Crain's Detroit Business, August 21, 2023

Medical pot market shrivels

Pioneer of legal weed now a sliver of business

By Dustin Walsh

Michigan’s medical marijuana industry is wilting.

e portion of the cannabis business that stood up legal weed in the state is now at its lowest point since its inception in 2008, according to data from the Cannabis Regulatory Agency. Sales crept to just $6.14 million in July, down nearly 71% from a year ago and down 86% from July 2022 when sales reached nearly $43 million. e cost of an ounce of medical marijuana is down 52% over the last 12 months to $102.03, but consumer pricing is only part of the cost conundrum.

Much of the medical marijuana drawdown is linked to industry

86%

The amount sales of medical marijuana are down from July 2022.

costs associated with maintaining a medical and recreational license and the costs associated with marketing and selling both. Plus there are fewer and fewer markets that are medical marijuana only, such as Waterford Township and Pontiac, both of which are merging toward the adult-use market. Detroit was the last major city that maintained the distinction and prohibited recreational marijuana, but sales nally began earlier this year after legal squabbles.

See MARIJUANA on Page 20

Buddy’s Pizza CEO aims nationally

Looks for piece of growth in Detroit-style pizza

By Jay Davis

The new CEO of Buddy’s Pizza has big plans to expand the Detroit institution’s footprint outside the state.

The Farmington Hillsbased company currently has 23 locations — all in Michigan. Buddy’s previously had plans to expand outside of the state, but the COVID-19 pandemic halted those plans.

Chris Tussing

May after two years as chief marketing officer for Toledo-based Marco’s Pizza, believes the Buddy’s brand is strong enough to catch on in any number of markets. Tussing, 53, has worked in several markets himself. Over his 30year career, he has worked with large, notable companies and brands including Clorox, Wrigley, Mars and Anheuser-Busch.

Chris Tussing, who took on the leadership of Buddy’s in

See BUDDY’S on Page 19

The 50 fastest-growing companies in Southeast Michigan. STARTS ON PAGE 8

Couple takes a leap with new self-pour taproom

By Jay Davis

Jon and Katheryn Stoia admit they’re ying by the seat of their pants with their rst business venture.

e couple — he’s a former Tesla engineer, she’s a teacher — opened North End Taproom, a self-pour establishment at 111 S. Main St. in Royal Oak in the former home to Dixie Moon Saloon. e bar is Royal Oak’s second self-pour business to open in less than a year, after Eastern Market Brewing Co. opened Lincoln Tap in October 2022 on the city’s south end.

e couple learned of the selfpour concept while living in California. Upon returning home, they were disappointed to learn the idea hadn’t yet caught on in Michigan.

“We’re from Michigan — White Lake. We moved out to California for eight years because I got an engineering job at Tesla,” Jon Stoia said. “When we came back here we were looking for a place like this to go to and we realized they didn’t exist because they were illegal until about a year ago.”

Stoia, 34, said the opening of Lincoln Tap curbed the couple’s enthusiasm a bit, as they’d hoped to be the rst self-pour taproom in the area. Self-dispensing beer became legal in Michigan in July 2022.

“(Eastern Market Brewing Co.) was already up and running, so all they had to do was put some taps on the backside of their coolers and they were basically done,” Stoia said. “We couldn’t get up and running as fast.”

How does the self-pour concept work? North End Taproom patrons will have IDs checked by sta ers before getting an electronic wristband. After putting a credit card on le for their tab, customers scan the wristbands at the 40-choice tap wall and pour their own beverages. Customers must keep the wristband on while drinking.

For each pour, the dispensing machine puts out no more than 16 ounces of beer or 12 ounces of

wine, according to Katheryn Stoia. Customers are cut o after they hit 32 ounces. If they’re deemed sober enough to continue, a sta er will add more pours to their tab.

“ e bene t of self-pour is you get to try a bunch of things,” Jon Stoia said. “You get an ounce of one thing, an ounce of another. You don’t pour a full glass, so you kind of gure out what you like. We wanted to make sure we had a good grouping of beers for people to try.”

North End will feature lagers, sours and fruit beers. Brands including Eastern Market Brewing Co., Bell’s and Short’s will be featured. e tap list also includes three wines, Sprecher cream soda

and a cold brew co ee from neighboring Dessert Oasis Co ee Roasters. More than half of the items are made in Michigan.

North End will also o er what General Manager Josh Ho man calls elevated bar food, including barbecue chicken lettuce wraps, a Cubano Cobb salad and a Royale (Oak) with cheese, comprising a double quarter-pounder beef burger with cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and honey mustard sauce.

e couple has put about $500,000 of their own money into the business, and received a small business administration loan for an undisclosed amount. Terms of the lease for the space were not disclosed.

e nearly 4,700-square-foot space includes seating for 90. A small outdoor patio o ers seating for an additional 16 guests. North End Taproom will have a sta of 12-15 employees.

A space on the north side of the taproom features board games and toys for children, along with a shu eboard table. A large mural near the taps pays homage to parts of Detroit and Royal Oak.

“With the food, the moving around to get your beer, we want this to feel a bit like a backyard party,” Jon Stoia said. “Sure, when it’s later in the day, we want it to be a

good spot for adults, but we’re trying to have something for everybody.”

Ho man, 42, who helped open Ale Mary’s down the street in 2014, played a large role in curating the beer list. He joined the North End Taproom team through the recommendation of his friend and Bar Pigalle co-owner Travis Fourmont, who used the same general contractor for his project the Stoias used. Ho man thinks the concept is one that should do well in the area.

“With them being new to the hospitality industry, I didn’t really have to provide as much input as I thought I would,” Ho man said. “ ey had the concept pretty well gured out. ”

Correction

◗ e pro le for Laurie Lauzon Clabo, in our Notable Leaders in Higher Education special section, incorrectly listed Wayne State University's bachelor of science in nursing degree ranking. e school is in the 7th percentile nationally. And, M. Roy Wilson should have been listed as the former university president. Also, Gary Erwin's name was spelled incorrectly in the pro le about Donald Taylor.

North End Taproom co-owner Jon Stoia pours from one of 40 taps inside the Royal Oak bar. | JAY DAVIS

Report: Strike would cost billions

of nation’s GDP, analyses say

A strike by the United Auto Workers against Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV could cause a recession in Michigan and take a bite out of the nation’s GDP, according to recent analyses.

A 10-day strike alone against the Detroit 3 would result in more than $5 billion in economic losses, according to an analysis released ursday by Anderson Economic Group. e estimate includes

wage losses of $795 million and manufacturer losses of $1.2 billion, plus the nancial hit to automotive suppliers, dealers and industry at large.

A strike on all three companies would be “akin to taking down 2% of U.S. GDP and could incite intervention analogous to what occurred in the rail sector,” according to a Bank of America analysis released this month.

A labor strike is becoming more likely as the Sept. 14 contract expiration draws near and negotia-

Fighting the battle for Gotion plant

the supervisor.”

tions between UAW President Shawn Fain and the automakers appear to be making little progress. Fain literally trashed a contract proposal from Stellantis, fueling speculation the union could target the Ram truck and Jeep maker, but Fain has not ruled out

striking against all three. e automakers have stayed mostly mum on the talks.

In its loss estimate, the East Lansing-based consulting rm applied the same methodology as its economic calculations for the GM strike in 2019, which lasted six

weeks with more than 48,000 on a work stoppage.

“When the UAW went on strike against GM in 2019, Michigan experienced a single quarter recession,” Anderson said in a news release. “In 2023, there is the potential that a strike could involve more manufacturers, more workers, and more plants. “If that happens, even a short strike would impact economies throughout Michigan and across the nation.”

See STRIKE on Page 22

After$5.4M renovation, reimagining its role

Detroit’s Downtown Synagogue is more than 100 years old

GREEN TOWNSHIP — Jim Chapman never wanted to be township supervisor, but after he found his friend Bob Baldwin dead on arrival, he wasn’t given much of a choice.

Chapman, 66, also currently a re ghter and emergency medic, was running an ambulance six years ago when he responded to the call about Baldwin, then township supervisor, who died of a heart attack in his sleep.

“ en it was, ‘Well, someone’s gotta run things now. Jim — tag, you’re it,’” Chapman said during a recent drive around Green Township, population 3,100, just north of Big Rapids. “I became

It wasn’t a particularly stressful job until last year when plans for a $2.4 billion Chinese battery factory turned the small community into an ideological battle zone. Gotion Inc.’s plans for what state o cials say will be the largest economic development project in northern Michigan set o a geopolitical controversy that’s rippled from Washington, D.C., to Beijing. Chapman, who earned a master’s degree from Ferris State University, never thought he’d be part of a project so big or that his support would make him so many enemies.

“Feels like you’re on the wrong end of a microscope,” Chapman said.

Over the past eight months,

Chapman has been targeted with death threats, calls for his resignation and accusations of being a Communist. He is regularly the punching bag for upset residents worried about everything from environmental impact to tra c congestion. Chapman said he shares many of the concerns and demands answers from Gotion before giving township approvals.

Sherri Welch

e Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, a presence in Detroit for more than a century, is set to reopen late this month following a $5.4 million renovation designed to bring the community and Jewish nonpro ts into its Capitol Park building.

Seven Jewish service agencies, including several that left the city for the suburbs decades ago with migrating families, are expected to lease space on one of its reclaimed, upper oors.

“We have a primary location downtown that allows us to lean into this work,” said Executive Di-

rector Rachel Rudman.

ose agreements, along with rentals of other new, community space in the synagogue will provide opportunities for collaborative programs and services, as well as new sources of revenue to help sustain the synagogue, leaders said.

“We have a primary location downtown that allows us to lean into this work,” said Executive Director Rachel Rudman.

“We’re both serving the needs of the community and also making sure the organization can (continue to) exist to serve the needs of the community.”

e growing number of younger Jewish residents moving into the city was a primary driver for the project and the agencies looking to take space in the synagogue, leaders said.

See SYNAGOGUE on Page 21

The UAW went on strike for six weeks against GM in 2019. | BLOOMBERG

“When the UAW went on strike against GM in 2019, Michigan experienced a single quarter recession.”

The

Anderson Economic Group analysis

A 10-day work stoppage against the Detroit 3 could cause a recession in Michigan, take a bite out

Kurt Nagl

Kurt Nagl

Jim Chapman drives around the future site of Gotion Inc.’s $2.4 billion battery factory in Green Township. | KURT NAGL

REDEFINING RELATIONSHIP BANKING

Politics, real estate collide in Oakland County exec race

Real estate and politics are crossing paths again in an unlikely way, this time in Pontiac.

Oakland County, run by a Democrat, is about to buy a huge chunk of property downtown in a move that would almost certainly drive up the value of a large surface parking lot next door owned by the husband of his Republican challenger, who opposes the purchase.

Got all that? Stick with me here.

Oakland County Executive David Coulter has pushed for the county to create a 500-plus-employee outpost at the Ottawa Towers o ce complex, as well as demolish the Phoenix Center garage and amphitheater in a move that’s sure to inject some much-needed daytime foot tra c into the sleepy downtown.

Nominate a leader who has made significant contributions to advancing equality within the workplace or community.

at $19.2 million purchase includes the two o ce buildings, located at 51111 Woodward and 31 Judson, plus a long-term lease of the Phoenix Center and some vacant parcels, as part of a planned $110 million-plus project that would move hundreds of workers into the central business

district.

What the purchase does not include?

e property immediately next to it commonly referred to as Lot No. 9, which is owned by an entity called Pontiac City Square LLC, registered in Waterford Township to Gary Warner. Warner is the husband of Mary Patterson, Coulter’s challenger and the daughter of the late longtime Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson.

And that property — which Warner purchased from the city for $850,000 when it was run by a controversial state-appointed emergency nancial manager — would surely increase in value neighboring a couple renovated o ce buildings, a new parking garage and public green space that’s slated to replace the decrepit Phoenix Center.

“My family is proud of the investments we’ve personally made to advance Pontiac,” Patterson said in an emailed statement.

“Oakland County moving part of their campus to Pontiac certainly has the possibility of increasing the value of Lot 9; however, I’m running for Oakland County Executive for all of Oakland County, not for personal nancial gain.”

For her part, Patterson, running in no small part on her father’s name and legacy (a controversial one, at that), has voiced her con-

cerns about the proposal. In her statement, she said she was concerned about the speed at which the project was moving forward and that there are questions that still need to be answered, such as what types of employees will be relocated to the satellite campus. Patterson “would like to see this process slow down, allow for more citizen participation and transparency, and then make a decision based on the holistic view that isn’t currently available,” the statement says.

e Detroit Free Press also reported that a new Patterson administration “might be able to roll back Coulter’s plan to invest in Pontiac, although she’d need a Republican majority on the county board of commissioners.”

