTHREVENUECOMBINED 20182021/($000,000)REVENUE 2021-2018%REVENUECHANGE 3-YEAR % CHANGE RANKING 2021-2018($000,000)GROWTHREVENUE RANKINGGROWTHREVENUE 26 MASCOCORP. 17450 College 313-274-7400;masco.comParkway,Livonia48152 CEO,KeithAllmanpresident & director 72 $6,654.0$8,375.0 26% 68 $1,721.0 4 26 NATIONAL FOOD GROUPINC. 46820 Magellan Drive, Suite 800-886-6866;nationalfoodgroup.comA,Novi48377-2454 presidentSeanZecmanand CEO seniorJimMoorevice president 72 $128.2$210.0 64% 30 $81.8 42 28 THE CHRISTMANCO. The Fisher Building, 3011 W. Grand Blvd., Suite 2600,Detroit48202-3030 313-908-6060;christmanco.com JosephLuther,VP and general manager, Southeast operations;MaryLeFevre,regionalMichigan VP of Business Development 74 $305.2$454.2 49% 42 $149.0 32 29 DOMINO'S PIZZAINC. 30 Frank Lloyd Wright Drive,Ann Arbor48105 734-930-3030;dominos.com RussellWeiner 1 COO & president of Domino's U.S. 76 $3,432.9$4,357.4 27% 66 $924.5 10 30 EPITECINC. 24800 Denso Drive, Suite 150,South eld48033 248-353-6800;epitec.com ChairJeromeSheppardpresidentJosieSheppardandCEO 77 $100.0$168.6 69% 25 $68.6 52 30 KIRCO MANIX 101 W. Big Beaver, Suite 248-354-5100;kircomanix.com200,Troy48084 presidentDouglasManix 77 $80.0$140.0 75% 18 $60.0 59 30 EMPIRE REALTY GROUP 6271 313-846-0960;ergselect.comSchaefer,Dearborn48126 brokerAhmadFawaz 77 $33.0$76.5 132% 10 $43.5 67 33 OLIVER/HATCHER CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENTINC. 27333 Meadowbrook Road, Suite 100,Novi48377 248-374-1100;oliverhatcher.com seniorJasonSalazarpresidentPaulHatcherprincipalPaulOlivervicepresident 81 $72.0$124.0 72% 20 $52.0 61 34 LOC PERFORMANCE 13505 N. Haggerty 734-453-2300;www.locperformance.comRoad,Plymouth48170 chiefJasonAtkinsonCEOLouisBurroperating o cer 86 $142.0$216.0 52% 36 $74.0 50 34 DAKKOTA INTEGRATED SYSTEMSLLC 123 Brighton Lake Road Suite 202,Brighton48116 (517) 694-6500;dakkota.com chairmanAndraRushand CEO 86 $675.0$907.0 34% 58 $232.0 28 36 BELLE TIRE DISTRIBUTORSINC. 1000 Enterprise Drive,Allen Park48101 313-271-9400;belletire.com CEOJackLawlessIII 88 $360.0$494.0 37% 55 $134.0 33 37 PAT MILLIKEN FORDINC. 9600 Telegraph Road,Redford 313-255-3100;patmillikenford.comTownship48239-1492 chairmanBruceGodfreypresidentBrianGodfrey 89 $195.0$280.0 44% 48 $85.0 41 37 H.W. KAUFMAN GROUP INC./BURNS & WILCOXLTD. 30833 Northwestern Highway,Farmington Hills48334 248-932-9000;hwkaufman.com AlanKaufman,chairman, president and CEO, DannyKaufman,EVP,Kaufman; Kaufman, president, Burns & Wilcox 89 $2,250.0$2,800.0 24% 72 $550.0 17 39 INTERNATIONAL EXTRUSIONSINC. 32416 Industrial Road,Garden City48135 734-427-8700;extrusion.net presidentNicholasNoeckerandCEO 91 $101.0$161.0 59% 31 $60.0 60 40 UHY ADVISORSINC. 27725 Stansbury Blvd Suite 385,Farmington Hills48334 248-355-1040;uhy-us.com ThomasCallan,GreatStevenMcCarty,CEO; Lakes regional managing director 92 $148.3$221.5 49% 41 $73.2 51 41 E.W. GROBBEL SONSINC. 2500 313-567-8000;grobbel.comOrleans,Detroit48207 presidentJasonGrobbel 96 $93.0$143.0 54% 34 $50.0 62 41 MULTI-BANK SECURITIESINC. 1000 Town Center, Suite 2300,South eld48075 800-967-9045;mbssecurities.com Je chairmanDavidMaccagnonepresidentMaccagnoneandCEO 96 $45.9$77.8 70% 22 $31.9 74 43 INFUSYSTEM HOLDINGSINC. 3851 West Hamlin Road,Rochester Hills48309 248-291-1210;infusystem.com CEORichardDiIorio&director 103 $67.1$103.4 54% 32 $36.2 71 44 DEARBORN MID-WESTCO. 20334 Superior 734-288-4400;dmwcc.comRoad,Taylor48180 presidentToddBegerowski 104 $217.7$295.0 35% 57 $77.3 47 45 SCRIPTGUIDERX (SGRX) 15400 E. Je erson Ave.,Grosse Pointe Park48230 313-821-3200;sgrxhealth.com chiefVikkiColumbusCEOImeEkpenyongpharmacy o cer 105 $74.2$113.1 52% 35 $38.8 70 46 TRIMASCORP. 38505 Woodward Ave., Suite 200,Bloom eld Hills48304 248-631-5450;trimascorp.com president,ThomasAmatoCEO & director 107 $705.0$857.1 22% 76 $152.1 31 46 UNIVERSAL LOGISTICS HOLDINGSINC. 12755 East Nine Mile 586-920-0100;universallogistics.comRoad,Warren48089 president,TimPhillipsCEO & director of the board 107 $1,461.7$1,751.0 20% 83 $289.3 24 48 ACRO SERVICECORP. 39209 W. Six Mile Road, Suite 250,Livonia48152 734-591-1100;acrocorp.com presidentRonShahaniand CEO 111 $371.0$465.3 25% 71 $94.3 40 49 RPM 301 W 4th, St #200,Royal 855-585-1910;rpmmoves.comOak48067 CEOSergioGutierrez 113 $169.3$232.0 37% 56 $62.7 57 50 EDUCATIONAL DATA SYSTEMS INC. (EDSI) 15300 Commerce Drive North, Suite 200,Dearborn48120 313-271-2660;edsisolutions.com CEOKevinSchnieders 115 $55.0$83.0 51% 38 $28.0 77 THE FAST 50CRAIN'S LIST | Ranked by combined revenue growth rankings, 2018-2021 ResarchedbySonyaD.Hill:shill@crain.com |Thislistisanapproximatecompilationofthefastest-growingcompaniesinWayne,Oakland,Macomb,WashtenawandLivingstoncounties.NOTES: 1. SucceededRichardAllisonasCEO,e ective April 30. Want the full Excel version of this list — and every list? Become a Data Member: CrainsDetroit.com/data

