Crain's Detroit Business Oct. 18, 2021, issue by Crain's Detroit Business

REAL ESTATE

CRAIN’S LISTS: The largest nonprofits, foundations and charitable gifts. PAGES 14-16

Self-storage growing as property values soar. PAGE 3

CRAINSDETROIT.COM I OCTOBER 18, 2021

U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE

WHEN NATURE HAS OTHER PLANS

How developers do business amid endangered species BY KIRK PINHO

See SPECIES on Page 21

U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE

SCOTT GIBSON COURTESY INATURALIST.ORG

CHUCK HOMLER/FOCUS ON WILDLIFE

omething about 3.5 inches long and weighing about a quarter of an ounce is having an outsized impact on commercial real estate development. But the Northern Long-Eared bat — its population decimated by white-nose syndrome, which disrupts hibernation and causes bats to burn off fat needed to survive winter — isn’t the only threatened or endangered species that developers need to be mindful of when planning projects in Metro Detroit and elsewhere. There are 10 bats, birds, snakes, mussels and plants found in the region (see box, Page 21) that meet the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s criteria for being considered endangered, meaning they are at risk of becoming extinct, or threatened, roughly

Ann Arbor company looks to tiny bubbles to power growth BY NICK MANES

With $17.5 million in fresh venture capital largesse, Ann Arbor bioscience firm Akadeum Life Sciences Inc. is planning a large commercial expansion of a technology built on tiny bubbles. The Series B financing round, announced last week, positions the

company to roll out its “microbubble” technology in new ways, according to Akadeum founder and CEO Brandon McNaughton. “We spent several years now building the technology — and really building it in a way that just shows how unique and highly capable our See BUBBLES on Page 20

The Eastern Massassauga, from top left, Rufa Red Knot, Snuffbox mussel and Northern Long-Eared bat are among the threatened and endangered species in Metro Detroit.

Nursing homes on brink amid staffing crisis BY DUSTIN WALSH

Nursing assistants at the West Bloomfield Health & Rehabilitation Center fetch anywhere from $50 to hundreds of dollars on top of overtime pay to fill shifts. The administrators are desperate. A labor shortage in the field has left the 172-bed facility paying out these one-time bonuses on the regular, as much as $1,000 total a day for its staff, to ensure the

NEWSPAPER

PARKS: Coalition brings neighborhood and downtown groups together to collaborate on programming. PAGE 10

nursing home doesn’t fall below state and federal staffing requirements. “We have no choice,” said Justin Spiro, an assistant administrator and co-owner of the home. “We’re shortstaffed every morning when we wake up, and we move heaven and earth to make sure we’re not by breakfast. But it’s just not sustainable to pay out hundreds of dollars a day. If this goes on for too many more months ... we can’t just close for the

day because we’re short-staffed.” Other homes around the state have closed wings and consolidated residents into smaller areas where the reduced staff can provide the proper care, said Melissa Samuel, president and CEO of the Health Care Association of Michigan, the state’s largest industry group representing nursing homes and rehabilitation centers. See STAFFING on Page 20

NEED TO KNOW

HIGHER EDUCATION

THE WEEK IN REVIEW, WITH AN EYE ON WHAT’S NEXT

 ILITCH FAMILY GETS OK TO BUY N.J. CASINO STAKE THE NEWS: New Jersey casino regulators gave the Ilitch organization the green light for a planned $175 million investment and 50 percent ownership stake in the Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City. The state’s Casino Control Commission granted interim casino authorization Thursday to the Ilitch-owned OCR Investment during a meeting livestreamed online. The three-member commission favored the move unanimously after meeting for two days and hearing from Ilitch company executives as part of the approval process. WHY IT MATTERS: The investment represents the family’s first expansion in the casino business outside its ownership of MotorCity Casino. In testimony before the commission, Ilitch representatives said they kicked the tires on multiple casinos before striking the Ocean deal.

 BUSINESS COALITION BACKS BIG INFRASTRUCTURE THE NEWS: Rocket Companies Chair-

man Dan Gilbert, DTE Energy Co. and several business trade groups are backing a new lobbying effort to get the Michigan Legislature to spend $2.5 billion of federal stimulus funds on modernizing water infrastructure and $500 million on expanding access to broadband internet. The newly formed Coalition for a Strong and Prosperous Michigan rolled out a detailed plan last week for spending $6 billion from the American Rescue Plan.

show, known as Connect’s Summertime Marketplace, will focus on linking meeting planners for corporate, association, specialty and sports events with convention hall operators.

WHY IT MATTERS: Uses for the federal money are currently under negotiation among Lansing lawmakers and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Some of the coalition’s proposals mirror other plans for how to spend federal stimulus funds that have been floated by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and members of the Republican-controlled Legislature.

 US-CANADA BORDER RESTRICTIONS TO BE RELAXED

DETROIT TO HOST CONVENTION FOR CONVENTION INDUSTRY THE NEWS: TCF Center will host a national gathering of business meeting and convention planners next August, showcasing Detroit for some 4,000 visitors who work in the events and tourism business. Connect Meetings LLC, the Atlanta-based trade show for the events and conventions business, is bringing 800 to 1,200 convention and meeting planners to TCF Center Aug. 8-10, 2022, along with about 3,000 officials from convention centers across the country. The trade

WHY IT MATTERS: Connect’s convention for the convention industry will let Detroit’s competitors “see what they’re up against,” said Claude Molinari, president and CEO of the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau.

THE NEWS: The United States will relax coronavirus restrictions at its land borders with Canada and Mexico for vaccinated travelers next month, allowing for the resumption of nonessential travel like tourism. The changes come after the White House previously announced its intention to begin allowing airline passengers from a broad swath of countries — including Canada, Mexico and Europe — to enter the country with proof of vaccination and a coronavirus test in early November.

Designer, CCS team up to revive Lewis College  A sneaker designer and educator is looking to reopen the Lewis College of Business in Detroit in a move that could make it Michigan’s only operating HBCU, or Historically Black College or University. D’Wayne Edwards and his Portland-based Pensole Design Academy plan to open the Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design in March as a joint venture with Detroit’s College for Creative Studies, Edwards and CCS announced in an event Tuesday at the former location of the college, now a part of the CCS campus in Midtown. Enrollment is expected to start in December, though no details could be provided yet as to the number of students expected or breadth of classes. The school, with funding from billionaire Dan Gilbert’s Gilbert Family Foundation and Target Corp., will start out from the seventh floor of CCS’s A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education building in New Center. The plan is to find and move to a more permanent site. The partnership declined to disclose any financial details. The Lewis College of Business closed in 2013 after first opening in 1928.

WHY IT MATTERS: The changes are expected to invigorate international travel before the holiday season, and Tuesday’s announcement addresses complaints by those living in border communities that the U.S. was imposing different rules for those traveling by air than for those driving to see friends and family.

D’Wayne Edwards, the founder of Portland-based Pensole Design Academy who is seeking to reopen the Lewis College of Business in Detroit, speaks at an event at the former location of the college, now a part of the College for Creative Studies campus. | ANNALISE FRANK/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

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REAL ESTATE

Three metro communities now majority renter Foreclosures in 2010s contributed to shift BY ARIELLE KASS

At the summit’s in-person event Wednesday in Dearborn, making the Medicaid mental health system easier to navigate and accessing care was a major point of discussion. Eric Doeh, CEO of the Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network, Wayne County’s mental health agency, urged policymakers to make surgical changes to the system. “Are there things that we can do better? Absolutely,” Doeh said. “But you don’t need to take a sledgehammer to something when a scalpel is basically needed.”

Three municipalities near Detroit where the majority of residents were homeowners in 2010 are now majority-renter communities, according to U.S. census data analyzed by the apartment search website RENTCafé. Inkster, Pontiac and Auburn Hills all became majority-renter communities in 2019, while Port Huron and Hazel Park were close to having more renters than homeowners, the company said. The shift comes on the heels of Detroit becoming a city of predominantly renters. The company used census data for its analysis of rental vs. home ownership rates. In Detroit, according to the company, 51 percent of residents were renters, compared with 45 percent in 2010. Inkster had a renter population that made up 59 percent of residents, compared with 48 percent in 2010, while Pontiac’s 57 percent share of renters was a jump from the 47 percent who rented in 2010. In Auburn Hills, the renter population rose to 53 percent from 44 percent. Kurt Metzger, the founder of Data Driven Detroit, said the changes in each city came about as foreclosures jumped, home values dropped, some properties were demolished and more multifamily units were built. “These are communities that really got hit by foreclosure,” he said. He said, too, that some potential owners still have concerns about recouping their investment if they decide to leave the area. The effects from the foreclosure crisis that caused many people to lose their homes linger. “You’re not selling condos; you’re renting apartments,” he said. “In this area, people aren’t necessarily ready to put down roots.” Doug Ressler, manager of business intelligence for Yardi Matrix, which owns RENTCafé, said the increase in suburban rentals may come because some people are delaying home purchases, but still want suburban or exurban features, like yards. “They’re renting longer, but they want the best bang for their buck,” Ressler said. After the Great Recession, more single-family homes became rental properties. Metzger said a number of homeowners chose to rent their properties in order to cover payments they could not afford. Investors also bought up homes out of foreclosure and rented them out. Now, Ressler said, some office buildings are being converted to apartments and some single-family homes are being built for renters, not buyers. Metzger, who is also the mayor of Pleasant Ridge, said there are differences between the cities that flipped — but common threads, as well.

See HERTEL on Page 17

See RENTER on Page 18

Michael Berger poses for a portrait at SpareBox Storage in Walled Lake. | NIC ANTAYA FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

MORE PLACES FOR OUR STUFF Self-storage just keeps growing as property values soar Michael Berger didn’t get the amount he wanted for his self-storage portfolio when it sold last month. The Southfield-based real estate investor got much more. The $170 million sale of his 28 U-Store Management Co. properties to Colorado-based SpareBox Storage is proof positive that the self-storage industry, several decades ago just a blip on the commercial real estate radar and now a nearly $40 billion industry, has rebounded from the early uncertain days of the COVID-19 pandemic. In some ways, the sector has capitalized from the global public health

LARRY PEPLIN FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

BY KIRK PINHO

“I’M NOT BEING HYPERBOLIC WHEN I TELL YOU THAT I’VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT IN ALL MY (34) YEARS IN BUSINESS.” — Maurice Pogoda, president, Pogoda Cos

crisis as people make room in their homes for remote working environments, as the home sales market drives additional storage needs, as offices and restaurants search for ways to hang on to currently unneeded equipment and furniture to accommodate social distancing and other measures, experts said. That increased demand, in turn, has driven up rents and driven down vacancies. “It rebounded quickly and our occupancy hit record levels for the last 12 months,” Berger said, noting that he would entertain opportunities to re-enter the self-storage market in the future. See SELF-STORAGE on Page 18

HEALTH CARE

Hertel: Neutral so far on Medicaid mental health debate BY CHAD LIVENGOOD

The state’s top health official is staying neutral for now on dueling efforts underway in the Legislature to overhaul the management structure of Michigan’s $3 billion-a-year Medicaid program for adults with severe mental health and substance abuse disorders. Instead of opposing or supporting competing Republican-authored reform bills, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is assessing where there are gaps in access to mental health and substance abuse treatment, MDHHS Director Elizabeth Hertel said.

Hertel

Doeh

“We are spending our time right now internally identifying gaps in service access and putting together plans and proposals to try to expand those services and increase access across the state,” Hertel said in a videoconference interview for the an-

nual Crain’s Health Care Leadership Summit. “... It’s incumbent upon us right now to identify those areas that are lacking in service provision and trying our best to work with providers to expand access to service in those areas.” In an interview with Crain’s pre-recorded for the summit’s attendees, Hertel acknowledged there are “serious gaps” in access to services, particularly rural and urban areas where there are often shortages in psychiatrists and psychologists. “I think this system, in particular, continues to provide immense opportunities for improvement,” Hertel said.

OCTOBER 18, 2021 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 3

REAL ESTATE INSIDER

Key retail property across from Oakland Mall sells for $34M

Kirk

PINHO

Amid a global pandemic that has shaken the brick-and-mortar retail industry even more, a Baltimore buyer is betting $34 million on the success of a key property across from Oakland Mall in

Troy. Continental Realty Corp., a private equity fund, has purchased Oakland Center and Oakland Square at 14 Mile and John R roads totaling some 392,000 square feet. Tenants in the 87 percent leased shopping center include TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, Kohl’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, DSW, Michaels, and Planet Fitness, according to a press release. “We were attracted by the opportunity to acquire two high-quality assets below replacement cost in a dense in-fill location.” Josh Dinstein, senior vice president for acquisitions for Continental Realty, said. “The greater Detroit metropolitan region offers compelling fundamentals to ensure the long-term health of these assets. Favorable financing, a low vacancy rate across the Troy retail market, and the lack of new supply allow us to have confidence in the ability to deliver a strong risk-adjusted yield to our investors.” According to CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service, the Troy retail market — which encompasses both the southern portion of the city and the northern portion — has retail assets valued at about $1.3 billion, with roughly 8.6 million square feet. In the southern sector of the city, retail properties have a vacancy rate of 4.6 percent and lease rates of $30.33 per square foot per year, CoStar says, while in the northern portion of the city, vacancy rates are 4.8 percent and rents are $21.78 per square foot per year. “The coronavirus’ impact on the market may lead to lasting structural changes within the retail sector,” CoStar says in its market report. “E-commerce has flourished, and spending and shopping habits may be permanently altered, particularly as brickand-mortar retailers may be unable to adapt to the changing environment.”

100 percent leased. The sale marks Continental Realty’s first foray into the Detroit area retail market, although the company says it has spent more than $140 million on shopping centers, with more than 760,000 square feet acquired since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Chicago headquarters office of brokerage house JLL represented the seller, Boca Raton, Fla.-based Urban Retail Properties LLC. “We are continuing to see strong demand for well-located, stabilized shopping centers situated outside of primary markets,” Amy Sands, a JLL broker who worked on the deal, said in a statement. “Investors continue to migrate into the Midwest in search of yield and product driving pricing to levels higher than pre-COVID.” A spokesperson for Continental Realty said the company didn’t have a brokerage firm on the deal. The spokesperson also said the company is in the process of determining who will manage and lease the property.