But that wouldn’t come until January 2025. It would also require a major political upheaval in a county that has swung pretty heavily Democratic the last two decades or so, with Dems having a large majority on the county board and occupying all but one of the six countywide elected ofces, save for sheri .

Coulter declined comment through a spokesperson.

Warner’s purchase came in 2013 when the city was selling o assets to fund retiree health care for a few months, the Oakland Press reported at the time.

Auto supplier veteran to lead IAC Group

By Kurt Nagl

South eld-based IAC Group has tapped Tenneco Inc.’s former chief operating o cer to be its new leader.

Kevin Baird was named CEO of the automotive supplier, replacing David Prystash, who is retiring after less than three years at the helm of the company.

e interior components supplier is uniquely positioned to be a “powertrain agnostic di erentiator” amid the transition to electric vehicles, Baird said in a news release.

Board Chair Phil Martens said Baird is well-prepared to guide the company through the transition.

“He is a dynamic, values-driven business leader who has a diverse background of experiences and an excellent track record of delivering strong performance in the global automotive industry,” Martens said.

Baird served for three years as COO of powertrain parts supplier Tenneco and was president and CEO of Guardian Glass for six years prior to that.

Crain’s inquired with Tenneco about its plans to ll the COO position.

Prystash left IAC “well-positioned for continued success,” according to Michael Kreger, senior partner at Gamut Capital Management, a New York-based private equity rm that invested in the supplier in 2018.

“We appreciate David’s leadership throughout the unprecedented challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting semi-conductor chip shortage,” Kreger said in the release. “David e ectively navigated the business through these headwinds and leaves IAC well-positioned for continued success.”

Kirk Pinho

Oakland County is attempting to create a satellite campus in downtown Pontiac. Property owned by the husband of a Republican candidate for county executive challenging the current county leader stands to increase in value if the campus is created. COSTAR GROUP INC.

Home sales activity in July remains robust in Detroit

By Nick Manes

Home sales in Southeast Michigan tumbled in July as buyers are increasingly faced with limited options. e city of Detroit, however, remains a bright spot in the region.

at’s according to two new reports released last week from real estate listing service Realcomp in Farmington Hills and Troy-based brokerage Re/Max of Southeastern Michigan. While covering slightly di erent geographies and therefore having di erent numbers, taken together the two reports show that inventory remains constrained, leading to fewer sales.

All told, sales were down 19% year over year and 15% month over month, according to the Realcomp data, while the Re/Max report shows a year-over-year drop of 22% and 14% from June to July.

Sales increased from May to June, according to Re/Max data.

“ e lower home sale numbers for July can be attributed to the severe lack of homes for sale, uctuating interest rates and summer vacations that took buyers out of the market,” Jeannette Schneider, president of Re/Max of Southeastern Michigan, said in a statement. “Despite this dynamic, the real estate market is

Tight residential market

Low inventory of homes for sale in metro Detroit continues to drive down the number of sales.

Source: Realcomp resilient as demand for homes is strong, and homes that are in good condition and priced cor-

Berkshire Hathaway cuts its stake in GM

Warren Buffett-owned rm sells 45% of stake

By Crain’s Detroit Business

Warren Bu ett’s investment company Berkshire Hathaway nearly halved its stake in General Motors Co. in the second quarter.

e Omaha, Neb.-based rm sold 45% of its stake in GM, reducing its shares from about 40 million to about 22 million, according to a quarterly ling this month with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Investors always watch Berkshire’s moves closely because of Bu ett’s remarkably successful track record over the years, but these lings don’t make clear which moves Bu ett made and which ones were handled by one of the company’s two other investment managers.

David Whiston, a U.S. auto equity analyst at Morningstar Research Services, told Automotive News that Berkshire Hathaway’s motivation for selling is unclear.

“It could be a variety of reasons from UAW risk, to being tired of

waiting for the stock to rally, to macro risk owning a cyclical name, to just having a better idea and wanting to reallocate capital,” he said.

GM declined to comment on Berkshire Hathaway’s reduction in its stake in the quarter ending June 30. Berkshire Hathaway also declined to comment.

In the same ling, Berkshire Hathaway revealed new investments in several homebuilder companies.

Investor concern over a possible strike amid UAW negotiations with the Detroit 3 is on the rise. GM shares, for example, saw a 5.8% drop Aug. 10 — the company’s biggest daily plunge in nearly eight months.

Bu ett has long been loyal to the Detroit 3 and was known for driving a Cadillac. In 2012, Berkshire acquired 10 million shares in GM, but the rm’s stake has grown and shrunk over the past decade amid recalls and other developments.

Berkshire Hathaway also sold o millions of its Hong Kong Stock Exchange shares in Chinese EV maker BYD this year.

e Associated Press contributed to this report.

up prices.

18% from a year ago, according to Realcomp — prices continue to increase as buyers bid up the minimal inventory.

e Realcomp data shows median sales price rose 3.5% from a year ago to just more than $265,000. e Re/Max report shows a year-over-year increase of 2% to $301,000, down from $312,190 in June.

e situation in metro Detroit largely mirrors that of the rest of the country.

Online brokerage Red n last week reported that home prices across the U.S. were up 3% year over year during the four-week period ending Aug. 6.

climbed to 7.09%, the highest since April of 2002, when the average rate clocked in at 7.13%.

City sales

Within Southeast Michigan, homebuying in the city of Detroit continues to hit highs not seen in several years, according to the data from Realcomp.

For the second month in a row, home sales in Detroit were at their ve-year high for the month. Last month saw 411 sales in the city and another 584 were pending, each ve-year highs, according to Realcomp.

rectly are selling quickly.” Even with muted demand and minimal listings — down nearly

“Prices are increasing despite tepid homebuying demand, with some buyers still sidelined by stubbornly high mortgage rates,” according to the Red n report.

Mortgage rates last week

“ e city of Detroit continues to lead the way in overall market activity,” Karen Kage, CEO of Realcomp, said in a statement. “A ordable pricing and renters moving to ownership seem to be the primary activation points.”

A home for sale in Dearborn RE/MAX OF SOUTHEASTERN MICHIGAN

The selling price of a home in Detroit has steadily risen this year.

But Southeast Michigan sees tumble as buyers face limited options

Businesses can help on dim health picture

Aworrying picture of Michigan residents’ health emerged last month: We’re less healthy than other states, and it’s getting worse.

is was the upshot of a study published by the Citizens Research Council of Michigan which, in conjunction with Altarum, is in the process of issuing a ve-part series of reports titled “Michigan’s Path to a Prosperous Future.”

As that name implies, the intent is to lead us to a better place. But, so far, the series has painted an un attering picture of where, and who, we are today. In May, the rst two reports in the series outlined how the state’s stagnant population growth threatens Michigan’s economic future.

Shortly after the reports in May were released, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced a task force to examine what can be done to get Michigan’s population growing again.

Improving the health of Michigan residents is an equally tough challenge to tackle than population loss, if not more so.

e report does o er a few bright spots, such as overall access to a ordable health care compared to other states. It also notes that Michigan has a comparatively robust medical care infrastructure, especially in

its more populous areas.

However, Michigan ranks below most other states, as well as most of its neighbors in the Midwest, when it comes to life expectancy, self-reported health status, and the number of days impacted by poor physical or mental health. Also, Michigan residents experience higher rates of disability and chronic disease, according to the study.

ese are not just problems for individuals. Poor health has big costs for businesses and the economy.

“When folks are not healthy, when they have days that they report not able to work

or not able to go to school as a result of physical health or mental health challenges, that directly impacts our economic competitiveness and then it impacts our workforce and our workforce capability,” said Corey Rhyan, research director for health economics and policy at Altarum. “Folks can work to their highest capability when they’re healthy and when their families are healthy, and that’s a very signi cant contributor to our overall population outcomes and our economic outcomes as well.”

To be sure, much of the responsibility for good health falls to the individual and

making smart choices regarding diet and exercise.

But the broader culture in uences those individual habits, and businesses can help promote a culture of healthy living in the workplace. If they have a break room, businesses can make sure healthy food options are among the choices available, for example. ey can make sure that bottled water, and not just sugary drinks, are loaded in the pop machine. Workplace exercise clubs can build health and teams at the same time.

Turning around Michigan’s poor health trends won’t happen overnight. But it can happen, and it will be made more possible with an overall emphasis on healthy living. And it’s good for the bottom line, too, especially when it comes to costs for medical care that businesses bear.

e reports by Citizens Research Council, a member of the advisory board for the policy-focused Crain’s Forum, and Altarum aren’t easy or comfortable reading for those of us who are proud of our state. But it’s impossible to make it better if we don’t know where we stand. Now we do, and it’s vital that we all take part in the hard work of improvement.

Howthe Upper Peninsula is helping drive digital future

Adecade ago, many of us in tech prophesied that every company would become a computing company.

Now, that prophecy has absolutely come true. In fact, digital transformation across industries happened even faster than we imagined, and today every company is critically dependent on technology to drive e ciencies and enhance business capabilities.

A perfect example of this is the transformation of our automobile manufacturers into tech companies, with modern cars functioning as both software-enabled platforms and channels for software subscription sales.

Similar transformations are happening throughout the economy, most obviously in prestige industries like mobility, health care and nance, but also in the skilled trades, retail and service industries.

What we are witnessing is no less than the greatest transformation of the economy and work since the Industrial Revolution, and it is no less challenging.

e World Economic Forum predicted in its “Future of Jobs Report 2020” that 85 million jobs will be displaced by 2025 through automation and technological advances. at said, 97 million new roles will

Ave,

be created as humans, machines and software work together.

Many initiatives in Michigan already address this, but the urgency isn’t high or broad enough yet. e digital future is now. We must move beyond trying to salvage the analog jobs of the past and instead work to create and support the digital jobs of the future.

Digital transformation begins and ends with people, not tech, and we must reorient our institutions to better prepare us for the new reality. “We” means all Michiganders, but especially decision-makers in government, higher education and industry. For us to successfully make this transition, all three sectors must fundamentally and synchronously evolve. Change is hard, and it can be particularly paralyzing for large, complex organizations facing a change of such magnitude. One institution that avoided inertia by embracing change early is Michigan Technological University.

Since Michigan Tech was founded in 1885, the university, located in Houghton in the Upper Peninsula, has steadfastly committed to promoting and fostering success for the industries of the state. In fact, that charge is central to the university’s founding charter.

E orts to create world-class programs in mining, forestry and engineering were driven by the state’s talent needs in the late 19th century. Facing another fundamental shift in the nature of work, Michigan Tech fully embraced the digital present, leading to our reorganizing in 2019 to create Michigan’s rst and only academic college focused on computing.

Reorganization was not easy, but it was necessary to ensure that Tech can continue to meet the state’s evolving talent needs. Despite its relative youth, our College of Computing is growing quickly, with double-digit enrollment growth in each of the past three years.

Computer science is now the University’s second-largest program, and other computing degrees o ered include software engineering, cybersecurity, IT, informatics, mechatronics and data science. Moreover, computing is central to every discipline — from forestry to engineering — and the College of Computing is partnering with other academic units across campus to help address the digital transformation happening within their areas.

Michigan Tech isn’t alone. Several public institutions of higher learning in the U.P. have introduced new programs and e orts to support the digital present. For example, both Northern Michigan University and Michigan Tech have recently created high-quality cybersecurity programs that are recognized as Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense by the National Security Agency.

Further, Lake Superior State University,

Gogebic College, and Michigan Tech have created robotics and mechatronics programs that integrate elements of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and computing.

Michigan must also create new ventures, products and ways of working in order to make sure that we remain at the leading edge of the 97 million new digital jobs. e U.P.’s strengthened educational pipeline is supporting these e orts, contributing to a pair of astronautics success stories.

Orbion Space Technology in Houghton is designing and manufacturing propulsion systems for small satellites that save operators millions of dollars through their fuel-e cient design.

Just down the road in Marquette, Kall Morris Inc. is focused on solutions to the growing problems of orbital debris.

Additionally, the U.P. has several software startups. Steelhead Technologies in Calumet is a fast-growing company building a cloudbased software solution to streamline business processes and production speci cally in manufacturing facilities. And 906 Technologies in Marquette builds on the cybersecurity expertise in the region, providing IT services and consulting.

Similar success stories can be found across the U.P. and throughout Michigan. However, growing Michigan’s high-tech digital economy requires an even greater focus and e ort. For Michigan to thrive, all of us must embrace the digital present. e state’s economy — present and future — critically depends on it.

Dennis Livesay is Dave House dean of computing, Michigan Technological University in Houghton. Glenn Stevens is executive director of MICHauto and vice president of automotive and mobility initiatives at the Detroit Regional Chamber.

Manufactured home builder to launch nancing option

By Nick Manes

A proposed new investment by a metro Detroit manufactured home company paves the way for the launch of a new nancing option for buyers.

