to stretch
SETTING THE Detroit Public Theatre is latest connection between cultural, entertainment districts | SHERRI WELCH
BY NICK MANES will join with larger rm services to clients
Detroit Public eatre’s new home in the city’s Midtown neighborhood is still taking shape in the nal weeks before its rst curtain call. But the new, black box theater, located in a 1919 building that once housed a garage and before that, a Bays English Mu ns factory, is already attracting attention.
High-tech startups are ourishing in West Michigan.
A local resident walking her dog past the historic building Wednesday morning stopped to peek in the open doorway where construction workers were working to nish the theater’s ticket o ce, bar and lobby areas.She’s been keeping an eye on the progress, she said, and is excited to see the nished theater, something that’s helping to bring new life to Midtown’s ird Street.
BUSINESSDETROITANTAYA/CRAIN’SNIC RAPIDS
In a bid to tap into a broader eld of potential talent and bolster its service o erings, the law rm Ja e Raitt Heuer & Weiss PC is joining forces with a larger player in the legal sector. e South eld-based Ja e rm, with an additional o ce in downtown Detroit, announced Sunday that it has entered into an agreement with the rm of Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP in a deal that’s set to close on Dec. 31. e merged rm will have more than 800 attorneys in more than a dozen o ces stretching as far west as Denver, and about $525 million in Oncerevenue.the merger is complete, executives then plan to undertake a transition period during which Ja e will likely add “Taft” to its branding and take on the name of Taft at a later, undetermined date. For executives at Ja e — which stands as the 11th-largest law rm in Michigan with about 120 attorneys, according to Crain’s data — the move to pursue a merger with a larger rm was a “long-term strategic decision,” and made for “a deliberative process,” said Mark Cooper, the rm’s CEO. Talks between the two rms have been ongoing for about 19 months, according to executives at both rms. Ja e executives stressed that the move to combine with a larger rm is not one done so much out of necessity, but of a recognition of the changing landscape for the rm’s clients and the broader business world. “As your clients grow, you have to ensure that you grow ahead of them,” said Arthur Weiss, chairman of Ja e. “ at’s critical, and if not, you’ll have failings (as a law rm). Our clients have grown signi cantly, so we made a strategic decision that in order to outgrow our clients (and provide) services, quality and added value, we needed to nd a partner that would merge that concept and take us to the next level.” e law rm sets merger deal
See AUTO SHOW on Page 16 See JAFFE on Page 16
Local rm
Jason Sharpe of Livonia works on the construction of the Detroit Public Theatre in Detroit.
Detroit auto show’s new look puts a spotlight on downtown Detroit BY KURT NAGL e “world’s largest” rubber duck and dinosaurs are the rst indication this will not be the same, century-old Detroit auto show. e reimagined, state-subsidized North American International Detroit Auto Show, set for Sept. 14-25, will be half industry trade show, half public festival. e goal is to fuse the two and create an event that bene ts downtown businesses and residents, and lifts up the automotive industry at the same time, said Rod Alberts, executive director of the show, produced by the Detroit Auto Dealers Association. “ e whole idea is to make all of downtown energized and exciting for people to come down,” Alberts said. “ ere’s going to be a lot going on and some things I think we won’t even know until we get to the week of.” Alberts
Part festivalshow,tradepart
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CRAINSDETROIT.COM I SEPTEMBER 5, 2022 CONVERSATION: Architectural exec Saundra Little on preserving history. PAGE 18 NEWSPAPER VOL. 38, NO. 34 l COPYRIGHT 2022 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CANNABIS Detroit courtapplicationsrecreationalopensweedafterruling. PAGE 3 QUICK CHANGE What happens to Gas Station TV when EVs take center stage? PAGE 3 Ja
PAGE 8 See THEATER on Page 17
STAGE GRAND
THE NEWS: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will deliver what her depart ment calls a “major” speech in De troit on ursday about the Biden administration’s economic agenda, including to discuss the passage of a climate change and health care law, an infrastructure law and a law to boost the semiconductor industry.
“ e expansion of coverage into the Grand Rapids area is a natu ral path of growth for us,” said KC Crain, president and CEO of Crain Communications. “Grand Rapids sits between two of our biggest areas of regional business coverage — Detroit and Chicago — and it’s proven to be an area our readers are involved in and want to see more coverage on.” e acquisition of GRBJ marks the expansion of Crain’s in Michi gan as Crain looks to serve its growing audience outside of the im mediate Detroit region. GRBJ will continue to operate as a separate media outlet serving readers and advertisers throughout Michigan’s West Side and will tap into additional content and advertising re sources from the Crain city brands. e team of 10 reporters and advertising sales executives will continue with GRBJ.
THE NEWS: e Michigan State Police say about 3,250 lab reports on THC toxicology samples in prosecutions may be inaccurate because of a tech nical issue. e state police Forensic Science Division said that the prob lem may impact cases that occurred as far back as March 28, 2019.
THE NEWS: A cannabis company that opened its rst dispensary last week has secured $15 million from a Vir ginia investment rm. Noxx, whose two owners live in metro Detroit and Grand Rapids, announced ursday that it closed on a $15 million debt raise from McLean, Virginia-based Altmore Capital, a specialty rm that invests in the U.S. cannabis industry.
Crain acquired GRBJ, which launched in 1983, from Gemini Me dia LLC. e Grand Rapids brand will operate as part of Crain’s city brands, joining Crain’s Detroit, Chicago, New York and Cleveland Business.Termsof the deal were not disclosed.
MSU BOARD TO REVIEW DEAN’S REMOVAL
WHY IT MATTERS: e deal will help the company fund capital expenditures and future acquisitions and expan sion. e company declined to pro vide the interest rate and duration of the loan.
Detroit-based Crain is a global business media company whose more than 20 brands include Automotive News, Ad Age, Modern Healthcare, Green Market Report and more.
Crain acquires Grand Rapids Business Journal brands.morecompanymediabusinessglobalCrainDetroit-basedisawiththan20
DELTA PILOTS PICKET AT DETROIT METRO AIRPORT
THE NEWS: Delta Air Lines pilots pick eted at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on ursday to protest protracted contract negotiations that were paused due to the COVID-19 pan demic and were resumed early this year. e demonstration is among in formational pickets at seven Delta hubs around the U.S. Pilots from oth er airlines also planned to demon strate in solidarity at other airports.
MSP: 3,250 THC LAB REPORTS MAY BE INACCURATE
WHY IT MATTERS: Gupta has said he took the allegation against the subor dinate “extremely seriously” and that mandatory reporting obligations were met. He led the business school for seven years and remains a profes sor.
2 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | S EP TE M BER 5, 2022
MICHIGAN CANNABIS STARTUP SECURES $15M
WHY IT MATTERS: ey say they are seeking to send a message to man agement to address operational problems that have plagued the in dustry and led to ight cancellations and delays.
YELLEN TO DELIVER ECONOMIC SPEECH IN DETROIT
WHY IT MATTERS: Yellen will build o her framework of “modern sup ply-side economics” to explain the trajectory of the economy since Pres ident Joe Biden took o ce and to tout how his legislative wins will help, according to the department.
WHY IT MATTERS: It’s not clear whether any convictions may be overturned as a result. But in the meantime, prosecutors still can present evi dence of THC in court.
THE NEWS: Michigan State University’s board of trustees said it has retained outside counsel to review the remov al of the business school dean, whom the provost said failed to report a subordinate’s alleged sexual miscon duct. Sanjay Gupta’s demotion on Aug. 12 was implemented by Provost Teresa Woodru with the support of MSU President Samuel Stanley.
THE WEEK IN REVIEW, WITH AN EYE ON WHAT’S NEXT NEED TO KNOW MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS Crain Communications has acquired Grand Rapids Business Jour nal, a key source of local business news in West Michigan.
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e city of Detroit planned to re open its adult-use marijuana applica tion process last week after a Wayne County Circuit Court judge dismissed two lawsuits last month that chal lenged the city’s ordinance. Mayor Mike Duggan and City Coun cil President Pro Tem James Tate announced the re opening during a Wednesday news conference at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center.e city will award 60 dispen sary licenses during the rst phase with another 100 planned in subsequent licensing phases, the leaders announced. Roughly 20 of the licenses will go to city residents through the city’s social equi ty program. Another 10 of the licenses will be given to consumption lounges and another 10 for “micro facilities” that grow up to 100 plants. e other 20 licenses in the rst phase will be of fered to all other dispensary appli cants.Each category of license in all three rounds will have an equal num ber of general licenses and social eq uityRegistrationlicenses. opened ursday at homegrowndetroit.org and runs for a month. Dispensary licenses are limited to control how many can operate in the city limits, while cultivation and pro cessing licenses are unlimited. e city was supposed to begin ac cepting applications for the limited li censes on Aug. 1, but Circuit Court Judge Leslie Kim Smith approved a temporary restraining order on the process in late July at the request of JARS Cannabis, which operates two medical marijuana dispensaries in the city, and District 7 LLC in their lawsuit against the city’s adult-use ordinance.
DISCOUNT MANSIONS
applicationsmarijuanarecreationalreopensDetroit
The Book mansion, at 8469 E. Je erson Ave. in Detroit, is listed for just under $2 million — as compared to $3.5 million earlier this year. |
Home prices may be rising across metro Detroit, but for some of the priciest properties in the re gion, now’s a good time to get a dis count.Atleast three expensive homes have lowered their asking prices recently, aiming to better meet the market and sell the properties.
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Detroit-based Gas Station TV is getting in on the future of electric vehicle charging stations that are steadily popping up in retail parking lots and parking garages. | DESTINATION MEDIA James Tate See MARIJUANA on Page 17 See MANSIONS on Page 15 See GSTV on Page 15
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SEPTEMBER 5, 2022 | C R AIN’S D ETROI T B USIN E SS 3
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e Book mansion, at 8469 E. Je erson Ave. in Detroit, is listed for just under $2 million — as com pared to $3.5 million earlier this year. e price of the Whitney mansion, at 82 Alfred St. in Detroit, is down to $2.9 million, from $4.25 million in March. And the Grosse Pointe Shores home of the late philanthropist and Bu alo Bills owner Ralph Wilson, at 824 Lake Shore Road, is now down to $3.3 million, after it was rst listed for $9.5 million in January 2020. Kay Agney, the listing agent on the Wilson home, said the large discount was because the 5,490-square-foot three-bed room, five-bathroom house was being offered separately from a vacant lot and a two-bedroom farmhouse that was included in the original listing. All of the property is still available for $7.5 million, she said. Pulling out developable land also brought down the price on the Whitney, a 1892 Brush Park house that was built by lumber baron Da vid Whitney Jr. and his son David C. Whitney. e owner, Je Cowin, said previously that he had spent more than $1 million on the house he paid $110,000 for, plus “tons of sweat equity.” He said the nine-bedroom, six-and-a-halfbedroom, 6,710-square-foot home was priced as it was because the plot included land where town houses or apartments could be built. ALWAYS A PRICE THAT’LL GET PEOPLE INTERESTED. WHEN YOU ADJUST THE PRICE, YOU’RE GOING TO ATTRACT MORE PEOPLE.” Apap, listing agent and president of Apap Realty Group, with Sotheby’s
Who stands to bene t from EV charge times?
e initiative aims to help o er re tailers a new targeted advertising mechanism, particularly as EV char gers become more prevalent in shop ping centers and other large com mercial areas. For advertisers, “the deployments will o er separate screens and net worked charging, providing exibili ty for screen placement that will maximize media value and e cacy at each retail location,” according to a news release.
—John
DUSTIN WALSH
e GSTV parent company is look ing to test new ways to get beyond the gas pump and into the view of those embracing EVs. e company announced last month that it is partnering with ChargePoint Inc., a California-based EV charging company and among the largest in the business, in a deal that will bring GSTV’s content to ChargePoint stations. e partner ship also includes Ara Labs, a digital billboardFinancialcompany.termsof the partnership were not disclosed.
Some pricey metro Detroit homes are seeing price drops ARIELLE KASS NICK MANES “THERE’S
The Detroit company behind TVs at gas pumps
TECHNOLOGY
You may not know Destination Media, but you probably know the company for the video features and ads that you see for maybe 2 minutes on a gas pump screen while you’re fueling up. But as the adoption of electric vehi cles accelerates, the parent company of Detroit-based Gas Station TV or GSTV sees an obvious future in the charging stations that are slowly but steadily starting to dot the landscape of retail parking lots and parking garages.
- EVP, Michigan Senior Lender REDEFINING COMMERCIAL LENDING RELATIONSHIP BANKING
The Beaubien House property at 553 E. Je erson Ave. downtown is one of the few remaining pre-Civil War homes in Detroit. | COSTAR GROUP INC. #1 C. Zhang MBA, MSFS, ChFC, CLU Founder and President 101 West Big Beaver Road, 14th Floor Troy, MI 48084 (248) 687-1258 $1,000,000 in Michigan $2,000,000 outside of Michigan. Assets under custody of LPL Financial, TD Ameritrade, and Charles Schwab As reported in Barron’s March 12, 2022. Rankings based on assets under management,revenue generated for the advisors’ rms, quality of practices, and other factors.As reported in Forbes April 7, 2022 and August 16, 2021. e rankings, developed byShook Research, are based on in-person and telephone due diligence meetings and a rankingalgorithm for advisors who have a minimum of seven years of experience. Other factorsinclude client retention, industry experience, compliance records, rm nominations, assetsunder management, revenue generated for their rms, and other factors.See zhang nancial.com/disclosure for full ranking criteria. www.zhang nancial.com Charles is the highest ranked Advisor on list of America’s Top
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What's going on with that big hole lled with water in Elmwood Park?
