Microsoft buys Michigan land for potential data centers
By Kate Carlson
Microsoft Corp. has purchased nearly 600 acres of vacant land in Allegan and Kent counties for potential data centers, Crain’s has learned.
The parcels include two adjacent properties totaling 316 acres in Gaines Charter Township south of Grand Rapids that the Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant bought from Steelcase Inc. Microsoft officials say the company’s Kent County acquisi-
tion is part of the tech giant’s ongoing search for development opportunities in Michigan, adding that project details will be forthcoming.
“This 316-acre site was identified in collaboration with The Right Place as part of our ongoing search for development opportunities in the Michigan market,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
“While project plans, capital investment, and potential employee numbers are yet to be final-
ized, we will provide updates as information becomes available.”
The Right Place Inc. helped the company assess the property for a potential data center, said Randy Thelen, president and CEO of the economic development organization.
“The Right Place is pleased to have helped Microsoft Corporation assess a 316-acre industrial parcel in Gaines Charter Township for a potential data center.
See MICROSOFT on Page 16
Detroit Zoo to add stingray and shark tank, canopy walk as part of $20M plan
By Sherri Welch
The Detroit Zoo is planning a new immersive refresh of a section of the park that will include a stingray and bamboo shark tank and a 14-foot-high canopy trail, among other attractions.
The $20 million project, aimed at using hands-on experiences to more deeply connect people to
nature, is set to open in 2026.
Discovery Trails is taking shape on the southwest side of the zoo, from the area near Buddy’s Pizza stretching to areas near the bison and wolverine habitats.
“I like to call it a destination within the zoo, a destination within a destination,” CEO Hayley Murphy said.
The final phase of the zoo’s last
master plan that stalled with the COVID-19 pandemic, it spans 7 acres and is aimed at connecting people to nature and wildlife, she said.
“It is a significant part of the zoo, and I think it really speaks to the commitment to the community that we're putting this much
Marrow backers on hunt for more Detroit brands
New venture to act as incubator for CPG firms
By Anna Fifelski
Roger Ehrenberg, his son Andrew Ehrenberg, and Jonathan Opdyke, partner at Detroit-headquartered Greatwater Opportunity Capital, have joined forces to create an investment firm exclusive to Detroit-based companies.
Brand:Detroit will target companies focused on consumer packaged goods, and will eventually act as a Newlab-style incubator, with the goal of scaling companies with Detroit values.
Consumer packaged goods, or CPG, are items used by the average person that need to be replaced frequently, like food, beverages, clothes, cosmetics and household products.
“It's all about creating this flywheel effect. ... We want to do that in Detroit for (consumer packaged goods), to help these founders be successful, make money and have them want to be part of seeding that next generation of amazing CPG founders,”
Roger Ehrenberg said. “There's already a lot of money and infrastructure that is supporting this in Detroit tech, but there's really nothing like that in Detroit for CPG and experiential products.”
The Brand:Detroit studio space will offer coworking space for business founders, allowing them access to marketing services, financial advisers and business development tools, Andrew Ehrenberg said. The space will also serve as an interconnected community, where businesses rely on each other’s resources.
“There was not really a strong community around consumer companies, and they weren't getting the support they deserved or the attention they deserved,” Andrew Ehrenberg said. “There wasn't like a Newlab for CPG in the same way there was for all the support for tech, and it became abundantly clear that there was something to do here.”
The company is in the process of evaluating physical spaces to rehabilitate, with an estimation of making a purchase within a year. Until then, the firm will operate out of community gathering and coworking spaces around Detroit, Andrew Ehrenberg said.
Born in Detroit, Roger Ehrenberg currently resides in New York after living in several cities
Detroit Horse Power breaks ground on an equine education
The Detroit Zoo’s $20 million Discovery Trails immersive exhibits will include a stingray and bamboo shark tank where visitors can pet the animals. | COURTESY OF THE DETROIT ZOO
Microsoft Corp. has acquired about 600 acres in its ongoing search for development opportunities in Michigan. | MICHAEL NAGLE/BLOOMBERG
Off-grid camping with an EV? Michigan startup offers a solution
By Anna Fifelski
A Michigan startup is targeting outdoors enthusiasts at hot spots like Big Sur and Rocky Mountain National Park with its high-tech, solar-powered camping equipment built to charge an electric vehicle.
Electric Outdoors Inc. is one of the rst big investments for a newly formed fund that invests in outdoors lifestyle companies in Michigan. It also saw one of the biggest Detroit-area venture capital deals of the fall.
It is headquartered in Southeld at the Lawrence Technological University Centrepolis Accelerator, which founder and CEO Josef Hjelmaker said has been “an essential part of the company’s success story.”
ere, its eight employees work on building out the EO Canopy, a solar-powered, o -grid battery storage destination platform that enables EV charging at rural campsites and other destinations.
e EO Canopy camping platform is solar-powered and manages energy, water, waste handling, satellite internet and Level 2 EV charging completely o the grid.
Hjelmaker, 47, has a long history with innovation. He has moved around the world working in the automotive industry, consumer electronics, consumer goods and more. When he was tapped by
Whirlpool Corp. in 2015 to move to Benton Harbor from Germany, it set the groundwork for him to eventually found Electric Outdoors.
Hjelmaker is originally from Sweden and attended University of Gothenburg in Sweden for his undergrad before earning a master's degree in electrical engineering from Chalmers University of Technology, also in Sweden.
He worked at Sweden-based Mecel, an automotive software and systems consulting rm, which led him to roles at Delphi Electronics, before joining Whirlpool as vice president for global product organization. In 2020, he
was RV manufacturer or Industries Inc.'s chief innovation o cer, which connected him to the recreation industry.
Hjelmaker founded Electric Outdoors in 2023 after receiving a $325,000 grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corp.’s MP4 grant program targeting outdoor recreation companies.
In September, Electric Outdoors secured a $1.3 million initial closing of a $3 million priced seed round, receiving investments from the MEDC’s, InvestUP's Michigan Outdoor Innovation Fund and East Lansing-headquartered Michigan Rise. e $3 million Michigan Out-
door Innovation Fund is supported by the MEDC’s Michigan Innovate Capital Fund program and is the only seed fund in any rural location across Michigan as well as the rst of its kind in the Upper Peninsula.
e company also received an investment from Veolectra Inc., an electric vehicle systems technology provider headquartered in Farmington Hills that also serves as partner and fabricator for Electric Outdoors.
Hjelmaker said he hopes to close the seed round, which is priced at $3 million, by the end of this year.
“Michigan shared our vision and mission altogether,” Hjelmaker
said. “Michigan has the tools, the skills to build things, and it's been a perfect match for us up until now."
Hjelmaker is working to bring the EO Canopy across the country. Electric Outdoors’ customer base spans private landowners and individual campers to large scale camping operations at national parks. In mid-August, Electric Outdoors launched pilot programs in Estes Park near Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, in California's Monterey area near Big Sur and with a private landowner in Tampa Bay, Fla. e startup also kicked o a pilot program in Negaunee in the Upper Peninsula to make the EO Canopy available to customers on an invitation-only basis, and allows interested customers the opportunity to experience the unit’s capabilities rst-hand.
Hjelmaker said it was never a question whether he would establish Electric Outdoors in Michigan, but the company will be strategic as it looks to expand to new regions. “ ere are many ecosystems that are pulling for us, but in terms of the support and the ability to build, it was an easy choice to start o with Michigan,” Hjelmaker said. “As we expand and scale, we're going to be smart, capitalizing on the Michigan ecosystem, and then supply or scale wherever it's required for the company to grow.”
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South eld-based startup Electric Outdoors Inc. builds sustainable off-grid camping solutions, including this EO Canopy that allows EVs to charge. | AARON PETERSON
Nonprofit breaks ground on equestrian education center
By Sherri Welch
Detroit Horse Power has broken ground on what it says will be among the largest urban equestrian centers in the country.
The center will provide a permanent home for the nonprofit organization’s programs that build critical social-emotional skills in Detroit youth through horse care, interaction and rides. Those programs have been nomadic, operating for the past decade from horse ranches around the region.
The new center is envisioned as a community center that offers yearround youth programming.
“This has been the dream to have our own horses in the city
and scale our youth programming. Now it’s happening,” said CEO David Silver, a Crain’s Detroit Business 2024 40 Under 40 honoree and New York native who came to Detroit through the Teach for America program in 2012. “I just feel lucky to combine what horses taught me when I was young with commitment to education and Detroit’s future.”
Detroit Horse Power closed on the purchase of 18 acres on the city’s northwest side from Detroit Public Schools Community District for $1 million this past summer. The site at Fenkell Avenue and Linwood Street was the former home of the Paul Robeson Academy, which was heavily
Ishbia swaps UWM stock to a fellow Suns shareholder
By Nick Manes
Mat Ishbia has long wanted to put more United Wholesale Mortgage stock into the public market. He’s now acting on that goal, while also perhaps increasing his stake in another high-profile business venture.
Public filings recently spell out a handful of transactions the billionaire CEO of Pontiac-based mortgage lender UWM (NYSE: UWMC) has engaged in with an entity tied to a longtime minority owner of the Phoenix Suns, the NBA team Ishbia owns.
A securities filing this month shows that Phoenix-based Garvin Family Sports LLC became a nearly 9.5% owner of UWM’s class A common stock, with nearly 15 million shares, a market value of
about $109 million given the trading price of about $7.30 a share on Oct. 18.
The acquisition of shares by Garvin Family Sports — an entity controlled by Phoenix businessman and longtime Suns minority owner Sam Garvin — corresponds closely with transactions Ishbia executed earlier this month, securities filings show. Ishbia’s shares “were sold in a privately negotiated transaction for membership interests in a privately held limited liability company,” according to one of the filings.
It is not known if the UWM shares were swapped for a greater stake in the basketball team. A UWM spokesperson declined to identify the LLC and declined comment on the Suns’ behalf.
damaged in a fire in 2011 and later demolished.
