THE CONVERSATION: Realcomp’s Karen Kage on a topsy-turvy market. PAGE 22
A LITTLE HELP Small Business Spotlight: What a coach can do. PAGE 8
CRAINSDETROIT.COM I SEPTEMBER 27, 2021
Health care goes mobile
QUIETER MACKINAC POLICY CONFERENCE EASES BACK TOWARD ‘NORMAL’
BACK TO THE ISLAND
House calls? COVID-19 experience speeds doctors’ transition
DALE YOUNG/SPECIAL TO CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
BY JAY GREENE
CRAIN'S STAFF REPORTS
The Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference went on as planned last week — a little slower, a little gentler and at least a little less crowded. Attendance was capped at 1,300, as opposed to the usual 1,700, amid COVID protocols, and the conference saw 1,034 actual attendees. Many elected leaders, including Attorney General Dana Nessel, county executives from Macomb and Oakland counties and many legislators elected to skip the confab. But much was familiar: The speakers took the stage, and the attendees hobnobbed and networked. Here are some highlights of Crain's coverage of this year’s unusual conference. You can read all our coverage, listen to our Mackinac podcasts with top leaders and check out a large array of photos from the conference at crainsdetroit.com/mackinac-policy-conference. See MACKINAC on Page 20
Bracelets aside, connections still matter at Mackinac
M
ACKINAC ISLAND — In the end, the color-coded bracelets didn’t matter. Hugs and handshakes — sheer habit, really — mostly won out over carefully calibrated COVID protocols at the first in-person Mack- Kelley inac Policy Conference in 28 months. ROOT Vaccines were required. Masks were (sometimes) in place. Bowls of rubber bracelets invited attendees to signal their level of comfort with contact — green (hugs/handshakes OK), yellow (fist or elbow bumps only) and red (back off, buddy). I took one of each. As a first-time Mackinac attendee, it seemed prudent to be prepared for anything — or anyone. See BRACELETS on Page 20
The more than 18-month battle against COVID-19 has changed how doctors practice medicine, care for patients, manage their practices and interact with other providers. With more than 664,000 deaths nationally, rising at more than 1,800 per day, and 21,841-plus in Michigan over at least four surges of the disease, families of the stricken are heartbroken and health care providers are exhausted — both physically and mentally. During the crisis, physicians also have learned many lessons that will forever change the way they practice, evaluate patients in office settings and in hospital emergency departments, doctors say. For Drs. Charles Shanley and Phillip Levy, two leaders at Wayne Health, a 400-provider multi-specialty group affiliated with Wayne State University in Detroit, COVID-19 sped up the group’s change to preventive medicine they felt necessary to serve their inner-city patients, many of those with multiple chronic diseases. The COVID-19 pandemic forced providers to put more resources into patient outreach, Shanley, a vascular surgeon now CEO of Wayne Health, said: “There’s an old quote from Wayne Gretzky: ‘Why were you so See COVID-19 on Page 20
TALES FROM THE FRONT More doctors talk about how COVID changed their practice, on crainsdetroit.com.
NEWSPAPER
VOL. 37, NO. 36 l COPYRIGHT 2021 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
NEXT WEEK: DETROIT HOMECOMING, COMPLETE COVERAGE
NEED TO KNOW
PHILANTHROPY
THE WEEK IN REVIEW, WITH AN EYE ON WHAT’S NEXT ` MICHIGAN PASSES 1M CONFIRMED COVID CASES
` STATS SHOW HOUSING MARKET STILL HEATED
THE NEWS: Michigan surpassed 1 million positive COVID-19 cases last Wednesday, becoming the 12th state to do so since March 2020.
THE NEWS: More than half of all Southeast Michigan homes that were pending for sale in August were listed the same month, and 41 percent of all homes listed in August had a buyer before September. While the number of days on the market increased, to 22 from 21 in July, houses are still selling quickly. A year ago, they sat for 51 days on average before they sold.
WHY IT MATTERS: The case count amounts to 10 percent of the state’s population of 10 million people. That’s an undercount: According to state data, about 28.1 percent of the state’s population has antibodies from previous infection.
WHY IT MATTERS: The report signals that the chip shortage, which has intermittently halted auto production at plants worldwide, is a long way from over.
WHY IT MATTERS: Manley had worked for more than 20 years for the former Fiat Chrysler. Stellantis said Mark Stewart, COO of North America and Antonio Filosa, COO of Latin America, will report directly to CEO Carlos Tavares.
` APARTMENT CONSTRUCTION HITS LONGTIME HIGH
` PRICE TAG FOR CHIP SHORTAGE $210B, REPORT SAYS THE NEWS: Consulting firm AlixPartners said Thursday that the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage will cost the global automotive industry $210 billion this year, a greater revenue loss than previously predicted. That figure is up considerably from the firm’s May forecast, in which it estimated a loss of $110 billion. AlixPartners also says production of 7.7 million vehicles could be lost. That’s nearly double the 3.9 million vehicles the firm estimated would be lost when it issued its May forecast.
est new-vehicle retailer said. Manley, 57, had been CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles before its merger earlier this year with PSA Group. He was then named head of Americas for Stellantis.
WHY IT MATTERS: The data, from the multiple listing service Realcomp Limited II, underscores how quickly homes continue to move. Prices continue to rise and supply of homes remains low.
` MIKE MANLEY LEAVING STELLANTIS FOR CEO JOB THE NEWS: Auto retail giant AutoNation Inc. said Tuesday that it has named Stellantis executive Mike Manley as its next CEO to replace the outgoing Mike Jackson. The moves are effective Nov. 1, the nation’s larg-
THE NEWS: For more than 20 years, there haven’t been as many new permits for multifamily housing construction in Southeast Michigan as there have been through August. The 1,762 permits issued so far in 2021 — which includes 139 in August — marks the best year since 1998, when 3,639 permits were issued through the first eight months of the year, according to data from the Home Builders Association of Southeastern Michigan. WHY IT MATTERS: As the housing market stays hot, some people are more interested in renting an apartment.
` ELECTRIC LAST MILE GETS ORDER, STARTS PRODUCTION THE NEWS: Electric Last Mile Solutions
Gilbert foundation adds exec for Detroit initiatives ` The Gilbert Family Foundation has hired Darnell Adams as its director of Detroit community initiatives. Adams, 35, who has previously worked for Invest Detroit and the Detroit Land Bank Authority, is also a member of the Detroit Human Rights Commission. Most recently, the Michigan State University graduate was vice president for program implementation at Invest Detroit and prior to that was director of inventory for the city land bank, according to a news release. Adams’ new position will put him in charge of the $350 million the Gilbert Family Foundation is contributing as part of Dan and Jennifer Gilbert’s overall $500 million, 10-year philanthropic funding for various initiatives in Detroit. The other
Inc. said it has secured a purchase order for 1,000 units of its urban delivery van from distribution partner Randy Marion Automotive Group. The news announced Wednesday comes the same week the Troy-based electric vehicle maker started production of its all-electric delivery van at its Mishawaka, Ind., facility. It
Darnell Adams
$150 million is coming from the Rocket Community Fund. Adams reports to Laura Grannemann, who is interim executive director of the Gilbert Family Foundation and vice president of the Rocket Community Fund.
plans to ship its first units Sept. 28. Electric Last Mile (NASDAQ: ELMS) went public through a SPAC merger in June. WHY IT MATTERS: Electric Last Mile is one of several EV competitors that are looking to take advantage of the commercial market.
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2 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 27, 2021
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FINANCE
HEALTH CARE
Plan would put $200M toward tech startups Money comes from American Rescue Plan BY NICK MANES
LEARNING AMID CRISIS Lab technicians Katie Marshall of Novi (left) and Glenise Burks of Sterling Heights release test results at the laboratory in West Bloomfield. | NIC ANTAYA FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
COVID-19 turns into business springboard for local lab BY DUSTIN WALSH
Couriers crisscross the state, as far north as Midland and as far west as Grand Rapids, to pick up soiled swabs and bring them to a banal office park in a sea of banal office parks on Orchard Lake Road in West Bloomfield Township. Inside this particular suite, following deliveries, more than a dozen lab-coated technicians scurry from one machine to another. What used to be exclusively a drug-testing lab at Orchard Laboratories now pushes out COVID-19 test results by the thousands — averaging about 8,000 per day currently. Its workers, mostly advanced degreed lab technicians, cover three shifts a day every day but Sunday. Orchard Laboratories’ revenue
is up 300 percent year-over-year since the start of the pandemic. It has capitalized on the need for quick turnaround testing so students can learn and workers can work and the sick can get treated. But it’s the opportunities the pandemic has afforded that’s allowed the diagnostic lab to expand its business into phlebotomy and hematology for a sustainable path beyond COVID-19. “A lot of (diagnostic) labs shut down in the beginning of the pandemic because people weren’t seeing their doctors, but by leveraging our capabilities we came into new business,” Faisal Ahmad, vice president of Orchard Laboratories said. “Our book of business is longer than we would have ever thought 18 months ago.” Orchard Laboratories Vice President Faisal Ahmad (left) and President Sami Ahmad at the company’s laboratory in West Bloomfield Township. | NIC ANTAYA FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
See ORCHARD on Page 18
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration aims to spend $200 million from a large bucket of federal COVID relief dollars in an effort to further spur growth in the state’s startup technology sector. The dollars would come from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which was signed into law in March by President Joe Biden. A total of $6.5 billion from the ARP has been allocated at the state level, with another $4.4 billion allocated to Michigan cities and counties. The $200 million “Startup Resilience Initiative,” as it’s being called, is just one of a multitude of potential uses for the funds, should they be appropriated by the Republican-led Legislature. Due to the legislative process, the $200 million top-line number for the startup program, as well as the numbers that make up the various proposed aspects, remain in flux and subject to change, sources cautioned. The $200 million “will provide great relief and support for innovative businesses throughout Michigan in the face of COVID-19’s prolonged impact,” reads a memo from the state’s Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity outlining the various recommended uses by the funds. “The goal of the Startup Resilience Initiative is to keep Michigan’s promising startup companies on a path to survive the current economic crisis and grow when the downturn subsides, along with supporting new tech company formation across Michigan,” the memo states. Taken together, the Whitmer administration puts three key goals into its recommendations for using the federal dollars: growing the middle class, supporting small businesses and building strong communities. The more than 40-page memo lays out nearly two dozen new funds, programs and initiatives through which it hopes to accomplish those goals. See STARTUPS on Page 17
REAL ESTATE
Michigan cities use new economic development tool to build housing BY ARIELLE KASS
A retailer that operates in resort towns wanted to open a new location in Charlevoix, 50 miles north of Traverse City, in time for Memorial Day. The pay for a new manager was $17 to $19 an hour, said Sarah Van Horn, president of the Charlevoix Area Chamber of Commerce, and a manager from a Grand Rapids outpost was willing to move for the role. But she couldn’t find a place to live, Van Horn said, and had to commute nearly 200 miles when she came in to the store. Without a manager there every day, the store couldn’t stay open. It soon closed permanently.
“They made the comment that other communities prioritized workforce and community housing,” Van Horn said. “You can’t bring businesses here, you cantt bring people here, if therets nowhere to live. I think thatts been the afterthought that needs to be the forethought.” Across Michigan, an inadequate supply of housing has become more than a frustration — it’s become an economic development challenge. So some communities are turning to an economic development tool to help solve the problem. Incentives to bring businesses to town are nothing new, but Michigan doesn’t have many options to incen-
tivize new housing, Ypsilanti Economic Development Director Joe Meyers said. The state land bank recently found one — tax increment financing — and has been urging communities to take a look. Using TIF allows a developer to recoup a portion of upfront costs for a project by capturing an increase in property taxes for a period of years and diverting them until the spending is repaid. Once the agreed-upon costs are paid off, the higher tax increment goes to the local government. See HOUSING on Page 17
A rendering of the proposed 220 N. Park St. development project in Ypsilanti planned by Renovare Development. | RENOVARE DEVELOPMENT SEPTEMBER 27, 2021 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 3
REAL ESTATE INSIDER
A peek under the hood of the Fisher Building’s finances The Fisher Building in Detroit’s New Center area hit the market for sale last month, along with a portfolio of some 2,000 or so parking spaces as its current Kirk ownership group PINHO looks to cash out. The ownership group paid just $12.2 million for the building, the parking and the Albert Kahn Building in 2015 at an auction. So how is the portfolio doing today? I got a chance to peek under the hood just a little bit with someone who has reviewed financial documents for the properties, minus the Albert Kahn Building, which was sold in 2018 for $9.5 million and has been converted into apartments and commercial space. I’m told that the ownership projects net revenue to be $8 million to $9 million, with $3 million to $4 million of that being from parking and the other half from rent rolls. Rents are expected to increase at a rate of 2 percent to 3 percent per year. Office rents are about $20-$23 per square foot per year, while retail is at about $30 per square foot per year. The building is owned in a joint venture by New York City-based HFZ Capital Group, which has a 65 percent ownership stake, while the remaining 35 percent is split between Detroit-based The Platform LLC, which has two-thirds of the remainder and is run by Peter Cummings, the company’s executive chairman and CEO, and New York City-based Rheal Capital Management, which is run by Detroit native John Rhea and has one-third of the remainder. An email seeking comment was sent to a spokesperson for The Platform. The Chicago headquarters of brokerage house JLL is contracted with the listing. “We’ve spent close to $30 million upgrading the (Fisher) building, and now it’s not a deep value-add opportunity, but it remains a value-add opportunity,” Cummings told me in an interview last month. “There is really something for the next purchaser, the next steward of this building, to do in terms of improvements and leasing, and would enable whoever follows us to add their own tier of value. So that’s really why now. I think we’ve brought it to a point where we’ve created value, but we’re also leaving value creation on the table for the next purchaser.”