| AMELIA BENAVIDES-COLÓN / CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Contact: (313)crain.comamelia.benavides-colon@290-2269;@benavides_colon

SOUTHWEST From Page 3

Across from Michigan Central Sta tion, Corktown residents Nicole Stopka-Nichols and Chris Nichols have broken ground on SteelHaus, a three-level, mixed-used building made out of shipping containers. City o cials last month broke ground on a $6 million redesign of Roosevelt Park in front of the train station with plans to expand it from 9.5 acres to 13 acres by next spring. e park is currently bisected by a section of Vernor Highway, which is being removed from the middle of the park and redirected. e project also includes plans for a promenade connecting Michigan Avenue to Michigan Central Station, a new pe destrian gateway entrance at Michi gan Avenue, plaza spaces, event lawns and additional seating. Nearby at 1611 Michigan Ave., Farmington Hills-based developer Oxford Perennial has begun building a 188-unit apartment complex with ground-level retail space. A block over from the complex will be e Godfrey, a new boutique hotel fea turing 227 rooms and a rooftop restaurant, which has broken ground at 1401 Michigan Ave. is location will be e Godfrey’s fth location in the country, including hotels in Chi cago and AmongBoston.thenewest o erings are Denise Lopez and Diane Brown’s Michigan Squeeze Station. e resi dents of southwest Detroit had a vi sion for a shared community space, equipped with a smoothie bar and outdoor yard for activities. In 2019, the perfect location along Michigan Avenue opened up and they felt the time was right to make their dreams a reality.“We’ve been here through the pan demic, we opened in April 2020 and our business is growing every month,” said Lopez. In addition to its assortment of fruit smoothies, e Michigan Squeeze Station has an outdoor patio used by local artists and vendors. e program o erings range from cardio drumming to zumba, and dance classes have proven popular with the community, they said. Detroit’s neighborhoodoldest Southwest Detroit may be known for its large population of Latino resi dents, but that area of the city has had a long history as a haven for im migrants.Infact, Corktown is considered Detroit’s oldest existing neighbor hood, formed when Irish immigrants eeing the Great Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s lled the area. Today, Detroit’s Gaelic League/Irish Ameri can Club, founded in 1920, stands at the corner of Michigan Avenue and 14th Street and serves as a reminder of the neighborhood’s history. Around 1900, a large number of Maltese immigrants moved into the area, drawn in by the booming auto industry due to the formation of Ford in 1903. Since the 1920s, the neigh borhood has largely remained Latino with strong organizations forming including SDBA, Southwest Solu tions, Congress of Communities and the Corktown Neighborhood and BusinessMichiganAssociations.CentralStation, original ly constructed in 1913 in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood, served as the primary railway depot for the city from 1913 to 1988, according to the Detroit Historical Society. e station was built to accommodate an in crease in rail tra c from the De troit-Windsor rail tunnel, which opened in 1910. e building consists of a three-story depot with 10 gates for trains and an 18-story tower with more than 500 o ces. e nal train departed from the station in 1988, mostly due to a decline in railway travel due to the popularization of airplanes and highways. It was added to the National Regis ter of Historic Places in 1975. e building sat vacant and decay ing for decades, becoming an icon of Detroit’s economic decline particu larly as it declared bankruptcy in 2013 and a favorite site for those ur ban explorers looking to highlight ruin porn in the city. In 2018, Ford purchased the build ing and has since revealed plans for an elaborate 30-acre, walkable district of commercial real estate, workspaces for 5,000, high-tech connected infra structure and a state-of-the-art testing environment, according to its website. Keeping up with the changes But change isn’t great for every one.Shayne O’Keefe, co-owner of Me tropolis Cycles, located at Michigan Avenue and 14th Street next to Roos evelt Park, said the construction at the train station isn’t the best envi ronment for Metropolisbikers.Cycles rst opened in 2014, four years before Ford paid $90 million for the Michigan Central Sta tion.“Since they’ve started construc tion it’s de nitely dirtier around,” O’Keefe said. “Plus rent is still going up.”O’Keefe said his rent has been in creasing each year since opening. Ryan Cooley, owner of O’Connor Real Estate in Corktown, said the ris ing rates aren’t directly tied to Ford’s ties with Michigan Central Station. “It’s more of the right market… Ford is coming and bringing a new campus to the area and that’s draw ing people in,” he said. When the pandemic halted busi ness, O’Keefe was able to stay open as bike riding became a popular hob by, and sales increased by 40 percent, heCarrillosaid. said she wants local busi nesses to use SDBA as a resource in connecting with the area’s new resi dents.“Our goal is to continue fostering that relationship and just that con nectivity between Ford Motor Com pany and the businesses and a resi dent of Southwest Detroit,” she said. “Our plan is to help them understand the community, and to help them de velop a strategy around engaging the community, and supporting the resi dents and businesses in the area.”