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Beaubien House sold for $800,000 e historic Beaubien House downtown has been sold for $800,000, according to CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service. Also known as the Charles Trombly House, the 5,000-square-foot property at 553 E. Je erson Ave. had been owned by a German investment group called Optima-Aegidius that bought it in 2015. It’s one of the last remaining pre-Civil War homes in Detroit. CoStar doesn’t identify the buyer, although Ray Kouza registered an entity called Beaubien House LLC in West Bloom eld Township earlier this month. Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB INSIDER massive hole lled with water in the Elmwood Park neighborhood is expected to eventually become a new apartment development.
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Why the heck is there a giant, water- lled hole in the ground that seemingly hasn’t been touched in over a year at the Pullman Parc development site in the Elmwood Park neighborhood?ejokespractically write themselves.Detroit’s newest lake? Lake Pullman, of course. e people who bought townhomes being built by Bloom eld Hillsbased Robertson Bros. Co. on the eastern portion of the site are actually getting waterfront property (credit for that one to my colleague, Nick Manes). In the winter, it’s a community ice skating rink. e property has been lled with water for so long it’s visible on Google Earth (that one is actually true). Clearly something is amiss but what precisely, I’m not being told. What’s known is that the site — some 1.5 acres at 1100 Saint Aubin — is not the 180-200 apartments called e Renato that are envisioned to ultimately occupy it. “We are committed to seeing the development through,” Todd Sachse, partner of Detroit-based developer Broder & Sachse Real Estate Services Inc., said in a statement Tuesday morning.Aspokesperson for the Buildings, Safety Engineering, and Environmental Department said in a statement that the department, as well as the Department of Public Works, have met with Broder & Sachse about the issue. “We have written a violation notice requiring safeguards around the area until the problem is corrected,” the statement says. “BSEED and DPW are keenly aware of the concerns related to the site and are monitoring the situationeclosely.”project is a joint venture between Broder & Sachse and Detroit-based Woodborn Partners LLC. Both companies have worked on multifamily and other projects in the city for years, ranging from e Scott at Brush Park to e Coe in the West Village neighborhood. Broder & Sache has also done e Albert in Capitol Park and e Hamilton in Midtown, among plenty of others. And Woodborn has plans in West Village and southwest Detroit that are movingSoalong.it’snot like this is a slouch development team with no track record. ey clearly can get things done. Are there construction cost issues? Unforeseen issues with the site? Financing challenges? All or none of the above?Insert the proverbial shoulder shrug emoji here. But it’s having an impact, said James Clarke, president of Robertson Bros.e water- lled hole is having a “detrimental e ect on our ability to bring Pullman Parc to its completion,” Clarke said. “We can’t represent to (a buyer) and say what’s going on with that lake,” Clarke said. “I have to say I don’t know and say there is a planned apartment building with no planned start date and I don’t know when the hole is going to be lled. You don’t needeunknowns.”projecthas been on the books, in varying incarnations, since at least May 2018, when it was revealed that a joint venture would raze the former Friends School property and build both for-sale and for-rent living units on the 4.8-acre site. e original joint venture included Farmington Hills-based Hunter Pasteur Homes, but that company bowed out of the project, selling o its chunk of property to Robertson Bros.
If you drive down Lafayette heading west into downtown with any regularity, you’ve Cut.oAubingoingwonderedprobablywhat’sonatSt.Street,righttheDequindreInparticular:
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Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB
In addition, the e-commerce goli ath has inde nitely postponed its previously announced plan to build a new facility in Pitts eld Township to taling 142,800 square feet at 4700 Carpenter Road.
Bank of America to test no-downpayment mortgages in Detroit
Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB
Amazon scraps Ypsilanti Township warehouse plan
Bacall Companies LLC has pur chased another downtown Birming ham eproperty.Farmington Hills-based real estate rm paid $37 million for the retail and o ce and some of the parking portions of Birmingham Place, located at 401 S. Old Wood ward Ave. sandwiched between Ha zel Street and Brown Street. e purchase, which closed Wednesday afternoon, is the third the company has made in recent months in the swank Oakland Coun ty downtown, following the $14 mil lion purchase of the property at 380 N. Old Woodward Ave. in March and the $12.25 million December pur chase of the Huntington Center of ce building at 220 Park St. “It’s one of the largest three or four buildings in Birmingham, and it’s just a nice building,” Dante Bacall said. He and three brothers — Daivin, Dorayd and Doval — run Bacall Companies as principals/partners. He said more than $3 million in im provements are planned. e purchased portion of Birming ham Place is about 107,700 square feet and 96 percent leased, according to marketing materials provided by Bacall Companies. Key o ce tenants are Conway MacKenzie (18,100 square feet); So theby’s International Realty (11,100 square feet); and Brooks Wilkins Sharkey & Turco PLLC (14,100 square feet).Bacall’s purchase does not include the 142 condominiums which are on the 10-story building’s top oors. In the acquired property, there is about 91,000 square feet of o ce space with 88,500 leased, and about 16,600 square feet of retail space, which is 100 percent leased. e deal also includes a three-level parking garage with 382 spaces. Of those, 207 are deeded to the property Bacall purchased, 61 are shared with resi dential units and 114 are deeded to the residential units. e property is expected to pull in about $3.39 million in revenue this year with $1.33 million in expenses for about $2.06 million in net operat ing income, according to an Integra Realty Resources appraisal from April provided to Crain’s by Bacall Companies, which said that Farm ington Hills-based Marcus Manage ment Inc. is also a partner in the deal. NOI was $2.05 million in 2021 and $2.03 million in 2020, the appraisal says.Bacall Companies started as an in vestment rm focusing on value-add properties and ultimately added de velopment to its repertoire, building more than 30 projects in Michigan, New York, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, according to the company’s website. It has done build-to-suit projects for Walgreen’s, Family Dollar and other companies and focuses on retail and shopping center projects up to 150,000 square feet. e seller was an entity called MTM Investment Holdings LLC, which is registered to Karen Long in Birmingham at the South Old Wood ward address of the Mitchell Family O Savillsce. plc was the brokerage rm on the deal.
Birmingham Place sold to Bacall as buying spree continues KIRK PINHO
Farmington Hills-based real estate rm is third for company recently Oakland County city
The o ce and retail portion of the Birmingham Place property in downtown Birmingham has sold for $37 million. COSTAR GROUP INC.
FINANCE Bank of America Corp. started a trial program aimed at helping rsttime homebuyers in Black and His panic neighborhoods by o ering mortgages that don’t require down payments, closing costs or mini mum credit scores, all considered longtime obstacles to narrowing the gap between White and minori ty ownership.Customersusing the program will be evaluated for a home loan not by credit scores, but rather factors such as their history of making rent, utili ty, phone and auto insurance pay ments on time, Bank of America said in a news release Tuesday. e program will be tested in certain predominately Black and Hispanic areas of Detroit, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and Charlotte, N.C. BofA wouldn’t disclose the planned size of the program, which may be expanded later to other cit ies. e Charlotte-based bank is go ing beyond credit scores so “people can use other mechanisms to de ne their creditworthiness, buy a home and build their wealth,” AJ Barkley, head of neighborhood and community lending at BofA, said in anWhileinterview.U.S. homeownership saw its biggest annual increase ever during the COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020, it re mained lower than a decade earlier for African Americans, and Black and Hispanic buyers were more likely to be rejected for mortgages than their white and Asian counter parts, according to the National As sociation of Realtors. Approval rates for homeowners looking to lower their payments have also varied by race, with BofA approving 66 per cent of Black re nancing applicants and 78 percent of White ones in 2020, according to data compiled byWhileBloomberg.no-down-payment mort gages potentially make it easier for lower-income borrowers to buy homes, they’re not without risks. If the housing market were to slump, homeowners without a signi cant amount of equity may have little in centive to keep paying their mort gages, hurting their credit scores and sticking lenders with foreclosed homes. Under the BofA program, the lender is giving homebuyers down-payment grants of $10,000$15,000 so they have immediate eq uity in their “Lower-down-paymenthomes. loans perform worse, all things being equal — but all things are not equal,” said Laurie Goodman, an institute fellow at the nonpro t Ur ban Institute, speaking generally about such programs and not Bo fA’s in particular. “ ere is a way to o er these loans where it isn’t as risky, where other factors can more than compensate for a low down payment,” and there is an argu ment, she added, for taking on “a slightly higher probability of default in order to give people the opportu nity to build wealth.”
Overall, it marks a small blip in Se attle-based Amazon’s total footprint in the region, where it occupies or is building some 13 million square feet or more, including massive redevel opments of the former Pontiac Sil verdome site (3.7 million square feet) and the former Michigan state fair grounds property (3.8 million square feet) in Detroit. It is also wrapping up construction on a facility in Canton Township on Michigan Avenue in the coming weeks.Austin Stowe, a Detroit-based re gional public relations specialist for Amazon, said in a statement: “We’re proud of our substantial footprint in Michigan, which includes 22 facili ties and 26,000 employees across the state. While we aren’t pursuing a de livery station in Ypsilanti Township anymore for business reasons, we are looking forward to opening a facility in Pitts eld in the future.” e Ypsilanti Township plan called for a 183,200-square-foot facility, MLive.com reported in February when the Planning Commission granted rst approval of a site plan for the property, which was to be de veloped by Atlanta-based Seefried Industrial Properties Inc., which built Amazon’s Pontiac facility. It was dubbed “Project Yoga.” Jason Iacoangeli, planning direc tor for Ypsilanti Township, said Ama zon had been under contract to pur chase the site from Norfolk Southern Railroad when it backed out of the purchase. e township was in formed of the decision in late April. “ ey looked at these warehousing projects not only here in Michigan but throughout the Midwest,” Ia coangeli said. “Once things kind of started to go back down to Earth (on online shopping) they realized very quickly they didn’t need all this ca pacity and they over-leased and overbuilt in 2020 and 2021, so now they’ve dialed everything way back.” e building was supposed to cost $21.4 million and be constructed on about 30 acres of a 120-acre parcel. A message was left with Pitts eld Township, where its facility was dubbed “Project Pace.”
Marks rst-known scaling back in metro Detroit
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Amazon.com Inc. has torpedoed plans for a new warehouse building in Ypsilanti Township. e cancellation of the project at 10635 Textile Road, rst reported Tuesday afternoon by MLive.com, marks the rst known scaling back of a metro Detroit project after years of expansion in the region.
A s you can read in our cover story this week, Detroit’s North American In ternational Auto show is almost set to return after a hiatus of almost four years and a dramatic reworking. That revamp turns the spotlight much more firmly on Detroit itself, moving to a time of year when the weather is immea surably better and focusing less on broad casting the global automotive industry to the rest of the world. It will be the biggest of a raft of Septem ber events in downtown Detroit (including Detroit Homecoming, produced by Crain’s Detroit Business). As we move past Labor Day, the auto show and other events will only bring more attention — and people — to downtown Detroit. And it’s a downtown in need of the foot traffic. A study of cell phone data by re searchers at the University of Califor nia-Berkeley showed that from March through May of this year, activity down town was at just 42 percent of what it was pre-pandemic, one of the slowest recover ies among major U.S. cities. There is no doubt that through the sum mer, traffic downtown has picked up sig nificantly. But restaurants and shops are still struggling — and choices are still limit ed if you’re looking for a place open for a business lunch. In the fall, downtown Detroit’s future will depend on how companies, especially Rocket Companies and General Motors, handle in-office work policies. A growing daily workforce helped transform down town Detroit from a sea of empty spaces to its new vibrancy. It will be equally critical to preserving the renaissance. But in the meantime, here’s hoping that the attractions on deck over the next few weeks serve as a pivot point to remind more people of what downtown has to of fer — and brings visitors and all-important office workers back in the weeks and months to come.