Brick repair at the National Theatre The Oakland Square retail property in Troy was part of a $34 million real estate deal that closed last month. A Baltimore-based buyer also bought the Oakland Plaza shopping center. | COSTAR GROUP INC.

“WE WERE ATTRACTED BY THE OPPORTUNITY TO ACQUIRE TWO HIGHQUALITY ASSETS BELOW REPLACEMENT COST IN A DENSE IN-FILL LOCATION.” — Josh Dinstein, senior vice president for acquisitions, Continental Realty

That’s strong compared with the metro Detroit region as a whole. Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Advisors Inc., in a 2021 retail outlook report, said the region’s retail vacancy is expected to fall to 6 percent from 6.5 percent and that rents are ticking upward, with a 1 percent increase to $14.50 per square foot. Oakland Plaza has three buildings totaling 171,500 square feet and is 71 percent leased, while Oakland Square also has three buildings totaling about 220,200 square feet and is

Crews working on National Theatre brick repairs downtown on Tuesday morning. | KIRK PINHO/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

The historic Albert Kahn-designed National Theatre downtown is undergoing facade repair. The project at the theater, which is ultimately envisioned to have its facade restored as an entryway into whatever becomes of Dan Gilbert’s Monroe Blocks development, is expected to be completed by the middle of next month, a spokesperson for Gilbert’s Bedrock LLC real estate company said Monday. The rear portion of the building is expected to be demolished. The Monroe Blocks project broke ground in 2018 although no vertical construction has taken place as Bedrock has been redesigning its original vision, which included high-rises with office and residential space. Last month, at the Crain’s Detroit Business Detroit Homecoming event, CEO Kofi Bonner said the company is “working actively on the Monroe Blocks” and that it “will probably be under construction” in the next three to five years. Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB

MANUFACTURING

Council fires back on Johnson’s Piston Group in ongoing legal battle BY DUSTIN WALSH

The Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council has filed a countersuit against Piston Group, alleging breach of contract and defamation in an ongoing legal dispute over the minority leadership of the auto supplier. The two organizations have been sparring since last year over Piston Group’s minority-enterprise business status — a valuable certification doled out and rescinded by the MMSDC. The MMSDC pulled Piston Group’s certification in February after it determined its CEO, former Detroit Piston Vinnie Johnson, did not run the day-to-day operations of his large supplier, which operates four subsidiaries — Piston Automotive, Irvin Automotive, the Detroit Thermal Systems joint venture with Valeo, and 4 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 18, 2021

office furniture unit Airea. To be certified, a company must be 51 percent majority-owned by a person of color, actively managed in dayto-day operations Johnson by a person of color and operate independently, according to the organization. The heads of Piston Group’s four divisions are white, which the MMSDC says violates its rules. Piston Group, owned by former the Detroit Pistons star, sued the council in May to restore the certification. In June, the District Court judge filed a temporary restraining order that reinstated the certification while the court

case proceeded. That case is set for a jury trial later this year. In its countersuit, filed in Wayne County Circuit Court this month, MMSDC alleges Piston Group breached its contract with the organization by filing the original lawsuit. The Piston Group and the MMSDC declined to comment on the countersuit. By participating in the certification process, the organization agreed “to hold MMSDC free and harmless from any and all claims, demands, and damages whatsoever arising out of the presentation of this application and agrees to indemnify and hold MMSDC harmless for any and all liability in connection with the certification of the information contained in this application,” the lawsuit states.

The MMSDC also alleges Piston Group defamed the organization and its CEO Marie Sourie-Robinson in its lawsuit and in the press and that has caused financial and reputation harm. In its original lawsuit, Piston Group alleges Robinson has an ax to grind with Piston Group, most notably being upset the company hired away then-council executive Frank Ervin in 2018, who now serves as group vice president for government affairs for the supplier. The lawsuit also alleges that Robinson threatened to decertify Piston on several occasions after Johnson declined to donate $300,000 to an MMSDC initiative and failed to participate as a sponsor in the organization’s golf outing fundraiser in 2019. Piston Group, the largest Blackowned auto supplier in the U.S., alleged that Robinson and the MMSDC

were “vindictive, willful, wanton or malicious” in their actions. The MMSDC has denied the allegations. The Piston Group and Johnson “made these false and defamatory statements in an attempt to bully the MMSDC into deeming them certified MBEs despite the fact that neither Vincent Johnson nor any other minority member is responsible for the day-to-day management of any of the Piston companies,” the lawsuit said. “As a direct and proximate result of (the defendants) wrongful conduct, MMSDC has suffered substantial economic injury, loss of good will, loss of business opportunities, reputational harm and standing in the community.” Piston Group has not yet responded to the counterclaim in court.

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MANUFACTURING

Soave to sell Detroit scrap metal business to Cleveland-Cliffs Steel making giant buys Ferrous Processing and Trading in $775M deal BY KURT NAGL

Steel making giant Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. is entering the ferrous scrap business with the purchase of Detroit-based Ferrous Processing and Trading Co. from Detroit-based Soave Enterprises Inc. in a $775 million deal. The acquisition, announced Monday, marks the Cleveland-based steel manufacturer’s entry into scrap materials. It is expected to clear regulatory approvals in the fourth quarter, according to a news release. The deal gives one of the largest domestic steel companies in North America control of one the largest processors and distributors of ferrous scrap. As the largest supplier of steel to the automotive industry, Cleveland-Cliffs’ move into scrap would allow it to buy back material directly from clients and cut the middlemen, Lourenco Goncalves, president and CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs, said in the release. “The acquisition of FPT will enhance our ability to buy back prime scrap directly from our clients, cutting the middlemen and improving the margin contribution from scrap for both Cleveland-Cliffs and for the manufacturing and service center clients

that will be able to sell scrap directly back to us,” Goncalves said. Ferrous Processing and Trading was founded in 1961 and acquired by Detroit-based Soave Enterprises LLC, the holding company for multiple businesses run by President and CEO Anthony Soave, in 1997. “Both Ferrous Processing and Trade and Cleveland-Cliffs recognize the value that each of the companies brings to the other, and we believe this acquisition provides a remarkable opportunity for their continued growth,” Soave said in a statement emailed to Crain’s. Soave Enterprises ranks 13th on Crain’s Private 200 list of the largest privately held companies in Southeast Michigan with $1.7 billion in revenue in 2020. Its portfolio includes commercial, industrial and residential real estate, hydroponics and agriculture companies, luxury automotive dealerships in Kansas City and Topeka, and the New Center Stamping plant in Detroit — acquired in 2019 as the portfolio’s first manufacturing plant. The purchase agreement with Cleveland-Cliffs is on a cash-free, debtfree basis, the release said. Ferrous Processing and Trading operates 22 scrap processing plants, mostly in Michigan and Ohio, and rep-

Detroit-based Ferrous Processing and Trading owns around 15 percent of the domestic prime scrap market. | SOAVE ENTERPRISES

resents around 15 percent of the domestic prime scrap market. In the twelve months ending Aug. 31, it generated EBITDA of about $100 million. The transaction includes all of the company’s scrap yards, as well as steel service center Koil and auto salvage yard Parts Galore, both located in Detroit. Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE: CLF) hauled in a record $795 million profit in the second quarter. Its stock was trading at $21.97 per share as of Mon-

day afternoon, up more than 6 percent from where it opened. The scrap company has around 600 employees. It is unclear how the transaction would impact jobs or the company’s leadership team. A Cleveland-Cliffs spokesperson said the company could not comment on the potential impact prior to the deal closing. For the past year, Cleveland-Cliffs has tapped into an unprecedented demand for steel brought on by the unex-

pectedly speedy reboot of manufacturing plants in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Scrap demand has also soared as a result. “With all the new flat-rolled (electric-arc furnace) capacity coming online in our market over the next four years, prime scrap will only become more and more scarce,” Goncalves said. Contact: knagl@crain.com; (313) 446-0337; @kurt_nagl

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EDITORIAL

Michigan’s leaders aren’t on same development page

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. | STATE OF MICHIGAN

Chad

LIVENGOOD

Site selectors also have taken note that the Michigan Legislature let its only tax incentive program for new job creation — the income tax-capturing Good Jobs for Michigan program — expire at the end of 2019, effectively shrinking the MEDC’s proverbial toolbox in the interstate bidding war for new capital investment for the past two years. That happened after relations between Whitmer and Shirkey melted down in the fall of 2019 following her line-item veto spree in the state budget because lawmakers wouldn’t raise taxes to fix roads. Shirkey later called Whitmer “batshit crazy.” Greg Burkart, a site selection consultant and managing director of the Detroit office of Duff & Burkart Phelps, attended the Aug. 4 meeting with Michigan business leaders. He said one of his colleagues’ comment about Michigan’s political divisiveness “is really problematic.” “The last time we actually had both parties kind of on the same sheet of music with economic development was when Curtis Hertel and John Engler were in Lansing,” Burkart said. That was the late 1990s — a generation ago — when the late Democratic House Speaker Curtis Hertel Sr. and former three-term Republican Gov. John Engler were sharing power. As the past year has shown, Whitmer, Shirkey and House Speaker Jason Wentworth aren’t even in the same Zoom room together talking on a regular basis, much less singing from the same sheet of music. See LIVENGOOD on Page 17

Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey. | DALE G. YOUNG FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

DANIEL SAAD FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

n early August, a group of Michigan business leaders hosted a dozen of the country’s top site selection consultants who analyze and steer major corporate investments in manufacturing, tech and other industries. The meeting at Detroit’s Shinola Hotel was attended by some of Michigan’s most influential players in economic development — top executives from DTE Energy Co. and Consumers Energy Co., the Michigan Economic Development Corp., the Detroit Regional Partnership and Business Leaders for Michigan, according to multiple individuals in attendance. The 12 members of AS IT TURNS the Site Selectors OUT, SITE Guild — a 50-member exclusive club SELECTION within this niche inCONSULTANTS dustry — gave the READ OUR NEWS, Michigan business leaders an unvarTOO. nished assessment of what they saw as the state’s weaknesses: Higher manufacturing production labor costs and higher average electricity rates than southern states and a lack of large-scale sites ready for speedy development. One of the out-of-state consultants brought up another pitfall in trying to site a business in Michigan: Political divisiveness in Lansing. As it turns out, site selection consultants read our news, too. In the past year alone, there have been endless headlines about:  Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Republican-controlled Legislature fighting over COVID public health restrictions, from a Michigan Supreme Court showdown to legislative bans on school mask mandates written into the state budget.  Whitmer’s life being threatened by a group of wanna-be-militiamen who plotted to kidnap her and “try” her for treason in Wisconsin.  Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey bragging to his constituents on video tape that he wanted to challenge the female governor to a fist fight on the front lawn of the state Capitol.

COMMENTARY

Checks and balances needed on Whitmer’s wage order BY JOHN KENNEDY

ichigan’s system of checks and balances has held strong for 184 years, clearly stating that laws are created by the Legislature, enforced by the governor, and evaluated by the courts. The checks and balances of John Kennedy is chair of the West this system are designed Michigan Policy to prevent any of the Forum and CEO three branches from becoming too powerful. of KentwoodSince taking office, based Autocam Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Medical. has signed 418 executive orders, nearly four times the number signed during the eight years of Gov. Rick Snyder, using her pen to circumvent the Legislature and the voices of the people of Michigan. Beyond these executive orders, the governor has taken to unilateral policy making — including line-item vetoing massive parts of state budgets and then moving the dollars around using the little-known administrative board to put the dollars where she wanted. Prevailing wage has historically made construction bids less competitive and has shuffled more of taxpayers’ dollars to labor unions. In 2018, the Legislature repealed the prevailing wage contract system in Michigan following a petition drive that included signatures of almost 400,000 Michigan residents. This change in law was accomplished by following the proper democratic system with the previous administration. Last week, Whitmer utilized her “executive powers” to reverse the law around prevailing wage, which was a system designed

Write us: Crain’s welcomes responses from readers. Letters should be as brief as possible and may be edited for length or clarity. Send letters to Crain’s Detroit Business, 1155 Gratiot Ave, Detroit, MI 48207, or email crainsdetroit@crain.com. Please include your complete name, city from which you are writing and a phone number for fact-checking purposes. 8 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 18, 2021

to promote competitiveness that has so far fueled her Fix the Damn Roads agenda to make it sweeter for one of her major donors: unions. This unilateral change in law around prevailing wage — which requires taxpayers to pay special rates for special interests on construction projects — was against the will of over 400,000 people and the Legislature. The governor’s administrative rulemaking clearly shows that she does not believe in our democratic system — she believes she can merely change the law herself. The timing of this change comes just over one year before Whitmer’s critical next election — an election that will determine if she remains as governor; therefore raising very valid questions if she’s putting politics and the interests of a connected few over the hardworking taxpayers who sacrifice to IF WHITMER pay for these projects. The next step for WANTS TO the change in rules by CHANGE LAW, Whitmer? Likely a legal battle. It’s a battle SHE NEEDS TO that will cost taxpay- GO THROUGH ers more, but it’s a battle now needed to THE PROPER preserve the balance CHANNELS. of power and respect the will of the people; and it’s a battle that should result in overturning the governor’s decision. Continuously finding ways to subvert the Michigan Constitution will result in the degradation of our system. If Whitmer wants to change law, she needs to go through the proper channels and get a majority of the Legislature to support the change in law (55 representatives, 20 senators), and at that point, the governor can enact her suggested change to law.

Sound off: Crain’s considers longer opinion pieces from guest writers on issues of interest to business readers. Email ideas to Managing Editor Michael Lee at malee@crain.com.

