Crain's Detroit Business, October 9, 2023

Saint John’s Resort unveils 18-hole course

It’s the crown jewel of a $50 million overhaul of the Plymouth spot

O cials at Saint John’s Resort in Plymouth Township believe they have the holy grail of public golf in metro Detroit and the new premier venue for elegant weddings and business conferences.

Golfers will be able to judge for themselves next spring, when e Cardinal — an 18-hole championship track, plus a seven-hole Par 3 course and a putting course — is scheduled to open as the rst new golf course in Southeast Michigan in more than two decades. It is part of an ongoing $50 million overhaul of the former Inn at St. John’s, including its hotel and conference

A ‘Croptober’ weed windfall?

Amid 120 acres of decaying cornstalks and scarecrows along County Road 665 north of Paw Paw, rows and rows of lush green trees rise into the sky. Expensive trees. Trees that make up the next crop of marijuana growing at Grasshopper Farms.

October, otherwise known in the cannabis industry as “Croptober,” is the annual harvesting of the state’s outdoor marijuana plants, and an estimated record 100,000 plants will be reaped this season. Croptober also

means a product surplus that invades the market resulting in depressed prices for the industry and good deals for consumers. is lasts from late October through February the following year.

However, the industry is ma-

turing and companies are deploying strategies to not only combat pricing but thrive from the annual outdoor harvest, preventing spooky season from being so commercially scary.

“Growing outdoors is really hard,” said Will Bowden, a retired Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Coast Guard, former Florida cop and now CEO of Grasshopper Farms. “People want to do something in a more controlled environment, without the pressures of weather.

center, which could grow even larger depending on decisions about further expansion. e 200-acre property on Five Mile Road just north of M-14 is being revamped by the Pulte Family Charitable Foundation, the 501(c) nonpro t arm of the

See GOLF on Page 17

Expanded tax credit would help parents

Workers would get up to $5,000 per young child

David Eggert

LANSING — Michigan should drastically expand its tax credit for low-income working families by awarding up to a $5,000 credit per young child, helping to cover costs such as child care and osetting a “bene t cli ” when wages rise, a group said Monday.

Michigan Future Inc. this year successfully advocated to quintuple the state’s match of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, or Working Families Tax Credit, to 30%. Now it proposes to create an additional Working Parents Tax Credit for EITC recipients with kids under age 6 starting in

the 2024-25 budget year. e plan would reduce state revenues by $1 billion annually, a cost advocates said would be worth it to provide low-wage earners with more money, particularly to defray child care costs and the bene t cli but also to ensure that people stay in the workforce.

e credit would be $5,000 for children under 3 and $2,500 for those ages 3-5. No household could get a tax credit for more than three children. It would cover nearly 270,000 households with work earnings of at least $10,000 up to around $60,000.

See TAX CREDIT on Page 14

CRAIN’S LIST

Michigan’s largest credit unions. PAGE 13

THE CONVERSATION

Michael Poris on the value of saving old buildings. PAGE 18

Kurt Nagl

The Cardinal at Saint John’s Resort is expected to open to the public this spring. ST. JOHN’S RESORT

“Croptober may not have the same massive impact on pricing as before.”

Mike Elias, Common Citizen CEO

Workers harvest cannabis at Grasshopper Farms in Paw Paw. Over over the next 25 days, they will pick, dry and process 9,000 pounds of marijuana ower to meet the harvest goal of approximately 25,000 pounds. NIC ANTAYA

Bloom eld Hills spec house seeks $7M from an elite pool of buyers

An under-construction speculative house in Bloom eld Hills seeks a price rarely seen for that type of project.

e house — being built without a buyer identi ed — has an asking price of $7 million and seeks to attract the “1%” of buyers, according to listing agent Dan Gutfreund with the Birmingham o ce of Signature Sotheby's International Real Estate.

“ e level at which (this home) is built attracts a very discerning buyer,” Gutfreund said. “Someone that understands what they’re buying, and knows that they’re going to get a home that’s going to stand the test of time.”

e house, adjacent to the Bloom eld Hills Country Club along West Long Lake Road,is a project by builder Arya Afrakhteh of Birmingham-based Brandywine Construction LLC. An engineer by trade, Afrakhteh said he’s made one-o spec home building his calling, building two to three such houses per year, largely in a handful of neighborhoods in the high-end areas of Birmingham and Bloom eld Hills.

Over the course of his career in

luxury, speculative home building, the builder said the buyer pool is roughly split down the middle as to whether a buyer emerges during the construction period — allowing for changes to the nished product — or whether they purchase upon completion.

With the Bloom eld Hills property under construction and set for completion next summer, the goal is to attract busy, executive-level buyers — perhaps moving to the area for new positions — and provide a “turn-key” product that requires little-to-no work upon purchase.

ere has been some interest from would-be buyers over the couple of weeks the home has been listed, according to Afrakhteh and Gutfreund. However, some of the interest has cooled in light of the ongoing United Auto Workers strike, they said.

e Realtor and builder each conveyed that highly-paid automotive executives, whether from one of the Detroit 3 automakers or a tier one supplier, make for likely buyers, and the strike and ongoing negotiations have taken precedence in recent weeks.

e current pause is likely to be temporary, Afrakhteh said.

“I’m a rm believer that if you do it right, there’s always going to be a customer out there that’s looking for it,” he said. “No matter what the economy is or no matter what the timing is.”

Ground broke in June for the new house that is believed to be the only speculative house being built in Bloom eld Hills, according to Gutfreund. Birmingham, to the south, has seen spec-building aplenty, but generally at a lower price point.

With a budget of more than $6 million, the under-construction house at nearly 9,400 square feet and situated on more than an acre is slated for a whole host of highend features. at includes six bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms; a kitchen-adjacent scullery with a double-wall oven, a built-in Miele co ee maker and a double-drawer refrigerator; a four-car heated garage, and a gunite swimming pool with an attached spa.

With regard to the design of the home, a goal has been to get into “the nitty-gritty,” said Katie Rodriguez, a Birmingham-based interior designer with Katie Rodriguez Design. Part of that includes thinking about how a buyer and their friends and family might use the

home throughout the day, and about how to ensure there are places to plug in devices while concealing cords and other clutter.

“People want turn-key and ready-to-go,” Rodriguez said. “Someone buying at this price point has a busy life. is home should not be something they need to worry about.”

Only two other homes in the area have higher asking prices— both to the west in Bloom eld Township and seeking $10 million, according to a Crain’s analysis of current real estate listings.

Gutfreund, however, pointed out that many high-end homes are sold o market, meaning they’re

never listed publicly.

“I hope this sets the tone for where pricing is headed in the luxury realm. Luxury builders are not all alike. Some build good from far, but far from good,” Gutfreund wrote in an email to Crain’s. “Brandywine is a builder you can trust, he puts everything into his nal product and its backed by his quality guarantee.”

Correction

A pro le in our special section on 40 Under 40 added a word to Mark Nasr's company. He is general counsel for Sachse Construction and Broder Sachse Real Estate.

This rendering shows the plan for the spec house under construction in Bloom eld Hills. The builder is seeking a buyer to pay $7 million for what will be a turn-key property.

Loyola High School expanding campus

Sherri Welch

Loyola High School has broken ground on what will be the rst new Catholic chapel or church built in Detroit in more than half a century.

e 200-seat chapel is the centerpiece of a $9 million campaign launched by the private Catholic

school for boys on the city’s northwest side. e campaign will also fund construction of a new welcome center and student courtyard, scholarships and pay increases to help attract and retain teachers.

e goal is to cement the school’s presence in the high-poverty, under-served neighborhood

Car wash wars are nearing boiling point

Private equity is creating a race for space

yB Kirk Pinho

ere's a race right now in metro Detroit to see which car wash operators can wash away the competition. And private equity dollars are owing freely.

e rst El Car Wash location in suburban Detroit is expected to open in the spring. Construction has started at a Brighton Township location and in Madison Heights at a former Applebee's restaurant not far from Oakland Mall. Plans are also progressing at the site of an old Tim Horton's co ee shop on Woodward Avenue south of downtown Ferndale.

It's one of several car wash companies seeking to expand, along with South eld-based Jax Car

Wash and Holland-based Tommy's Express, both of which are planning several new ground-up locations in southeast Michigan.

El Car Wash, based in Miami, still plans about 50 locations around the region spanning between Lansing and Flint in spite of tough headwinds like increased costs of borrowing for construction as well as economic uncertainty.

" at's where we're heading.

e question is, how quickly can we get there," said Justin Landau, CEO of El Car Wash, in an interview this week. "It's just making sure that the quality remains high. It's probably the most uncertain of a consumer market we've seen in a couple years, but the di erence with us and a lot of

at Fenkell Avenue and Pinehurst Street, said President Dave Smith, who has led Loyola since 2019. While the projects underway will bene t the school and its students, they are also designed to bene t the neighborhood as well, he said.

During the pandemic, Loyola used its kitchen and commons

area to launch emergency distribution of more than 2,000 meals a week to help meet need in the area.

“We’re trying to reach out to more to the community with the new welcome center...and we have facilities we could make available to the community, if appropriate,” Smith said. “We’ve

tried to be good neighbors; we want to continue to do that. We’ve chosen to stay right here on this campus. is is where our young men are, and we’re looking forward to serving the families and sons that come to us here.”

Women leaders are on the rise in credit unions

Women CEOs lead 3 of 5 biggest in Michigan

yB Anna Fifelski

More than a year after announcing Tansley Stearns as its new president and CEO, Community Financial Credit Union appointed a new board chair, making the top three levels of leadership all women-led.

other types of businesses is time horizon."

Landau said El Car Wash's owner, the massive New York City-based private equity fund Warburg Pincus LLC, has taken a long-term view and not demanded the company expand quicker than the market will support.

It's an unusual makeup for a credit union: Only 35 percent of credit union board seats in 2023 are held by women, according to an analysis of National Credit Union Administration data conducted by Credit Union Times Magazine.

Teri Kuehn worked for CFCU for three years before being appointed as chair of the board. Before that, she served 26 years as a certied public accountant, working rst for Deloitte and later for Saint Joseph Mercy Health System.

“Early in my career as a certi ed public accountant, I was kind of on the other side of the board and I did a few presentations to boards and every time I did that, I was much younger and there were predominantly men around the table,” Kuehn said. “I remember seeing that and I remember thinking that someday this needs to be di erent. And here I am in that someday. So I mean it's taken thirty years to get there, but here we are.”

Women on the rise

While women lack representation in senior leadership positions across the board in all industries, research shows that organizations with greater gender diversity among its leaders are more pro table.

It is Detroit's rst new Catholic chapel in more than 50 years

El Car Wash, based in Miami, through a local developer has tied up around 50 sites for new car washes from Detroit to Flint to Lansing. | EL CAR WASH

Spooky season brings temporary storefront boost

It's that time again. In the last several weeks, surely you've noticed the deluge of Halloween-themed stores popping up around town as spooky season creeps upon us.

is year, there are several dozen Spirit Halloween and Halloween City shops catering to your costume needs — and lling landlords' bank accounts with cash, even if just on a temporary basis.

For short periods of time, the two competing retailers — which are based just a couple hours from each other in New Jersey — occupy tens of thousands of square feet each year, then fade away once Halloween passes.

Spirit Halloween's website lists

locations in Allen Park, Livonia, Canton Township, Taylor, Wyandotte, Madison Heights, Center Line, Troy, Farmington Hills, Novi, Roseville, Rochester Hills, Clinton Township, Utica, Shelby Township, Waterford Township, Ann Arbor, Chester eld Township, Brighton and Fenton.

e slightly less prevalent Halloween City — whose parent company is Party City Holdco Inc.

(NYSE: PRTY) — lists locations in Allen Park, Livonia, Westland, South eld, Taylor, Madison Heights, Farmington Hills, Novi, Roseville, Sterling Heights, Rochester Hills, Orion Township, Ann Arbor and Brighton. e company led for bankruptcy protection in January with

some $1.4 billion in liabilities and exited in September after shedding nearly $1 billion in debt. Among other things, in ation and di culty sourcing helium for balloons contributed to its bankruptcy ling this past winter, Reuters reported.

e National Retail Federation anticipates this year's Halloween spending bonanza to reach an alltime high of $12.2 billion, up 15.1% from last year's record of $10.6 billion. Per-person spending

is also expected to set a record of $108.24 each, up 5.3% from 2021's previous record of $102.74.

Emails were sent to both Spirit Halloween and Halloween City this morning seeking details about their commercial real estate strategy.