Shayne O’Keefe opened Metropolis Cycles, located along Michigan Avenue in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood, in 2014 and said business has been booming since the pandemic began.

When Nicole Stopka-Nichols moved to Detroit from Germany sev en years ago to marry her husband Chris Nichols, she knew it would be home.“When we moved to the city in 2015 we knew we wanted a piece for ourselves,” the 35-year-old said. e couple immediately began looking for a home, but couldn’t nd anything that t their needs. en, they discovered the plot of land at 2426 Michigan Ave., in Corktown.ecouple is now making their mark in Detroit’s oldest neighbor hood with a modern concept: a three-story multi-use complex made out of shipping containers. e original design for the Steel Haus project was a collaborative project between Stopka-Nichols and her husband, 37, an automo tive interior designer for Rivian, an Irvine, Calif.-based electric vehicle automaker that has operations in Plymouth Township. “If you’re a car designer who doesn’t love container builds then are you really a car designer?” Stop ka-Nichols said about why they went with shipping containers. e idea isn’t brand new as ship ping container structures have popped up in various locations around the city. In October a $450,000 shipping container devel opment for pop-up entrepreneur space opened in Detroit’s Russell Woods neighborhood. And in Mid town there’s Detroit Shipping Com pany, a collection of restaurants and small shops in a 10,000-squarefoot structure constructed using 21 refurbished shipping containers. Stopka-Nichols said they pur chased the land from the city in 2016 for $50,000 and had a year to close on the sale. e couple spent the next year saving as much as they could and was able to take out a commercial construction loan for the project. “ is block of Michigan Avenue is still very underutilized,” Stop ka-Nichols said. Since its conception, SteelHaus has grown to twice its original size. e current project stands at 7,000 square-feet, consists of 11 shipping containers and is expected to be done by mid-summer 2023. Also wrapping up construction next summer is Ford Motor Co. as it completes its $740 million renova tion of Michigan Central Station across the street. e project is in tandem with Detroit’s $6 million redesign of Roosevelt Park, located directly in front of the train station. In 2018, Ford purchased the building and has since revealed plans for an elaborate 30-acre, walkable district of commercial real estate, workspaces for 5,000, connected infrastructure and a state-of-the-art testing environ ment.

DEVELOPMENTAMELIABENAVIDES-COLÓN

Couple to build shippingcontainer home, mixed-use development in Corktown

Nicole Stopka-Nichols and her husband Chris Nichols stand in front of their shipping container structure in Corktown. |

With assistance from the Kresge Foundation in 2017, SDBA launched a pilot program o ering nancial as sistance to business owners to con vert their upper-unit apartments. e program was a success and the city is now hoping to use the program to address the city’s a ordable housing problem.GregMangan, real estate advocate at SDBA, estimates there are about 88 buildings in the business district with at least one vacant apartment on the second oor. He said lling them will increase density, lead more people to be out in the neighborhood and im prove the incomes of landlords. “Our theory is by doing this, it’s a way to feed a market that’s currently under-served,” Mangan told Crain’s earlier this month. “We want to prime the pump for people to do more on theirIt’sown.”justone tool in the arsenal for the city of Detroit, which is working to avoid displacement of longstand ing residents as the neighborhood changes and evolves — and becomes moreOneexpensive.sucheort is the Left Field project, which is now underway after a year delay. It is part of a signature redevelopment in Corktown that will bring more than 800 units to the area with the help of a $30 million com petitive federal grant known as Choice Neighborhood. e project will help prevent displacement in Corktown, “which is seeing an un precedented level of new develop ment,” Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said.As a whole, the city said last month, Corktown will see $200 million in vested in 842 new housing units over six years. More than 500 of those units will be considered a ordable housing.“Wemade a commitment to the city, we’re not going to have those who stay pushed out,” Duggan said during the groundbreaking of the Left Field project in July. “ ose who were here before will always have a place to stay.”

STEELHAUS

18 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | AUG UST 15, 2022 To place your listing, contact Suzanne Janik at313-446-0455 CLASSIFIEDS Advertising Section REAL ESTATE ADVERTISE TODAY FOR SALE

| TAX-SALE.INFO

However, pricing disputes be tween suppliers and OEMs have es calated in the past few months, sug gesting potential trouble on the horizon, said Daniel Rustmann, cochair of Detroit-based law rm But zel Long’s global automotive group. “I would say that it resulted in sup pliers being a lot more aggressive than I’ve ever seen them be in the past, partially due to desperation and partially because they’re just fed up,” Rustmann said. Some clients are just now starting to see success in renegotiating con tract terms to spread in ated costs of materials, labor and transportation more evenly between supplier and customer, he said, but the nancial pinch remains sharp on suppliers. At Birmingham-based Brooks Wilkins Sharkey & Turco PLLC, rm co-founder and supply chain litiga tion attorney Dan Sharkey said he is also seeing more business disputes coming through the door. “ e biggest single issue remains pricing: In the face of all of these in creased costs, suppliers need price increases to survive, and some cus tomers are still ghting tooth and nail,” Sharkey said in an email. Sharkey said he doesn’t think sup pliers have reached a tipping point because OEMs learned during the Great Recession that letting suppliers fail is bad for business. At the same time, driving costs down is part of the automakers’ DNA, and Sharkey said many of his clients are working to exit unpro table rela tionships to avoid nancial distress. “I’ve not heard a lot of optimism,” Rustmann added. at tracks with the latest Supplier Barometer report released Aug. 2 by the Original Equipment Supplier As sociation, which saw supplier senti ment plummet. In the survey of executives from more than 100 automotive suppliers, their top three concerns were pro duction shutdowns, weakness in the U.S. economy and labor availability. Most said they think a recession is more likely than not in the next year and 35 percent said that worries of being unable to recover increased costs from customers are hindering investment plans. “ e outlook for the third quarter fell deep into pessimistic territory due to continued concerns over pro