OTHER VOICES

‘Productivity credits’ help rehabilitate prisoners, save money BY GARY MAYNARD AND GARY MOHR

For the past several months, we’ve all seen the news covering recent spikes in violence throughout Michigan and around the nation. There is no doubt that we Gary Maynard need to rethink is former the way we appresident of the proach crime and American how we can truly Correctional Association and make our comformer state munities safer. corrections For decades — executive in across multiple Maryland, states — we’ve South Carolina, both seen what Iowa, and does and doesn’t Oklahoma. work when preparing incarcerated people for life outside prison. In Michigan, innovative programs like Vocational Village — a jobs training program for the incarcerated — have helped drive down recidivism Gary Mohr rates to historic served as the lows. president of the Unfortunately, American once someone Correctional Association and has served their time, countless director of the obstacles stand in Ohio their way as they Department of try to seek stable Rehabilitation jobs and make and Correction. ends meet. These barriers lead to instability that feeds the cycle of crime, and makes it more likely to reoffend and return to prison, creating more victims along the way. It’s a familiar story, but it doesn’t have to be that way. In many other states, the opportunities people can access from prison make reentry into society easier. Michigan has the opportunity to create those same opportunities and end cycles of crime through the Safer Michigan Act. This bill package includes proven approaches to making communities safer, including the implementation of productivity credits — incentives for low-level offenders behind bars to participate and complete personal development programs, like continuing education, job skills, and rehabilitation programming. At its core, the public safety system should be about both accountability and rehabilitation, something that Michigan knows well. As public safety professionals, we’ve seen the behindthe-scenes realities of the corrections system, and we know where it falls short, as well as what’s worked in other states. Michigan lawmakers should continue to prioritize public safety and pass legislation to help people convicted of crimes re-enter society as productive members of their communities, while also keeping prisons and communities safe. A report from Alliance for Safety and Justice shows that in Minnesota, those who completed work or education programs behind bars were 17 percent less likely to be sent back to prison upon release. If we continue to release people from prison without offering any personal development opportuni-

ties, we’re essentially asking them to provement and building a new life on create a new life for themselves with- the other side. That positive motivation out any of the tools they may need to can improve safety and reduce misdo so. By offering education and job conduct in prisons, helping both the incarcerated peotraining in prisple and the guards ons, MichiganTHE STATE LEGISLATURE maintaining orders behind bars der. will have a higher HAS BEGUN HEARINGS Positive results chance of reenterfrom incentive ing the communi- ON THE SAFER MICHIGAN programs in other ty successfully — ACT. states show why and a far lesser this can work in Michigan. Connectichance of returning to prison. The vast majority of our colleagues cut saved nearly $40 million by implein the corrections system support this menting productivity credits, and legislation, too. We’ve seen training Washington state saved $15,000 per programs help people serving long incarcerated person with this apsentences stay focused on self-im- proach. With a corrections budget of $2

rehabilitative programming, we can change the outcome for thousands of incarcerated Michiganders. And, the money saved from corrections spending could be used to make Michigan safer by repurposing those funds for much-needed investments in workforce development, community-based crime prevention and trauma recovery. Michigan knows what it takes to end cycles of crime and expand opportunity. Now, the legislature has an opportunity to cut costs, safely reduce the prison population, and grow the workforce — all while improving public safety. Together, we can make a safer Michigan for all.

billion, Michigan would be able to save its taxpayers millions. The concept of productivity credits in the state is supported widely by safety professionals like ourselves, as well as bipartisan organizations and legislators. Police organizations and faith groups support similar legislation at the state and federal level, proving that these reforms are bigger than politics. The state Legislature has begun hearings on the Safer Michigan Act, which would bring this smart approach to the Great Lakes State. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle should rise to support this legislation immediately. By providing incentives to complete

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Greater than the sum of the parks Movie Screenings by Midtown Detroit Inc. are held in New Center Park.

Coalition brings neighborhood, downtown Detroit park groups together to collaborate BY SHERRI WELCH Can collaboration among Detroit

park conservancies and “friends groups” bring new resources, joint programming and cost efficiencies? Ten groups caring for neighborhood parks and downtown public spaces have banded together to find out. Operating as the Detroit Parks Coalition and with a memorandum of understanding, the group is looking at opportunities to share costs, collaborate on programming and jointly fundraise, while also establishing a consolidated body to work with the city of Detroit on funding and improving the parks. The effort began with five groups who came together in 2018-19: Chandler Park Conservancy as fiduciary, Belle Isle Conservancy, Clark Park Coalition, Friends of Rouge Park and People for Palmer Park. In January, five more joined: Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, Downtown Detroit Partnership, Friends of Patton Park, Midtown Detroit and Sidewalk Detroit.

10 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 18, 2021

“IT’S NOT THIS CONSTANT NARRATIVE OF DOWNTOWN VS. THE NEIGHBORHOODS. THEY ARE SUPPORTING THE NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS.” —Sigal Hemy, interim director, Detroit Parks Coalition

The expanded membership brings to the coalition both neighborhood groups and major downtown park conservancies with operational and fundraising expertise and ties to business leaders who’ve been supporting parks in the city and looking at best practices for sustaining them for years. There’s huge value for both the prominent downtown park conservancies and the neighborhood parks in collaboration, said Sigal Hemy, a former program officer of the Erb foundation, hired by the coalition in August to serve as its interim, part-time director. It’s good for the big downtown park conservancies to be seen as sharing resources and knowledge, Hemy said. “It’s not this constant narrative of downtown vs. the neighborhoods. They are supporting the neighborhood parks.” Conversely, if some of the neigh-

borhood groups can springboard off of some of the knowledge and experience the large conservancies bring, “that’s a big win for them,” she said. The neighborhood groups also have their own knowledge to share about managing volunteers, for example, that downtown park conservancies can learn from. In the planning phase since 2018-19 with a $30,000 grant from the Erb foundation, the Detroit Parks Coalition is now at a nascent point. It’s attracted more than $2 million in planning and operating grants from the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation and the Kresge Foundation. It’s also gained the attention of business leaders at the regional CEO group who are engaged with its work through the DDP. See PARKS on Page 12

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FOCUS | NONPROFITS

PARKS

From Page 10

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12 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 18, 2021

Three years ago, the CEO group convened stakeholders to look at development and maintenance of parks in Detroit, many supported by its members. The committee looked at best practices, efficiencies in services and how parks can be sustained. A 2019 study commissioned from the Washington, D.C.based Urban Land Institute echoed earlier research, reinforcing the need for a citywide parks coalition. Businesses and foundations have put a lot of money behind public spaces, including the Detroit riverfront, Campus Martius and Beacon Park, over the past 20 years since work on the riverfront began, said Jack Entertainment Chairman Matt Cullen, who is chairman of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy’s board, a vice chairman of DDP and a member of the regional CEO group. “The CEO group is very enthusiastic about the work that the parks coalition is doing,” he said. “It’s very much aligned with what we are hoping to happen and want to be supportive of.”

Building the coalition Though the CEO group is not a member of the coalition, it’s very much at the table through the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy and DDP, Hemy said. Libby Levy, who did the original strategic plan for the five initial parks, is an at-large member of its leadership team, as is Laura Trudeau, retired managing director of the Kresge Foundation’s Detroit program. Recently, the coalition secured its first joint allocation, a $500,000 designation in the state’s 2022 budget. “That’s a big win for us already ... instead of the state picking and choosing specific projects, they are allocating the (funds) to parks coalition and the 10 members will work out how it is (split),” Hemy said. “It’s the people who are using the parks every day making decisions about that funding.” The coalition has been approved for an $180,000 grant from the Kresge Foundation to stand up the organization with paid staff, a business model and a governance committee to figure out if we should spin out to our own 501c3, Hemy said. It will fund a pilot for the coalition to cover “planning and doing,” with efforts launching in January and running through June 2023, Hemy said. Initial work will include allocating the state funding among the membership parks, developing collaborative programming, hiring a full-time coalition leader, exploring 501(c)3 status for the group and coordinating communication and marketing, leaders said. “One of the things we’re thinking about is having tours for the various parks (members) so they can get a sense of the different programming and amenities,” like the new skate park at Chandler Park, Hemy said. “That’s best-practice sharing but also gives them a sense of who has what and where they can ask questions.” The coalition expects to hear on two other pending grant applications before the end of the year, one to support the group’s pilot and the other to fund programming across its member parks. While membership includes only major parks in the neighborhoods and downtown now, the goal is to grow to eventually serve conservancies, block clubs and neighborhood groups across

“AT THE END OF THE DAY, WE WANT PEOPLE TO HAVE REALLY GOOD EXPERIENCE IN OUR PARKS, TO MAKE GOOD MEMORIES. WHEN WE THINK ABOUT PARKS, WE HAVE TO THINK ABOUT A CITYWIDE SYSTEM.” — Alex Allen, executive director, Chandler Park Conservancy, and chairman, Detroit Parks Coalition

Annu Roug

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FOCUS | NONPROFITS

Larson

Trulik

ing grass, though that doesn’t always happen to the extent it’s needed — especially during the pandemic when the city lost revenue while park use skyrocketed. Philanthropy tends to help with a specific capital project or program, while endowments benefit larger organizations like the DDP and riverfront conservancy, as opposed to the smaller People for Palmer Park, for example. Some park groups also have membership fees, and rely on volunteer work.

Best practices

Visitors explore the Belle Isle Aquarium on Belle Isle in Detroit. | BELLE ISLE CONSERVANCY

Annual Butterfly and Prairie Walk at Rouge Park in Detroit. | FRIENDS OF ROUGE PARK

the city’s parks, Hemy said. “We’re starting with this tight group that has a lot in common, and our hope is we can find a way to expand and benefit everyone as we grow,” she said. Already, the coalition is working with smaller organizations, sharing how members improve safety in parks and program them. The Detroit Pistons Foundation is making mini-grants to those groups to help them implement some of those practices, Hemy said. “At the end of the day, we want peo-

ple to have really good experience in our parks, to make good memories,” said Alex Allen, executive director of the Chandler Park Conservancy and chairman of the Detroit Parks Coalition. “When we think about parks, we have to think about a citywide system,” he said. “We gain a lot of perspective from things happening in other parks ... as far as programs, fundraising, as far as our relationship with the city of Detroit.” The coalition gives members the ability to go to the city with one voice to address issues they all face, like trash, Allen said. It also brings opportunities to jointly pursue new revenue. Funders are getting requests from individual parks, he said. “From their vantage point, it’s a lot easier and maybe more efficient to make a (grant) to one entity to support parks.” The coalition has something to offer for members big and small, downtown and in the neighborhoods, Hemy said. Smaller organizations have a lot to learn about capacity and structure, she said. At the same time, “the larger organizations have a lot to learn from smaller organizations about how they mobilize volunteers.” “The Detroit Parks Coalition is a clear demonstration of what can happen when nonprofits and community stakeholders are working collaboratively and in partnership with one another,” said Michele Hodges, president and CEO of the Belle Isle Conservancy. “Already we have made strides with fundraising, in furthering a solid relationship with the city of Detroit, in coordinated programming, impactful marketing and communications, in establishing a vision for the long-term sustainability of our parks and, perhaps most significantly, equity and access to opportunity for all parks and their visitors.” Right now member parks are funded through a mix of city of Detroit parks and recreation resources, philanthropic support, endowments, business sponsorships and volunteer labor, Hemy said. The city owns the majority of park land and does ongoing maintenance like picking up trash and mow-

The collaborative model for park conservancies is new to Detroit but not other cities like New York, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, said Trudeau. Trudeau benchmarked efforts in those cities during her time at Kresge and produced a report on models for long-term sustainability of parks and public spaces with Brookings Institution. “One of the observations was that collaboration and cooperation can lead to more resources and a lot of synergy in terms of knowledge-sharing and cost-sharing,” Trudeau said. A decade later, the DDP, on whose board Trudeau serves, and its CEO Eric Larson tapped her again to do research on the sustainability of public spaces. By the spring of 2018, the DDP was testing the waters for an endowment campaign while also seeking to increase earned revenue and sponsor-

Cullen

Trudeau

ships to create revenue for the ongoing upkeep of Campus Martius and other parks it oversees, including: Cadillac Square, Campus Martius, Capitol Park, Grand Circus Park and Beacon Park. And by summer that year, the regional CEO group was looking at the issue, led by Cullen and a committee that included Trudeau, Larson and others. “Cities can do a lot, but there are things the private sector — foundations, nonprofits, companies and individuals — can do to make the parks even better,” by working to grow the pot of resources available to parks, building on the city’s investments, Trudeau said. The coalition “allows us to think about the entire network of parks as a whole and try to ensure equity,” she said. As with Campus Martius, there is always a lot of excitement and funding available for the creation of great ideas, Larson said. Raising the capital to build the park was not easy, but it was successful. But what often isn’t looked at is the ongoing sustained funding. “If we’re going to continue to represent a network of parks that are best-inclass for public spaces ... the last thing you want to do is fall short on operating needs,” he said. Funding requests that aren’t coordinated are going to get harder and harder to justify for public-private partners, Larson said. “There are investment opportunities that are out there, whether it’s the dollars potential available through (the

American Rescue Plan Act), the new infrastructure spending bill or just a better way to approach a potential funder. Having a united and collective voice often is more compelling and can be a stronger voice as we advocate for ... sustainable operation of these public spaces.” The ability for neighborhood parks and downtown parks to work together on a unified basis is much more strategic and equitable, he said. “I’m very excited about a more formal working relationship with the network of parks ... (and) hope the city would feel more comfortable that there is a collective voice,” Larson said. Right now, fundraising is done by individual parks, Cullen said. By definition, making one-off park investments isn’t necessarily the best approach. “You’d like to have a consistent funding mechanism with sufficient capacity. That’s what we are aspiring to and continue to work on,” Larson said. The goal “is to make sure our community can support those types of spaces in a more consistent and broadbased way.” The Detroit Parks Coalition is a great example of organizations working together to share resources and scale services, said Paul Trulik, CEO of Apparatus Solutions and CFO of the DDP. It’s also a notable example of how long it takes to bring groups together, said Trulik, who is consulting with nonprofits to help them do scenario-planning through a program hosted and funded by Detroit-based Co.act Detroit. “Perhaps the pandemic (and) current environment will expedite some of these conversations” among other nonprofits, Trulik said. Crain’s reporter Annalise Frank contributed to this story. Contact: swelch@crain.com (313) 446-1694; @SherriWelch

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CRAIN'S LIST | NONPROFITS Ranked by 2020 revenue ORGANIZATION, FISCAL-YEAR END ADDRESS PHONE; WEBSITE

TOP EXECUTIVE(S)

TOTAL REVENUE ($000,000) 2020/ 2019

GROSS RECEIPTS ($000,000) 2020

TOTAL EXPENSES ($000,000) 2020

FUNDRAISING EXPENSES ($000,000) 2020

PURPOSE OF NONPROFIT

FORGOTTEN HARVEST INC. (06/2021)

Kirk Mayes CEO

$138.3 1

$138.2 1

$100.7 1

$2.9 1

To relieve hunger in the Detroit metropolitan community by rescuing surplus, prepared and perishable food and donating it to emergency food providers

NSF INTERNATIONAL (12/2019)

Kevan Lawlor president and CEO

$124.6 1

$130.7 1

$106.6 1

$0.0

Develops standards, provides product certification and education for public health and safety in the areas of food, water, consumer products and the environment

JEWISH FEDERATION OF METROPOLITAN DETROIT/UNITED JEWISH FOUNDATION (5/2019)

Steve Ingber CEO

$121.1

$259.4

$94.5

$2.7

To take care of the needs of the Jewish people and build a strong and vibrant Jewish future in Detroit, in Israel and around the world

GLEANERS COMMUNITY FOOD BANK INC. (09/2020)

Gerald Brisson president and CEO

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$4.1

To provide households with access to sufficient, nutritious food and related resources

MACOMB-OAKLAND REGIONAL CENTER INC. (9/2020)

Dennis Bott CEO

$100.5

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$0.0

To maximize human potential.