Spirit Halloween says it typically looks for short-term leases from about mid-July through mid-November as it builds out and breaks down the store. As for physical location, the company looks for ev-

erything ranging from free-standing stores to power and strip centers, malls and downtown retail locations. ey like to open in areas with 35,000-plus people within a three- to ve-mile radius and a tra c count of 25,000 cars per day.

Size? Five-thousand to 50,000 square feet.

" ... No store is too large (or too small)," Spirit Halloween's website says. Stay spooky, y'all.

Zo’s Good Burger poised to grow through franchising

A Dearborn-based burger business owner is expanding his business and giving more aspiring business owners a chance to join in.

Zo’s Good Burger, owned by Zo Olabi, is expanding with two new locations in Ann Arbor and Royal Oak. e stores will be franchisee-owned, Olabi told Crain's, and will be the sixth and seventh Zo's locationsin metro Detroit.

“I’ve been very successful taking my own money, making the risk my own, and going into new markets and opening locations,” the 37-year-old Dearborn resident said. “ e franchisee comes in when it’s a turnkey operation. I had to perfect a few things so I’d be con dent about doing this because I’m very protective of this business.”

Zo’s Good Burger currently has ve locations. Olabi owns restaurants in east Dearborn and Livonia. He sold the stores in Garden City, Detroit and Canton to franchisees over the last four years, but not before making close to a combined $1 million in updates to them.

e total investment for a Zo’s franchise is $180,000-$400,000, according to Olabi.

e move comes as Olabi celebrates 10 years in business. e original Good Burger operated out of a gas station at Ford Road and Wyoming near the Ford/Wyoming Drive-In.

e Ann Arbor and Royal Oak franchisees he has lined up are previous Zo’s store managers, and Olabi has helped each get nanc-

ing.

Ann Arbor franchisee Jacob Haidous has worked at Zo’s for the past ve years. He said Olabi’s commitment to the community made it easy to decide on becoming a franchisee.

“I’ve been inspired by (Olabi) and how much he invests in the community through fundraising, scholarships and more,” Haidous said in an email to Crain’s. “ is commitment, along with our unmatched attention to detail and customer service, has motivated me to enter the next phase of my career as a franchisee.”

Olabi has a blueprint for each of the future Zo’s locations.

Standalone restaurants will average 2,300-2,600 square feet. Small-format restaurants inside gas stations will be 900-1,100 square feet. Olabi said fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is pushing more restaurateurs and quick-service operators to evaluate their footprints and adjust.

“A lot has changed since COVID, with third-party delivery and things like that,” Olabi said. “It makes more sense now to focus on takeout and delivery because that dine-in element isn’t as critical as it used to be. You see a lot of companies opening up in smaller spaces, adding drive-through, focusing on carryout. at cuts a lot of costs, too, and that’s really huge these days.”

Olabi’s restaurants have performed well no matter the economic climate.

Each of the four traditional Zo’sGood Burger locations averages about $1.7 million in annual sales, Olabi said. He expects that to grow to about $2.4 million a year. e Livonia location, opened in late 2021 inside an Exxon gas station, last year pulled in about $680,000 in sales.

ose gures enticed Royal Oak franchisee and longtime Zo’s staer Mohammed Reda to join Olabi's business.

“I’ve been working with (Olabi) for several years and he’s always treated me like family,” Reda said in an email to Crain’s. “I wanted to take this next step in franchising because I truly believe in the business model of Zo’s Good Burger, the attention to detail, and the emphasis on customer service. is is what I want to do for a living.”

Olabi wasn’t always sure food service was right for him.

He is the son of Lebanese immigrants and the rst in his family to be born in the U.S. His father owned gas stations and car washes, and Olabi spent a lot of his younger years working with his dad.

Olabi earned a bachelor’s degree in human resources management and services from the University of Michigan-Dearborn and took a job with quality assurance business Quality Expeditors in

Dearborn as an operations manager.

In 2011, Olabi established a catering business, My Mother’s Kitchen, with his mom. ey used a kitchen inside a gas station in Dearborn near Ford Road and Oakman Boulevard where the rent was $300 a month.

“My mom did all the cooking because she’s just a good Lebanese cook. I handled all the business, got an LLC and everything,” Olabi said. “I had intended to turn it into Zo’s but my mom got sick so I had to speed up the process.

“It was rough early on. I had just had my son in 2013 and after we got started, there was a day where we had $19.50 in sales. It was bad, but I had to keep going I had to do this for my family. After that, we closed for a month that August and my brothers and I studied beef, met with butchers, sourced every ingredient. When we reopened that September, we made a push at all the local high schools and kind of blew up.”

Olabi believes Zo’s Good Burger will continue to explode.

He hopes to add ve more franchisees within the next year and 20 new locations across Michigan in the next three to ve years before he makes a national push.

“I’m being very careful about how I want to expand,” Olabi said. “ ere’s been some opportunities to do some things in Houston and Orlando, but I want to have build a strong base in Michigan rst.

“Seeing Good Burger go from a gas station run by someone with no restaurant experience to a franchise is a big deal. Now I want to take it worldwide.”

Kirk Pinho

Spirit Halloween has more than a dozen locations open in metro Detroit in 2023, according to its website. | SPIRIT HALLOWEEN

Jay Davis

Zo’s Good Burger, a 10-year-old independently-owned business, now offers franchising opportunities. The company, founded by Zo Olabi (right), currently has franchise locations in Livonia, Detroit and Canton. The investment into a Zo’s franchise ranges from $180,000 to $400,000. | ZO'S GOOD BURGER

Historic Boston-Edison mansion lists for $2.5M

A historic Detroit mansion hit the market ursday at an asking price of $2.5 million, among the most expensive listings in the city.

e Benjamin Siegel House on West Boston Boulevard in the historic Boston-Edison neighborhood o ers would-be buyers an opportunity to purchase a 110-year-old, 11,000-square-foot Italianate mansion designed by Albert Kahn that has had most major upkeep already undertaken.

“ e house has been well-preserved and well-maintained,” said Austin Black, the listing agent for the home with @Properties Christie’s International Real Estate in Detroit. “With these homes, there’s always work to be done. But the major, more expensive projects have been taken care of.”

e home is owned by the family of the late Dr. Devon Hoover, who was killed in his home in April in a still-unsolved incident. Records show that Hoover purchased the house in 2008 for $750,000.

In a message to Crain's on Wednesday, Hoover's brother-inlaw Lowell Herschberger re ected on the family's time in the home.

as passionate for the community and respectful of its rich history."

As a house designed by Kahn, the listing is sure to be in demand, according to Dan Austin, founder of Detroit history website Historic Detroit.

“Most of the home’s original grandeur remains, from ornate woodwork to plaster details,” Austin wrote in a text message to Crain’s. “ at is a major bonus and, as we see more interest in preserving historic properties and details, it’s sure to help the selling price.”

Completed around 1915, the home was built for the family of Benjamin Siegel, which owned the high-end department store B. Siegel. e store’s agship was on Woodward Avenue and State Street in downtown Detroit.

At one time, the chain had eight locations and its store near Livernois Avenue and Seven Mile Road helped give rise to the corridor’s nickname as “ e Avenue of Fashion,” according to Historic Detroit.

e B. Siegel chain eventually fell into bankruptcy in the 1980s and permanently closed in 1985.

newly-built greenhouse.

Estimating how deep a buyer pool there may be for such a property proves challenging, according to Black, the @Properties listing agent.

“ is is a unique property,” Black said. “ e homes I've sold in this kind of range, it's not usually a buyer that's actively looking for a house. It's a buyer that sees this opportunity and decides they want to make the purchase.”

Black pointed to the nearby mansion once owned by Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, in which he represented an out-ofstate buyer in 2017, as one such example.

Just a handful of homes in Detroit are listed with asking prices above $1 million, according to a Crain’s analysis of current listings.

at includes the aforementioned Kresge mansion next door and the Bishop Mansion in the Palmer

Woods neighborhood to the north. e latter was initially listed in May with an asking price of $9 million, but that price has since dropped to $7 million.

Given the dearth of such properties, Black said he looked to some homes along the east riverfront for comparable sales data, and noted that an appraiser might also view homes in communities such as the Grosse Pointes for comparison’s sake.

at included Devon Hoover speaking regularly about the restoration work he was doing, such as period-speci c paint colors as well as a fondness for Siegel family memorabilia.

"More than a house, this home was a work of art and labor of love for Devon," Herschberger wrote in a text message. "With it, he expressed his love for the community and the city of Detroit. We would love nothing more than for the next owner of the home to be just

e Siegel home in Boston-Edison includes a host of historic touches, as mentioned by Austin. at includes “stunning woodwork, marble, Pewabic tilework and superior materials to lavish paneling, muraled ceilings, stained glass and other dramatic elements,” according to the listing.

e home also includes seven bedrooms, four full bathrooms and two half bathrooms, as well as a two-bedroom, two-bathroom carriage house in the backyard above a three-stall garage.

Situated on 2 acres of land, the house is one of just two properties on that side of the block, located just to the west of the Kresge mansion. A large backyard includes a

The main living room of the Albert Kahn-designed Benjamin Siegel House in Detroit, currently for sale for $2.5 million. SItuated on two acres, the house includes a new greenhouse in the backyard and a lavish master bath. STYLISH

yB Nick Manes

“This home was a work of art and labor of love for Devon.”

Lowell Herschberger, brother-in-law of the late Dr. Devon Hoover

Build on success at Detroit Metropolitan Airport

Anice piece of positive news was delivered to Detroit Metropolitan Airport last month.

J.D. Power ranked it No. 1 for traveler satisfaction among the largest airports in North America.

e survey result didn’t get a lot of attention when it was announced. Perhaps that’s because Metro also earned the honor in 2019.

But we think it’s worth drawing more attention to this recognition. Let’s face it: Not every day does something in Detroit get such positive, widespread acclaim.

Beyond the public relations aspect, in a time when economic development in the city and reversing the state’s population stagnation are viewed as vital to our future, having a well-functioning, highly regarded airport can be a crucial asset to the region’s success.

Certainly, if it had a better public transit connection into the city, such as a direct rail link, the airport could serve as an important catalyst for Detroit’s growth, which in turn would bene t the entire region.

To recap, DTW earned top honors in the “mega” airport division, de ned as those that serve 33 million or more passengers per year. Finishing second and third were Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport and Harry Reid International Airport near Las Vegas.

e survey graded airports on factors such as terminal facilities, baggage claim, security check, and food and beverage.

COMMENTARY

An important hub for Delta Air Lines, Detroit Metro is by far Michigan’s largest airport with about 800 ights per day to and from more than 125 nonstop destinations, including to Asia and Europe.

DTW is easy to navigate and generally well-maintained. Indeed, as the J.D. Power survey results show, it has a lot of good going for it. But it could be even better.

For one, who can forget how the main access road to the McNamara Terminal, the airport’s largest, was forced to close

following a heavy rain in August? e situation caused a mess for travelers, forcing the cancellation and delay of numerous ights and, frankly, was an embarrassment for the Wayne County Airport Authority that operates Metro.

Everyone understands cancellations from major weather events that force the grounding of aircraft, but a rst-rate airport should have access and stormwater drainage that can handle a heavy rain.

While that rain event may have been an

anomaly, DTW’s lack of a dedicated rail link to downtown prevents the airport from reaching its full potential as a driver of the region’s economic prosperity. Growing cities such as Atlanta, Denver and Dallas have rail service to their airports.

Yes, there is bus service to and from Metro. But a dedicated trail line, unimpeded by highway tra c, would be a signi cant enhancement, especially for business travelers and tourists. Of course, such an improvement would take years to develop.

For now, we can appreciate the recognition bestowed on Detroit Metropolitan Airport — and begin to imagine how much more it could become.

Crain’s Power Breakfasts inform and engage

At our most recent Crain’s Power Breakfast, reporter

Kurt Nagl interviewed a panel of experts about electric vehicles in front of a packed room at the Detroit Athletic Club.

e hourlong discussion ew by as experts from a variety of sectors — from suppliers to battery makers to academia — o ered their insights.

Kurt couldn’t possibly get to all of the audience questions within the time allotted and dozens of people stayed afterward to talk with him, members of the panel and each other.

It was a classic Crain’s Power Breakfast.

Come for the presentation, stay for the engagement. Or, for some, perhaps it was the other way around, as networking time is o ered before the programming begins as well.

A similar scene played out two weeks earlier in Grand Rapids.

ere, at Meijer Gardens just northeast of town, the discussion centered on mental health in the workplace. Our expert panel o ered helpful, timely advice geared toward business leaders.

Once again, even though it was a full discussion, complete with audience questions, people remained afterward to talk with the panel members and converse with each other before moving on with their day.