The Fisher Building in Detroit’s New Center area went up for sale last month, plus some 2,000 parking spaces. | COSTAR GROUP INC.
A rendering of the planned Sakura Novi project. | ZOYES CREATIVE
David Whitney Building loan refinanced The Roxbury Group has refinanced its maturing commercial mortgage-backed securities debt on the David Whitney Building. The Detroit-based developer took out a $34 million loan originated by Southfield-based Bernard Financial Group, the latter said in a news release last week. The 19-story building reopened in 2014 following a $92 million renovation into the Aloft Detroit hotel and apartments.
Novi project takes a step forward A subsidiary of Birmingham-based developer Robert B. Aikens & Associates LLC has applied to tear down vacant buildings on a 10-acre chunk of
Work on a mural last month on the side of the new Vault of Midnight store on East Grand Boulevard in Detroit’s Milwaukee Junction neighborhood. | KIRK PINHO/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
land that is envisioned to become part of the 15-acre Sakura Novi project. The application was submitted last week, according to a news release. The project geared toward the region’s Asian population is envisioned to have 30,000 square feet of restaurants and retail, 132 townhouse apartments, 14,000 square feet of office, plus gardens surrounding a pond. The plan was first floated in May 2018.
4 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 27, 2021
The current timeline calls for a groundbreaking by the end of the year and completion in spring 2023.
New Vault of Midnight location opens Oct. 1 The new Vault of Midnight store on East Grand Boulevard in Detroit’s Milwaukee Junction neighborhood opens Oct. 1.
A $34 million loan has been issued to refinance debt on the David Whitney Building in downtown Detroit. | COSTAR GROUP INC.
The comic book shop announced the grand opening date on its Facebook page. Its new location was announced in late July.
Southgate Tower eyed for apartments
verted into apartments, the Downriver Sunday Times reported. The building is 186,000 square feet and was constructed in the early 1970s, according to CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.based real estate information service.
The 14-story Southgate Tower at 16333 Trenton Road may be con-
Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB
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COMMENTARY
Flip burgers or drive a bus? DDOT’s labor crisis not rocket science Detroit Deputy Mayor Conrad Mallett Jr. is old enough to remember when bus drivers in Detroit were part of the city’s middle class. Mallett’s father was director of the old Detroit Department of Streets and Chad for six years under LIVENGOOD Railways former Mayor Coleman Young. Today, bus drivers in America’s poorest big city qualify for food stamps if they have a family of four and no other source of household income. That’s the reality of paying bus drivers $15 an hour — a wage that’s nowhere near adequate for today’s labor market when you can make as much or more money doing something that doesn’t come with the risk of your life or the lives of others. Compensation is at the heart of the Detroit’s bus driver shortage crisis that has wreaked daily havoc on Detroiters who depend on public transit to get to work at the city’s restaurants, casinos, office buildings, schools, sports stadiums and auto plants. Mallett and his boss, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, are acutely aware that starting wages at DDOT are not anywhere in the ballpark of resembling competitive in the transportation business. “We’ve got to continue along a trajectory that makes transit workers, particularly the bus drivers, members of the middle class again,” Mallett said during a podcast interview with Crain’s City Hall Reporter Annalise Frank at the Mackinac Policy Conference. “... We could always do more, do better and I wish we could pay more more often, that’s for sure.” Despite these concerns from Duggan’s No. 2, the mayor’s administration doesn’t seem to be taking action to solve the wage issue. The Duggan administration seems stuck in the mud of following a union contract wage scale instead of doing what other service sector businesses do when they really, really need labor: Pay more.
The $15 per hour starting wage for DDOT bus drivers amounts to an annual wage of $31,200, low enough for a driver to qualify for some forms of public assistance. The income limit for food stamps is $34,068 per year for a family of four. | NIC ANTAYA FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
Instead of boosting wages or offering hazard pay, the mayor’s administration is reducing the frequency of bus routes, which will lead to longer wait times for a bus to show up. They’re doing so because of the driver shortage and lower ridership during the pandemic. Instead of continuing to have buses be chronically late, DDOT is scaling back the number of buses it puts on the road in order to be on time more frequently, DDOT director Mikel Oglesby said. “We’re not trying to generally get rid of service,” Oglesby recently told Crain’s. “It’s going to be there and you can schedule your life around it, and that’s the goal of what we are doing.” In June, DDOT’s afternoon “pullout” rate — the percentage of buses that pull out on time to start a route — was just 57 percent. Two years ago, the bus pullout rate was in the mid-90s. The bus route reductions don’t go into effect until Nov. 15, two weeks after Detroit voters will decide whether to award Duggan a third fouryear term as mayor. Earlier this year, Detroit raised starting bus driver wags from $12.99 to $15 per hour. The union wage scale now tops out at $21 per hour after previously maxing out at $18.56 an hour. Across town, at SMART’s Wayne County bus terminal in Inkster, bus drivers start at around
$17 per hour plus they’re getting $7.50 an hour in hazard pay through the end of the year. SMART is paying for the hazard pay premium from its pot of CARES Act dollars the federal government gave transit agencies. In other words, a bus drivers can make 83 percent more at SMART right now than DDOT to drive many of the same thoroughfares — Jefferson, Gratiot, Van Dyke, Woodward, Fort, Michigan. There are differences in the benefits packages between both transportation agencies. But the starting wage is what often drives employment decisions by a worker with multiple options. In Troy, private school bus operator First Student Inc. is offering $19 per hour with a $1,000 or $2,000 signing bonus — another option for a DDOT driver to jump ship for. In March, when Duggan announced the pay raise to $15 per hour, the mayor acknowledged SMART and other transportation providers often poach from DDOT’s bus driver ranks. “We have had times where DDOT has trained really good drivers who have left us to go to SMART or other organizations because of the pay,” Duggan acknowledged. Even with the upper hand on pay, SMART still has 70 driver openings and is at 75 percent of its pre-pandemic service levels because it
I’d like the powers that be to ride the buses for one week, or even Metrolift. Let them see what it’s like to be late for school, work or a doctor appointment 30 minutes, 60 minutes or two hours late. And they never explain or apologize. I just don’t get it. I know the pandemic is among us and I understand lack of employees. That factors in now, but what about three to five years ago? Service sucked, yes, even then, back that far. Mary S. Detroit
the disease still claims tens of millions of lives across the country and affects thousands here in Michigan. However, there is new hope in the form of a noninvasive blood draw designed to detect many cancers at an early stage when they tend to be easier to treat. These new detection technologies could be a lifesaver for millions of Arab Americans — daughters, sons, wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, and uncles. Cancer continues to take many lives because we remain unable to detect most at an early stage. Today, just five types of cancer — breast, cervical, colorectal, high-risk lung, and prostate — have available and recommended screening technologies. Clinical trials are currently being conducted on revolutionary Multi-Cancer Early Detection or MCED technologies. To date, these medical innovations have shown promising results — being able to detect 10 times the number of cancers that currently have recommended early screenings through just a simple blood draw.
can’t fill jobs fast enough, said Robert Cramer, deputy general manager of SMART. “We still have a huge driver shortage, mostly along fixed routes,” Cramer told Crain’s. Access to reliable transit is undoubtedly an equity issue in metro Detroit. Faster, reliable and more efficient transit systems lower barriers to employment and upward economic mobility. But the work of driving a bus is not easy nor always desirable. That should be reflected in the compensation of drivers. Despite the pay raise earlier this year, DDOT’s starting wages already seem out of wack with the current labor market. And they’re nowhere near middle-class wages that Mallett recalls they were at in the late 1970s and early 1980s when Conrad Mallett Sr. had his hand on the wheel. DDOT is sitting on a $51.5 million mountain of unspent federal American Rescue Plan Act stimulus funds that could be used to give bus drivers temporary hazard pay that brings wages closer in line with SMART and weathers the labor crisis. The city’s general fund got a $870 million windfall of federal stimulus funds, which also could be used to replace lost fare revenue at DDOT. A $7.50-per-hour hazard pay premium would cost roughly $120,000 a week for DDOT’s roughly 400 bus drivers working full time. That’s an annual cost of $6.24 million — a literal rounding error in Detroit’s federal stimulus windfall. Giving just bus drivers hazard pay may anger other city unions — police, fire, public works — but those civil servants aren’t directly responsible for getting people to work every day. Bus drivers are an under-appreciated cog in Detroit’s economic engine. And that engine is not going to get back to pre-pandemic growth and productivity if employees are late to work because of a hobbled city bus system. It’s time for the Duggan and Detroit City Council to make necessary increases in driver wages to tackle this labor crisis head on. Contact: clivengood@crain.com; (313) 446-1654; @ChadLivengood
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
DDOT could take lessons from SMART TO THE EDITOR: In response to your Sept. 20 story on woes at the Detroit Department of Transportation: If SMART can get it right, why can’t DDOT? I am personally tired of excuse after excuse. I use Metrolift, and it’s a worse joke than the regularly scheduled bus service. I don’t understand. Perhaps those who manage SMART can sit in on meetings with DDOT and offer suggestions to help improve the service. We are a major city, not some podunk backwoods city. Our city is coming back, so our transit system should be second to none. Whatever parts of the system that aren’t working need to be dissolved and eliminated. This has gone on far too long.
Support early-detection technologies for cancer THE THE EDITOR: While many advancements have been made over the past 50 years in the war against cancer,
Write us: Crain’s welcomes responses from readers. Letters should be as brief as possible and may be edited for length or clarity. Send letters to Crain’s Detroit Business, 1155 Gratiot Ave, Detroit, MI 48207, or email crainsdetroit@crain.com. Please include your complete name, city from which you are writing and a phone number for fact-checking purposes. 6 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 27, 2021
These new tools could permanently change the cancer screening landscape. Within the business community, health care is one of the most challenging and costly business expenses. MCED testing has the potential to help our workforces stay healthy while helping businesses control overall costs. There is also a business component for the federal government in that cost savings for less invasive or less costly cancer treatment helps keep Medicare expenses lower. That’s why the Arab American Chamber of Commerce is supportive of this work. Congress should move expeditiously to pass the Medicare Multi-Cancer Detection Screening Coverage Act. With bipartisan support in both chambers of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate along with the support of more than 300 cancer advocacy groups, including ours, this legislation is critical to getting MCED technologies in the hands of patients and providers as soon as possible. Fay Beydoun Executive director American Arab Chamber of Commerce
Sound off: 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.
CRAIN’S VIDEO SERIES
Wright Lassiter III on resiliency, burnout and hope for what’s ahead at Henry Ford It’s been a career- and life-changing 20 months for Wright Lassiter III, CEO of Henry Ford Health System, as he guides the organization’s 33,000 employees through the COVID-19 pandemic. Lassiter joined Henry Ford in 2014 and assumed his current role in 2016. A 2020 Crain’s Detroit Business Newsmaker of the Year, Lassiter is credited with expanding Henry Ford’s reach nationally and abroad, including opening new hospitals last year in Saudi Arabia and India, as well as creating new partnerships closer to home with Michigan State University. He sat down with Crain Communications CEO KC Crain at the Mackinac Policy Conference last week to reflect on what he’s learned and what’s in Henry Ford’s future. ` KC Crain: So you and I chatted earlier this year, and we talked a lot about leadership. And we talked about resilience. But talk a little bit about what it’s like running a health system in the middle of a pandemic. …. There’s not a book for this. Lassiter: You’re right, there wasn’t necessarily a book for what we had to do. To share one lesson, we tried to work really hard around transparency internally throughout this process. And we communicated more than I think we ever have at any point time in the history of our organization…. But there were times when you couldn’t ask for input before you make a decision. We got lots of interesting feedback when we made the decision in June to have a vaccine mandate. And while we’re at almost 99 percent compliance on that… we did our post-survey about a month ago, a lot of folks said, “Well, you didn’t ask us our thoughts.” And I said to the team, you know, we didn’t. And the reality is, I don’t believe you ask people’s thoughts if you’re not really going to listen to them… It’s much worse to ask opinions and don’t listen than it is to do your best to make a decision in a crisis and move forward. And so we were pretty committed that, you know, for a health care organization, we didn’t want anyone to ever feel as if they came into our environment, and that our team members might cause them harm by transmitting a virus. So we believe strongly, we had to (mandate vaccines) early. … The question wasn’t were we going to do it, the question was how do we execute it in a way that doesn’t create harm to the organization… In times of tumult, courage is maybe your most important asset. ` Did you know that resiliency like that existed with your team and with 35,000 (employees) in the way they performed? What’s been impressive, scary and sometimes really worrisome is how long can you keep your foot on the gas and go 100 mph. At some point, everything has a breaking point… I stepped into the health care system for the first time in January of 1990. And I would say that I’ve never been more concerned about the fragility of our industry than I am at this moment. Because honestly, we’ve never had folks where, you know, they’ve been redlined for this long. And you know, unfortunately, this isn’t like a basketball game where there’s a set of players on the bench. And when someone on the court is tired, we’ll just rotate a couple folks in and give them a rest. I mean, the worry at this moment is that there isn’t the bench that’s waiting to come in in the second half to spell the folks who manage this in the first half, right? ` It’s a little more daunting when you talk about health care workers... It is. Oftentimes I get letters from our team members who are departing. And they just sort of talk about the fact that they’re at their breaking point too much. And so I worry about that — I worry about the fact that we’ve had
abroad, across the broadest swath of our diverse population is possible. And so we have a strong commitment to furthering diversity, equity, inclusion in and health and health sciences. And having an active partner like Michigan State helps us do that tremendously. …I have a strong desire to increase the production of medical students in the state of Michigan. And I’d like to bring a new medical school to the city of Detroit.