EDITORIAL
Banning nicotine products only creates other problems
A September spotlight for downtown Detroit
BUSINESSDETROITSAAD/CRAIN’SDANIEL
less-harmfulingcommunitiescusingtendnizetakelicbreakingdecisionmanycigarettes.banannouncedAdministrationitsplantomenthol-avoredAlthoughmaycelebratethisasagroundvictoryforpubhealth,itdoesnotascholartorecogthatprohibitionstofail.Insteadoffoonupliftingourandhelpsmokersmovetooptions,a menthol ban will punish those who struggle to quit, while devastating local businesses in its Aswake.amulti-unit convenience store owner and vape wholesaler, I have spent my entire career in retail. Over the years, I have watched countless o cials wrongly support similar policies, seemingly refusing to learn from the mistakes of their colleagues and predecessors. e same story continues to unfold — forced prohibitions take away reg ulated products from small businesses, fuel ing unchecked illicit trade in its place. A recent study by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy stated that nearly 20 percent of all cigarettes consumed in Michigan were smuggled in as a function of tax evasion or avoidance, ranking our state 15th nationally. Simply, excessive taxes or a prohibition of certain cigarettes or other avored nicotine products will increase smuggling and em bolden further criminal activity. Moreover, convenience stores in Michi gan typically count on tobacco products for nearly 35 percent of their in-store purchases. is number doesn't account for the addi tional purchases these customers make while visiting our stores. Put simply, these businesses are not prepared to handle the substantial losses expected from a ban on all menthol tobacco products. While the Biden administration has spent much of its time providing extraordinary re lief to local businesses across all industries, bans or prohibitions place an unfair burden on convenience stores hit hard by the global pandemic. is is particularly true for stores in traditionally minority neighborhoods, which generally prefer menthol- avored to baccoereproducts.isasolution to help consumers quit smoking, and it’s known as Tobacco Harm Reduction. THR is a growing, scienti cally substantiated movement to share the poten tial public health and community bene ts of providing tobacco smokers access and edu cation to potentially less harmful nicotine products.Forexample, a recent study found that the presence of vapor products not only had lit tle impact on encouraging smoking among young people, but it did encourage more adults who use cigarettes to quit. Study after study shows that nicotine alternatives, in cluding vaping products, are signi cantly safer than cigarettes, because tar in tradi tional cigarettes causes health problems, not nicotine.Iknow rsthand the bene ts of switching because I’ve applied the THR strategy and transitioned from traditional cigarettes to vaping. Honestly, it’s one of the best deci sions I've ever made and why I can no longer remain silent over the FDA’s attempted shakedown.Unlikemore progressive public health programs in places such as Europe, the FDA does not have a realistic strategy or plan. ey may continue to stand behind their de cision to enforce prohibitions, but that doesn't change the reality that such a policy will only lead to harmful outcomes. Rather than abandon smokers, we need this admin istration to support policies that provide op portunities for those that wish to quit. Prohibition is a failed policy; until the FDA reverses course, history will continue to re peat itself.
6 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | S EP TE M BER 5, 2022
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COMMENTARY
In April, the Food and Drug
THE RESTAURANTS AND SHOPS THAT HAVE FILLED WHAT WERE ONCE VACANT SPACES DOWNTOWN ARE STILL STRUGGLING. ALI HAIDER Ali Haider is a Okemos.wholesalerstoreconveniencemulti-unitownerandin BLOOMBERG
Sound o : Crain’s considers longer opinion pieces from guest writers on issues of interest to business readers. Email ideas to Managing Editor Michael Lee at malee@crain.com.
The Michigan Supreme Court ruled in July that the Elliott Larson Civil Rights Act bars discrimination against LGBTQ individuals.
| CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
e case was assigned to Judge Jane Beckering, whom President Joe Biden appointed to the Western District of Michigan bench last year.
Christian medical group sues to block LGBTQ ruling
A Christian-based medical group is challenging the Michigan Supreme Court’s recent landmark ruling that prohibits discrimination against LGBTQ people in employment and public accommodations, alleging that the interpretation of state civil rights law violates its First Amendment rights.
Christian Healthcare Centers Inc., which has primary care offices in Grand Rapids and Newaygo, filed a federal lawsuit against state officials in Grand Rapids. The nonprofit, which the suit describes as thatmedicalfaith-basedaministryoffershealth care cost-sharing services, seeks a preliminary injunction to block the enforcement of laws that keep it from following various internal policies.Those include hiring only employees who adhere to religious beliefs and declining to use gender identity-based pronouns to refer to transgender patients or to facilitate gender transition treatments. Michigan now “makes it illegal to merely adopt and hold policies like Christian Healthcare’s,” wrote attorney John Bursch, who is working with the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom. “All this puts tremendous pressure on Christian Healthcare to choose between its faith and operating its medical clinic.”Employers and places that violate the state’s civil rights and public accommodations laws can be ordered to stop, to provide the service at issue, to reinstate or hire an employee, and to pay damages and civil nes, according to the complaint. Public accommodations that violate a “publication clause,” which Christian Healthcare says has kept it from posting its pronoun and gender transition policies online, can be imprisoned, the suit says. “These penalties threaten Christian Healthcare’s rights and chill its speech,” Bursch wrote. In July, the high court ruled 5-2 that the word “sex” in the civil rights law applies to sexual orientation and not just gender. It was a victory for LGBTQ residents after Republicans who control the Legislature long rejected bills to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation.ACourt of Claims judge’s earlier determination that the law applies to gender identity-based discrimination was not appealed. The Supreme Court majority said the question of whether enforcing the prohibition against sexual orientation- and gender identity-based discrimination would violate federal and state constitutional religious liberty protections had not been adjudicated in lower state courts and was not before the high court.The complaint names Attorney Christian Healthcare Centers les federal lawsuit, says civil rights law violates its First Amendment rights
Christian Healthcare, which does not accept insurance and has a direct pay/membership model, says on its website that it is the first Christian medical practice of its kind in the country.
SEPTEMBER 5, 2022 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS 7 THEON Stay Ahead of What’s Next in Industry News RECOGNIZE TOP ACHIEVERS IN CHICAGO’S PREMIER PUBLICATION BOARDADDITIONSPROMOTIONSTOC-SUITEAPPOINTMENTSNEWHIRESRETIREMENTS MAKE AN ANNOUCEMENT! Deb Stein | dstein@crain.com Submit a listing and be a part of this exclusive opportunity. OVER 6 IN 10 BELIEVEREADERSCRAIN’SGIVESTHEMACOMPETITIVEEDGE
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BY DAVID EGGERT General Dana Nessel, Department of Civil Rights Executive Director John Johnson Jr. and members of the Civil Rights Commission in their official capacities. “While we expected legal challenges of this nature, we beseech the federal courts to continue the grand tradition of expanding the promise of equality to all segments of our society,” said Harold Core, a spokesperson for the civil rights department.
COURTS Bursch
THIS
Ron Foster, one of rst prostate cancer patients at BAMF, inside body scanner. t
package See BAMF on Page 13
BAMF CRAIN’S MICHIGAN BUSINESS: GRAND RAPIDS ON TRACK Holo Footwear nding right
BAMF Health brings pioneering treatments from German facility to Grand Rapids
BY TOM HENDERSON In this
in sustainable shoe industry. PAGE 10
Each location must house large full-body scanners to detect cancer, machines that cost $17 million apiece and cut the scanning time for a patient from 40-45 minutes to about three; a series of lead-lined treatment and recovery rooms; and a cyclotron to allow the in-house pharmacy to make a variety of radioactive drugs to be injected into patients. Chang wants to follow those cancer treatment centers with ones in Chicago, Philadelphia, Nashville, Phoenix, Denver and Seattle. Previously, he held a variety of positions at the Van Andel Institute in Grand Rapids.BAMF is the anchor tenant in the seven-story building, which nished construction this year. e company occupies 60,000 square feet of the building’s 205,000 square feet. It is the rst and only company in the U.S to have gotten permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat stage four and end-of-life prostate and neuroendocrine cancer patients with what is called PET/CT technology, a nuclear imaging process that nds cancer cells that are later attacked by small amounts of radioactive“PET”pharmaceuticals.standsforpositive emission tomography, and “CT” stands for computed tomography, which uses arti cial intelligence to produce images of the area to be targeted. Nuclear medicine is noninvasive and generally painless and involves the use of radioactive material in tiny Previously,quantities.onlyone health care center in the world conducted such cancer treatments, the eranostics Center for Molecular Radiotherapy and Molecular Imaging in Bad Berka, Germany. “ eranostics” combines the terms “therapeutics” and “diagnostics.” BAMF Health brings pioneering cancer treatments from German facility to Grand Rapids. PAGE Accelerator kicks o its third cohort in Grand Rapids PAGE 10 Taking restaurants’ repairs o the menu PAGE 11 The Michigan company helping people get assessed and treated for ADHD quickly and a ordably. PAGE 12 ARE EXCITED TO SUPPORT BAMF HEALTH ON THEIR NEXT STEPS TOWARD GROWTH EXPANSION.”AND Je Wesley, executive director, Red Cedar Ventures
Conquer
ADVANCING CANCER CARE
8 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 5, 2022
“WE
BAMF Health Corp. is not a typical high-tech startup. Its o cial grand opening in the just-opened Doug Meijer Medical Innovation Building in downtown Grand Rapids isn’t until later this month at a date yet to be determined, but it has already raised $79.2 million in a combination of debt, equity and grant funding, including a grant of $19.5 million from the MeijerMoreFoundation.atypical, it is about to embark on a funding round that CEO Anthony Chang hopes will reach $300 million to help nance an ambitious expansion program meant to break ground next year on new brick-and-mortar cancer-treatment facilities in metropolitan Detroit and cities in California, Texas and Florida. Chang said it is hard to retro t the latest in cancer diagnostic and treatment equipment into existing buildings and estimates the cost of new construction at $60 million to $80 million per site.
Jaffe is joining Taft. The combined firm will offer expanded legal counsel rooted in entrepreneurial thinking and innovative solutions. The next chapter starts December 31, 2022. Learn more at jaffelaw.com.
Tom Stewart, program director of the Conquer Accelerator and assistant director of Venture Acceleration for Spartan Innovations, at a past accelerator event. SPARTAN
INNOVATIONS
Holo Footwear nding right t in sustainable shoe industry
and in-person meetings with men tors, advisers and potential investors. “We’ll have all the teams on-site at our facility downtown at the Grand Rapids MSU Research Center,” said Je Wesley, executive director of Spar tan Innovations, the investment and entrepreneurial creation arm of the MSU Foundation. He is also the exec utive director of Red Cedar Ventures, the foundation’s investment division, and of Michigan Rise, a startup invest ment“We’llfund.have the teams and interns report out to each other, get to know each other over lunch and later attend some happy hours. It’ll be a nice change for all of us to be able to meet in person and build community,” he said.Participating companies get 10 weeks of intensive programming, with a focus on completing goal-driven benchmarks. A pitch event has been tentatively scheduled for Dec. 7, when the ve companies will compete for funding with angel and institutional investors from around the state. Red Cedar Ventures has coinvested in the past with Invest Detroit and In vest Michigan, both based in Detroit; the Grand Angels and Michigan Capi tal Network of Grand Rapids; and the Northern Michigan Angels of Traverse City.Each of the ve companies, as part of being chosen for this year’s cohort, got $20,000 in investment funding from Red Cedar Ventures. Upon com pletion of the program, Conquer com panies become part of the Red Cedar Ventures’ portfolio, which quali es
Conquer Accelerator kicks o its third cohort in Grand Rapids
the AprilofSheviceDetroit’sPattiprettyVega.ecosystem,”investmentsaid“Wemovedfast,”saidGlaza,Investexecutivepresident.orderedsomehisshoeslastandwrotean investment check in May. “ e shoes are fantastic and at an incredible price point,” she said. “I wear them every day, for hiking, for walking the dogs. ey’re comfortable and cute. Rommel is in an untapped niche with a very strong brand.”
e Conquer Accelerator in Grand Rapids, which will announce its new est cohort of ve companies on Mon day, is nally going old school. e program is a 10-week incuba tor and accelerator for promising ear ly-stage companies in Grand Rapids and is run by Michigan State Universi ty’s Spartan Innovations Grand Rap ids.Spartan Innovations decided to launch an accelerator program in Grand Rapids in the fall of 2020, but when COVID hit, the program had to go virtual. e second accelerator class last year also was held virtually. But this year’s cohort will get to do things the old-fashioned way, with in-person access to co-working space
TOM HENDERSON Rommel Vega, founder Holo Footwear.m HOLO FOOTWEAR Goeman
A new shoe company is calling Grand Rapids home. It’s new to the area, having moved there from Portland, Ore., and opened its downtown o ce and showroom on JulyMore17. importantly, says Holo Foot wear Inc. founder Rommel Vega, it’s new in the sense of a new approach to building what he calls ecofootwear. His shoes, designed for robust outdoor use, are all made with 100 percent post-consumer recycled goods. e shoe uppers are made from recycled plastic water bottles. e outsoles are made from recycled rubber. Even the cotton laces are recycled. In addition to being more sustain able than competitors’ products, Vega’s shoes are more a ordable, too, priced from $50-$100, many of the 15 styles toward the lower end of that range. e shoes are made in China, but Vega, who is of Mexican descent, said he hopes to soon be able to move manu facturing operations to Mexico. Holo isn’t just an interesting, scrap py upstart. It has made serious entree into the brick-and-mortar shoe indus try. In August, Meijer agreed to begin selling Holo shoes at about 50 of its stores next spring. It has yet to be deter mined which stores. “Rommel has created a great look ing line of shoes that we believe will resonate with our customer,” said Tim Byrket, a division merchandise man ager at Meijer. He said the stores will carry between six and eight styles in both men’s and women’s shoes. “ ey have a fresh and unique look for outdoor footwear while being sus tainable and a ordable. We’re also ex cited to partner with Rommel and Holo because of our shared values of sustainability and inclusivity,” Byrket said.Nordstrom began carrying Holo shoes in ve stores and online last hol iday season, when the company was still based in “CustomerPortland.response has been posi tive. We know sustainability is import ant to many of our customers, and we admire the work they are doing to pro vide a sustainably made and accessi bly-priced outdoor footwear collec tion,” said Tacey Powers, Nordstrom’s executive vice president and general manager for shoes. “Holo quali es for Nordstrom’s sustainable-style catego ry. By 2025, we aim to ensure 15 per cent of our product assortment quali es for sustainable style.” ey are also being carried at Dick’s Sporting Goods, Backcountry and REI stores.Vega, an 18-year veteran of the shoe industry, launched Holo in 2020, nam ing it for the current geological Holo cene epoch. Holo had revenue of about $500,000 that year and projects more than $5 million this year. Before founding Holo, he was life style design director for Merrell, the largest division of Wolverine World Wide. Before that, he led the design team at Keen Footwear, was a senior designer at Columbia Sportswear and was employed by Puma, Gerry Out doors and Fossil watches. Vega began raising his seed round of $1.3 million last year but despite his sustained revenue growth said he heard a series of “no”s from Portland area investors and soon was thinking of moving his company. A native of Florida, he graduated from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit in 2006, and says he has had an a nity for Michigan ever since.