SAMARITAS (12/2020) 8131 E. Jefferson Ave., Detroit 48214 313-823-7700; samaritas.org

Sam Beals CEO

$99.8

$169.6

$95.2

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To connect people with families and communities, empower them to live their fullest life possible, and create a ripple effect of transformation

UNITED WAY FOR SOUTHEASTERN MICHIGAN (6/2021)

Darienne Hudson CEO

$89.0

To mobilize the caring power of Detroit and Southeastern Michigan to improve communities and individual lives in measurable and lasting ways

COMMUNITY LIVING SERVICES INC. (9/2020)

Annette Downey president and CEO

$80.9 3

$80.2 3

To support people with developmental disabilities to experience a full life with dignity, health and opportunity for growth

THE SALVATION ARMY - EASTERN MICHIGAN DIVISION (09/2020)

John Turner divisional commander, Lt. Colonel

$77.3

$5.6

Providing people with services to meet their physical, emotional and spiritual needs

DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS (6/2020)

Salvador Salort-Pons director, president and CEO

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$204.8

$48.9

$3.7

To serve the public through the collection, conservation, exhibition and interpretation of art of a broad range of cultures

DETROIT EMPLOYMENT SOLUTIONS CORP. (6/2020)

Terri Weems president

$72.4

$64.5

$0.0

Delivers workforce services and programs to Detroit businesses and residents

ORGAN PROCUREMENT AGENCY OF MICHIGAN (GIFT OF LIFE) (12/

Dorrie Dils chief executive officer

$69.3

$0.0

Gift of Life Michigan facilitates organ and tissue donation from deceased donors for the state.

AREA AGENCY ON AGING 1-B (9/2020)

Michael Karson president and CEO

$60.2

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$0.3

To preserve the independence, dignity and quality of life of older adults, adults with disabilities and family caregivers by supporting a comprehensive service-delivery system and providing access to community-based care

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Louis Piszker CEO

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$0.0

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$53.5

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Brad Coulter CEO

$51.7 1

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$0.5 1

Committed to helping children, teens, adults and seniors reach self-sufficiency through offering positive hand-up life experiences

THE HENRY FORD (THE EDISON INSTITUTE INC.) (12/2020)

Patricia Mooradian president and CEO

$50.8

$84.2

$64.7

$2.7

To provide unique educational experiences. To inspire people to learn from America's traditions

THE GUIDANCE CENTER (9/2020)

Kari Walker president and CEO

$44.8

$42.0

$0.3

Offers services to more than 20,000 children and adults every year in Wayne County in these key areas: early childhood, children & youth, adult services, intellectual & developmental disabilities, Kids-TALK Children's Advocacy Center, Champions of Wayne, and the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC). The organization's mission is: Nurture development. Foster resilience. Cultivate well-being.

STARFISH FAMILY SERVICES (09/2020)

Ann Kalass CEO

$42.4

$43.9

$0.9

Provide programs and support services that focus on early childhood education and development, behavioral health wellness and empowered parents

EASTERSEALS MICHIGAN (9/2020)

Brent Wirth president and CEO

$40.3

$41.2

$40.0

$0.7

Easterseals Michigan works to change the way the world defines and views disabilities

OAKLAND LIVINGSTON HUMAN SERVICE AGENCY (OLHSA) (12/31/2020)

Susan Harding CEO

$32.0 1

OLHSA empowers families and communities to gain the knowledge, skills and resources needed to improve their quality of life.

DETROIT ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY (12/2020)

Ron Kagan 4 executive director and CEO

$31.1

$40.2

$29.5

$1.2

Celebrating and saving wildlife

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Portia Roberson CEO

$30.5

$28.9

$0.6

To overcome racism, poverty and injustice and to build a community where all people may live in freedom, harmony, trust and affection

DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (8/2020)

Anne Parsons director, president and CEO 5

$29.9

$87.8

$31.6

$2.9

Musical experiences

YMCA OF METROPOLITAN DETROIT (12/2020)

Helene Weir president and CEO

$26.0

$11.2

$20.8

$0.8

To put Judeo-Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all. YMCA is committed to providing experiences that enhance: family and community, child and youth development and health and wellness

7 8 9 10

24 25

21800 Greenfield Road, Oak Park 48237 248-967-1500; forgottenharvest.org 789 N. Dixboro Road, Ann Arbor 48105 734-769-8010; nsf.org

6735 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills 48301 248-642-4260; jewishdetroit.org 2131 Beaufait, Detroit 48207 313-923-3535; gcfb.org

15600 19 Mile Road, Clinton Township 48038 586-263-8700; morcinc.org

3011 W. Grand Blvd,, Suite 500, Detroit 48202 313-226-9200; unitedwaysem.org 35425 Michigan Ave. W., Wayne 48184 734-467-7600; comlivserv.com

16130 Northland Drive, Southfield 48075 248-443-5500; salmich.org

5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit 48202 313-833-7900; dia.org

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2020) 3861 Research Park Drive, Ann Arbor 48108 866-500-5801; giftoflifemichigan.org

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7310 Woodward Ave., Suite 800, Detroit 48202 313-873-6000; waynemetro.org

36500 Corporate Drive, Farmington Hills 48331 248-553-5400; greenpath.org

20900 Oakwood Blvd., Dearborn 48124 313-982-6001; thehenryford.org 13101 Allen Road, Southgate 48195 734-785-7700; guidance-center.org

30000 Hiveley Road, Inkster 48141 734-728-3400; starfishfamilyservices.org

2399 E. Walton Blvd., Auburn Hills 48326 248-475-6400; eastersealsmichigan.com

196 Cesar E. Chavez Ave., Pontiac 48343 248-209-2600; olhsa.org 8450 W. 10 Mile Road, Royal Oak 48067 248-541-5717; detroitzoo.org 1400 Oakman Blvd., Detroit 48238 313-494-5500; focushope.edu

3711 Woodward Ave., Detroit 48201 313-576-5100; dso.org

1401 Broadway, Suite 3A, Detroit 48226 313-267-5300; ymcadetroit.org

$94.7

$124.6 2

$124.2

$76.9

$90.8

$102.0

$61.1

$136.1

$76.1

$61.0

$58.2

$34.9

$49.4

$55.3

$82.4

$40.9

$44.6

$37.4

$26.3

$46.9

$27.4

$41.0

$37.1

Researched by Sonya D. Hill: shill@crain.com | This list of 501(c)(3) status nonprofit organizations is an approximate compilation of the largest such organizations in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw and Livingston counties. Schools, hospitals, churches and associations are not included. It is not a complete listing but the most comprehensive available. Information was provided by the companies or from state or federal filings. Companies with headquarters elsewhere are listed with the address and top executive of their main Detroit-area office. Actual figures may vary. NA = not available. NOTES: 1. Nonprofit estimate. 2. Revenue for the not-for-profit division. 3. Fiscal year ending in Sept. 30, 2020. 4. To retire and be succeeded by Hayley Murphy in November. 5. To retire in fall 2022.

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CRAIN'S LIST | FOUNDATIONS Ranked by 2020 assets FOUNDATION ADDRESS; PHONE

TOP EXECUTIVE

ASSETS ($000,000) 2020/2019

GRANTS AWARDED ($000,000) 2020/2019

TYPE OF FOUNDATION

PURPOSE OF FOUNDATION

THE KRESGE FOUNDATION

Rip Rapson president and CEO

$4,221.7

$110.2 $165.7

Private independent foundation

The organization's mission is to promote human progress. Kresge fulfills that mission by dismantling structural and systemic barriers to equality and justice and strengthening pathways to opportunity for low-income people in America’s cities through grants, loans and other investment tools.

WILLIAM DAVIDSON FOUNDATION

Darin McKeever president and CEO

$1,444.9

$51.7 $56.2

Private independent foundation

To advance for future generations the economic, cultural and civic vitality of Southeast Michigan, Israel and the Jewish community

RALPH C. WILSON JR. FOUNDATION

David Egner president and CEO

$1,300.0

$115.3 $118.8

Private independent foundation

To fund programs aimed at active lifestyles, preparing for success, caregivers and entrepreneurship and economic development in Southeast Michigan and Western New York

COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN

Mariam Noland president

$1,113.3

$100.9 $87.0

Community foundation

Creates permanent, positive change in southeast Michigan through philanthropy

JEWISH FEDERATION OF METROPOLITAN DETROIT/UNITED JEWISH FOUNDATION

Steve Ingber CEO

$675.9

$69.4 $68.5

Community foundation

The foundation owns, manages and invests Jewish communal assets; it allocates funds for community needs and ensures that assets are available to promote the continuity of the Jewish people

THE SKILLMAN FOUNDATION

Angelique Power president and CEO

$519.9

$17.0 $16.3

Private independent foundation

A private philanthropy that serves as a champion of Detroit children. The foundation works to ensure Detroit youth achieve their highest aspirations by strengthening K-12 education, after-school learning opportunities and college and career pathways.

MICHIGAN HEALTH ENDOWMENT FUND

Paul Hillegonds CEO 1

$302.2

$36.1 $33.4

Private independent foundation

Seeks to improve the health of Michigan residents and reduce the cost of health care, with special emphasis on children and older adults

THE FRED A. & BARBARA M. ERB FAMILY FOUNDATION

Neil Hawkins president

$296.0

$12.0 $12.0

Private independent foundation

Advancing an environmentally healthy and culturally vibrant metropolitan Detroit and a flourishing Great Lakes ecosystem

MAX M. & MARJORIE S. FISHER FOUNDATION

Douglas Bitonti Stewart executive director

$281.1

$18.0 $15.2

Private independent foundation

Enrich humanity by strengthening and empowering children and families in need

HUDSON-WEBBER FOUNDATION

Melanca Clark president, CEO, trustee

$195.3

$7.2 $7.9

Private independent foundation

To improve the vitality and quality of life of the metropolitan Detroit community

ANN ARBOR AREA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION

Shelley Strickland, interim CEO and VP-Philanthropy; Elizabeth Petoskey, board chair

$177.5

$7.7 $6.0

Community foundation

To enrich the quality of life in our region through knowledgeable leadership, engaged grantmaking and creative partnerships with donors to make philanthropic investments and build endowment

MCGREGOR FUND

Kate Levin Markel president and secretary

$171.2

$7.3 $6.8

Private independent foundation

The geography of principal interest is the city of Detroit and Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties, and its grantmaking prioritizes basic needs, recovery and restoration, and transformational skill building opportunities for teens and adults in poverty

HERRICK FOUNDATION

Lisa Herrick Parker president Todd Herrick II vice president

$170.0

NA NA

Private independent foundation

To improve the general welfare of society through support of education, medical and scientific research and social welfare charitable organizations

FORD MOTOR CO. FUND

Mary Culler chairman and president

$161.8

NA NA

Private corporate foundation

Our mission is to strengthen communities and help make people’s lives better.

VERA AND JOSEPH DRESNER FOUNDATION

Virginia Romano CEO

$155.8

$6.6 $7.7

Private independent foundation

To transform lives through grants focused on health, youth and family and animal welfare

THE CARLS FOUNDATION

Elizabeth Stieg CEO, executive director

$148.1

NA $5.9

Supports children's medical, including health care facilities and programs with emphasis on hearing impairment, human services for children, and preservation of natural areas through conservancies

THE CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION 2

Lawrence Burns president and CEO

$138.0

$6.8 $6.0

Public foundation

Focused on the health and well-being of the children of Michigan and their families by working in collaboration with other organizations in the community. Current areas of focus for the foundation include mental health, nutritional wellness, abuse and neglect, oncology and cardiology research and injury prevention

ETHEL AND JAMES FLINN FOUNDATION

Andrea Cole executive director and CEO

$71.5

$2.3 $2.7

Private independent foundation

To improve mental health services for children, adolescents and adults, with a primary focus on Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw counties

THE JEWISH FUND

Margo Pernick executive director

$68.1

$2.3 $2.8

Public foundation

To support the overall health care and social welfare needs of the Jewish and general communities in the greater Detroit metropolitan area

THE LLOYD AND MABEL JOHNSON FOUNDATION

Dan Miller executive director

$61.5

$2.0 $2.4

Private independent foundation

To reduce human suffering and enrich quality of life through health and education services and Christian ministries in Michigan

THE HOPE FOUNDATION (THE HOPE FOUNDATION FOR CANCER RESEARCH)

Johanna Horn president

$59.9

$1.4 $2.2

Public foundation

A public charity with the mission of raising and contributing funds for the treatment and prevention of cancer. The Hope Foundation supports the work of SWOG, one of the largest Cancer Clinical Trials Cooperative Groups, funded in part by the National Cancer Institute

DEROY TESTAMENTARY FOUNDATION

Julie Rodecker president and trustee

$58.5

$2.5 $2.4

Private independent foundation

The DeRoy Testamentary's purpose is to provide funding support for youth and adult welfare, community enrichment, education, health care, and arts & culture, in order to improve the quality of life and promote the well-being of individuals in the community.

BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD OF MICHIGAN FOUNDATION

Audrey Harvey executive director and CEO

$56.5

$1.3 $1.5

Public foundation

To support health care research and innovative programs designed to improve the health of all Michigan residents

FCA FOUNDATION 3

Christine Estereicher COO, FCA Foundation/head of Global Philanthropy Office

$5.0

$4.4 NA

Private corporate foundation

The FCA Foundation, the charitable arm of Stellantis, supports organizations and initiatives that help empower people, build strong, resilient communities and generate meaningful and measurable societal impacts particularly in the field of education.

3215 W. Big Beaver Road, Troy 48084 248-643-9630

P.O. Box 1688, Birmingham 48012 248-788-6500

3101 E Grand Blvd., Suite 200, Grosse Pointe Farms 48236 313-885-1895

333 W. Fort St., Suite 2010, Detroit 48226-3134 313-961-6675

6735 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills 48301 248-642-4260

100 Talon Centre Drive, Suite 100, Detroit 48207 313-393-1185

7927 Nemco Way, #270, Brighton 48116 517-374-0031

215 S. Center St., Suite 100, Royal Oak 48067 248-498-2503

2 Towne Square, Suite 920, Southfield 48076 248-415-1444 333 W. Fort St., Suite 1310, Detroit 48226 313-963-7777

301 N. Main St., Suite 300, Ann Arbor 48104 734-663-0401 333 W. Fort St., Suite 2090, Detroit 48226 313- 963-3495

660 Woodward Ave., Suite 2290, Detroit 48226 313- 465-7733

1 American Road, Dearborn 48126 888-313-0102 6960 Orchard Lake Road Suite 149, West Bloomfield Twp. 48332 248-785-0299 6001 N. Adams Road, Bloomfield Hills 48304 248-385-5517 3011 West Grand Blvd., Suite 218, Detroit 48202 313-964-6994

333 W. Fort St., Suite 1950, Detroit 48226-3134 313-309-3436 6735 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills 48301 248-203-1487 10315 Grand River, Suite 301, Brighton 48116 810-229-6380

24 Frank Lloyd Wright Drive, Suite 3600A, Ann Arbor 48105 734-998-6888 26999 Central Park Blvd., Suite 160, Southfield 48076 248-827-0920

600 E. Lafayette Blvd. Mail Code 0210, Detroit 48226 313-983-2924 1000 Chrysler Drive, CIMS 485-13-35, Auburn Hills 48326-2766 248-512-2500

$3,838.9

$1,313.8

$1,267.5

$1,008.7

$667.3

$483.0

$242.2

$300.0

$285.5

$178.8

$147.5

$174.2

$82.3

$149.8

$130.3

$129.6

$66.0

$59.3

$60.9

$58.2

$58.8

$59.9

Researched by Sonya D. Hill: shill@crain.com | This list of largest grant-making foundations is an approximate compilation of the largest such organizations in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw and Livingston counties. It is not a complete listing but the most comprehensive available. Information was provided by the foundations or from state or federal filings. NOTES: 1. To retire at end of the year. Will be succeeded as CEO by Neel Hajra. 2. Formerly Children's Hospital of Michigan Foundation 3. Formerly known as The Chrysler Foundation.

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CRAIN'S LIST | PHILANTHROPIC GIFTS Ranked by gift amount COMPANY ADDRESS PHONE; WEBSITE

GIFT AMOUNT ($000,000)

GIVER

APPROXIMATE DATE ANNOUNCED

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

$32.0

Mat Ishbia

Feb. 2021

UWM Holdings Corp. president and CEO Mat Ishbia committed $32 million to Michigan State University. The donation will primarily go towards the athletics department. The largest chunk of the donation, $20 million, will be used to renovate the Skandalaris Football Center. The gift will also include $2 million to be used at the discretion of men's head basketbal coach Tom Izzo, whom Isbia called a mentor.

CRANBROOK ACADEMY OF ART

$30.0

Jennifer and Dan Gilbert

April 2021

To help make the private graduate school more accessible to underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. The gift, made directly by the founder and chairman of Detroit-based Rocket Companies Inc. and his entrepreneur wife, is the largest in the history of the academy and believed to be the largest to a graduate art program in the country. The donation will fund 20 full-tuition fellowships for underrepresented students and establish a permanent endowment to fund the fellowships in perpetuity. It also will fund visiting faculty artists over the next five years, focusing on artists of color, as well as engagement projects by diverse artists including women and members of the LGBTQIA community.

UNITED WAY FOR SOUTHEASTERN MICHIGAN

$25.0

MacKenzie Scott

Dec. 2020

United Way is focusing on three things as it looks at where to spend the $25 million gift over the next few years: addressing immediate crisis during the pandemic; diversity, equity and inclusion; and innovative ways of finding new solutions to old problems. It granted $5 million over the winter to support COVID relief and immediate assistance. It plans to add another $1 million to its annual allocations made to organizations working to help people meet their basic needs.

FORGOTTEN HARVEST INC.

$25.0

MacKenzie Scott

Dec. 2020

The nonprofit will use some part of the Scott gift to expand and stabilize the pantry network in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN DEPRESSION CENTER

$19.8

Kenneth and Frances Eisenberg

March 2021

To fund research on mental health. The UM Depression Center will be known as the Frances and Kenneth Eisenberg and Family Depression Center after the UM board of regents approved the name change in March. The Eisenberg family, which made its wealth through the ownership of Dearborn-based Kenwal Steel Corp., donated $10.75 million to the center in 2016. The other $19.75 million gift to the center was made in March.

WAYNE METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY ACTION AGENCY

$15.0

Gilbert Family Foundation

March 2021

To assist low-income Detroit residents pay back-property taxes to avoid foreclosure

EASTERSEALS MICHIGAN

$15.0

MacKenzie Scott

Dec. 2020

The largest gift the affiliate has ever received.

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

$11.1

Dan and Sheryl Tishman

Oct. 2021

To expand environmental justice efforts. The money is coming from Dan and Sheryl Tishman and their NorthLight Foundation. The school will establish the Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment, a scholarship fund and new faculty positions in the College of Engineering and School for Environment and Sustainability.

YMCA OF METROPOLITAN DETROIT

$10.0

MacKenzie Scott

Dec. 2020

The gift will be used to support the three core areas on which the YMCA focuses: family and community; child and youth development; and health and wellness. Of the $10 million gift, it plans to invest $2.5 million in deferred maintenance and updates like new air conditioning at its locations in the region. Another $1 million will be split between pay increases for staff and increase starting wages for entry level workers to help the YMCA be more competitive. It will also put several hundred thousand dollars behind its high school completion and children's' water safety programs, technology upgrades, marketing to lift up the programs it provides beyond gyms (like emergency food assistance and youth arts) and $25,000 in microgrants for small nonprofits through a program launching this fall.

UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT JESUIT HIGH SCHOOL

$5.0

Nicholas Labedz

Sept. 2021

Gift made by the estate of Detroit native and friend of the school, Nicholas Labedz, a private real estate investor. Labedz, who died in May 2019, made the donation through his estate in honor of his lifelong friend and business partner, Richard Mazurek, M.D., a 1954 graduate of U of D Jesuit. The gift will create an endowed student scholarship.

UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT JESUIT HIGH SCHOOL

$5.0

Dr. Leonard Scherock

Sept. 2021

A $5 million gift made by the estate of the late Dr. Leonard Scherock, an alumnus of the school will create an endowed student scholarship. Scherock, who died in April 2020 at age 78, was a member of the U of D Jesuit High School and Academy class of 1959.

MOTOWN MUSEUM

$5.0

MacKenzie Scott

June 2021

Will support the Motown Museum's general operational fund; because it was a flexible gift, the board determined to use this gift for museum operations – especially in the wake of the pandemic.

DETROIT RIVERFRONT CONSERVANCY

$2.5

General Motors Co.

May 2021

In support of the The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy project, bringing its total contribution to the Detroit Riverwalk to $35 million. The contribution will help complete the last remaining piece of the East Riverfront.

ASCENSION ST. JOHN FOUNDATION

$2.0

Thomas Mackey

Sept. 2020

The Thomas Mackey Center for Infectious Disease Research

MICHIGAN HUMANE

$1.2

Ann Catenacci Trust

Dec. 2020

The gift is specifically for avian care. Provides for training for staff who provide avian care, upgraded avian housing and the salaries of the staff who provide care to birds during their time at Michigan Humane.

EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION

$1.0

Jack E. Roush

April 2021

Gift to support mathematics and automotive programming and support for students in the GameAbove College of Engineering and Technology.

YMCA OF METROPOLITAN DETROIT

$1.0

MacKenzie Scott

Dec. 2020

To support agency programs including child care and its domestic violence shelters, as well as its general operations

THE CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION 1

$1.0

Drs. Ashok and Ingrid (Sharada) Sarnaik

June 2021

An endowed fund to support child and youth development through enrichment activities and educational sessions in Detroit’s socioeconomically disadvantaged but culturally diverse community. The endowment will also provide vocational and educational scholarships for Detroit students.

SAY DETROIT

$1.0

Matthew and Kelly Stafford

Feb. 2021

Former Detroit Lions Quarterback Matthew Stafford and his wife Kelly have pledged $1 million to support construction of a new education center on its campus on Detroit's east side. The $2 million, 20,000-square-foot Kelly and Matthew Stafford & Friends Education Center will be attached to the SAY Play Center and include classrooms and learning labs, vocational training space and a theater/auditorium.

JALEN ROSE LEADERSHIP ACADEMY

$1.0

Tom Gores Family Foundation

March 2021

Uused for expansion and infrastructure improvements at the school

HENRY FORD HEALTH SYSTEM

$1.0

Dr. William O'Neill

Feb. 2021

In honor of his late wife Carol, Dr. William O'Neill, director of the Center for Structural Heart Disease at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, has donated $1 million to establish the Carol S. O'Neill Structural Heart Disease Research Fund.

EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION

$1.0

Stephen J. Klotz

July 2021

Gift to support the Financial Services program in Eastern Michigan University's College of Business.

DE LA SALLE COLLEGIATE

$1.0

Daniel J. Loepp Family Foundation

Sept. 2021

Daniel Loepp, president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, and his wife, Amy Loepp, president of Tattries Strategies, made a $1 million gift to his alma mater, De La Salle Collegiate. The gift was made through the Daniel J. Loepp Family Foundation. The high school's existing academic support center will be renamed the Loepp Family Foundation Pilot Center in recognition of the gift. Core programs in the Loepp Family Foundation Pilot Center will provide freshmen with needed support to successfully start their academic career and help the school's 560 students prepare for college.

426 Auditorium Road, East Lansing 48824 517-355-1855; msu.edu

39221 Woodward Ave., Bloomfield Hills 48303 248-645-3300; cranbrookart.edu

3011 W. Grand Blvd,, Suite 500, Detroit 48202 313-226-9200; unitedwaysem.org

21800 Greenfield Road, Oak Park 48237 248-967-1500; forgottenharvest.org

4250 Plymouth Road, Ann Arbor 48109 NA

7310 Woodward Ave., Suite 800, Detroit 48202 313-873-6000; waynemetro.org 2399 E. Walton Blvd., Auburn Hills 48326 248-475-6400; eastersealsmichigan.com Ann Arbor 48109 734-764-1817; umich.edu

1401 Broadway, Suite 3A, Detroit 48226 313-267-5300; ymcadetroit.org

8400 N Cambridge Ave., Detroit 48221 (313) 862-5400; uofdjesuit.org

8400 N Cambridge Ave., Detroit 48221 (313) 862-5400; uofdjesuit.org 2648 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit 48208 313-875-2264; motownmuseum.com

600 Renaissance Center, Detroit 48243-1802 313-566-8200; detroitriverfront.org

22101 Moross Road Mack Office Building No. 102, Detroit 48236 313-343-7480; stjohnprovfoundations.org 30300 Telegraph Road, Suite 220, Bingham Farms 48025-4509 866-648-6263; michiganhumane.org 112 Welch Hall, 850 W. Cross St., Ypsilanti 48197 734-484-1322; emufoundation.org 1401 Broadway, Suite 3A, Detroit 48226 313-267-5300; ymcadetroit.org

3011 West Grand Blvd., Suite 218, Detroit 48202 313-964-6994; www.YourChildrensFoundation.org

29836 Telegraph Road, Southfield 313-826-0111; saydetroit.org

15000 Trojan St, Detroit, MI 48235, Detroit NA 1 Ford Place, Detroit 48202 800-436-7936; henryford.com

112 Welch Hall, 850 W. Cross St., Ypsilanti 48197 734-484-1322; emufoundation.org 14600 Common Road, Warren 48088 586-778-2207; https://www.delasallehs.com/

GIFT PURPOSE

Researched by Sonya D. Hill: shill@crain.com | This list is an approximate compilation of the largest philanthropic gifts to individual organizations in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw and Livingston counties. Anonymous gifts are not included because the purpose of the list is to highlight specific givers and philanthropists and not just the gift amounts. It is not a complete listing but the most comprehensive available. NOTES: 1. Formerly Children's Hospital of Michigan Foundation