The equestrian center is taking shape on 14 acres. A lease with the city of Detroit for the remaining acres, which are part of the city-operated Salsinger Park, transferred from DPSCD to Detroit Horse Power with the sale. The eventual goal is to shift ownership of the park property to the city, Silver said.
Site preparation is underway before winter to clear the way for construction to begin in the spring and wrap up within a year. Birmingham-based McIntosh Poris Architects is the architect on the project and Detroit-based L.S. Brinker is the construction manager.
Detroit Horse Power has raised $8 million of its $11.4 million target to build the new center, with lead grants and donations of $1.8 million from the State of Michigan, $1.4 million from Wayne County, and $650,000 from the Kresge Foundation and more from others including Meijer Foundation.
It expects to net $2.5 million in new market tax credits and to raise the other $1 million or so to close the gap, Silver said.
While rounding out the capital campaign, Detroit Horse Power is also seeking to raise an additional $2 million push to provide an
“We recently executed a transaction at market price with a group of limited partners at the Suns and Mercury organization,” the UWM spokesperson wrote in an email. “This was a great opportunity to increase our float to
Besieged marijuana firm’s grow operation to be auctioned
By Dustin Walsh
The remaining assets — ovens, centrifuges, laptops, lighting and a candy production line — of the state’s once-largest marijuana growing operation are up for auction.
Skymint, whose cultivation assets have been under the authority of a court-ordered receiver since March 2023, is auctioning off the remainder of its equipment as creditors prepare to walk away from the company.
The auction, which is being held online Nov. 12-14, features more than 1,000 items ranging in opening bid from $50 to $1,000.
The sale marks the true end of Skymint’s ambitious cultivation operations — the brand still exists in the form of retail stores, which were acquired out of receivership earlier this year.
Skymint, which primarily operates under the parent company of Green Peak Innovations Inc., entered receivership last year following a lawsuit from investors that said it owed more than $127 million to Canadian investment firm Tropics LP.
The lawsuit alleged Skymint was burning through $3 million in cash per month and generated only $110 million in revenue in 2022, $153 million below its forecast of $263 million in sales for the year. A second lawsuit was filed concurrently in Oakland County Circuit Court by New York-based cannabis investment firm Merida Capital Holdings and its affiliates against Green Peak and its executives alleging misrepresentation of financials and mismanagement.
A related lawsuit filed by New York-based cannabis investment firm Merida Capital Holdings, which lent $8 million to Skymint for it to acquire the Merida-controlled 3Fifteen Cannabis, made further allegations.
The case, filed in Oakland County Circuit Court, alleged Radway “operated (Skymint) as his personal piggybank, and made unilateral decisions on behalf of the company without board approval.”
Despite the rapid growth plans, Skymint could never get its growing operations to be profitable.
meet market demand.”
UWM’s lack of public float — the shares available to buy and sell on the public market — has been a topic of discussion for
Skymint’s facilities averaged more than $1,000 per pound, too high to grow cannabis profitably at recent market prices, Jeff Donahue, Skymint’s executive vice president and general counsel, told Crain’s in July. Successful growers are targeting expenses of $450 per pound of cannabis. This led Skymint to exit all of its growing operations this year,
UWM Holdings Inc. Chairman and CEO Mat Ishbia at a Phoenix Suns game. NIc ANtAYA/GettY IMAGeS
Detroit Horse Power has broken ground on what it says will be among the largest urban equine education centers in the country. | McINtOSH POrIS ArcHItectS
Job listing points to Apple store in Detroit
To paraphrase Charli XCX, I think that Apple’s coming right to the core. And if I'm right, it's probably not that far o .
Kirk Pinho
e Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant posted a job listing on Oct. 11 for a merchandising eld leader in Detroit, a position that’s part of the company’s Real Estate, Design & Merchandising team that works to “create and care for Apple stores that look, feel, and function as beautifully as our products.”
Part of the job description for the merchandising eld leader? “Lead merchandising e orts for new store openings, remodels, and relocations.”
Is it a smoking gun? Nah. But as far as I can tell, it’s the rst public indication directly from Apple that it has its eyes set on a Detroit store, following speculation and courting dating back more than a decade from Dan Gilbert and his lieutenants.
e location of the apparent store is not disclosed on the job listing.
But sources told me in May 2023 that Gilbert’s Bedrock LLC real estate company was working to land one in three vacated downtown core storefronts at 1426-1434 Woodward north of the Shinola Hotel at East Grand River Avenue.
At that time, Bedrock documents described that location as having a “lease out” with a “con dential” prospective tenant in that location, which previously housed the Madewell, Détroit is the New Black and Le Labo downtown locations.
at’s industry-speak for when major terms between and landlord and prospective tenant have been agreed to, and that legal counsel for both sides are hammering out a few small details. In general, it also means that both parties anticipate signing a lease imminently.
In the months since then, that document has been updated, distributed in recent months at the International Council of Shopping Centers conference in Las Vegas. A copy I obtained earlier this year now says “lease signed” in that same location, and that the tenant remains con dential.
Also in recent months, contractors have been gutting the property, removing awnings, doors and
Woodward-facing window panels, splitting down symmetrical lines (see what I did there?). Emails were sent to both Apple and Bedrock spokespeople seeking comment.
Gilbert and his team have talked about bringing an Apple store downtown going back to at least 2011. Various locations have been rumored and talked about both publicly and behind the scenes, ranging from the ground oor of 1001 Woodward to Chase Tower to the long-stalled development formerly known as Monroe Blocks, now the Development on Cadillac Square. Apple has stores in Somerset Collection in Troy, Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi, Briarwood Mall in Ann Arbor (although that one is moving) and e Mall at Partridge Creek in Clinton Township.
Troy-based software company Altair looks to sell to Siemens
Charles is the highest
By Katie Roof, Michelle F. Davis and Ryan Gould, Bloomberg
Siemens AG is in talks about a potential deal to acquire software maker Altair Engineering Inc., people familiar with the matter said, in what would be its largestever acquisition.
e German engineering group is working with advisers as it discusses a move for Troy-based Altair, according to the people, who asked not to be identi ed discussing con dential information. e US company has been exploring a sale and other bidders could also emerge, they said.
Shares in Altair have risen 23% this year, boosted by a Reuters report last week about a potential sale. e company has a market value of roughly $8.9 billion. Siemens was trading broadly at on ursday, valuing the company at about €144 billion ($155 billion).
Talks with Siemens are advanced, though there’s no certainty that they will lead to an agreement, some of the people said. Representatives for Altair and Munich-based Siemens declined to comment.
Led by founder and Chief Ex-
ecutive O cer James Scapa, Altair provides engineering software to companies in the aerospace, automotive, energy and nancial services industries, among others. Demand for such tools is expected to grow in lockstep with the increased adoption of arti cial intelligence in everyday life.
Under CEO Roland Busch, Siemens has been exiting heavy equipment businesses and shifting to higher-margin, softwaredriven product lines to catch up to the pro tability of automation peers like Rockwell Automation Inc. and Schneider Electric SE. e German company is scheduled to report fourth-quarter earnings on Nov. 14. Digital Industries, which is the Siemens’s biggest unit in terms of sales, specializes in factory automation software and hardware. Altair is scheduled to report earnings on Oct. 30.
“ e acquisition could be a logical strategic t for Siemens DI Software and could be accommodated within the current balance sheet capacity of the group,” analysts at RBC Capital Markets wrote in a note dated Oct. 23.
“However, the high valuation of
Altair means any acquisition could be marginally earnings dilutive.”
Manufacturers have been hunting for software acquisitions as machine production moves increasingly from factory oors to computers. France’s Schneider held talks to buy engineering software maker Bentley Systems Inc., which is worth $16 billion, before discussions ended in May.
A takeover of Altair would surpass Siemens’s biggest-ever acquisition, the purchase of oil-and-gas equipment maker Dresser-Rand Group Inc. for $7.6 billion including debt in 2015, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
e value of deals in the industrials sector has reached about $380 billion this year, the data show.
Altair has 79 o ces in 28 countries and more than 3,000 employees globally.
In August, Altair announced it had acquired Boston-based Cambridge Semantics, a modern data fabric provider. Its technologies were to be integrated into Altair’s RapidMiner data analytics and AI platform.
Crain’s Detroit Business contributed to this report.
Sources have said this under-construction building at 1426-1434 Woodward Ave. in downtown Detroit, seen Monday, is being targeted for an Apple Inc. retail store. | KIRK PINHO/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
In political ad barrage, EVs get the short end of the stick
By David Eggert
Critics of electric vehicles are outspending EV proponents 7 to 1 on political advertising, with the messaging largely concentrated in Michigan, home to the U.S. auto industry.
Some $21.5 million has been spent on EV-related ads this election cycle. About 88%, or $18.9 million, of it is negative, according to research done for the American EV Jobs Alliance, the 501(c)(4) arm of the bipartisan EV Politics Project. Roughly three-fourths of all EV advertising is running in Michigan, and it is overwhelmingly negative despite the industry's shift toward EVs.
"I'm concerned. It's not good that there's not su cient pushback against a misleading narrative on EVs," said Joe Sacks, a Rhode Island-based Democratic strategist and executive director of the EV Politics Project.
e organization's CEO is Republican consultant Mike Murphy. A self-described "full-on EV nut" who grew up in Michigan and is based in Los Angeles, he launched the initiative in January to push back on Republicans' trashing of EVs.
e American EV Jobs Alliance recently ran a pro-EV jobs digital ad targeted at 100,000 Michigan swing voters, claiming in a memo on Oct. 22 that it left more agreeing that electri cation is good for the state's economy and job creation. But the six- gure spot is over and its exposure was minimal compared to ads aired by former President Donald Trump's campaign, which accuse Vice President Kamala Harris of wanting to "end all gas-powered cars," and outside groups supporting Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers and opposing Democrat Elissa Slotkin.