Speculators are sometimes frus trated with the online access, he said, because they hoped the e ort involved in getting to an auction would freeze some people out. On line, everything sells at a xed time. It’s easier to dip in and out of the auction, making people more apt to bid. And Spaulding said winning bidders are usually those that have seen a property in person — those who live close to it and are invested in the neighborhood, willing to pay more because they have a vision. He said fewer than 5 percent of bidders have bought more than 10 pieces of property at the auction. Speculators have been choked out by rising sales prices as values con tinue to Wittenbergrise. said he’s expecting higher sales as a result of the switch. “I would venture a guess that when more people are bidding on properties, that price would go up,” heSpauldingsaid. concurred, saying the sales prices “have been o the charts.”Wittenberg said there may be some drawbacks to the move — lo cal o cials no longer have the abili ty to see someone face-to-face and see who they are to determine if they’re invested in the community. He also said on-site title companies and tax assistance groups that could help people understand what to do with a winning bid aren’t as imme diately accessible in an online set ting. ose who don’t pay taxes that are owed on properties they buy are barred from bidding again, and any one with delinquent property taxes is unable to bid. Wittenberg said he thinks on the whole, there’s more positive than not. “We’re excited,” he said. “We’re one of the last large counties to go online.”What’s lost when the traditional auction goes away? Spaulding said there are regulars at auctions he no longer sees, and questions that don’t get to be answered — like what hap pens if someone is still living in a property that’s sold at auction. He said he used to do a 45-minute Q&A session before bidding began to make people comfortable with the process, something that doesn’t happen when people can just log in to “You’dbid. also have people shush you up and say, ‘Let’s start selling,’” he said. “You can’t please every body.”Spaulding said he’s aware of a handful of counties that still sell in person — Mackinac, Ingham, Ne waygo and Eaton — but that more and more are moving away from it. “I think it’s inevitable,” he said. “It’s just part of where we’re going. It’s the horseless carriage of the new century.”

Spaulding said there are advan tages to a virtual auction. “You don’t have to take a day o work, drive for two or three hours,” he said. “ ey could sit there for hours, then lose.” e auctions sometimes ran eight hours or more, he said, and people weren’t always willing to wait that long for the property they were in terested in. ey went home instead.

AUGUST 15, 2022 | CRAIN’ S DE T ROI T B USINESS | 19 Suppliers’ outlook A survey of North American automotive supplier executives found the outlook for the third quarter “fell deep into pessimistic territory” due to continued concerns over production shutdowns, and heightened concerns over a weakening U.S. economy. SOURCE: ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT SUPPLIER ASSOCIATION’S AUTOMOTIVE SUPPLIER BAROMETER INDEX CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS GRAPHIC 30%20%10% 0% 16% 24% 33% 27% Between0-20% Between20-40% Between40-60% Between60-80% 80-100%Between CompletelyNeutral prepared Somewhat unprepared Somewhat prepared Overall 12%35%49% Less than $1B 10%35%50% Greater than $1B 35%48%15%

is year’s took place in July, with a second to begin Aug. 23. Only 14 Washtenaw properties were in the auction this year; seven of them sold the rst time around. When she moved the auction on line, McClary said she wondered about the wisdom of having people come to the county courthouse in Ann Arbor, where parking is notori ously di cult to nd, in order to bid. “Who’s going to show up at your courthouse to bid on property?” she asked. “It never occurred to me not to do it Livingstononline.” County’s auction, which is run by the state, is also on line.Wittenberg, in Oakland, said the online auction process should be fa miliar to anyone who’s ever used eBay. ere’s a pre-bidding period where property is listed and people can put in their bids before the auc tion opens. ey can also participate live, bidding up property against others until the end. Phone bidding is also an option, and it’s available in several languages. e Oakland auction will include more than 300 parcels, most of them vacant land. Wittenberg said with out the pressure of an in-person auctioneer, he thinks bidders can be more deliberate — they can research property online for a month before the auction begins, looking at pic tures and other information that would have been harder to parse onsite.“More people can be more strate gic,” he said. “More people will have the ability to bid than in years prior. It’ll be a more diverse group.” Marty Spaulding, the general manager of Title Check LLC in Ka lamazoo, will be running Oakland’s auction — and those of more than 70 of Michigan’s 83 counties. Spaulding, a former auctioneer, said he used to run hybrid auctions in most places — in person and online — until the coronavirus pandemic barred people from gathering. “It worked so well, there really isn’t a reason to go back,” he said of the switch. “ e times, they change.”

Contact: arielle.kass@crain.com; (313) 446-6774; @ArielleKassCDB Oakland County foreclosure website features a variety of properties at di erent prices.

AUCTIONS From Page 3 The

SUPPLIERS From Page 1 duction shutdowns, and heightened concerns over a weakening U.S. economy,” according to the OESA. “Sentiment deteriorated sequentially across businesses of all sizes but fell drastically for mid-level suppliers.” Gissing NA falls into the mid-level class with a projected revenue of $136 million. e maker of interior acoustic and cargo management sys tems has up to $100 million in liabili ties, including $13.3 million owed to Tesla Inc., according to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy ling in the U.S. Bank ruptcy Court of the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit. e Chinese subsidiary indicated it could no longer sustain the cost hikes and production shutdowns. e price of resin, its core raw materi al, increased by 50 percent since 2019, and the worker shortage forced the company to relocate temporary employees to its plant in Ohio and pay for lodging, food and above-mar ket“Signiwages.cant price increases for all input costs — material, labor, trans portation and burden — have pre sented unprecedented challenges to Debtors and auto suppliers across North America,” the ling said. Its customers, including Tesla, General Motors Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and BMW, agreed to keep the supplier a oat by funding Gissing’s projected liquidity shortfall of more than $14 million until it is sold. Larger suppliers are better posi tioned to weather the storm because they have more resources and diver sity among product catalog and ge ography, Rustmann said. Seating supply giant Lear Corp. said it is cutting headcount, freezing hiring and “de-risking” its business ahead of economic uncertainty and after re porting a $69 million net income plunge in the second quarter. Mean while, its competitor Adient plc report ed losing $30 million in the quarter. Still, executives from both compa nies expressed optimism about fu ture supply chain relief. Ray Scott, CEO of South eld-based Lear, sug gested that despite recession worries, the company has pushed through the darkest days of the COVID-19 pan demic and supply chain snarls and come out leaner and more exible. “ e sophistication with how we work with our customers in respect to product, in respect to options and alternative design, is signi cantly dif ferent,” Scott said in a recent inter view with Crain’s. “So we’re much better at understanding a particular issue and resolving it quicker than probably where we were two years ago.”Adient CEO Doug DelGrosso said on a recent call with investors that la bor and freight costs remain head winds, but the cost of commodities, especially steel, has fallen signi cantly. More importantly, DelGrosso said the Plymouth-based company is nding success in recovering costs from customers not just with materi als, but also with freight and energy. “So, I would anticipate we’ll have some level of success either getting it in a one-time form or somehow building that into our future con tracts,” he DelGrossosaid.also said there are signs that production is starting to smooth out. Six months ago, OEMs were pro ducing only 75 percent of the volume they planned; now it is more like 80 percent.“Notideal, but we’re moving in the right direction,” he said.