I attended my rst Power Breakfast in March, just two months after I joined Crain Communications, when we held Women Who Mean Business events in Detroit and Grand Rapids.

e panel discussion at each breakfast was riveting in its own way, with moments of humor, poignancy and inspiration. I realized then that Crain’s Power Breakfasts are a form of live journalism, complete with sharing stories, o ering insights and building community.

I have the good fortune of meeting and talking with our experts before they take the stage. In many cases, they don’t know each other before we invite them to join a Crain’s panel to discuss a given topic. ere they are at 7:15 in the morning, sharing coffee and business cards, getting to know one another before o ering their knowledge and wisdom to a room full of people.

Our next Power Breakfast in Detroit is

ursday, Oct. 12, at the DAC where the topic will be arti cial intelligence. I will do a brief on-stage interview with Ravi Pendse, the vice president for information technology and chief information o cer at the University of Michigan. We will follow that conversation with a panel of Detroit business leaders who will share how they are using AI within their companies and keeping up with the rapidly developing technology.

On Nov. 8 in Grand Rapids, the Crain’s

Power Breakfast will explore the 2024 outlook for the commercial real estate market in West Michigan. at program will feature a conversation with Kara Wood, the executive director of Grand Action 2.0, which is leading the charge for a downtown amphitheater, followed by a panel of industry experts.

Both events will be interesting and enlightening, of that I am certain. Come for the information, stay for the engagement. e other way around works well, too.

LAURÉN ABDEL-RAZZAQ

Mickey Ciokajlo is executive editor of Crain's Detroit Business and Crain's Grand Rapids Business.

The Crain’s Power Breakfast events offer insights and opportunities for building community. | BRETT MOUNTAIN

“Let’s face it: Not every day does something in Detroit get such positive, widespread acclaim.”

Sustainability is good for beer and good for the economy

For more than three decades, Bell’s Brewery has understood that operating sustainably is critical for the long-term resilience of our business. From the geothermal energy system installed under our hop yard to our process water treatment facility which converts brewing byproducts into renewable energy, many of the wisest decisions we have made over the years are those which lowered our environmental impact while also lowering our operating costs. is is not a revolutionary concept –but rather the playbook used by leaders in each and every industry.

So, we are not surprised to nd that public policy designed to ght climate change is bringing signicant economic gains to Michigan and its residents, businesses and communities.

is summer, sti ing heat waves and the lingering specter of wild re smoke have brought the massive

COMMENTARY

economic and public health burdens of climate change to our door, and the science makes it clear they will only worsen if left unchecked. However, the growing e orts to ght it have also brought significant economic opportunity to the state, powering a manufacturing boom and thousands of new good-paying jobs, while the expansion of clean energy promises to reduce utility costs for households and businesses alike.

With its strong industrial legacy and ingenuity, Michigan is extremely well positioned to capture much of this new investment. In fact, it already has: In just the last year, Michigan has welcomed more than $8 billion in planned investments to manufacture electric vehicles, batteries and other clean energy technologies. e federal In ation Reduction Act has supercharged this surge in investment, as has the state’s ambitious commitment to reduce climate pollution e ectively

Save pharmacy bene ts that keep drug costs low

Striking the balance between meeting the interests of a business and its employees isn’t always easy, but getting it right is crucial to fostering a strong economy here in Michigan. One of the most pressing challenges employers across our state face is nding quality health care and prescription drug coverage that’s a ordable – for their business and their employees.

For more than 40 years, the Economic Alliance for Michigan has been proud to advocate on behalf of the more than 900,000 Michigan employers and workers that keep Michigan’s economy strong. It’s clear from this work that both businesses and employees depend on pharmacy bene ts to hold down health care and prescription drug costs – and we need our lawmakers to make protecting the checks and balances of pharmaceutical costs, provided by pharmacy bene t managers, a priority in 2023.

When it comes to supporting Michigan’s manufacturers and small businesses many employers have decided that partnering with pharmacy bene t managers to provide pharmacy bene ts is essential for o ering customized and cost-e ective health care options to their workforce.

ere shouldn’t be a one-sizets-all approach to health care – for employers or their employees. We should recognize that there’s a big di erence between the business model of a big auto manufacturer

eliminating it by 2050, all while creating good jobs and improving public health in the process.

Building clean energy technology is one thing. Deploying it is another. But it turns out that Michigan can bene t even more from the clean energy boom if it adopts additional state policies that would equitably and a ordably accelerate the state’s transition to clean power. Beyond the notion that the state would be doing its part to reduce pollution that is unsafely warming the planet and threatening untold economic damage to business facilities, infrastructure, workforces and commerce, recent research has found that a set of policies currently under consideration in the state legislature would be the very solution to ushering signi cant investment into the state. Policies outlining a

shift to 100% clean energy, the infrastructure to deliver it and more ambitious energy waste reduction targets. would result in double the amount of federal funding from the In ation Reduction Act for the state of Michigan, while creating another 160,000 new jobs, and nearly $150 of annual energy cost savings for every household.

At Bell’s, we recognize the potential for meaningful progress is right in front us. We’ve prioritized this work even further with initiatives like the release of our newest beer – Lager for the Lakes – an easy drinking lager bringing awareness and action to the need to protect and preserve access to clean water, as well as the formalization of our grassroots grants program – a philanthropic giving program which has already resulted in over $200,000 distributed to

organizations focused on water conservation.

However, some people still nd it hard to believe that we can take on the rapidly escalating challenges of climate change while growing the economy and reducing costs for Michiganders. But, having seen the positive business effects of operating sustainably since the day we brewed our rst batch in Kalamazoo, we are now witnessing a potent mix of public policy and private investment bringing similar bene ts to the entire economy. We applaud our lawmakers for bringing forth – and we urge them to pass – the ambitious legislation before them and double up on the state’s enormous potential as a climate and clean energy leader.

After all, good business – and good beer – depend on it.

compared to a startup with three employees. Employers, big and small, need the exibility to build health plans that meet the unique needs of their workforce. Policies that protect these choices allow business owners to better manage overhead, create jobs, and e ectively grow their businesses. It should go without saying that employers also want healthy and happy employees. at means that if a pharmacy isn’t meeting an employer’s standard of excellence, they should be able to exclude it from their network. A study by the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy found that one in ve prescriptions lled in the U.S. involves an error of some kind.

Even more egregious are pharmacists around the country who commit prescription fraud, waste, and abuse in their practice – which we have seen here in Michigan as recently as last year. Employers should not be forced to direct their employee health plan dollars to pharmacies not working in their patients’ best interest and putting their health at risk. For Michigan to continue growing, we hope lawmakers will join us by working to strengthen the partnership between businesses and their employees. As we help businesses grow, hire, and raise wages across our state, let’s stay focused on making sure they have the tools they need to hold down prescription drug costs by protecting pharmacy bene ts.

Carrie Yunker is executive vice president of Bell's Brewery.

Bret Jackson is president of the Economic Alliance for Michigan.

Executive pleads guilty to falsifying mortgage forms

An executive at Bloom eld Hills-based apartment company Roco Real Estate LLC faces up to ve years in federal prison after pleading guilty last week to conspiring to commit an o ense against the United States when he and others submitted falsi ed nancial documents for properties to lenders.

Tyler Ross, 37, who now lives in California, and unidenti ed co-conspirators within the company allegedly sent lenders documents in ating the net operating income of properties they owned in 2017, 2018 and 2019 in connection with loans the company was attempting to secure or re nance, the U.S. Department of Justice says in federal court lings.

Ross, the great-grandson of Edward Rose, founder of Bloom eld Hills-based apartment giant Edward Rose & Sons, also faces up to a $250,000 ne and up to three years of supervised release. He is scheduled to be sentenced March 12.

A statement from Roco says Ross "has voluntarily taken an inde nite leave of absence."

e company and Ross' Detroit-based attorney, Mark Kriger, partner for LaRene & Kriger PLC, said on Saturday morning that Roco made its loan payments on time and lenders a ected by Ross' actions did not incur a nancial loss; the government's plea agree-

ment also says no loss was incurred and there was no intended loss. Kriger also said there was also "never a risk to the bank the payments would not be made."

"Tyler has acknowledged his error, assumed responsibility, and has entered into a resolution with the government," the Roco statement reads. It also says the company "implemented an enhanced compliance program and nancial information policy (in 2019) to ensure that such errors are not repeated."

Roco's statement continued: "Once ROCO learned of the quarterly lender reporting accounting error, those involved were removed from their duties."

Court documents say Ross and an unnamed co-conspirator, also a Roco executive, submitted doctored reports to lenders to make it appear as though some of their apartment properties were nancially performing better than they actually were.

ey did that, prosecuting attorneys say, by in ating net operating incomes, or NOIs, and debt service coverage ratios, or DSCRs, as part of ongoing reporting requirements to existing lenders as well as to prospective lenders when seeking re nancing.

Charging documents say that, among other things, Ross and his co-conspirator would do things in trailing 12-month nancial reports — referred to as T12s — such

as delete or reduce expenses properties incurred, including things including cable TV; sewer; cleaning, painting and drywall contractors; some employee wages; travel; o ce supplies; computer costs; marketing, and trash collection.

Other ways of doctoring the documents included arti cially in ating revenue gures for such item as late rent charges. ey would also leave out rent concessions and adjustments, court documents say.

Manipulating those numbers would give lenders inaccurate views of how the apartment complexes were performing.

“Honest nancial reporting is the foundation of our banking and lending system,” Dawn Ison, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, said in a news release. “My o ce will not hesitate to prosecute those who lie in order to engage in nancial crimes, regardless of the titles they may have.”

Crain's reached out to the Justice Department for details on the co-conspirators.

Along with brothers Michael Colman and David Colman — the "Co" in "Roco" to Ross' "Ro" — Ross helped grow the company from a modest 1,800 units not long after it was founded in June 2011 to ultimately to a more than 21,000-unit portfolio that landed it on the coveted National Multifamily Housing Council's Top 50 list of apartment owners.

Today, the company's website says it has a total of 28 apartment complexes — 23 in Michigan, four in Ohio and one in Mississippi.

In 2019, Roco cashed out of more than 10,000 units across 55 properties in a $500 million-plus sale to secretive New York Citybased investor Joseph Chetrit. He bought Roco complexes in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.

At least part of that portfolio began to go sour for Chetrit Group.

e Real Deal, citing data from New York City-based Trepp LLC, reported in January that Chetrit defaulted on a $481 million commercial mortgage-backed securities loan used to nance the acquisition of 43 of the Roco properties. e loan entered special servicing last year for maturity default as Chetrit grappled with what e Real Deal called "weak revenue streams and highernancing costs. "

Federal court documents say there are disagreements between federal prosecutors and Ross' legal team "as to whether certain additional conduct relating to the provision of false T12s in connection with the sale of Roco property in 2019" should be considered when determining sentencing guidelines. e documents do not specically identify which sale is in question.

Munson Healthcare plans $50M Traverse City expansion

Munson Healthcare plans to invest more than $50 million to restructure its eight-hospital health system.

e Traverse City-based system plans to reduce o erings at four of its hospitals while expanding services at three hospitals in a threeyear transformation. No jobs will be impacted by the move, CEO Ed Ness said, calling it a rightsizing of care to meet patient demand and alleviate sta ng woes.

“COVID accelerated the in ection point we were headed toward,” Ness told Crain’s. “We, in Northern Michigan, are not immune to those trends. It’s made a di cult labor market more dicult and had an impact on our resources. And the shift to outpatient care continues all while reimbursement hasn’t kept up with in ationary factors," he said.

e company has more than 700 openings across its system.

As part of the reorganization, Munson is going to expand its out-

patient services footprint and enhance virtual care through investments, while reducing some in-patient services at its more rural hospitals.

Munson is reducing services at its hospitals in Charlevoix, Grayling, Manistee and Frankfort.

ose hospitals will now be community hospitals, focused on more outpatient services and limited inpatient care. e inpatient care, which will remain for observation, will be reduced to focus on less acuity patients, moving patients with more complex issues to its hospitals in Traverse City, Cadillac or Gaylord.

Ness said the system will invest in more primary care and outpatient resources at its community hospitals, where 85% of care is already done in an outpatient setting. Ness said wait times for primary care and neurology appointments in those communities have been too long due to sta ng shortages, and restructuring its operations should improve this.

“Our patients want better access, more convenient access,” Ness said. “We need better coordination throughout our system.”

Otsego Memorial Hospital in Gaylord and Cadillac Hospital will become regional hospitals, o ering a higher level of acuity and inpatient care than the community hospitals.