TOM HENDERSON
Quint’s CEO, Don Goeman, rst heard about Holo from Glaza. One of Quint’s employees met with Vega in June, got an order rmed up at the be ginning of July and by the time of Ho lo’s opening on July 17, Quint had built
On June 22, the Michigan Economic Development Corp. agreed to provide Holo with up to $250,000 over three years, contingent on its hitting projec tions of hiring up to 61 workers with an average wage of $1,629 per week plus bene ts. In his application for funding, Vega said he was considering moving to North Carolina or staying in Oregon. Holo currently employs seven. Holo shares a warehouse in Grand Rapids with another startup, a furni ture company named Quint Work spaces LLC, which is another of Invest Detroit’s portfolio companies.
This year’s program, the rst in person, to o er meetings with mentors, advisers, investors
10 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | S EP TE M BER 5, 2022 FOCUS | GRAND RAPIDS
Vega said he will start raising a Series A funding round of $5 million this month.“Not only does the Holo team have a wealth of experience in the outdoor footwear market of over 70 years, but also their team has designed an a ord able, sustainable shoe that is ready for all types of terrains,” said Je Wesley, Michigan Rise’s executive director. “We were impressed with Holo’s traction and commitment to Michigan and the sustainable minded customer and look forward to seeing and supporting their continued growth.”
Vega says he would nd himself on line at one or two in the morning, Googling angel and venture-capital in vestors and sending out pitch decks explaining what he and Holo were all about.One of those he found online and reached out to was Invest Detroit last spring. “ ey really connected me to
Vega said BIC Capital, an angel-in vestor group in Grand Rapids, became enthusiastic investors as did Michigan Rise, an investment arm of the MSU Foundation in East Lansing, which in vested in July.
Joe Gallagher and Daniel Estrada, childhood friends who grew up on the same street in the Grand Rapids area and graduated together from East Grand Rapids High School, thought they had a good idea for nally starting a company together: helping restaurant owners manage their equipment through preventative maintenance programs and repair management. “We always had a gentleman’s agreement that one day we’d start a business together,” said Gallagher, who is head of product development for 86 Repairs Inc. Estrada is CEO. e number “86” is a restaurant term for a menu item that is no longer available, having been 86ed. e term originated during the Korean war, a reference to an F-86 ghter jet shooting down an enemy plane. Restaurant owners and investors have heartily agreed with their business plan.ey now have 3,000 customers across the U.S., and in July they closed on a funding round of $15.2 million. Last year, they raised a round of $5.3 million and have raised a total of $24 million since launching in 2018.
Helping bolster the case for growth capital was data from customers showing they saw an annual return on repair and maintenance savings of 7.2 times their cost of having 86 Repairs as a vendor. e company claims year-overyear revenue growth of about 300 percent and expects to hit $4 million this year.When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, the company immediately cut prices for customers by 50 percent. “It bought us a lot of goodwill,” Gallagher said. Many customers quickly adapted to the pandemic environment and were able to retain much of their business, doing curbside service or home delivery. “It was a very sharp and acute moment for us followed by unabated growth,” Gallagher said. “86 Repairs is changing how restaurant operators address this long-standing pain point,” Pascale Diaine, a partner at Storm Ventures, said when the recent round was announced at the end of July. “When we saw how the market has responded to their solution, we understood that something very special is happening at 86 Repairs, with a seismic impact on the industry.” Andrew Smith, managing director at Savory Fund, agreed. “As restaurant operators ourselves, we know how di cult managing repair and maintenance can be,” he said. “We were never able to nd a good solution to help us manage and support such a large part of our business until we became an 86 Repairs customer. I’ve seen rsthand how this solution streamlines day-to-day operations, and it’s become a must-have technology for our operational service teams.”According to industry gures, restaurants spend $28 billion on repairs and maintenance a year and lose $46 billion of revenue because of equipment down time.86
CryoCellar was founded by Jordan DeVries and uses what it calls a CryoCube Cooler to capture CO2 from tailpipes and smoke stacks of trucks. e system uses the CO2 to help inject dry ice into on-board containers to keep their containers fresh while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. DeVries is expected to get his master’s degree in food science and technology from Michigan State University this December.
—David
“IT’LL BE A NICE CHANGE FOR ALL OF US TO BE ABLE TO MEET IN PERSON AND BUILD COMMUNITY.” Wesley, executive director, Spartan Innovations
@TomHenderson2
“HAVING THE ABILITY FOR OUR MANAGERS TO GO TO THEIR PHONES AND TEXT 86 REPAIR AND GET IN THE QUEUE HAS BEEN A SIGNIFICANT ENHANCEMENT FOR US.” Bear, president,
Contact: thenderson@crain.com (231) 499-2817;
David Bear is president of Bear Family Restaurants, which owns and runs 35 McDonald’s restaurants in the Chicago area. He said he became an 86 Repairs customers ve months ago, happily“It’sso.very di cult to hire and train individuals to take on all our equipment,” he said. He credited 86 Repairs with getting equipment that has gone down repaired quickly, managing equipment vendors and handling invoicing and administrative details. “Having the ability for our managers to go to their phones and text 86 Repair and get in the queue has been a signicant enhancement for us,” Bear said. Before co-founding 86 Repairs, Gallagher, a mechanical engineer who graduated from Kettering University in Flint in 2007, had been director of the food-equipment division for the Oliver Packaging and Equipment Co. of Walker. “I knew there was a strong need to help restaurants service their capital equipment,” he said, a need made more urgent by what he describes as the greatest shortage in the kinds of skilled trades needed to repair restaurant equipment since World War II. Gallagher said the marketplace agreed with his assessment of the need for a company like 86 Repairs. In 2018, the company quickly went from recurring revenue of $5,000 a month to recurring revenue of $50,000, he said. Estrada had a strong background in managing IT systems. Before co-founding 86 Repairs, he was head of European health care operations for EPAM Systems Inc., a Pennsylvania company that specializes in digital platform engineering and custom software and had revenue of $3.8 billion in 2021. From 2013-16 he was director of digital systems for Grand Rapids-based Spectrum“JoeHealth.andI wanted to nd a big hairy problem to sink our teeth into,” Estrada said. “Initially, I was skeptical. e restaurant industry is so di cult to sell into. In the early days, the very big question mark was if we would be able to raise enough capital. Venture capitalists hear hundreds of pitches and invest in one. I wouldn’t say we were surprised at our fundraising; we had done our homework. But great early investors like Patti Glaza at Invest Detroit were willing to write checks and help our seed round come together.” Today, 86 Repairs operates entirely remotely, with 86 employees working from their homes in 13 states as of Sept. 1. e largest employee base is in GrandGlaza,Rapids.executive vice president of Invest Detroit, said she met Gallagher and Estrada in June 2018 when 86 Repairs was just launching and wrote a check that September as one of the rst investors in a seed round of $250,000. at has been followed by four more follow-on investments by Invest Detroit. “ ey’re an exceptional team with complementary skills,” she said. “What I found so fascinating is their absolute laser attention to the metrics. ey knew they were entering a hard market and trying to sell a new service to a fragmented business.” Je Wesley,executive director at Michigan Rise and Red Cedar Ventures, two investment arms of the MSU Foundation, said: “We are thrilled with the progress 86 Repairs has made since we were rst introduced to them in 2020. eir team has a consistent and deliberate approach to solving an intractable and frustrating pain point in the restaurantMichiganindustry.”Rise made investments in September 2020 and June 2021, and Red Cedar Ventures invested in the latest round.
—Je
BY TOM HENDERSON
Contact: thenderson@crain.com (231) 499-2817; @TomHenderson2
Joe Gallagher (left) and Daniel Estrada, co-founders of 86 Repairs Inc. | CSEANSUPHOTOGRAPHY them for continued one-on-one mentorship and other support. is year’s class of companies includes: Opnr, an online platform to help promote the local independent music community. Founded by Andrea Wallace, Opnr’s motto is Book Local, Sell Local. It helps connects musicians with local performance opportunities and connects local concert organizers or music venues with musicians who might be needed to ll out a program and to those musicians’ fan bases. Opnr also helps musicians create an electronic press kit. Farmish, whose app, available at the App Store or Google Play, helps consumers nd goods such as homegrown produce, backyard chicken eggs, garden supplies and plants at area farms, farmers’ markets or small private growers. Founded by Terra Osman in March, the company already claims 100,000 users across the U.S. JustAir Solutions provides local air pollution monitoring to cities to bring greater transparency into the disparities of air quality among various parts of local communities. JustAir provides neighborhood-level air-quality monitors, letting o cials more accurately identify local sources of pollutants and develop data-driven solutions to improve air quality. Darren Riley, a former data analyst at Quicken Loans in Detroit, founded JustAir in May 2021. foundedwhichKoziALE,wasbyCasey Fechter and Craig Sutherland, a former commercial banker, and whose customers are property-casualty insurance carriers. If their customers need to nd new homes for one reason or another, KoziALE provides housing search and placement services.
SEPTEMBER 5, 2022 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 11 FOCUS | GRAND RAPIDS
Leading the latest round was Silicon Valley-based Storm Ventures, with other participants including the Savory Restaurant Fund of Lehti, Utah; Chicago-based Lightbank VC; TDF Ventures of Bethesda, Md.; Wyoming, Mich.based Gordon Food Service; Chicago-based MATH Venture Partners; Dublin, Ohio-based Tamarind Hill and two earlier funders, Detroit-based Invest Detroit and East Lansing-based Red Cedar Ventures of the MSU Foundation.
Bear Family Restaurants
Taking restaurants’ repairs o the menu
“ e Conquer Accelerator in Grand Rapids has quickly become a premier program to put high-tech/highgrowth companies on a fast track to commercialization. We look forward to supporting this impressive group of Grand Rapids startups through programming, mentorship and investment,” said Kyle McGregor, director of Spartan Innovations Grand Rapids.
Company cooks up success servicing equipment
Repairs does an inventory of restaurant equipment and manages warranties and service dispatch. Its motto? “Taking repairs o the menu.”
Contact: thenderson@crain.com (231) 499-2817; @TomHenderson2
BYLINE ADHD
they have been able to grow rapidly without sacrificing their quality of care is a testament to their leader ship and execution in building out an impressive network of physi cians capable of delivering quality care.”Dr. Ken Schroeter is one of those doctors. Based in Chester, N.H., he was an independent contractor, treating patients with addiction problems via telemedicine for Bet ter Life Partners of Dartmouth, N.H. Looking for other telemedi cine options, he came across ADHD Online on Indeed.com a lit tle more than a year ago, filled out an application and was hired as an independent contractor last Sep tember.“Alot of doctors leave medicine because they don’t like the job,” he said. “I really like this. I can reach patients who can’t otherwise ac cess health care. I was worried at first that ADHD Online would be a one-trick pony, but there are a wide variety of therapeutic strate gies depend ing on the pa tient. I get patients com ing to me in tears saying, ‘This is life canwomen.andintotientsmostchanging.’”HesaidofhispaarewelladulthoodmostareSomebetreatedwith nonstimulants, though most patients are treated with stimulants such as Ritalin, Dexedrine and Adderall. According to the company, 62 percent of its customers are wom enSchroeter18-49. said many of his pa tients have known something was wrong for years but perhaps were discouraged from seeking treat ment by parents or spouses. “Pa tients tell me, ‘For the first time, I feel heard,’” he said. Kate Breck of Greene, Maine, isn’t one of Schroeter’s patients, but she fits his model of a woman who was well into adulthood be fore she was diagnosed, and she is ecstatic at the results she’s seen. She found ADHD Online two months ago when an ad for the company popped up on her Face book feed. She clicked on it, read some reviews and decided to take the online assessment. She was then referred to a nurse practitioner.“Ithought it was normal to not be able to concentrate, to keep put ting things off,” said Breck, who is 35. “I’d had it on a back burner for a long time to do something about it, but I couldn’t do that any more.” After her first session with the nurse practitioner, she was put on a stimulant.“Itwasthe biggest change. It was night and day,” she said. “I thought, ‘This is how people are supposed to feel.’ I can get things done. This is life changing. I was shocked to say the least. I wish I would have known it would be this easy.” She has had two sessions, and her third monthly session is com ing up. Of the session fee of $99, she said: “It is definitely worth it.” Cara Jurkowski, 45, is a manager of internal communications in Dal las for what she describes as a ma jor corporation. She, too, had a his tory of coping with ongoing distractedness before finding ADHD“There’sOnline.somany of us, especial ly women, who just deal with the things that come our way. You think you’re just supposed to deal with it,” she said. She found ADHD Online about four months ago. After her assess ment, she was referred to a Texas doctor and began monthly online sessions with him, getting a pre scription for a stimulant after the first session. “The doctor and I to tally clicked. We had to adjust my dose, it was tricky getting to the perfect place and we’re still work ing on it. But the medication has allowed me to have a focus and work on things undistractedly.” Jurkowski has a session every three months, now, and said she considers the $99 per session charge a “Thankbargain.GodIdid this. It changed my life. It profoundly helped me.”