A new ad from the Senate Leadership Fund, a super political action committee tied to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, has more money behind it — over $4 million — than any other EVrelated ad this cycle and began airing earlier this month, according to the memo. Slotkin is running a "highly defensive spot on EVs, a troubling sign," the memo said. "I would like to see more money put towards messaging that highlights the fact that EVs create good-paying jobs in Michigan," said Sacks, who said fundraising is ongoing. "I'd like to see more money point to the fact that EVs are popular and well-liked by those who drive them. Going on o ense there presents an opportunity."
e ads re ect a sharp partisan divide over EVs.
A 2023 Glengari Group poll conducted for the Detroit Regional Chamber showed that 46% of the state's registered voters supported shifting from gas-powered vehicles to EVs and 44% opposed the move. Democrats favored it by more than 2 to 1, while Republicans disapproved by more than 2 to 1.
A recent survey found a similar partisan split over whether Michigan should aggressively compete to lead EV manufacturing.
e negative ads focus on EV "mandates," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's emissions rules that push automakers toward majority EV sales by early next decade. e regulations do not ban gas vehicles but are projected to be met if more than half of new sales are electric by 2032.
e market share is 7% today.
EVs were a ashpoint in two recent Senate debates between Slotkin and Rogers.
Slotkin, a third-term congresswoman, said she does not care what kind of car people purchase, but she wants Michigan — not China — to make EVs. Rogers, a former seven-term congressman, said the EPA rules are "ruining our car industry" and advocated for hybrids.
A new report from S&P Global Mobility notes that the emissions standards and U.S. fuel-economy regulations are not aligned and automakers will not be able to comply without changes. e targets are likely to be delayed regardless of the election outcome, but what the changes look like will depend on which party wins the White House, Senate and House, according to the analysis.
S&P Global Mobility also cites future uncertainty for the auto industry over federal In ation Reduction Act funding, tari s, California's greenhouse gas emissions standards and the U.S.-MexicoCanada trade agreement.
Sacks said the pro-EV political project will continue beyond this election to ensure that the takeaway is not that "bashing EVs is good politics, because if that happens, that means that politicians and D.C. insiders will think, 'Well, if bashing EVs is good politics, let's create anti-EV policy.' We do not want that. EVs are good for Americans. ey're good for American jobs. We think there's a net bene t of continuing to invest in the industry."
He declined to name donors to the cause but said they include traditional automakers and EV companies.
Business leaders have expressed concerns over the politicization of EVs and the impact on Michigan.
Detroit Regional Chamber President and CEO Sandy Baruah said this month the issue is nuanced.
"I've met very few policymakers that are completely opposed to EVs. ey might have challenges with the existing policy prescription, and frankly, we could say that we have some challenges from existing policy prescriptions as well, too, certainly at the federal level," he said. "But we do think that the overall e ort nationally, and in Michigan in particular, needs to be focused on what needs to be done to keep our automotive and mobility industry globally competitive for the long term. A big piece of that, not the only piece of that, is around electri cation."
UM gave President Santa Ono a big new contract. It will pay dividends for Detroit.
Last week, the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents gave President Santa Ono a ringing endorsement with a new contract that lasts through the next eight years until 2032, and increases both his base pay and annual deferred compensation.
For Detroit, there’s a lot riding on his tenure.
And as the highest-ranking employee of one of the state’s largest publicly funded institutions, the investment of taxpayer dollars in his leadership needs to pay huge dividends — for the city and the state.
While Ono was handed what was then called the Detroit Center for Innovation project when he joined UM in 2022, the proposal had existed in multiple forms since 2019, originally aimed at the site of Wayne County's failed jail project.
Within six months of Ono taking the UM presidency, the university had taken over development of the project from Stephen Ross' Related Companies and renamed it after the university itself. He was then tasked with making sure it broke ground to keep its financial incentives. It did.
Now, Ono, 61, is undertaking the hard launch of UM’s new Detroit satellite campus — building a long-awaited bridge from Michigan’s biggest college town to its biggest city. With it comes a pipeline of talent and
COMMENTARY
money. As we’ve said before, stronger ties between Detroit and Ann Arbor are good for its biggest city and the state as a whole.
UMCI is under construction and slated to open in spring 2027. The $250 million building not only is a critical component as a second anchor behind Little Caesars Arena to District Detroit — which needs to see continued investment and movement — but also as a foundational brick to a young and growing tech economy in the Motor City alongside Newlab at Michigan Central and TechTown at Wayne State. UMCI will house a graduate school that links UM’s business offerings with Detroit entrepreneurs, and its focus on programs in robotics, advanced manufacturing, clean energy and other high-tech fields. And with Ono’s background as a microbiologist and researcher, he is acutely aware of the dynamics those programs require. It’s hard to imagine companies in those sectors ignoring the influx of new talent to the city as up to 1,000 students enroll in programs downtown. Ono will likely be in the room for many economic development conversations to come as local leaders court new businesses looking to capitalize on the opportunity in the city — which we need more of.
It’s also hard to imagine that UM’s investment will be capped at just one building.
Ono himself has made reference to needing more than one facility due to overwhelming interest in UM having a Detroit research campus; and Crain’s Detroit Business reporter Kirk Pinho recently reported UM is spending $9.5 million to buy more downtown property near the UMCI site.
For UM, the opening of UMCI will be timely.
Its counterpart Michigan State University is making its push into Detroit as well, as it partners with Henry Ford Health and the Detroit Pistons on the health system’s new “Future of Health” hospital and research campus. It also comes as UM lays out its future plans for its Ann Arbor campus for the next quarter-decade — which include massive investments and light rail to connect the university’s three campuses together. And together with Wayne State University, MSU and UM have all pledged to put more time and leadership into establishing research partnerships.
For Detroit — the city where UM was founded in 1817 — the success of the UMCI is critical.
Detroit’s economy must diversify: while its skeleton is manufacturing and the Detroit 3, its new muscle should be technology and research.
Other Rust Belt cities have found success in turning to research-based econo-
mies as manufacturing has stagnated or shrunken, like Pittsburgh as it grappled with the restructuring of the steel industry. Its population was also dropping year to year. The region is now an emerging energy and high-tech hub, thanks in part to strategic efforts with Carnegie Mellon University. And the real per-capita income in Pittsburgh has outpaced that of other industrial Midwest cities in recent years. Detroit has a lot riding on Ono’s next eight years at UM. We hope the investment in his contract will translate to many more business announcements in the future.
Literacy should be priority No. 1 for next president, whomever it is
Millions of children across the U.S. are currently suffering from a silent epidemic. That epidemic is illiteracy, and though it is widespread, it is easily solvable.
It is not a new issue, but one that has affected students for decades. We must ask ourselves why we have let this continue for so long.
More importantly, we must ask what we need to do to change the present state of literacy. Our children are the future leaders of this country. Given its centrality to our future, it is imperative that literacy is a leading campaign issue this election season and a top priority for the next administration.
someone who cannot read.
Plenty of students who struggle with reading do not even make it this far, having already given up and dropped out of school before they could graduate. They are on a path of life lined with limited options and much hardship. They will most likely have difficulty finding work, leading to years of economic challenges. Many will turn to crime and end up in jail.
er, quite literally. A powerful defense department and competitive workforce development programs are essential for America to keep up with other technologically advancing countries, but this is only possible with a literate population. The Department of Defense, specifically the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force, all fell short of their recruitment targets for FY 2023, with 47 percent of Americans aged 17-24 failing the Armed Forces Qualification Test or lacking a high school diploma.
lumbia have passed laws that enforce research-backed literacy curricula in schools. However, this will not be enough until students in every classroom are given the evidence-based instruction they need to become efficient readers. A study conducted in the past year shows that only 6% of parents are very satisfied with their child’s literacy curricula. Additionally, an astounding 80% of parents prefer phonics instruction over three-cueing.
Children everywhere in the U.S. are not getting the education they are counting on. In each state, at least half of the students read below grade level, and in most states this number is closer to 75 percent. These children trust they will be prepared for adulthood, and yet it is common to find high school seniors still reading at a kindergarten level. Many of these students are handed their diplomas and sent out into a world that expects them to be well-educated and able to compete with their peers.
That is an impossible expectation for
According to the National Center for Education Statistics and the Justice Department, 85 percent of juveniles and 70 percent of inmates cannot read proficiently. The recidivism rate among juveniles decreases from 70 percent to 16 percent when literacy help is provided. How different our society would look if so many of these people in prison had simply been given the education they were supposed to receive.
Both candidates have set their sights on preparing the next generation to operate in a high-tech society. As our country moves in this direction, we will soon need people trained in the skills to create a smart force for a high-tech military and able to fill high-tech positions in the arising smart work force.
A lack of literacy makes our country weak-
The current state of literacy must significantly improve if we hope to remain a strong nation. But before any of this can be actualized, our children need to feel motivated to achieve these goals, and this requires a deep love for their country. It is up to the next president to instill this patriotism in them. Those who are able to freely read the historical documents and literature that shape the inspiring story of America will be the citizens who are proud to sustain our position as a leading country. If our population cannot read, our story and rich civic values will be forgotten. Divisions will grow as our civic bond is lost. A nation’s story is what holds its people together and nurtures a sense of community.
Fortunately, some key steps have been taken to reverse the illiteracy epidemic. To date, 39 states and the District of Co-
One-on-one, phonics-based tutoring is proven to be the best solution. Children who build an individual relationship with their tutor have the benefit of receiving instruction personalized to their learning needs. Tutors that administer a diagnostic assessment are best able to pinpoint exactly where a child is struggling, resulting in rapid learning gains. Students who attend these sessions for an hour each day, five days per week show incredible growth, with many advancing an entire grade level in just six weeks. Dedicated educators around the world want to utilize a model that produces these amazing outcomes.
Children across the nation are counting on adults to provide them with the resources they need to achieve full literacy. Every student in the United States of America deserves an equal shot at success. When these children succeed, it is a win for all of us.
Pam Good is the founder and CEO of Beyond Basics, a nonprofit organization that works with school districts to improve literacy in Michigan.
University of Michigan President Santa Ono recently signed a contract extension that goes until 2032.