Munson Medical Center in Traverse City, its largest and most advanced hospital, will expand services to include stroke, cardiology and increased critical care, Ness

said.

Earlier this month, Matt Wille, president and CEO of the Munson Medical Center, departed the role to become the COO of edaCare in Wisconsin. While the system searches for a replacement, Kathy LaRaia, Munson Healthcare’s vice president of oncology and professional services, will serve as interim president.

e entire health care system will also transition to one electronic health record system in 2024. at e ort should make the

system more e cient and better the patient experience, the company said in a press release.

Rural health care has been suffering for years in the U.S. More than 100 rural hospitals closed between 2013 and 2020, according to government data.

Rural hospitals usually rely more heavily on Medicare and Medicaid than more urban hospitals and have su ered reimbursements not rising alongside the costs of care and wage increases.

Larger, more urban systems absorb the rising costs with large investment portfolios and ancillary businesses that can de ect some of the loses from health care.

Unpro table rural hospitals often merge with health systems, helping them stay open but also increasing the likelihood of price hikes for services.

“ is is really about making a stable organization,” Ness said. “Part of that is having the resources to be able to sta these locations correctly and o er the right services.”

The Roco Real Estate LLC of ce is located in the Governor’s Place of ce building in Bloom eld Hills. | COSTAR GROUP

Tyler Ross

yB Dustin Walsh

Munson Healthcare, based in Traverse City, plans to reduce offerings at four of its hospital while expanding services at three hospitals in a three-year transformation. | MUNSON HEALTHCARE

After 18 months, 2 nonpro ts merge into MiSide

Southwest Solutions and Development Center have completed a merger 18 months in the making and taken on a new name.

e new nonpro t is operating as MiSide Community Impact Network.

“By coming together we feel like we are forming something new, not just continue the legacy of the older organizations,” said Southwest Solutions CEO Sean de Four, who is leading the merged nonpro t.

Catherine Liesman, CEO of Development Center, will support the integration of the two Detroit-based organizations as a part-time consultant before retiring at the end of the year.

e combined organization, with an annual budget of $55 million, will redirect people visiting its former websites to miside. org. ough some of its 400 combined employees will be reassigned to other roles to avoid duplication, none will be let go, de Four said.

ere were three advantages the pair saw to coming together, he said. e combined organization will provide more sustainability for the nonpro t, something especially important among behavioral health providers, de Four said.

It will also have greater in uence, with locations in every City Council district in the city of Detroit, just becoming together, he said. “We think that will give us greater in uence over attracting resources to Detroit and policy decisions on behalf of vulnerable citizens in the city.”

A third advantage is in the integrated service model that will

help treat all the needs of an individual seeking help, de Four said. MiSide is operating with four main service lines run through four subsidiaries:

MiHealth: Providing behavioral health services to veterans, homeless individuals and children, youth and families with severe mental illness.

◗ MiEarlyYears: e specialty Development Center brought to the partnership provides education, child care and developmental support for children up to 5 years old and their families.

MiHousing: To develop and manage a ordable housing for low- to moderate-income people in Detroit.

MiWealth: Providing adult education, job skills training and employment assistance and programs centered on nancial literacy and wealth building, including home buying and foreclosure prevention.

“People are not one-dimensional and neither are their problems,” de Four said. “ ey may come to us for behavioral health, but they actually need workforce development and quality housing. What we’re trying to do is actually treat the person, not just problems they come to us with.”

MiSide will serve nearly 25,000 people in metro Detroit each year.

“Funders have been ecstatic about this,” de Four said. “ ey see the value proposition, and they want to support it ...What we often hear is they are surprised more nonpro ts aren’t doing this.”

Nonpro ts change names to re ect broader mission

Two prominent nonpro ts in the region have changed their names to re ect the broader communities they now serve.

e organization founded as the Arab American and Chaldean Council 44 years ago is now operating as America’s Community Council.

“ACC has never turned its back on any client. is name change is not an aesthetic change; it is a reection of our DNA since our inception,” said COO Odie Fakhouri. e nonpro t once served Arab Americans eeing unrest in the Middle East, he said. Now it responds to the needs of refugees and immigrants from all over the world, including most recently, those eeing the Afghan and Ukrainian crises.

Its campus at 7 Mile Road and John R Street in Detroit also serves a mix of diverse communities, he said.

“We want to make sure that whether you are Black, Italian or Middle Eastern, you can look up at the name and feel included and feel like this place is yours.”

Additionally, the name change is a re ection of its employee diversity, Fakhouri said.

“We want everyone to believe in the mission they signed up to work towards, and that is to help provide core human needs to all people,” including food, health care and employment and training.

New name, broader vision

Over in Oakland County, the former Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit has also changed its name, rebranding as e J. e new name re ects its expansion from a single building in West Bloom eld in recent years to a platform for Jewish life, with programs delivered online and in other places in the community like co ee shops and synagogues. It comes as the organization builds a new community center for adults and families in Berkley, which is set to open in the next 15 months as part of an e ort to meet families where they are living, the organization said in a release.

e organization has signed a lease for 8,000-10,000 square feet

of space in the former Wedding Shoppe location on Woodward Avenue, between 11 Mile Road and Catalpa Drive and another space in the same strip mall, a spokeswoman for the nonpro t said.

e Berkley location will bring back a second location for e J eight years after it closed its Oak Park center as it faced a $6 million de cit. e nonpro t has returned to stable nancial ground since then. Last year, it reported a $2.7 million operating excess on $11.4 million in total revenue and net assets/fund balances of more than $24 million.

It o ers programs that are open to Jewish and non-Jewish people alike. ey include programs focused on culture and education, seniors, children and families, sports leagues and tness center o erings.

“ e J has a long and impressive history in our community, and we are no longer solely dependent on our building for providing the important programming and services which keep the community strong, vibrant and connected,” CEO Brian Siegel said in a release.

Wealth management company makes new Ohio acquisition

Gries Financial Partners, a Cleveland-based investment and wealth management company managed by Lansing-based 4100 Group Inc, has acquired Capital Portfolio Advisors located in Dayton, Ohio.

e deal was nalized Sept. 29.

e 4100 Group Inc. is the investment arm of a joint venture between Delta Dental of Michigan and Delta Dental of Ohio. It initially focused on making later-stage equity investments primarily in the nancial services sector and has been seeking add-on or tuckin acquisitions to complement

those holdings.

With its expansion in Ohio fullled, Gries Financial is now setting its sights on expanding in Michigan. e company opened an ofce in Detroit in 2021 and is ready to make more acquisitions, Gries Financial CEO Rob Herman said.

4100 acquired Gries Financial in June 2020 after several years of discussion, Herman said.

“People know the 4100 group and what they're trying to accomplish,” Herman said. “ ey also understand the values the 4100 group has, which makes our job easier because we have common culture and common values … we're really

focused on Michigan moving forward and looking for people, potential acquisitions and growth in Michigan. So we're very excited about that and that's something that's really started to grow with our business presence in Michigan.”

Gries Financial opened its Detroit o ce due to the number of Michigan clients they service and to build a larger Midwest pro le, Herman said. It has approximately $2 billion in assets under management and advises 500 clients throughout the United States.

“For people to feel comfortable in Michigan going with a rm that was founded in Ohio, you need to

have people on the ground that espouse our values and service intensive culture we have,” Herman said.

While Herman declined to disclose the formal terms of the acquisition of Capital Portfolio Advisors, he shared that the company has $100 million in assets under management and the former owner, Dennis Delphenich, will be leading the southwestern Ohio branch of clients.

e acquisition created another role. Bill Caster, the former senior vice president and managing director of Fifth ird Private Bank in northeastern Ohio, has stepped in as the new president of Gries Fi-

nancial.

Formed to invest in nancial, medical and opportunistic companies in Michigan and the greater Midwest, 4100 has rotated businesses through its portfolio since its inception in 2014. Currently, the company has 20 holdings throughout the U.S., ve of which are in Michigan: Red Cedar Investment Management, in Grand Rapids; Dewpoint, in Lansing; SPDx, Root Functional Medicine and HealthBridge, in Grand Rapids and Genomenon, in Ann Arbor. Other holdings include companies in Ohio, New York, Washington, Colorado, California and more.

yB Anna Fifelski

Sherri Welch

Afghan, Ukrainian and Middle Eastern refugees attend a recent event hosted by America’s Community Council. | AMERICA’S COMMUNITY COUNCIL

yB Sherri Welch

Sean de Four

“People are not one-dimensional and neither are their problems.”

Sean de Four, CEO, MiSide

LG Energy to invest $3B in Mich. EV battery deal

yB Kurt Nagl

LG Energy Solution will invest an additional $3 billion in Michigan to supply Toyota Motor North America Inc. with lithium-ion battery modules for electric vehicles, the companies announced Wednesday.

e $3 billion expansion is in addition to the $1.7 billion, 1.7 million-square-foot expansion LG is undertaking at its existing manufacturing campus in Holland in West Michigan.

LG said it will establish new production lines for battery cells and modules dedicated to the automaker, with production starting in 2025. e battery modules will be supplied at an annual capacity of 20GWh at the South Korean battery giant's plant in Holland.

An LG Energy spokesman declined to provide details beyond the news release.

"LGES’s agreement with Toyota, and resulting investment in its Holland facility, cements this region as a leader in battery manufacturing — a reputation earned by dozens of West Michigan companies that make up this region’s battery manufacturing cluster," Jennifer Owens, president of the Lakeshore Advantage economic development organization, said in a written statement. " is type of investment sets us up to be successful, together, as a region that’s on the map as a place that is future-focused, ripe with opportunity and a magnet for talent."

e battery modules made on

the new lines will be shipped to Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky, where they will be assembled into battery packs and installed in battery electric vehicles.

"Today’s announcement that LG Energy Solution and Toyota are partnering up to power electric vehicles in America right here in Michigan rea rms our strategy to Make It in Michigan by building a landscape that encourages global investment while creating opportunities for people and communi-

ties across our state," Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement. "Together, we can continue growing our economy, creating good-paying jobs, and further cement Michigan as the global epicenter of the next revolution of the automotive industry.”

e deal marks a big win for LG Energy, which has already teamed with automakers including Honda and General Motors Co., which has three Ultium Cells battery plants with LG Energy, including one near

Lansing. It also marks a departure from the battery producer's prior EV business models, which are generally arranged as joint ventures with automakers. e deal with Toyota is LG's largest single supply agreement secured outside of a JV.

"We're excited to have Toyota, the best-selling global automaker, as our new customer," Youngsoo Kwon, CEO of LG Energy, said in the release. " e agreement also presents another big opportunity for us to strengthen our produc-

tion capacity in North America, thereby bringing more real-life, large-scale progress toward electri cation in the region."

Crain's inquired with the Michigan Economic Development Corp. about what incentives the company will potentially be seeking for expansion and how many jobs it is expected to create.

Crain's Grand Rapids Business reporter Kate Carlson and Crain's Detroit Business reporter David Eggert contributed to this report.

First nurses accepted into joint program will get free tuition

A new bachelor’s degree nursing completion program o ered by University of Detroit Mercy and Macomb Community College will provide free tuition to the rst two cohorts.

Associate Degree Nurses, including recent graduates and those already working professionally, are eligible to apply for the program, which is aimed at helping to address the shortage of health care professionals in the region.

It will provide an accelerated pathway to earn a Bachelor of Nursing degree in one year for those attending full-time or two years for those going part-time.

e program is supported by a $2 million grant from the State of Michigan ADN to BSN Completion Grant Program.

“We’re deeply appreciative of Detroit Mercy’s partnership and their commitment to fostering a home in our community for the BSN completion program,” James O. Sawyer IV, president of Macomb Community College, said in a release.

“ e excellence of Detroit Mercy’s nursing programs, variety of course formats and dedicated sta and resources located at Macomb create an incredible combination of support for our community’s associate degree nurses to earn their

bachelor’s degree.”

Health systems are all saying the same thing, said UDM President Donald “DT” Taylor. ey can recruit and retain physicians, but since the pandemic, they are challenged to do the same for every other specialty within a hospital setting, from nursing to respiratory therapists and x-ray technicians.

“ is important partnership represents a critical strategic step for the university in helping to ll the critical workforce needs within the nursing eld,” said Taylor, who forged similar, bachelor’s degree nursing completion programs with community colleges near Chicago before joining the Detroit-based university.

“We should learn a lot from this.

e success of this program should be a springboard to allow us to do other (bachelor completion) programs. at’s been my experience in other states,” he said.