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HERTEL

From Page 3

Michigan’s system of health care for low-income residents on Medicaid with severe mental illnesses, developmental disabilities or substance abuse disorders is often criticized for lack of coordination with the state’s system for physical health. The layers of oversight and administration of each dollar spent on mental health are daunting: Taxpayer funding starts in Washington and flows to Lansing through the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, which contracts with 10 state-created prepaid inpatient health plans or PIHPs to manage care for fewer than 300,000 of Michigan’s 10 million residents. For insurance purposes, mild-to-moderate mental health disorders are managed by private managed care companies that administer Michigan’s Medicaid programs. The treatment of more severe mental health disorders is managed by community mental health agencies in the public sector. “No one will sit here and say what we have today is working,” said Rick Murdock, the former longtime executive director of the Michigan Association of Health Plans who has advocated for letting insurers manage this portion of the Medicaid program. “We need to make sure we don’t destroy or eliminate the safety net. We need to preserve that.” Doeh said there are ways to break down the silos without cutting the safety net. Wayne County serves 15,000 children in need of mental health crisis services. North of the “imaginary line of Eight Mile” Road, Doeh said, Oakland County has 7,000 children who need those same services. The current system requires the

LIVENGOOD

From Page 8

“They don’t seem to share a common economic agenda,” Burkart said. And while they remain miles apart, the world is starting to pass Michigan by. The gathering with site selectors in Detroit was held less than two months before Ford Motor Co. made a jaw-dropping announcement that it would, with a partner, invest $11.4 billion in its electric vehicle future in Kentucky and Tennessee, passing up its home state for four new plants. Last week, Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk announced he would move the headquarters of world’s most valuable automaker from California’s Bay Region to near Austin, Texas, where Tesla is building a new electric truck assembly plant. “Boy, how prophetic — fast forward a couple of months and, boom, you get the Ford announcement and then you get the Tesla announcement,” said Burkart, who led international business attraction efforts at the MEDC in the late 1990s. The acrimony and deep distrust between the governor and lawmakers make doing a deal on economic development policies tough, especially with Whitmer facing voters for re-election and redistricting potentially scrambling the makeup of the Legislature. But it’s not impossible for Michigan’s governor and this Legislature to make economic development policy apolitical again like they did in the 1990s. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a

Murdock

Jackson

neighboring counties to operate separate programs, Doeh said. “Why can’t we collaborate when it comes to crisis services?” he asked. “... We can solve those things and don’t need to overhaul the system in order to get it done.” While Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration focuses on access to care at the community and provider level, GOP lawmakers have honed in on changing the way that care is managed — and who manages it. Legislation in the Senate led by GOP Majority Leader Mike Shirkey of Jackson County would allow private health insurers to integrate all mental health and substance abuse care into their existing Medicaid managed care plans. A competing set of bipartisan bills in the House, led by GOP Rep. Mary Whiteford of Allegan County, seeks to replace the current structure of 10 PIHPs — publicly run health insurers that are run by county-level mental health agencies — to a single administrative entity that would pay claims. Whiteford’s plan calls for MDHHS to contract with a not-for-profit administrative services organization or ASO that could not be a private health insurer or a community mental health agency. MDHHS could serve as the ASO or it could contract with outside entity to manage the multi-billion-dollar program under a fee-forservice model that would include new forms of fiscal accountability, Whiteford said. In an interview, Whiteford said she Democrat and ally to Whitmer, worked with his GOP-controlled Legislature to pass a $410 million economic incentives package that helped seal the deal for Ford and battery maker SK Innovation to invest $5.6 billion in a pair of battery plants in Hardin County that will employ 5,000. In Missouri, former Gov. Jay Nixon, an old-school Democrat, worked with a Republican Legislature to restructure economic incentives and keep the Show-Me State’s auto industry intact. Perhaps the most important lesson Michigan political leaders can learn from southern states is not just adopting a long-term economic development policy and strategy, but actually sticking to it. In 2011, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder came into office saying the era of big tax incentives for job creation was over as he turned off the spigot of Michigan Economic Growth Authority or MEGA tax credits that his predecessor, Democrat Jennifer Granholm, had let run to keep Ford, General Motors Co. and then-Chrysler LLC firmly planted in the state. By the end of his term, Snyder had created a mini-MEGA incentive in the Good Jobs for Michigan program, allowing companies to capture their new employees’ 4.25 percent income tax as an incentive to subsidize job creation. Because of term limits, just 13 senators in the entire 148-member Legislature were actually in office in 2011 when the Snyder business tax cuts were enacted and the state changed its economic development strategy. “Michigan hasn’t been able to have an economic development strategy that has outlasted a term-limited Leg-

isn’t “busting up” Michigan’s 46 community mental health agencies. But unlike Shirkey’s bill, Whiteford’s not allowing private insurers to get a piece of the $3 billion the state spends annually in the Medicaid budget on behavioral health and substance abuse. “I’m sick of managed care,” said Whiteford, chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee that writes the Medicaid budget. “We have to stop micromanaging.” Whiteford’s proposal would allow mild-to-moderate mental health services to be paid for by the ASO instead of flowing through insurers’ managed care plans for Medicaid. “We’re not breaking one person into two,” she said. Whiteford’s bipartisan legislation, House Bills 4925-4929, was introduced in late May, but remains in the House Health Policy Committee. Shirkey’s has held hearings for his legislation, Senate Bills 597 and 598, in the Senate Government Operations Committee, but no vote has been taken to advance the bills to the Senate floor. At the Crain’s Health Care Leadership Summit, one panelist said lawmakers are debating management of the system, while average residents are searching for care. Bret Jackson, president of the Economic Alliance for Michigan, a nonprofit advocacy group whose members include businesses and unions, talked about a family member who has been battling a substance abuse disorder for a couple of years. “We cannot find a provider to help that person,” Jackson said. “I agree that destroying a safety net system and starting from scratch is not the way to go. But for everyday working people, they just can’t find the resources that they need.” Contact: clivengood@crain.com; (313) 446-1654; @ChadLivengood islature or governor,” said Jeff Donofrio, CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan who attended the August meeting with the site selection consultants. Donofrio, who previously ran the state Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity for Whitmer, said the MEDC has too many employees assigned to writing reports for the Legislature about how it spends its finite taxpayer resources instead of working on business attraction and retention deals. That’s largely a reflection of how the MEDC has been viewed from under the Capitol dome for the past decade: Many rural Republicans and Democrats see it as a money pit for corporate giveaways. Burkart said it’s critical that new MEDC CEO Quentin Messer Jr. be given the autonomy to direct Michigan’s economic development strategy. “He really ought to be the voice of leadership on economic development and (the governor and Legislature) need to take their cues from him,” Burkart said. “Because he knows what he’s doing.” Dave Meador, chief administrative officer and vice chairman of DTE Energy, was in attendance at the August meeting with Burkart and his colleagues in the site selection business. Meador said Ford’s decision to take its EV investments south is the “wakeup call” that should spur business and political leaders to get aligned on a long-term economic development strategy. “Let’s get our act together,” he said. Chad Livengood: (313) 446-1654 Twitter: @ChadLivengood

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OCTOBER 18, 2021 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 17

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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE To place your listing, visit www.crainsdetroit.com/people-on-the-move or, for more information, contact Debora Stein at 917.226.5470 / dstein@crain.com

FINANCIAL SERVICES

MARKETING / ANALYTICS

REAL ESTATE

Blue Chip Partners

Phoenix Innovate

Axiom Advisory Group

Blue Chip Partners, a Farmington Hills, Michigan-based wealth management firm, hires Erin Goss, CFA, CAIA, CIMA®, CFS®, as Chief Operating Officer. Goss has been involved in the financial services industry for nearly 20 years and brings a wealth of leadership experience to the company. Prior to joining Blue Chip, Goss spent over 16 years at Plante Moran Financial Advisors holding several key positions, including a lead role in helping to build out the firm’s alternative investment capabilities.

Phoenix Innovate’s new EVP of Sales a nd Business Development, Christopher DuBach, brings a wealth of global sales and digital print experience to his role. For more than 25 years, Chris worked for the most prominent global equipment manufacturers in the digital print industry, including Canon, HP, Screen and Kodak. In his role at Phoenix Innovate, Chris will head up new client development and business acquisition, driving sales growth for the Troy-based marketing firm.

Axiom Advisory Group, a global commercial real estate service provider, is pleased to welcome Kyle McGuire as Senior Associate. Kyle joins Axiom with a breadth of CRE experience, most recently managing a nationwide real estate portfolio for a Michiganbased mortgage lender. Kyle will lead strategic growth for Axiom, while managing an international portfolio of existing industrial and manufacturing clients.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

MARKETING / ANALYTICS

SOFTWARE / SERVICES

FocusCFO

Phoenix Innovate

BeneSys, Inc.

David Hanley, Principal, has 20+ years of experience in finance and operations, including working directly with entrepreneurs, high net-worth individuals, and institutional investors, in the professional services, private equity, and real estate industries. His experience also includes sell-side mergers and acquisitions for companies ranging from family-owned businesses to divisions of publicly traded companies. Prior to FocusCFO, David held positions with Alidade Capital and ValStone Partners.

With 37 years of experience in data processing and IT, Mike Mahalak brings a wealth of skills and practice as VP of Information Technology in Print and Development. Before joining Phoenix Innovate, he created and led development and operational teams throughout the U.S. and India, directing insourcing, outsourcing and data management and migration. Mike will oversee digital print technologies, providing leadership to variable data composition, mail processing, and development efforts.

BeneSys, Inc. is pleased to announce that Andy Orr has been promoted to Chief Financial Officer based in our Troy, MI headquarters. Andy originally joined BeneSys as Senior Vice President of Finance and he brings 30 years of finance, strategic planning and operational experience to the position, including over 10 years in senior leadership roles. BeneSys is excited for Andy to assume his new role and continue to grow and improve our internal operations.

MANUFACTURING

Cadillac Coffee Company NONPROFIT

Area Agency on Aging 1-B Katie Wendel, MSW will serve as the new director of Planning and Advocacy. She joined the agency 5 ½ years ago, holding the positions of advocacy specialist and senior manager of advocacy. As a result of her efforts, increased state funding has enabled thousands more seniors to receive homebound meals and in-home care personal services. Wendel earned her master of social work degree from Columbia University with a focus on public policy and health, mental health, and disabilities.

18 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 18, 2021

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SELF-STORAGE

From Page 3

Laura Picariello Reprints Sales Manager lpicariello@crain.com (732) 723-0569

“Every month was almost another record. We were almost 98 percent portfoliowide, which is unheard of in the industry.” Maurice Pogoda, president of Farmington Hills-based Pogoda Cos., which has 58 properties owned and managed totaling about 3.9 million square feet with close to 34,000 units, echoed Berger, saying the industry has been thriving in the pandemic. “We had no one moving out,” he said, adding that his company has five more properties in Indiana and Kentucky it anticipates adding to its portfolio by the end of the year. “We had more people moving in. Everything was topsy-turvy, and it’s been that way ever since ... I’m not being hyperbolic when I tell you that I’ve never seen anything like it in all my (34) years in business.” Not all is rosy, though. A February report from Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services Inc. says that the growth outlook for the Detroit market and others is dampened by lack of population growth. Berger said the industry standard is if there is 7 square feet of self-storage space per capita in a three- to five-mile radius, that area can generally accommodate more product; if it has more than 7 square feet, it is considered overbuilt. U.S. Census Bureau data says that there was $3.86 billion worth of self-storage construction taking place nationally as of August. At the start of the pandemic, there was close to $5 billion underway, and the all-time high was in September 2018, when there was $5.49 billion being built. A report from Yardi Matrix says that 15 properties in the Detroit market have been completed in the last two years totaling 1.1 million square feet, representing about 6 percent of the Detroit market stock of 18 million square feet across 289 properties. There are 18 developments in the

RENTER

From Page 3

In Inkster, there have been only a dozen building permits issued between 2010 and 2019, but 125 demolitions, Metzger said. At the same time, housing values fell by nearly two-thirds. And his analysis of census data shows in Inkster, the number of owner-occupied units fell by more than 2,000, while the number of renter-occupied ones increased by more than 400. A third of Inkster residents live in poverty, among the highest number in Southeast Michigan, according to data from the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments. Almost three-quarters of residents are Black, also among the highest in the region. Black residents are less likely to own their homes than residents of other races, according to census data. In Inkster, Metzger said, about 60 percent of Black residents are renters. Saif Alsenad, an executive assistant in the office of Inkster Mayor Patrick Wimberley, said the city has created a neighborhood stabilization program to encourage first-time home buyers to move there. He hopes it will attract more people to the city. “We’re going to see some results, see some people who want to come in, move in, buy houses,” he said. “We want to encourage everyone to move in. If you have an individual, hard-

Michael Berger at SpareBox Storage in Walled Lake.

pipeline plus another nine under construction, including Lavda’s Self Storage at 34244 Groesbeck Highway in Clinton Township; Centerpointe Self Storage at 3111 Centerpoint Parkway in Pontiac; U-Haul Moving & Storage at 2000 E. 10 Mile Road in Warren; an EZ Storage at 14415 Sheldon Road in Plymouth; and Livonia Budget Storage at 29150 W. 7 Mile Road in Livonia. Nationally, according to a second-quarter report by New York Citybased Reis Inc., the vacancy rate fell

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working citizen who’s financially not ready to buy a house, we’d love for them to be with us in the city of Inkster.” Metzger said Pontiac had a lot of demolition activity over the decade, tearing down more than 1,000 homes that were vacant or weren’t worth rehabilitating following the foreclosure crisis. More than 100 multifamily units were built and another 400 were permitted in 2019. A number of single-family homes formerly occupied by homeowners are likely occupied by renters now, as well, he said; home values fell by 40 percent as the number of renter-occupied units increased by more than 2,000, while owner-occupied ones dropped by more than 1,200. Nearly a third of Pontiac’s residents live in poverty, according to data from SEMCOG. Pontiac is 19 percent Hispanic — among the largest concentrations of Hispanic residents in the region — as well as 2 percent Asian, 50 percent Black and nearly a quarter white. The ratio of Black residents who rent vs. buy is nearly 2:1 in Pontiac, Metzger said. Pontiac Mayor Deirdre Waterman said the city is working with renters to try to make them homeowners. “They make the community grounded,” she said. “We want to see it moving in the direction of more homeowners.” While there are a lot of complex factors that go into a decision to rent vs. own, Waterman said communi-

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by 1.5 percent from the previous quarter, the largest quarterly decline in five years, and year-over-year, the vacancy rate fell by 0.7 percent, the largest year-over-year decline in two years. In addition, rents for 10-foot by 10foot units, which is the most popular size, saw rents increase by 5 percent quarterly for climate-controlled units — the largest since Reis began collecting data in the fourth quarter of 2011 — and 4 percent for non-climate-controlled units, the largest

“The remarkable exceptionality of this quarter’s numbers is thanks to a combination of the sector’s typical cyclicality, which favors the second quarter, as well as the pandemic-induced macroeconomic landscape which has propelled migration shifts to an extent not seen in decades. As much of the summer falls in the third quarter, we can expect to see continued strength in the sector as lifestyle and demographic changes brought on by the increased acceptance of remote work will continue to benefit

quarterly increase since the second quarter of 2015. According to Reis, on a year-overyear basis, the 12.9 percent recent increase for climate-controlled 10foot by 10-foot units is the largest to date, as was the 10.2 percent increase year-over-year for non-climate-controlled units. “Generally, this sector does quite well in the second quarter as people relocate after the end of the school year and into the summer months,” the Reis report says.