Wright Lassiter III at the Mackinac Policy Conference last week. | DALE G. YOUNG FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
a 215 percent increase in our team members seeking employee assistance programs… I worry about the fact that health care workers aren’t always the best patients, because they’re used to being martyrs. They’re used to not asking for help. They’re used to not thinking about themselves. And so when they get to the breaking point, like, there’s no return. I worry about the fact that resilience is at a place that’s not recoverable in the short run, honestly. Now, that doesn’t mean that you should worry about coming into our Henry Ford facility (laughs). I’m not saying that. But… when you’re looking at your team members and saying, you know, how can I do more to sort of help fuel your soul? Yeah, because I need you to be 100 percent when you come into the workplace, right? I mean, that’s really the point. ` OK, that’s all the serious stuff. You guys did a partnership with Michigan State. And I’ve heard you talk about it before, and you’re really passionate about it. Why is that important to you? Here’s what’s the reason it’s important. So number one, you know, Michigan State’s got an amazing legacy in our state. … We’re an organization where part of what we want to do is to deliver the best that science has to offer. And principally, the way to do that is through our research efforts. We are one of the larger health systems in the country with NIH funding that’s not attached officially to a medical school. … And so it was important for us to have a primary clinical affiliation with a top research institution, so that we could bring the best of science and medicine to the state. Secondly, you know, Henry Ford is extremely good at urban medicine. And we don’t have a ton of experience with rural medicine. Michigan State’s very good at that. And with the work they’ve done historically, around taking medicine to rural communities, one of the things that I thought was critically important was for us to have a partner that could teach us that. Thirdly, we both have an extremely strong interest in pairing our research, our health interventions, and our medical care
` Where would you put said school? I would put it within an envelope that would span from One Ford Place to West Grand Boulevard. And, you know, there could be the ability to garner real estate and development that could produce a research center, medical school, a new hospital complex on West Grand and lots of other things. ` OK, that leads perfectly into my next question. The Henry Ford Pistons practice facility. It’s a beautiful structure. It feels like it was very purposeful where it is in conjunction with your infrastructure. I mean, obviously, you just mentioned the school. But could you see that area turning into more of a development? Well, that’s an interesting question…. we were proud to partner with Arn Tellem and the Pistons to help support bringing them back into town. We were
THIS IS PART OF A SERIES OF INTERVIEWS BY CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS CEO KC CRAIN WITH PROMINENT BUSINESSPEOPLE. TO WATCH THIS INTERVIEW, GO TO CRAINSDETROIT.COM/ONEONONE
glad to have their facility, part of our corporate campus. We always saw it as phase one. You know, we’ve been a catalyst for redevelopment of Midtown Detroit for a long time. And, you know, I think there’s a lot more that can and will happen… I would expect it in a year or so we might have some public discussion about greater partnerships, not just between us and the Pistons, but between us and some other entities to develop and redevelop the space that today is a lot of asphalt that could contribute to medical innovation could contribute to urban renewal. I’m a big believer that while we’re in the health care business, we have an obligation to catalyze more than just health care stuff. ` It was so much fun talking to you pre-COVID because you’re on this, like, global domination path and there weren’t enough hospitals for you to acquire. … So what does that strategy look like now? More opportunity? So, you know, COVID changed a lot for the entire world... But one of the things that COVID didn’t change was our ability to continue with global reach. And so while we haven’t publicized that greatly, we actually opened two international hospitals last year. So just before COVID became the thing that it is today, the team and I flew to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,
where … the Aldara Medical Center opened in the first quarter of last year; it’s just outside of Riyadh. And then we opened the new Naruvi Medical Center in southern India last October, and it’s still not quite fully operational. And I honestly haven’t seen the facility because we’ve not been traveling to India. But we opened those two facilities. And we’re planning, we have a third one that’s in development in northern India. ` So we just about made it through ’21. A quarter to go. Give us one goal for next year. Our goal for next year is to return to the trajectory of growth that we had pre-COVID because, you know, we’re not seeing the same kind of growth in last year, and this year, obviously, that we expect to see going forward. I’d say the second goal that I would share with you is that next month, we’re taking our board on a conversation around dual transformation. And so we’re spending a lot of time thinking about what the auto industry has gone through and moving from where they were with combustion to electrification. And we believe that there are some parallels between the digital transformation track that the automotive industry has been on, and maybe what health care needs to do, as we think about 10 years from now. And so we’ll begin in 2022.
Resiliency starts with understanding Resiliency combats uncertainty, and it starts where experience and perspective meet. That’s why Deloitte offers informed articles and webinars on economic factors, sector impacts, government funding, talent implications, responsive leadership and more, all from sector and business subject matter specialists. Stay informed at deloitte.com/us Copyright © 2021 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.
SEPTEMBER 27, 2021 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 7
SMALL BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT
Coaching helps small businesses learn how to survive and thrive
WEALTH OF KNOWLEDGE Jay
DAVIS
Six years into owning and operating his own business, Carl Williams realized he needed help. Williams, president of Fred & Son Recycled Appliances in Highland Park, in 2018 came to the conclusion that he needed more education in order to be the best business owner possible. Williams was serving as the business’ accountant and needed financial help to grow the business, so he sought some tips on delegating responsibilities.
Broner, 81, has worked as a business coach for 12 years after a 50-year career as a wholesale distributor and importer of hats, gloves and personal protective safety equipment. Broner has two businesses — Broner Glove & Safety and Broner Hat & Glove — in Auburn Hills run by two of his children. Broner took on the coaching position out of a love for business and an understanding of how overwhelming running a small business can be. “My clients know they can run a business and do it successfully,” he said. “They know they can do it. They know they can run a business. They have passion, but sometimes there’s some insecurity. I just tell them not to circumvent anything and they’ll do fine. I encourage them. If they’re having technical issues, I’ll help them there, too.”
While small business owners have the ideas and drive to make their business successful, sometimes they need some guidance in their push to take their business to the next level. A savvy business coach can offer that guidance along with a wealth of knowledge in areas including finance, marketing, product development and business planning. Broner and Williams became acquainted as Williams had been researching SCORE, viewing webinars on services offered. Williams, whose business sells used appliances at a discount, said he was not checking his financial records as often as he should have, which cost his business money. Broner suggested he hire a bookkeeper, which would give him a more detailed look at his finances on a more frequent basis. See COACHING on Page 9
SCORE
“Entrepreneurs are sometimes called ‘solopreneurs’ because they do everything,” the 57-year-old said. “I needed someone to guide me. I needed a coach.” Enter David Broner, a business coach with the Southeast Michigan chapter of SCORE. The nonprofit, with more than 10,000 business coaches and consultants in the U.S., is dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground, grow and achieve their goals through education and mentorship.
“THEY KNOW THEY CAN RUN A BUSINESS. THEY HAVE PASSION, BUT SOMETIMES THERE’S SOME INSECURITY. I JUST TELL THEM NOT TO CIRCUMVENT ANYTHING AND THEY’LL DO FINE. I ENCOURAGE THEM. IF THEY’RE HAVING TECHNICAL ISSUES, I’LL HELP THEM THERE, TOO.” — David Broner, business coach, Southeast Michigan chapter of SCORE
READ ALL OF CRAIN’S SBS PROFILES AT CRAINSDETROIT.COM/SMALLBUSINESSSPOTLIGHT 8 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 27, 2021
Small business owners Josh York (left) and Carl Williams (right) say they have benefited from the advice of SCORE business coach David Broner (center).
TIPS FROM A PRO Following are tips from a longtime business coach on how to stay focused and reach goals: Set long-term goals: Instead of just trying to get through the day, think about what to focus on and steps to take as you move further along as a business owner. Quality over quantity: It’s not necessary to put everything on pause until one project is complete, but managing multiple tasks all the time is a recipe for getting little accomplished. Know your numbers: Nearly half of all small business owners serve as their own accountant, but if that's not your area of expertise, having a financial expert available can ease a lot of stress. SOURCE: DAVID BRONER, SCORE SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN
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COACHING
From Page 8
Williams said that at one point he noticed his numbers were off slightly. “I was the one handling all the receipts, and I wasn’t as detailed with the bookkeeping as I should have been,” he said. “I didn’t want to keep making the same mistakes.” Business coaching is big business. Coaches charge $175-$250 an hour and the industry is projected to bring in nearly $12 billion in revenue in 2021. Barry Demp has served as a business coach for 29 years following a more than 12-year career in sales, marketing and advertising with now-defunct Upjohn pharmaceuticals company. Demp, who offers coaching to business owners and executives, along with assisting attorneys, accountants, bankers and financial advisers, does charge for his services. His program is tailored to the needs of each client, he said. Demp did not disclose an average cost of his packages, but said six months of coaching an executive would cost about what a student pays for a semester of college. “Everybody is looking to move forward and improve themselves, personally and professionally,” Demp said of his clients. “What we do, as coach and client, is get down to the nitty-gritty of what they want to work on, which is usually all of the aspects of their life: career, time management, personal relationships. They want to be more mindful of where they are in life, where they’re headed. We create a roadmap of where they want to go, and it gets them there faster than if they were on
their own.” Demp, whose client list includes former ThyssenKrupp USA CEO Deric Righter, is aware that the cost of his services may be more than some business Demp owners can take on. He’s aware of programs like SCORE and believes the nonprofit offers solid services. Williams, whose business so far this year has brought in about $150,000 in revenue, said he would have not sought out coaching had there been a price attached. “There are enough people out there with the information you need if you seek them out,” he said. Broner’s understanding of how stressful entrepreneurship can be led him to SCORE. “I started out only volunteering on Fridays, but I didn’t feel like I was doing enough,” he said. “I’m enjoying myself. It feels like I’m making an impact.” SCORE is making an impact, too. The Herndon, Va.-based organization is funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Association. Locally, SCORE receives donations from private foundations and corporate donors, the details of which are subject to confidentiality agreements, according to Tom Garner, co-chair of SCORE Southeast Michigan. All federal and private grants and donations are invested back into SCORE’s free programming and services. Coaching services are delivered by a team of 80 local volunteers. The chapter so far for the 2021 fiscal year
has recorded more than 3,200 mentoring sessions and had more than 2,800 workshop participants, Garner said. Josh York, founder of Detroit-based clothing manufacturer Soft Goods, is one of those small business owners who have participated in mentoring sessions this year. York, 28, established his company in 2017 after a four-year stretch of screen printing T-shirts in his basement. York, who previously worked in event marketing for Huntington Bank and as an assistant sourcing specialist for Abercrombie & Fitch, last year recognized his business had the potential for growth and that he needed someone with experience to help facilitate that growth. “The next oldest person on our team is 26. We’re all really young,” said York, whose business for three years had a retail presence in Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi. “When you’re young and you’re trying to run a business, you don’t know what you don’t know. I needed to bring someone in with experience who would point out some things I may not even think about.” The young business owner said he felt the need to have his hand in as many things as possible, which hurt the business. Broner pushes clients to focus on what they do best before embarking on new ventures. York admits Broner is not the first person to impart that bit of wisdom on him. “Every mentor I’ve had in business has said pick one thing and do it well, and only after you do that one thing perfectly should you expand,” York said. “After doing it the hard way for a while, we changed our focus. I’ve got a
good team that’s laser focused. I let my mind wander and they reel me back in. I was young and dumb and didn’t know what I didn’t know.” York, who participated in but did not complete the Goldman Sachs 10,000 small businesses program, was made aware of SCORE last year by a previous adviser. That person referred to Broner as the best business coach in the city. Their relationship began as Soft Goods started producing masks and gowns around the outset of the coronavirus pandemic. Soft Goods, which has seven employees, had 21 staffers on hand to help with the production of the new items. “The wealth of knowledge (Broner) brings has made a big difference,” said York, whose business so far this year has pulled in close to $1 million in revenue. “I didn’t even know (SCORE) existed. At the time we were going through huge changes as a business, adding people, growing. I definitely needed guidance at that time.” Williams and York said the coaching has made them better business owners. “It just really helps to have someone to call and bounce different ideas off of,” Williams said. “With his own business interests, (Broner) has been there and he knows entrepreneurship can be a lonely road.” “(Broner’s coaching) has made me a more well-rounded business owner,” York said. “With any business, there’s always a million things you don’t see coming. Having someone who’s gone through what you have, but who’s also seen things you haven’t, that’s invaluable.” For Williams, obtaining the services
of a bookkeeper has helped revenues increase. The bookkeeper also has a ledger displaying what products are selling at a high rate. Broner last year also helped Williams in seeking out financial assistance during the pandemic. “You have to submit a lot of financials to go after government grants and loans,” said Williams, whose business received a Payroll Protection Program loan of $11,468 in 2020. “Timing was of the essence in being able to apply for and get those funds. Without (Broner’s) guidance, I wouldn’t have even tried to get the money and we may have gone out of business.” Broner has connected York with some potential undisclosed partners with whom he hopes to make deals. “(Broner) is always coming at us with fresh sales ideas — things that are right in your face that you don’t think about,” York said. “For upselling customers, (Broner) has told me that some of our customers are getting items from other places they could get from us. He’s helped us in terms of looking at ways to bring new offerings to the table. (Broner) has pulled in other mentors from other areas like manufacturing so we can be better at that. We’re getting a lot of assistance we wouldn’t otherwise.” That assistance will continue. There’s no end date for Broner’s services, he said. “I have people I’ve been coaching for 10 years. I don’t talk with them every week, but I stay in touch,” Broner said. “It usually turns out to be a friendship. You develop good rapport. I had someone call me who I haven’t talked to in two years. I’m always available.”
