Crain's Detroit Business, November 14, 2022, issue

Kettering’s

new approach, and more on Flint. PAGE 10

What Dem control means for business

BY KIRK PINHO

For the rst time in four decades, the governor’s mansion and the Michigan Legislature will be controlled by Democrats, a seismic shift in the Lansing power balance.

Come Jan. 1, both chambers are expected to have slim Democratic majorities — 56-54 in the state House and 20-18 in the state Senate — and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will

take her oath of o ce for a second four-year term after beating Republican challenger Tudor Dixon.

Together, they could tackle an agenda with wide-ranging implications for the business community, ranging from banking to commercial and residential real estate, small business to health care — just to name a few.

Among the possible targets: e state’s right-to-work and prevailing

wage laws, the latter of which was reinstated last year on a limited basis. “No question that will be rst on

the chopping block. I mean, there’s just no doubt about that. Zero,” said Jimmy Greene, president and CEO of Lansing-based Associated Builders and Contractors of Michigan, which has about 1,000 members, many of which are non-union builders.

He believes the writing is on the wall for those two major issues, and perhaps smaller — but important — ones, as well.

“To the victor go the spoils, too,” Greene said. “I’m not going to sit here like a crying baby because, at the end of the day, these are things (right-to-work and prevailing

wage) that Republicans passed when they took majorities. You can’t sit here and cry over spilled milk and say woe is me. Elections always have consequences.”

Observers said other issues that are expected to be or should be on the agenda for the new Legislature include real estate and economic development incentives, a ordable housing, funding for startup initiatives, small business support, housing policy, mental health, prescription drug costs and infrastructure.

Ped bridges to pop up downtown

Temporary spans will get test drive at Grand Prix

BY SHERRI WELCH

BY KURT NAGL

Driverless cars have been just around the corner for nearly a decade.

Yet after ambitious promises by CEOs of automakers and startups and buy-in from investors to the tune of more than $200 billion, there is not yet one fully au-

tonomous vehicle on public roads in the U.S. today. And it isn’t even all that close.

Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley said as much recently when the automaker pulled the plug on Argo AI, a once-promising startup on which it bet $1 billion ve years ago, when then-Ford CEO Mark Fields predicted driverless cars

would be widespread by now.

“Pro table, fully autonomous vehicles at scale are a long way o ,” Farley told investors.

While not necessarily surprising, Argo’s unwinding has had a chilling e ect on the AV tech sector and thrust the future of fully

BOOK MANSION

‘Chateau DIY’ fans buy stately home in need of TLC, money.

e return of the Grand Prix to the streets of Detroit next year is spurring a new temporary bridge over Je erson Avenue to connect Spirit Plaza and Hart Plaza, something organizers say could become a permanent part of the downtown landscape.

$2 million

The cost of four temporary bridges and safety upgrades the Downtown Detroit Partnership has planned for the downtown area during the Grand Prix.

e Detroit Grand Prix, which is an entity of the Downtown Detroit Partnership, plans to erect a large covered bridge at East Je erson and Woodward Avenue at the end of May in time for the Movement music festival. It will remain in place for race weekend and the Ford Fireworks over the summer.

e span is one of four temporary bridges the DDP has planned for the downtown area, along with other safety upgrades like barricades and fence posts.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will have a legislative majority. BLOOMBERG

“WE ARE REALLY NOT THAT CLOSE TO DEVELOPING TRULY SELF-DRIVING, SAFE CARS.”

—Hayder Radha, Michigan State University

Visteon, a founding member of the American Center for Mobility, completes the rst highway autopilot test drive at the Willow Run track. | VISTEON

` STARTUPS JOIN TO POWER ELECTRIC TRUCKS

THE NEWS: Novi-based Our Next Ener gy Inc. has been selected to supply Oak Park-based Bollinger Motors with electric batteries on Class 4-6 chassis cabs, according to a news re lease from Bollinger. e deal marks the end of in-house battery develop ment for Bollinger, which was ac quired by Mullen Automotive Inc. in September. Mullen also acquired the assets of failed startup Electric Last Mile Solutions Inc. last month. Terms were not disclosed.

WHY IT MATTERS: e deal is an import ant one for both companies, which are trying to get their footing in a ercely competitive EV industry. Our Next En ergy aims to use a partnership with Pis ton Automotive as a springboard to mass manufacturing its own batteries for automakers, while Bollinger and Mullen aim to emerge from produc tion and nancial troubles.

he waived his Fifth Amendment right at a subsequent trial.

WHY IT MATTERS: Snyder and others cited a right to remain silent when criminal charges were pending against them in Flint. A June decision by the Michigan Supreme Court subsequently led to the dismissal of most charges, though mis demeanors against Snyder are pend ing. State prosecutors insist they’re not giving up, which means the Fifth Amendment issue could arise again in the civil case.

utilities, and 9 million square feet of building foundations and concrete slabs at one of the state’s largest brown eld sites.

WHY IT MATTERS: If the project does move forward as envisioned, it would be the largest investment in Flint in decades.

` BUYERS TO SPLIT UP BANKRUPT GISSING

THE NEWS: South eld-based Ang strom Automotive Group LLC and South Carolina-based CBT Enter prises LLC were winning bidders on pieces of Bingham Farms-based Gissing North America LLC’s busi ness..

WHY IT MATTERS: Gissing was the rst metro Detroit-based automotive supplier to le for bankruptcy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Woman-focused tness studio breaks down barriers

` In opening Sculpt Studio in downtown Royal Oak, Nicole Nahed is breaking a mold. Nahed, a Lebanese-American and former soccer player and longtime gymnast, said women in her culture are not widely encouraged to enter into athletics and tness elds, espe cially as a career. But after a three-year stint in corporate marketing, she made the leap and opened her own tness studio.

Sculpt Studio, which provides personal and group training for women, occupies a 1,500-square-foot ground- oor space at 1041 S. Main St. on the south edge of the city’s downtown. It opened in Au gust, a little more than two years after Nahed began o ering tness classes via Zoom during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Nahed, a graduate of the University of Michigan Stephen Ross School of Business, began by o ering classes at a space in Ferndale. She signed a three-year lease for the Royal Oak studio in January.

` BUICK CITY PROJECT IN FLINT GETS $8.5M FORGIVABLE LOAN

Corrections

Nahed invested $150,000 into getting the studio up and running. Since opening, Nahed has signed about 60 members, many of whom followed her from the Ferndale space. Sculpt Studios o ers “semi-private” training for up to six women per session. Rates, which require a three-month commitment, range from $149 to $329 a month. A 10-pack of sessions is available for $349. One-on-one personal training ranges from $288 to $768 a month. Sessions are one to three times a week.