Troy-based factory-manufactured home company Skyline Champion Corp. (NYSE: SKY) last week announced a new agreement with a Canadian nancial services rm to launch a new home nancing company for its products. e deal, with ECN Capital Corp. (TSX: ECN), is scheduled to close next month, subject to a handful of customary conditions.

e deal calls for Skyline to in-

will provide a tailored retailnance loan program for customers and a new branded oor plan offering for Skyline Champion and its a liates in the manufactured home nance space and will operate with services provided by Triad,” the companies said in a news release.

Upon closing the proposed deal, Skyline would own just less than 20% of ECN Capital.

For Skyline, the deal will “drive greater demand for product by providing broader and more attractive nancing options and services,” while also enhancing the company’s “turn-key homebuying solutions while magnifying the bene ts of their digital and direct-to-consumer strategic investments,” according to the release.

The deal is scheduled to close next month, subject to a handful of customary conditions.

vest $138 million in a private placement in ECN Capital and the two rms will form a new nancing company that will be 51% owned by Skyline and 49% owned by Triad Financial Services Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of ECN Capital.

“ e captive nance company

“We are excited to announce this new strategic collaboration with one of our long-standing business partners,” Mark Yost, Skyline Champion’s president and CEO, said in the release.

“ e partnership with Triad will help streamline the homebuying experience for our channel partners as well as the consumers of our homes. is will allow us to expand our ability to o er a ord-

able housing solutions more eciently while driving companywide growth. e asset-light model of these nancing solutions combined with the strength of our balance sheet allow us to partner with ECN Capital while continuing our investments in our longer-term commercial and operational initiatives.”

Skyline’s most recent earnings

report earlier this month showed overall declines year over year in homes sold, backlog and net income, but still in line with expectations, Yost said in a statement at the time.

For ECN, the proposed deal with Skyline “represents the culmination of the strategic review process that we commenced earlier this year, and we are very excit-

ed by the signi cant growth opportunities that the establishment of the new captive nance company will bring to Triad,” ECN Capital CEO Steven Hudson said in the release.

e state of Michigan earlier this year rolled out its own nancing program for modular homes as yet another mechanism to meet its a ordable housing goals.

A manufactured home by Skyline Homes | SKYLINE HOMES FACEBOOK

THE 50 FASTEST-GROWING COMPANIES IN SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN

EV push drives Crain’s Fast 50

Fastest-growing companies bene ting from generational investment in new industry

A commercial construction boom — especially that driven by the rapid rise of plant construction for the electric-vehicle industry — is driving some of Southeast Michigan's fastest-growing companies.

Two of the biggest players in that business appear in the top five in Crain's Fast 50 ranking for 2022, with Southfield-based Barton Malow Inc. topping the list. The construction company,

1. Barton Malow Holdings LLC

South eld

Ryan Maibach, president and CEO

2022 revenue: $4.8 billion

2019 revenue: $1.9 billion

Barton Malow has diversi ed its portfolio, with growth stemming from both existing and new markets. In 2019, Barton Malow earned its rst lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing plant job, and the investment race to build EV battery factories has spurred business in Tennessee, Kentucky, Michigan and Ontario, Canada. The holding company continues to see growth from its strategic entity expansion in 2020, when Barton Malow restructured from one entity to a family of

already one of the giants in its field, has seen its revenue more than double since 2019.

EV plant construction for batteries and assembly, driven in part by massive government incentives to keep the industry in the U.S. (and in Michigan) have sparked a once-in-a-generation boom in factory construction.

Barton Malow and Detroit-based Walbridge, ranked fourth on this year's list, have won significant

business as that rampup has proceeded.

A word on how we calculate this list, which in some ways dif-

fers from similar lists that look purely at a percentage revenue increase:

Our list takes that into account, but we also rank the companies for which we have data by the dollar amount of their revenue increase. This is because in our estimation, scale matters, and driving big sales increases at a large, established company is no easy feat.

So we rank each of the companies in our database from 2019 to 2022 on their percentage revenue increase, as well as ranking them on the dollar increase. We

2. Sun Communities Inc.

Southfield

G ary Shiffman, chairman and CEO

2022 revenue: $2.9 billion

2019 revenue: $1.26 billion

Strong demand for Sun Communities’ manufactured housing, RV and marina properties have fueled growth. Sun Communities has also pursued strategic acquisitions, expansions, and ground-up development to meet demand, which has furthered growth.

3. LaFontaine Automotive Group

Highland Township

Michael LaFontaine, chairman and owner; Ryan LaFontaine, CEO; Kelley LaFontaine, vice president

2022 revenue: $2.46 billion

2019 revenue: $1.16 billion Ryan LaFontaine, CEO, said the automotive group added 15 locations. Digital retail, as well as services such as complimentary vehicle pickup and delivery for sales and services, have also contributed to growth.

4. Walbridge

Detroit

Michael Haller, CEO; John Rakolta III, president

2022 revenue: $3.6 billion

2019 revenue: $1.8 billion

add up those rankings to produce the final list. Companies that do well on both scales do best.

Profitability matters, too. We ask each company to attest that it has been profitable, because driving up revenue is easy if you're selling at a loss.

Data subscribers can access an Excel version of the list — along with access to our Book of Lists with executive contact information, at our Data Center at crainsdetroit.com.

— Crain’s Detroit Business

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 engineering technology division. The entity restructuring allowed the company to grow into different market niches.

The construction contractor has benefited greatly from the auto industry’s EV investment boom. Projects that have fueled growth for Walbridge include advanced manufacturing, automotive, battery manufacturing, distribution facilities and mission critical construction.

The Ultium Cells Lansing lithium-ion electric vehicle battery cell manufacturing facility. | PHOTOS BY BARTON MALOW

Sun Communities SUN COMMUNITIES

LaFontaine’s Cadillac Buick GMC of Highland. LAFONTAINE AUTOMOTIVE GROUP

The work Walbridge is doing at Ford’s BlueOval City in Stanton, Tenn. WALBRIDGE

BLOOMBERG

The BlueOval SK Battery Park in Glendale, Kentucky.

6. DTE Energy Co.

Detroit Gerardo Norcia, chairman, president and CEO

2022 revenue: $19.2 billion

2019 revenue: $12.67 billion

DTE Energy has grown revenue from both its utility and nonutility businesses. Capital investments in areas such as electric reliability and infrastructure improvements have also contributed to growth.

5. Dakkota Integrated Systems LLC

Brighton

Andra Rush, chairman and CEO

2022 revenue: $1.2 billion

2019 revenue: $565 million

Dakkota secured new business to build complex assemblies, diversied its portfolio, and opened two new facilities during the time period.

Last 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 approximately 300,000 square feet.

6. BorgWarner Inc.

Auburn Hills

Frederic B. Lissalde, president and CEO

2022 revenue: $15.8 billion

2019 revenue: $10.17 billion

In 2021, BorgWarner announced

Charging Forward, its strategy to accelerate its growth in electri cation. Since that plan’s inception, BorgWarner has secured a number of organic electri cation program awards and announced $2.5 billion in EV organic sales through 2025, including $1.3 billion in EV-focused merger and acquisitions.

6. Commercial Contracting Corp.

Auburn Hills

Steve Fragnoli, president and CEO

2022 revenue: $633 million

2019 revenue: $280 million

Commercial Contracting Corp.’s growth is attributed to expansion into new markets, as well as investment by current clients in vehicle electri cation. The company has expanded its services, including opening a new steel fabrication shop, construction of clean room and dry room facilities, and continued geographic expansion of concrete and equipment installation services.

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Dakkota Integrated Systems’ Hazel Park plant. | DAKKOTA INTEGRATED SYSTEMS LLC

Borg Warner

9. Skyline Champion Corp.

Troy

Mark Yost, president, CEO and director

2022 revenue: $2.2 billion

2019 revenue: $1.36 billion

The factory-built and modular home maker has signi cantly increased its production levels as a result of strong demand for its homes. Skyline Champion Corp. has also experienced growth from acquisitions. In 2021, the company acquired Georgia-based manufactured home builder ScotBilt Homes LLC, expanding its footprint.

9. General RV Center Inc.

Wixom

Robert Baidas, CEO; Loren Baidas, president

2022 revenue: $1.74 billion

2019 revenue: $1 billion

General RV Center continues to grow from increased market share in its current dealerships. The RV retailer also continues to expand its footprint, with store openings in Florida and Pennsylvania. In 2021, General RV Center invested in an inspection facility near Elkhart, Ind. The facility serves as a checkpoint where new units are received from manufacturers to undergo inspection and testing before continuing on to dealerships, increasing ef ciency.

11. Altimetrik Corp.

South eld

Raj Sundaresan, CEO; Raj Vattikuti, executive chairman

2022 revenue: $294.9 million

2019 revenue: $112 million

The information-technology company has continued to expand globally as more companies have invested in digital business.

Altimetrik credits its “Digital Business Methodology,” a framework that unites business, engineering and data scientists in a cloud-based ecosystem, as a contributing factor to its growth.

11. Agree Realty Corp.

Bloom eld Hills

Joel Agree, president, CEO and director

2022 revenue: $429.8 million

2019 revenue: $187.5 million

Agree Realty Corp.’s growth strategy focuses on acquiring, developing, and nancing the development of retail net lease assets. From 2019-2022, the company invested more than $5.2 billion, growing total annual revenue from $187 million in 2019 to $430 million in 2022, a 129 percent increase.

11. UWM Holdings Corp.

Pontiac

Mathew Ishbia, chairman, president and CEO

2022 revenue: $2.09 billion

2019 revenue: $1.28 billion

The wholesale mortgage lender reached loan originations of $127.2 billion in 2022. In 2021, UWM achieved $226.5 billion in loan originations — a record year for the company. UWM became a publicly traded company in January 2021.

14. Carhartt Inc.

Dearborn

Mark Valade, chairman and CEO; Linda Hubbard, president and COO

2022 revenue: $1.7 billion

2019 revenue: $1 billion

Carhartt attributes strategic expansion of its wholesale and direct retail network across the U.S. to its revenue growth. The workwear brand also credits evolution of its products and continued brand awareness with consumers as a driver of growth.

15. The Ideal Group

Detroit

Linzie Venegas, president; Frank Venegas Jr., chairman

2022 revenue: $555 million

2019 revenue: $270 million

The company’s Ideal Contracting, its general contracting subsidiary, saw a boom in construction of distribution centers, including erecting the steel for several Amazon distribution centers. Ideal Contracting also saw signi cant growth from building EV-related projects for automotive companies.

Ideal Shield’s sign-based products saw a huge boom as services such as curbside pickup became more prevalent. Ideal Shield’s protective products also became prevalent in package ful llment centers by companies such as Amazon.com Inc., Walmart Inc. and Target Corp.

16. Loc Performance

Plymouth

Jason Atkinson, chief operating of cer

2022 revenue: $383 million

2019 revenue: $175 million

Loc Performance has seen growth both organically and via acquisition.

In 2021, Loc acquired a rubber track plant in St. Marys, Ohio, from German-based automotive manufacturer Continental AG Additionally, Loc made manufacturing ef ciencies to gain additional product per shift. Loc also invested in additional capital equipment as product demand increased.

17. Feldman Automotive Inc.

New Hudson

Jay Feldman, chairman and CEO;

Dave Katarski, COO and executive VP

2022 revenue: $1.669 billion

2019 revenue: $1.043 billion

The Feldman Automotive Group has grown through same store sales and acquisitions. The group opened nine locations during the time period, including dealerships in Woodhaven, Detroit and Clarkston. Last year, the automotive group opened Michigan’s rst free-standing Jeep dealership in Clarkston. In Ohio, it also opened Mark Wahlberg Automotive Group dealerships in Columbus, Worthington and Avon, along with two Airstream and RV dealerships in Cleveland and Columbus.

17. RPM

Royal Oak

Barry Spilman, founder and CEO

2022 revenue: $366.6 million

2019 revenue: $169.8 million

RPM attributes diversification of services and customers as a contributing factor to its growth. In 2022, RPM saw an increased demand in products and services from its Construction Products G roup, which focuses primarily on products involving the construction, maintenance and restoration of various industrial, commercial and infrastructure projects.

19. Motor City Electric Co.

Detroit

Dale Wieczorek, chairman, president and CEO; Denise Hodgins, chief nancial of cer

2022 revenue: $572.3 million

2019 revenue: $325.3 million

Motor City Electric Co. credits downtown Detroit’s revitalization as a contributor to its growth. The electric company has seen growth from projects that include stadiums, hotels, buildings, new electric vehicles, retooling of automotive plants and new battery manufacturing facilities. Renewable energy projects have also contributed to growth, including wind farms, solar energy and energy storage facilities.