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ot of ade, mes h resure mily 400 er of ccuccuaid; the s inhile by ties that thrive tend to have more owners. Owners put equity into a city, she said, and so feel like they have a greater stake in their communities. So she’s making an effort to bring more high-paying jobs to the city, in the hopes that that will lead more people to decide to buy. Pontiac has started a pilot program with the Community Housing Network for people who earn between 30 and 60 percent of the area’s median income — $21,250 to $42,540 for a family of four. C.J. Felton, that group’s director of real estate development, said the new homes will be rental properties for 15 years, then the tenants will have the option to buy. He said in that neighborhood, after the

Great Recession, dozens of homeowners lost their houses to foreclosure. The 67 new rental homes, plus a dozen units of permanent supportive housing that are under construction, is a way to re-stabilize the area, he said. “It completely transformed that neighborhood,” Felton said. “It’s Detroit on a smaller scale. It’s going to take many, many years to get the real estate market in a better place.” Officials in Auburn Hills did not return calls seeking comment about the changes in their community, which has a poverty rate of 12 percent — below the region’s 14.4 percent rate, but higher than Oakland County’s 8.2 percent. The city is 56

percent white, 17 percent Asian, 17 percent Black and 6 percent Hispanic. Metzger’s data shows more multi-family units than single-family units have been permitted there over the decade, while demolitions continued. Metzger said communities are right to push for more ownership among residents. “What rental means is you’re not committed to the community,” he said. “There are fewer people engaged in elections, volunteering. ... You’re saying to yourself, ‘I’m probably not going to stay here. Why get too involved in the community?’” The RENTCafé study also said Eastpointe, with a population that’s 39 percent renters, had one of the largest increases in renter share in the country — an 83 percent jump, from 21 percent renters in 2010. Of the 31 cities near Detroit with a population of at least 5,000 people, only one, Highland Park, had renters as more than half of its residents in 2010 — then, 53 percent; in 2019, 60 percent. Other suburbs that saw a large increase in renters include Roseville, Dearborn Heights, Lincoln Park, Madison Heights, Romulus, Sterling Heights, Oak Park and Southgate. Madison Heights, with 40 percent, has the highest renter population of those cities. Contact: arielle.kass@crain.com; (313) 446-6774; @ArielleKassCDB

this sector through the rest of the year as people have suddenly found themselves more mobile and with both a stronger desire and ability to relocate.” DBRS Morningstar, a division of Chicago-based Morningstar Inc., said in a report from August that Michigan has some of the highest amount of commercial mortgage-backed securities debt secured by self-storage properties in the country, at $610 million. The only other states with more are California ($3.34 billion); Texas ($2.1 billion); Florida ($1.79 billion); New

York ($1.32 billion); and New Jersey ($698 million). Dennis Bernard, who heads up Southfield-based Bernard Financial Group, said lenders find self-storage an attractive investment. “Once they are leased up, they rarely drop down in leasing because it shows the market supported it and there was enough demand there,” Bernard said. In the last quarter century, several large real estate investment trusts have muscled into self-storage, making moves to consolidate ownership in the market that is dominated by small mom-and-pop owners and midsized companies, which control more than 80 percent of the storage facilities nationwide. Among them: CubeSmart, based in Pennsylvania; Life Storage Inc., based in Buffalo, N.Y.; Extra Space Storage Inc. in Salt Lake City; National Storage Affiliates of Greenwood Village, Colo.; and Global Self Storage Inc., based in New York City. “Even though REITs have bought up a bunch of properties, while all of this has been going on, the REITs for awhile, pre-pandemic, took a back seat because they thought pricing was getting a little out of hand,” Pogoda said. But for all the activity in the sector the last couple decades, it remains a fragmented industry. “It’s not like REITs now have 30 percent of the industry, not even close,” Pogoda said. “I don’t think even the top 100 operators have 30 percent.” For Berger, who still has real estate holdings in the multifamily sphere, there is still room for the self-storage industry to grow, particularly in smaller markets. “What we found is that these markets are mostly under built,” he said. “We still felt that these markets have room in them and that’s why buyers are attracted to a portfolio like ours.” Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB

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STAFFING

From Page 1

The shortage is widespread across the U.S., with 99 percent of nursing homes and 96 percent of assisted-living centers in the country facing staffing shortages, according to a Sept. 22 survey by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living. Administrators and experts fear the situation will get more dire when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services enacts an Aug. 18 executive order by President Joe Biden to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine across the entire health care sector, including nursing homes. The mandate is expected to go into effect this month. “Some have already left the field because of the (vaccine) rule, and it hasn’t even come out yet,” Samuel said. “Once the rule is out, we are going to face an even greater crisis.”

Caretaker comorbidities The nursing home industry has faced a labor shortage since 2016 and it’s only been exacerbated by the pandemic, said Sheria Robinson-Lane, assistant professor of nursing at the University of Michigan, gerontologist, registered nurse and former nursing assistant. “What’s happening now shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone,” Robinson-Lane said. “We’ve been heading toward this crisis for a few years. Now we’re here.” Obvious contributors to the crisis are the industry’s difficult working conditions and low pay. Nursing assistants in metro Detroit start around $12-$13 per hour with a national median wage of $14.90 per hour, Robinson-Lane said. About 40 percent of nursing assistants in the field rely on public assistance or are without health benefits, she said. But raising pay remains difficult as nursing homes’ largest payer to nursing homes is the Medicare and Medic-

BUBBLES

From Page 1

core technology is,” McNaughton told Crain’s in an interview last week. “But now ... what we’re doing is really going for it and expanding commercially. We had some commercial activity previously, but what this round will do is give us the resources required to grow and expand our technology as well.” Founded in 2014, the idea is to use the microbubbles to better help researchers capture various biological or chemical samples.

aid, with largely fixed rates. “CMS pays for all that room and board, all of the medical care, all of the pharmaceuticals and treatments,” Robinson-Lane said. “The everyday costs of running a home eat up those payments really quickly.” Spiro said West Bloomfield Health is in a better position than most because it pays above its competitors, but that it

Those who remain are working more and more hours to keep the nursing homes within federal and state staffing guidelines. Of those surveyed by the AHCA and NCAL, 99 percent of respondents have asked staff to work extra shifts. Roughly 69 percent of nursing

“THEY ARE JUST TIRED. THEY ARE TIRED OF WEARING A MASK ALL DAY LONG, OF THE CONSTANT TESTING. IT’S A HARD JOB. SO WHILE WE PAY MORE THAN ANYBODY, IT’S JUST A LESS APPEALING INDUSTRY TO WORK IN.” — Justin Spiro, an assistant administrator and co-owner of West Bloomfield Health & Rehabilitation Center

too is losing staff due to COVID burnout and the rules around the pandemic. “The turnover is much more stable now than it was, but we are seeing people leave the industry,” Spiro said. “They are just tired. They are tired of wearing a mask all day long, of the constant testing. It’s a hard job. So while we pay more than anybody, it’s just a less appealing industry to work in.” West Bloomfield Health follows state and local protocol of weekly testing for all employees, more if there is exposure or a positive case. Working in a nursing home was one of the deadliest jobs in 2020. Workers in skilled nursing facilities had at least 80 deaths per 100,000 fulltime employees last year, and estimate that is likely low due to CMS only requiring the reporting of worker deaths as of May 17, 2020. There were likely many deaths that occurred in late March and April in nursing homes. The statistics made working at a nursing home far deadlier than logging, roofing and construction. “We are still dealing with COVID,” Spiro said. “Our workers can see people are going to football games and going out to eat at restaurants or returning to the office. Life is back to some sort of normalcy on the outside, but for health care workers, it’s just not.”

homes have resorted to hiring temporary staffing agencies to keep the nursing home operational. The result of that is nursing homes paying an agency a much higher wage for the same worker. “Because of the shortages and desperation from the nursing homes, nurses and nursing assistant have left for agencies where they could make more per hour and work for different employers,” Robinson-Lane said. For West Bloomfield Health, they’ve had no choice but to hire agency labor, but it’s come at a steep cost, Spiro said. “(Staffing agencies) just kill you,” Spiro said. “We’re having to pay two or two-and-a-half times the normal rate for workers. A registered nurse is around $37 an hour, so now we’re paying them at least $70 an hour. Just for one person.” Spiro said the extra bonuses and more expensive agency staff are becoming more and more problematic as federal support during the pandemic has dried up. “The government was giving massive checks that got everyone through the first 18 months (of the pandemic),” Spiro said. “We could pay what we needed to get through the day because we were going to get reimbursed. Now that’s done and we’re in

manufacture them at Akadeum’s Ann Arbor facilities, McNaughton said. That kind of separation is often used in creating drugs or for diagnosing diseases. It makes for “a powerful tool, which is widely used in many strands of biological and biomedical research and in clinical therapy,” reads a 2012 report from the National Center for Biotechnology Information. The process has applications in several parts of medicine, from cancer diagnostics to DNA testing, said McNaughton, noting the company is now positioned to be part of that. “We’re one step upstream from a

Prior to founding Akadeum, McNaughton said he was working on cell separation in both academic and corporate settings, but ran into “technical problems” with existing separation methods, namely magnetic separation. That led to the development of the microbubble solution and the founding of the company. This latest funding round for Akadeum was led by Arboretum Ventures, the Ann Arbor-based health care venture capital firm, and had participation from several other funds, including Farmington Hillsbased Beringea. Akadeum, two years ago, announced a partnership with Agilent Technologies Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., to develop better methods for isolating target molecules for detection in multiple testing fields. That partnership remains ongoing, said McNaughton. He added the company has other partnerships with other such firms that it cannot discuss publicly. Additionally, the new capital will allow the company to roll out a proprietary automation instrument that will be sold to those performing tests requiring cell separation, said McNaughton. The company does currently earn revenue from its early commercial ventures, but McNaughton declined to give a current or projected revenue figure for the company. He said Akadeum now has 14 employees, and he

“AKADEUM ADDRESSES WHAT I WOULD CALL A VERY LARGE, BUT SORT OF SLEEPY MARKET. BY THAT I MEAN THERE HASN’T BEEN A TON OF INNOVATION IN THE SEPARATION SPACE. WE THINK THAT AKADEUM HAS SORT OF A GAME-CHANGING TECHNOLOGY FOR THOSE APPLICATIONS.” — Dan Kidle, a managing partner at Arboretum Ventures

It’s not hard to understand: The bubbles can capture a kind of cell or chemical and float it to the top of a complex solution, the company says, making separation of key elements easier. The microbubbles in Akadeum’s technology are made of silica — basically hollow, microscopic beads of glass — and then the company uses proprietary surface treatments to

Medical mercenaries

lot of other tasks or processing that’s done, (and) you have to first separate what you want to go downstream to work with,” McNaughton said. “What we developed is a way to perform that separation that solves a lot of the existing problems in the industry ... things like being able to process larger volumes, being able to have higher throughput, having higher performance.”

20 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 18, 2021

the wild, wild West, and I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Coup de grace? CMS is predicted to lay out its mandate for nursing homes to require staff vaccinations in mid-October. For Spiro, this could spell disaster. He projects only about 40 percent to 60 percent of his staff is fully vaccinated. “The majority of our staff are vaccinated, but enough have refused that the mandate may be a big problem,” Spiro said. “If we lose 10 percent or 15 percent of our labor force, I don’t know how this industry would carry on right now.” Spiro isn’t alone, as 78 percent of respondents to the AHCA/NCAL survey are concerned they will have to close down if the shortages persist or get worse due to the mandate. According to CMS, about 64 percent of the more than 520,000 nursing home staff in the U.S. were vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Sept. 12. That leaves more than 187,000 yet to be inoculated, including Chiquita Keen-Johnston, a nursing assistant at Beaumont Commons nursing home in Farmington Hills. Keen-Johnston has been a nursing assistant for 32 years, including 13 years at Beaumont Commons. But she has no plans to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Instead she has sought a medical exemption for an undisclosed condition. Employers are legally required to allow certain medical exemptions to the vaccine, but the threshold is very narrow. Keen-Johnston falls under Beaumont Health’s vaccine mandate, which was issued last month and goes into effect on Oct. 18, that ultimately will be trumped by CMS’ order. “I am not taking the vaccine,” Keen-Johnston said. “I have not heard back on my medical exemption. But I will let them fire me if I don’t get it.” Keen-Johnston said all the unvaccinated nursing assistants at Beaumont

Brandon McNaughton is the founder and CEO of Ann Arbor bioscience firm Akadeum Life Sciences Inc. | COURTESY

expects to double that within two years.

‘Game changer’ The “sleepy” separation market proved attractive to Arboretum, said Dan Kidle, a managing partner at the firm who will join Akadeum’s board of directors. “We sort of like opportunities that are a little bit sleepy in terms of the market,” Kidle told Crain’s. “Akadeum addresses what I would call a very large, but sort of sleepy market.