`

SNYDER WINS APPEAL OVER FLINT WATER TESTIMONY

THE NEWS: Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder can invoke his right to remain silent at a civil trial related to the 2014-15 lead contamination of Flint’s water, an appeals court said. e court said Snyder’s willingness to an swer questions during a 2020 formal interview with lawyers doesn’t mean

THE NEWS: e Michigan Economic Development Corp. gave the OK to Ashley Capital for a $8.5 million loan to a developer aiming to invest $300 million and bring up to 3,000 jobs to the former Buick City site in Flint., which will be forgiven if the company meets certain performance require ments. e loan is intended to o set “prohibitive” pre-development costs estimated at $17 million to remove 267,000 linear feet of underground

` e last name of Sam Clark, presi dent of Lansing-based contractor Clark Construction Co., was spelled incorrectly in a Nov. 7, 2022, story on commercial real estate.

` Children’s Foundation and Delta Dental of Michigan have committed $1.5 million to the Adolescent Addic tion Recovery Center at Children's Hospital of Michigan-Troy. A Nov. 7, 2022, story incorrectly stated the name of a donor organization.

Sculpt Studio owner Nicole Nahed left a career as a corporate marketer to become a tness entrepreneur.

| JAY DAVIS/ CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

SERVING UP FITNESS WITH FOOD

Breadless owners wrap community health into their business model

JAY DAVIS

e owners of Breadless, a De troit restaurant that wraps its sand wiches in healthy greens instead of bread, really do walk the walk.

Since opening in April, they have worked tirelessly to show customers and Detroit residents that they’re doing more than run ning a business.

Breadless, which uses “super greens” such as collard greens and kale instead of bread or other sandwich wraps, also serves as a community hub. It has hosted free tness and nutrition classes and o ers information on the impor tance of incorporating leafy super greens into one’s diet.

REAL ESTATE

On Tuesdays during the summer, Breadless co-owners Marc and L.C. Howland and Ryan Salter held t ness classes in the parking lot it shares with a Red Hook Co ee lo cation at the Joseph Campau Gre enway Connector. On Wednesdays, nutrition and tness education classes were o ered outside the 2760 Larned St. space. e Bread less cohort has also hosted 5K runs and yoga classes. During a fall har vest event in late September, Bread less gave away seeds and leafy su per greens as well as information on the importance of incorporating leafy super greens into one’s diet.

“Being a Black-owned business, we know people in our community need more nutrients,” L.C. How

land said. “We su er from diabe tes, in ammation. We wanna make sure our community is aware of the menu we’ve put together, along with the bene ts of eating and living a healthy lifestyle.”

It makes sense, as all three Breadless owners are tness en thusiasts.

“We all take pride in our tness, and we know that’s something that needs to be more prevalent in our community,” L.C. Howland said. “Obviously, we wanted to bring a healthy dining option to the city, the people, but we work to show everyone who comes in here all the aspects of healthy living.”

Historic Book mansion in Detroit sells for $1.2 million

Matt Dillon and Stefanie Purdon, who grew up in Windsor, spent a lot of time during the COVID-19 pan demic watching “Chateau DIY,” a U.K. TV series following British ex pats as they xed up French villas.

e research will be useful for their own renovation e orts as the newest owners of the Book mansion, a 1911 Louis Kamper-designed home at 8469 E. Je erson Ave. in Detroit’s In dian Village modeled after Marie An toinette’s Versailles palace.

e property, which had been list ed for $3.5 million earlier this year, sold for $1.2 million last week to the couple.

“It’s a giant house, but it doesn’t feel large. It feels warm and won derful,” said Dillon, a vascular neu rologist who’s the chief of neurolo gy at Corewell Health Beaumont Grosse Pointe Hospital. “When you’re in the house, you just get this sense of history and belong ing.”

Dillon said he expects renovations to start posthaste, beginning with the roof.

Purdon, a pulmonary and critical care doctor at Corewell Health Beau mont Troy Hospital, said the pros pect of xing up the home was “very exciting and very terrifying.” But her “Chateau DIY” research prepared

her “to expect the worst,” she said, “which is fantastic.”

e previous owner, Deirdre Gold en, bought the home in 2009 intend ing for it to house an orchestra. She estimated previously that she had spent $4.2 million to x up the histor ic house, which she said was set to be demolished before her purchase, though the city said it was never threatened with demolition and Crain’s could not independently con rm that it was. She lost the house to foreclosure, but will contin ue to live in it through the end of No vember.

Switch expands at former Steelcase site

RACHEL WATSON

GRAND RAPIDS — Switch is be ginning work on a major expansion at the former Steelcase Pyramid site south of Grand Rapids.

e Las Vegas-based data storage company (NYSE: SWCH) has begun excavation at the 128-acre campus in Gaines Township, where it opened a facility in 2017.

According to site plan documents submitted to Gaines Township last year by project engineer Spicer Group Inc., Switch is building a 312,000-square-foot building sepa rate from the Pyramid — itself several hundred thousand square feet — plus a 1,000-square-foot pump house.

Steelcase spent about $111 million to build the Pyramid in the late 1980s and housed a research and develop ment team there until 2010. e fur niture manufacturer sold the Pyra mid for $4 million in 2015 to Norman Pyramid LLC. Switch bought it in 2016 for $22.2 million and opened the data storage facility for cloud computing clients a year later.

Site work on the expansion began in the spring. Dan Wells, community development director for Gaines Township, said he expects concrete for the foundations will be poured before snow falls.

“ ey have to dig out a bunch of soils and then compact them and let them settle for a little bit before they actually start pouring foundations,” he said.

e project cost and completion date weren’t disclosed, and the name of the contractor wasn’t immediately available. Switch said in its sec ond-quarter earnings report it allocat ed $800,000 toward site preparation.

Natalie Stewart, vice president of government and public a airs for Switch, declined to comment on the project, citing the company’s pend ing $11 billion sale to DigitalBridge Partners II and IFM Investors, an nounced in May.

Breadless co-owners Ryan Salter, L.C. Howland, and Mark Howland.

| JAY DAVIS/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Breadless’ sandwiches sport fun names, such as the Chardi B and What the Kale. | BREADLESS VIA FACEBOOK,

ARIELLE KASS The Book mansion, built by James Burgess Book Jr. in 1911 and designed by renowned architect, Louis Kamper, is modeled after Marie Antoinette’s Palace, The Petit Trianon, in Versailles. KW METRO

Colliers latest commercial real estate rm to pick Royal Oak

Several promi nent real estate companies have recently opted to move their local o ces or head quarters to Royal Oak.

e latest: Bro kerage rm Col liers International Inc., which is moving its longtime South eld o ce at 2 Corporate Drive to the building at 450 W. Fourth St. downtown that also houses Howard & Howard Attor neys PLLC.

Paul Choukourian, executive man aging director and market leader for Colliers’ Southeast Michigan Region, said his rm is growing from 16,000 square feet to 18,500 square feet in Royal Oak — a departure from the broader trend of o ce users shrink ing their footprints during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Growing the space by about 2,500 square feet allows the company to add about 30 more people to its existing payroll of about 80, he said. e South eld space is set up for larger of ces and it would have been di cult to carve that space into smaller ones. So after a $2 million or so build out, the local Colliers team will be housed in an o ce that’s more col laborative and open, complete with a bar and a large screen that can do ev erything from pulling up Google Earth for presentations to serving as a golf simulator.

ere’s more to it than just the larger space.