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Ground at the intersection of Fort and Dearborn streets in southwest Detroit buckled upward in two places recently due to a still-unknown underground issue. | ANNALISE FRANK/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
Detroit emergency alert protocols questioned after street buckles BY ANNALISE FRANK
Mysterious ground upheaval along an intersection in southwest Detroit is putting renewed focus on concerns around the effectiveness of Detroit’s emergency alert systems. Something — experts still had not pinpointed what — made roadway rise some 8 feet above ground level in two separate areas Sept. 11. DTE Energy Co. had to repair a gas main break and move a gas line, while a building housing a marijuana business had to be demolished. Since the incident at Fort and Dearborn streets, community advocates and elected officials argue the city and partners didn’t communicate soon or thoroughly enough with nearby residents. They say residents have feared for their safety, and these worries are compounded because the incident took place in an area already hurt disproportionately by pollution. City officials, meanwhile, say they did go door-to-door near the site, were facing difficulties in dealing with an unknown problem and are in the process of making improvements to their alert protocols. The confusion that resulted hearkens back to the late 2019 Revere Dock collapse that dumped construction aggregate into the Detroit River, also in southwest Detroit. It took more than a week from when the collapse occurred for residents to find out what happened, though that response fell mostly on the shoulders of the state.
System gaps “We have been talking about it, whether it was the explosion at Marathon a few years back, or the Revere Dock collapse or catastrophic flooding, the fact that people don’t get this kind of notification I think is really problematic,” said state Sen. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit. Detroit City Council member Raquel Castañeda-López also pointed to “huge gaps” in the city’s emergency notification system. Some nearby residents who spoke with local media reported strong smells and complained they weren’t immediately notified by the city about the Sept. 11 incident, instead learning about it through media reports. The fact that there were so many agencies involved no doubt complicated the notification process, especially when it wasn’t clear what exactly the problem was.
The city’s Department of Public Works issued a news release on the incident a full day after the roadway first heaved. It said fewer than 25 customers were without natural gas service and that DTE Energy had gone “doorto-door to communicate with residents.” Hilton Kincaid, deputy director of the city’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management department, also said he went door-to-door close to the site on Sept. 12, speaking with and taking down the names of five residents. But there’s a limit to what can be done when so much is unknown, he said. “We wouldn’t give them information we didn’t have. The initial response was to make that area safe,” Kincaid said. The city maintains the area is safe and it is taking all necessary safety steps. The community group Southwest Detroit Community Benefits Coalition, however, has called on the city to get people evacuated because of how uncertain it is. “The argument is often ‘We don’t want to panic the community, there’s nothing to be afraid of’ ... but folks are already panicking. They’re already feeling unsafe,” Castañeda-López said.
CodeRED coming The city plans to debut a mass notification system and mobile app called CodeRED. Officials were not able to give a specific timeframe for its rollout. The technology will allow for email, text and phone call alerts to residents. It also lets the city send area-specific notifications so people who aren’t near the problem don’t get worried unnecessarily, said Art Thompson, chief information officer for the city. Chang said she knows the “city is trying” and referenced the CodeRED system. “I know in these situations, when something happens, the people who are responding may not know every detail of what exactly happened and I know in this case they’re still investigating,” Chang said. “... But I think it’s still important for people to know, OK, what’s going on, who’s at the scene? Saying something like, ‘These city agencies are on site and investigating.’” Contact: afrank@crain.com; (313) 446-0416; @annalise_frank
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
Crain Communications buys cannabis media firm BY KATHERINE DAVIS
Crain Communications, the Detroit-based media company that owns business publications throughout the U.S. — including Crain’s Detroit Business — is adding another media brand to its portfolio, this time one focused on the cannabis industry. Crain announced Thursday it is acquiring Green Market Report, a digital media company that covers financial news in the cannabis sector. The deal is expected to close Sept. 30. Crain declined to disclose terms of the deal. New York-based Green Market Re-
port was founded in 2017 by Debra Borchardt, a financial journalist and former Wall Street executive, and Cynthia Salarizadeh, who has a back-
ground in public relations and cannabis law. “They focus on the financial, business and economic side of the can-
nabis industry, so it’s a natural fit with our other business brands,” KC Crain, president and CEO of Crain, said in a statement. Green Market Report, which attracts 150,000 page views per month, publishes daily news written mainly by a network of freelance journalists. Borchardt, Green Market Report’s editor, is the only staffer joining Crain’s as a full-time employee and will continue to operate out of New York. Crain’s portfolio now consists of 21 brands in the U.S., Europe and Asia, including Ad Age, Automotive News and Modern Healthcare, as well as
regional business publications in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and New York. Crain last added a brand to its portfolio in 2019: GenomeWeb, also based in New York, reports on genomics business and scientific news. Across its brands, Crain reaches 78 million readers globally and employs more than 650 people across 10 offices. “Crain is one of the highest-quality business news organizations in the country,” Borchardt said in the statement. “Their team, resources and respected journalism will make the perfect partner as Green Market Report continues into the future.”
S:7.5"
MANUFACTURING
TI Fluid Systems names new CEO in shakeup
Just like you, we’re here for your employees.
BY KURT NAGL
Contact: knagl@crain.com; (313) 446-0337; @kurt_nagl
S:9.5"
TI Fluid Systems PLC has promoted longtime executive Hans Dieltjens to be its next CEO, heading up a reshuffled leadership team at the automotive supplier. Dieltjens takes on the role of president and CEO effective Oct. 1, according to a company news release. He replaces William Kozyra, who plans to retire and step down from the board of directors. Dieltjens is based in Auburn Hills, where the British company has its North American headquarters. Dieltjens has worked for the supplier since 1996 and was promoted from executive vice president of global fuel tank and delivery Dieltjens systems to COO and president at the beginning of the year to ready him for the helm. Taking over as COO is industry veteran Mark Sullivan, who joined the company earlier this year from Plastic Omnium Group. Additionally, the company hired chief commercial officer Stephanie Jett, who has 20 years of industry experience and worked most recently as global senior vice president of sales for Autoliv. Each will be based in Auburn Hills. At the start of the month, the company also hired Chief Technology Officer Johannes Helmich, who has more than 25 years of experience working for tier-one suppliers. Helmich will be based in Germany. TI Fluid Systems, which manufactures fluid storage and delivery systems mostly for light duty cars, is aiming to recover from big financial losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company reported revenue of $3.3 billion in 2020, down from $4 billion the year prior, according to financial reports. It lost nearly $300 million in 2020, compared with a profit of $170.3 million the year before.
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SEPTEMBER 27, 2021 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 11 7/7/21 10:27 AM
MACKINAC POLICY CONFERENCE
Consumers CEO: ‘Surgical approach’ to burying power lines needed Advancements brought down costs of ‘undergrounding,’ but it’s ‘not a panacea,’ Rochow says BY CHAD LIVENGOOD
MACKINAC ISLAND — Michigan utilities need a “surgical approach” to burying power lines after a turbulent summer storm season led to multiple prolonged outages across the state, Consumers Energy Co. CEO Garrick Rochow said Monday. “You’ve heard this in the past, the mantra is, ‘Oh, it’s too expensive to go underground and as a utility we’re not going to do that.’ I think it’s time to challenge that,” Rochow said in a Crain’s podcast interview at the Mackinac Policy Conference. Michigan’s two biggest utility companies, Jackson-based Consumers Energy (NYSE: CMS) and Detroit-based DTE Energy Co. (NYSE: DTE), have been hammered this year by multiple powerful storms, including a series of storms Aug. 10-12 that knocked out power for nearly 1 million customers across Michigan. The chief culprit to power outages is tree branches falling on aboveground power lines, prompting DTE Energy to pour an extra $70 million into tree-trimming through the end of 2022. Last month, the three-member Michigan Public Service Commission asked Consumers, DTE and smaller utility companies for a detailed analysis of the cost of burying
Consumers CEO Garrick Rochow on the porch of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. | DALE G. YOUNG FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
12 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 27, 2021
electric power lines to eliminate the potential for wind damage. Michigan’s state-regulated utility companies have long resisted attempts to force them to bury electric transmission lines, arguing it would cost billions of dollars and lead to spikes in electric bills for commercial, industrial and residential customers. But Rochow said technological advancements in burying power lines — known in the industry as “undergrounding” — have brought down the cost. “My view is, it’s not everything goes underground. But a very surgical type approach to where we want to put things underground,” said Rochow, who became CEO of Consumers Energy in December. Rochow noted that putting electric lines underground does have some pitfalls. If there’s a section of wire malfunctioning, it can be hard to find it, he said. “It’s not a panacea,” he said. But climate change is fueling the new thinking on going underground, Rochow said. “We know weather patterns are changing — we know that,” he said. “It’s documented, we saw it this summer. And we’ve got to move that system forward so we can ensure reliable energy for all of our customers.”
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
Skymint to buy 3Fifteen Cannabis as consolidations continue in hot industry BY ANNALISE FRANK
Vertically integrated Michigan cannabis giant Skymint Inc. has agreed to purchase 3Fifteen Cannabis and closed on $78 million in new financing, the companies announced last week. Cannabis-centered private equity firm Merida Capital Holdings sold 3Fifteen, a group of 12 Michigan dispensaries with recreational and medical delivery in metro Detroit, as well as locations in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Flint and elsewhere. A purchase price was not disclosed. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Ann Arbor-based Skymint, now with 27 stores, also closed on a $70 million senior secured loan from a subsidiary under Canadian investment company Sundial Growers Inc.’s cannabis-focused SunStream Bancorp Inc., according to a news release from Skymint. The company also got an $8 million equity investment from Merida Capital. A Skymint spokeswoman said that is separate from the acquisition deal and an “anchor investment for a broader equity raise Skymint is in the process of kicking off in the next couple of weeks.”