Plans scaled back for The Mid project, with construction set to begin in January
By Kirk Pinho
A scaled-back proposal for a long-stalled development in Midtown calls for construction to start in early January.
A public presentation from the development team behind The Mid project on Woodward Avenue north of Mack Avenue and the Whole Foods Inc. grocery store says a planned Thompson Hotel, part of the Chicago-based Hyatt Hotels Corp. family of hotel flags, should be complete by January 2027.
It is slightly reduced in scale to 216 rooms across 15 floors, down from 225 or so as originally conceived.
It’s the first time in years updated plans have been revealed for the project, which was first announced in March 2019 and ran into the COVID-19 pandemic buzzsaw that pinched financing a year later. The most recent cost projection was $377 million, although the current development cost is not known.
"The ensuing disruption to the financial markets resulted in the project’s lenders quickly withdrawing their commitments in March of 2020," the presentation says. "In addition, the subsequent economic downturn and softening in hospitality and residential demand made a large-scale Midtown project all but impossible."
Other components to be started later, according to City Planning Commission briefing documents presented on Oct. 17, include:
A seven-story, 485-space parking deck starting construction in summer 2026 and wrapping up in spring 2027;
A seven-story, 217-unit multifamily building atop first-floor retail space for eight stories total starting construction in spring 2027 and completing in winter 2029;
A 13-story, 153-unit apartment building atop the seven-story parking garage for 20 stories total starting in spring 2029 and completing in fall 2031;
Retail space across all components totaling about 55,300 square feet.
The updated plans are pared back considerably.
The first incarnation of the project from March 2019 included a 25-story hotel and condo building with 225 hotel keys and 60 condos, plus a 30-story, 250-unit residential tower. They would be among the tallest buildings built north of Mack since the 1920s. Also included were a 12-story building with close to 200 co-living units, a 750-space parking garage, and 75,000 to 100,000 square feet of retail.
Emery Matthews, one of the developers long behind the project, said on Oct. 17 during a City Plan-
ning Commission meeting that they "are prepared to move forward today."
Matthews also said permits and financing are being finalized.
Crain’s reported earlier this month that the development team, with a looming deadline to keep nearly $9 million in tax credits, submitted plans for the hotel in late September, the first sign of life for the broader project in years.
“We look forward to sharing much more detail about this important development in the very near future,” Dietrich Knoer, president of Southfield-based QPartners LLC, said in an emailed statement earlier this month.
Through a spokesperson, the development team declined com-
ment on Oct. 17 in advance of the City Planning Commission meeting.
Q-Partners LLC is connected to Mohammad Qazi, president and CEO of Southfield-based Ciena Healthcare, who paid $15 million for the site in 2018. Knoer has previously been a top executive with Southfield-based Redico LLC, Peter Cummings' The Platform LLC and the Eastern Market Development Corp.
It’s been five and a half years since Qazi and his development team first floated the ambitious project.
But since then, little has happened. Years have passed since the original 2019 construction start timeframe. The site remains empty, with a fence and scrim
making promises for a development that has long remained dormant.
Under legislation that was approved a year ago, Michigan lawmakers said the project needed to have seven stories of a 15-story building completed by the end of 2026 in order to receive $8.97 million in previously approved brownfield tax credits, which representatives of the project have said is needed in order for it to move forward. It was the second such deadline extension, with one also approved in 2021.
The property is adjacent to a tower, The Plaza, a former office building turned apartment building that is now going to be turned into an extended-stay hotel under the Marriott Bonvoy flag.
An artist’s rendering of The Mid project on Woodward Avenue north of Mack Avenue in Midtown in Detroit. | ScreeNSHOt
An aerial rendering of The Mid project on Woodward Avenue north of Mack Avenue. | ScreeNSHOt
Fadwa Hammoud pivots to private sector
Fadwa Hammoud, Michigan’s former chief deputy attorney general, was the first Arab American Muslim solicitor general in the country. Now as managing member at Miller Johnson, overseeing its Southeast Michigan operations, Hammoud is one of just a few women leading a major local law firm. The goal was never to be first, though, the 38-year-old Hammoud told Crain’s. It is to make sure she is far from the last. As a recent entrant of the private sector, Hammoud has several key objectives at her new firm, inspired by 14 years in public service. Significant expansion tops the list on the business side. At the same time, she said she feels an obligation to use her platform to inspire other women in the field, a focus area that is already paying off for the firm. The following conversation has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity. By |
How did you make the jump from public service to the private sector?
I spent the majority of my career in public service. I started off over at the Wayne County Prosecutor’s office working for one of my mentors, Prosecutor Kim Worthy, and then serving as solicitor general, and then most recently for the state as deputy attorney general and absolutely loved every single one of those roles.
I look at what I’m doing now as really a continuation of my public service and now a direct representation of many people, businesses, industries, schools that I really care about. And I think that the opportunity at Miller Johnson was different than just going to the private sector. It was an investment in Southeast Michigan and mainly Detroit, which was really intriguing to me, and an opportunity to take something and grow it. I think my role as a managing member is helping local businesses grow and thrive. That's important for the state. I get to be part of this larger effort to continue to rebuild Detroit as the center of innovation and industry, which we know it to be. This investment in Michigan was personal to me because I spent my career investing in Michigan, ensuring that we're protecting our communities, serving our communities. This is a continuation of that.
Kurt Nagl
Can you tell me about the firm’s presence in metro Detroit?
Miller Johnson has overall approximately 150 attorneys now and more than 250 team members overall. We’re growing really by the day. Our Detroit office right now has 32 attorneys and more than 40 team members overall. Our practice areas fit into three primary buckets: litigation, corporate, and employment and labor. I’m growing every single one of those practice areas.
Can you tell me more about those growth plans?
Miller Johnson has been known as an extremely reputable firm on the west side of the state. The Detroit office started by acquiring an education practice during COVID. And it's crazy to think that less than three years ago, you could count the Detroit attorneys for Miller Johnson on one hand. We are going to continue to grow, and I anticipate that our numbers in Detroit will eventually exceed the numbers for the firm as a whole right now. I obviously don't have a magic wand, but I can tell you we've completely outgrown our space. We're going to be moving to another floor over at the Ally building, and I'm very excited about that. That space will accommodate 70 of our team members. But do I think that 70 is
going to be, you know, the extent of it in Southeast Michigan? I don't think so. I think the goal is to be Michigan's law firm … I think we’ll be close to 70 by October 2025.
How has your experience in the public sector prepared you for the role? Working in the public sector gave me a deep understanding, I would say, of how the legal system works, not just from a regulatory standpoint, but from a perspective of protecting communities and ensuring justice. In the private sector, it's similar. It's bringing that same focus on fairness, integrity to our clients and then helping them navigate their complex legal issues … I know how policies are made, and that insight helps our clients operate more strategically. Also at the Department of Attorney General, you know, I was overseeing a staff of over 600 people. This role also comes with a management piece to it as well. And I think it's all about relationships. It's all about people, and it's about trust, it's about reputation. It's a commitment to the people that you serve.
How does your identity as an Arab American woman shape your approach to your role?
When I was appointed solicitor general, I was the first Arab
American Muslim solicitor general in the country. When I was appointed deputy attorney general, I carried that title, too. When I went to the Supreme Court, I carried that title, too. That's great, and I take pride in that. My goal, in my roles, is to make sure that different communities and communities of color, when we get into these positions and do an exceptional job, we're no longer that exception, and that it's the norm. That's what I hope to achieve for when my daughter enters the workforce. It’s that goal not to be the first, but when you are the first, to make sure that you're not the last. It's not just about the legal expertise, but it's about cultural competency and understanding the specific needs of the different communities that we serve. I think that's what allowed me to be a great public servant, and that is what allows us, when we keep on diversifying our teams, allows us to offer the best service to our clients.
Beyond what’s on your plate managing the law firm in Detroit, are there any initiatives or interests of personal importance to you? Something I didn’t talk about is our WIN team. It’s our Women’s Initiative Network, and I don’t think you’ll see it in any other firm. Our WIN team is comprised
now of about 51 women at the firm, which is more than your mid-sized firm. This is a group of women that support each other, whether it is from the very stages of interviewing to onboarding, to making sure that you're growing your book of business, to making sure that you have all the resources necessary to help you succeed as a woman in this field. And that really excites me. As a mother myself of two young children — I have a 10-year-old and an 8-year-old — I understand the challenges that come with balancing family and a demanding career. I think this coalition has led to the firm's success and growth in ways that you don't see too often in this industry or others … To make sure that when we have new clients that are coming in, to uplift some of these women, refer those cases their way. But also to make sure that if they need assistance, especially for our younger associates, that they are assigned someone from the WIN team that really serves as this mentor to help guide them, whether it's sitting in on meetings when we have new clients, or to make sure that they have babysitters for their kids when they have to go to court. It's been so humbling to belong to a support system like WIN, and I think it could be life-changing for so many people that enter the world of private practice.
As managing member at Miller Johnson in Detroit, Fadwa Hammoud is one of just a few women leading a major local law firm. | MILLER JOHNSON
UM receives $25 million gift from one of its professors
By Sherri Welch
University of Michigan endowed medical school professor Gilbert Omenn and his wife, Martha Darling, have made a $25 million gift to the Ann Arbor-based university to build its leadership in artificial intelligence focused on health care.
With the gift, the Gilbert S. Omenn Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics will become one of the first named medical school basic science departments in the country, said Marschall Runge, executive vice president for medical affairs, CEO of Michigan Medicine and dean of the university's medical school.
“This gift will be transformational in enabling pivotal discoveries in advancing progress in health care, and it couldn't come at a better time to a more qualified department,” Runge said during a UM Board of Regents meeting on Oct. 17. “Artificial Intelligence and computational medicine will dramatically change health care delivery, and this department will now have the resources to be at the forefront of that innovation."
Omenn is the Harold T. Shapiro
Distinguished University Professor of Medicine and a professor of computational medicine, bioinformatics, internal medicine and human genetics in the UM Medical School. He is also a professor of environmental health sciences in UM's School of Public Health.