Royal Oak o ers something the current South eld location does not, Choukourian said.

“It’s great in terms of access, but the building, it doesn’t have amenities (surrounding it),” he said. “So you’re basically coming in, you’re sitting at your desk and you get in car if you have to go somewhere ... is gives us the opportunity to change our culture. We found a location with parking, right in the downtown district, walk able, restaurants, amenities and it’s still very good access to I-75 and 696. So it just checked all the boxes really

for a cultural shift to a more walkable, more upbeat environment.”

(Competitor JLL, which is based in Chicago and has an o ce on East Hudson in Royal Oak, moved to its current spot about a decade ago.)

e Colliers move, which is ex pected to be complete in February following a build-out costing an un disclosed amount, is the latest in a string of real estate rms moving to Royal Oak, the Oakland County sub urb long known for its active nightlife downtown — and central business district’s lack of a daytime o ce pop ulation.

Developer Etkin LLC, which at the time was based in South eld, built a new 74,000-square-foot o ce build

ing at 150 W. Second St. at 11 Mile Road and moved its headquarters there, and brought Stout Risius Ross with it from the South eld Town Center. at happened pre-pandem ic in the late 2010s.

Symmetry Property Management, previously based in Orchard Lake, moved its o ces to downtown Royal Oak on Main Street.

Architecture and planning rm HED is moving its Michigan o ce and 100 employees to downtown Royal Oak in the Vectorform space. HED, formerly known as Harley Ellis Devereaux Corp., is downsizing from about 36,000 square feet in South eld’s Beaumont Health headquar ters building into 19,000 square feet

in the building at the corner of South Main and Fifth streets that used to house downtown Royal Oak’s Barnes & Noble Inc. location.

And Agree Realty Corp. (NYSE: ADC), a retail real estate investment trust currently based in Bloom eld Hills, is building out the former Art Van Furniture Inc. store on Wood ward Avenue, taking 50,000 feet there — doubling the size of its current 25,000-square-foot footprint at Woodward and Long Lake Road to the north.

Royal Oak community leaders have long sought to increase daytime foot tra c during the week, a goal it has sought to accomplish by luring more o ce workers.

Several new buildings have been constructed, including a new Henry Ford Medical Center property by de veloper Ron Boji; the new Etkin/ Stout Riuss Ross building; and a new Baker College campus is expected to open in January, all of which add density and daytime population.

In addition, demolition on the Main Art eatre property started in July, creating what is now a vacant site that is expected to be turned into a new ve-story building with some o ce space by Bloom eld Town ship-based A.F. Jonna Development LLC.

Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB

Company tied to Sheldon Yellen buys Birmingham o ce building

Businessman Sheldon Yellen ap pears to have added a downtown Bir mingham o ce building to his grow ing real estate portfolio in the city.

A deed posted both by CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service, and also the Oakland County Clerk/Regis ter of Deeds website shows the 42,600-square-foot building located at 480 Pierce St. trading hands last month for an undisclosed price.

e seller was an entity called 480 Pierce LLC, which is connected to South eld-based developer and land lord Redico LLC. e buyer was BHIP 480 Pierce LLC, the address of which the deed lists as being the o ce of property restoration giant Belfor Holdings Inc., of which Yellen is CEO.

A message was left with Dale Wa tchowski, president, CEO and COO of Redico last week, as well as Alexandra Gort, a spokesperson for Belfor.

e Pierce Street building’s primary

tenants are the law rm Varnum LLP, the investment management rm Vic tory Capital and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

e purchase price is not known. A property transfer a davit has not yet been led with the city of Birming ham.

e building sits on the block next to the posh Townsend Hotel, which Yellen has also been working to ac quire for months from current owner THC Investors LP. One of the entities involved in that acquisition is BHIP Townsend Hotel LLC, also registered at the Belfor address. Another entity

connected to that deal is BRE Townsend Hotel LLC. On state busi ness lings for BRE Townsend, attor ney Alan J. Schwartz is listed as an at torney for Yellen. Schwartz’s name also appears on the Pierce Street deed.

About a year ago, Yellen — through

an entity called Brown Street Holding Co. LLC, also registered at the Belfor address — also bought the Brown Street Centre building at 255 E. Brown St. and an adjacent 0.25-acre parking lot for what the city says was $23.65 million. at building is 69,000 square feet and features Wells Fargo as its primary tenant in about 26,000 square feet, according to Co Star.

It’s not just Yellen who has been on a buying spree in Birmingham’s cen tral business district of late.

e four Bacall brothers who run Farmington Hills-based Bacall Com panies LLC have spent more than $63 million on downtown Birmingham buildings in the last year or so, most recently dropping $37 million for the retail and o ce and some of the parking portions of Birmingham Place on South Old Woodward Ave nue.

Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB

Colliers International Inc. is leasing about 18,500 square feet in the downtown Royal Oak building at 450 W. Fourth St. | COSTAR GROUP INC.

Kirk PINHO

KIRK PINHO

An entity connected to Sheldon Yellen, the Belfor Holdings Inc. CEO, has purchased another downtown Birmingham o ce building. The property at 480 Pierce St. sold last month for an unknown price. COSTAR GROUP INC.

11/11

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With over 200,000 veterans and service men and women reentering the workforce each year, Bank of America is supporting the unique needs of our heroes as they transition to civilian life and careers.

Some steps we’re taking to support veterans and military members:

• Offering free online resources through BetterMoneyHabits.com on topics specific to them, from home buying to retirement

• Expanding the number of financial centers near military installations to address the needs of military customers

• Continuing our hiring momentum — more than 15% of our new hires are military veterans

My teammates and I here in Detroit are proud to support our military service men and women, especially as we celebrate Veterans Day. Thank you for your service.

President, Bank of America Detroit

®

Learn more at bankofamerica.com/detroit

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What would you like the power to do?

Matt Elliott

Keep Michigan open for business as power swings

It was an election that turned out, in the end, surprisingly normal.

Voting was largely smooth with only routine hiccups, fears of political violence did not materialize, votes were counted and winners were declared. at’s the system working as intended, and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson deserves praise for running a solid election under intense scrutiny.

But as the Democrats take control of all the levers of state government for the rst time in decades, businesses are legitimately worried about what might hit the top of the policy agenda.

One Democratic in sider told Crain’s that many in the party see repealing “right-towork” and prevailing wage laws as “revenge issues” after Republi can Legislatures pushed those through when their party was in control.

ese issues are more political payback for union support than measures that will pro vide real improvement for Michigan. ey won’t make much di erence — the require ment that state contractors pay a prevailing wage is still in place because of Gov. Gretch en Whitmer’s executive order, and the real impact of right-to-work has been minimal.

But putting those issues at the top of the agenda would send a message that Michigan is becoming less friendly for businesses that create jobs and prosperity.