Zachariah Booker (left), CEO of ADHD Online, and Keith Brophy, chief operating o cer. BUSINESS
“IT WAS THE BIGGEST CHANGE. IT WAS NIGHT AND DAY. I THOUGHT, ‘THIS IS HOW PEOPLE ARE SUPPOSED TO FEEL.’ I CAN GET THINGS DONE. THIS IS LIFE CHANGING. I WAS SHOCKED TO SAY THE LEAST. I WISH I WOULD HAVE KNOWN IT WOULD BE THIS EASY.”
— Kate Breck, ADHD Online patient
The Michigan company helping people with ADHD Online aims to simplify the process of diagnosis and connect patients with care
12 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | S EP TE M BER 5, 2022 FOCUS | GRAND RAPIDS
In September 2018, Zachariah Booker and Dr. Randall Duthler co-founded Grandville-based ADHD Online LLC, which offers online diagnosis for those who think they may have attention defi cit hyperactivity disorder — and follow-up treatment for those who do.Booker, the company CEO, says it’s more than just a business for him and for Duthler, the chief in novation medical officer and a physician with Spectrum Health. It’s a mission. Booker says he was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 17 and knows how hard it can be. Duthler was also diagnosed withTheADHD.two spent two years beta testing their extensive online as sessment tool, then began fund raising to support the company’s growth. They raised a round of $2 million last year and have raised $2 million this year of what they hope to be a round of at least $5 million. The business has grown sharply in the last year. When the company moved to Grandville, just south west of Grand Rapids, from a small office in Hudsonville a year ago, it had seven employees. Today it has 50 and has already opened a sec ond office in Grandville. As of the end of August, the com pany says 88,091 people have taken its online assessment in all 50 states and 147 contractors provide follow-on health care services. About 33,000 of those assessed were referred to health care provid ers and 24,509 of those remain in treatment.Peoplewho complete the assess ment, which has 250 questions and takes about 90 minutes to finish, are not obligated to undergo treat ment with ADHD Online’s medical contractors but can use their own physicians.KeithBrophy, the chief operat ing officer, said the company has been cash flow-positive from the start. He said the company had rev enue of $9.8 million in 2021 with projections this year of $22.8 mil lion and next year of $42 million. “It’s rare to have an early-stage business that has that kind of soar ing revenue,” he said. Booker said what ADHD Online offers is much cheaper than a tra ditional evaluation and has a much quicker path toward diagnosis and treatment. In the past, someone looking to get an assessment might have to make an appointment months out with a doctor to test to see if they have ADHD, then try to get on the calendar of another doc tor to treat them and prescribe medications.Theprocess can take six months and cost $2,000, he said. Within three days of ADHD’s online as sessment, a doctor determines if ADHD is the proper diagnosis. If it is, an appointment can be made within another three or four days with one of the company’s health care providers, who are physicians, nurse practitioners or doctoral lev el Thepsychologists.costofthe assessment is $149. Treatment sessions are $199 for the first half-hour session and $99 for follow-up sessions. Month ly sessions are usually required at first, with the goal to get to a ses sion every three months. ADHD Online does not bill in surance companies but said many health care plans reimburse pa tients for their costs. Booker said COVID helped drive the company’s success as people became more comfortable with telehealth and other virtual ser vices. And COVID-related stresses exacerbated symptoms for some people with undiagnosed ADHD — leading some of them to finally try to get a handle on their mental health.“ADHD Online is led by an expe rienced and well-balanced team with clinical and entrepreneurial skills,” said Jeff Wesley, executive director of both Red Cedar Ven tures and Michigan Rise, two in vestment arms of the MSU Founda tion. “We have felt from day one this is a winning combination for the team to bring the company’s disruptive solution to market. The company has seen tremendous growth and is helping an underdi agnosed and very high impact area of Michiganneed.”
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Rise and Red Cedar Ventures invested in ADHD Online in April 2021. Red Cedar invested again in July. The Grand Rapids-based Michi gan Capital Network has invested in ADHD Online twice, in April last year and this July. “What we really love about ADHD’s model and management team is their devotion to patient care,” said Meagan Malm, a venture capital associate with the MCN. “ADHD will even identify comor bidities like depression and anxiety and recommend the appropriate avenues for those treatments as well. They do this all for close to a quarter of the price and roughly 30 times faster than the standard in-personDetroit-basedmethod.”Invest Michigan is also an “ADHDinvestor.Online has established itself as the industry leader in the ADHD telehealth space,” said Charlie Moret, Invest Michigan’s president and CEO. “The fact that
A liated physician Dr. Ken Schroeter | KEN SCHROETER
Laurie Placinski, BAM vice president of real estate, design and partnerships, next to full body PET scanner.
“We are excited to support BAMF Health on their next steps toward growth and expansion,” said Je Wes ley, Red Cedar’s executive director.
Ventures, an investment arm of the MSU Foundation in East Lansing.
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TOM HENDERSON/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS Harshad Kulkarni, (left) BAMF’s chief medical adviser, and Matt DeLong, vice president of radiopharmacy.
Another investor is Red Cedar
TOM HENDERSON/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS Deidra Mitchell, president and CEO, Waséyabek Development Company LLC TIBERIUS IMAGES BAMF CEO Anthony Chang
e Doug Meijer Medical Innova tion Building is one of four buildings MSU has developed along what Grand Rapids bills as the Medical Mile. While BAMF was the bene cia ry of the cyclotron and other equip ment paid for by the Meijer grant, it was formally made to the MSU Col lege of Human Medicine.
“BAMF Health is tackling cancer di agnosis and treatment at an excep tional level, and on behalf of Red Ce dar Ventures, we are beyond grateful to be in partnership with their team as they continue to collaborate with Michigan State University as a dis ruptive and innovative player in the health care industry.”
Over the years, he has been treated at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and in the German center that treated “EverythingMeijer.seems to be working ne,” Foster said by phone three weeks after his treatment from his home near St. Augustine, Fla. “I feel good, there’s no big side e ects.” He is scheduled to return to Grand Rapids for a second treatment in mid-September.“Amazingisthe word to use talking about it,” Foster said of the rapid scan and follow-up therapy. “ ere’s no cure but you can manage it. I’m opti mistic, hopeful and happy. I’ve been dealing with this for years and glad to still be ghting it.”
employees and has 23 subsidiaries across the U.S. e investment in BAMF came from the development company.Diedra Mitchell is Waséyabek’s president and CEO. She said she sits on a CEO council of the Grand Rap ids Chamber with Chang, and about a year and a half ago had a conversa tion over dinner with him about his plans for BAMF. “I was like, ‘Wow!’” she said. “ e only ones doing this were in Germa ny, so it’s amazing to see what they have been able to do. ey’ve made a tremendous amount of progress in sixShemonths.”saidthe development compa ny wrote its check a year ago and has yet to decide on whether to partici pate in the next funding round but said: “ eir expansion plans and scalability are quite wonderful. What’s really important is who they are. ey are really dedicated, heart felt people. at really stands out.”
One local investor is the Notta waseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, a federally recognized tribal government with about 1,650 members and the Pine Creek Indian Reservation near Athens, Mich. e tribe opened the FireKeepers Casino Hotel in Battle Creek in 2009, and two years later formed the Waséyabek Development Company LLC to di versify tribal income from a reliance onWaséyabekgaming. — the name means “a new day’s light” in the Potawatomi language — has grown to nearly 450
e uEXPLORER is the only medi cal imaging 3D scanner in the world capable of capturing the total human body in a single bed position. Not only does cutting scanning time down to three minutes or so make things much easier on the patient, it allows the treatment center to do far more scans a day and generate far moreTelixrevenue.launched Illuccix for prostate cancer imaging in April in the United States and has a pipeline of imaging and therapeutic agents in develop ment to potentially detect and treat a range of cancers and rare diseases through targeted radiation. Illuccix’s active radioactive diagnostic agent is an isotope of gallium. Telix’s pipeline of diagnostic and therapeutic agents dovetails with Chang’s plans for BAMF. While the company’s FDA approval currently allows only for the treatment of latestage prostate and neuroendocrine cancer patients, Chang has begun in viting pharmaceutical companies to engage in human trials at BAMF and eventually hopes to win FDA approv al to treat earlier-stage patients with all forms of cancer, as well as such illnesses as endometriosis, Alzhei mer’s and Parkinson’s. e company has begun inviting global radiopharmaceutical manu facturers to come tour its facilities and hopes to start some trials later this month. “We have several com mitments for starting trials already,” saidRonChang.Foster, a 78-year-old who has been ghting prostate cancer since he was 50, was one of the rst nine men to get treated in Grand Rapids.
BAMF From Page 8
SEPTEMBER 5, 2022 | C R AIN’S D ETROI T B USIN E SS | 13 FOCUS | GRAND RAPIDS
Dr. Harshad Kulkarni, BAMF’s chief medical adviser, was recruited in July from the German center, where he was a physician and senior consultant.BAMFgrew out of treatment for prostate cancer Doug Meijer got at the German center in 2017. BAMF was formally founded in 2018, and Chang was hired to begin the long process of raising money, recruiting doctors and scientists and getting federal approval. It has grown its headcount from three then to about 80, now, including software teams in Kosovo, Singapore and the Philip pines, with plans to be at about 100 by the end of the year. When the Meijer Foundation ap proved the grant of $19.5 million in October 2019, Meijer said: “ e Mei jer Family has always been passion ate about health care and I am thank ful to have the ability to carry that passion forward. ( is) will help save lives and improve the quality of life for many people through remarkable cancer ghting technology. Patients will no longer have to travel overseas to receive needed treatment. I am liv ing proof this technology works.” Prostate cancer is the second-most common cancer among men in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society, more than 268,000 men in the U.S. will be a ect ed this year by prostate cancer and nearly 35,000 will die from it, making it the second leading cause of death behind lung cancer. More than one in eight men will be diagnosed with the cancer in their lifetimes, most 65 or BAMF,older. an acronym for Bold Ad vanced Medical Future, began diag nosing its rst nine patients on July 27, using for the rst time in the U.S. a PET scanner called the uEXPLORER, which was made by Houston-based United Imaging Healthcare Co. Ltd. and was installed in May, and a ra dioactive tracer called Illuccix, made by Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. of Mel bourne,ChangAustralia.saidmore than 20 patients have been scanned, now, “and we have a large waiting list.” According to BAMF o cials, there are 15 of the scanners in the world. Following the PET scans, BAMF treated its rst patient on Aug. 3, us ing a radiation therapeutic made by Novartis called Pluvicto, which upon injection delivers radiation directly to tumors and minimizes damage to surrounding cells.
Contact: thenderson@crain.com (231) 499-2817; @TomHenderson2
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ChoiceTel is pleased to announce that Lynda Dargis has joined the team as the Director of Business Solutions. Lynda is focused on curating a red-carpet experience for new and current clients of ChoiceTel as they navigate the ever-changing world of technology. Since 1994, ChoiceTel has been helping mid-market to enterprise clients select, manage & ensure their telecommunications/IT products and services are clearly meeting their needs.
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Ann Arbor-based Hygieia’s d-Nav insulin delivery system uses cloud-based software to analyze blood sugar levels.
Ancora Ancora is happy to announce that Katie Romant has joined the rm’s operations team as a Vice President of Client Service & Support. Katie will be responsible for providing operational and administrative support to Ancora’s of ce in Bloom eld Hills. Prior to joining Ancora, Katie spent eleven years with TillmanCarlson in Chicago, serving as Director of Client Services. Katie began her professional career after receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication from Michigan State University.