He is world-renowned for his work in multi-omics, and both he and Darling — an education consultant and founding co-chair of Washtenaw County's Success by Six early childhood initiative — are White House Fellows, members of the National Academy of Medicine and both “publishing madly” while still supporting the university, UM President Santa Ono said.
“We're very fortunate to have them.”
Omenn has been a pioneer in
computational medicine and bioinformatics at UM since serving as its first executive vice president for medical affairs from 1997 to 2002. Omenn co-led the estab-
lishment of the multidisciplinary, cross-university Center for Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics in 2005 and served as its first director.
Taqueria El Rey reopens in new location nearly three years after fire
By Jay Davis
One of Detroit’s most beloved Mexican restaurants is back nearly three years after a fire destroyed the previous restaurant.
Taqueria El Rey opened on Oct. 18 in its new location at 3400 Bagley St. in Detroit’s Mexicantown neighborhood. The opening was announced in an Oct. 12 social media post.
Taqueria El Rey took over the multi-floor building that previously housed restaurant El Zocalo, which closed in 2016 after more than 30 years in business. Taqueria El Rey shares the space with Tres Leches Snacks.
The new Taqueria El Rey operates out of the 13,940-square-foot
building, owned by Detroit landlord Dennis Kefallinos through Ivory Properties Inc. The building has space for 250 people on the first floor and another 450 on the second floor, along with two patios.
The family-owned business returns nearly three years after a fire destroyed its previous home at 3445 W. Vernor Highway. The nearly 30-year-old restaurant is owned by Eliseo Fuentes and managed by his son Daniel.
The menu includes tacos, burritos, quesadillas, botanas, charcoalgrilled chicken and ribs. A full bar will be highlighted by Mexican beer and margaritas.
Ownership did not immediately respond to Crain’s request for
comment.
The opening ends a long journey for the Fuentes family.
Eliseo Fuentes had rented the Vernor Highway location for about $2,500 a month. The family looked to buy the property from the landlord following the January 2022 fire, but Daniel Fuentes told Crain's the landlord was "looking for a couple million," which was not in their price range.
After the fire, Taqueria El Rey found ways to stay connected and continue bringing its food to the Detroit community. The business mostly stayed afloat from savings and found support through new avenues. Batch Brewing Co. in Corktown invited it to set up a pop-up a couple of days each
cial intelligence,” Omenn in a news release.
“We are excited about the creative and intellectually ambitious young people entering this field and the national collaborations and bioethical guardrails already being developed,” Omenn and Darling said in a joint statement. Computational medicine leverages mathematics and computers to accelerate biomedical discovery and translational research, with the aim of using data to ultimately develop personalized therapies for disease.
The Omenn-Darling gift will be used to further develop the Omenn Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics and enhance its national reputation. It will establish the Michael A. Savageau Department Chair of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, up to five endowed research professorships, and the Bioinformatics Graduate Program Endowed Fund to support the department’s Master of Science and Ph.D. training programs.
A major goal of the gift is to encourage and strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration through the department of CCMB, especially within the Department of Internal Medicine, to advance AI-driven research initiatives. Omenn and Darling expect the funding will boost partnerships between basic scientists and clinical investigators in many departments, UM said.
Omenn and Darling have previously provided support to the UM Medical School, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University Musical Society and UM's Livingston Awards for early-career journalists.
“Medicine and public health are being transformed with the power of large datasets, new technologies and the analytical prowess of deep learning models and artifi-
They have also made significant contributions to Reed College, the Hastings Center, Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, Harvard Medical School and the OmennDarling Bioengineering Institute at Princeton University, according to UM.
week, free of charge, and it has delivered its goods out of a food truck in other locations.
Taqueria El Rey annual revenues before the fire were $300,000 to $500,000 a year, Daniel
told Crain's. Currently, annual revenue with the food truck is $375,000. Fuentes said they expect to bring in more than $1 million in annual revenue at the new larger location.
Fuentes
The $25 million gift from University of Michigan endowed medical professor Gilbert Omenn and his wife, Martha Darling, will help the school build its prowess in artificial intelligence focused on health care. | UNIVerSItY OF MIcHIGAN
University of Michigan’s medical campus in Ann Arbor | UNIVerSItY OF MIcHIGAN HeALtH
Taqueria El Rey opens Friday at 3400 Bagley St. in a nearly 14,000-square-foot space that previously housed restaurant El Zocalo in Detroit’s Mexicantown neighborhood. | KIrK PINHO/ crAIN’S DetrOIt bUSINeSS
Rocket plans return to the Super Bowl with a new commercial
By Brian Bonilla, Ad Age
Rocket Cos. is heading back to the Super Bowl.
Jonathan Mildenhall, the company’s chief marketing officer, alluded to Rocket returning to the Big Game while onstage during an Oct. 17 panel at Blackweek and later confirmed the plan during an interview with Ad Age.
The new work will focus on elevating Rocket’s marketing strategy beyond a transactional relationship with consumers, Mildenhall said, emphasizing the American dream and the different communities that Rocket works with.
Detroit-based Rocket’s businesses include Rocket Mortgage and Rocket Homes.
“Because of the role that we play in terms of home ownership and the significance that home ownership is as part of the American dream, Rocket is going to become one of North America’s most culturally significant brands in the next couple of years,” Mildenhall said. That is a direction he signaled in an earlier interview with Ad Age's Marketer's Brief podcast.
Mirimar, the company’s new creative agency of record, will lead the effort.
Mildenhall said that the new work will include a “new brand, narrative and creative idea” that will rival Nike’s “Just Do It” in terms of cultural resonance and brand identity.
“It’s a sleeping giant. We have nearly a billion dollars of marketing resources [at our] disposal, and we are going to use a creative idea to organize all of that thinking and make sure that we are investing those dollars to create deep, meaningful, relevant affinity with the people of America in market,” he said.
Rocket’s last Super Bowl ad, for Rocket Mortgage, ran in 2022 and featured Anna Kendrick and a Barbie Dreamhouse. That ad was created by Highdive, which also handled previous Super Bowl spots for the company.
Acclaimed chef Kate Williams reopens Lady of the House in a new location
By Jay Davis
A notable chef has reopened her popular, Detroit-based restaurant in a new location.
Multi-time James Beard Foundation award nominee Kate Williams is now serving again at her Lady of the House restaurant. The new restaurant is located at 4884 Grand River Ave. Unit 1 C in Detroit.
The rebirth comes close to four years after the restaurant closed its original Corktown location in early 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions. Plans for the new location were announced late last year.
Following the closure of Lady of the House, the Alps-inspired restaurant Alpino took over the Corktown space at 1426 Bagley St. and opened in spring 2023.
A soft opening took place last week in the new Lady of the House location. The restaurant opened to the public on Oct. 23, Williams said in a social media post. The restaurant will open at 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. A $25 deposit is required for reservations, and walk-in seating may be available.
Williams did not respond to Crain’s request for additional information.
With its new location, Lady of the House joins a list of restaurants in Detroit's Core City area that includes Argentinian restaurant Barda, dual concept Puma/ Cougar and vegan-friendly Cafe Prince.
The menu at the farm-to-table restaurant will change periodically. Steak tartare and potato-based
American Axle sells off its India business in $45M deal
By Georgia Hall, Automotive News
American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings is selling its commercial vehicle axle business in India to Bharat Forge for $65 million, pending regulatory approval.
AAM India's manufacturing facilities focus on axles for light-, medium- and heavy-duty trucks and passenger buses. The business generated about $165 million in sales over the 12 months ending June 2024.
"The strategic decision to sell our commercial vehicle axle business in India enables us to
strengthen our focus on ICE, hybrid and full electric passenger car, pickup truck/SUV, and van applications globally and provides additional financial flexibility,"
American Axle CEO David Dauch said in an Oct. 17 statement.
Bharat Forge operates several plants in India, including the world's largest forging facility in Pune. The company also has facilities in North America and Europe. Bharat Forge said the deal will help scale up its business in the medium to long term.
American Axle's Pune Engineering and Development Center
donuts will be staples. The menu at the Corktown location featured new American food with French and Nordic influences. Meals began with a traditional Irish welcome: a cup of freshly-brewed tea.
Lady of the House first opened in 2017.
The restaurant's name pays homage to an important figure in all families and plays a part in the service offered at the restaurant.
The "Lady of the House" is a figure ingrained in familial and domestic spheres, serving as the matriarchal figure that sends out warmth, hospitality and refined guidance, according to the company website. The "Lady of the House" is also a mentor who passes on the art of culinary and hosting skills, like how Williams was tutored by her mother and grandmothers during her formative years. Williams' credits also include opening breakfast spot Karl's inside The Siren Hotel. Karl's closed in late 2022. Williams earned a best new chef nod from Food & Wine in 2018.
is included in assets being sold through the partnership.
"We are committed to collaborating with Bharat Forge to execute this
agreement efficiently and support the continuity of supply from these facilities to customers during the ownership transition,"
Dauch said.
Brian Bonilla writes for Crain’s sister brand Ad Age.
Popular woman-owned restaurant Lady of the House reopened to the public on Oct. 23 in Detroit’s Core City neighborhood. JACOB LEWKOW
The steak tartare offered at Detroit-based restaurant Lady of the House JACOB LEWKOW AAM
Thursday, Nov. 21 | 6–9 PM | MGM Grand Detroit
Introducing 40 Young Professionals Defining Detroit’s Future. Come Meet Them. Our 33rd annual celebration of 40 leaders younger than 40 honors exceptional professionals making waves across the state. From leading businesses to spearheading impactful community initiatives, these stars are shaping Southeast Michigan’s future. This year’s honorees join a prestigious alumni network including Mayor Mike Duggan, Judge Kyra Harris Bolden, and business leaders like Dan Gilbert, Dug Song, and Hiram Jackson. The celebratory dinner provides a unique opportunity to connect with these accomplished individuals and fellow attendees from diverse industries.