20. McNaughtonMcKay Electric Co.

Madison Heights

Donald Slominski Jr., executive chairman; Mark Borin, president and CEO

2022 revenue: $2.186 billion

2019 revenue: $1.515 billion

“The company has experienced strong levels of organic growth as the supply chain continues to recover and business activity remains strong in the markets served,” said Mark Borin, president and CEO. “Strategic acquisitions expanding our footprint in the Midwest, Southeast and South Central United States has also contributed...”

Two Bradley Fighting Vehicles at Loc Performance’s Plymouth plant. LOC PERFORMANCE

Carhartt Women’s Rugged Flex Relaxed Fit Canvas Work Pant | CARHARTT

20. Atwell LLC

South eld

Brian Wenzel, president and CEO

2022 revenue: $308 million

2019 revenue: $149 million

The engineering and construction rm has experienced growth at a record pace by expanding its geographic footprint, service offerings and capabilities through organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Between 2019-2022, Atwell acquired ve rms and added new of ce locations. These locations include ve of ces in Florida, four of ces in Texas, and of ces in New York City, Maryland and Portland, Ore.

22. Pat Milliken Ford Inc.

Redford Township

Brian Godfrey, president; Bruce Godfrey, chairman

2022 revenue: $395 million

2019 revenue: $230 million

From 2019-2022, 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, with the dealership ranking as number one in Ford Blue Advantage, Ford’s used-vehicle pre-owned dealer platform, in Michigan. In 2022, Pat Milliken Ford was the second ranked dealership in new vehicle sale volume for a Ford dealership in the U.S.

23. Gold sh Swim School Franchising LLC

Troy

Andrew McCuistan, president; Chris McCuistan, CEO and co-founder

2022 revenue: $261.9 million

2019 revenue: $146 million

Gold sh has grown enrollment and its franchise owners have built additional schools in new markets, expanding the number of communities it reaches, and in turn, continuing to grow revenue. Between 2019-2022, 59 Gold sh Swim School locations opened across North America. Gold sh Swim School has invested more than $100,000 into marketing and strategy to add franchise locations.

24. H.W. Kaufman Group Inc./Burns & Wilcox Ltd.

Farmington Hills

Alan Jay Kaufman, chairman, president and CEO, Kaufman; Danny Kaufman, EVP, Kaufman, president, Burns & Wilcox; Jodie Kaufman Davis, EVP, Kaufman

2022 revenue: $3.2 billion

2019 revenue: $2.4 billion

“Increased business performance is a result of expanded capabilities and product offerings, strategic acquisitions and partnerships, as well as investments in custom technology systems and tools,” said Kevin Heckman, executive VP and CFO. “The business investments have also led to more opportunities to hire quality, revenue-producing top talent.”

Burns & Wilcox of ces. | HW KAUFMAN GROUP/BURNS & WILCOX

GOLDFISH SWIM SCHOOL

25. Masco Corp.

Livonia

Keith Allman, CEO, president and director

2022 revenue: $8.68 billion

2019 revenue: $6.7 billion

New product launches and expanding the breadth of its well-known brands have contributed to Masco’s growth during the time period.

26. MJC Companies

Macomb

Michael Chirco, founder and president

2022 revenue: $174. 9 million

2019 revenue: $99.5 million

MJC Companies has seen an increase in demand, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, in both their for sale and rental communities. As a result, the company built more communities, increasing their supply and fueling growth. Prior to the pandemic, MJC Companies focused more on for sale communities, but the company increased its presence in the rental market due to increasing demand.

27. National Food Group Inc.

Novi

Sean Zecman, executive chairman; Jim Moore, president

2022 revenue: $224 million

2019 revenue: $134.7 million

National Food Group has seen continued growth from the industries it serves, including schools, correctional facilities, health care, recreation, entertainment food service and more. The company continues to see strong demand from its Zee Zees snack brand, which delivered over 1.5 billion servings across schools and retailers nationwide.

28. Empire Realty Group

Dearborn

Ahmad Fawaz, broker

2022 revenue: $77.9 million

2019 revenue: $36 million

Empire Realty brought services in house during the time period, including mortgage and title services, which it credits to streamlining processes and retaining clients. The realty group said services such as simpli ed documentation, user-friendly technology, and others, have also contributed to client retention and growth.

29. The Shyft Group Inc.

Novi

Daryl Adams, president, CEO and director

2022 revenue: $1.027 billion

2019 revenue: $756.5 million

Strategic acquisitions have been instrumental in driving growth at the company. The specialty vehicles manufacturer — which engineers and manufactures Class

A diesel luxury motor home chassis, contract manufacturing, service bodies, and upfits and accessories — experienced significant growth during the time frame. Further, COVID-19 drove demand for its products in last-mile delivery and infrastructure. In 2020, the Shyft G roup shifted its focus from emergency vehicles to walk-in vans and truck bodies used in e-commerce, which has fueled growth.

29. Universal Logistics Holdings Inc.

Warren

Tim Phillips, president, CEO and director of the board

2022 revenue: $2 billion

2019 revenue: $1.5 billion

The Moroun family-controlled trucking company continued its growth trend through a combination of successfully onboarding new customer awards and capitalizing on a favorable transportation market.

31. Visteon Corp.

Van Buren Township

Sachin Lawande, president and CEO

2022 revenue: $3.756 billion

2019 revenue: $2.945 billion

New business, new product launches, as well as products featured on key customer vehicles and platforms, have all contributed to growth at the automotive electronics supplier. A strong focus on execution — including product redesigns — helped address challenges created from the worldwide semiconductor and supply chain shortages.

31. Walker-Miller Energy Services

Detroit

Carla Walker-Miller, founder and CEO

2022 revenue: $58 million

2019 revenue: $24.6 million

Walker-Miller Energy Services, which focuses on energy-ef ciency assessments, credits the rapid growth of the clean energy economy as a contributing factor to its revenue growth.

33. Domino’s Pizza Inc.

Ann Arbor

Russell J. Weiner, CEO

2022 revenue: $4.537 billion

2019 revenue: $3.619 billion

Same store sales, global retail sales and new store openings have all positively impacted the pizza franchisor’s revenue growth. A focus on ordering and delivery technology has also helped drive repeat customer business.

34. Aptiv PLC

Troy

Kevin Clark, president, chairman and CEO

2022 revenue: $17.49 billion

2019 revenue: $14.36 billion

New business awards and investment in advanced technologies through acquisitions have contributed to growth. Acquisitions include the 2022 purchase of Alameda, Calif.-based Wind River for $3.5 billion from San Francisco-based private equity investment rm TPG Capital. Wind River is a provider of software that enables the secure development, deployment, operations and servicing of mission-critical intelligent systems.

35. Kenwal Steel Corp.

Dearborn

Stephen Eisenberg, chairman and CEO

2022 revenue: $1.23 billion

2019 revenue: $930 million

Over the time period, Kenwal’s revenue has increased as the price of steel has risen signi cantly.

36. Belle Tire Distributors Inc.

Allen Park

Jack Lawless III, CEO

2022 revenue: $557 million

2019 revenue: $400 million

“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.

37. Plante Moran

South eld

James Proppe, managing partner

2022 revenue: $919.9 million

2019 revenue: $687.4 million

Plante Moran has experienced organic growth across all its services, industry groups, and af liated entities.

Same store sales, global retail sales and new store openings have all positively impacted Domino’s. | DOMINO’S PIZZA

Empire Realty brought services in house in recent years. | EMPIRE REALTY GROUP

Belle Tire added 15-20 stores per year in new markets. | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

38. Plastipak Holdings Inc.

Plymouth

William Young, president and CEO; Michael J Plotzke, CFO, treasurer and senior vice president of finance

2022 revenue: $3.87 billion

2019 revenue: $3.1 billion

Plastipak Holdings has seen growth from its packaging solution products, which are manufactured for major global customers.

Products include PE T aerosols and proprietary technology related to Direct Object Printing, which allows the company to print labels directly on bottles, saving label costs and reducing paper and plastic waste. In 2016, Plastipak Holdings acquired the business assets of Evolve Polymers Ltd., a plastic recycler in Hemswell Cliff, England. T he acquisition grew the company’s global recycling capabilities. Last year, Plastipak Holdings completed the construction of a recycling plant in S pain that will produce 20,000 tons of food-grade recycled pellet per year.

39. International Extrusions Inc.

Garden City

Nicholas Noecker, president and CEO

2022 revenue: $147 million

2019 revenue: $99 million

Growth is attributed to expanding its markets and investing in new equipment and facilities that have expanded its capacity.

40. Arbor Bancorp, Bank of Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor

Tim Marshall, president and CEO

2022 revenue: $139 million

2019 revenue: $93.9 million

Organic growth and two acquisitions during the timeframe fueled growth.

41. University Bancorp Inc.

Ann Arbor

Stephen Lange Ranzini, president, CEO and director

2022 revenue: $92.2 million

2019 revenue: $55.7 million

The publicly traded bank holding company’s mortgage origination businesses has grown signi cantly over the years, contributing to its growth.

41. The Christman Co.

Detroit

Joseph Luther, senior vice president and general manager, Southeast Michigan operations; Mary LeFevre, regional vice president of Business Development

2022 revenue: $435.4 million

2019 revenue: $321.8 million

New construction projects have contributed to growth. Projects include a FedEx facility in Romulus, the new Godfrey Hotel in Detroit, and Vic Village South, a student housing development in Ann Arbor. The company has also seen growth from securing work in the education, health care, historic preservation, public and commercial sectors.

41. Cambridge Investors LLC

Troy

Thomas Purther, CEO

2022 revenue: $56.4 million

2019 revenue: $31.2 million Cambridge Investors LLC has grown between 2019-2022 by expanding its Planet Fitness tness centers in Michigan and Ohio, said Thomas Purther, CEO.

44. Avis Ford Inc.

South eld

Walter Douglas Sr., chairman ; Mark Douglas, president

2022 revenue: $184 million

2019 revenue: $132 million

Mark Douglas, president, said the dealership has experienced an overall increase in vehicle sales. The group has also bene ted from vehicle market conditions due to COVID-19, when the value of new and used vehicles signi cantly increased. The group was able to buy vehicles coming off lease at a more favorable, pre-de ned number as opposed to its high market value. “We were able to wholesale to other regions around the country at a signi cant pro t,” Douglas said.

44. Braun Construction Group Inc.

Farmington Hills

Steven Braun, president

2022 revenue: $36 million

2019 revenue: $17 million

Braun Construction Group’s growth stems from successful ventures into expanded market sectors and securing work from new and repeat clients.

46. General Motors Co.

Detroit

Mary Barra, chairman and CEO

2022 revenue: $156.74 billion

2019 revenue: $137.24 billion

Financial performance is driven by its core automotive business. In 2022, GM led the U.S. industry in total sales and delivered the largest year-over-year increase in market share of any automaker due to strong demand for its products and improved supply chain conditions. Further, GM is gaining market share in its eet business. Higher prices have also driven revenue increases for automakers.

47. MPS Group Inc.

Farmington Hills

Charlie Williams, chairman

2022 revenue: $165 million

2019 revenue: $120 million

MPS Group has organically increased revenue, and has increased contracts from its existing customers for additional sites and services. MPS has also added new customers and industries to its portfolio.

48. Albert Kahn Associates Inc.

Detroit

Alan Cobb, CEO and chairman

2022 revenue: $24 million

2019 revenue: $11 million

The storied architecture rm has bene ted from Detroit and Southeast Michigan’s emergence as an innovation hub, including electric vehicle technology. Projects that have contributed to growth include Volvo’s Manufacturing Plant in Ridgeville, S.C., Volvo’s all-electric vehicle assembly plant, and the Volvo Car University, a training facility also based in Ridgeville, S.C. The rm has also seen growth from a record amount of backlog of projects from 2018.

49. Wade Trim

Detroit

Andrew McCune, president and CEO

2022 revenue: $115 million

2019 revenue: $78.6 million

Continued growth of the economy and the need for infrastructure to support it has accelerated Wade Trim’s growth, said Andrew McCune, president and CEO. This has especially been the case in water and wastewater infrastructure expansion and rehabilitation projects. User rates, along with federal funding to states and municipalities, have implemented signi cant capital improvements.

50. Bowman Auto Group, Bowman Chevrolet Clarkston

Katie Bowman Coleman, president and owner

2022 revenue: $231 million

2019 revenue: $172.4 million

Since 2019, Bowman Auto Group has experienced signi cant growth, increasing sales year over year. In 2022, the automotive group sold more electric vehicles for Chevrolet in Michigan than any other dealership. Bowman has also invested in technology and streamlined operations at its dealership, improving sales and service processes.

The storied Albert Kahn architecture rm has bene ted from Detroit and Southeast Michigan’s emergence as an innovation hub.

Bowman Auto Group has experienced signi cant growth since 2019.