Ford Motor vehicles parked in an over ow lot in Louisville, Kentucky. A shortage in automotive semiconductor chips has caused vehicle manufacturers to scale back production of automobiles. |BLOOMBERG

HUDSON’S From Page 1

DETROIT BUSINESS

Details of the deal e Hudson’s tower, with its uctu ating height and regularly shifting plans over the years, evolved from in cluding some of its units as rentals — and thereby requiring a modicum of a ordable housing — to all of them being condos, Bonner said. at, in part, was the result of luring a luxury hotel — Crain’s has reported it’s an Edition ag, although Bonner would not con rm that — that would also o er services to the condo buy ers, thereby increasing the sale value of the units when they are built. “ at’s obviously what we’re trying to get in that building,” Bonner said, referring to them as “branded resi dences.”Butbecause rental housing speci cally was not stipulated as a require ment at the Hudson’s tower, and be cause Bedrock has not reached a 700-unit cap of for-sale units receiving nancial incentives in its portfolio as stipulated under the 2017 agreement with City Council, it is allowed to build only for-sale units in the Hudson’s building and provide no rental hous ing.If Bedrock had built 700 for-sale units already, the 100 to 120 units en visioned in the Hudson’s project would be “treated as a residential rental unit” and therefore be subject to the provisions of the a ordable housing agreement, the pact says.

Bedrock LLC's a ordable housing agreement with the city is a complex matter, complicated even more with changes made by the Detroit City Council as part of a package of community bene ts approved to pave the way for a $60.3 million, 10-year tax abatement for the development on the former J.L. Hudson's depart ment store site.

Bedrock's other increased community bene ts

` A digital equity initiative.

Providing internships to Detroit Public Schools Community District students, creating a pipeline to tech careers in Gilbert's broad portfolio of companies.

` Bedrock is still allowed to nance/preserve a ordable housing units at the 60 percent AMI threshold in other owners' buildings in downtown, Midtown, the New Center area and Corktown — what's known as the A ordable Housing Priority Area — to meet that 30 percent requirement; Bedrock was allowed to do that under the 2017 a ordable housing agreement, at the 80 percent AMI threshold.

` There is no a ordable housing requirement for the J.L. Hudson's site skyscraper. That has gone away due to a complex series of changes in Hudson's building programming and provisions in the 2017 a ordable housing agreement.

The Hudson’s site worksite on Aug. 4. PINHO/CRAIN’S

KIRK

20 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | AUG UST 15, 2022 agreement with the city, which re quired fewer and less a ordable housing units. “We, as a company, have done an incredible job of getting greater af fordability within the units than were prescribed. I think that’s to be ap plauded,” Bedrock CEO Ko Bonner said in an interview with Crain’s. “And, candidly, I’d like to continue to do so, and there may be opportuni ties where we can even exceed that because generally we think that’s the right way to proceed. Being required to do something into the future puts a di erent calculus on things, though, because now we are required to do what you say we’ve been doing on the natural.”enew a ordable housing re quirements approved in late July — over vocal objections from some members of the public as well as some council members — have been trumpeted as a step forward in the Duggan administration and City Council’s ongoing e ort to preserve, create and increase access to a ord able housing in a city where a third of residents live in poverty. “City Council members have done a great job to make sure the Hudson’s project includes the kind of commu nity bene ts that are important to Detroiters, especially the a ordable housing,” Mayor Mike Duggan said in a statement issued July 26, after the modi ed pact was approved. But not everyone feels that way. In one exchange during the meet ing, Angela Whit eld Calloway, a council member opposed to the tax break, said that seven concessions Bedrock made — including the shift in a ordable housing — as part of the abatement deal “don’t go far enough” to justify receiving it. “We are never going to have a per fect deal,” Council President Mary She eld said in response during the July 26 council meeting. “I would de nitely like to see more but we do have some progress here before us today.”

` A compliance report submitted to the city in March shows that Bedrock already had 375 units of a ordable housing at 60 percent AMI, out of 1,312 total units that fall under terms of the agreement, meaning that 28.6 percent of its portfolio already met the new required a ordability threshold even before the agreement was approved.