LARGEST CREDIT UNIONS IN MICHIGAN CRAIN’S LIST
ResearchedbySonyaD.Hill:shill@crain.com|InformationforthislistwassuppliedbythecreditunionsandtheNationalCreditUnionAdministration'sJune2024reports.Thisisnotacompletelisting butthemostcomprehensiveavailable. 1. SucceededSandraJelinskiasCEOandpresident,effectiveMarch4. 2. FormerlyFirstCommunityFCU. 3. EffectiveSept.15,2022,DowChemicalEmployees’ CreditUnionchangeditsnametoDowCreditUnion. 4. VibeCreditUnionandOaklandCountyCreditUnionmergedinJanuary2019. 5. WanigasCreditUnionmergedwithFinancialPlusCreditUnion, effective Aug. 1, 2022. 6. Succeeded Tim Benecke as CEO and president. Want the full Excel version of this list — and every list? Become a Data Member: CrainsDetroit.com/data
S P EC I A LS JUST FOR YOU
We’re celebrating the Grand Opening of our Novi and Chicago Branches! Take advantage of these
Nonprofit renovating mansion for mental health services
By Sherri Welch
The Methodist Children’s Home Society Family of Services is renovating a 1931 mansion in northwest Detroit to serve as a day site for youth in need of mental health services.
The site will also serve as a walkin site for mental health services for youth under age 25, serving a projected 2,200 youth each year and building on transitional housing for older youth MCHS has already put in place on the campus.
MCHS is raising $10 million to update the 55,000-square-foot mansion that is part of what was once the Salvation Army Denby Center for Children & Family Services complex just south of Eight Mile and east of Lahser, until it closed in 2016.
“The City of Detroit and surrounding communities are grappling with a critical mental health crisis among young people, a challenge well-documented yet underserved by available resources,” said MCHS Family of Services CEO Kevin Roach. “Those who need treatment for mental health issues typically go to the emergency room, outside neighborhoods, or they do not seek help at all. Existing hospitals and mental health centers are overwhelmed and do not have the proper capacity. This new facility will make a host of resources available to transform the lives of thousands of children and families across southeast Michigan.”
Founded during the first global pandemic in 1917 to care for children who were orphaned when their parents succumbed to the Spanish Flu, MCHS has largely provided residential treatment
and care and education for youth ever since from its Redford campus. It subsequently added crisis mental health services and some independent living units for youth aging out of foster care or looking to reintegrate into the community after exiting the juvenile justice system.
In 2022, it announced its investment of $4 million or more to develop transitional housing on the former Denby campus.
The property, which includes
three separate cottages spanning roughly 37,000 square feet, went through a couple of ownership changes before MCHS acquired it in 2021 for $1.8 million, Roach said.
MCHS has since reopened the cottages: one for kids aging out of foster care and another for runaway and homeless youth population, offering a total of 22 housing units. The third cottage is currently providing outpatient, crisis mental health services for young adults up
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
To place your listing, visit crainsdetroit.com/people-on-the-move or, for more information, contact Debora Stein at 917.226.5470 / dstein@crain.com
NONPROFITS
Honigman
Honigman LLP
named Kimberly (Kim) Dudek as Chair of the Corporate Department, stepping up from her prior role as Vice Chair. Kim succeeds Donald (Don) Kunz, who served as Chair for 20 years, and will continue as a partner in the Department. Kim began at Honigman as a summer associate in 2008 and quickly took on a range of complex work. Today, she represents private equity sponsors and private borrowers in acquisition financings, working capital facilities, transactions and recapitalizations.
Covenant House Michigan
to age 25. The organization plans to consolidate those mental health services to the main building when completed and to convert the third cottage to 10 additional, residential units for older youth needing mental health support.
MCHS plans to begin renovations on the main building at 20775 Pembroke Ave. next spring and to reopen the site by spring 2027, Roach said. In addition to updates to the heating and cooling and plumbing systems, work will include wall reconfigurations, new flooring and a new elevator to increase accessibility.
Framework E is serving as architect on the project. MCHS plans to name a general contractor by year’s end.
When renovations are completed on the mansion, MCHS will bring together mental health services for youth with programs provided by partners in physical
health, education and afterschool/recreation as part of a three-pronged approach to helping youth in need of mental health services, CEO Kevin Roach said. The site will also serve as a walkin site for mental health services for youth under age 25, serving a projected 2,200 youth each year and building on transitional housing for older youth MCHS has already put in place on the campus. MCHS will hire roughly 100 new teachers, tutors, mentors, case and social workers and clinician therapists with the opening of the new day site, Roach said. Operation of the site is expected to add $5 million to $6 million to its current annual budget of $18.5 million, he said, noting MCHS’s permanent endowment — currently valued at about $102 million — is meant to provide assurance to the community and its partners that it will be here for the next 100 years.
Covenant House Michigan, which provides transformational support to young people experiencing homelessness in Detroit and Grand Rapids, is pleased to welcome Tim Hudson as its Chief Development Officer. Tim brings more than thirty years of experience in nonprofit management, strategic development, capacity building and philanthropy, and community relations to his new role. He has dedicated his career to serving those in need, previously with Forgotten Harvest and various other organizations.
SUBMIT YOUR
In October, Total Security Solutions (TSS) celebrates its 20th anniversary. Our purpose is simple: to be the industry leader in protecting people and property from physical attacks. This dedication to protecting what matters most has driven TSS’ growth over the last two decades. In the spring, we broke ground on a 28,000 sq. ft. building expansion that will allow us to add an additional 20-30 members to our team, roughly 12% growth. TSS is honored to be on the forefront of keeping people safe.
A devoted husband, father, grandfather, and friend, passed away peacefully at home on October 16, 2024, surrounded by his wife Laurie and sons Patrick and Bill.
Born on July 2, 1932, in Boston, Massachusetts, Tom graduated from Boston College High School, Northwestern University, and earned his MBA from Babson College. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.
A pioneering entrepreneur, Tom founded several companies, including World Computer and Cyton Corporation, and was a leader in the energy industry, growing Ward Willliston Oil Company into a major player in North Dakota’s Bakken region. He served on President Bush’s Presidential Transition Team and was deeply involved in philanthropy, establishing programs for children in Africa, supporting inner-city schools, and contributing to microfinance initiatives in developing countries.
Tom is survived by his wife of 45 years, Laurie, sons William and Patrick (Dina), and grandchildren Emily Rose, Thomas (Lauren), William, Patrick II, and Amelia.
To view the complete obituary, including service details and memorial contribution information, please visit AJDesmond.com
THOMAS W. CUNNINGTON
MCHS Family of Services is raising $10 million to update a 55,000-square-foot mansion in northwest Detroit to serve as a day site for youth in need of mental health services.
MCHS FAMILY OF SERVICES
INVESTORS
throughout his life. He and his son Andrew Ehrenberg attended the University of Michigan and have a family residence in Ann Arbor. Roger sits on several boards at UM, including the external advisory boards of the College of Engineering and the Ross School of Business.
Opdyke, also a New York resident, is from Grosse Pointe and said he regularly returns to the city for business. Andrew Ehrenberg moved to Detroit on Oct. 1 to perform necessary groundwork for the company.
In 2018, Roger Ehrenberg and Opdyke co-founded Greatwater Opportunity Capital, a real estate private equity investment manager and development firm, alongside Justin Golden and Matt Temkin, to invest in residential and commercial development projects across Detroit.
Greatwater Opportunity Capital is now a $300 million real estate fund, has construction underway to transform the former home of a Cadillac plant in TechTown into loft housing and recently purchased its first apartment building in Lansing.
“We realized, ‘There's something about these Detroit brands,’” Opdyke said. “They’re very craftsman-oriented, very authentic, doing real things. These aren't gimmicks.”
The idea for Brand:Detroit came to life when Opdyke began working with Ping Ho, the owner of Marrow restaurant and butcher shop in West Village, The Royce Detroit wine shop and bar downtown, and Mink Bar raw bar and restaurant in Corktown.
The two have worked on building out Marrow Detroit Provisions, which will open in Eastern Market next summer as a restaurant and bar, event space and butcher shop, and is considered Brand:Detroit’s first investment.
Ho declined to share how much Brand:Detroit has invested in the operation, but said that Opdyke and Brand:Detroit have been active investors and supporters of her expansion plans. The two companies work well together, Ho said, because they share similar
“That's always been the discussion we've had when we talk about expanding the new business at Marrow: what we can bring that's uniquely born from this city, yet has world-class standards,” Ho
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investment in 7 acres of immersive experience,” Murphy said.
Discovery Trails will include construction of a new goat barn, new pavilions including one that will house Stingray Cove, along with new restrooms and restaurants. There will also be updated animal care sites for the giant anteaters, miniature donkeys and prairie dogs that will return to the zoo along with bush dogs, Murphy said.
Stingray Cove will enable visitors to pet stingrays and bamboo sharks. They’ll also be able to get up close to goats and alpacas at a refurbished barn and new farm yard on the property, with a yearround classroom.
A 14-foot-high canopy will give visitors a bird's-eye view. Nature trails and sensory-friendly quiet spaces are also planned as part of the project.
In addition to all-new animal encounters and habitats, Discov-
said. “I share that vision that the Brand:Detroit mission is, which is looking beyond and aiming and aspiring to be bigger and to bring that uniqueness that is Detroit to elsewhere.”
She’s looking forward to being a part of the Brand:Detroit network,
ery Trails will include a farmers market, garden grove and outdoor classroom to teach kids about how their food comes to the table and let them weigh and price food items. A senses trail and Little Sprouts play area will encourage play, Murphy said.
The project will build on $18 million in infrastructure upgrades the zoo has made on that property in preparation for Discovery Trails, Murphy said, noting the zoo is actively fundraising for it.
The latest project is projected to increase the zoo’s regional economic impact to $185 million annually from about $168 million currently, Murphy said.
The zoo projects it will increase annual visitor numbers by 12%, memberships by 11% and bring an additional 13,000 children via school field trips each year.
she said, and connecting with like-minded Detroit business owners.