THE FAST 50 CRAIN'S LIST |

Ranked by combined revenue growth rankings, 2019-2022

GOLDFISH SWIM SCHOOL FRANCHISINGLLC 2701 Industrial Row Drive, Troy48084 800-856-5120; gold shswimschool.com

H.W. KAUFMAN GROUP INC./BURNS & WILCOXLTD.

30833 Northwestern Highway, Farmington Hills48334 248-932-9000; hwkaufman.com

25 MASCO CORP. 17450 College Parkway, Livonia48152 313-274-7400; masco.com

AlanKaufman,chairman, president and CEO, Kaufman; DannyKaufman,EVP, Kaufman, president, Burns & Wilcox; JodieKaufman Davis,EVP, Kaufman

Researched by Sonya D. Hill: shill@crain.com |This list is an approximate compilation of the fastest-growing companies in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw and Livingston counties. Want the full Excel version of this list — and every list? Become a Data Member: CrainsDetroit.com/data

THE FAST 50 CRAIN'S LIST |

Radical Plants owner strives to help more people ‘eat to live’

Jay Davis

When people see the name of her business, Radical Plants, owner Melissa Heath said “vegan market” isn’t always the rst thing that comes to mind.

“Cannabis wasn’t legal when we started the business,” Heath said. “Every few months I’d be somewhere, the Eastern Market or somewhere, and someone would come up to me and say, ‘Oh! I thought you were a weed company.’”

Now Radical Plants is bestknown for its dips and carrot hot dogs.

Just like weed, everything made at Radical Plants comes from the Earth. e market and restaurant, at 25404 Harper Ave. in St. Clair Shores, o ers a selection of items for customers living a vegan lifestyle. e products are safe for anyone with dairy, gluten and nut allergies, too.

All of the homemade Radical Plants items are produced out of the more than 2,000-square-foot Harper Avenue space. Putting her own spin on a classic

e Superdip is what started it all for Heath. She began to make the vegan-friendly, oil- and sugar-free creamy dip for family and friends as a healthy “junk food” option. e dip comes in three avors: chipotle lime, basil alfredo and better than ranch. Each dip is made with organic tofu and is about 25 calories a serving.

Most people have seen vegan dips and chilis. But a hot dog?

Radical Plants’ carrot dogs are packaged just like Ball Park Franks. Ingredients include carrots, apple cider vinegar, paprika, garlic and onion. e carrot dogs can be

free. I haven’t had to give one away yet.”

Getting started

For Heath, opening the St. Clair Shores store ended a long and interesting trip.

e entrepreneur had previous careers as an assignment editor and writer with WXYZ-TV and she worked in marketing for a while before she left the workforce to homeschool her two sons through high school. She started Radical Plants once they were in college.

Heath started her business with grand aspirations.

“My family and friends would tell me the Superdip was so good. I started to think (a major grocer) would pick it up, test it out for six months, then buy it from me,” Heath said.

Heath has been a vegan for 12 years and began making the items for herself, then started her wholesale company in 2017. When she decided to produce and sell her products, Heath made her Superdip out of her home, then in church basements before moving into a shared facility in Ypsilanti in 2019, where she operated until 2022.

To start, Heath sold direct to consumers at the Royal Oak Farmers Market and Eastern Market in Detroit. In 2019, she began working events and o ering self-distribution to retailers. Heath’s products at one point could be found in three small-format Meijer stores, some Better Health locations, Nino Salvaggio stores and Horrock’s in Lansing.

Heath said relationships with those stores ended after she started using an undisclosed outside distributor that did not deliver Radical Plants’ products on time.

Currently, Zerbo’s Market in Livonia, which o ers a variety of vegan and vegetarian items, sells the carrot dogs. Heath also o ers in-store and online sales.

Dec. 5.

e St. Clair Shores market offers a wide variety of items. A display case near the entrance features several vegan bars, including one similar to a Butter nger candy bar. A small refrigerator on the south side of the store features items only o ered by Radical Plants, including Heath’s homemade vegan chili made with textured vegetable protein and black beans. Radical Plants’ queso vegano comprises potatoes and carrots. Homemade salads and cakes are also featured.

Positive response

Customers are glad Radical Plants is in the area, too. Heath each week o ers a rotating list of dinner entrees, including a barbecue sandwich made with jackfruit, vegan nachos and vegan gumbo. e dinners were not o ered initially.

being so close to home gives Mebus a chance to take a break.

“I found (Radical Plants) a month ago. I was thrilled when I saw the store,” Mebus said. “It’s nice to have somebody else do the cooking for a change. And nobody else makes a carrot dog. You’re kind of amazed when you try it. It’s got a really good avor and texture. We really needed this here.”

cooked in a variety of ways, but Heath recommends not boiling them. Once cooked, the carrot dog has the consistency you’d nd in a hot dog you’d get at a ballpark. e dogs are 25 calories each — about 150 calories less than a regular hot dog.

“It’s a whole carrot that’s marinated,” Heath said. “ ere are actually a lot of people who make them but we’re the only company that produces them. You get people who turn their nose up at them, then they’re surprised at how good they taste. I tell a lot of people to try them and if they don’t like it, they can have it for

Meanwhile, each Saturday Heath continues to sell her items at Eastern Market and introduces her vegan products to new customers.

“We’re working hard to introduce things to people,” she said. “It’s not about trying to force a different lifestyle on anybody. But if you can eat the things you like and not have to worry so much about what you’re putting into your body, why wouldn’t you try it?”

Finding a home

Last year, the St. Clair Shores resident signed a three-year lease for the Harper Avenue space with an option to renew. Heath opened the Radical Plants storefront on

Heath said she operates her business on a shoestring budget. She runs the store with the help of two sta ers. ere’s very little money for marketing, Heath said, and she’s not very active on social media. Customers nd their way to her shop by word of mouth.

Still, Heath projects Radical Plants to bring in “signi cantly more” than $100,000 in revenue in her rst year in St. Clair Shores. She expects that gure to grow every year.

“You have mistakes you make the rst year. You buy too much of something, too little of something else,” Heath said. “We’re already starting to gure those things out. It’s been a learning process, but we’re glad we’re here. Finding this place was a Godsend. It got old driving all the way out to Ypsi every day.”

“We don’t have a big menu, which is fantastic,” Heath said. “We’ve been ying by the seat of our pants with a lot of this because we never even planned to do retail. en we said we had to have some food. I’m a cook, not a restaurateur. I didn’t want to do the whole restaurant thing because I’d seen so many go under and I don’t know how to run a restaurant.”

Radical Plants has counter seating for a handful of diners.

“We have people who come in here three nights a week for dinner,” Heath said. “You get people who get tired of having to gure out what to make for dinner. en, if you’re a vegan, it’s even harder. People come in here for dinner, see the one thing on the menu and they’re happy about it.”

St. Clair Shores resident Sharon Mebus lives a short trip away from the store. Mebus, who has lived a vegan lifestyle for ve years, said she doesn’t mind making the dishes herself, but Radical Plants

Perfect timing

Heath found good timing to establish her business. e vegan food market is expected to grow to $36.3 billion annually by 2030, according to online market data analysis group Allied Market Research, up from $19.7 billion in 2020.

As a regular customer, Mebus beams when talking about Radical Plants. at type of response makes Heath emotional.

“Obviously, I want the business to succeed, be pro table, all that stu ,” the entrepreneur said. “But when you get people who tell you how you’ve changed their lives, that really means a lot.

“It’s a good time for a business like this because there are many more people who are paying much closer attention to their health, what they’re eating. I really feel like it’s my responsibility to provide people with something that’s pretty healthy, but more importantly, it tastes good.”

“We have people who come in here three nights a week for dinner.”

Melissa

Heath, owner, Radical Plants

Melissa Heath opened the storefront for her Radical Plants business on Dec. 5, 2022, in St. Clair Shores. Heath has run the company since 2018. | PHOTOS BY JAY DAVIS

The vegan coney dogs are made with carrot dogs, a vegan chili, and are topped with the standard yellow mustard and onions. Right: Radical Plants owner Melissa Heath began making her Superdip for family and friends as a vegan junk food treat.

Demolition permit issued for Gilbert-owned building

By Kirk Pinho

e city of Detroit has issued a demolition permit for a building in the footprint of Dan Gilbert’s large proposed mixed-use project next to his Rocket Companies Inc. headquarters downtown.

e permit for the building at 1000 Farmer St. was issued Aug. 9, according to city records. It sits on the site of the planned project now being referred to as e Development on Cadillac Square — a new name for what was long known as the Monroe Blocks development.

Next to the 1000 Farmer building is the Pochelon Building at 815 Bates St., where contractors in recent weeks also began removing some exterior components such as gargoyles, according to Historic Detroit, which tracks buildings and architecture in the city.

Crain’s sent Gilbert’s Bedrock

LLC real estate company emails seeking more details about activity and demolition on that block. A city permit has not yet been issued for demolition of the Pochelon Building, although Detroit-based demolition contractor Detroit Dismantling Corp. has recently submitted to the state what are called noti cations of intent to renovate/demolish for both buildings. ose are processed by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and state Department of Licensing and Regulatory A airs.

e EGLE/LARA noti cation for 815 Bates St., led Aug. 11, says a complete demolition is planned using an excavator or other heavy equipment. It says the building was built in 1925 and is about 23,000 square feet. e 1000 Farmer St. building noti cation, led July 28, also says that 24,000-square-foot, 1925 building

is to be torn down using an excavator or other heavy equipment.

Detroit Dismantling Corp. is listed as the demolition contractor. A representative for Detroit Dismantling late Monday afternoon said he couldn’t comment. is isn’t the rst time demolition of properties on the site has appeared imminent.

In March 2018, Crain’s reported that Bedrock planned to tear down 1000 Farmer and 815 Bates, starting that summer, although that didn’t materialize as the mixed-use project hit snags following a December 2018 groundbreaking.

e Development on Cadillac Square has been stalled since, although earlier this year, Bedrock said it had recon gured the project, which as of February was expected to begin construction in the months following the NFL Draft in April next year.

e prior vision for the site included 482 residential units, but the recalibrated vision calls for 250-280 units. It has also fallen from an anticipated 857,000 square feet of o ce space down to about 400,000 square feet. e National eatre facade is also expected to be repurposed for a new 2,000-seat concert venue.

A retail, restaurant and market hall component, clocking in at about 90,000 square feet, could also include a new downtown grocery store, and the entertain-

ment component, which includes the new National eatre vision, encompasses about 60,000 square feet. Between 1,500 and 1,800 parking spaces are also planned.

e rst phase, consisting of the National eatre project and market hall components, is to begin by Sept. 1, 2024; the second phase, with residential, retail and parking, is to begin by Oct. 1, 2026; and the third phase, consisting of parking, retail and o ce space, is to begin by Jan. 1, 2028.

Court ruling likely to result in more slip-and-fall lawsuits

By David Eggert

LANSING — A recent Michigan Supreme Court ruling that overturned 22 years of precedent will have major implications within liability law, bene ting people who sue property owners — typically businesses — for injuries sustained in falls and other accidents.

e majority, in a 5-2 decision, ruled that whether a danger is “open and obvious” should be determined by juries, not judges. Justices overruled a 2001 opinion, known as Lugo, in which the high court said the open-and-obvious doctrine and any exceptions to it must be analyzed by judges assessing landowners’ duty to visitors.

Many slip-and-fall and trip-andfall lawsuits were dismissed at the outset unless open, obvious dangers were “unreasonably dangerous” or “e ectively unavoidable.”

e problem with the legal framework, Chief Justice Elizabeth Clement wrote in a July 28 opinion, “is that the analysis of each party’s common sense is imbalanced; while the invitee’s own negligence can cut o liability in full, the land possessor’s cannot. By shifting the open and obvious danger doctrine to breach, it will allow the jury to do just what this Court — and the Legislature — intend: conduct a comparative analysis of each party’s fault.”

e ruling likely will result in more lawsuits going to trial, prompting critics to warn of increased litigation costs for businesses and higher insurance premiums.

“I was disappointed that the majority overturned a longstanding common law doctrine that served to impose obligations both on the premises owner as well as on invitees to the premises,” said Mary Massaron, a Bloom eld Hillsbased appellate attorney with

Plunkett Cooney who led an amicus brief in the case on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Insurers also submitted arguments that were rejected by the court.

“Historically, while the premises owner or occupier has an obligation to keep its property so that it is not unreasonably unsafe for people who go on it, the premises invitees — those who go on the property — have also in the past had an obligation to protect themselves against open and obvious conditions,” Massaron said. “Now, while the court allowed this to be a question for the jury, what it means is more litigation will likely be led, cases will be more expensive to defend and insurance costs are likely to rise.”

Supporters say the decision will give plainti s a fairer shake when they sue and lead to fault being fairly apportioned, as required under the law.