HEALTH CARE
Hygieia completed a $17 million Se ries B fundraising e ort in December of 2021 and plans to raise at least twice that amount in a third round of fund raising in the next six to nine months, LawrenceLawrencesaid.said the company will continue to expand through partner ship deals, like the one with Metro De troit Endocrinology Center, or through acquisition by a larger entity such as CVS or “InsulinAmazon.isa$50 billion drug catego ry,” Lawrence said. “But it doesn’t work that well. Our product makes insulin work better, so we’re looking at a mar ket opportunity we count in the bil lions. We’re de nitely looking at an ag gressive business plan with big returns.”
FINANCEFINNEA Group FINNEA Group is excited to announce the promotion of Dustin Hill to Managing Director. Since joining FINNEA in 2016, Dustin has built an extensive transaction portfolio of sell- and buy-side M&A transactions, as well as debt and equity capital raise advisory. His experience includes business services, industrials, healthcare, technology, food & beverage, automation, and plastics. “Dustin has brought a unique combination of strategic, nancial, and transaction experience to our rm,” says Jim Klunk, FINNEA Group Senior Managing Director. “We are fortunate have him as part of our leadership team as he steps up to his new role as Managing Director”.
ADVERTISING / PR / MARKETING Lambert
Jeff Lambert, Chair of Michigan-based Lambert. PROI is the world’s largest partnership of leading independent communications agencies with partners in 60 countries. The International Management Board includes seven member agency representatives from regions across the globe, including Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), the Americas, and Asia-Paci c (APAC) and nonvoting positions held by PROI leaders.
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In April 2021, the company closed on a $115 million fundraising round and has raised more than $271 million to date. He previously led the diabetes divi sion of $20 billion Becton, Dickinson and Co. Lawrence earned a bachelor’s from University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Northwestern University.
• Plaques • Crystal
Hygieia Inc., maker of a digital insu lin management system, is in growth mode after 10 years of proving out its medical device. e Livonia-based company hired medical startup veteran Doug Law rence as CEO last month and is moving to bring its d-Nav product line to the global health care market. Hygieia announced last Tuesday it signed an agreement with Dear born-based Metro Detroit Endocrinol ogy Center to distribute its autonomous insulin therapy to the practice’s pa tients su ering with Type-2 diabetes. “We have a proven customer model and now we have begun to scale the company,” Lawrence told Crain’s. “We’re expanding nationally by taking our rst customers outside of Michigan with the ultimate plan to build a busi ness through endocrinologist o ces to support insulin care then moving to the larger communities of primary care of ces and Currently,pharmacies.”d-Navis used by roughly 700 Type-2 diabetes patients in metro Detroit, but the company has inked
Dion welcomesLeadership Joe LaDuke as Vice certiJoeConsultingCoachingPresident,andServices.isanaccomplishededleadershipcoach
and facilitator who has wowed Dion Leadership clients for years. He consistently garners accolades for his ability to help leaders excel long after participating in his coaching and facilitation programs. In this new strategic and thought leadership role, Joe will help clients imagine and actualize leadership, team, and organizational development solutions.
Roncelli, Inc Roncelli announces Nicole Bickers as Director of Project Controls and Stephanie Maynard as Director of Human Resources. Bickers and Maynard are being promoted from managerial-level positions. Bickers, College.inofSheMaynardteamsystems,projectimprovingworking1999.joining23certiManagementProjectSoftwareed,boastsnearlyyears’experienceRoncelliinBickerswillbetowardsRoncelli’scontrolandreportingownerinsighttoolsandmembertraining.joinedRoncelliin2017.graduatedwithherMaster’sManagementwithspecializationHumanResourcesfromWalsh
Derek Nugent joins GroupeSTAHL as CFO. In this role, Nugent will be crucial in assessing the helpingbusinessorganization’splanwhiletoextendthe reach of the brand and explore emerging opportunities. He brings with him over 16 years of experience as a dedicated nance and accounting leader in a variety of sectors. Nugent holds a Bachelor of Arts in business from Washington State University and a Master of Business Administration from Michigan State University.
Shannon Dulin has been promoted to director of Community Impact for Comcast’s Heartland Region, which includes Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan and is headquartered in Plymouth. Dulin will oversee national and local philanthropic programs and initiatives in Heartland communities that Comcast serves. These initiatives make a difference through volunteerism and advancing digital equity. She and her team will also cultivate partnerships with non-pro t organizations across the region.
TECHNOLOGYChoiceTel
Hygieia expands reach with Dearborn clinic partnership, new CEO
CONSULTINGDionLeadership
FINANCIAL SERVICES
14 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | S EP TE M BER 5, 2022
DUSTIN WALSH contracts with a clinic in New York and a clinic in North Carolina. Lawrence said business will double between now and the end of the year. e d-Nav system, which is about the size of a cellphone, uses cloud-based software to analyze blood sugar levels, or HbA1c. With the help of health care professionals and primary care doctors, recommends to patients how much dosage they should give themselves based on body chemistry. e d-Nav device is the only one cleared by the Food and Drug Administration — in February 2019 — for autonomous de livery of insulin dose recommenda tions for patients with Type 2 diabetes. Metro Detroit Endocrinology Center, one of the largest endocrinology prac tices in Michigan, is incorporating the d-Nav program into a standard proto col for its eligible patients. e partner ship will also be focused on reaching patients who speak Spanish or Arabic as their primary language. More than 37 million people in the U.S. have diabetes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Pre vention. e vast majority of them have Type 2 diabetes, where the body resists the e ects of insulin it produces, or doesn’t produce enough. Hygieia has been expanding its net work for years, contracting with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan in 2018 to o er its d-Nav insulin monitoring system to Blue Cross PPO and Blue Care Network HMO members. Before that, the system had been in use for more than six years in Northern Ire land.Hygieia has said the use of the d-Nav service could save up to $100 million in pharmacy and other health care costs for diabetic patients in Michigan.
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Contact: dwalsh@crain.com; (313) 446-6042; @dustinpwalsh
“ ere are more than 8 million peo ple taking insulin, so the challenge is enormous,” Lawrence said. “Making the therapy more e ective and easier to use will broaden the use of insulin and helpLawrencepatients.”was brought on board to push the company to new heights and a potential exit for investors. He has 30 years of medical device leadership un der his belt with an expertise in product marketization, venture capital fund raising and exits. His most recent role was CEO of South Carolina-based Ce Qur, which manufactures insulin patch pumps for the Type-2 diabetes market.
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Today, GSTV — a portfolio compa ny of Rockbridge Growth Equity, the private equity rm backed by Detroit billionaire Dan Gilbert — stands as a company with more than $100 mil lion in annual revenue, according to McCa rey. e company has about 130 employees, he said, adding that about 75 percent of them are based in metro Detroit. By dipping a toe in the water of the emerging EV charging world, McCaf frey said GSTV has to tweak the type of content being delivered to consum ers, given that at gas stations it has only 2-3 minutes to get the message across. EV drivers plugging in, by comparison, might be at the charging station for 20 minutes or more. e experience at a traditional gas station is “one-to-one,” McCa rey said, meaning that the content could be the same throughout a speci c geographic area, or it could be di er ent at di erent stations just a few miles apart from each other. It just de pends on the needs of the advertisers. With EV charging stations, that method will be what McCa rey is calling “one-to-some,” meaning the focus is far broader. “ e focus of the experience, at least at the outset, is not that one in dividual who’s charging,” McCa rey said. “It’s larger footprint, a larger cohort of au dience.”eCEO of Ara Labs, the digital advertising display company that’s part of the partnership, echoed that sentiment.“Retailers now have increased op portunities to engage consumers while they fuel and scale their net works. is deal will result in more screens at the most optimized loca tions, allowing for better customer and advertiser experiences,” stated Je Cripe, the company’s chief exec utive. “We’re excited to partner with the two best-in-class networks in EV charging and location-based media to provide a turnkey, fully supported and rapidly scalable media display network.”emove by GSTV into the electric vehicle arena comes as fairly obvi ous, given the increasing interest in EVs, particularly in the face of rising gasoline prices in recent months. Data from Bloomberg, and cited by ChargePoint, show EVs are pro jected to be 9.9 percent of new vehi cles sold in 2025 and 29.2 percent by 2030 in the U.S. and Europe, com pared to 2.6 percent in 2019. Given GSTV’s emerging role in the space, McCa rey said he’s paying at tention to where the actual tipping point may be as to when electric ve hicles overtake traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. But he also acknowledges he’s got a more speci c role than paying attention to every“We’reforecast.notin the business of trying to forecast the actual pace of con sumer adoption,” he said. “We think we can help alleviate a pain point, which is how do you actually fund and deploy the (EV) infrastructure? And then from there, how can we be a better partner to our partners? e entire fuel and convenience industry is tackling this challenge quite ag gressively.”
e partnership between the com panies makes for just one way to scratch the surface as EV charging infrastructure spreads, according to Sean McCa rey, president and CEO of Initially,GSTV. the group plans to deploy 1,000 GSTV units in the rst 12 months at sites in the top 10 desig nated market areas and others before expanding to additional sites. EV drivers will see the advertising on se lect AC and DC fast-charging stations by the end of this year. It’s unclear which speci c markets, in Michigan or elsewhere, may be part of the ini tial rollout, a company spokesperson said.“Our full intention is that this will be a nationally scaled platform,” Mc Ca rey told Crain’s. “We’re partner ing with the biggest player in electric vehicle infrastructure and we’re go ing to learn together over the next several years where there’s opportu nity to continue to build a solution that provides value.”
e house saw a price drop to $3.7 million when Realtor Matt O’Laughlin, with Max Broock De troit, took over the listing — O’Laughlin called the original $4.25 million list price “crazy.” He said the latest price reduction was designed to make the home, which has three kitchens and four stories, more manageable for prospective buyers.“It’sa unique property,” he said. “It’s sooughmassive.”apotential buyer can still buy the vacant land next door, O’Laughlin said they no longer have to be a package deal. e va cant lot on the Whitney property is listed separately for $795,900. And at the Book mansion, lien holder Soaring Pine Capital is mo tivated to sell the seven-bedroom, six-bathroom, 14,680-square-foot property modeled after Marie An toinette’s Versailles palace, said John Apap, the listing agent and president of Apap Realty Group, with Signature Sotheby’s. Former owner Deidre Golden previously estimated she’d spent $4.2 million to x up the historic house, which she said was set to be demolished before her 2009 pur chase, though the city said it was never threatened with demolition and Crain’s could not independent ly con rm that it was. Golden was told then it would cost between $250,000 and $350,000 to rehab it, she said; she estimates there’s $90,000 worth of work left to do to complete the restoration that she started.Last year, the house was fore closed on and purchased at auction by Soaring Pine Capital for $937,000. Owners usually have six months after foreclosure to redeem their properties, but Victor Simon, Soaring Pine’s managing partner, said previously the group had given Golden an extension to redeem the property — and recover some of her costs — by selling the house. Apap said that period had passed, though Golden continues to own an adjacent property. Apap said he thought the house needed to be under $2 million in order to sell, and he’s gotten some interest and activity since the price drop. An original reduction, to $2.75 million, garnered looks but no o ers. “ ere’s always a price that’ll get people interested,” he said. “When you adjust the price, you’re going to attract more people.” Pricing on these kinds of unique homes is “very, very challenging,” Apap said, recalling a Grosse Ile house originally listed for $29 mil lion that later sold for $3.5 million.
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The price of the Whitney mansion, at 82 Alfred St. in Detroit, is down to $2.9 million, from $4.25 million in March. REALCOMP The Grosse Pointe Shores home of the late philanthropist and Bu alo Bills owner Ralph Wilson, at 824 Lake Shore Road, is now down to $3.3 million, after it was rst listed for $9.5 million in January 2020. | MAXON AGENCY
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“You have to really nd the right buyer,” he said. e grand, historic homes are of ten harder to sell, said Austin Black II, an associate broker with @prop erties Christie’s International Real Estate. Even those in good shape are often a “passion project” for owners, he said, and for something like the Book mansion, might be a better t as a commercial space than as a residence. He said in his experience, the buyer pool shrinks signi cantly at a certain size home, even for buyers who can a ord it.
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“People start questioning wheth er they really need that square foot age,” he said. “Even clients who want a larger house, I see them tap out at 5,000 square feet.” Homes of this size don’t follow the normal cadence of the real es tate market, Black said, where pric es continue to rise. e people looking at them often aren’t shop ping for any house — they have a speci c one in mind. “ ese are all very unique situa tions that will take a very unique buyer,” Black said. “ ey will sit on the market longer because of that.” Still, not all pricey houses are cutting their list price. One that Black used to represent, the histor ic Van Dusen mansion at 1830 Bal moral Drive in Detroit, was listed last September for $1.59 million (though it was rst listed in May 2021 for $1.85 million). Now, the seven-bedroom, six-bath, 10,325-square-foot house is back up to $1.65 million. And the 14-bedroom, sev en-bath, 15,379-square-foot Kresge mansion, at 70 West Boston Blvd. in Detroit, has stayed steady at $3 mil lion. Owner Roland Radinski said previously he was in no rush to sell his “hobby house.” “I just love the history here,” he said earlier this year. “I love giving people tours; I never get tired of doing it.”