Alleviating health care shortages

UDM was chosen to provide the state-subsidized bachelor’s degree nursing completion program through a request for proposal process Taylor mentioned in March as one of several strategies the university is working on to help alleviate health care talent shortages in the region.

e joint BSN completion program will be headquartered at the Macomb University Center on Macomb Community College’s Center Campus in Clinton Township with in-person classes o ered there along with advising, career services, nancial aid and mental health counseling. UDM will have a faculty coordinator housed there and Macomb will provide a grants coordinator, said Janet Baiardi, dean of the UDM College of Health Professions and McAuley School of Nursing.

e program’s rst cohort of 1215 students will start in January, and the second cohort will start in August 2024. Both will have their tuition covered. at totals about $13,500 for those attending fulltime. Graduates of Macomb Community College will be given prior-

ity, Baiardi said.

Coursework will be comprised of seven-week courses in 15-week semesters, with classes o ered in face-to-face, online and hybrid formats. Students will be required to do a clinical practicum at the end of the program.

Many students will already be working in a health setting and could do their clinical practicum there or at other health sites UDM works with, Baiardi said.

“It’s about how (they) expand that knowledge and develop their own professional skills and explore new avenues around leadership, clinical practices and community-based care.”

ose interested in participating in the program will need to apply for admission to UDM and meet

university requirements that include an overall GPA of 2.5. Candidates must have earned an ADN and hold an unencumbered nursing license in the State of Michigan. e collaboration marks a return to the cohort model UDM o ered at area hospitals from the early 2000s until 2017, Baiardi said.

It also marks a return to Macomb’s University Center where it o ered the BSN completion program up until about 2018 when it pulled out following enrollment declines, Baiardi said.

e former program at Macomb was more of an in-seat program with weekly course meetings, she said. e new program is focused on the adult learner and the need for exibility.

“Adult learners bring a broad array of practice knowledge,” she said, noting the courses in this completion program are geared to that and will include more casebased studies and integrated learning.

Between that and the exible format, “We believe it speaks to working adults” and will provide them with more professional opportunities, Baiardi said.

ere’s also a bene t for health systems.

“ ere’s evidence that hospitals with higher levels of baccalaureate nurses have better outcomes,” she said.

LG Energy Solution Michigan is expanding its campus in Holland on Michigan’s west side as part of a deal with Toyota. LG ENERGY SOLUTION MICHIGAN

Sherri Welch

University of Detroit Mercy President Donald B. Taylor talks to a class of master’s degree Entry Advanced Generalist Nursing program students at the Novi campus. | QUINN BANKS

Great Lakes Growth forms to ght ‘anti-business’ bills

B David Eggert

LANSING — Four major business groups have formed a new coalition to ght bills they say are anti-business and anti-growth, urging the Democratic-led Michigan Legislature tonot rush to pass them in what could be an abbreviated fall session.

Great Lakes Growth was announced Wednesday by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, the Michigan Manufacturers Association, the Detroit Regional Chamber and the Grand Rapids Chamber. e goal, the organizations' lobbyists said, is to have a uni ed, clear voice against four measures as well as an umbrella group that continues on future issues.

e legislation would mandate family and medical paid leave, drastically boost clean electricity requirements, limit the "misclassication" of independent contractors and let municipalities set local minimum wages, bene t levels and other workplace rules.

"We use the word 'growth' in our coalition in our name, and that's because we do share the governor's vision for growing Michigan's population and making Michigan a place that everyone wants to call home. But we are increasingly concerned that the pol-

icies being pushed in Lansing are putting Michigan's path to economic and population at risk," said Wendy Block, the Michigan Chamber's senior vice president of business advocacy.

Block said there seems to be a "mad rush" to approve bills before legislators adjourn in late October or early November. ey typically are in session into December but may break early for a couple of reasons: to ensure that a law moving

the 2024 presidential primary earlier takes e ect on time and because two House Democrats will resign if they win November mayoral races. Democrats have a slim 56-54 edge in the House and could not approve legislation on their own until the Democratic seats are lled in 2024.

"Our ask of lawmakers is, 'Don't rush. Slow down. Listen to both sides. Seek to understand the impacts,'" Block said. "Our goal with the Great Lakes Growth coalition is

to provide a counterweight to those driving these conversations to create an avenue for the business community to make their voice heard and to build public awareness and to showcase the unintended consequences of the harmful proposals pending in Lansing."

Brad Williams, the Detroit chamber's vice president of government relations, said "the volume of issues" that members are calling about led the groups to create the coalition.

Mike Johnston, executive vice president of government a airs and workforce development for the Michigan Manufacturers Association, noted the Democrats' thin majorities in both chambers. (It is 20-18 in the Senate.)

"We're coming together to help capture the reasonable thought. Let's talk to those who really do care about the future of Michigan's economy and let's get people together in the middle to say what's right for Michigan," he said.

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has speci cally urged legislators this fall to pass paid leave and energy bills, among other measures. She and other Democrats have contended that paid leave helps small businesses attract and retain workers and that clean energy is an economic driver, too.

"As the world is racing to win the future of jobs and manufacturing, Michigan is at an in ection point. We can either stick our head in the sand and pursue the Michigan Chamber's same failed economic policies that led to jobs being shipped overseas or we can revive American manufacturing, bring jobs home for the rst time in decades and make our state competitive once again," Whitmer spokesperson Stacey LaRouche said of the coalition's opposition.

LaRouche pointed to the governor's policies that have business support: establishing a council to grow the population, cutting taxes for low-income workers and seniors, funding college scholarships and proposing a comprehensive economic development strategy.

Asked about the business lobby's criticism, Senate Economic and Community Development Committee Chair Mallory McMorrow, a Royal Oak Democrat, said Republicans were in charge in some form for the past 40 years as population declined.

" is is a new majority. We are leading in a di erent way," she said. "But we are doing it so that we are attracting new workers, bringing new people into the state so that we stem the losses that we've had for the past few decades."

Brewers collaborate to elevate Hispanic, Latino beer makers

yB Abby Poirier

City Built Brewing Co. in Grand Rapids aims to elevate Hispanic and Latino brewers with a new collaborative beer project it’s launching in partnership with a Detroit brewery.

City Built CEO Edwin Collazo, whose grandparents immigrated to America from Puerto Rico, said the Mi Gente collaboration will tell the stories of Latino and Hispanic brewers, sharing their contributions to the brewing industry and highlighting their communities.

Mi Gente, which translates as “my people,” grew out of Collazo’s friendship with Eric Plata, the production manager at Detroit-based Batch Brewing Co.

e collaborators aim for the rst beer to be released later this month.

“We’ve been talking about doing a beer collaboration for like two or three years that highlighted Latinos and Hispanic brewers and the contributions that they’re making to the industry,” Collazo told Crain’s Grand Rapids Business.

“ is is something that we had been working on and the timing wasn’t always great until recently.

Collazo and Plata are launching the rst Mi Gente collaboration.

e brew, a West Coast IPA, will debut in taprooms at City Built and Batch Brewing on Oct. 27, followed by a launch at the Michigan Brewers Guild 14th Annual Detroit Fall Beer Festival on Oct. 28.

Mi Gente will also give back to the community, an important part

of the collaboration. City Built plans to donate a portion of the proceeds from sales of the beer to the Grand Rapids Community Foundation’s Somos Comunidad Fund. e fund, established in 2022, is Latino-led and -focused, o ering resources to support racial, social and economic justice within Latinx communities in West Michigan. Batch Brewing plans to donate a portion of the proceeds from Mi Gente to the Detroit Hispanic Development Corp.

“It’s been immensely rewarding to work on this project and see it come to fruition. I’m humbled to be a part of an initiative that represents a growing minority in the brewing industry, all while highlighting the expansive culture of the Hispanic brewer,” Batch Brewing’s Plata said in a news release.

According to data from the Boulder, Colo.-based Brewers Association, 2.2% of craft brewery owners as of 2021 identi ed as

Hispanic, Latinx or of Spanish origin, the largest minority group ahead of respondents.

After the initial launch, Collazo hopes other Latino and Hispanic brewers will pick up the brew and share their stories as well, noting that West Michigan-based e Mitten Brewing Co., Speciation Artisan Ales and Pigeon Hill Brewing Co. all have Hispanic and Latino brewers or partners who could be potential future collaborators.

“ e opportunity for us is to start to tell the stories of those brewers,” Collazo said. “ e breweries who decide to work with us and have Hispanic and Latinos working in their spaces, that gives us a chance to just talk about them.”

e Mi Gente project draws inspiration from other national movements highlighting people of color in the brewing industry, most notably the Black Is Beautiful Beer, a collaborative brew launched by Weathered Souls

Brewing Co. of San Antonio, Texas, in 2020. Black Is Beautiful supports the National Black Brewers Association’s work in developing and growing Black brewers nationwide through an open collaboration in which participating brewers produce the same beer in each of their markets and donate a portion of the proceeds back to the association.

Like Black Is Beautiful, Mi Gente will focus on a singular recipe, art and mission shared between collaborating brewers in Michigan, celebrating Hispanic and Latino

brewers.

“Really, the opportunity is for another brewery to just take on the recipe and the art and then make it themselves,” Collazo said. Collazo hopes he can look back next year and see the bridges he helped build and the connections he facilitated between brewers from Hispanic and Latino backgrounds.

“City Built’s logo has a bridge in it (and) one of our mottos is, ‘Where cultures collide,’” he said. “ is is just another opportunity for us to do those things.”

“Our ask of lawmakers is, ‘Don't rush. Slow down. Listen to both sides.’”

Wendy Block, SVP of Business Advocacy, Michigan Chamber

The collaboration on Mi Gente grew out of City Built Brewing Co. CEO Edwin Collazo’s (right) friendship with Eric Plata (left), the production manager at Detroit-based Batch Brewing Co. | CITY BUILT BREWING CO.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Aug. 30 outlined her priorities for the fall legislative session, including paid family leave law, clean energy and prescription drug board.

MICHIGAN GOVERNOR’S OFFICE

Slows Bar BQ closes Grand Rapids location

Abby Poirier

Slows Bar BQ has closed its Grand Rapids location in the city's Downtown Market, citing an inability to fully recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Slows, which was one of the Downtown Market’s original tenants when the restaurant opened in 2015, formally closed its doors on Sunday.

e Grand Rapids location was Slows’ rst expansion outside of Detroit, where company o cials also recently discussed expansion plans.

“Grand Rapids and West Michigan have been good to Slows BarB-Q,” Slows said in a statement.

“ e Downtown Market has been an ideal location as we expanded our business in order to connect with fans across the state. Unfortunately, the business never fully recovered post-COVID.”

e decision to close the Grand Rapids location was “very di cult” and “one we did not anticipate having to make,” according to the statement, which notes that the

restaurant will not renew its lease.

All other Slows operations in the Detroit area will remain open, including its food truck, agship Corktown location and concessions stand at Huntington Place Convention Center.

Downtown Market o cials said in a statement that the facility “works hard to ensure that every tenant has the opportunity to be successful. We have been delighted that Slows made the Downtown Market their home, and are grateful for these eight years of partnership,” adding that Slows' decision made sense “for their continued business success.”

e Grand Rapids location closure comes after a change in ownership for the company, which Crain’s reported earlier this year.

Co-founder Phil Cooley, who opened the original Slows Bar BQ in Detroit in 2005, sold his stake in the company to Slows Holdings LLC, a holding company consisting of the restaurant’s founding chef Ty Perrone, alongside its managing director and catering director. Cooley’s brother, Ryan,

and father, Ron, have also sold their stakes in the business.

Perrone told Crain’s that Slows Holdings plans to expand the business in Southeast Michigan, opening new restaurants in undisclosed locations in the area and adding a second food truck.

While the Grand Rapids location struggled to regain its footing post-pandemic, Slows has seen a rebound in revenue overall since the pandemic kept customers home. According to prior reporting by Crain’s, Slows revenue was

up 30% in 2022 from 2021, when revenue fell 40% to 50% from pre-pandemic levels.

Perrone said he attributes the success to nimbleness, as the restaurant pivoted to food trucks, concessions and other takeaway options during the pandemic.

“Being nimble — that’s what you’ll see going forward,” he said.

“We’ll have a blend of brick and mortar, but we’ll also continue with the alternative revenue streams.”

Slows will honor all remaining catered events in 2023 at the

Downtown Market, and has pledged to “work diligently to assist all Grand Rapids employees in nding future employment,” according to market o cials.

“ e Downtown Market has been an ideal partner during these past eight years, and we appreciate their con dence in the work of the Slows team as well as the Market’s investment in our business,” according to Slows’ statement. “We will also miss operating alongside so many talented merchants.”