We can think of more pressing priorities. Near the top of the list is getting unspent COVID relief money that was targeted for

businesses into circulation to help those that are still hurting and those that missed out when the program distributed its funds.

A retro t of the 2019 auto insurance re form is also in order — payment cuts to home care providers have put patients who bought unlimited coverage under the old law at risk. Fixing that part of the law needs to be a top priority.

Political division and hyperpartisanship have become troubling in terms of govern ment’s ability to get things done, but the time of divided government hasn’t been all bad for Michigan, and Republicans and Demo crats do have recent bipartisan successes to tout.

e creation of the SOAR fund to lure bigswing developments was a sign that Michi gan was open for business and something both parties could be proud that they moved quickly on. Auto insurance reform, though it needs some repair, did work to cut exorbitant premiums.

We hope the new Democratic majority keeps in mind these wins and doesn’t undo gains Michigan has made in creating a busi ness-friendly climate that helps the whole state grow.

After a bruising election season and a rela tively smooth Election Day, it’s a good time for both parties to think hard on how they can work together to make Michigan known as the state that works.

ANALYSIS

Why the Michigan election turned into a ‘blue wave’

Michigan Democrats de ed the odds and had their best election collec tively in decades despite predictions of a “red wave” two years after Joe Biden’s election.

Not only did they handily retain the top three state o ces and see passage of three ballot proposals, including ones to lock abor tion rights in the state constitution and ex pand voting options. ey took control of the Legislature after a nearly 40-year wait, kept hold of the state Supreme Court and won most competitive congressional seats, includ ing a Grand Rapids-area district for the rst time since the Watergate era.

Why?

A combination of factors helped Demo crats and sparked post-election nger-point ing in the GOP, including the abortion issue, which was literally on the ballot. A big haul of campaign donations allowed signi cant Democratic spending early that made it hard for Republicans to revocover. And some ad vantages trace to 2018.

at is when voters approved a Demo crat-backed initiative to create an indepen dent commission to draw congressional and legislative lines, after Republican lawmakers used their power to draw districts favoring their party for two decades. When Gretchen Whitmer easily won election four years ago with the old districts, Republicans kept their majorities. Now, whichever party wins more votes statewide has a shot at legislative con trol.

e electorate in 2018 also authorized vot ers to request absentee ballots without having to give a reason, which helped to ensure a re cord turnout of nearly 4.6 million voters in a non-presidential election four years later.

“ ose two things made a hell of a di er ence,” said Mark Burton, a former top aide to Whitmer and a Honigman LLP lawyer, who said the reversal of Roe v. Wade presented an opportunity. “ e election reform piece was really important for Democrats to be able to capitalize in this type of environment, which wasn’t great for them.”

Proposal 3, the abortion-rights amend ment, clearly was a huge factor, bringing out voters and allowing Democrats to more easily contrast themselves with GOP candidates

who supported a near-total 176-year-old ban on the books, which has no exceptions even in cases of rape and incest.

“It did a lot to a ect this election,” Republi can consultant John Sellek, of Harbor Strate gic Public A airs, said on a post-election analysis webinar hosted by MIRS, a Lan sing-based political news service.

Forty- ve percent of Michigan voters said abortion mattered the most in their decision on how to vote, according to an NBC News exit polls. Of those voters, 78 percent shared Whitmer’s position of keeping abortion legal in most cases.

e state Republican Party released a post mortem memo that said, among other things, blamed Tudor Dixon’s defeat on emphasizing red-meat issues that didn't appeal to inde pendent voters and not hammering hard enough on issues like in ation and gas prices.

"We did not have a turnout problem — middle-of-the-road voters simply didn't like what Tudor was selling," chief of sta Paul Cordes wrote in the analysis that also blamed donors, the lack of a "red wave" nationally and a power struggle between pro-Trump and an ti-Trump factions in the party.

For her part, Dixon responded to that post mortem by ring back at party leadership.

" is is the perfect example of what is wrong with the @MIGOP," Dixon tweeted. "It’s an issue of leadership — Ron Weiser, Me shawn Maddock, and Paul Cordes all refuse to take ownership for their own failures."

Democrats also were aided by Republicans nominating weak candidates at the top of the ticket who had never run for o ce. Whitmer, state Attorney General Dana Nessel and Sec retary of State Jocelyn Benson, who easily topped Tudor Dixon, Matthew DePerno and Kristina Karamo, won by more than last time.

“ e top of the ticket matters,” Burton said.

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

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

EDITORIAL

DANIEL

David EGGERT

Former President Barack Obama, second from left, campaigns for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, left, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II, and Attorney General Dana Nessel, right, during a rally Oct. 29 in Detroit. | AP PHOTO/CARLOS OSORIO

Small businesses matter, this holiday and year-round

BY MARY LIZ CURTIN

“Not only are small businesses driving the U.S. economy, but they also keep the American dream alive.” — Forbes Magazine, March 2022

Mary Liz Curtin and her husband own Leon & Lulu and ree Cats in Clawson. She is the author of a Shopkeeper’s Manual, a motivational speaker and the chair of the Clawson DDA.

America is a big country that runs on small business. As of 2022, there are 33.2 million small businesses in the U.S., accounting for 46.4 percent of jobs in the country, according to bankrate.com.

Small businesses include retailers, restaurant owners, funeral home owners, farmers, mechanics and everything in between. ere are small businesses in every industry.

ese small businesses cover all sectors and range in size from one-person operations to large companies employing hundreds of people.

Locally owned businesses create jobs, increase tax revenue, support other small businesses and keep money in their communities. Many of these are good jobs with high pay rates and a complete bene ts package.

Of the new jobs created between 1995 and 2020, small businesses accounted for 62 percent — 12.7 million compared to 7.9 million by large enterprises. A 2019 SBA report found that small businesses accounted for 44 percent of U.S. economic activity.

Not every small business stays small, of course…Apple was started by two guys in a garage, Facebook began in a dorm room and Starbucks was originally one co ee shop. (Can you imagine the lines when there was only one Starbucks?) Now, many of these behemoths expand and add interest by acquiring small startups.

Many small businesses begin because the founders had a dream or wanted to pursue a craft. Others were established to ll a need in the community or to provide a service. Some are labors of love; some just are a means of making a living. All are risks taken by brave entrepreneurs.

Running any business requiresnancial skills, organization and a good budget. Underestimating the importance of good scal management has caused the demise of many small businesses which otherwise may have been viable. Approximately 20 percent of new businesses fail during the rst two years, 45 percent during the rst ve years and 65 percent during the rst 10 years. Only 25 percent of new businesses make it to 15 years or more.

Anyone starting a new business of any kind should start with a business plan and a budget. en realize that the budget probably isn’t large enough and the plan cannot possibly cover all the things that will arise.

Small business is nimble. Independent owners can react quickly to economic opportunities, pursue trends and make changes to the direction of the business as needed.

Small business is local, serving its community and building relationships with customers as well as other merchants and providers. Not just the money but the good will and friendships stay in the community.