“WE LOOK FORWARD TO BRINGING SKYMINT INTO NEW GROWTH MARKETS WHERE MERIDA HAS OPERATIONS.” — Mitch Baruchowitz, CEO, Merida Capital
Skymint estimates that with the purchase of 3Fifteen, its cannabis operations can reach 90 percent of Michigan residents. Its employee base grows to 730, with 101,000 square feet of retail space that will, in time, all be Skymint-branded. “Merida has already invested deeply in Michigan through 3Fifteen, due to the attractive population dynamics. Skymint’s leading vertical position augments 3Fifteen’s leading retail presence,” said Mitch Baruchowitz, CEO of Merida Capital. “... We look forward to bringing Skymint into new growth markets where Merida has operations.” Baruchowitz will be joining Skymint’s board of directors, the release said. 3Fifteen’s acquisition is the latest in Michigan’s cannabis market amid a rush to consolidate in the ballooning industry. Earlier this month, Gage Growth Corp., one of Michigan’s biggest marijuana sellers, said it would be acquired by TerrAscend Corp. in a $545 million deal. Skymint’s growth has been rapid, with the company entering the Michigan retail market in 2019. Its retail locations include downtown Bay City, Big Rapids, East Lansing, Flint, Hazel Park and Lansing. The company last month opened a location in Coldwater in a former Sears store. It plans to open three more retail outlets this year and 15 more in 2022. It
also has a 1,000-acre grow farm and two indoor grow centers. Previously called Green Peak Innovations, the company introduced Skymint as its store brand name but then fully changed its name to Skymint in 2020. Contact: afrank@crain.com; (313) 446-0416; @annalise_frank
A former bookstore in Big Rapids is now a Skymint cannabis store. | SKYMINT
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Five Iron Golf plans to open its first Michigan location inside the Cambria Hotel development in downtown Detroit. | FIVE IRON GOLF
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Out with the office, in with the amenities and entertainment. That’s the new direction for developers of Cambria Hotel in downtown Detroit who are seeking to keep relevant a $50 million project imperiled by the pandemic. “Coming out of COVID and building hotels is not always fun, but I think it worked out to our benefit,” said Joseph Caradonna, principal of Koucar Management LLC, which is co-developing the project and managing the hotel. The project’s core — a 158-room, modular-designed hotel in the city’s central business district — remains unchanged. But the 50,000 square feet originally set aside for office space will now be less work and more play. “When we started back in ‘19, preCOVID, office was a hot trend,” Caradonna said. “We were heavily focused and negotiating with tenants, and a lot of that fell apart because of the pandemic.” Instead of corporate tenants, developers are bringing in Five Iron Golf, a golf simulator and entertainment venue chain originating in New York City, and EOTech, an Ann Arbor-based designer and manufacturer of gun gear and clothing. Each signed onto 10-year leases, Caradonna said. Financial terms are not being disclosed. Five Iron Golf will fill 24,000 square feet with 13 driving bays, a large putting green and a club fitting area. Additionally, the space will include a full-service bar, two bowling lanes, pool tables, shuffleboard and widescreen TVs, according to a news release from the company. The Trackman-enabled bays measure play stats such as distance, spin and strokes in real time and come equipped with simulations of wellknown courses around the world. “Five Iron Golf Detroit will continue its signature design aesthetic by creating a multi-sensory interior through the blending of graffiti, murals from local artists, neon signs,
and modern lounge furniture,” the release said. “The dynamic atmosphere fuses energy and playfulness with comfort, enhancing Five Iron Golf’s wide range of offerings, including casual play, leagues, club fitting, private lessons, clinics, and social events.” Indoor golf simulators have become more prevalent in metro Detroit. TopGolf, which opened a full driving range in Auburn Hills in 2018, first tested the market a year prior with a “swing suite” in MGM Grand Detroit. Los Angeles-based driving range simulator franchisor X Golf has rapidly grown its footprint with eight locations in Southeast Michigan. EOTech Gear Store will occupy around 8,000 square feet with an outdoor equipment retail store and an
restaurant design that calls for a two-story ceiling and accordion windows — a nod to consumers’ desire for more space and open air amid the pandemic. There will be around 5,000 square feet left for office, but it is not being marketed for lease. Caradonna said his company plans to use it as flex workspace. Other aspects of the project remain on target, including the hotel’s banquet hall, meeting space, gym, bar and lounge, and first-floor food court concept that will include Detroit Taco Company and other restaurant stalls. Caradonna said the hotel tower and parking deck is 75 percent complete and that the focus now is on the renovation of the historic Walker-Roehrig Building. He said he expects the project to be done “COMING OUT OF COVID AND by mid-2022. Developers BUILDING HOTELS IS NOT broke ground ALWAYS FUN, BUT I THINK IT in 2019 and anticipated to WORKED OUT TO OUR complete conBENEFIT.” struction by third quarter — Joseph Caradonna, principal, 2020, but the Koucar Management LLC project was interactive firearms training simula- slowed by the pandemic and further tor, Caradonna said. The shooting strained by the death last August of range won’t be used for live firearms Eric Means, CEO of Detroit-based but will be used for training purposes project co-developer The Means and to demonstrate the company’s Group Inc. technology. Caradonna said Means’ death was Founded in 1995 and spun out “a very big loss for us” but that his from the University of Michigan’s En- family is still involved in the project, vironmental Research Institute of along with Detroit-based Holdwick Michigan, EOTech sells firearm Development Group. scopes, magnifiers and sights for milCaradonna said the silver lining is itary, police and hunting, according that the pandemic disruptions gave to its website. It also sells T-shirts, developers the rare chance for a desweatshirts, jackets and hats. sign do-over. It is not clear what products will be “We’ve had this opportunity to reon offer at its location in the Cambria ally make our project what we believe Hotel development. Crain’s reached is an entertainment complex,” he out to the company Friday afternoon said. “We think this is like vacation for more details. mecca.” Additionally, some of the space previously planned for office will be Contact: knagl@crain.com; claimed by an expanded hotel (313) 446-0337; @kurt_nagl
REAL ESTATE
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A rendering of the facade of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue. The property in Detroit’s Capitol Park neighborhood is targeted for a $4.5 million renovation. | AVS RENDERINGS
Downtown Detroit synagogue to get $4.5 million renovation Construction expected to begin in December BY KIRK PINHO
The synagogue with colorful windows in Detroit’s Capitol Park neighborhood is expected to get a big renovation. The Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue at 1445-1457 Griswold St. is targeted for an overhaul to every floor, including opening up the first-floor facade, a new elevator, rooftop deck, stair extensions to the roof and other improvements, according to documents submitted to the Historic District Commission, which has to sign off on the changes because the building is in the Capitol Park historic district. Commission documents say the 1930 building received its “exuberant rainbow of colored acrylic windows” in the mid-1960s after the synagogue purchased it but before its designation as part of the district in 2012. “This expression, as much as the pre-war historic building itself, has become a local landmark,” the document says. Vadim Avshalumov, president of the synagogue’s board, said the windows will remain “It’s a comprehensive renovation with improvements from the basement to the rooftop,” Avshalumov said. “We are going from this fortress-like brick on the ground floor that in many ways is uninviting, to glass.” The building is about 10,500 square feet, according to CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service. It was originally occupied in 1930 by William Apel & Son Coal Inc., the company run by the son-in-law of its developer, Joseph Lucking. Among its other tenants over
the years were a women’s clothing store, beauty salon, a medical office and a finishing school before the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue bought it. The synagogue’s website says it has nearly met a $4.5 million fundraising goal for the project. According to Avshalumov, lead funders were the William Davidson Foundation; the Jewish Fund; the D. Dan and Betty Kahn Foundation; the Gilbert Family Foundation; and the Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation. Construction is expected to begin in December and take a year to complete, Avshalumov said. “We are the last free-standing synagogue in the city of Detroit,” Rabbi Ariana Silverman said in a video posted to the synagogue’s website. “It’s a building that needs a lot of work. Judaism has been evolving for thousands of years and we are at a point in Jewish history in which we recognize that people want to connect to Judaism in a myriad of ways, including the tremendous Jewish organizations that are doing important work in our community and are going to have a presence in our building.” The third and fourth floors would also serve as space for various Jewish organizations. Those floors are currently unused, Avshalumov said. Detroit-based Neumann/Smith Architecture and Detroit-based Sachse Construction are working on the project, as are Laavu and Proxy, both based in Detroit.
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looking for significant career accomplishments, the power to effect change and substantial contributions to the industry and community. Nominees will be invited to fill out a more comprehensive application form. Winners will be recognized in a special issue of Crain’s on Dec. 13. Nominations close Oct. 1. Contact Special Projects Editor Amy Bragg with questions: abragg@crain.com.
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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE ACCOUNTING
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Clayton & McKervey, a certified public accounting and business advisory firm helping growth-driven companies compete in Smith the global marketplace, has promoted Senior Managers Ben Smith and Dave Van Damme to Shareholders, effective September 1, 2021. Ben Smith, CPA, ABV leads the firm’s growing consulting practice, providing strategic guidance to Van Damme business owners in the areas of transaction services and digital advisory services. Dave Van Damme, CPA, CFE is core to the firm’s advisory & assurance team. As new members of the now 12-member ownership team, Smith and Van Damme will have the opportunity to expand their impact on the firm; building teams and practices which support their industry expertise, technical skills and passion.
Ali Luqman, M.D., a neurosurgeon, recently joined Michigan Head & Spine Institute which is the largest neurosurgical practice in Michigan. Dr. Luqman specializes in cerebrovascular disease and conditions of the brain and spine including treatment of aneurysms, carotid artery disease and stroke. His expertise is minimally invasive cranial and spine, skull base, neuroendovascular and endoscopic surgical techniques. He brings patients a new distal radial artery approach for treatment of brain aneurysms. In addition, he is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Wayne State University School of Medicine. Dr. Luqman will see current and new patients at MHSI’s Southfield location.
Advertising Section To place your listing, visit www.crainsdetroit.com/people-on-the-move or, for more information, contact Debora Stein at 917.226.5470 / dstein@crain.com
COMPANIES ON THE MOVE
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To place your listing, visit www.detroitbusiness.com/companymoves or contact Debora Stein at 917.226.5470 / dstein@crain.com ANNIVERSARIES & MILESTONES
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Brooks Kushman P.C. Brooks Kushman is pleased to welcome Chelsea Pasquali to the firm as the newest addition to our growing litigation team. She has been honored as a Rising Star by Michigan Super Lawyers and as one of the “Ones to Watch” by Best Lawyers. Pasquali represents Fortune 500 corporations, small businesses, and individuals in a variety of intellectual property claims. Throughout her career, she has successfully litigated a variety of cases in State and Federal Court, and the Michigan Court of Appeals.
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16 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 27, 2021
` Altair, Troy, an information technology company, signed a channel partner agreement with TrueInsight, Sandy, Utah, a data analytics, and AI software solutions company. TrueInsight will exclusively offer Altair’s simulation, data analytics, and AI software solutions. Websites: altair. com, trueinsight.io
` Kurtis Kitchen & Bath, Livonia, a kitchen and bath remodeler, opened a showroom at 3262 Washtenaw Ave., Ann Arbor, its fifth location. Phone: (734) 412-6720. Website: kurtiskitchen.com
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Laura Picariello, Reprints Sales Manager lpicariello@crain.com (732) 723-0569
` Roncelli Inc. Sterling Heights, a construction management firm, was awarded the Warehouse Addition for Petitpren Inc, a beer wholesaler located in Clinton Township. The addition will be 30,000 square feet with a 2,500 square foot cooler room located on North Grosebeck Highway. Website: roncelli-inc.com
` Domino’s Pizza Inc., Ann Arbor, a pizza company, opened its first store in Lithuania in Vilnius. Website: dominos.com
The Nature Conservancy
Jim Martin joins Northstar Bank, an independent and locally operated full service bank, as a Treasury Management Specialist. He will focus on developing cash management relationships with current and prospective customers. Martin brings over 20 years of experience assisting businesses with their financial goals and objectives by creating customized solutions to meet their needs. Martin graduated from Ferris State University. He resides in St. Clair. email: james. martin@northstarathome.com
` Amesite Inc., Detroit, an artificial intelligence software company, has a contract with Michigan Works! Southeast to provide workforce training to their team members. Michigan Works! Southeast is part of a 16-agency system offering training, education, business development and access to employment opportunities in Hillsdale, Jackson, Lenawee, Livingston, and Washtenaw counties. Website: amesite.com, mwse.org
` EXPANSIONS
NONPROFITS
The Nature Conservancy welcomes Gretchen Valade, director of sustainability at Carhartt, to its Michigan Board of Trustees. Representing the fifth generation of Carhartt, Inc., she graduated from DePaul University in 2012 and now resides in Detroit. “TNC is a renowned organization, focused on making changes on a global scale. I am looking forward to working with them,” she said. The Nature Conservancy is a global organization dedicated to land and water conservation for people and nature.