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stationniencethanlargertion.commercialthatpeopleconversationone-to-sometheofvisitingretailorlocaSoit’sjustacohortconveandfuellevel.It’sa
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While he said some homes near the Book have sold for $2.2 million, he said the fact that the Book is larger and has more character is o set by the fact that it’s on a main road. Apap said he was lucky not to be the rst Realtor on the home, and to see that an o er had come in al ready for $1.5 million. Activity, he said, is picking up and some poten tial buyers are looking at what tax abatements might be available to continue to update the property.
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Air mobility experience: Six mobility companies from around the world, with products ranging from hoverboards and jet suits to amphibi ous sport planes, will give ight demonstrations over the Detroit River, in Hart Plaza and Huntington Place.
What’s inside Crews began setting up exhibition space on the sold-out 723,000-squarefoot show oor at Huntington Place lastAroundweek.
hardly new, and recent years have ac tually been well below historic averag es as the logistics associated with law rm M&A deals have proved chal lenging during the pandemic years, according to a report earlier this year by legal consulting rm Fairfax Asso ciates.Fairfax tracked 41 completed law rm mergers during 2021, compared with 40 mergers in 2020, but well be low the historical average of 55 per year over the previous 10 years.
For the rst time, the Detroit auto show will feature a host of events not necessarily related to new car tech.
Other entertainment
Flintmobile: Ticketed visitors can see Fred Flintstone’s original car built by George Barris for the 1994 movie “The Flintstones” and on loan from LeMay — America’s Car Museum in Tacoma, Wash.
16 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | S EP TE M BER 5, 2022
The North American International Auto Show will be back starting Sept. 14 after a more than three-year break. greet with automaker executives and show o proprietary technology. Most of the rooms at Huntington Place have been booked — a promis ing indication that the auto show is serving its traditional purpose of fa cilitating business, Fulkerson said. Dozens of suppliers big and small will be participating to various de grees. BorgWarner’s CTO Harry Husted will be participating as a judge in the Plug and Play startup pitch event, while Bosch will conduct fuel cell classes, demonstrations at the De troit Smart Parking Lab and a debut of a technology related to new visibility for trucks and SUVs with a tailgate, spokesman Tim Wieland said. Magna International is among the largest participants. e Canadian supplier, which has a major presence in metro Detroit, will host a family with a $2,500 upcharge to be near the front, according to show organizers. Typically, that space would cost $20,000-$40,000. Exhibitor packages range as high as $220,000.
Luxury gaming: Ticketed attendees are invited to visit a 26-foot, climate-con trolled “arcade on wheels” in Hart Plaza. Auto show activations
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Dinosaur encounter: Ticketed visitors can walk through a display of more than 80 dinosaurs as large as 28 feet tall and 60 feet long. There will also be T-Rex ATV rides and Dinosaur Scooters inside the Huntington Place Ballroom. The dinosaur experience will premiere on Charity Preview night, Sept. 16.
“While law rms continue to face logistical challenges associated with developing merger relationships and pushing towards more serious discus sions in the current environment, many rms remain committed to growth and expansion and are con tinuing to explore merger options,” the report says.
ere will be a decidedly heavier emphasis on general consumers and less on industry wonks. Indoor expe riences will include Bronco Moun tain, Camp Jeep, Ram Truck Territory and rides in Maseratis, Lamborghinis and other luxury cars — as well as Ju rassic dinosaur encounters and the Flintmobile. (See sidebar, Page 16.)
Giant rubber duck: The “World Largest Rubber Duck” will be displayed in Hart Plaza. The 61-feet-tall, 30,000pound duck will be sponsored by Jeep.
Contact: knagl@crain.com; (313) 446-0337; @kurt_nagl Post-merger, the current Ja e leadership team will continue to lead and make Detroit market deci sions, and many will step into rmwide leadership roles, serving on Taft’s executive committee, other major committees of the rm and chairing practice groups. Taft was founded in Cincinnati, but its executives tout having a “non-headquarters model.” e larger rm aims to supply increased capital and resources to the rms that come under their umbrella, said Robert Hicks, the rm’s Indianapolis-based chairman and managing partner. Much of Taft’s growth has come through these types of merger deals, Hicks said. He pointed to ve others the rm has done in recent years, and noted that he joined the rm through such a merger deal. e rm is also growing in its exist ing markets, such as Chicago, where it’s adding a third oor to its o ces, according to a report in Crain’s Chica goHicksBusiness.stressed that the rm uses a model that seeks to empower each of its o ces to operate largely autono mously, setting their own policies that make the most sense in those mar kets.Metro Detroit, Hicks said, is an at tractive market that Taft has sought to be in for more than a decade. But that meant nding the right partner. “We’re not brave enough or arro gant enough to think that we can come to that market and all of a sud den plant a ag and say, ‘Hi, we’re here,’” Hicks said. “We need the glue, the history, the culture, and all the re lationships that exist with a rm like Ja Consolidatione.” among law rms is
day for its employees, buying around 4,000 tickets for public attendance, spokeswoman Tracy Fuerst said. e company will also have a display on the main oor and is helping subsi dize the cost of exhibition space for universities around the state. For the MEDC-sponsored Auto Mobili-D days Sept. 14-15, there will be 140 companies participating, in cluding 71 startups. e number of tech exhibitors is up at least 20 per cent from 2019, Fulkerson said. e MEDC is subsidizing the cost of space for startups of all sizes look ing to catch the eyes of automakers and tier one executives on the hunt for technology that could aid their transition to EVs. e cost of a booth in AutoMobili-D is $6,000 for a 10x10 space, $10,000 for a 10x20 spot and $20,000 for a 20x20, e city and state have bought into the new vision for the show, shelved since 2019. Lawmakers passed a $9 million, one-time grant for the event, and the Michigan Economic Devel opment Corp. is subsidizing show oor space for dozens of companies. Alberts said he expects the Detroit auto show to generate “hundreds of millions of dollars” in economic im pact for local hotels, restaurants and stores.Hedeclined to provide budget g ures for the event but said revenue from ticket sales will be used to sus tain the annual show. Outside the usual downtown con vention center base, the city of Detroit and Downtown Detroit Partnership are renting out and activating public streets and parks, from the Detroit Riv erfront and Hart Plaza to Campus Mar tius and Beacon Park, where the rst Detroit Concours d’Elegance will also host an event during auto show days. “I think a lot of people, not just the auto show or the Concours d’Ele gance, are recognizing the signi cant bene t of the Detroit brand,” said Eric Larson, CEO of the Downtown Detroit Partnership.
AUTO SHOW
Pent-up demand Outside of the major automakers, more than 200 companies will have a presence on the show oor and throughout the four-story hall, said Tavi Fulkerson, founder of e Fulker son Group, which has handled spon sor activity for the auto show since 1992.e number of sponsors is on par with 2019, which shows the pent-up demand after a three-year hiatus, Fulkerson said. “ is is a very, very unique market ing environment,” she said. “It’s very collaborative and forward thinking.”
Grand Prix circuit: Ticketed visitors can drive a Volkswagen or Chevrolet along a portion of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix circuit, which returns to downtown in 2023.
From left, Chairman Arthur Weiss, CEO Mark Cooper and Senior Member Je Heuer pose for a portrait at Ja e in South eld last week.
Many automotive suppliers will have a major presence at the show, too, either public-facing or with pri vate hospitality deals to meet-and-
Monster trucks: The public can see the “world’s rst battery-powered Monster Truck” at Hart Plaza, which will also host freestyle motocross performances.
The “world’s largest rubber duck” is coming to Detroit for the auto show this month.
| NIC ANTAYA/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
1,000 union laborers, in cluding electricians, carpenters, iron workers and stagehands work with the logistics team to bring the conven tion center to life, according to orga nizers. From move in to move out, the show is about a monthlong event.
For the rst time, the show will fea ture a host of events not necessarily related to new car tech. e Motor Bel la-inspired activations will range from amusement park-like experiences with vehicles to drone displays, with much of it being free to the public. Ac tivities include dinosaur-themed rides, a zip around the new downtown Grand Prix circuit, air mobility experi ences and luxury gaming.
For OEM involvement — tradition ally the centerpiece of the show — there will be participation from Stel lantis NV, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and Subaru Corp. Others will have vehi cles on display by dealers throughout the region. A total of 35 brands are expected to be represented.
Ford will unveil its seventh genera tion (and likely last gas-powered) Mustang at the show and Stellantis From Page 1 will have new vehicle reveals for Jeep and Chrysler. GM also has a news conference scheduled, but details have not been released. Some major automakers that at tended the show in 2019, such as Nis san and Hyundai, are skipping it this year, e Detroit News reported. De spite the tech emphasis, EV startups such as Rivian, which has a strong presence in metro Detroit, are not scheduled to attend the show. De troit automakers foe Tesla Inc. also is notInexpected.2019,there were 4,568 media members from 60 countries regis tered to cover 44 vehicle reveals, in cluding 31 world debuts, said orga nizers, who expect this year’s show to draw 1,000-2,000 journalists to cover just 8-10 reveals.
Here’s what’s happening:
Contact: nmanes@crain.com; (313) 446-1626; @nickrmanes
NORTH AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL AUTO SHOW
JAFFE From Page 1
From left, co-founders and producing artistic directors Courtney Burkett, Sarah Clare Corporandy and Sarah Winkler pose for a portrait at Detroit Public Theatre in Detroit on Aug. 31, 2022. NIC ANTAYA/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
Detroit City Council authorized the sale of adult-use recreational marijuana in the city in the spring, about 2 1/2 years after sales began across the state. e lawmaking body approved the rules in an 8-1 vote, with member Mary Waters casting the lone “no” vote. e adult-use marijuana industry is estimated to yield $3 billion in an nual revenue in Michigan by 2024.
“THERE PEOPLE ON NIGHTS A WEEK.”
Detroit City Council President Pro Tem James Tate (left) and Mayor Mike Duggan announce the recreational marijuana license application process will kick o on Thursday. CITY OF DETROIT
Restaurants in the area include: Barcade, Nain Rouge Brewery, Smith & Co., Condado, Gus’s Chicken, She Wolf, Selden Standard and Honest John’s.Others are in the works. Latin American restaurant Veci no’s at ird and Alexandrine and Italian restaurant and co ee house “Mad Nice” on Second and Alexan drine should both be open no later than spring 2023, Mosey said. Detroit Ice Cream is also opening a block and a half from DPT on Selden, she said. And a vegan restaurant is set to open at 3940 ird St. and a Mexican street food restaurant at 4100 ird, on either side of the the ater, are also in the works, according to a Midtown Detroit development plan for the area shared by Mosey. Midtown Detroit Inc. suggested the Second Avenue location to DPT given the investments it is making there with partners including Invest Detroit and 3Mission Design & De velopment, which is leasing DPT its new building, she said. “I think the theater will de nitely spur more interest and development along the ird Avenue Corridor, which we see as the next corridor to see new investment now that so much has been done along Cass and Second in Midtown,” Mosey said. A new home DPT was founded in 2015 by theater veterans Burkett, Corporandy and Sar 1 ah Winkler and joined last fall by Morisseau, a Cass Technical High School graduate who wrote the Broad way play, “Ain’t Too Proud — e Life and Times of e Temptations” and other works, was a board member and artist with DPT since its founding. She joined the leadership team as execu tive artistic producer in 2020. e theater operated for several years from a space provided by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at the Max. But with its growth came the re alization that it needed its own space. It launched a $5 million campaign to fund its new building, operations and subsidized residencies to pay it for ward for other small and mid-sized groups. So far, it has raised $3.3 mil lion, said Winkler, co-producing ar tistic director for DPT. Coming in the front door of the new theater, patrons will nd a box o ce, small lobby and bar that will be operated by Atwater Bistro LLC, Burkettosesaid.spaces open up into a 200-plus-seat exible black box the ater that will allow for various con g urations of the seating and staging. “It’s a very immersive space...and that’s what we really wanted artisti cally. But then I think it also makes it really great for other people’s uses,” Burkett said. e theater area is also de signed to ensure a car could be driven onto it, positioning it to secure vehicle pre views during the Detroit auto show, Corporandy said. e theater is anked by back-ofhouse areas, including dressing rooms, a “light and sound lock” room to keep noise and light pollution out of the theater when actors come on stage, and a new, upstairs loft space that will include o ce space and serve as a greenroom for actors. Ini tial construction estimates were set at $1.75 million, Burkett said, but rose to $2.8 million after COVID let up, including a $250,000 tenant im provement credit.
Contact: dwalsh@crain.com; (313) 446-6042; @dustinpwalsh
THAT CORNER...FIVE
THEATER From Page
Contact: swelch@crain.com; (313) 446-1694; @SherriWelch
SEPTEMBER 5, 2022 | C R AIN’S D ETROI T B USIN E SS | 17
“ is re-purposing of this historic building is really, I think, it’s going to activate this street in a really positive way,” DPT co-founder Sarah Clare Corporandy said. “ ere will be 200 people on that corner... ve nights a week.” e Midtown area around the the ater has a strong cluster of local busi nesses within three blocks, from ca sual options through ne dining that stand to bene t from this foot tra c, said Sue Mosey, executive director of Midtown Detroit Inc., in an email.