My husband and I are serial momand-pop entrepreneurs, owning Leon & Lulu, a 15,000-square-foot lifestyle store. and ree Cats, an American small plates restaurant, both located in Clawson. It is the classic story: We had a dream, remortgaged our house, bought a building (a former roller rink) and put every nickel we had into Leon & Lulu, against the advice of many wiser heads — 17 years later we are a xture in metro Detroit and a destination shopping experience.

In 2019 we had the chance to work with fabled chef Matt Prentice so we again invested in a new business and built ree Cats Restaurant in the former Clawson eater.

e two businesses employ about 50 people. We o er competitive wages and full bene ts as well as a happy place to work. Both businesses source product and services locally, if possible, support many charities and provide a location for artists to show their work at our juried craft shows.

Small businesses are thriving, and our number is growing. Support and recognition from American Express and the Shop Small campaign has raised awareness and driven more tra c to small businesses each year.

Supporting small business means supporting the community. Main Street is alive and well and delighted to welcome you.

Jaffe is joining Taft. The combined firm will offer expanded legal counsel rooted in entrepreneurial thinking and innovative solutions. The next chapter starts December 31, 2022.

Learn more at jaffelaw.com.

Inside Leon and Lulu in Clawson.

Bedrock to open ‘carrier hotel’ data center in former Detroit News building

BY NICK MANES

A former newspaper building will now serve, in part, as a hub for the backend technology needs of the tenants of downtown Detroit’s biggest landlord.

Bedrock LLC, the Detroit-based real estate rm controlled by billionaire businessman Dan Gilbert, on ursday announced that through a new partnership the company’s property at 615 W. Lafayette Blvd. on the west side of Detroit’s central business district will serve as a “carrier hotel,” a form of co-located data center.

e data center facility will operate with Bedrock as the landlord of the space, with Raeden, a Dover, Del.-based company, serving as the data center operator, according to an emailed statement from Kari Schrader, co-founder and CEO of Raeden.

“As the rst step in that partnership, Raeden and Bedrock are partnering on the development and lease-up of the carrier-neutral data center at 615 Lafayette,” Schrader said in the email. “We expect that the partnership will grow over time to comprise other data centers in Bedrock’s portfolio, as well as the interconnection of those data centers with Bedrock’s buildings across Detroit.”

e data center facility will take up about 3,500 square feet of the roughly 400,000 square foot building, and is set to begin operations next month. e facility “will centralize internet connectivity and technology services while making e cient use of existing ber assets,” according to a news release.

e building, originally home to e Detroit News and later also the Detroit Free Press for a time, counts

Rocket Mortgage and the Pressroom

tenants and features event space in the lobby, according to Bedrock.

Executives say the facility could be a boon to Bedrock tenants in the area.

“ e introduction and added value of the carrier hotel is a signi cant milestone as we continue to position Detroit as one of the most connected and technologically advanced cities in the United States,” Bedrock CTO Michael Osment said in the release.

“ is is the rst in a series of steps by Bedrock to strategically activate local technology assets to bring a faster, more e cient and readily available networking platform to the Detroit market.”

Essentially, the carrier hotel facility at Bedrock’s West Lafayette building will serve as a centralized point for a variety of technology services for the real estate company’s portfo-

lio. Bedrock owns about 40 properties in the downtown area, according to its website.

“Instead of each building requiring individual Internet and technology installations, centralization at 615 West Lafayette will enable access to varying services, signi cantly decreasing deployment timelines, and lowering costs,” according to the release. “ e result will enable Bedrock tenants the ability to access faster and more resilient internet-centric services while enabling expanded internet access throughout Detroit.”

Carrier hotels, such as what’s being developed by Bedrock, are frequently found in city centers, according to a 2019 blog post by Rackspace, a Texas-based cloud computing company.

Contact: nmanes@crain.com; (313) 446-1626; @nickrmanes

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

Switch received site plan amendment approval for the expansion project, dubbed Switch GRR NAP 02, from Gaines Township in July 2021.

When Switch opened in the pyramid, one of five data storage sites it operates nationally, the company said it planned to conduct “continuous expansion” at the campus for at least 10 years.

At the time, Switch said it expected to invest at least $151 million on the data center and create 103 jobs by the end of 2021 under terms of a Renaissance Zone tax agreement with the Michigan Strategic Fund.

The company also has a payment in lieu of taxes agreement with Gaines Township and a tax break agreement with the Caledonia and Kent Intermediate school districts under which it pays real property but not personal property taxes.

Switch paid about $178,000 in taxes to the school districts and Kent County this year and just over $18,500 to Gaines Township, according to public property tax records and Gaines Township Treasurer Laurie Lemke.

On its website, Switch advertises

“low or no taxes” on data storage at the Pyramid site, highlighting its location in a “0% Tax Renaissance Zone,” “0% sales and use taxes on data center equipment in Michigan” and “no business personal property tax for Switch clients.”

Wells, the Gaines Township official, said based on the number of cars in the parking lot on any given day, he estimates Switch currently employs 40 to 50 workers at the Pyramid, from security guards to maintenance technicians. Switch did not respond to requests to confirm those numbers.

Wells said that while Switch’s expansion at the Pyramid site is a “great investment” in that it allows Gaines Township “to participate in the new economies that are developing around data storage,” as far as he knows, the project won’t create many new jobs.

Gaines Township did not require Switch to report how many jobs the expansion would create, Wells said.

“We don’t ask for that, because I’ve worked in economic development for about 10 years now, and honestly, I always found that those job creation numbers that companies gave at the beginning when they’re proposing a project were pretty bogus anyway, so I haven’t really bothered trying to make that a big selling point on any project,” he said. “I rarely see them come to fruition the way that the companies say that they’re going to do it. Really, (from) our perspective, we like the investment, like the technology that’s coming in, but we’re not really too worried about the number of jobs.”

Contact: rachel.watson@crain.com (989) 533-9685; @RachelWatson86

Cafe & Market as

The building at 615 W. Lafayette Blvd. west of downtown Detroit will serve as a co-located data center for Bedrock’s real estate portfolio BEDROCK

A rendering of the Switch data center expansion is shown. | SWITCH INC.

DRIVING REAL EQUITY IN DETROIT

Inc., its Board of Direc tors, Officers,

the hundreds of

personnel

Detroit Equity Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to keeping equity and inclusion at the forefront until every Detroiter in every neighborhood has access to opportunity. We work alongside corporations and communities acting as a bridge of connection for transformative change.

We remain committed to our call to action, encouraging and working with corporations to bind DEI outcomes to compensation, performance reviews, and bonuses.

We look forward to the work in front of us throughout the upcoming year. For more information and to get involved, visit us at detroitequityinc.org

PANEL PARTICIPANTS

Vicki Thomas, Direc tor of Communications, City of Detroit, Moderator

Kevin Johnson CEO, Detroit Economic Growth Corp.