Ho sees Eastern Market as a “legacy space” for Detroit, representative of the city’s rich history and, of course, a highlight for those visiting for weekly markets on Saturdays.
It was why she wanted to expand Marrow Detroit Provisions in the area and why Opdyke sees Eastern Market — with its community of small businesses and restaurants — as an ideal place for Brand:Detroit to begin.
Brand:Detroit has already invested in Marrow and Marrow Detroit Provisions, Casamara Club and Greatwater Homes, with plans to make between five to seven investments in Detroit companies by this time next year, Opdyke said.
Opdyke and his partners have previously invested "tens of millions" of their own personal capi-
tal in Detroit real estate and businesses during the past six years.
The firm is funded by family money, Opdyke said, and has not established a formal investment fund. Brand:Detroit is looking to make $10 million in investments by the first quarter of 2026. The firm has not yet determined whether it will fundraise from limited partners.
Ideal investments for Brand:Detroit include seed-stage companies, or companies with minimum viable products that are already seeing revenue. However, more importantly, the company has to have a similar goal of showcasing authentic Detroit products.
“The ethos of Detroit is something that permeates the people of Detroit,” Opdyke said. “It’s that authenticity, it's the creativity, it's that sort of gritty mentality, like, ‘We're going to make this work, and we're going to fight through this, and I'm going to still do it right.’”
values and beliefs in Detroit-built companies.
The Detroit Zoo’s new Discovery Trails project will also include a 14-foot-high canopy walk to immerse visitors in nature. cOUrteSY OF tHe DetrOIt ZOO
A rendering of Marrow Detroit Provisions. The idea for Brand:Detroit came to life when Jonathan Opdyke began working with Ping Ho, owner of Marrow. StUDIOAI
Founders of Brand:Detroit (from left) managing partner Roger Ehrenberg, managing partner Jonathan Opdyke and partner Andrew Ehrenberg. | brAND:DetrOIt
Nonprofit to convert Southfield hotel into veteran housing
By Sherri Welch
A New York-based nonprofit plans to bring a permanent housing and supportive services complex for veterans to a Southfield hotel.
Officials from the Tunnel to Towers Foundation were in town Oct. 22 to announce the plan to bring a Veterans Village to Holiday Inn Express & Suites, a 91-room hotel building at 25100 Northwestern Highway.
There are more than 40,000 documented homeless veterans in the U.S., but the actual number is higher, Jeanna DellaRagione, executive vice president of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, said in an emailed statement.
“We plan to provide housing and comprehensive supportive services to homeless veterans in every state, but we are starting in areas with significant populations of homeless veterans,” she said. “At the foundation, we feel no veteran should be left behind and left to live on the streets of the country they fought to defend.”
The Veterans Village in Southfield is expected to open with 85 units of veterans housing in the third quarter of 2025, DellaRagione said, with support from a variety of donors.
In addition to permanent housing, the complex will provide onsite support services aimed at breaking the cycle of homelessness, including job training, benefits assistance, education assistance, medical care access, mental
MICROSOFT
From Page 1
The opportunity ahead with Microsoft fits into our 10-year tech strategy to develop the greater Grand Rapids region into a leading tech hub in the Midwest,” Thelen said in a statement to Crain’s Grand Rapids Business. “With one of the leading tech companies in the world taking notice, we’re well on our way there.”
Shortly after the Gaines Township purchase, Microsoft closed on 272 acres of property in Dorr Township in Allegan County. The two sites are about 12 miles apart. The company similarly worked with economic development organization Lakeshore Advantage Corp. on the Dorr Township acquisition.
“Lakeshore Advantage welcomes Microsoft Corporation to West Michigan,” Lakeshore Advantage President Jennifer Owens told Crain’s Grand Rapids Business via email. “We are pleased to help facilitate growth along the (U.S.) 131 corridor in a community that wants industrial investment and is zoned for it. Microsoft’s investment in Dorr Township aligns with our vision for West Michigan’s Lakeshore Region to be a business and talent magnet.”
As of Oct. 18, Microsoft officials had not yet met with township leaders and had not shared any potential development plans
health support, PTSD counseling and addiction treatment.
While the project has been well-publicized since it was announced, it's not clear if the Tunnel to Towers Foundation is buying the hotel building, leasing it or something else.
CoStar Group Inc. lists the hotel’s current owner as Namou Hotel Group. But the developer did not respond to requests to confirm whether it is selling, leasing or donating the property to the nonprofit.
A Tunnel to Towers Foundation
with them.
Dan Wells, community development director of Gaines Township’s planning and zoning department, said the township was in the process of reviewing a nondisclosure agreement with Microsoft related to the property acquisition.
“We don’t have any general concept plan yet,” Wells said. “(The land) has been controlled by Steelcase for many years, and it seemed like two years ago they showed more interest in doing something with it.”
Last year, Steelcase successfully pursued the rezoning of the two adjacent parcels to light industrial from previous agricultural designations.
“At Steelcase, we have been implementing a long-term, multi-year strategy to divest excess land in the West Michigan market,” Katie Benton, director of corporate communications at Steelcase, said in an emailed statement. “This transaction is the latest in that series.”
A data center would be allowed in the light industrial category, Wells said, adding that such a use would have minimal nuisance issues except for visually. The planning department would try to manage that with any future data center developments by requiring various screening and landscaping methods, Wells said.
The township also is in the middle of updating its zoning ordinance, and data centers will be added as a permitted use for in-
spokesperson also declined to disclose any financial details about the project.
The city of Southfield has not received an affidavit of property transfer for the hotel, and a new deed has not been filed with the Oakland County Register of Deeds, the city's assessor, Justin Prybylski, said. However, parties to a sale have 45 days from the close of a sale to report the transfer.
The Southfield City Council approved rezoning the 3.7 acres of property the hotel sits on from gen-
dustrial-zoned property, he said.
A series of industrial users have shown some interest in portions of the former Steelcase site since the rezoning, Wells added.
“I was kind of hoping we’d be able to get a couple of smaller companies in there,” Wells said.
Advantage Commercial Real Estate had been tracking the Steelcase property because it represented several clients recently that were interested in the site, John Kuiper, CEO of Advantage Commercial Real Estate, told Crain’s.
One user buying up such a large chunk of industrial property will affect the broader industrial market in the area, Kuiper said.
“It diminishes the availability of land for other local users to continue to develop and buy for their own use,” Kuiper said. “It definitely changes the landscape a little bit. We’re working with a number of companies looking for 20 to 40 acres, and it’s incredibly difficult to find something that is zoned, has roads and utilities.”
The fact that data-storage company Switch opened its facility nearby in the township in 2017 and keeps expanding shows that Michigan can support data center projects, according to Kuiper.
“There is a lot of development going on for Switch itself,” Kuiper said. “There is clearly increased demand, and people are OK with this area (for the) future construction of data centers.”
Advantage Commercial Real Es-
metropolitan area.
"I think the cause is noble," Siver said.
The project would be at least the second reuse of a hotel building in the Oakland County city, with an extended-stay Hawthorne Suites converted to apartments a couple of years ago, he said.
The Veterans Village in Southfield would be the latest in a growing number of veterans housing complexes established by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation since it set a goal last year to eradicate veteran homelessness across the country. Others are operating in Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Riverside, Calif. Construction is underway on three additional villages in Bradenton, Fla.; Mableton, Ga.; and Island Park, N.Y., and set to begin in three other cities across the country before year’s end, the nonprofit said.
eral business to regional center zoning, which allows more uses, on Sept. 30, Mayor Kenson Siver told Crain's. At the same time, it approved the site plan for the Tunnel to Towers Foundation project.
"I’ve been approached before by members of the Chaldean community to do veterans housing in Southfield. It never came to fruition, and then this comes along," the mayor said. Homelessness isn't as severe in Southfield as it is in other places, Siver said, but it's the center of the
tate also represented a group of investors that decided to buy the Dorr Township property about two years ago as an industrial development opportunity, Kuiper said.
Kuiper said members of the group of investors wish to remain anonymous.
“We agreed that this group should buy it because of the long look forward into developable (industrial) land,” Kuiper said of the Dorr Township properties. “I didn’t think anyone ever anticipated that a single user would come along and buy the entire thing. That was never anticipated.”
Courting the industry
Meanwhile, some state lawmakers have attempted to court the industry by passing tax breaks for large investments. In recent months, lawmakers considered a pair of bills — House Bill 4906 and Senate Bill 237 — that would give breaks on sales and use taxes, respectively, on companies’ equipment if they invested at least $250 million.
While both chambers have passed versions of the legislation, neither bill has reached Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as lawmakers remain divided, including Democrats who have raised concerns about facilities’ electricity and water use. In Microsoft’s potential case, Gaines Township is a wholesale water customer of the city of Wyoming.
If successful, Michigan could be the latest target for Microsoft’s
Through the Veterans Villages and its case management network, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation said it has provided housing assistance to more than 6,500 veterans across the country.
The organization was established in 2003 by the family of Stephen Siller, a Brooklyn firefighter who lost his life while working to save others from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers in New York City. It provides support for U.S. first responders, the Gold Star families who have lost an immediate family member in the line of active duty and military veterans.
massive, multibillion-dollar data center buildout that’s taking place in surrounding states: In May, the company announced a $3.3 billion, 1,300-acre data center project in southeastern Wisconsin between Milwaukee and Chicago. As one of the largest data centers under construction in the U.S., the project also has reportedly raised concerns about the amount of Lake Michigan water withdrawals to support the facility.
In early June, officials announced plans for a $1 billion, 245,000-square-foot Microsoft data center that would span 489 acres in northwestern Indiana. Earlier this month, Microsoft disclosed plans for a 245,000-squarefoot, $420 million plan that would be part of potentially several Microsoft data centers in central Ohio, the Columbus Dispatch reported. As data centers are notorious energy hogs, Microsoft also inked a 20-year power purchase agreement with Baltimore-based utility Constellation Energy that would involve restarting a shuttered nuclear reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. The deal was Constellation’s largest ever power purchase agreement and is designed to meet Microsoft’s growing power needs for data centers.