$1.15M

for hacked Michigan nonpro ts

Software company Blackbaud has agreed to pay $1.15 million to Michigan nonpro ts impacted by a 2020 security breach that exposed personal client data including social security numbers, personal nances and health information.

e payout is part of $49.5 million settlement brokered by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and the attorneys general in every state across the country over the software company’s failure to put reasonable data security in place, remediate known security gaps that enabled hackers to gain access to its network and its failure to provide its customers with timely, complete and accurate information regarding the breach.

Its failures that enabled the breach violated state consumer protection laws, security breach noti cation laws and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act health information privacy protections, impacting over 13,000 organizations — including the University of Detroit Mercy in Southeast Michigan —

and compromising the personal information of millions of U.S. consumers.

Blackbaud “downplayed the incident and led its customers to believe that noti cation was not required,” Nessel said in a release Friday.

at resulted in signi cant delays or no noti cation to consumers served by the charities, higher education institutions, K-12 schools, health care organizations, religious organizations and cultural groups that use Blackbaud software to manage donor and client data.

“Companies that have access to our data have an obligation to provide security measures capable of resisting cyberattacks that may expose consumers’ most personal information,” Nessel said in the release.

“ is settlement imposes new regulations on Blackbaud that will better secure its customer data and ensure that customers are noti ed of future breaches in a timely manner. Consumers should take precautions to protect their

Delphinus promotes Scott White to CEO

personal information, and thisnancial settlement will remind Blackbaud that prioritizing pro ts over customer data security can be a costly way to do business.”

As part of the settlement, Blackbaud agreed to take a number of steps to strengthen its data security and breach noti cation practices going forward. ose included not making misrepresentations related to the processing, storing and safeguarding of personal information, implementing and maintaining breach response plans, putting in place personal information safeguards and controls requiring total database encryption and dark web monitoring and taking part in third-party assessments of its compliance with the terms of the settlement for seven years.

With sta ng models that include the use of part-time employees and volunteers, dated IT infrastructure and often little or no funding for technology investments, nonpro ts are often among the most vulnerable to cyberattacks, experts say.

Novi-based medical imaging company Delphinus Medical Technologies Inc. announced Tuesday the promotion of Scott White as its president and CEO.

White replaces Mark Forchette, who is retiring from the position he’s held since 2014.

White joined Delphinus in February as its chief commercialization o cer to help the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Center spin-out bring its SoftVue technology to market. SoftVue is an imaging device designed to detect breast cancer in the roughly 40% of women with dense breast tissue.

e U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the technology for deployment in late 2021 and earlier this year the company installed the rst device into the cancer hospital at the Detroit Medical Center, which was made possible after a $30 million Series D funding round.

Women with dense breast tissue have a four to six times greater risk of developing breast cancer because typical mammography alone misses about half of the cancers in women with dense breasts, as dense tissue and cancer appear white on mammogram images.

Delphinus' SoftVue machine and technology is used as an adjunct to digital mammography in the screening of asymptomatic women with dense breast tissue, the company says.

SoftVue uses warm water and ultrasound technology to create a 3D image of the whole breast to detect the presence of cancer in its earliest stages — including masses in dense breast tissue often missed by mammography alone — while avoiding radiation exposure and compression, allowing the radiologist to make a more accurate diagnosis. e company says use of SoftVue leads to "greater accuracy and potentially fewer biopsies than full eld digital mammography (FFDM) alone," and "is completed with no compression or radiation, and its PMA indication for use allows SoftVue exams to be performed at the same appointment as screening mammograms, facilitating a streamlined work ow and rapid delivery of results."

White will now lead the company to expand commercialization to more hospitals in a wider geography.

“We believe (SoftVue) is the answer to the dense breast screening challenge," White said in a release.

Slows Bar BQ closed its Grand Rapids location on Oct. 8. | MICKEY CIOKAJLO

yB Dustin Walsh

Scott White

Sherri Welch

University of Detroit Mercy was among the clients affected by the Blackbaud breach. UDM

CRAIN'S LIST

|

MICHIGAN CREDIT UNIONS

Ranked by 2022 assets

CREDIT UNION 9 1551 S. Ninth St., Kalamazoo49009 269-375-6702; arborfcu.org

|ThislistofcreditunionsisofthelargestsuchinstitutionsinMichigan.InformationissuppliedbythecreditunionsandtheNationalCreditUnionAdministrationDecember2022reports, ncua.gov.Thisisnotacompletelistingbutthemostcomprehensiveavailable.NA=notavailable.NOTES: 1. LakeMichiganCreditUnionofGrandRapidsandUnitedFederalCreditUnionofSt.JosephmergedinOctober2016.

ResearchedbySonyaD.Hill:shill@crain.com

2. SucceededPeteGates aspresidentandCEO,e ectiveNov.1,2022. 3. SucceededCherylDeBoerwhoretiredinearly2023. 4. E ectiveSept.15,2022,DowChemicalEmployees’CreditUnionchangeditsnametoDowCreditUnion.

5. SucceededMichaelPoulosaspresident andCEO,e ectiveOct.15,2022. 6. WanigasCreditUnionmergedwithFinancialPlusCreditUnion,e ectiveAugust1,2022. 7. VibeCreditUnionandOaklandCountyCreditUnionmergedinJanuary2019.

8. Planstoretireinthe rsthalfof2024. 9. Formerly Educational Community Credit Union. Rebranded as Arbor Financial Credit Union, e ective Aug. 8, 2017. Want the full Excel version of this list — and every list? Become a Data Member: CrainsDetroit.com/data

TAX CREDIT

“I am absolutely convinced that this tax code credit would make for many families the opportunity for child care and continuing work and improved work possible. I think it’s the most e cient way to provide support for our families. It is something that is needed in the state,” Michigan Future board member Paul Hillegonds told reporters Monday.

Of Michigan’s 4 million households, 39% had income below the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Contrained, Employed) reshold of Financial Survival in 2021, according to an April report by the Michigan Association of United Ways and United For ALICE. at is minimum average income to afford housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, a cell phone plan and taxes.

Hillegonds, a Republican former House speaker, and the nonpro t’s president, Lou Glazer, said

the organization hopes to build a broad coalition of support similarly to how backing was secured for boosting the state credit to 30% from 6%. About 626,000 Michigan households will receive an average state credit of $775 for the 2022 tax year, totaling $485 million.

Michigan Future says that while the federal credit has a long phaseout — a two-parent household with three or more children remains eligible with income up to

$63,698 in the 2023 tax year – there is a cli . Households with children see very little income gain as increased earnings are canceled out by declining bene ts and increasing taxes, especially for those with income of $20,000-$40,000.

“ is is the most powerful way that the state can deal with that,” Glazer said.

e federal credit, he said, has “a proven ability to pull people into the labor market,” which is

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

ACCOUNTING

Doeren Mayhew

Doeren Mayhew is pleased to announce the election of Adam Huss, CPA, as a Principal in the rm’s audit practice. With almost ten years of experience, he works closely with the rm’s construction, manufacturing, service and retail clients to oversee their assurance engagements, prepare their nancial statements and provide business advisory services.

EDUCATION

College for Creative Studies

The College for Creative Studies welcomes alumna Lesley Mason (‘08, Photography) to the department of Institutional Advancement as the Director of Alumni Relations. Lesley brings a wealth of experience to the position, having previously worked at the Huron Waterloo Pathways Initiative in addition to operating her own photography business. In this role, Lesley will be responsible for developing and executing strategies to engage alumni in meaningful ways with the College and each other.

INSURANCE

Globe Midwest Adjusters International

Globe Midwest Adjusters International is pleased to announce the promotion of Stuart Dorf, JD. CPAU, to Executive Vice President. Stuart joined Globe Midwest in 2015 as a loss consultant. With more than 20 years of experience in commercial real estate, law, and marketing, his exceptional leadership skills, marked by vision, empathy, and determination, continue to innovate and inspire the Globe Midwest team and underscore his distinguished career.

why so many employers got behind the expanded state EITC.

Hillegonds, noting the focus on turning around Michigan’s concerning stagnant population, said: “Yes, one answer is to have older workers working longer. But another answer is to make Michigan more family friendly for young people, and this is a step in that direction.”

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will unveil her next budget proposal in February. If enacted, the expanded credit would lower the estimated $13.9 billion general fund by $1 billion, or roughly 7%. She signed a big tax overhaul, including the EITC changes, in March.

“ e case that we’re going to be making to potential coalition partners and then ultimately the policy makers is that the child care crisis is a very high priority in Michigan. So is dealing with the bene t cli ,” Glazer said. “Budgets are value statements. So what we’re going to argue is is that our values and hopefully the state values (of) supporting the hard-working, lower-wage Michigan house-

holds, particularly those raising young children, should be a budget priority. And if it is a budget priority, then clearly there’s always money available to do it.”

A message seeking comment was left with Whitmer’s o ce. Leaders of the Democratic-controlled Legislature said they would review the proposal.

“House Democrats made working families a priority through legislation like the expansion of the Working Families Tax Credit — passed in the rst 100 days of the term. e Speaker is interested in discussing additional ways in which we can help lower costs to help support working families and all Michiganders,” said Amber McCann, spokesperson for House Speaker Joe Tate of Detroit.

“ e leader is looking forward to reviewing more details of the proposal. We are committed to implementing solutions that make it more a ordable to raise a family here in Michigan,” said Rosie Jones, spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks of Detroit.

LAW

McDonald Hopkins

McDonald Hopkins is pleased to announce that Ashley Jericho has been elected to the rm’s membership. As part of the rm’s Strategic Advisory and Restructuring Department, Ashley partners with businesses to formulate and implement practical, global solutions and provide guidance under oftentimes dif cult circumstances. She has over a decade of insolvency experience advising on bankruptcy proceedings, contested matters, and adversary proceedings.

NONPROFIT

Connect 313

Connect 313, a public-privategovernment

partnership creating digital equity in Detroit, welcomes Vittoria Katanski as its new Director. Vittoria has been a xture in community development and urban placemaking in the city for some 20 years and brings strong organizational and nonpro t leadership skills to her role.

Formerly, she was Executive Director of Hatch Detroit excelling in neighborhood efforts to drive lasting, positive change, and remains Director of the popular Tour de Troit.

REAL ESTATE

ACCOUNTING

Doeren Mayhew

Doeren Mayhew is pleased to announce the election of David Thrush, CPA, MSA, as a Principal in the rm’s audit practice. He specializes in accounting, audit, assurance, and merger and acquisition advisory services for a variety of industries. David is a leader in the rm’s Employee Bene t Plan Group, where he is relied on to provide annual de ned contribution, de ned bene t, employee stock ownership and cash balance plan audits, as well as other employee bene t plan consulting engagements.

EDUCATION

Launch Michigan

Venessa Keesler, Ph.D. was recently named president and chief executive of cer of Launch Michigan, a bipartisan nonpro t organization dedicated to reimagining Michigan’s public education system through policy and advocacy. Keesler previously served as a senior project director and subject matter expert for AEM Corporation, a national education rm, and as deputy superintendent for the Division of Educator, Student and School Support at the Michigan Department of Education.

LAW

McDonald Hopkins

McDonald Hopkins is pleased to announce that Mark Steiner has been elected to the rm’s membership. As part of the rm’s Litigation Department, Mark focuses his practice on business litigation, trade secret, noncompete and unfair competition, and warranty and recall in the automotive industry. He has successfully handled automotive, supply chain, healthcare, manufacturing, and other contractual business disputes throughout the country.

M/I

Homes of Michigan

M/I Homes (NYSE: MHO), one of the nation’s leading homebuilders, announces the appointment of its new vice president of sales and marketing in its Detroit division. Sascha C. Vallat will lead the division’s sales and marketing department with a focus on talent development, product offerings and community openings. Sascha has more than 15 years of experience in real estate and has worked for both private and public homebuilders.

The tax credit would cover nearly 270,000 households with work earnings of at least $10,000 up to around $60,000. GETTY IMAGES

WOMEN

From Page 3

Global management consulting

rm McKinsey & Co. found in a 2020 report that companies in the top quartile of gender diversity on executive teams were 25 percent more likely to experience above-average pro tability than peer companies in the fourth quartile. And that was up from 21 percent in 2017 and 15 percent in 2014.

Community Financial Credit Union seems to be a good example of that.

CAR WASH

"We can really think multiple years in the future, verses being forced to do what a lot of other guys have done in the public markets, where it's like, 'We have to meet a store count, so you just have to open things,' even if you don't believe it's the right thing to open," Landau said. "Our guys are saying, 'Let's just continue to be prudent. is is about quality, not quantity.'"