WILL BE 200
“Although the city’s 2022 marijua na ordinance is a complicated scheme, it is unambiguous and pro vides a fair licensing process, which comports with the mandates of the MRTMA (Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act),” Smith said in her ruling.
“We are in the process of taking the painful step of reducing our work force to ensure Homepoint is best po sitioned to navigate the current highrate, low-margin environment,” Pettiford said in the email. “... Over the last several months, we have executed multiple strategic ac tions to minimize the human impact as much as possible, but continually worsening market conditions make this additional step necessary” Pettiford added that the layo s are expected to result in $100 million in annual cost savings for the company. It was unclear which areas of the company will be impacted by layo s. In its second quarter earnings re port last month, Home Point report ed a quarterly loss of more than $44 million.Detroit-based Rocket Mortgage last Friday rolled out a second round of buyout o ers to a “small percent age” of its workforce. Rival lender United Wholesale Mortgage in Pontiac said it has gotten through the contracting mortgage market without resorting to layo s so far. However, its headcount of about 7,000 as of last month was down from a peak of about 8,000 last year. e decline is due to “natural attrition,” according to a company spokesper son.
Contact: nmanes@crain.com; (313) 446-1626; @nickrmanes
FINANCENICKMANES
It’s really exciting, “to bring people back home and to o er artists who are here, a place to work where they can earn a living wage and to keep some of our talent here at home,” she said. With the move to the new venue, DPT has nearly doubled its sta to 13 and more than doubled its budget to $2 million, Corporandy said. DPT is set to launch its inaugural season in the building on Sept. 23, with four productions ttingly fo cused on place and home. It will open with “Mud Row” by Morisseau, followed by “Noura,” by internationally acclaimed playwright Heather Ra o. e season will also include “ e Peculiar Patriot” by nationally ac claimed playwright named Liza Jes sie Peterson and “Passing Strange,” a musical by Stew, directed by Ghost Light Productions’ CEO and found ing director, John Sloan III. e preview performances for each production are “pick your price,” where patrons can pay what ever they wish, to ensure the play and theater are accessible, Winkler said.
On Wednesday, DPT board secre tary David Ja e, an attorney with Bir mingham-based law rm Ja e Coun sel PLC and chair of the theater’s building and design committee was roaming the space and talking with the construction crew. “ ere were a couple of things that really needed to get done...and I wanted to see that they were n ished,” he said. “ ere’s a lot of cat herding in try ing to get a construction project done in this timeframe between the pan demic and the supply chain, and we’re about three weeks out...there’s still work to be done.” e project is coming to fruition thanks to the courage its leadership and board showed in pushing through, despite the pandemic, Ja e said. “It was not a trivial decision.” e new venue in the cultural dis trict “asserts that theater is and should be an essential part of the cultural fab ric of this city,” Corporandy said. It will hopefully bring increased visibility not just to DPT but to all the other theaters working in the city, she said. “For too long, we have lost audi ences to Chicago and New York and Stratford.”Detroit has exported acting and stage talent, as well, Winkler said.
Home Point Capital Inc., the strug gling Ann Arbor-based mortgage lender, will lay o more than 200 em ployees later this year, according to a ling with the state. In a WARN notice, the company informed the state’s Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity on Wednesday that it will permanently lay o approximately 217 employees from two o ces in Ann Arbor. e cuts come amid a mortgage market in decline, which has seen several other companies — including some locally — also seek to shrink theirHomeheadcount.Point,however, has had a particularly rough go of it. On Friday morning, its stock was trading at an all-time low of $2.27, down 80 per cent since the company went public (NASDAQ: HMPT) in early 2021. e a ected employees have been given a 60-day period of noti cation and the layo s are expected to take place in early November, Home Point spokesperson Brad Pettiford wrote in an email to Crain’s on Friday morn ing. e company had around 3,000 employees as of last month.
—Sarah Clare Corporandy, Detroit Public Theatre
MARIJUANA From Page 3
She’s not the only one. About two thousand tickets have already been purchased for the up comingOthersseason.areinterested in the new venue for a di erent reason. ough venue rentals weren’t planned until early next year, the 7,500-square-foot theater’s founders have already gotten several requests to rent it this fall for weddings, four community conversations on race hosted by Urban Consulate and sev eral other events on non-perfor mance days, co-founder Courtney Burkett said. DPT declined the wed dings until early next year as organiz ers work out the logistics of setting up the theater for its rst season.
“From live performances to wed dings to talks...what we imagined the gamut might be (for rentals), it is — which is really exciting,” Burkett said. e theater’s second annual Block Party event held in early August around the corner from the theater in the Selden Courtyard drew an esti mated 300 people coming to see per formances put on by DPT, including two poems performed by DPT’s Exec utive Artistic Producer Dominique Morisseau, and other singers, musi cians, jugglers, actors and performers.
Detroit adopted a previous recre ational ordinance in early 2021 but it got held up in litigation for nearly a year over a rigorous Legacy Detroiter preference program for long-term residents looking to get involved in the industry. e new ordinance widens the Legacy Detroiter pro gram, calling those applicants “equi ty” applicants instead, and putting them on a separate “track” so they’re not competing with nonequity appli cants. “Equity” applicants in Detroit would follow the state’s social equity program as described in its adult-use cannabis law, instead of the rules De troit came up with. To qualify as a social equity appli cant under the law, an applicant must be a quali ed resident of De troit or another community deter mined to be disproportionately im pacted by the historical prohibition on marijuana, the city said in a re lease. A business that is at least 51 percent owned by such a person can also qualify as a social equity appli cant.
Mortgage lender Home Point to lay o 217 employees
THERUMBLINGSPRESIDENTand CEO of one of Grand Rapids’ most popular attractions is retiring. e Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids announced Tuesday that President and CEO David Hooker will step down in the coming months. “In his 16 years of outstanding leadership, David has guided the Gardens to its preeminent position as a cultural and horticultural destination, one of the world’s most respected art and nature venues,” said Mark Mossing, board chair, in a press release. “We thank David for his immeasurable contribution to the success of our organization.” Hooker, 63, has led Meijer Gardens for 16 years.Meijer Gardens board vice chair Candace Matthews will head the committee seeking the next president and CEO, which is beginning its workHookerimmediately.willcontinue to serve as president until a successor is chosen.
What does it mean for you to be able to share this history? The title of our podcast is Hidden
Kirk Pinho, senior reporter, real estate. (313) 446-0412 or kpinho@crain.com Dustin Walsh, senior reporter, health care. (313) 446-6042 or dwalsh@crain.com Rachel Watson, West Michigan, (989) 533-9685 or rachel.watson@crain.com
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Saundra Little is principal in the Detroit o ce and director of diversity, equity and inclusion at Quinn Evans
Saundra Little wears a lot of hats. She’s the principal of Quinn Evans’ Detroit o ce and the director of diversity, equity and inclusion, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, co-founder of Noir Design Parti, which helps to publicize the often-unknown history of Black architects, the the Midwest vice presidents of the National Organization of Minority Architects and she was even involved in getting Detroit designated as a UNESCO City of Design.
Nick Manes nance and technology. (313) 446-1626 or nmanes@crain.com Kurt Nagl manufacturing. (313) 446-0337 or knagl@crain.com
Little would like to see more recognition of the layers of architectural history in Detroit — especially in Black spaces. She'd like to see more diversity in the eld of architecture, too — the American Institute of Architects reported last year that 17 percent of more than 94,000 members identify as members of underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. Through internships and mentorships, she's working to welcome more people to architecture. And she's growing a mean tomato along the way.
Audience Engagement Editor Matthew Pollock, matthew.pollock@crain.com
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Has there been more interest in preservation over the years? There’s so many buildings that could be repurposed here. … The community is screaming for it, they’re screaming for some of their spaces back. You know you have to overcome some large hurdles when you rehab a building to help ll that gap nancing. This in the city is something I de nitely think Detroiters are screaming for.
18 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 5, 2022 THE CONVERSATION
Tell me about Noir Design Parti. So it started a little bit from my own personal journey coming through architecture and not really seeing an architect of color. … When I nally did start to meet architects of colors...some of the key people that I came out of school working for or just came across within the organization had started to pass away. … And it just hit me, I have to do something and now is the time to do it. And so I had always talked about doing a book. … We’ve been doing tours, lectures about Black architects in Michigan. We have now started a podcast that is going to come out this fall, which I can’t believe that it’s gotten this far.
Why is it important to salvage buildings and preserve neighborhoods? With every building we build and we bring back online, there’s a story to that building. There’s a story of how that community used that building. And to bring that back to a point of beauti cation, it’s just the best thing.
Creative Director Thomas J. Linden, tlinden@crain.com
What do you do outside work? I worked on my patio and started a mini garden in my backyard. I am growing
A lot of people don’t have access, feel like things are not possible. They don’t know the possibility — they don’t know they can get paid to draw. That is like, the coolest thing. … I think it’s very important for somebody to know that and then that you can actually have a role in changing your community. … They can not only be a future architect, they can understand how to move things within their own communities and actually empower people who are coming from communities that have been disinvested in how to change them.
Assistant Managing Editor Beth Reeber Valone, (313) 446-5875 or bvalone@crain.com
Saundra Little on the importance of historic preservation in Plain Site. … I feel like we’re now giving voice to those architects and recognition to their work. …. And I think it’s important for the world to hear the story of and the journey of Black architects... Especially if you have never met someone who looks like you, (having) somebody will make you feel more comfortable coming into profession where you feel like you’re the only one all the time. You’re the only one in the room, you’re the only one on the project team, you’re the only one at that rm. And until we move the numbers and move the needle on the numbers, that is what’s going to help ease that pathway for diverse individuals coming into the profession.
e board said Hooker will assume a leadership role supporting the Meijer family’s various interests and activities following the transition. Hooker described his tenure with Meijer Gardens as “one of the greatest highlights of my life.” “Working directly with Fred and Lena and their extended family to build and expand Meijer Gardens has been a complete joy,” he said. “I am deeply indebted to the Meijer family … and the Meijer Gardens board for this amazing opportunity. …While I will be leaving my day-to-day duties, I will emotionally never leave a place I love so very much.” e venue’s 158-acre campus includes a tropical conservatory, children’s garden, indoor and outdoor gardens, education programs, wedding and events venues, a 1,900-seat outdoor amphitheater and a sculpture collection featuring work by hundreds of internationally acclaimed artists, including Edgar Degas, Auguste Rodin and Alexander Calder.
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Crain’s Detroit Business is published by Crain Communications Inc. Chairman, Editor Emeritus Keith E. Crain Vice Chairman Mary Kay Crain President and CEO KC Crain Senior Executive Vice President Chris Crain Chief Financial O cer Robert Recchia G.D. Crain Jr. Founder (1885-1973) Mrs. G.D. Crain Jr. Chairman (1911-1996) Editorial & Business O ces 1155 Gratiot Ave., Detroit MI 48207-2732; (313) 446-6000 Cable address: TWX 248-221-5122 AUTNEW DET CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS ISSN # 0882-1992 is published weekly, except no issues on 1/3/22, 7/4/22, 11/21/22 nor 12/26/22, by Crain Communications Inc. at 1155 Gratiot Ave., Detroit MI 48207-2732. Periodicals postage paid at Detroit, MI and additional mailing o ces. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS, Circulation Department, P.O. Box 07925, Detroit, MI 48207-9732. GST # 136760444. Printed in U.S.A. Contents copyright 2022 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial content in any manner without permission is prohibited.
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Why does it matter to see somebody who looks like you in the eld?
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Hooker
Meijer Gardens CEO David Hooker to retire after 16 years Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park is shown in the fall.
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herbs, so nothing too big, but I’ve been at it for the last few years. I think that’s like a homage to my dad and my
So I think it’s very important. And I didn’t realize how important when I rst started this project.
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3x More likelyto be businesspartnersorowners,corporate More likely to be 5x More likelyto be involved in constructionleasing 3x More likelyto be B2Bmakersdecision 2x More likelyto be includingprofessionals,engineers,architectsandphysicians 2x More likelyto involved in health care and insurance decisions at theircompany 2x More likelyto have high net worth, income homevalueand Ad close Date NOV. 28 | Publishes DEC. 19 SOURCES: The Media Audit, ”Detroit MI Greater Metropolitan Area,” 2021; Crain’s audience survey, 2022. Contact Lisa Rudy at lrudy@crain.com to learn more. MORE INFLUENCERSLOCAL Digital and display. Premium placements and list alignments are available. IT ALL ADDS UP. ALIGN YOUR MESSAGE WITH THE BOOK. THE BOOK 2023 CRAIN’S AUDIENCE VS. DETROIT METRO AREA of Crain’s audience references THE BOOK year-round 8% THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TOANDEVERYTHINGEVERYONE IN DETROIT BUSINESS 8