Kate Carlson writes for sister publication Crain’s Grand Rapids Business. Grand Rapids managing editor Andy Balaskovitz contributed.
The Tunnel to Towers Foundation plans to turn this hotel in Southfield into a veterans complex. | TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION
NONPROFIT
From Page 3
18-month operating reserve for the new center when it opens in 2026.
The center will open with nine horses, about half of its capacity, Silver said. Detroit Horse Power’s staffing numbers will double from about seven now to 15 with the opening and additional employees needed beyond that as programs grow.
Detroit Horse Power has committed that 50% of participants in its programs will be DPSCD students under an operational memorandum of understanding with the district, he said.
It is currently serving about 100 total students between its summer camp and after-school programs. Once the new barn opens, Silver expects the number of students served to rise to 1,500 between those programs and new DPSCD field trips.
ISHBIA
From Page 3
some time, particularly given rules limiting how much of a company large, institutional investors can own.
Ishbia, who currently owns about 90% of the company, has spoken publicly on the topic.
“We have a great base of investors right now,” Ishbia said back in May during the company’s first quarter earnings call. “I know a lot of them would like to be able to add more, however float is a concern. So we always look at it, we’re opportunistic and look at those opportunities and see if there’s something we can do.”
Ishbia, along with his brother Justin, a Chicago-area private equity executive, acquired a more than 50% stake in the Suns and Phoenix Mercury WNBA team back in early 2023 in a deal valued at about $4 billion.
Garvin, who did not respond to messages seeking comment, maintained a minority ownership in the Suns organization following Ishbia’s acquisition of the team, according to a report at the time in the Arizona Republic.
Whether Garvin has any remaining ownership position in the organization is unclear, as is Ishbia’s specific stake.
That Ishbia arranged the stock sale with a known business associate as opposed to selling on the public market makes sense, said Erik Gordon, a finance professor at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
That’s particularly true given that sophisticated traders watch for large blocks of stock being sold and can use that to their advantage.
“With a private sale, you negotiate one price and you know what it is,” Gordon said. “It might be a discount, but it might be less of a discount than selling piece by piece in the public market.”
Holiday Market founder Thomas Violante dies
By Jay Davis
The founder of a beloved Oakland County-based grocery store chain has died. Holiday Market founder Thomas Violante died Oct. 15 at his home in Birmingham. He was 95. Violante and his wife Janet started Holiday Market in 1954 with a 2,500-square-foot store. The Royal Oak store is now 60,000 square feet. Holiday celebrated its 70th anniversary on the same day as Violante’s funeral Oct. 19. The store grew every year from requests by customers, according to the company website.
Violante’s son and daughter, Tom Violante Jr. and Gina Mangold, as well as Gina’s husband Craig Mangold now run the company. Holiday Market has locations in Royal Oak and Birmingham. The Royal Oak store is also home to the Mirepoix Cooking School, founded in 2008.
In addition to standard grocery items, Holiday Market offers a variety fresh baked goods, artisanal cheeses, imported wine, ready-
to-eat items, a butcher counter, deli and more.
As a business owner, Violante is believed to be one of the innovators of the freshly made sub sandwich and in-store bakery. He was also one of the first retailers to open on Sundays.
Violante was active in the community, serving as chair of the Royal Oak Boys and Girls Club, Lions Club, Oak Park Schools board of education and donating to several other charities.
Prior to going into business for himself, Violante served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War.
“Tom always preached to his employees that customers come to where they are appreciated, not where they are wanted,” ownership wrote in an Oct. 17 social media post. “Tom did everything he could to show how much he loved and appreciated his customers, employees and community.”
Violante is survived by his wife of 70 years, Janet; children, Gina Mangold, Lisa Pardington, Lori London, and Tom Jr.; 12 grandchildren, and numerous great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his son, Steven Violante, and grandchildren Max Pardington, Christopher Violante and Audrey Saier.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Royal Oak Lions Club or the Metro Detroit Youth Club.
AUCTION
From Page 3
including shuttering its 56,000-square-foot Harvest Park facility at 10070 Harvest Park in Dimondale in March. That property has since been leased to Evartbased competitor Lume Cannabis.
Susan Radway, former spouse of embattled former chair, CEO and founder of Skymint, has purchased the cannabis plants and processing equipment from a former Skymint facility at 1669 E. Jolly Road in Lansing. Fantasy Farms LLC, a company founded by Susan Radway, acquired the assets out of receiver-
ship for $350,000. The Huntersville, N.C.-based company received prequalification approval from the state to operate the grow operation in January. It’s unclear if Radway has any connection to the business.
Tropics LP, under a new entity called Skymint Acquisition Co., acquired the assets of Green Peak
Industries, doing business as Skymint, for $109.4 million in an auction under receivership. No other bidders reached Tropics’ bid. However, that deal has yet to close as other lawsuits continue to play out and would need to be settled before Tropics can take over. Skymint currently operates 19 stores across the state.
Skymint is closing its Harvest Park marijuana growing and processing operations in Dimondale on March 1.
GrOUP INc
Holiday Market founder Thomas Violante died on Oct. 15 at 95. The market celebrated its 70th anniversary this month. | HOLIDAY MArKet
Holiday Market founder Thomas Violante
Relationships drive Rodney Cole’s work at DTE Energy Foundation
Relationships drive Rodney Cole, president of DTE Energy Foundation and corporate citizenship of DTE Energy Co., whether it’s in his work or in his garage working on cars. The 54-year-old native Detroiter has been with DTE (NYSE: DTE) for more than 19 years. He started with the company as a human resources consultant and worked his way up to manager of human resources before jumping to government relations, thanks to a senior leader who mentored him. Cole led DTE’s government relations with the city of Detroit and Wayne County before he was named to lead its state government affairs. Cole joined the DTE Energy Foundation in 2021 as vice president and director of community engagement and was named president last year, overseeing the company’s philanthropic strategy and administration of about $16 million in annual grants supporting arts and culture, community transformation, economic progress, education and employment, environment and human needs. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. By | Sherri Welch
What led you to shift from human resources to government affairs to the foundation?
I worked in human resources in a number of different capacities, eventually working my way up to becoming an HR manager. Along the way, I got exposed to government affairs, and I had a mentor who was our senior leader of government affairs, Paul Hillegonds. He exposed me to the government affairs organization, and I found that I had a passion for it, for developing relationships and working on solutions that had mutual benefit and working through complex issues that had a lot of political sort of context to them, which added to the challenge. What drew me back over to public affairs was really the foundation, and what has always been a passion of mine is having the opportunity, even in my work day, to do something that benefits community and benefits more than myself.
Are you bringing anything new to the foundation as president?
One of the things that I’m really proud of with our team here is looking at how we can continue to be sort of innovative in our grant-making. And one of the things that we did in our community transformation space, which is new for us, is put out a request for ideas or proposals from the community. We are an invitation-only foundation, so this is different, and it was really, really a great experience.
We’re going to have some more information on that that we’ll be able to share in the nottoo-distant future, the outcomes, which I’m excited about. It’s $150,000 that we’re going to this year award across the ideas that were submitted to us from across the state. We’re really excited because we learned about some new work, some new needs, and we learned about ways that we could partner in that space. That was something that, you know, in the midst of managing budgets and all the different things that we all have to do, I’m very proud that we continue to keep our lens on being innovative. That RFP
process was an idea and kind of a passion that I wanted to see happen.
What are the most pressing issues you are hearing about?
Human needs, in particular, food insecurity, is an area where we continue to partner. That basic need in the community, unfortunately, is something that is not really going away. We’re partnering with a number of organizations to address that, organizations like Gleaners, Forgotten Harvest and Food Gatherers. Before COVID, food insecurity was an issue in the community. It was sort of exacerbated during COVID, and now coming out of COVID, it’s still a major problem. That’s what we’re seeing with that work and that particular issue.
You believe nonprofits should be more relational and not transactional with funders, right?
I think that it’s important to develop the relationship with your partners, that you’re working with them to best understand outcomes. And outcomes are not just
transactional data in nature. They’re also being able to tell the story of the work so that you better understand the work. It’s the story of Tom, it’s the story of Jane, and you know, what happened when they encountered services that we have the great fortune of being able to partner in supporting. It’s not as simple sometimes as how many people walked in and out of the door. That comes with relationships, because you have to trust one another, both the funder and the partner, and to get to that point where you really understand at that level, I believe.
Do you have a five-year plan?
My five-year plan really evolves around making sure that we’ve got a sustainable strategy here to continue to support our communities. From a financial perspective, a strategic perspective, (it’s) as much as I can control those things. But (it’s) having that framework and plan in place, so that we continue to be innovative, we continue to keep connection to the need that’s in community, and that we are able to respond to that. The piece that I think you do have control over is making
sure that the value proposition of a philanthropic work is understood.
What do you spend your time doing when you’re not working?
Spending time with family. I’ve got a lovely wife, four wonderful kids that keep me busy in all sorts of ways. And then when I can find time, I like to hide in my garage with my cars. I’ve got a ’73 Grand Prix, which was my first car. My parents bought it new. I drove it in high school, and I still have it. I’ve got a 1966 Caprice, and my new love is my Ram TRX. It’s a big truck. I have to mess with them all, so they’ve all been modified.
Talk about relationships with communities and organizations and people, it’s the same thing with the cars. It’s a relationship. The cars have their own individual characteristics, their own mannerisms and way in which they operate. My relationships with each of those cars are just very individual, just like I built the relationship with our partners, allowing them to be who they are and respecting them for who they are and building our relationship upon that.
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Rodney Cole is president of DTE Energy Foundation and corporate citizenship at DTE Energy Co. DTE ENERGY FOUNDATION
Building the Future:
Construction and Development in Detroit
Brian McKinney Sr. CEO Gayanga Co. Ryan Maibach
Larry Brinker Jr. CEO Brinker Group
Michael Ferlito CEO Ferlito Group and Ferlito Construction
Kimberly Montague PRESIDENT AND CEO Albert Kahn Associates