Commons are waiting to be terminated instead of quitting so they can draw unemployment while they seek employment elsewhere. Keen-Johnston said she plans to devote more time to her small business, Unique Touch 919, which makes personalized items such as memorial blankets. Samuel and the ACHA have been in communication with CMS in hopes the agency will allow for a more rigorous COVID testing regimen for the unvaccinated instead of an all-out vaccine mandate. But she’s not overly hopeful the mandate will be watered down. “Until we get the pandemic under control, this is going to be a challenge in the industry,” Samuel said. “Our staffing challenges feed off the pandemic. We just need to get it under control.” Spiro said the nursing home continues to apply the pressure via information, but only so many people are willing to take the vaccine. “We have digital billboards in our buildings and post information everywhere we can,” Spiro said. “We’re walking around now telling people the mandate is coming, but we’re running out of time. We tell them to look around the building. It’s safe. We haven’t seen one adverse reaction.” Robinson-Lane said most nursing home staff will ultimately align with hospital workers who opposed the mandate but ultimately most got inoculated. For instance, Houston Methodist mandated the vaccine in June for its roughly 26,000 employees, and only 153 quit or were terminated at the deadline. “Nursing assistants and staff will complain, but when the mandate comes down, they mostly comply because they need the work,” Robinson-Lane said. “With the mandate being industrywide, there’s not as many places to go. People just won’t have the flexibility they do right now.” Contact: dwalsh@crain.com; (313) 446-6042; @dustinpwalsh By that I mean there hasn’t been a ton of innovation in the separation space. We think that Akadeum has sort of a game-changing technology for those applications.” While the specific area of cell separation may be quiet, the broader biotechnology and pharma space has received no shortage of interest from the venture capital community as of late, according to the most recent quarterly report released last week by Pitchbook and the National Venture Capital Association. Biotech and pharma companies in the U.S. have raised $28 billion so far this year in 871 fundraising deals, according to the report. That’s more than the $27.4 billion in 1,042 deals that companies raised in all of 2020, according to data within the report. Given the recent capital infusion, McNaughton said it’s too early to discuss what a possible exit might look like for the company. But he said that all options will be on the table. “As far as the endpoint, with a platform like this, it does not come along very often,” McNaughton said. “The last time I believe there’s been a major innovation in the space that we’re in is easily 30 to 40 years ago. So our plan — our attention — is to fully develop this. So where will the company be in a few years? You know, I think the sky’s the limit in my opinion.” Contact: nmanes@crain.com; (313) 446-1626; @nickrmanes

SPECIES

From Page 1

meaning that they are on the verge of becoming endangered within their natural range, under the federal Endangered Species Act of 1973. At the state level, more than 400 species are considered threatened, endangered or having been extirpated, or locally extinct but present elsewhere. Public Act 451 of 1994, which is the state’s Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act, lays out Michigan’s guidelines. The list is updated every two years. And federal listings can change. Just last month, the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed removing 23 species from the threatened and endangered species list. Because they are all dead. Not because their listing has caused their populations to rebound. All that means developers have to do thorough due diligence when evaluating property as the presence of one of those species, whether plant or animal, could cause unforeseen delays in construction schedules or require additional protections before shovels can get in the ground. “It’s the obligation of any land owner or developer to do what they can to protect the species, especially a developer that wants to change the landscape,” said Jeff King, who is the former president of Grand Rapids-based King & McGregor Environmental, which had an office in Canton Township, and is now a senior consultant with Minneapolis-based Barr Engineering in Ann Arbor, which bought his former company. “There should be no less resources, when it comes to the regulated resources, than what currently exists.” In general, the Endangered Species Act as well as the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act prohibit what’s called unauthorized “take,” which is a term that can mean a number of things, including the killing, harming, injuring or capturing of a threatened or endangered species. Penalties can be both criminal and civil. Fines for killing an endangered animal, for example, are more than $50,000 each. PA 451 says that, with a Department of Natural Resources permit, endangered or threatened species can be “removed, captured or destroyed” in situations “where necessary to alleviate damage to property or to protect human health.” In addition, a wetlands permit from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy is needed before buildings or structures can be built on wetlands, under PA 451. Threatened bird species like the Rufa Red Knot, for example, endangered insects like the Mitchell’s Satyr and others can make their habitat in wetland areas, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Thinking about northern Oakland or rural parts of Macomb, wetlands are the key thing,” said Nick Schroeck, who is an associate professor of law and director of the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. “That type of habitat is so important for so many different types of species.” In addition, the federal government can designate land as “critical habitat” for endangered or threatened species, as it did in 2015 with the Poweshiek Skipperling butterfly, which has a presence in Livingston, Oakland and Washtenaw counties. As such, federal government activity on those lands is limited and, if there are any federal dollars involved in a project — such as road construction, for example — or

opers as they have encountered issues that have slowed projects or made them more costly.

Threatened and endangered species in Metro Detroit

Bat habitat

Indiana bat: Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and Washtenaw counties. Northern Long-Eared bat: Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and Washtenaw counties. Rufa Red Knot: Wayne and Macomb counties. Eastern Massasauga snake: Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and Washtenaw counties. Mitchell's Satyr: Washtenaw County. Poweshiek Skipperling: Oakland, Livingston and Washtenaw counties. The Mitchell’s Satyr butterfly is among Metro Detroit’s threatened and endangered species. | U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE

Northern Riffleshell mussel: Wayne County.

permitting under federal law, a Fish and Wildlife Service consultation is requested “to try to minimize disruption of the habitat,” Schroeck said. “In general, habitat destruction is the main issue we are dealing with, particularly in southeast Michigan,” Schroeck said. “We have changed the landscape such that there isn’t much habitat left for wildlife, including insects and plants that may be threatened and endangered. Where we have relatively large, undisturbed tracts of land or wetland areas, preservation is more key than it’s ever been because we have had such a historic loss of these habitat areas. “Whether it’s a large subdivision development or a large industrial facility, looking at whether there are listed threatened or endangered species within those properties is an important first step and then they need to be in touch with EGLE and they can be in touch with the Fish and Wildlife Service.”

Rayed Bean mussel: Oakland County.

mental issues.” And although Martin declined to identify the developer involved, she did say that there was a recent residential development site in Milford on which the Eastern Massasauga rattlesnake — which has less than half the population it had three decades ago due to loss of its wetland habitat — had been observed, causing an alteration to the construction schedule and requiring the installation of a special fabric around the site that would not ensnare the snakes. And Beth Sexton, COO for Berkley-based PM Environmental Inc., said a big-box grocery retailer who she declined to identify had a project that encountered a “significant” issue with the Indiana bat, which has seen population decline due to human disturbance, cave commercialization, loss of habitat and pesticides and en-

Snuffbox mussel: Oakland, Livingston and Washtenaw counties. Eastern Prairie Fringed orchid: Wayne, Livingston and Washtenaw counties. SOURCE: U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE.

vironmental contaminants, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. “It didn’t kill the deal, it just ended up having to go through a lot more Section 7 (consultation required by the Endangered Species Act) work with the U.S. Fisheries and Wildlife to get approval,” Sexton said. Martin noted that the last 10 to 15 years, she has seen “a lot more attention paid” to these species by devel-

For King, he advises clients to operate under the assumption that their sites have threatened and endangered species on them. “You can take precautionary measures to avoid impacting them as if they are there,” he said. For example: The Indiana bat tends to spend its winters in Kentucky caves, but when it’s in Michigan, it gravitates toward trees with exfoliating bark, whether it’s a dead tree or a living one, such as a shag bark hickory tree. If a developer has a site where the bats are known to occur or in the general vicinity, if trees like that need to be removed, they should be removed in the winter when the bats are in Kentucky. “Cutting a tree down with them inside will probably kill them,” King said. “You just don’t disturb the trees in the time of year they are going to be in them.” Although greenfield sites in the far-flung suburbs are generally more likely to have occurrences of stateand federally-listed threatened or endangered species, in particular various threatened and endangered mussels can appear in the Clinton River, which traverses through densely populated areas. Those mussels include the Snuffbox mussel and the Rayed Bean mussel. “You’re mostly going to run into more in Livingston and Washtenaw County, maybe northern Oakland County, when it’s a large tract of vacant land, farmland or agricultural or used to be agricultural. And there’s just less and less of that, certainly in Oakland County,” Sexton said. Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB

Protective measures By and large, developers and consultants view the presence of threatened and endangered species as a relatively minor issue to deal with over the course of building new properties. But still, they can add weeks or months to a construction project and require additional investment in measures to protect the endangered or threatened species, all of which costs more money. “I can’t think of one project where we’ve had a threatened or endangered species issue actually stop a project,” said Dianne Martin, vice president for Brighton-based ASTI Environmental. “We’ve definitely had to do some protective measures, additional surveys, maybe reworking site plans. We’ve altered construction schedules, we’ve put in additional protective measures regarding construction to protect species, but we really haven’t had a project have to actually stop.” Peter Burton, a longtime developer who is principal of Bingham Farms-based developer Burton-Katzman LLC, said that “from time to time” when his company was developing larger tracts of land before the Great Recession, issues arose with threatened or endangered species. “Fortunately, they were all manageable,” he said. “I’m not sure that it ever happened where the impact was that severe other than the fact that it tended to delay projects in order to get through some sensitive environ-

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THE CONVERSATION

Taking the wheel for a spinoff after steering startups and turnarounds VITESCO TECHNOLOGIES NORTH AMERICA: With a father who worked as an automotive executive in Detroit, Sandy Stojkovski had the freedom to be whatever type of engineer she wanted when she grew up. The choice wasn’t necessarily forced on her, but she never gave much thought to anything besides automotive. Over two decades in the industry, Stojkovski has run businesses at all stages of the corporate life cycle. In her role as CEO of Auburn Hills-based Vitesco Technologies North America, newly spun off from Continental AG, she is challenged with guiding a $2.3 billion powertrain supplier through a global microchip shortage and industry transformation to electric power. | BY KURT NAGL How did you get your start in the industry? Being born and raised in Southeast Michigan and also a daughter of an automotive supplier executive, I went into engineering at U of M (University of Michigan), and later actually added my master’s degrees, also from U of M, through a night program while I was working. My launch into the industry was actually as an intern at Ford Motor Company. This was really where it became clear that this industry offered kind of the complexity and scale and potential for impact that I was looking for. It was really, I think, a foregone conclusion that I was going to enter the automotive industry. My dad (Keith Postell) worked at a couple different automotive suppliers — most of his years spent at a company called Kelsey-Hayes. He didn’t necessarily push me into the industry, but he was definitely encouraging of engineering, so both my sister and I became engineers and, you know, we used to kind of joke that dinner time in our family was a discussion not of what career area you wanted to go but rather which type of engineer you wanted to be… When you first started out, did you have a vision of where you wanted to end up? I knew I wanted to make a big impact. I knew, based on all the time I spent in team sports (in high school at Greenhills in Ann Arbor) that I had some knack for leadership that I wanted to continue to explore exactly where that would take me. I didn’t exactly know, but it became clearer and clearer as I went through getting my MBA and taking on different roles that it might be a really great opportunity to be able to lead a company, and those types of aspirations did form along the way. How did you wind up with Vitesco? I spent about the first 15 years of my career working in a variety of different

Sandy Stojkovski CEO Vitesco Technologies North America

functions, everything from engineering, manufacturing, program management, business development, you know, so a really well-rounded set of responsibilities across those 15 years, and then through that more well-rounded lens, over the last 11 years or so, really launched into leading businesses. And that started with starting up my own company and having it be acquired. But it’s also been in roles like the turnaround for the powertrain business in North America for Magneti Marelli. And I think it was really that which led to then being recruited by Vitesco Technologies — then it was Continental — but being recruited by Vitesco to come run one of their global businesses based

out of Germany. Having done that for a couple years then I came back here to the U.S. and took on the role of CEO for North America for Vitesco. So, you’re an expert in startups, spinoffs and turnarounds? Well, I don’t know how expert anyone can be, but certainly I’ve found myself having led startups, turnarounds, aggressive growth and even restructuring, so kind of have now a full set of experiences that I’ve gone through. Vitesco recently finalized its spinoff from Continental. What did that entail, and what was your role in it?

So, the spinoff actually has been kind of a two-year journey really to get here from when it was officially announced. … In a nutshell, you could say in North America, it entailed establishing all of the processes and systems and structures, hiring hundreds of people, all these things, even establishing our own culture. Also, that we would no longer need to rely on the mothership, in this case Continental, for any services or transactions and things so that we could truly stand on our own two feet as an independent company. So that’s what my role was, leading the North American team through that process of being ready for the spinoff. In fact, we’ve been operationally separated since January of this year and now with the spinoff last month, we’re legally separated and can really continue now to expand from there with our focus on being an independent company, all in the area of clean mobility and electrification. Another big issue in the industry is the transition to electric vehicles. How is Vitesco preparing for that future? Our role obviously is to power clean mobility. That’s the mission of our company. And so as a supplier, the way we do that is through a portfolio of very focused products and systems in those areas, especially focused on battery electric vehicle powertrain systems as well as hybrids and, of course, certain internal combustion engine components which have a life beyond 2030. What percentage of the business is tied to the internal combustion engine? Today, I think you could say it’s about 95 percent tied to internal combustion engines or some electrified products that are also used in combination with internal combustion engines. So that’s to tell you that we have a very large growth agenda ahead of us on the electrification side.

RUMBLINGS

After talk of forming network, Tigers, Red Wings extend Bally deal

Detroit Tigers games will continue to be broadcast on Bally Sports Detroit. | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

about the impactful work our athletes are doing in the community throughout Detroit and the state of

22 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 18, 2021

Michigan,” the company said in a statement. The Ilitch family first said it was

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BALLY SPORTS DETROIT WILL continue to be the TV home of Tigers and Red Wings games after the regional sports network struck an extension deal with the Ilitch-owned teams. The deal, whose terms aren’t known, appears to put aside talk that the teams might form their own TV network. Olympia Entertainment confirmed that the TV broadcast rights will remain with Bally Sports, previously known as Fox Sports Detroit. “We are pleased, as momentum builds for the Tigers and Red Wings, that our long-time broadcast partners at Bally Sports Detroit will continue to produce exciting game broadcasts, unique insider access for our fans, and inspiring stories

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