“What Lugo e ectively did was create practical immunity in virtually all premises liability cases,” said Don Fulkerson, a lawyer with Fabian, Sklar, King & Liss in Farmington Hills who wrote a friend-ofthe-court brief for the Michigan Association for Justice, a trial law-

yers organization. “It undermined our policy of requiring businesses to maintain safe premises and either warn their customers about hazards or eliminate hazards. ...

ey supposedly owed this high duty, but they were e ectively immune.”

At issue were two cases that were combined before the Supreme Court. One involved Ahlam Kandil-Elsayed, who sued F & E Oil Inc. in Wayne County after slipping and falling on ice and snow at a gas station. e other involved Kroger Co., which was sued in Washtenaw County after Renee Pinsky tripped over a thin cable that was strung across a closed checkout lane and broke her elbow. Pinsky, while checking out, had used that adjacent lane to go back into the store to replace a bag of our.

Kandil-Elsayed’s lawsuit was tossed by the trial judge and the appeals court. A trial judge let Pinsky’s suit proceed, but the appeals court dismissed it.

e high court reversed in both cases, saying there are genuine issues of fact that are relevant to whether the defendants breached their duty to the injured plainti s

and, if so, whether the plainti s were comparatively at fault and should have their damages reduced.

Joining Clement in the majority were Justices Richard Bernstein, Megan Cavanagh, Elizabeth Welch and Kyra Bolden. e Legislature, Clement wrote, “made clear when it enacted MCL 600.2957 nearly 30 years ago that it intended the jury to allocate the ‘liability of each person’ in all tort actions.” But in practice, she said, judges looked primarily at plainti s’ actions instead of defendants’ duty to take reasonable care.

Justices David Viviano and Brian Zahra dissented.

Viviano wrote that the court “has radically disrupted premises liability law in our state.” Before, he said, defendants owed a duty to exercise reasonable care to protect visitors from dangerous conditions but generally were not liable if the conditions, like ice and snow, were open and obvious.

“Today, for the rst time, that is no longer the law,” Viviano wrote.

“ e e ect of the majority’s decision is to create a vast expanse of liability where none existed before.”

e dissent said businesses and homeowners will need to clear ice and snow during or soon after a storm or face lawsuits. ey will incur new costs, it said.

e majority, however, said landowners do not have to immediately rectify hazards on their properties because they need only exercise reasonable care under the circumstances, a standard it said was unaltered by the ruling.

Erin McDonough, executive director of the Insurance Alliance of Michigan, said the decision leaves business owners and homeowners guessing whether measures they have taken to protect people from known and unknown haz-

ards will be appropriate in the eyes of jurors.

“ is means there is no common standard because every jury could decide di erently. e uncertainty makes it very di cult for insurers to assess potential liability, likely resulting in a higher premium to ensure claims can be covered,” she said in a statement. e ruling, backers say, reversed a decision that caused unjust results and re ects the court’s shift from a conservative to liberal majority.

In Michigan, people seeking compensation for injuries see economic damages — nancial losses such as medical expenses and lost earnings — reduced by their percentage of fault. If they are more than 50% at fault, they cannot obtain punitive damages for pain and su ering.

Brian Kutinsky, a personal injury attorney with Farmington Hillsbased Malin & Kutinsky, represents Pinsky in her complaint against Kroger. e Lugo decision, he said, “completely turned premises liability law on its head” and now there has been a “very drastic change” back to a “more just law” that is in line with those in most every other state.

Judges dismissed so many cases over two decades despite people having legitimate claims, he said. Not every plainti will prevail, he said, but “cases that should have been a case will now go to the jury.”

“Business owners are going to have to start paying attention to this because they don’t get a free ride anymore,” Kutinsky said. “ e focus is back on the property owner as opposed to the guest or the person using the property. ... It’s a good thing from a public policy standpoint. is will make for safer premises for the general public.”

The Michigan Hall of Justice, where the state Supreme Court is located in Lansing. | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

A demolition permit has been issued for the Dan Gilbert-owned 1000 Farmer St. building (foreground) in the footprint of a proposed large mixed-use project downtown. | KIRK PINHO

Earlier this month, the company acquired 270 acres of land, marking its rst major commitment to move forward with the plant, expected to create 2,350 jobs.

Chapman said he has received more than half a dozen death threats, mostly vague in nature, as recently as a month ago. He isn’t worried about it though — he said he’s endured worse over 37 years as a cop for Big Rapids. It’s the misinformation that bugs him. He said the opposition to the project comes from a small but vocal minority that has often fanned the ames of conspiracy theories.

Media relations has become another facet of Chapman’s job as of late. Just in the past few weeks, he said, he has taken calls and given interviews to various publications throughout Michigan as well as the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Politico, Hu ngton Post and the New York Daily News, which was checking on a rumor that the Environmental Protection Agency shut part of the project down (it did not).

“ at’s the kind of coverage this thing’s getting. It’s insane. It is eing insane,” he said.

e trouble is hardly worth the $25,000 annual salary of township supervisor. “At the end of this month, I qualify for Social Security, and when that check comes in, it will be larger than what I get here,” Chapman said.

e job is in Chapman’s blood, though. His father and grandfather were township supervisors, and his great-grandfather was township path master. His daughter is a supervisor for the county’s emergency central dispatch.

Chapman is fth generation in Mecosta County, and he lives about a mile away from the future battery factory — “downhill, downstream and downwind of this plant, so it’s not like we’re throwing somebody else under the bus,” he said.

Saffron De Twah owner/chef to take a 6-month sabbatical

By Jay Davis

Some changes are coming for a popular acclaimed Detroit restaurant.

To the extent possible, Chapman has tried to remove himself from the politics of the plant. e supervisor, a “rather adamant Republican,” looks at the plant as an economic savior for one of the poorest parts of the state, plagued by job and population loss. On a personal level, he thinks the plant could compel his young grandkids to eventually make a living in their hometown.

“Our biggest export in this county is our young people,” he said.

“We have people like my grandson who nished high school, goes to college and the rst thing he does is look out of state for employment because there’s nothing here.”

Some politicians have argued that the Gotion plant poses national security risks. ey also continue to debate the merits of allowing a Chinese company to collect $715 million in state incentives and millions more in federal clean energy incentives. Chapman’s worries are a little more practical.

“I fought hard against a roundabout there because of the truck tra c,” Chapman said, pointing over the wheel of his red 2022 Ford F-150 XLT to an intersection near the battery factory site.

“Hybrid is as far as I’ll go,” he said of his truck. “ e technology’s not there yet. I use this to haul things.”

For the record, Chapman said he isn’t opposed to owning an EV

when the time is right. But what he seems to mean is that he’s less concerned about what exactly the plant is producing than he is about what the plant represents to the community. At an average wage of $24.50 an hour, payroll at the plant will come out to roughly $4.5 million every two weeks, most of which will be spent locally, Chapman said. “My God, do you know what that’s going to do to this community? To the region?”

As part of a development agreement being worked out between Gotion and Green Township, the company would pay $200,000 annually to the township for police and re protection for the plant. e money will be spent to train re ghters and medics to handle potential emergencies related to hazardous materials at the plant. Chapman said that after launching the plant and training personnel, he hopes the money can be diverted to hire another sheri for the township.

at might seem minor in the scheme of things, but to Chapman it’s a big deal, and he thinks most residents agree. at’s why he feels duty-bound to stay on as supervisor and see the Gotion project through, despite e orts to stop it.

“I am not going to allow them to destroy the greatest economic opportunity this community has seen since the 1800s,” he said.

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Sa ron De Twah owner and chef Omar Anani is taking a sixmonth sabbatical beginning later this month. e move will give Anani time to focus on his mental health and physical well-being, personal projects and community service, according to the Moroccan restaurant’s website and a social media post. Anani su ered an injury earlier this month while working at the east-side restaurant, according to the post.

Sa ron De Twah will shift to limited service during Anani’s time o . e last day the restaurant will be open to the public is Aug. 21. Sa ron De Twah, at 7636 Gratiot Ave., plans to reopen to the public on March 15. ose dates are subject to change, according to the post. Anani is assisting sta in nding new opportunities, the post says.

During his down time, Anani will work on building upgrades, participate in meal relief opportunities, travel to South Asia and the Middle East to try new foods and work with culinary leaders in Detroit and other places to discuss the importance of mental health and well-being for chefs and food service workers.

“It may seem odd to consider doing this while all this growth is happening — a second James Beard nomination, cooking at the Tigers Club at Comerica Park, becoming a Chopped champion, etc. — but the reality is that shows like e Bear aren’t just dramatic for the sake of viewers,” the social media post reads. “ e industry is hard on chefs’ bodies, and on their mental and emotional health, and we know of other chefs who have suddenly passed away from heart attacks or because of severe depression.

“Given that awareness and the

impact of working in kitchens since he was a young kid, (Anani) has been considering this idea of taking a break for (several) months. Recently, he severely sprained his hamstring while at the restaurant, and that was the sign he needed. It’s been 29 years in restaurants and the goal is to rest, not quit.”

Anani did not immediately respond to Crain’s request for comment.

During Anani’s time o , the restaurant will o er limited catering for events like weddings and birthdays. Sa ron De Twah will continue to provide meals for the Sa ron Community Kitchen initiative, launched in 2019 to provide meals for Detroit residents in need, and will host ticketed events and pop-ups at the restaurant.

Anani opened Sa ron De Twah in April 2019. He is a multiple James Beard Foundation awards nominee, and a 2023 nalist. Anani last month won an episode of the Food Network’s “Chopped” competition.

5-Hour Energy founder to invest in media company

By Nick Manes

Metro Detroit businessman

Manoj Bhargava is poised to become the majority owner of Sports Illustrated and numerous other publications under a complex deal announced last week.

Bhargava, the founder of 5-hour Energy and a host of other business ventures largely based out of his Farmington Hills o ce park, signed a letter of intent to invest $50 million in the Arena Group Group Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AREN) in a deal that would make him 65% owner of the New York City media compa-

ny that publishes Sports Illustrated, eStreet, Parade, Men’s Journal, HubPages and more than 200 other properties.

Additionally, Arena Group would operate Bhargava’s own media properties, Bridge Media Networks, a venture he began ramping up last year to help alleviate soaring advertising costs for his signature 5-hour Energy brand.

“Media companies have become so enamored of delivery technology that they have forgotten the basics – advertisers (their customers), their most valuable audience and even content gets a back seat,” Bhargava said in a statement.

Signs opposing Gotion’s $2.4 billion battery factory in Green Township are displayed around the small community near Big Rapids. | KURT NAGL

Saffron De Twah owner and chef Omar Anani will take a six-month sabbatical beginning later this month. The east side restaurant will be closed to the public during Anani’s time off. | SAFFRON DE TWAH VIA FACEBOOK

In an interview with Crain’s last week, Tussing discussed his strategy for growing the Buddy’s brand and introducing the originator of Detroit-style pizza to a wider audience.

On scaling the business

Tussing said he’s not looking to double the number of Buddy’s locations over the next year, but didn’t get more speci c than that. Expanding into new states is very much on the table, he said. at could come in the form of new full-service restaurants, more carryout-only stores and selling at more venues like in its new deal with the University of Michigan at the school’s athletic venues in Ann Arbor.

“Full-service is something Buddy’s will always be about, but that doesn’t mean we should constrain ourselves to it,” Tussing said. “It’s important to think about the relevance of full-service and limited service. A lot of pizza companies are moving toward the carryout side of the business. If people are looking for easier ways to bring our pizza home, having more stores in more places will satisfy that need.

“We’ve got to think about expansion into new states. I’ve got a lot of people who reach out to me who want (Buddy’s) where they live. We’ve got to think about where to go next. Is it neighboring states? Is it places where people from Detroit have migrated to?”

On determining outside markets

Tussing said there are a variety of markets into which Buddy’s could expand. Moving into areas that already have a distinctive style of pizza, like Chicago or New York, may not be necessary, he said.

“When it comes to expansion, I think about markets where people are looking for a change from the norm,” Tussing said. “We’ve got the Detroit-style crust. Crust is a big part of the pizza. If something on a pizza isn’t eaten it’s typically the crust. You don’t see

that with Buddy’s. ere are a lot of places I know of that would eat us up.”

Tussing said he has a hard time determining markets in which Buddy’s wouldn’t work, but that regional expansion through the Midwest makes the most sense.

“Not into downtown Chicago,” he said. “Whether you’re talking Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin — those places make a lot of sense.”

Buddy’s also sells its pizza nationally on the Goldbelly website, where it sees the most orders from outside the Midwest. “It’s a lot of Texas, Florida, Arizona, California. ere’s a lot of interest out there,” Tussing said.

On

his prior knowledge of Buddy’s

Tussing said working in the pizza industry the last six years made him aware of Buddy’s as a company. He wasn’t as familiar with Buddy’s as a consumer, though.

e new CEO said he’s learned a lot in a short amount of time.