WilliamsRogersLento

No other developer that gets incen tives from the city gets the bene t of this exibility — which has allowed Bedrock to meet its a ordable hous ing requirements at a far cheaper cost than if it were to build them itself. e new requirements were crafted as a concession to get the council to sign o on the tax break for the Hud son’s project, approved last month af ter more than a month of postponed votes, public pleas and private negoti ations between city lawmakers, their sta s and Gilbert deputies. During the meeting in which the tax break was approved, Jared Fleish er, Gilbert’s top lobbyist, called the agreement “the most far-reaching commitment to a ordable housing ever made by a de veloper in the city, with leadership from the council president.”Duggan’s administration declined multiple requests to make an administration o cial available for an in terview, deferring instead to the prepared statement Duggan made at the time the tax break was approved July 26 and, last week, an other from a department di rector. Attempts to reach council member Scott Ben son, another vocal support er of the tax break, were un successful. A ght for a ordability Increasing Detroit’s af fordable housing stock has long been a key plank of the Duggan administration and CitySoCouncil.insome ways, codify ing that Bedrock must pro vide more units at in creased a ordability levels across a host of buildings is a win.“Rates of 60 percent AMI and be low is where the greatest need is in our community, and we appreciate those who seek to meet that need and share our commitment to creat ing more quality, deeply a ordable housing in our neighborhoods,” Julie Schneider, Detroit’s Housing and Re vitalization Department director, said in an emailed statement. But the agreement continues to have provisions that not all are happy with.e amended pact still allows Bed rock to place or preserve a ordable housing in other landlords’ buildings rather than build the units in proper ties it owns. ose buildings must be

` Fifty-eight percent of Bedrock's a ordable units — 236 in all — sit in one Midtown building it does not own, but provided about $12 million in nancing for ve years ago. That means it has only built about two of every ve units credited towards its a ordable housing unit count.

Here are some key highlights of the agreement, as well as where Bedrock stands on a ordable housing: ` Thirty percent of Bedrock's housing units that receive nancial incentives now must be a ordable at 60 percent of the federally-designated Area Median Income or lower; the 2017 agreement required that 20 percent of Bedrock's units be a ordable at 80 percent AMI or lower.

Bedrock's a ordable housing terms

Dan Gilbert's Bedrock LLC agreed to more than just an increase in the required number and a ordability levels of its housing portfolio in exchange for its $60.3 million, 10-year tax abatement on the J.L. Hudson's site development. Here are some of them: ` Committing to reserving 20 percent of rst- oor retail space at the development for Detroit-based small businesses "and other community programming." ` $1 million to those small businesses over the course of the life of the tax break in the form of things like small business development grants, technical assistance funding, free or deeply discounted rent, or purchasing goods from those business es. ` $5 million over the term of the tax break to projects that meet the criteria for the Neighborhood Improvement Fund, which is for things like blight removal, home repairs, recreational opportunities, a ordable housing and other things. Any a ordable housing investments done as part of this requirement are not be credit ed towards Bedrock's a ordable housing agreement.

` No other developer is allowed to meet the city's a ordable housing mandates required under its Inclusionary Housing Ordinance in such a manner. Developers that receive nancial incentives or discounted land/property from the city must include 20 percent of their rental units at 80 percent AMI in the property they are developing.

Gilbert’s housing portfolio had a target of 3,500 total units ve years ago but is well shy of that goal today. ere’s also a lack of enforcement, says Rochelle Lento, a member in the Detroit o ce of the law rm Dykema Gossett PLLC. “ ere’s no accountability towards meeting that goal of 3,500,” said Lento, who focuses on a ordable housing is sues. “You had ve years, and now we’re doing an addendum to make your (a ordable housing unit) requirement more and make the a ord ability requirements a little more stringent, which you know, can make it a little more challenging because you get less rents when it’s lower income. But what have you done to meet any of these Whereasgoals?”Bedrock was previously required to make 20 percent of its units a ord able at 80 percent of the Area Median Income, it is now required to make 30 percent of them a ordable at 60 percent of AMI. At 60 percent AMI, a two-bedroom is considered a ordable at $1,209 a month in metro Detroit, while at 80 percent AMI, a two-bed room would rent for $1,612. AMI is a federally desig nated calculation of what is considered a ordable based on household income. According to a report Bedrock led in March, of the 1,312 housing units that fall under the provisions of the 2017 agreement — that is, receiv ing nancial incentives — 28.6 per cent of them are already a ordable at 60 percent AMI or lower, meaning that the company was largely in compli ance with those 30/60 requirements before the council actually made them requirements. In addition, Bedrock has long nanced units in another building that it doesn’t own to o set the city’s existing requirement for a ordable housing as part of previous deals, and there is nothing in the latest agreement with the city to prevent that from continu ing.“I think that Bedrock is not just an ordinary company here because of their large portfolio downtown, one, but also, I think it’s because of the massive amount of money that they invest in the city of Detroit,” said Cole man A. Young II, an at-large member of the city council who supported the deal. “I think it’s important the fact that you have that provision in there because it’s going towards a ordable housing.”atprovision means, in essence, there’s no guarantee built into the new pact that Bedrock will o er more a ordable units in its own buildings going forward, and precisely how and where the pact’s requirements will be deployed is not known; Bonner said the company anticipates adding af fordable units both in buildings it de velops and owns, as well as buildings it nances on behalf of others. “ at’s going to be something that I’m sure they’re going to be discussing with us moving forward,” She eld told Crain’s last week in an interview. “But the details of it were not neces sarily discussed.”

AUGUST 15, 2022 | CRAIN’ S DE T ROI T B USINESS | 21

The Vinton Building, downtown: 21 units (no a ordable units).

Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB

The David Stott Building, Capitol Park: 107 units (10 a ordable units).

Five years after the agreement was rst codi ed, Bedrock remains well be hind its goal of 3,500 residential units it was expected to build. It has created or is under construction with about 1,300 of those — about 37.5 percent of what it had planned — according to its most recent annual a ordable housing re port submitted to the city as required by the 2017 agreement. If a speci c vision for housing in those sites has been discussed by the developer and the city, it has remained behind closed doors. It’s not known precisely when any new Bedrock af fordable units at deeper a ordability levels would be completed — if any at all.For now, Williams says, the key is making sure Bedrock sticks to commit ments it has made on a ordable hous ing.“It’s disappointing that despite the inclusionary housing ordinance, a project as heavily subsidized as the Hudson’s site project won’t itself in clude an a ordable housing compo nent. It’s less disappointing because the new agreement includes greater a ordability elsewhere as well as addi tional community bene t obligations,” he said. “Could the city have driven a tougher bargain? Probably. But I’m more interested in the e ort the city puts into seeing Bedrock keep the promises it has made.”