Other locations working their way through the approval process include a former PNC Bank branch in Novi on Grand River Avenue, the southeast corner of Hall and Romeo Plank roads at a former Fifth- ird Bank site in Clinton Township and a Troy property at Long Lake and Dequindre roads.

Flooding the market

Jason Milen, who is co-chair of the board for Jax along with his father Bruce, said his company has traditionally weathered economic downturns well. " e consumer con dence issue doesn't seem to be bothering us," Milen said. "In fact, even in recessions, we tend to typically do pretty well. We believe it's because people are actually keeping their cars longer, so they want to take better care of them."

However, increased interest rates have hampered Jax.

"We are de nitely seeing a slowing of growth amongst other operators that were expanding more quickly before because the dollar isn't going as far as it used to," Milen said. "We did slow down some of our plans and we're being much more cautious with the newer properties that we're moving forward on. However, and this is the important part, our nancial health is very good and we are still moving forward with expansion."

Currently, Jax has ve locations it is "de nitely" moving forward on, including two in Wisconsin and three in southeast Michigan: 29022 Stephenson Hwy. at the northeast corner of 12 Mile Road in Madison Heights; 1451 E. Big Beaver Rd.

between Stephenson and John R Road in Troy; and on Traditions Drive in the area of Seven Mile and Haggerty roads in Northville Township, Milen said.

He noted a decline in car wash volume, attributed, he said, to a warmer winter and less snow, meaning less salt on the roads and fewer washes.

Rolling up

Crain's Detroit sister publication Crain's Grand Rapids Business reported earlier this year that Tommy's, one of the country's largest and fastest growing chains, opened nearly 50 new locations last year, with four in metro Detroit, and had over 400 in development. Tommy's was the eighth-largest in the country, according to December 2022 rankings by Professional Carwashing & Detailing Magazine, while Jax clocked in at No. 26. Zax Auto Wash, based in Wixom, was No. 32.

El Car Wash was No. 29.

Carrie Caldwell, communications manager for Tommy's, said in an email that a half-dozen Tommy's locations are in the works around Detroit, although for some of them the real estate purchases have not been nalized yet. ey include Lincoln Park, Madison Heights and Ypsilanti, she said.

Big investors like private equity rms have targeted car wash companies — traditionally mom-and-pop operations — for roll-up as the industry has modernized with things like monthly subscriptions, creating a more stable revenue model.

at follows similar patterns in industries like self-storage, manufactured housing and marinas, where real estate investment trusts have muscled their way in.

Jax was sold to Birmingham-based PE rm TRP Capital Partners for an undisclosed price (although sources said it was a $40 million to $45 million deal) in February 2022; El Car Wash was sold in July 2022 for an undisclosed price.

Stearns stepped into the role as president and CEO in June 2022, and since December 2022 its assets have increased over $300 million, up to $1.6 billion. e Plymouth-based nancial service has also opened two new locations: e Playground in Novi and a location at Wayne State University, which marks the organization’s rst Detroit branch. Stearns said CFCU is also doing a physical location study to determine where opportunities for new branches may be.

“From my perspective, it's really about how we create a path for the future,” Stearns said. “ e work that I do — the passion that I have for credit unions, and for human beings and really the path that roles like Teri's and mine can create — I believe allows people to see themselves. I think one of the ways that you start to manifest change is by having more women in roles like these because I think when you don't necessarily see yourself, it can be hard to imagine what that would be like.”

According to the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report of 2023, only 42.2% of women are employed in nancial services worldwide. However, in Michigan, women are more likely to be employed in service-oriented nancial activities positions, which include accountants, nancial advisors, insurance underwriters, tax accountants and more, but are underrepresented in the management, business, andnancial sector, according to a report from the state.

At CFCU, the leadership team is made up of four women and three men. Looking at manager positions up to most senior leadership, 56% are women, or 46.

“I think that this also demonstrates a really strong and positive kind of shift in attitude that we're seeing in the community about welcoming women in power,” Kuehn said. “Because when I look around the board at CFCU, there are three other directors that are women. ere are multiple women in key management positions. It's just extremely exciting to see that and see it being treated as ‘normal.’”

Creating more space

Women are more likely to hold leadership positions in credit unions than in banks. Nationally, women run 51% of credit unions overall compared to only 3% at banks, according to data from the Michigan Credit Union League. At credit unions under $500 million in assets, the percentage of wom-

en leaders is even higher at 55% for both Michigan credit unions and credit unions nationally. As asset size increases, female representation at the CEO level decreases for credit unions but increases for banks.

Across the United States, 30% of the top 50 credit unions by assets are led by women, the Michigan Credit Union League says. ree of the ve Michigan credit unions with the largest amount in assets have women CEOs as of this year. Lake Michigan Credit Union in Grand Rapids, which had $11.9 billion in assets in 2022 —far and away the largest in the state — is led by CEO Sandra Jelinski and has been for the last two decades. East Lansing-based Michigan State University Federal Credit Union, with $7.2 billion in assets as of 2022, is led by April Clobes. Genisys Credit Union in Auburn Hills has $4.4 billion in assets and is led by Jackie Buchanan.

Advia Credit Union in Parchment was led by Cheryl DeBoer until she retired at the beginning of this year; it had $2.8 billion in assets as of 2022.

MSUFCU is the second-largest credit union in Michigan and the largest university-based credit union in the world and April Clobes, 51, has been at the helm as president and CEO for eight years.

During the rst 19 years of her career at MSUFCU, she worked as a marketing specialist, e-commerce specialist, manager, assistant vice president, vice president and executive vice president.

“I think that if you promote from within, then you end up with more women leaders, but I would say in the early years, I would go to, let's say a meeting of 25 large asset credit unions and I would often be the only woman in the space,” Clobes said. “It de nitely happened more frequently in the beginning than in today's environment.”

While four out of the eight mem-

bers on her executive team are women now — her CFO, COO, Chief Research and Digital Experience O cer and Chief Human Resources O cer — Clobes said there was a point in her career where the executive team consisted of seven women and two men and it was treated like a novelty.

“People would come and they'd want to write articles about how interesting it was that we could have seven female leaders in an organization,” Clobes said. “And I would just (think) ‘Why is this so unique?’ You would never go and ask, ‘Why are there seven males leading an organization?’”

Clobes said that she sees the landscape changing to allow people of more diverse backgrounds in leadership roles.

“In my time in this role, I think I see more women being elevated to leadership positions and to CEO positions,” Clobes said. “I think the environment that I grew up in is drastically changing. And I think you can see that as you read articles and learn more information. We're not 100% there yet, but I de nitely think it's more improved.”

Stearns said she believes credit unions help create a space for women and that she encourages her team to bring their diverse perspectives and experiences to work to help create and demonstrate positive change. Seeing representation in leadership positions, she said, helps CFCU attract and retain members.

“I hope that at the point in time when (my daughter) is thinking about her career, having watched her mom do these things will make a real di erence for her and for her friends,” Stearns said. “A lot of my motivation is certainly around the fact that I know that as more women see folks like Teri and me in these seats, that creates more space for them to raise their hands for those opportunities as they arise.”

“This is about quality, not quantity.”

Justin Landau, CEO of El Car Wash

at’s why when you go into retail, you’ll nd only one grade of outdoor ower. at is the discount shelf space."

Outdoor plants tend to be viewed as being lower quality; indoor operations can simulate optimal conditions 24/7 compared to, well, nature. And cannabis grown outdoors generally fetches a smaller price on the market. Much of it ends up as biomass used to make distillate or edibles where the highest-quality ower isn’t as appreciated.

For Bowden, growing outdoors o ers an opportunity to set his product apart.

"Growers generally put less care into their outdoor farms," he said. "We don’t believe that and are trying to change that perception.”

Sun-grown ower

Whereas indoor marijuana grows can feel sterile and controlled like a pharmaceutical plant, outdoor grows look and feel like farming.

At Grasshopper Farms, 20 miles west of Kalamazoo, migrant laborers spent the rst week of Croptober busily preparing and picking product. Spanish lls the air as the workers clip branches from the marijuana plants — which grow much larger outdoors than indoors and resemble Christmas trees at a distance — and load them into tubs 20 pounds at a time.

A farm foreman tells a line of workers hauling the marijuana- lled tubs to load them onto the trailer behind an aging Ram truck. e truck's lights are covered in green tape, so when harvesting extends into the night, the lights don't disturb the plants' “sleep” cycle.

Outdoor grows are cheaper to operate, relying on the sun for photosynthesis as opposed to thousands of overhead lights that generate massive utility bills. Bowden said the farm required a total startup investment of $6.5 million for build out and operations. By contrast, the highly-automated Canapa Valley Farms in Vassar spent $40 million to build out its 60,000-square-foot indoor grow operation.

For Grasshopper, outdoor weed can overcome its quality stigma with better marketing and better smokable product, Bowden said.

Each of Grasshopper’s 6,181 total plants on the property are broken into thirds. e top third of the plant is used to sell as ower to consumers, the middle third for pre-rolls and the bottom third is used for biomass to sell o to processors.

Bowden markets Grasshopper Farms as “premium sun-grown ower” and sells the marijuana buds to dispensaries and even sells packs of pre-rolls under the farm's name.

e plants, despite being outside in rows like a traditional farm, are not planted in the ground.

ey sit atop landscape fabric in massive pots lled with a proprietary soil blend, all connected to

each other through plant netting and an elaborate irrigation network.

e 40-employee company exes up to 140 workers during harvest, with most of the workers being migrant farm hands.

e truck will haul 18 tubs from the elds at a time to the farm’s drying rooms in a facility on the property. Grasshopper’s ve drying rooms will hold 9,000 pounds of marijuana branches, resulting in 1,000 pounds of dried marijuana ower, that go through ve cycles over the next 25 days to meet the harvest goal of approximately 25,000 pounds of total dried marijuana ower.

Bene ts to a bountiful harvest

Since outdoor grows only go to market once a year, Croptober deeply impacts the market price of marijuana.

Marijuana prices had been on the decline since 2020, but Croptober sank prices at a faster rate

than prior declines last year. e average price for an ounce of adult-use recreational marijuana ower in September 2022 was $109.88. By January 2023, it had sunk to $80.16 per ounce. In August of this year, the most recent available data from the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency, the prices had recovered more than 17 percent to $94.16 per ounce.

“ ere are almost 2 million more plants in pots (indoor and outdoor) at this time this year versus last year,” said Miles Baker, a cannabis attorney at Detroit-based Dickinson Wright. “It’s very possible Croptober shows some price compression like we’ve seen in the past. Historically, people have thought of Croptober as crashing the market. But we’re also seeing a price recovery and it will be interesting to see how much of a price compression happens and whether growers and retailers really absorb the in ux.”

Mike Elias, CEO of Marshall-based indoor grower Common Citizen, one of the largest

cannabis operations in the state, believes companies are more stable in 2023 and Croptober’s impact will be muted.

“While there are 40% more plants in production compared to last year, the increased demand, which has risen by 66%, has led to a 32% increase in sales,” Elias told Crain’s. " is suggests the market has become more diversi ed with indoor and greenhouse operations producing year-round. Consequently, Croptober may not have the same massive impact on pricing as before.”

Elias said last year outdoor-grown marijuana would be on the wholesale market for as low as $300. is year, he expects the low end to be between $400- and $500 per pound with some growers seeking as high as $700 per pound.

305 Farms in Lawrence, an indoor grow 14 miles southeast of Grasshopper Farms that produces several licensed vape brands including Rohan Marley’s Lion Order, is hoping for the low prices Croptober generates.

305’s products are typically expensive and categorized in the “top-shelf” market of cannabis.

e 25-acre campus can only produce about 40% of the company’s distillate needs, said founder Jan Verleur. e company relies on the oversupply and lower prices Croptober produces.

“If you have brand loyalty around strains and you’re focused on top-shelf cannabis, there’s not a lot of outdoor that competes with you. Less than 10% of what comes out of October will directly compete with top-shelf products,” Verleur said. “We can’t grow enough on our farm to meet our current output needs, so we have to buy in the open market. Because of Croptober, there will be buying opportunities for us in Q4

to lower our cost of goods.”

Verleur, who also owns operations in California, said Michigan consumers are more price-conscious, seeking value more than peers in California.

“ is is a bang-for-your-buck type of state,” Verleur said. “ e value market is like 60% of the market at least. I can only operate in about 15% of the state’s stores. So it’s bene cial to us to have that outdoor product to supplement and keep our costs contained.”

Stopping seasonality

Grasshopper, however, battles the price seasonality with standard wholesale pricing, allowing it and its customers predictable accounting. Grasshopper wholesales its ower within a range of $500 to $700 per pound, or $31.25 to $43.75 per ounce.