Portia Roberson, CEO, Focus Hope

Rodney Cole, VP, DTE Energy

Bridget Hurd, VP Blue Cross Blue Shield

Bishop Edgar Vann, Founder & CEO

Bertram L Marks, Esq., Co-Founder & General Legal Counsel

Detroit Equity

and Staff wish to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors, panel participants, and most especially

DEI

who attended our First Annual “DEI Best Practices Symposium” at Wayne State University on September 27, 2022.

A special thanks to our keynote speaker Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist, our research partner Wayne State University, its President, Dr. Roy Wilson, and Prof. Peter Hammer, Director of the WSU Law School Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS: Huntington Bank, DTE Energy, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Henry Ford Health Sys tem, City of Detroit, Wayne County, Kresge Foundation, Wayne State University, Rocket Mortgage, HAP, Skillman Foundation, Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce

CRAIN’S MICHIGAN BUSINESS: FLINT

Flint restaurateur and mentor to revive iconic Coney Island.

PAGE 12

A MORE COLLABORATIVE APPROACH

Flint’s Kettering University transforms ‘classrooms’ and communities

BY` TOM HENDERSON

Flint-based Kettering University’s new $63 million, 105,000-square-foot Learning Com mons building has no classrooms or o ces. Instead, the facility is based on collaborative workspaces by Stan ford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design.

Kettering President Robert McMahan said learning is about far more than what a teacher presents in a classroom.

“ is is a commons in the old sense — the village com mons — which could be used by anyone in the commu nity. Students will be more collaborative here. ey will work in teams more,” he said.

e nationally renowned engineering school’s new fa cility was funded by gifts, including a $25 million grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, and designed by Travis Sage, the Michigan design leader for Edmon ton, Alberta-based Stantec Architecture Inc.

It opened on Sept. 23.

Students gather in the Learning Commons building at Kettering University in Flint.

KETTERING UNIVERSITY

The new $63 million, 105,000-square-foot Learning Commons building at Kettering University in Flint. | KETTERING UNIVERSITY

Former social worker nds her niche with Flint bartending class business

BY TOM HENDERSON

A few years after graduating from Oakland University with a degree in sociology, Sheena Harrison decided she was interested in a di erent kind of social work.

She worked as an adoption supervisor at Catholic Charities of Shiawassee and Genesee Counties and then as a case manager with Michigan’s department of Children’s Protective Services. While working for the state, she attended bartending school in Detroit and began running a freelance mobile bartending business on the side in 2014. She also applied for a license to open her own school.

en fate decided it was time for her to make a career change. e state laid her o in August 2021. A month later, she received a license and launched the Drinks of Essence Bartending School in Burton, just south of Flint.

“I had just had a daughter, and losing my job was God saying, ‘Do what your passion is. Do what you are good at,’” Harrison said.

So far, Harrison said, 240 clients have passed her class, which involves 30 hours of instruction on mixing drinks, customer service and alcohol safety.

“ ere’s a need here. People want to work in the industry,” Harrison said.

Until she opened her class, she said, there were no bartending schools in Genesee County or mid-Michigan.

is past July, she expanded her portfolio and launched the Fruits of Elegance Food Truck. In warmer weather, she sold treats like slushies and smoothies, frozen yogurt, fresh fruit kabobs and Italian ices around the county. When cooler weather hit, she began o ering hot cocoa, warm apple cider, apple slushies and caramel apples.

“ e food truck went very, very well. It kept me very busy,” she said.

Harrison, who participated in the 100K Ideas business incubator in downtown Flint, nished second at a pitch event there on Sept. 22 and won $2,500. She also took part in 100K’s Operation Ready to Scale program and received four hours of free accounting advice from Flint’s John L Group.

“As someone who had already started their business but wanted to put themselves in a position to successfully scale, Sheena was a perfect t for the program,” said 100K Ideas Executive Director Brandee Cooke.

Support for her work grew. e Flint & Genesee Group chamber of commerce awarded Harrison a $10,000 grant in April to market Drinks of Essence on cable TV.

“It built a lot of awareness. I got a lot of students,” she said.

Cooke called Harrison an amazing entrepreneur.

“She saw a gap in the community and created a business to ll it,” said Cooke. “Sheena’s story is incredibly inspiring and de nitely shows that regardless of your experience, your dreams can become a reality.”

Ericka House, a clerk in Flint’s 67th District Court, began taking Harrison’s bartending classes last spring. She has since started Drinks on the House — freelancing as a bartender at various events and selling homemade jello shots. She also tends bar at Soothing Tunes Room, a jazz club in Flint.

“I thought bartending would be cool, and I love it. I love interacting with people,” she said. “I am a handson person and really enjoyed the class. I was nervous when I rst got behind the bar in class, but Sheena was really great. She started to joke and put me at ease.”

Contact: thenderson@crain.com (231) 499-2817; @TomHenderson2

Sheena Harrison worked as an adoption supervisor and then as a case manager and attended bartending school on the side. RYNELLE WALKER/STUDIO 18

Sheena Harrison launched the Drinks of Essence Bartending School in Burton, just south of Flint. | SHEENA HARRISON

Flint restaurateur and mentor to revive iconic Coney Island

HENDERSON

Tony Vu has a plan B: Bringing a longtime Flint institution — a Coney Island restaurant on West Court Street downtown — back to life.

His plan A, which he worked on last year, was to acquire land along the Flint River and build a 4,000-squarefoot food hall as an incubator space for his Flint Social Club. e Social Club provides would-be food entrepreneurs with a venue from which they can sell their fare as they grow their businesses.

Initially, that plan was contingent on getting a grant from a foundation that he declined to name on the record. Earlier this year, though, he learned the foundation was leery of funding start ups and decided against providing a grant.

Vu didn’t give up.

He opened a teaching kitchen with a large wood- red oven at the Flint Farmers’ Market downtown where members of the Social Club now host pop-up food stands inside and out and at special events in the area. Six paid employees help run the kitchen and pop-ups, with vendors averaging $1,200 in sales per event.

Vu, the son of immigrants eeing the Vietnam War, grew up in Flint, left for awhile to be a mountain climber in Peru and then returned to the city nine years ago. at’s when he began selling Vietnamese food out of what he calls “a dinosaur beater,” a 1956 Ford stepvan with more than 300,000 miles on it that he rechristened “Wrapped & Rolls.”

In 2016, he opened MaMang, a Viet namese food stall in the Farmers’ Mar ket and founded the Social Club. In 2018, he and Soon Hagerty, also a Viet

years

In the early 20th century, an estimat ed 343,000 people migrated to the United States from Greece. First, they ed the economic devastation caused by Greece’s 1893 bankruptcy. en, they left when the Balkan Wars and World War I collapsed the price of cur rants, the country’s chief export.

During the same period, about 55,000 Macedonians from a region of what was Bulgaria escaped war and poverty to seek a better life in the U.S. ey found a better life and a much better hot dog.