28Grand, Capitol Park: 218 units (85 low-income housing tax credit units).

The former Detroit Free Press building, downtown: 105 units (no a ordable units).

The Assembly, West Side Industrial: 32 units (no a ordable units).

The Book Tower/Book Building, downtown: 229 units (15 a ordable units).

City Modern, Brush Park: 339 units (54 LIHTC units, seven a ordable units).

Cathedral Tower, Midtown: 236 units (236 a ordable units, not owned by Bedrock).

Source: Bedrock LLC's a ordable housing agreement annual report, March 1, 2022. Photos: CoStar

Bedrock's housing portfolio What follows is a list of Bedrock LLC developments, either completed or currently in progress, subject to the 2017 a ordable housing agreement it struck with the city of Detroit requiring 20 percent of its portfolio be a ordable at 80 percent of the Area Median Income. The neighborhood in which they are located is also listed. in four generally thriving areas of De troit — downtown, Midtown, the New Center area and Corktown — where low-income residents could be forced out due to gentri cation. Nearly 58 percent — or approxi mately three out of every ve of Bed rock’s a ordable units — are not actu ally owned by Bedrock. at provision has allowed the company to largely avoid developing the units itself, as nearly 60 percent of its current a ordable units subject to the 2017 agreement are concentrated in one low-income senior housing building it does not own, according to the most recent annual report it led on the matter with the city. In 2017, shortly after the agreement was nalized, the company put $12 million into the rehab and acquisition of the 236-unit Cathedral Tower building in the Midtown neighbor hood, now owned by a third-party landlord, MRK Partners, with o ces in Los Angeles and Boca Raton, Fla. at allowed the low-income senior housing tower at 80 E. Hancock St. to retain its a ordable designation for an other 30 years at 60 percent AMI rather than 80 percent AMI as it previously was, Crain’s reported at the time. “Everybody agrees that the original agreement that was in place provides way too much wiggle room,” said Eric Williams, managing attorney in the Economic Equity Practice for the De troit Justice Center, a nonpro t law rm that works on issues related to economic opportunities, the justice system and equitable and just cities. Liz Rogers, partner in the real estate practice for South eld-based law rm Ja e Raitt Heuer & Weiss PC, declined to speci cally comment on the Bed rock agreement. But she said that when communities and developers can come together and reach mutually bene cial agreements, that’s when public-private partnerships work best. “ e public has its goals and the pri vate sector has its goals that it wants to meet, and they have to meet some where in the middle,” Rogers said. “When the stakeholders come to the table and are able to work through it, I think that’s something to be celebrated and not always knocked.”

The Malcomson Building, downtown: 25 units (no a ordable units).

Research and Data Editor Sonya Hill, (313) 446-0402 or shill@crain.com Newsroom (313) 446-0329, FAX (313) 446-1687 TIP LINE (313) 446-6766

` Over the last 100 years, what kind of challenges and successes has DDP seen? Over the course of the 100 years of our organization, but also over the course of the city, we’ve seen many ups and downs. Clearly, the pinnacle of the down was the result of the city’s bankruptcy after 50 years of decline, population loss, economic loss and just overall change to the city’s vibrancy. That was the most signi cant aspect of what our opportunities for their future. So, I’m very excited about the next 100 years for our organization. We’ll continue to look carefully at the speci c needs at any given time period and adjust to those tunes. The focus of the organization and our ability to reach into both the social as well as the economic issues has never been better, and I think that puts us on a great path for many more successes but also a more vibrant and safe future for the city of Detroit.

Digital Portfolio Manager Tim Simpson, (313) 446-6788 or tsimpson@crain.com

Publisher and CEO KC Crain Group Publisher Jim Kirk, (312) 397-5503 or jkirk@crain.com

` How has the DDP evolved over the last 100 years? The Downtown Detroit Partnership was founded in 1922 as a downtown business association, and it was a group of 13 business leaders that recognized at that time that the city could bene t from some consistent and sustained stewardship. It started more as a member organization and has grown into an organization that represents the broad Throughoutcommunity.theyears, we’ve addressed di erent needs. In the mid-’90s, we were focused on the acquisition of dormant, absentee landowners’ real estate on the lower Woodward corridor and transferring that into the hands of individuals and entities that wanted to bring that real estate back into a useful Fastpurpose.forward to today, we’re operating seven of the most signi cant public spaces in the downtown. In 2014, we were able to successfully adopt the business improvement legislation and created the Downtown Detroit Business Improvement Zone. We have also continued that same mission from 1922 of making sure that the stewardship and the overall inclusiveness of downtown, no matter what aspect of our economy is promoted, stays intact.

22 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | AUGUST 15, 2022 THE CONVERSATION

Special Projects Editor Amy Elliott Bragg, (313) 446-1646 or abragg@crain.com

Associate Creative Director Karen Freese Zane, kfreese@crain.com Art Director Kayla Byler, kayla.byler@crain.com

Sherri Welch, senior reporter, nonpro ts and philanthropy. (313) 446-1694 or swelch@crain.com

As the Downtown Detroit Partnership celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, Eric Larson, CEO since 2014, looks back on the organization’s bustling history, bright trajectory and shares personal tales from sweeping his father’s construction sites to heading a 23-yearold real estate company.Larson is also the founder of Bloom eld Hills-based Larson Realty Group, chairman of the Robert C. Larson Leadership Initiative and Urban Land Institute Detroit Governance Committee. He serves on the boards of numerous community business organizations, including the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, M-1 Rail, Detroit Economic Growth Corp. and more.

Digital Editor for Audience Elizabeth Couch, (313) 446-0419 or elizabeth.couch@crain.com

` Where did your career start? If you go back far enough, I swept a lot of construction sites, because my father also was in the real estate business. But my rst formal job out of school was as an account executive for a local ad agency. I quickly transitioned into real estate, so my most signi cant job coming out of school was with the Hines organization based in Houston, and I was with them for 15 years and ended as a partner of the Hines organization.