` CONTRACTS
` Lear Corp., Southfield, an automotive technology provider of seating and e-systems, has an agreement for a joint venture with Hu Lane Associate Inc., Taipei, Taiwan, manufacturer of automotive connector products. The joint venture will be based initially in Yangzhou, China, pending regulatory approvals. Websites: lear. com, Hu Lane.com.tw
FINANCIAL SERVICES
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` Athletico Physical Therapy, Oak Brook, Ill., an orthopedic rehabilitation services provider, opened at 20873 Mack Ave., Grosse Pointe Woods. Phone: (313) 466-7884. Website: athletico.com/GrossePointeMI ` H.W. Kaufman Group, Farmington Hills, an insurance company, acquired Prospect Brokers Chile, Santiago, Chile. The acquisition resulted in rebranding Prospect Brokers Chile as Chesterfield LatAm (Latin America) and relocating to a larger office location to accommodate growth. Websites: hwkaufman.com, chesterfieldlatam.com
` MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS ` Eidemiller Precision Machining, Milford, a machining manufacturer, was acquired by Kyowa Industrial Co. Ltd., Takasaki, Japan, precision manufacturer of complex prototype components and low volume production runs. Websites: epmachining.com, kyowa-industrial.com ` Alta Equipment Group Inc., Livonia, an industrial and construction equipment company, acquired Baron Industries, Woburn, Mass., a privately held dock & door company. Website: altg.com
STARTUPS
From Page 3
While state-level economic developers and other stakeholders are hopeful the funds could help increase more home-grown startups equipped with Michigan venture capital, some observers question how much of an impact $200 million can truly have in the grand scheme of things. “$200 million won’t change the landscape here. That’s a couple of $50 million rounds,” said Erik Gordon, a professor of finance focused on venture capital and private at equity at the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business. “It’s good for the companies, but it won’t change the landscape. What you need is the ability to put together the syndicate ... a group of VC funds that will do those bigger (fundraising) rounds.” Gordon noted, correctly, that two venture capital funds raised over the last decade by Ann Arbor-based Arboretum Ventures were larger than the amount put forth by the Whitmer administration for the Startup Resilience Initiative. Further muddying the waters is an ongoing icy relationship between Whitmer and legislative Republicans, who she needs to appropriate the federal funds. It remains unclear when or
HOUSING
From Page 3
Part of the Brownfield Redevelopment Financing Act, TIF has been on the books for a while, but using it for housing projects is new. It’s now being used or considered in a number of cases where labor and supply costs otherwise wouldn’t allow new housing to be built that would be affordable to residents between 40 and 120 percent of an area’s median income, with most projects geared for residents between 80 and 120 percent of AMI. Emily Doerr, executive director of the state Land Bank Authority, said the program helps with gap financing, allowing builders to spend $200,000 on a house that then sells for $150,000. If the land bank owns the property a development is being built on, it’s eligible for the financing program. Other criteria, such as being a blighted property or an obsolete building, would also make a development eligible. She said the projects have to serve a public benefit, since local tax dollars are being diverted for up to 30 years. “It’s not there to get developers rich,” Doerr said. “Michigan needs a lot of tools and housing is just a really complicated thing. This tool is available in every community in Michigan right now, if they want to do it.” So far, most of the communities that have looked into TIFs are outside metro Detroit. But Kate Baker, executive director of the nonprofit developer Oakland Housing, said she’s exploring using the program in North Corktown. There, she just finished a 14-unit townhouse development that used the traditional brownfield TIF program to help pay for sidewalk and sewer upgrades. She’s considering an expanded version of the TIF program after seeing how it has worked in other parts of the state. “It sounds like it could be a really exciting tool,” Baker said. “We certainly are interested in it.” And in Ypsilanti, Meyers said he is halfway through the process of getting a development with around 55 units approved on about 5 acres that housed
GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
if the Republican-led state Legislature will take up appropriating the billions of dollars in federal funds.
Making deals At the heart of the startup initiative proposed by the Whitmer administration is a proposed $140 million for equity investments through which the state would become a limited partner in various venture and angel investment funds. “The key objective is to continue to diversify the Michigan economy the Boys & Girls Club, before their building was demolished in 2016. The City Council approved the concept and the government is negotiating details with Renovare Development. If all goes to plan, Meyers said construction could begin in April. Using tax increment financing, he said, would help bring down the cost of the units, allowing more, smaller homes to be built in an area that has “seen the demand for housing explode.” If the project goes through, the houses would be expected to sell for between $140,000 and $220,000. Meyers said the average home price in the city is now $260,000. “We desperately need housing,” he said. “The fact that we have nothing to subsidize market-rate single-family housing is not great. This is really the only tool we’ve found to help us accomplish our goals.” Meyers said he hopes to set an example for other metro Detroit communities to consider the tool as well to expand their own housing availability. Jill Ferrari, the managing director of Renovare Development, said TIF will allow her to subsidize the sales price on the homes in Ypsilanti and on another project she’s working on, in Marquette. “If your housing shortage is keeping your business from expanding, you have to solve the problems your business community is facing,” Ferrari said. “Right now, the lack of housing is keeping businesses from growing. ... As communities start to realize housing should be our No. 1 economic development priority, they will start to seek any tools they can.” More than 20 communities have already reached out to Ferrari about possible projects, she said, since TIFs started to be used for home construction. Projects are already in the works in Grand Haven, south of Muskegon; in Newaygo, northwest of Grand Rapids; and in Charlevoix, where the store closed because a manager couldn’t find housing, to name a few. In Muskegon, a scattered-site approach that’s being used to redevelop 42 individual lots could be emulated in Detroit, said Ryan Kilpatrick, the exec-
through homegrown, innovative high growth startups by maintaining momentum as we come out of the pandemic,” according to the LEO memo. The state has previously made equity investments in a handful of other venture funds, most recently in 2011 and 2013, according to the MEDC. State officials say that as they seek to make those investments, it’s important to look at them as a business transaction, as opposed to just handing over dollars with little assurance of a return. utive director of the western Michigan nonprofit Housing Next. And Habitat for Humanity is using the tool to construct a project in Holland. Kilpatrick expects broader use, and soon. “We’re really hopeful it’ll take wind,” said Yarrow Brown, the executive director of the nonprofit Housing North. “We’re losing businesses and economic development opportunities daily. ... We don't have the housing.” As communities have focused on making their cities places where businesses want to to relocate and people want to live, a preexisting housing shortage has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, which led to a temporary construction shutdown and a frenzied market. Sarah Lucas, the CEO of Lake Superior Community Partnership, said it affects the sustainability of a community — and is a problem for more than just service workers who can't find places to live within their budgets. “Every economic development conversation we have ends up being about housing sooner or later,” Lucas said. “It’s an idea whose time has come.” Legislation is in the works that would add more options to incentivize new housing, said Joshua Lunger, the senior director of government affairs for the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce and a co-leader of Housing Michigan. But until other tools are available, TIFs are one of the only options to help make building homes within residents’ price range more financially viable. Jenifer Acosta, a Midland/Bay City redeveloper who is writing a development guide on TIF for the state land bank in the hopes of getting information about the program to more communities, said it’s long past the time when housing should be considered economic development in its own right. “It's really important that we start talking about housing as economic development,” she said. “It’s funny we don't think about it that way.” Contact: arielle.kass@crain.com; (313) 446-6774; @ArielleKassCDB
“The best course of success is not to just write a check and hand it over,” Jonathan Smith, chief of staff for LEO, said during a presentation to investors earlier this month. “For those of you who come from the venture community, you understand. It’s not just the money you provide, it’s the expertise and mentorship. And similarly, if we’re going to hand over money as a state, we need to have an owner and investor mentality.” Within the $140 million proposed for equity investments, the initiative seeks to allocate $30 million for preseed funding, $70 million for seed stage companies and $40 million for growth stage capital, according to the state memo. Additionally, the initiative would allocate $50 million for grants, which includes dollars to expand the state’s Business Accelerator Fund, Emerging Technologies Fund and the MWF Microloan Resilience Fund, while creating a handful of new funds and programs. There would also be $10 million made available for technical assistance for startup companies. Fred Molnar, vice president of entrepreneurship and innovation at the MEDC, said the proposed investments seek to fill gaps that companies seeking funding are facing. Namely, there’s simply not enough capital to meet the demand. “There’s more good ideas than dollars in Michigan,” Molnar told
Crain’s. Molnar added that available growth capital, or dollars for already established companies, remains perhaps the most elusive. Indeed, just 17 percent of Michigan venture capital invested last year into homegrown companies was for growth stage, while 65 percent for early-stage companies, according to figures from the 2021 report by the Michigan Venture Capital Association. Taken together, the initiative, if it comes together, could help further diversify the state’s economy in a sector that offers higher paying jobs, according to Molnar, who called it a “classical economic development story.” Gordon, the UM professor who questioned whether the proposed amount was enough to create a seismic shift in the state’s startup and venture capital landscape, said the “gamechanger” would be around $500 million. That amount, he said, would help foster more large investment funds, or growing existing ones. “We can do it here,” Gordon said. “There’s nothing that hovers over the air in Michigan. It’s a wonderful place to live and with more capital we can attract the talent (and retain) our own talent. Just think of the people that pour out of our universities.” Contact: nmanes@crain.com; (313) 446-1626; @nickrmanes
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JOB FRONT POSITION AVAILABLE The Michigan Nonprofit Association seeks a dynamic, visionary President & CEO to lead the organization into the future. Through this exciting opportunity, we hope to find a thoughtful, driven leader whose passion for MNA’s work and mission are unparalleled. We seek an experienced individual who is a clear-sighted manager of issues and people, who knows how to create and expand growth opportunities, and whose zest for bettering the world by building diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice knows no bounds. Through our collaboration, we hope to make Michigan a stronger, more equitable place to live, both today and for generations to come. Learn more at https://jobcenter.mnaonline.org/job/16-president-ceo/. Please submit cover letter and resume to Stephanie Van Koevering at stephanie@reschstrategies.com by Oct. 8, 2021. POSITION AVAILABLE
SUBMIT YOUR AD TODAY SEPTEMBER MAY 27, 24, 2021 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 17
NIC ANTAYA FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
Lab technician Andrew Parkanzky of White Lake prepares samples for COVID-19 PCR testing at Orchard Laboratories in West Bloomfield Township.
ORCHARD
From Page 3
Pandemic paydays The coronavirus pandemic has proven a windfall for labs that adjusted to COVID-19 testing across the country. One of the nation’s largest lab companies, Secaucus, N.J.-based Quest Diagnostics, raised its full-year outlook earlier this month by hundreds of millions of dollars citing “stronger than anticipated” demand for its molecular COVID-19 tests. The demand is driven by the COVID-19 delta variant that’s plaguing the U.S. The country has averaged more than 130,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases daily since mid-August. Michigan has averaged around 3,000 cases, or more than 2.3 percent of the U.S. average, for the past several weeks, in part driven by students returning to school. Last week, Michigan crossed 1 million positive COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began last March. Quest now expects a full-year net revenue of $9.8 billion to almost $10.1 billion, up from the outlook of $9.5 billion to $9.8 billion it reported in July. Buoying the upgraded guidance is Quest’s assumption that it will run, on average, at least 40,000 tests per day in the second half of the year — twice what it previously projected. Quest is now running about 100,000 tests per day, up from about 35,000 in June, President and CEO Steve Rusckowski of Quest said earlier this month as part of Morgan Stanley’s 19th global health care conference. “COVID is a significant contributor to the top and bottom line,” Quest CFO
Lab technician Megan Elfline of Sterling Heights prepares a COVID-19 PCR test at Orchard Laboratories. | NIC ANTAYA FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
Mark Guinan said during the presentation. Orchard Laboratories is a much smaller operation than Quest — Orchard employs upwards of 300 compared with Quest’s 47,000 employees — but the growth trajectory remains the same. Orchard was able to secure a contract with Oakland County Health Department last year to be its lab testing provider, providing a large bump in revenue. It has secured similar contracts in other states, such as New Jersey, where it also has a lab. Sami Ahmad, president of the company. said Orchard made the decision to transition into COVID-19 testing in April of 2020 as the pandemic ramped up in the U.S. to maintain its staff and keep the lab open. “Our business slowed way down in Q1 of 2020,” Sami Ahmad said. “We
18 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 27, 2021
thought we could kill two birds by offering COVID testing. We could retain our staff and do what we thought was a community good. Honestly, we thought COVID testing was going to be a loss forever. We figured we’d do a couple hundred tests per day but offer up some goodwill and keep our staff employed. Clearly, we had no idea.” As the virus exploded across the state last year and hospitals were overrun, Orchard expanded to a capacity of 10,000 tests per day. It quickly began performing tests not just for Oakland County but for nursing home providers in several states and even film production crews. Now the company is getting calls from businesses across the region as they try to decipher an executive order from President Joe Biden that instructed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to mandate COVID-19
vaccines or testing requirements for employers with more than 100 employees. When OSHA will issue the mandate is currently unknown, but Sami Ahmad said the company is working to prepare for a glut of work orders. “Everyone is trying to figure out what has to be done, so we’re helping them set up protocols,” Sami Ahmad said. “We do think we’ll get a big surge in volumes. We’ll be looking to send nurses out to factories and other employers.”
“HONESTLY, WE THOUGHT COVID TESTING WAS GOING TO BE A LOSS FOREVER. WE FIGURED WE’D DO A COUPLE HUNDRED TESTS PER DAY BUT OFFER UP SOME GOODWILL AND KEEP OUR STAFF EMPLOYED.”
Temporary blessings
Faisal Ahmad said the company is now looking toward major expansion efforts, including a direct-to-consumer product similar to the genetic testing for 23andMe, but for medical conditions such as high cholesterol or other common lab tests. “We’ve seen COVID really push forward telemedicine, and we believe it’ll do the same for the lab industry,” Sami Ahmad said. “The direct-to-consumer world in health care is growing and because of telemedicine, people are able to track and monitor themselves more than ever before. Testing is the easy part, now we’re trying to navigate the regulations so we can bring a product to market.” Orchard is also looking to expand its lab presence across the U.S. “The standard of care is always evolving, so we’re always looking forward,” Faisal said. “COVID testing showed us we can take the geographical limitations of quick-turnaround testing thanks to technology, so we see opportunity to expand. We’re actively looking at acquisitions. Our five-year plan is to be national.”
But the pandemic’s potential end provides a potential profit pitfall for diagnostics labs like Orchard. If more and more people get the vaccine and the virus subsides, testing needs will diminish. The Ahmad brothers are prepared. “We hope it ends,” Sami Ahmad said. “We want it to end. Knowing, or hoping, it will is why we’ve expanded our molecular testing menu to offer testing for (urinary tract infections), bacteria and other infections.” Orchard also leveraged its relationships from COVID testing to secure phlebotomy and hematology contracts with nursing homes and physicians’ offices. Its non-COVID-related growth has also been exponential. For example, in the first quarter of 2021, COVID infections fell after the fall and winter surge in 2020; testing needs plummeted. But Orchard managed to have the best first quarter in its eight years in business. “We always segregate the COVID numbers out of our planning,” Faisal Ahmad said. “We know that’s not sustainable, but we continue to use it as a way to leverage relationships.”