Hundreds of thousands poured through Ellis Island and congregated throughout metropolitan New York before heading to their eventual des tinations. Masses found themselves in Coney Island. Many found them selves eating a new-to-them, fastfood treat — a thin tube of meat served in a soft bun and topped with just mustard and onions.

Charles Feltman, who peddled food o a wagon in Coney Island, is general ly credited with inventing the hot dog in 1867 when he stu ed a small sau sage into a milk roll.

e meat and bun meal the Greeks and Macedonians found wasn’t called a hot dog, though, because the cham ber of commerce made it illegal for

namese refugee, launched the Good Bowl Vietnamese restaurant and Good on Wheels food truck in downtown Traverse City.

Vu launched the Social Club, he said, to help women and people of col or carve out niches in a sector domi nated by white business owners in a city with a large Black population. He has worked with 18 di erent edgling food entrepreneurs in the last six months at the Farmers’ Market, includ ing nine women and 15 persons of col or, he said.

Last year, the state granted the club

$375,000 out of the more than $2 mil lion it allocated for community-based programs in Genesee County.

Reopening the Coney Island will al low Vu to revive a Flint tradition while providing space for Social Club mem bers to hold more pop-ups as they learn the food business.

“Flint coneys are better than De troit coneys. Put that on the record,” Vu said.

Vu bought the building in Septem ber from Athanas (Tom) Zelevarovski, who ran Tom Z’s Coney Island for 25 years before retiring three years ago. Vu

declined to name the purchase price but said he hopes to be open in the spring following a $250,000 renovation.

“ ere isn’t much infrastructure available downtown. I cold-called Tom, and we met at his place. It was a coveted spot,” he said. “ e building is structurally sound, but it really needed a facelift.”

Zelevarovski is third in a line of fam ily members from Macedonia who made three Coney Island restaurants into community mainstays. Genera tions of fans swore allegiance to the Flint coney and professed it far superi

or to the more well-known Detroit co neys in downtown Detroit. (See related story, Page 12.)

Zelevarovski had received consider able interest from potential buyers, but he said the idea of the building remain ing a Coney Island clinched the deal.

“As long as I’m alive, I’ll show Tony how to make coney chili the right way. No one makes chili like us Macedo nians. No one in the state of Michigan makes coneys like we do in Flint.”

Contact: thenderson@crain.com (231) 499-2817; @TomHenderson2

Macedonian coney dogs still rule Genesee County

ney Island right next door in 1924.

Simeon (Sam) Brayan, an immi grant from the small Macedonia village of Bou , opened the Flint Original Co ney Island in 1919, and it remained a local destination until it closed in 1979.

e other iconic Flint coney restau rant was Angelo’s Coney Island.

Vangel (Angelo) Nicolo , one of Brayan’s cousins, immigrated to the U.S. in 1928 at the age of 16 to join his father Anthony Nicolo , who owned the San Juan Chili Parlor in Flint from 1927 to 1945.

Angelo worked for Brayan at the Flint Original Coney Island before opening his restaurant on Davison Road in 1949. He died in 1969. e restaurant closed after a succession of owners in 2018.

kiss your butt.’ And Danny walked in. He was doing a show at the Whitney.”

To this day, a cionados of Flint co neys seem incredulous that anyone would think the Detroit coney supe rior.

Part of the credit goes to Albert Koe gel. He apprenticed as a butcher in Germany before emigrating to the U.S. and arriving in Flint in 1916 after a salesman told him Flint would be a good place to open a meat business because of the booming auto industry.

those with carts and stands to use that term, fearing tourists would think the locals were killing and serving canines.

e hand-held treat became gener ally known as a Coney Island.

A twist on the original

As Greeks and Macedonians migrat ed to the hinterlands, some entrepre neurs decided there was opportunity and money to be made by making and selling those Coney Island treats.

Yet, they did the purveyors in Coney Island one better: ey topped their

coneys with chili. But the chili on the Greek and Macedonian hot dogs was substantially di erent. Greek coneys had a looser, thinner chili. Macedonian chili was thicker and made with ground beef heart.

e rst Coney Island in Michigan opened in Jackson in 1914. e longest continually operating coney in the state is believed to be Coney Island Ka lamazoo, which opened in 1915.

Gust Keros, an immigrant from Greece, opened the American Coney Island in downtown Detroit in 1917. His brother Bill opened Lafayette Co

“Angelo’s was a Flint tradition. All the second shift and third shift Buick guys would eat there,” said Tim Her man, CEO of the Flint & Genesee Group chamber of commerce. One of Herman’s fondest memories took place late one night when he was in college and dining with his roommate.

“I was looking out the window and a limousine pulled up, and Danny om as got out of the limo in a tuxedo. I said ‘Danny omas is coming in,’” he said of the famous TV star and comedian of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. “And my roommate said, ‘If Danny omas comes in, I’ll

Eventually, Brayan came across a Koegel hot dog, declared it the best he had ever had and used only Koegels till his restaurant closed. Brayan also con tracted with Abbott’s Meat Inc. of Flint in 1924 to supply him with ne-ground beef-heart chili. Koegel began distrib uting the chili elsewhere.

Today, you can still buy Brayan’s original recipe hot-dog chili. Branded as Abbott’s Hotdog Coney Sauce and distributed by Koegel Meats Inc., you can buy a four-pound jar at Amazon. com for $58.99.

Some Detroit coney fans must have bought it because it only has a rating of 3.9 out of ve possible stars.

Brayan is probably turning in his grave.

Contact: thenderson@crain.com (231) 499-2817; @TomHenderson2

TOM

TOM HENDERSON

Tony Vu in front of the mural on the former Tom Z’s Coney Island building in int. | TOM HENDERSON/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

An article about Flint Coney Islands in the window of the Tom Z’s Coney Island building.

| TOM HENDERSON/ CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

KETTERING

From Page 10

e building is open and airy.

ere are glass-enclosed conference rooms with large at-screen TVs, individual pods for students not in the mood for collaboration, an outdoor terrace with hammocks and even a fully equipped apartment on the top oor for visiting scholars and VIPs.

Each space is rst-come, rstserved, McMahan said. Faculty do not receive priority over students.

ere are soda fountains where students can get free refreshments and a co ee shop. A pizza parlor keeps its wood- red oven going until 2 a.m. Still under construction is a 20,000-squarefoot maker-space where students can use 3D printers and a host of other tools.

“It’s incredible what Bob is doing,” said Tim Herman, CEO of the Flint & Genesee Group, a chamber of commerce.

Other facts and gures:

` e building meets LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certi cation.

` Construction required 888 tons of steel and 7,650 cubic yards of concrete.

` A 49-foot-long, 19,147-pound steel beam spans the third oor above the Reiss Auditorium.

` e 200-seat auditorium has a wallto-wall LED display with 576 panels that can be used as a single display or as multiple screens of di erent dimensions.

` Each space features natural daylight and views of the outside.

` A roof-top garden is designed to reduce runo and lower temperatures on its surface and the surrounding air.