Managing Editor Michael Lee, (313) 446-1630 or malee@crain.com

Creative Director Thomas J. Linden, tlinden@crain.com

Rachel Watson, West Michigan, (989) 533-9685 or rachel.watson@crain.com

Eric Larson is CEO of the Downtown Detroit Partnership.

Domino’s quits Italy after locals shun American pizza

REPORTERS Minnah Arshad, city of Detroit, (313) 446-0416 or minnah.arshad@crain.com

Dustin Walsh, senior reporter, health care. (313) 446-6042 or dwalsh@crain.com

Eric Larson on the changing role of Downtown Detroit Partnership

organization needed to work through. Even during those times when population was declining, businesses were faltering and the city’s overall economy and ability to provide even the most basic city services was in jeopardy, our organization stepped in and lled many of those voids. In 2006, we supported the NFL Super Bowl coming to town and really made an e ort to make sure that the world, as it viewed Detroit for the Super Bowl, saw a city that was inviting and a place that they not only wanted to come to see a football game, but also stay and potentially live or invest. Most recently, the parks system that we’ve created in downtown linking seven public spaces, the crown jewel of that is internationally award-winning Campus Martius park. The public spaces and our ability to generate over 2,000 mostly free events for the community throughout our region has been a huge success and opportunity to showcase small Comingbusinesses.outofthe pandemic, our o ce worker population declined to about 25 percent on a daily basis (2020 through 2021). Our hotel occupancy declined into the single digits. What we’ve been able to do as an organization is encourage people to come and engage in the city in a di erent way. So if you’re not coming downtown to go to your o ce, come downtown to see a movie, eat or shop at a small business, or host a party. And that has been a very successful transition coming out of the pandemic, because our visitorship was about 33 million pre-pandemic, and we’re on target to bring back that level of participation in 2022. ` What do you see ahead for the next 100 years of the organization? I see a lot of unique opportunities. We’re seeing a real opportunity to attract a workforce that is much more diverse than it was, and I think that will continue. We’re working very closely with the Ilitch organization and the Related organization on the Detroit Center for Innovation. That’s another example of using education and training the future workforce right in the heart of downtown Detroit. The other piece is in partnership with Mayor (Mike) Duggan’s administration. We have created a city that is extremely inclusive. As more and more populations look to Detroit, they’ll nd the a ordable and attractive quality of life, but also for immigrants moving into the country, Detroit bodes really well to be a place that not only accepts those individuals and those families, but also embraces them in a way that they have

“We attribute the issue to the signi cantly increased level of competition in the food delivery market with both organized chains and ‘mom & pop’ restaurants delivering food, to service and restaurants reopening post pandemic and consumers out and about with revenge spending,” ePizza said in a report to investors accompanying its fourth-quarter 2021 results. U.S. and Italian representatives for ePizza and Domino’s didn’t respond to messages seeking comment. Calls to all 13 remaining Domino’s locations in Italy went unanswered. e company had already reduced operations in the country from its peak in 2020 and stopped o ering delivery from its website on July 29. Bloomberg News

READ ALL THE CONVERSATIONS AT CRAINSDETROIT.COM/THECONVERSATIONBY

DOMINO’SRUMBLINGSPIZZAINC.’S

Assistant Managing Editor Beth Reeber Valone, (313) 446-5875 or bvalone@crain.com

FOOTPRINT in the home of pizza proved to be short-lived with Italians favoring local restaurants over the American version. e last of Domino’s 29 branches in Italy have closed after the Ann Arbor-based company started operations in the country seven years ago. It borrowed heavily for plans to open 880 stores, but faced tough competition from local restaurants expanding delivery services during the COVID-19 pandemic and sought protection from creditors after running out of cash and falling behind on its debt Domino’sobligations.enteredItaly in 2015 through a franchising agreement with ePizza SpA and planned to distinguish itself by providing a structured national delivery service along with American-style toppings including pineapple. Its ambitious expansion ran into trouble as traditional pizza makers scaled up deliveries or signed deals with third-party services such as Deliveroo Plc, Just Eat Takeaway.com NV or Glovo to bring their products to customers’ homes while pandemic restrictions prevented dining out.

Design and Copy Editor Beth Jachman, (313) 446-0356 or bjachman@crain.com

This Conversation has been edited for length.

The last of Domino’s 29 branches in Italy have closed after the Ann Arbor-based company started operations in the country seven years ago. | BLOOMBERG

Jason Davis, small and emerging businesses. (313) 446-1612 or Jason.davis@crain.com

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Executive Editor Kelley Root, (313) 446-0319 or kelley.root@crain.com

Audience Engagement Editor Matthew Pollock, matthew.pollock@crain.com

MEMBERSHIPS CLASSIC $169/yr. (Can/Mex: $210, International: $340), ENHANCED $399/yr. (Can/Mex: $499, International: $799), PREMIER $1,299/yr. (Can/Mex/International: $1,299). To become a member visit www.crainsdetroit.com/ membership or call (877) 824-9374 Group and Corporate Membership Sales Deb Harper, (313) 446-1623 or dharper@crain.com

` In your work outside DDP, do you have any new projects there? The most signi cant project that I just wrapped up in the city of Detroit was the redevelopment of the old Tiger Stadium (site), which is The Corner. It encompasses The Corner Ballpark, which is PAL’s new home as well as 111 apartment units above 30,000 square feet of retail and 26 townhomes surrounding the eld. That continues to be not only very rewarding but also a very successful project. We’ve got some new retail tenants that are moving into The Corner that will be very exciting and I’vedynamic.gotsome expansions to an industrial project that I own in Warren, and then we’ve just wrapped up a really successful quality condo project in downtown Birmingham.

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Kirk Pinho, senior reporter, real estate. (313) 446-0412 or kpinho@crain.com

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