“I’m uncovering a lot of things myself. If you go through the stores, you see that each has its own vibe in a way. at’s something that was interesting to me coming in,” he said. “We’ve got product standards we’ve maintained for 77 years. ey created a new style with the Detroit-style crust.

“ is is a brand that creates. It doesn’t live in a box. When you think about the pizza space, you think about commoditization. Buddy’s is a brand that brings a high level of craft and experience to people. It’s a brand where the people put a lot of heart into what they create. You don’t see a lot of places like that in this space.”

On joining the company

Tussing takes the helm of Buddy’s after spending much of his career in advertising and marketing. He said the Buddy’s brand is something the company wants to build on, which is what made him the ideal candidate for the position.

“A lot of times CEOs in restaurant groups are coming from operational sides of business,” Tussing said. “ ey were looking for a CEO with a marketing back-

ground. ey recognize the Buddy’s brand is special and they want to build o that.”

e opportunity to grow the Detroit-born company piqued his interest.

“I’ve worked with a lot of legacy brands that wanted to stay relevant and that also wanted to expand,” Tussing said. “Buddy’s ts that. It’s got this 77-year legacy, but most people in the country don’t know about it. ere’s such a great opportunity for growth there.”

On adding a COO

Shortly after he took over as CEO, Tussing tapped 58-year-old Joe Dominiak to take over the newly created COO position. Dominiak’s job is to improve operations and deliver employee and guest engagement, Tussing said.

Previously, Dominiak served almost four years as president and COO of Florida-based hospitality company ARC Group Inc. He also had extensive experience with brands including Skyline Chili, Tilted Kilt and Camp Bow Wow. Tussing and Dominiak have moved to metro Detroit from Chicago and Florida, respectively, since joining the Buddy’s team.

“I thought it’d be great to bring in a high-power leader with experience in restaurants. I thought that was a smart move,” Tussing said. “I believe that a big part of strong leadership is having great talent around you. (Dominiak) is a great operator who can pre-

MSU board authorizes alcohol sales at games

EAST LANSING — e Michigan State University board of trustees on Wednesday authorized the school to request liquor licenses to sell alcohol to the public at four football games in the upcoming season.

In a special meeting, the board voted 8-0 to lift an MSU ban against selling alcohol at games, which had aligned with previous state restrictions. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last month signed legislation permitting the state to issue up to ve licenses per university for sales within the public areas of facilities that are customarily used for athletic events.

e university wants to sell beer,

seltzer and hard cider at Spartan Stadium on Sept. 16 (vs. Washington), Sept. 23 (Maryland), Oct. 21 (Michigan) and Nov. 4 (Nebraska).

A resolution approved Wednesday also lets the school request licenses from the Michigan Liquor Control Commission to sell at the Breslin Student Events Center, Munn Ice Arena and Old College Field, which includes the soccer, baseball and softball stadiums.

Sales of alcoholic beverages will start an hour before kicko and end when there are ve minutes left on the game clock in the third quarter, said Vennie Gore, MSU’s senior vice president for Student Life & Engagement.

Vice President and Chief Safety

O cer Marlon Lynch said police

departments at Big Ten schools that sell alcohol at games said they have not seen an increase in alcohol-related incidents. Alcohol is sold in the MSUFCU Club and suites area in Spartan Stadium, MSU Athletic Director Alan Haller said.

Nine of the 14 conference schools sell alcohol in their football stadiums, Haller said. MSU estimates it will sell about 12,000 units per game and generate $250,000 in gross revenue per game. Net income was not immediately clear once expenses, including the 60-80 new sta that will be needed, are factored in.

University of Michigan o cials have not yet indicated if the school plans to sell alcohol to the public at its sports venues.

serve, maintain and elevate Buddy’s standards, which are already really high.

Tussing said that because Buddy’s is primarily a full-service restaurant chain, the COVID-19 pandemic hurt the business. “But we’ve seen business improve over the last year or so,” he said. “Hiring (Dominiak) was a strategic move. It’s great for the brand, and great for me, personally.”

On leadership before he took over

Prior to Tussing joining Buddy’s in May, the pizza company had been without a CEO for more than a year, after Burton Heiss left the company in March 2021 after less than two years in the role.

Tussing said private equity group CapitalSpring, which purchased a stake in Buddy’s in 2018 and is now the sole owner, handled operations for the 14 months

Buddy’s was without a CEO. “(CapitalSpring) has operations groups that support their investments,” Tussing said. “ ey had some folks come in, along with some of the (Buddy’s) management team, running the business as a uni ed group. ey looked for a new CEO for more than a year. I respect that they took their time working through it. at’s to the bene t of everyone involved.”

On what would make his tenure a success

Tussing said his focus is on adding to the Buddy’s legacy, not detracting from it.

“I’ve got to help protect what made it special, and introduce it to a lot of people,” he said. “Even though it’s a 77-year-old brand, I want to get that allure about it out there. If I can help create that buzz and momentum, that’d be a success.”

Buddy’s Pizza in Detroit.

Buddy’s Pizza is touted as the originator of the square deep-dish pizza. | BUDDY’S PIZZA

David Eggert

Meijer, Redico sue Plymouth Township over store plan denial

Kirk Pinho

Meijer Inc. and a developer are appealing Plymouth Township’s decision to reject plans for a new store there.

e Wayne County Circuit Court lawsuit, which was led this month by the Walker-based retail giant as well as South eld-based developer Redico LLC, asks the court to overturn the Planning Commission’s June decision that put the brakes on the proposal for a new 159,000-square-foot Meijer grocery store with a gas station at Five Mile and Beck roads. e complaint says the commission rejected the proposal through reasoning “not supported by competent, material and substantial evidence on the record.”

At that time, residents and non-

residents alike expressed concerns about increased tra c, crime, disruption to the community’s character and the existence of other grocery options within a few miles of the proposed store, which would sit on 21.5 acres of land that Redico owns but would sell to Meijer.

In the complaint, which is before Judge Brian Sullivan, Meijer and Redico say the Planning Commission’s reasoning for denying the special land use request is either not rooted in reality — such as that the road infrastructure to support the development is lacking — or ambiguous.

e appeal says tra c concerns are “unsupported by the record” and that the Michigan International Technology Center Authority — which oversees the 800 acres

of former state prison property that encompasses the Meijer site — plans millions in improvements to the area’s road network. It also says the argument that the project is “not the intent of the MITC” is vague and without meaning.

Frank Guglielmi, senior director of corporate communications for Meijer, said in an emailed statement that the company believes the Planning Commission “mistakenly denied a request that met all the stated requirements for approval. An appeal is a common step in these situations, and we look forward to having the request reviewed by the Commission again in the near future.”

Township Supervisor Kurt Heise, who has supported the Meijer development, declined comment, citing pending litigation.

One of the project’s opponents, a local gas station owner, helped coordinate a campaign against it.

Joseph Xuereb of Livonia-based Xuereb Law Group PC, who represented the gas station owner, Ned Jarwich, said in an email to Crain’s that he hopes the appeal “is just a last minute Hail Mary by the developer to build the Meijer.”

“I hope the township allows its

attorneys to mount a vigilant defense of the Planning Commission denial,” Xuereb wrote.

“ e decision to deny Special Land Use Approval was the considered decision of the Township Planning Commission after listening to a full room of residents expressing their concern over tra c, taxes, and crime implications of the development...,” he wrote.

market is expected to eclipse $3 billion this year, behind only California, which has 30 million more people.

e reality is there are fewer dispensaries selling medical marijuana as demand for adult-use recreational marijuana dominates — recreational sales totaled $270.6 million in July, compared to $188.8 million a year ago. And with those prices near historic lows, it’s simply easier and cheaper for all consumers, recreational or medical, to purchase marijuana on the recreational side of the business.

“For us, it’s expensive to maintain both licenses and follow both sets of rules,” said Ankur Rungta, CEO of Ann Arbor-based C3 Industries, a vertically integrated company with a grow operation in Webberville and 13 High Pro le Cannabis Shop locations across the state. “It’s a tighter market right now and managing costs is critical. As the market shrinks, it just makes less and less sense (to sell medical marijuana).”

Puf ng prescription

Michigan voters approved medical marijuana sales in 2008, a full decade before voting to allow recreational sales. But the legal framework to allow medical sales wasn’t established until 2016, after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that the 2008 law didn’t allow for dispensaries. e long delays led to the state not issuing the rst batch of retail licenses until August of 2018.

e medical industry was largely supported by caregivers, those growing marijuana at home and distributing that product to dispensaries — the state began phasing out caregiver sales to dispensaries in 2020 as recreational marijuana came online and commercial grow operations were churning out product. Caregivers can still supply registered medical marijuana patients, but cannot sell to dispensaries.

e state requires a medical marijuana card for “patients,” who used the product to treat mostly

chronic conditions, requiring patients to get a medical marijuana card issued by medical doctors and doctors of osteopathy. One di erence there is patients can be any age as long as they qualify and have doctors' approval, where recreational cannabis is only available to those 21 and older.

David Schulman, a former vascular and thoracic surgeon at Henry Ford Health and other metro Detroit health systems, started Huntington Woods-based Greenpath Holistic Medicine in 2017 to review and approve patients seeking medical cards.

“I was done with surgery and done with teaching, and I was done with organized medicine,” Schulman said. “But I wanted a source of income, though that wasn’t the major factor. It was more curiosity about marijuana and it was something I could do with my license without having to be involved in traditional medicine.”

Schulman said he doesn’t issue cards for common complaints like insomnia and anxiety, but saw great improvements in patients with migraines and other chronic conditions.

“I would say I started as a skeptic, thinking my patients would be young college students looking to sell weed to their friends,” Schul-

man said. “But I discovered a large cohort of patients who found marijuana is superior to the crap drugs other doctors were putting them on.”

e state had more than 251,000 registered marijuana card holders in July 2021, making Michigan the largest medical marijuana market of the time, according to data from the CRA. Of those card holders, nearly 61% of the cards were issued for chronic pain and more than 22% for arthritis.

But plummeting recreational prices started cutting into those sales. Recreational wholesale prices had almost reached parity with medical marijuana by July 2021 and continued to crash, reaching as low as $80.16 an ounce by January of this year.

e result: fewer people maintaining their medical marijuana cards. As of July 31 this year, state data shows Michigan has shed more than 100,000 medical card holders, dropping to 141,005.

“ ere used to be some meaningful advantages for a medical card for consumers — lower taxes and higher purchasing limits,” Rungta said. “But those advantages are less important as overall prices come down.”

Medical marijuana carries a 0% excise tax, compared to a 10% excise tax for recreational marijua-

na, and users are able to purchase larger doses of medical marijuana than recreational. All sales do incur a 6% sales tax.

at translated to an ounce of recreational marijuana — an amount that would produce roughly 60 marijuana cigarettes or joints — costing $3 more than an ounce of medical marijuana in July 2023 prices. e CRA limits recreational THC concentrates in edibles at 10 milligrams per dose, compared to 50 milligrams per dose in medical as well as di ering doses for tinctures and oils.

For many, renewing a two-year medical marijuana card, which costs between $100 and $200 for the medical appointment, isn’t worth the trouble, Rungta said.

C3 Industries has shed all but one of its medical marijuana growing licenses and almost all of its medical marijuana sales licenses.

“We have the largest addressable recreational market in the country as far as sales per capita,” Rungta said. “It’s not from medical marijuana consumers going to rec. It’s just exploding. at has to do with the low cost of product.”

While the medical market in the state continues to decline, the adult-use recreational market is reaching new heights, selling more than $270 million in July alone. e state’s total marijuana

Snuffed out?

ere are still good reasons to maintain a medical marijuana market, and Schulman said it has nothing to do with money.

“What if they encounter the law or have a job with drug testing?,” Schulman asked. “Cannabis still isn’t like other medicine because of the stigma. If they keep a medical card, they are less likely to face drug testing from their employer, and for those that get picked up for DUIs and are found to have marijuana in their system, they get hit with that whether they were high or not. People are still threatened because of marijuana use.”

Kevin Mechigian, owner of Tree House CBD in Walled Lake and Express Med Card, said despite declines in card holders business is holding steady.

“For the average consumer, a medical card doesn’t make sense anymore,” Mechigian said. “But if you use cannabis daily or even monthly, it gets competitive.”

A card at Express Med Card costs $110, he said.

But he isn’t high on the market. Mechigian expects medical marijuana to all but phase out of the state in the next ve years.

“Maybe it doesn’t go away, but it will continue to change,” Mechigian said.

Rungta said the medical market in Michigan or elsewhere won’t survive until medical marijuana becomes more legitimate as medicine, not just as a recreational drug with a medical backdoor.

“For medical to really drive a comeback, there would need to be di erentiation. It’s the same product, essentially, on both sides (medical and recreational) of the business. We’re just not there yet,” Rungta said. “It has to come through R&D. A product that’s something closer to medicine and more data driven evidence to support it.”