— Sami Ahmad
Contact: dwalsh@crain.com; (313) 446-6042; @dustinpwalsh
SPONSORED CONTENT
Working toward oral health equity Delta Dental launches inclusive benefit option for patients with special health care needs For roughly 1 billion people in the world with a disability, obtaining oral health care is not always a seamless process. Additional insurance coverage needs, communication difficulties, anxiety or difficulty getting to and from the dentist get in the way of accessing dental care.
developing heart disease and diabetes, according to Project Accessible Oral Health.
“Delta Dental has listened to the pleas of families and caregivers in trying to reduce barriers to care for this most medically and dentally underserved population,” said Dr. Steven Perlman, global clinical director and founder of In order to better serve people Special Olympics Special Smiles. with special health care needs Goran Jurkovic, CEO, “Access to and the ability to Delta Dental of Michigan, Ohio, Delta Dental of Michigan, receive quality oral health care is and Indiana and the Delta Dental Ohio, and Indiana the number one problem faced by Foundation created the enhanced children and adults with physical dental benefit for children and and intellectual disabilities.” adults with all types of special health care needs. Starting in January 2022, Delta Dental groups can Through the enhanced dental benefit, patients opt in to this benefit. can schedule office visits or consultations before the first treatment session in order to better According to a 2020 study from the International understand what to expect. Other benefits Journal of Dentistry, “Barriers in Access to include additional dental cleanings; the use of Dental Services Hindering the Treatment of silver diamine fluoride to treat cavities rather People with Disabilities: A Systematic Review,” than dental instruments; and other adjustments people with disabilities are already at a higher required to effectively care for patients. risk for periodontal disease than those without. Furthermore, the study points out that it can be In addition to the enhanced dental benefit challenging for dentists to care for the oral cavity rollout, Delta Dental will be assisting oral health due to a patient’s motor difficulties or structural professionals in obtaining adequate training to challenges. care for individuals with special health care needs, as dental students report lacking Other risks for people with an intellectual and education on providing dental treatment for this developmental disability include higher rates of population. To help meet this need, the Delta cavities left untreated, decaying teeth, gum Dental Foundation is sponsoring a continuing disease and an increased likelihood of
education series through Penn Dental Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, which is well-known for its academic program that trains students on how to provide dental care to people with disabilities. As a result of this partnership, Penn Dental Medicine is providing an entirely free program that includes 27 total continuing education credits. Eighteen credits are needed to earn a Disability Dentistry Clinician Expert certificate. With the rollout of this enhanced dental benefit, Delta Dental and the Delta Dental Foundation aim to change the status quo, targeting the more than two-thirds of people with a special health care need who aren’t currently receiving adequate oral health care. They are also committed to providing necessary continuing education training for oral health professionals in order to meet this critical need. “We have been engaged in this space for years, working to make oral health care accessible and equitable to all. Now, we are pushing other dental benefit companies to follow suit. Providing excellent coverage that meets all patient needs is the right thing to do,” said Delta Dental of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana CEO Goran Jurkovic. “We must be inclusive in all facets of our business as we serve our communities. This is the first step.”
DISABILITY AND DENTISTRY: DID YOU KNOW?
61 MILLION adults in the U.S. have a physical or intellectual disability
Adequate oral health care is the
NO. 1
health need for people with disabilities
6.5 MILLION people with disabilities are unable to access dental care
Children with disabilities
ARE 30%
more likely to have their first dental visit delayed Source: Project Accessible Oral Health
SEPTEMBER 27, 2021 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 19
MACKINAC
From Page 1
So far, so good Concerns about possible COVID exposures colored much of the preparation for the event. Detroit Regional Chamber CEO Sandy Baruah in his welcome to the conference offered up a hotline for any attendees to report potential COVID exposures or symptoms. The chamber said Friday that the hotline had received three calls during the conference. They included: ` One conference attendee who reported a risk of exposure prior to departure for Mackinac Island. That person then tested negative and continued with travel and participation in the event. ` One registrant who self-reported not feeling well prior to departure and did not attend the event. ` A third registrant who reported not feeling well at the event. The registrant was in the Grand Hotel’s parlor area and conference registration area for a total of about an hour, and was fully masked the entire time. The person left the Island and subsequently tested negative for COVID. The chamber told Crain’s it planned to keep the hotline active through the weekend.
Lassiter lays out MSU Detroit vision Henry Ford Health System’s months-old 30-year affiliation with Michigan State University could lead to construction of a medical school in Midtown Detroit, potentially unlocking new real estate development opportunities in the city. That’s according to Henry Ford Health System CEO Wright Lassiter III, who laid out some of his vision last week for establishing a research-intensive medical school in Midtown that could raise the national prominence of HFHS research and medical innovation. “I have a strong desire to increase the production of medical students in the state of Michigan and I’d like to bring a new medical school into the city of Detroit,” Lassiter said Tuesday night during a dinner of business executives at the conference that was co-sponsored by
COVID-19
From Page 1
great?’ (He said) because ‘I skate to where the puck is going.’” By the 2030s, Shanley predicts, “hospitals are going to be intensive care units and operating rooms.” To meet patient needs, he said, Wayne Health and the health care industry must evolve into an integrated ambulatory platform that links directly to specialty care, community health workers, pharmacists, dentists, social workers and behavioral health providers. “Phil and I sat down and discussed the fact that he being in emergency medicine and me in vascular surgery, we’ve always been frustrated that we’re dealing with the end consequences (of chronic diseases),” said Shanley. “Unfortunately, over 25 years I’ve taken care of a lot of people with endstage disease that I know was preventable if we got to them sooner,” Shanley said.
The Grand Hotel’s porch saw healthy traffic during the conference. | PHOTOS BY DALE YOUNG FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
Crain’s Detroit Business. (See Q-and-A, Page 7.) Lassiter said he’s eyeing an area between West Grand Boulevard in New Center stretching south to 1 Ford Place — the headquarters for HFHS — to construct a medical school in partnership with MSU. “There could be the ability to garner real estate and development that could produce a research center or a medical school, a new hospital complex,” he said. “We’ve been a catalyst for redevelopment in Midtown Detroit for a long time, and I think there’s a lot more that can and will happen.” Lassiter made the comments in an interview with KC Crain at a dinner during the conference.
state’s child care subsidies, making 105,000 more children eligible for the program. The budget blueprint contains $158 million for an ongoing 30 percent increase in the provider rate for child care centers as well as another $222 for a temporary pay raise for providers. “This is a pretty tremendous and a significant expansion of the state’s child care program,” State Budget Director Dave Massaron said Tuesday in an interview with Crain’s. Massaron said the rate increases for child care providers are “designed to increase the sustainability” of their business model, which has been upended during the pandemic as parents chose to keep their children at home to mitigate their potential exposure to COVID-19.
State budget makes big child-care investment A nearly $70 billion state budget fueled by surplus tax revenue and federal stimulus funds that took shape Tuesday contains major investments in the child care industry in an effort to get more parents back
“It might be severe vascular disease; it might even result in an amputation, or kidney disease or heart attacks or stroke,” he said. “But it’s the result of not doing the things that we needed to be doing when the person was 25 to 30 years old, the unrecognized hypertension that after 20 years, presents as a stroke.” Levy, an ER doctor and Wayne State professor who practices at Detroit Medical Center, said the lethal mix of chronic diseases and COVID-19 caused him to rethink the reason he got into medicine. “Like a lot of other ER physicians I was driven by the adrenaline of acuity, seeing and helping people in extreme (situations) with whatever they were presenting with,” said Levy, who is Wayne Health’s chief innovation officer. But day after day in the DMC ER, Levy said, he saw many people in their 50s and younger, predominantly Black, come in with severe heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes, uncontrolled hypertension and those with strokes and heart attacks.
20 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 27, 2021
Gov.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan talks to Crain’s for the Mackinac Policy Conference podcast series.
in a pandemic-disrupted workforce. The spending plan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s adminis-
tration brokered with the Republican-controlled Legislature would invest $108.1 million more into the
Wayne Health Chief Innovation Officer Phillip Levy, MD, MPH, left, and President and CEO Charles Shanley M.D. | NIC ANTAYA/SPECIAL TO CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
“I researched it and found many with strokes and heart attacks, and other diseases, start with uncontrolled blood pressure, mixed with uncontrolled diabetes,” said Levy Shanley and Levy said COVID-19 — either by contracting it or delaying
care because of it — will make patients with chronic diseases worse for years to come. COVID-19 presented Wayne Health with a unique opportunity to accelerate the group’s move toward preventive health services and refine its out-
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reach strategy. “Using mobile health units, we can reach these vulnerable communities. It’s never going to occur in the traditional doctor office or hospital setting,” Shanley said. “We felt we could reach people with an integrated network where you have a mobile component that goes out to where they’re at and links them in a very directed way.” Using five mobile health units designed and partially funded by Ford Motor Co., Levy said Wayne Health staff are bringing free health screenings, COVID-19 testing and vaccines and other services directly to the community. Last month, the Wayne Health Mobile Unit brought services to Detroit Chassis LLC, a Detroit-based automotive supplier. About 137 of Detroit Chassis’s 500 Michigan employees have so far received either a COVID-19 test, vaccine or primary and preventive health screening at the company’s plant, said CEO Dennis Edwards. “Detroit Chassis has been around
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Experts have told the city they’ve never seen anything like this, where the road mounded upward in two areas, also causing a building to heave up and require demolition. An investigation into the cause is ongoing and no final analysis is near release, according to a city spokeswoman. It may be a week or more away. Duggan stopped short of directly disclosing the theory for what happened, but said Tuesday that he has an idea of what needs to come next. “I think we have a very good idea of what happened, but we’re going to let the final reports come out,” Duggan said. “But this is the second time in three years that we’ve had a major soil issue in southwest Detroit. A couple years ago you had a good chunk of soil fall into the Detroit River.”
From Page 1
Inside of an hour, all that was out the window. It’s human nature. When you see friends, colleagues and business associates in real life after 18 months of interminable Zoom calls, nobody’s checking under suit coat sleeves for a green light to go in for a hug. Many just … do. So goes the new world of networking — and “normal” business interaction in the pandemic age. Was it necessary to convene this year for cocktails, canapés and schmoozing on the storied porch of the Grand Hotel? Maybe not. Plenty of folks skipped the downsized conference this year for plenty of legitimate reasons: COVID concerns, corporate optics, schedule conflicts. But Mackinac is more than a social event. It’s a signal that Michigan is still open for business, and that the state’s very real problems — infrastructure, equity, education, labor shortages — aren’t simply sleeping until the pandemic goes away. Like it or not, policy is still made in person, and building relationships matters. “It feels good to be back,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, sporting both green and red bracelets, said during her keynote address Wednesday. “It’s definitely differ-
en Whitmer announced Wednesday at the Mackinac Policy Conference. In its quest to make clean energy and mobility jobs a key piece of Michigan’s economic recovery, the governor’s administration also said it expects to start the Michigan Revolution for Electrification of Vehicles Academy, or MiREV. “We are going to equip our workforce with the specific knowledge and skill demands of the emerging mobility and electrification industry,” Whitmer said in a news conference at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. The road-trip circuit builds on other announcements of mobility-forward corridors, such as Whitmer’s announcement Tuesday about plans to build the country’s first wireless charging road for electric vehicles in Wayne, Oakland or Macomb counties. The state also said more than a year ago that it wanted to construct a multi-faceted “mobility corridor” from Detroit to Ann Arbor along Michigan Avenue. Talk Wednesday focused on electrification and mobility in the state’s
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said he has a “very good idea of what happened” in southwest Detroit to cause roadway to buckle upward a week and a half ago, and the city needs to take steps to make sure it doesn’t recur. Detroit may need to change its rules around storage of heavy materials, Duggan said while speaking about the incident around Fort and Dearborn streets during an interview Tuesday at the Mackinac Policy Conference.
for 21 years partnering with Ford and during the pandemic Ford has supported us tremendously with masks and best practices,” Edwards said. “They came to us and asked if we were interested in connecting (with Wayne Health). This is exactly what we wanted to do with employees to help them with wellness and keeping them safe.” Edwards said employees, mostly union workers with UAW Local 155, were happy to have the convenience of on-site health screening and COVID-19 testing. “It’s voluntary, but we have incentivized it by paying for their time right after their shifts,” Edwards said. “If you didn’t get the service, you weren’t paid for the time. It’s a win-win with a focus on health.” During the two visits, Edwards said, the Wayne Health team was very professional and answered many questions. “There was a line and one worker wanted to get a second COVID shot. She didn’t have enough time with a busy home and schedule,” he said. “I brought her to the front of the line to
ask and Wayne Health gave her a second booster.” Edwards said Detroit Chassis has a second plant in Avon, Ohio, with about 75 workers. He said the company is looking for a provider for on-site health screenings. “I know there are a lot of people who need regular blood pressure testing, and diabetes is something you need to monitor,” Edwards said. “A lot of employees thanked me for being able to get these services. This is a pilot, but we hope this will grow and become a regular thing.” On Sept 1 and Oct. 1, Wayne Health will offer mobile health screening to a second company, Detroit Manufacturing Systems, for their 1,200 employees, Levy said. “We are working on innovative economic models for value-based reimbursement to further expand mobile and preventive health care services at work sites,” he said. “Our vision is for the mobile health units to bring care directly to where people are — at work, at home, where they learn or where they play.”