“Our value proposition is that we’re going to have a price all year round,” Bowden said. “We don’t lower our prices due to market supply, but we also don’t raise the prices in the summer. We’re a fair price the whole time.”

ose higher prices, if it can sustain them, allow Grasshopper to reinvest. Bowden said the company analyzes the market and tries to keep its production 5% below what the total market demand is for its products to maintain pricing.

With demand rising, the company is ready to expand on its 160acre property — it currently allows neighboring farmers to plant and reap corn on its acreage, though this might be the last year it does.

“We think our demand is about 40,000 to 42,000 pounds a year,” Bowden said. “We’re at about 20,000 to 25,000 pounds right now. So either next year or the following planting season, we plan to double to 80 acres.”

Workers harvest cannabis at Grasshopper Farms in Paw Paw. PHOTOS BY NIC ANTAYA

dynastic homebuilder that bought the property from the Archdiocese of Detroit in 2021 and is funneling pro ts from the resort to charity.

e project involves renovating the 118-room, high-end hotel and adding a 17,000-square-foot ballroom for weddings and private events, said Paul Wegert, managing director of the property.

As for the golf course, the vision was to turn 27 decent holes into 18 spectacular ones and develop the best, family-friendly practice facility around, said Stan Witko, executive director of golf.

“It was kind of muni conditions, trunk slammer, six pack and jeans and go play,” Witko said of the former course. Not so anymore. “What a lot of people tell me is that it feels like a golf course in the north but way nicer. ere’s just nothing quite like it.”

e Cardinal is aiming for a niche in the market between private clubs and run-of-the-mill public courses.

It will be open to the public but o er memberships starting at $5,000, appealing to those looking for country club conditions and treatment without the nancial commitment, Witko said. e summer weekend rack rate will be $175 per round. ere will be an initial capacity of 70 members, which is expected to ll up in the next couple of months, and play will also be limited to protect the course in its inaugural season.

“We’re limiting rounds to 20,000 for the rst year,” Witko said.

e course was designed by Holland-based Raymond Hearn, whose portfolio includes Moose Ridge in South Lyon, Detroit’s Rouge Park and Rackham golf courses and dozens of others around the world. e Cardinal maintains some sight lines from the original design, but the course is otherwise unrecognizable, with new bunkering and irrigation, tons of new sod and new tee boxes.

e course unpacks the tight 27 holes of old for a more playable round while also maintaining tree-lined fairways and picturesque views tee to green. e Par 72 course has ve sets of tees, ranging from 3,600 yards at the “family tees” to 7,002 at the tips.

“ is was not a small facelift,”

Witko said. “ is is essentially a new course.”

e driving range will remain, though one end will be reserved for members and resort guests.

e Par 3 course, called the Little Cardinal, will feature seven holes with a max range of 100 or so yards with arti cial turf tees and natural grass greens.

e cherry on top of the practice facilities is the 18-hole natural grass putting green, which wraps around a pond along 1.5 acres, designed after the famous Himalayas at St. Andrews. It will be open to the public for $10 a round. e expansive facilities will allow accomplished players to re ne every club in the bag, while helping kids graduate from the basics of putting and chipping and work their way up to the championship course.

“We’ve used just about every piece of land we can,” Witko said.

Construction on the course was completed this summer, while work on the structures around the property is expected to continue until early 2025. Wine Grotto opened a couple of weeks ago inside Five Steakhouse at the resort, while Doyle’s Irish Pub will open in the clubhouse next year.

While the course closed after the 2021 season, the hotel has remained open through renovations, which include new luxury bathrooms and refreshed designs throughout. e new ballroom, constructed with an entire back wall of glass, will accommodate 700-person weddings and 1,000+ people for conferences.

While the former seminary shut down in 1988 and the Archdiocese is no longer involved in operations of the property, it has kept with Catholic tradition. e chapel might be the only privately-owned Catholic chapel in the country,

Wegert said, and only Catholic weddings are allowed there.

Kevin Doyle, COO for the Pulte foundation, said 100% of pro ts from the resort and golf course go to charity and that the foundation has donated $143 million to date. Terms of the sale between the Archdiocese and Pulte family were not disclosed.

“ e beautiful part about this is they’re basically taking a landmark that was built back in the '40s and taking it to its original condition and increasing that two-fold,” Wegert said. “I love it because I love historic buildings and a lot of times you see these historic buildings just kind of get shut down and mothballed and they just go away. What we’re doing to this property now, this place will be around for another 100-plus years.”

Chris Whitten, executive director for the Golf Association of Michigan, said he thinks e Cardinal will see success with its high-end public model. Golf in Michigan and around the country peaked in the early 2000s, in tandem with the height of Tiger Woods' dominance. Twenty years ago, Michigan had around 1,000 courses, compared with about 830 today, according to the Michigan Golf Course Association. Despite the contraction, golf has enjoyed a resurgence over the past ve years, Whitten added.

“ ere are a fairly high number of private clubs turning away high revenue golf outings, and there are a lot of groups looking for rstclass experiences and are willing to pay for it,” Whitten said. “In the bigger picture, I think it’s just a sign that the golf business is really surging right now.”

Wegert said there are discussions about possibly adding another hotel tower, though nothing has been formalized.

Founded in 1993 and co-sponsored by the Archdiocese of Detroit and the Midwest Province of Jesuits, Loyola High School is one of only three Catholic high schools still operating in the city, it said in a release.

It occupies the old St. Francis de Sales School, which opened in 1928 and grew to an enrollment of more than 1,000 students before its closure in 1971. e new St. Peter Claver Chapel will be built on the school’s campus on the same footprint as the former St. Peter Claver Church that was closed in 2018 after the roof caved in.

Loyola broke ground on the new chapel, a new courtyard between the chapel and school and a welcome center in mid-September as part of $6.5 million in capital projects, three years after planning and community engagement began.

Loyola sta and students will use the new chapel for daily prayers and monthly masses, and the St. Peter Claver Parish — created through the 2005 merger of the St. Francis de Sales and Precious Blood parishes — will bring Sunday masses back to the campus after holding them on the nearby Marygrove campus for the past six years. e new chapel will also include administrative space for the parish’s pastoral associate and St. Vincent de Paul ministry which provides food and clothing to those in need, Smith said.

“With the new chapel, we’re (also) open to the idea of holding appropriate community events if the opportunity arises.”

Loyola is working with the parish and community to o er programs for senior citizens, concerts and speaker series, Smith said.

e welcome center is expected to be completed by fall 2024 and the chapel and courtyard by early 2025, he said.

Wyandotte-based omas

Roberts Architects did the project design, and Fairview Construction Services LLC in Wixom is the general contractor.

Beyond the capital projects, the capital campaign will provide

$1.5 million for Loyola scholarships for the school’s 150 students in grade 9-12, Smith said, noting 100% of graduates have been accepted into college for the past 13 years. Loyola’s student body is completely African American, and 90% of students are from the city of Detroit. Very few are actually Catholic, Smith said.

“We’re here to serve a mission, to help young men become successful.”

e campaign will also provide $1 million to maintain pay increases, “healthy” medical and pension bene ts already put in place for current teachers and anticipate the future costs of competing for teaching talent, Smith said.

Loyola is exploring new market tax credits as a possible funding source for the capital aspects of the project but is raising dollars to fund it entirely through private contributions, if needed, he said.

Since launching the quiet phase of the campaign in 2021, it has raised $6.5 million of its $9 million goal, with lead gifts of $1 million or more from donors including: the family of John and Margaret Clark, Raymond M. & Jane E. Cracchiolo Foundation and the Wayne and Joan Webber Foundation.

e long list of contributors to the campaign includes: Former DTE Energy Co. Chairman and CEO Tony Earley Jr., an honorary chair of the Loyola campaign, and his wife Sarah Earley, founding chair of the Belle Isle Conservancy; retired Marygrove College

President Glenda Price; Mary Blaha and George Blaha, playby-play announcer for the Detroit Pistons and Michigan State University football; Detroit Today host and anchor Stephen Henderson; Loyola board member Terry Rhadigan, vice president of communications and corporate giving for General Motors, and his wife Andrea; Pulte Family Charitable Foundation; Lloyd & Mabel Johnson Foundation; DeRoy Testamentary Foundation and many others.

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The $50 million renovation of Saint John’s Resort in Plymouth Township includes a new seven-hole Par 3 course called The Little Cardinal. | ST. JOHN’S RESORT

“We’re here to serve a mission, to help young men become successful.”

Dave Smith, Loyola High School president

After 30 years, architect Michael Poris is still ghting to save old buildings

Throughout its nearly 30 years in business, McIntosh Poris Architects has had a hand in some of the most recognized projects in Detroit. That includes the planned renovation of the Fisher Body No. 21 plant on Detroit's east side to the Motown Museum to scores of housing developments around the city. But beyond just singular projects, it's some of the advocacy work and push toward historic preservation that stands out to Michael Poris, founding partner of the architecture rm with of ces in Detroit and Birmingham. Poris spoke with Crain's about how some of that work came to be, why it still matters and how the rm can remain relevant going forward.

By | Nick Manes

Describe some of the advocacy work the rm has engaged in throughout its history?

If I really look back, the advocacy we did in the 1990s and even in the early 2000s, we did a lot of advocacy for saving old buildings, including buildings like the Book Cadillac and the train station (now being redeveloped by Ford Motor Co.). We went in front of City Council 20 years ago to try to keep them from demolishing it, which is what they wanted to do, and now you see what’s happening. ere was a lot of work and e ort to try to change the conversation here about demolition (of old buildings).

Back then, we created the Park Avenue Historic District that pretty much helped save all the buildings on Park Avenue that were being demolished for parking. Tech Town was going to be demolished by Wayne State for parking.

So why is that kind of advocacy work so important to you as an architect?

We — my late business partner Doug McIntosh and I — had a very modern background in architecture and wanted to do modern work. But the conversation about demolishing and demolition was so prevalent here, going back to the 1960s. And it was still prevalent from the leadership here.

We did not want Detroit to become Dallas, Houston or Atlanta. We wanted the history to stay so that eventually when we got to the point where there were new buildings — which has now happened 25 years later — there would be something there. ere would be some history left so that Detroit could be a unique place. It's part of what makes Detroit a great place, there's a whole history there ... from a hundred years ago when Detroit was the Silicon Valley of the U.S. when the auto industry started.

To that point, your rm has been quite active in housing developments around the region. Given the increasing focus on housing as a policy issue, are there are any speci c policies you'd advocate for or against?

I like that we're doing quite a bit out in the (Detroit) neighborhoods, outside

Read

of downtown. at's really something that came out in the last 20 years. Some of that actually came out of some of the planning that was done by the city ve years ago, and now you're starting to see it over on Kercheval and some of those neighborhoods, and that's really good. Some of those policies have really helped. I hate seeing demolition.

What else?

Policy-wise, I think the city is going in the right direction with trying to lower the property tax.

I've been saying this for years: I think (current tax policy) has been to the detriment of the city, to people losing their homes because they couldn't pay the taxes. at just has to change. And I think every project we've done in 25 years of working in the city, pretty much (every one) gets a tax abatement. And everyone who's lived there doesn't always have that. If we could gure out a way to lower the property tax so that new development didn't have to get a tax abatement, it would be one less thing developers need to do.

I think more people would stay in their homes, their taxes go down ... and frankly, I think property values would go up. Just look at L.A. where property taxes are low, but housing costs are high. at would be a bene t (in Detroit) because so much of the city is housing and that's really one of the biggest resources I think.

Going back to what you said earlier about being involved in some advocacy work that is now bearing fruit. Are there efforts or initiatives you could see the rm being involved in now that might be impactful further down the road for the city?

Well, de nitely more housing. Housing is really important. I think continuing to do more housing, more mixed-use neighborhoods. Walkable, attractive safe neighborhoods. I'm in Kansas City right now and it's unbelievable. It's a great city and part of why it's so great is it's intact. It looks like Detroit, except honestly, the housing stock is still here.

If we keep renovating buildings and houses and gured out how to continue ... to build the neighborhoods and the density

up, I think that would be really good.

Are there mechanisms that could help push some of this forward?

I'd like to see the counties working together better to really get the whole thing working. Less sort of Detroit vs. the suburbs. If you look at (Los Angeles) ... it's

and history and a mission from the work we've been doing.

ere are a lot of people that work for us that really enjoy that and it's like, well, how can that continue beyond me? Because I've been at it for 30 years or 40 years — which is just crazy — but there's no way to tell how much longer that will go (laughs). So it's a way of

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Michael Poris is founding partner of McIntosh Poris Architects