Ankur Rungta, CEO of Ann Arbor-based C3 Industries, a vertically integrated company with a grow operation in Webberville and 13 High Pro le Cannabis Shop locations across the state says medical marijuana doesn’t make sense anymore. “It’s a tighter market right now and managing costs is critical. As the market shrinks, it just makes less and less sense (to sell medical marijuana).” | C3 INDUSTRIES

Kevin Mechigian, owner of Tree House CBD in Walled Lake and Express Med Card, said despite declines in medical marijuana card holders business in Michigan is holding steady. TREEHOUSE CBD

Plymouth Township put the brakes on a proposal for a new 159,000-square-foot Meijer grocery store with a gas station at Five Mile and Beck roads. | BLOOMBERG

e synagogue raised the funds for the renovations as part of a $5.75 million, comprehensive campaign that is also supporting an endowment to fund building maintenance and programming with the nonpro t agencies taking space in it. e William Davidson Foundation, Jewish Fund, Max and Marjorie Fisher Foundation, D. Dan and Betty Kahn Foundation and Gilbert Family Foundation supported the campaign, along with more than 300 individual donors. It ended up raising closer to $6 million in that campaign.

e synagogue is now looking to raise another $1.5 million by year’s end to build out a roof deck for weddings and other events, purchase a parking lot and fund additional building maintenance, Rudman said.

It’s all part of the synagogue’s philosophy to rethink how its spaces can be of use to the Jewish community, said Ariana Silverman, Downtown Synagogue’s rabbi.

“We’re going for vibrancy in the building every day of the week,” beyond the synagogue’s use of it on Friday nights, Saturday mornings and Jewish holidays, she said.

“I think there are houses of worship starting to recognize they can be more than just houses of worship.”

100 years of worship

e Isaac Agree Memorial Society was formed in 1921 by two of Agree’s sons and other prominent Jewish families at the time, according to the Detroit Historical Society. Agree was a Russian immigrant who came to Detroit from New York in 1904. Its rst services were held in a home on Rosedale Court, four blocks north of Boston Boulevard near Brush Street.

e group moved to a remodeled home on Rosedale between Woodward and John R on Sept. 18, 1927. at building served as a synagogue and school, the historical society said. e congregation moved locations several more times before moving downtown in 1937, providing a synagogue for the large Jewish population living and working there.

In the 1940s, the a liation was switched from Orthodox to Conservative, and it was renamed Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue. In 1962, the congregation bought the building it is in now, the former Fintex clothing store on Griswold Street. It’s a unique, four-story triangular building with mid-century multicolor-block windows and a red entrance door, but there are parts of the building that remained unusable until now. Deferred maintenance led to heating/cooling, electric and plumbing issues, and exposed nails on the ooring of the sanctuary made it unsafe for children before the renovations. e top two oors of the four-story building had been condemned.

e lack of an elevator made it hard for some to access the second- oor sanctuary and the lack of windows along its front created

Weed sales break record in July at $276.75M

Dustin Walsh

Michigan’s marijuana market continues its ascent, breaking another sales record in July.

e industry sold roughly $276.75 million worth of adultuse recreational and medical marijuana products last month, a 33.5% increase over January’s sales.

e growth has come exclusively from adult-use recreational marijuana sales, which are up 38% since January, compared to declining medical marijuana sales, down nearly 46% for the year through July.

Jewish Family Service, which started in the city but moved to the suburbs, will have a small presence in the new co-working space, with one employee on hand doing virtual and any in-person intake of clients for the human services it o ers, said Perry Ohren, CEO of West Bloom eld Township-based Jewish Family Service of Metropolitan Detroit.

“We are excited (about) the revitalization and that we can be a little part of it,” he said.

Adult-use prices are cheaper than medical marijuana by nearly $3.38 per ounce, which means people with a medical marijuana card are more likely to just buy recreational weed.

It’s a far cry from the price collapses the industry has been facing for the last two years.

Adult-use recreational marijuana prices have recovered to $98.65 per ounce of ower in July, a 23% rise since January. However, prices remain low compared to the early days of the adult-use regulated market when prices topped $500 per ounce.

a wall between the synagogue and the city, Rudman said. “People could walk past the building and not see what was happening and that it was a functioning community.”

e 14-month renovation project, which is set to wrap up by Aug. 25, addressed building issues and built out new spaces for community use.

At 11,000 square feet, the building is too big for the synagogue alone but too small to be an actual community center, Rudman said. Modeling the approach of synagogues in Chicago and San Diego, the Downtown Synagogue is combining its functioning worship space with community space.

It’s an approach other Detroit worship spaces have also been pursuing in recent years.

e project added new building systems, a new elevator, upper oor bathrooms and kosher kitchen in the basement, converted the rst oor to community space and added street-level windows. e top two oors now include exible meeting and event space, o ces and co-working space for the seven Jewish nonpro ts coming into the synagogue.

Neumann/Smith Architecture served as architect and Sachse Construction as general contractor on the project.

Population shift

A primary driver for the project was the exponential growth in the

Jewish population living, working and spending time in the city, Rudman said. e number of households coming to worship, volunteer and take part in social and cultural programming at the Downtown Synagogue — the last free-standing synagogue in the city, according to leaders — has increased from about 150 a decade ago to 425 today.

“ e Jewish community in Detroit is recognizing that many folks in their 20s, 30s and 40s are centering themselves along the Woodward Corridor. at’s a huge change from all of our parents who are situated out in the West Bloom eld and Bloom eld Hills suburbs,” Rudman said.

e Jewish nonpro ts that are moving into the center had an interest in serving that growing Jewish population, she said.

e agencies plan to use shared space for a variety of uses, from sta workspace and training to program delivery and events. ey include: Adamah Detroit (which is moving its main o ces from the Jewish Federation building in Bloom eld Hills); Jarc, Jewish Community Center, Jewish Family Service, Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and Repair the World and Reconstructionist Congregation of Detroit.

JCC o ers prenatal and other programs out in the suburbs, Silverman said. “But there is an increasing number of parents in the city who want to access those services, too.”

“It just makes all the sense in the world for us ... to be a good colleague of other Jewish organizations and to share our human services muscle with them.”

Co-locating will provide organic opportunities for collaboration among the agencies and between them and the synagogue, leaders said.

e Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation provided a grant to support programmatic collaboration in addition to providing a program-related investment to help fund the renovations, Executive Director Doug Bitonti Stewart said in an email.

“What we heard from leaders who wanted to use the space was they felt it would increase their shared alignment, learning, and strengthen what they could do together alongside the community. at made it an exciting opportunity.”

What those collaborative programs could be has yet to be dened, but could be focused on bringing national speakers or on areas of common interest like environmental issues, racism and racial justice and poverty, Rudman said.

“ ere’s interest in social and cultural programs as well,” like happy hours and young professionals events and meet-ups for families with kids of similar ages.

“ e sky is the limit here. We’re excited to see these organization partners in the space to think together and dream big,” Rudman said.

It’s led to troubles for at least seven marijuana companies in the state, which are under a court-ordered receiver to manage their nances. at includes Dimondale-based Skymint, one of the state’s largest growers.

e Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency is taking credit for the recovering prices, attributing the rise to expanded rule enforcement that’s dropped illegal market marijuana from allegedly ooding the legal market. e CRA has collected nearly $3.3 million from regulatory nes against “bad actors” in the industry since 2020.

rough July, Michigan marijuana sales have topped $1.7 billion. In 2022, the Michigan industry topped $2.3 billion, and the state appears to be on track to easily top that total this year. Beyond that, marijuana sales also topped distilled liquor sales in the state for the rst time last year, which totaled $1.91 billion.

at meteoric rise in marijuana sales since December 2019 means the state now has the second-largest market by sales in the U.S. behind California.

Legal marijuana sales in California topped $5.3 billion last year, though it has nearly 30 million more residents than Michigan. ere are 23 states with legal adult-use marijuana. If sales continue on this pace, they will top $3 billion in 2023.

The Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, a presence in Detroit for more than 100 years, is set to reopen late this month following a $4.5 million renovation. | PHOTOS BY ISAAC AGREE DOWNTOWN SYNAGOGUE

Rabbi Ariana Silverman Rachel Rudman, executive director

Neurosurgeon is in a unique position to boost Henry Ford Health

For generations, health system surgery department chairs were among the best in their eld — typically men, whose resumes exude mastery of the scalpel. But health care departments are more than the lone pinnacle of performance and the demographics of those positions are changing. Dr. Ellen Air, who became chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Detroit-based Henry Ford Health on May 21, is one of just ve women to chair a U.S. academic neurosurgery department in history and one of three currently serving in the role. Her story is one of changing priorities and collaboration.

Did you plan your career on becoming a department chair?

I can’t say that being a chair was something I had on my mind at all. I am not somebody that walks around with the utmost of con dence. I was solid in what I was doing as a surgeon and a leadership role didn’t seem like something that was me.

Why not?

If you look at the number of women in neurosurgery, I think we’re second lowest on the list of health care specialties. Less than 7% or 8% of board-certi ed neurosurgeons are women. We’re bottom heavy in the eld. I just wanted to get by doing what I was doing. I didn’t want to be a female neurosurgeon, I just wanted to be a neurosurgeon. It took me a long time and in this environment here at Henry Ford to recognize that me being me brings something to the table. What leaders bring is not just a portfolio of surgeries. I have those, but we needed more. We needed an individual looking in a strategic fashion to support the team and not leave people behind.

Is that role of the chair changing then?

Absolutely. e individuals at the top in leadership roles tend to be at higher levels in their career. Chairs are most often the most imposing individuals or, perhaps, the most clinically or scienti cally proli c that record complicated procedures at a high rate. It’s historically been a lot more about being a dominant person, but what time has shown us is that the team is really critical. In

order to provide the best care for patients, we have to have a topnotch team, not just a top-notch neurosurgeon. Everybody from top to bottom is important. e pandemic laid that bare. So we need individuals who look at that and who are interested in growing the individuals for the bene t of everyone and not concerned with being the most dominant re ection of their eld.

What exactly is the role of the chair?

We’re there to support and guide all of the team members. We’re thought of as guiding the other individuals in your specialty, to build the practice and research. We’re really a representative of our specialty across the hospital system. We have to be the champions of our team. We have people who work with us who are absolutely critical to patient care and I need to champion them as well and support them to make sure we can continue the work. And there’s an element of trying to take us to the next level. Not just the management that happens on a regular basis, but guide us on where are we going.

e other part is de ning our role in the community and how I, like many of my colleagues, represent us to the city, region, the country.

Specialties are very competitive as people can travel for health care, so where do you t in marketing your team?

at is true. e reputations of those in the department build on all the parts of the puzzle. I absolutely need to be the spokesperson for my department.

Read all the conversations at CrainsDetroit.com/TheConversation

STRIKE

From Page 3

In an alternative hypothetical, Anderson’s rm concluded that a strike against only Ford would result in $1.2 billion of losses over 10 days. e impact on consumers and dealers could be more acute than the 2019 strike because of major di erences in inventory levels. Vehicle inventory has recovered from rock bottom during the COVID-19 pandemic to 162,000 units in June, but that’s still just a fth of the inventory on hand in 2019, according to Anderson’s rm.

“Consumer and dealer losses are typically somewhat insulated

in the event of a very short strike,” Tyler eile, vice president of the rm, said in the release. “However, with current inventories hovering around only 55 days, the industry looks di erent than it did in during the last UAW strike.”

e strike is worrying more

By | Dustin Walsh

Dr. Ellen Air is a neurosurgeon and chair of the Department of Neurosurgery, Henry Ford Health

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than the automakers at the negotiation table. Suppliers up and down the tiers are vulnerable to nancial losses. For small tier-two and -three suppliers that are already dealing with liquidity problems, a strike could be the fatal blow, according to Alex Calderone, president of Birmingham-based Calderone Advisory Group LLC.

“Rising interest rates, escalating material and labor costs, and uctuating production volumes already have them on the ropes,” Calderone said in an email. “In my opinion, even a short strike could push many over the edge.”

e clash between the union and automakers has also gotten the attention of the White House. President Joe Biden last week

called for “all sides to work together to forge a fair agreement.” Last month, Biden tapped senior adviser Gene Sperling to liaise with the union and auto companies during the negotiations. e president also met last month with Fain when union leaders were at the White House to brief senior sta on their positions in the talks, according to a White House ocial.

e Biden administration averted a rail strike last year by passing legislation to prevent a work stoppage. Federal intervention could also be in play if a strike were to occur on the Detroit 3.

“Such intervention would likely be counterproductive for the UAW,” the Bank of America analysis said.

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UAW President Shawn Fain tossed a recent Stellantis contract proposal into the trash for his live online audience Aug. 8. FACEBOOK LIVE SCREENSHOT