Mobile unit services include blood testing for diabetes, cholesterol and kidney function; blood pressure screening; COVID-19 testing and vaccines; school immunizations and sports physicals; child wellness exams; HIV screening; behavioral health and patient education resources; and primary care physician referrals. All the services are free for participants and insurance is not required. Insurers will be billed for screening tests. To date, more than 35,000 nasal swab COVID tests and 9,500 COVID vaccines have been provided through the Wayne Health Mobile Units at community locations across southeast Michigan. “We’ve always had a very robust network of subspecialty care. What we are doing is linking these populations with chronic diseases, including women’s health and primary obstetrics, to specialty care,” Shanley said. “Now we can use our mobile outreach to create connections to get them the other things, whether it’s financial assistance, linkages to other social and behavioral health services.”
automotive industry and not on public transit. “As the state that put the whole world on wheels, we appreciate the great American road trip more than most,” Whitmer said. “But just as the auto industry evolves to an electric fuel cell-propelled future, the way people are traveling is changing as well. Eco-tourism and environmentally conscious travel continues to grow in popularity.”
Duggan: ‘Very good idea’ on pavement buckling
BRACELETS
Survey finds support for education funding Nearly two-thirds of Michigan residents surveyed in a recent poll said they would support increased public funding for children and youth to counter inequities and COVID-19 pandemic-related ills. Detroit-based Skilllman Foundation and Michigan’s Children, a Lansing-based advocacy group working to reduce disparities in child outcomes from cradle to career through policy change, commissioned the poll, which was released late Monday afternoon at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference. Washington, D.C.-based Lake Research Partners conducted the poll of 800 residents (and likely general election voters) from all regions and demographics July 27-Aug. 3. Among other results, 62 percent of those surveyed said they supported increased public funding for children and youth for issues spurred by the pandemic, including disrupted learning and impaired mental health problems such as anxiety, depression and ADHD. “This is a moment for Michigan,” Skillman President and CEO Angelique Power said in the release. “Despite polarizing times, Michiganders across race, ethnicity, gender, economics, and geography are loudly saying we must all invest in children. To me, this isn’t a request, it’s a full-throated mandate.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer addresses conference attendees. | DALE YOUNG FOR CRAIN’S
Three colors of wristbands were offered to attendees Mackinac conference. Green signaled handshakes and hugs welcome, yellow for elbow and fist bumps, and red for “give me space.” | DALE YOUNG FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
Levy said Wayne’s mobile health unit initiative is focused on identifying people with problems before they develop chronic diseases. “There are a number of people out there who are insured but don’t use health care, maybe they stopped using health care because of COVID,” Levy said. “Maybe they never really trusted health care or wanted health care or admitted, you know, that that strange discomfort in their chest was something that we’re concerned about. “Nonetheless, there’s a lot of people out there, and if we can use this mobile outreach and rethink health care delivery, bringing care to people and meeting their needs in their community, and letting them take the circumstances of how they receive care, and well, that’s a lot better than waiting in the ER for someone to come in with problems.” The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and Wayne State University donors such as the Cielo Foundation, have helped to underwrite the mobile vehicles and
ent, but it feels good to be back.” She added: “I’ve got both wristbands.” So maybe the bracelets were overkill. Or silly. We’re making it up as we go, trying to feel our way forward, socializing with no road map. The point is to try. The theme of normalizing life amid pandemic was echoed by author and economist Richard Florida, author of “The Rise of the Creative Class,” in his own conference address earlier Wednesday. “We need to learn to live with this,” Florida said of the pandemic. “We not only need to learn to live with it, we need an intentional and purposeful strategy. … I call this a great urban reset. COVID-19 is not a disruptor, it’s an accelerator. “We will survive this, and not just all of us. Our cities. Detroit will survive this.” It was an upbeat message for an audience looking for a way forward. I joined Crain’s Detroit Business on March 16, 2020 — the day we all went home due to COVID. I’ve met plenty of business leaders via Zoom since then, and at a few small, subdued events. We’ve done some valuable and creative virtual programming, and will continue to do so. But nothing beats human connection — and the chance to meet those Zoom contacts in real life. Here’s hoping we can all stay healthy in the meantime.
the cost of uninsured care under the program. Levy said external funding provided 100 percent of the mobile unit and costs for testing, vaccines and other services to schools, churches and other community locations by state funding and philanthropy. “When participants have medical insurance, their insurer is billed for testing,” Levy said. “There is a fund created through philanthropy that covers the cost of testing that is not covered by insurance.” Levy said Wayne Health plans to expand its mobile health program for community-based, preventive health screenings and for work-site screenings. External funding also enabled the group to add “mini-mobile health vehicles” for door-to-door services. Wayne Health recently received a $2.6 million grant from the American Heart Association to deploy mobile health units to provide direct, personalized health care and coaching to Black people with high blood pressure living in select under-resourced neighborhoods in Detroit.
SEPTEMBER 27, 2021 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 21
THE CONVERSATION
Real estate, nonessential? Realcomp CEO Karen Kage disagrees Realcomp II Limited: After 42 years in real estate, Karen Kage, the CEO of Realcomp II Limited, still doesn’t like to make predictions. Who would have guessed what happened following the Great Recession? And how could she have anticipated the effect of a pandemic on the housing market? Kage, who has been with the Farmington Hills-based multiple listing service since its 1993 inception, has been the CEO since 1997. Although the coronavirus-related economic shutdown presented a number of challenges — including a large decline in the number of real estate agents — she said Realcomp’s 18,000 customers are now the most the service has ever had. | BY ARIELLE KASS ` Can you talk me through what the coronavirus did to the industry? March of 2020 is when we had to close our doors here. … Later that month, the whole state was shut down and real estate was deemed not to be essential. So there was no real estate taking place. That left our customers completely out of business. ` How long did that last? I believe it was May 6 that we were allowed to open back up. But there were a lot of restrictions. … We had to keep our subscribers very informed of what those restrictions were. And eventually, those one by one started getting removed. And it was like there was this pent-up desire to buy homes. And when everything was, OK, you can now show and you can now sell real estate, it took off like crazy. … And it stayed crazy. … We’re finally seeing things — I’m not gonna say really slow down. Maybe just a tad. We’re getting more listings in — not a lot, but more new listings in. The days on market are just crazy low. This is normally a time of year when things slow down for us. Last year, not so much. This year, I think it’ll go back to a more normal year and we may see things leveling off a little bit. ` Was it ever a struggle? It was always a struggle. … People are emotional. It’s hard. You’d have to be a robot not to care. It was hard, it was very hard. ` What did you think when you were told real estate was nonessential? Well, I disagreed, of course. Because I do think it is essential. You’re talking about people’s homes. I knew that we had to follow the rules. So we did everything we could to toe the line and I think that helped us a lot. We had a lot of people that would go to our state government and say, ‘Here’s why we think it’s essential. And we followed all your rules and we’ve done everything and we’ll continue to follow them, we’ll carry the sanitizer around, whatever you need us to do.’ And I think that helped. No one wants to be referred to as nonessential, I mean geez.
` Can you talk to me a little bit about the values of Realcomp? I have participated for 15 years in a leadership group called C12, which is all different kinds of business owners and CEOs, all kinds of industries. We get together once a month and we talk about how to run our corporations, our businesses with Christian foundations, Christian integrity and ethics, and that’s really important to me. … You work really hard to build this culture of the way you treat people is the way you want to be treated. ` Are there other ways C12 underpins the business? I think it’s just everything we do. I just try to live those values every day. Being kind and being honest and being here for people. I hope that it’s my whole life. ` Can you tell me a little bit about your family and how that fits in? My daughter refers to Realcomp as her little brother. My family’s always first and foremost. I try to keep business and family separate, only because I don’t want business to interfere with my family, because my family comes first. Well, God first, then family, then work, that’s the rules. ... I want them to see you have to be dedicated and your job is important, but it’s not your life. Your job is not your life. And you have to keep that perspective, or your family suffers. ` How easy is it to keep that perspective? It’s not easy at all. When you are the breadwinner and you know you have to do what you have to do to support your family, there are some hard choices you have to make, some hard decisions you have to make. … It can be hard. It was a constant struggle. ` When you’re not working, I understand you’re a big reader. I’m a big Michael Connelly fan. My favorite books are the CIA, spy, detective books. ` What do you like about them? I like the intrigue, I like trying to figure
it out. And I just enjoy the mystery of it, the stories of it. And Fredrik Backman. I love his books. I read to be entertained. I like it as an escape from the day. ` I understand you write a little bit, too. I have the motto of there’s a song for everything, and if there’s not one, I’ll make one up. … When we would have our annual gatherings at work, I would write a poem about the year. Or sometimes, I would write the poem about each employee. Like, each stanza would be something specific to that employee. And it was always a lot of fun to read them. … At the end of the year, I write each employee their own note to say this is what I appreciated about you this year. Here’s where you really went above and beyond and I’m so thankful for you. … Everybody needs to know they’re appreciated. We all want to know that.
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Editor-in-Chief Keith E. Crain Publisher KC Crain Group Publisher Jim Kirk, (312) 397-5503 or jkirk@crain.com Associate Publisher Lisa Rudy, (313) 446-6032 or lrudy@crain.com Executive Editor Kelley Root, (313) 446-0319 or kelley.root@crain.com Managing Editor Michael Lee, (313) 446-1630 or malee@crain.com Digital Editor for Audience Elizabeth Couch, (313) 446-0419 or elizabeth.couch@crain.com Digital Portfolio Manager Tim Simpson, (313) 446-6788 or tsimpson@crain.com News Editor Beth Reeber Valone, (313) 446-5875 or bvalone@crain.com Senior Editor Chad Livengood, (313) 446-1654 or clivengood@crain.com Special Projects Editor Amy Elliott Bragg, (313) 446-1646 or abragg@crain.com Design and Copy Editor Beth Jachman, (313) 446-0356 or bjachman@crain.com Research and Data Editor Sonya Hill, (313) 446-0402 or shill@crain.com Newsroom (313) 446-0329, FAX (313) 446-1687 TIP LINE (313) 446-6766 REPORTERS
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` You mentioned before you’re frustrated by the perception of Detroit’s housing market. If there’s that one negative thing that somebody hears, they just stick with it. I don’t even want to say it out loud because I don’t want people to think about it again. But we went through a very difficult time when that recession was going on, and Detroit had an even worse reputation then. … I would be at national conventions and I would have people bringing it up and chuckling about it, and I used to think, why would you think that’s funny? That’s not funny. You know, I’ve lived in Michigan my whole life and I’m proud to live here. And we’ve made tremendous strides in making a comeback. And it can be very hurtful.
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` Do you feel like the perception has changed? I think a little. But it’s been there for so long that it’ll be difficult to get rid of it completely.
Karen Kage CEO Realcomp II Limited
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RUMBLINGS
Kevin Dietz named Frank Beckmann’s replacement on WJR A LONGTIME INVESTIGATIVE TV REPORTER who was fired by Channel 4 two years ago says he has landed a new gig replacing longtime broadcaster Frank Beckmann on the radio. Kevin Dietz says in a post on his Facebook page that he is taking over a 9 a.m. to noon slot hosting at Detroit-based radio station WJR 760 AM. A voice mail was left with the radio station seeking comment, and an email was sent to Dietz on Wednesday afternoon.
Beckmann left after 48 years in March, The Detroit News reported at the time. Deadline Detroit reported that Dietz has been hosting the show since June Dietz 1. Dietz was fired in July 2019 from WDIV-TV for a comment he made
22 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 27, 2021
while taking a group photo at the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in Houston, saying “We are probably going to have to crop the Black reporter out of the photo.” He said at the time he was joking and that the reporter and his co-workers did not take offense. “The intent of my comment was to openly acknowledge, amongst team members, the challenge it’s been for our company, and many companies, to achieve diversity goals,” Dietz wrote
in a Facebook post at the time. “This is a serious subject that I approached through humor. Nevertheless, the station has a zero tolerance policy on racially insensitive comments and they determined, despite the intent and context of my statement, that it violated the policy. I understand and support the need for such policies.” He had been at WDIV for more than a quarter-century and Deadline Detroit noted that he won 17 Emmys during his tenure.
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OCT. 12 | NOON
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Director Michigan Dept. of Health and Human Services
PINO COLONE, M.D.
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President Economic Alliance for Michigan
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Professor of Emergency Medicine Wayne State University School of Medicine
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