Beyond its campus

Kettering has made a signi cant impact throughout Flint. For example:

ATWOOD STADIUM: An iconic Flint landmark for decades, the 11,000seat Atwood Stadium is located on the north shore of the Flint River. It was named after Edwin W. Atwood, who was elected mayor of Flint in 1920.

` In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered a speech at the stadium.

` In 1960, John F. Kennedy shook hands with area residents and spoke for eight minutes there when he ran for president against Richard Nixon.

` More importantly, rock fans would argue, legendary band e Who performed there on Aug. 23, 1967.

` In 1984, Jim Abbott, a star quarterback born without a right hand, led Flint Central to win a high school playo game in the stadium. He later pitched in the major leagues and threw a no-hitter against Cleveland in 1993.

` e stadium also hosted boxing matches, UAW strike gatherings,

reworks displays and minor-league baseball.

Atwood seemed ready for the wrecker’s ball in 2013. However, McMahan made a pitch convincing Mike Brown, Flint’s emergency manager, to have the city transfer ownership to the university.

Renovations cost $4 million, paid for by gifts from the community — including Kettering, the Mott Foundation and Diplomat Pharmacy, a Flint-based New York Stock Exchange company that entrepreneur and philanthropist Phil Hagerman ran. e 25-foot excavation of the playing eld required 5,000 tons of ll. “What was a hole in the middle of the corridor is now a valuable community asset,” said McMahan.

In 2015, the stadium reopened with professional-grade arti cial turf and striped for youth and adult football, lacrosse and soccer games. It’s also home to the Flint City Bucks, a development soccer team owned by Dan Duggan, the younger brother of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. Kettering’s intramural teams play there. And the Flint Institute of Music hosts an annual Independence Day concert in the stadium during the city’s annual reworks display.

THE CARRIAGE DISTRICT: e mile of housing and storefronts along the Flint River between Kettering University and downtown Flint was known a ectionately as the Carriage District when Flint was the center of the auto-making world. en, it was a desirable place to see and be seen.

When McMahan became university president in 2011, however, the Carriage District had one of the highest crime rates in Genesee County. ere were dilapidated and burned-out houses long forgotten.

Yet, in 2012, Kettering began buying land and buildings along both sides of the Flint River.

“Universities like this one can make a big di erence, but you have to be very intentional. at typi es our approach here,” McMahan said. e university acquired about 400 parcels and tore down 300 blighted structures. e school created hundreds of acres of green elds and cleaned and fenced an ancient Native American burial ground that had been overrun with weeds and garbage. Some rehabbed houses are available for Kettering employees to buy through a program of forgivable loans.

“Bob’s board and his sta have been such great partners as we grow our economy downtown,” said Herman. “It’s really spurred business.” Kettering redeveloped a party

store at the edge of campus into a Flint police station on one side and a university-owned Einstein bagels on the other. Kettering also became landlord to recently built Jimmy John’s and Little Caesar’s restaurants.

Although, McMahan declined to disclose the cost of the purchases, demolitions and rehabs, he said none involved state funding. Kettering received donations, through the creation of the University Avenue Corridor Coalition, from donors such as the Mott Foundation. e federal Department of Justice provided a $2 million grant.

en, crime dropped sharply. People now stroll, jog or bike along the path installed by the river.

CHEVY IN THE HOLE: Perhaps the most historically signi cant of Kettering University’s projects occurred in 2016 when it opened the GM Mobility Research Center. e 21-acre proving ground and research facility bolsters automakers’ and suppliers’ ability to develop new products, such as electric and autonomous vehicles.

Originally, there was a sawmill and a paper mill on the site. e Flint Wagon Works was built in the 1880s and converted to auto manufacturing in 1904. It employed 14,000 workers at its peak.

Even more monumental is the site’s role in the historic battle between General Motors and autoworkers. On Feb. 1, 1937, workers at the largest plant in the world — nicknamed Chevy in the Hole — joined other General Motors workers in Flint for a sit-down strike that led to the creation of the United Auto Workers.

In 2004, long after the plant closed, the last of its numerous buildings was demolished, leaving a vast brown eld.

e restored land and $7 million mobility center include the Harris Mobility Research Annex and a 3.25acre test track built with stadium-style lighting. Grand Blancbased CNXMotion, a joint venture between Nexteer Automotive and Continental Automotive, uses the facility to show its motion-control technologies. Five of its 30 employees are Kettering graduates.

e center is also part of the larger Chevy Commons, a $17.3 million project that includes restored grasslands, meadows, wetlands, woodlands and walking and biking trails along the Flint River.

Contact: thenderson@crain.com (231) 499-2817; @TomHenderson2

Electric vehicle at the test track at the GM Mobility Research Center at Kettering University in Flint. The 21-acre proving ground and research facility bolsters automakers’ and suppliers’ ability to develop new products. | TOM HENDERSON/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Kettering redeveloped a party store at the edge of campus into a Flint police station on one side and a university-owned Einstein bagels on the other. | TOM HENDERSON/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Kettering president brings wealth of real-world experience to the job

Physics professor Robert McMahan has led school since 2011

Since its founding in 1919, Kettering University has focused on providing students with real-world experiences. Today, students alternate semesters of classroom instruction with semesters spent at paid co-op assignments with companies around the world.

Robert McMahan, the school’s president since 2011 and a tenured professor of physics, embodies that philosophy nicely. Before joining Kettering, he was the founding dean and professor of engineering at Western Carolina University’s College of Engineering and Technology in North Carolina, but he didn’t spend much time advancing his career at faculty teas. Instead, he spent a lot of time in the so-called real world.

First, though, there’s his extremely unique undergraduate background: He earned two bachelor’s degrees from Duke University in 1982 — one in physics and the other in art history.

He earned his Ph.D in physics from Dartmouth in 1986, then spent three years doing post-doc work at the Center for Astrophysics, a collaboration of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and Harvard College Observatory.

As a graduate student, McMahan was involved with the research group that postulated the existence of something called the Great Attractor, a gravitational anomaly involving a concentration of mass that is millions of times more massive than the Milky Way in something called the Laniakea Supercluster.

As a post-doc at the Center for Astrophysics, he participated in re-

search that resulted in the development of maps of the large-scale structure of the universe. ere, he also developed the 3D-visualization software used in the 40-minute lm “So Many Galaxies...So Little Time” that was on display at the National Air and Space Museum.

In 1988, while still at the Center for Astrophysics, he founded McMahan Research Laboratories, which moved to the Research Triangle and was sold in 2000 to GretagMacbeth LLC, a New York company that was opening an R&D facility in North Carolina.

McMahan then joined In-Q-Tel, a private, nonpro t venture-capital organization the CIA founded in 1999 to bring government innovation closer to the pace of innovation in Silicon

Valley. He was a senior technology strategist.

One of In-Q-Tel’s rst investments was in 2001 in Keyhole Inc., a Mountain View, Calif.-based company. Google bought the company in 2004, and its technology helped power Google Maps.

Later, McMahan served as senior adviser for science and technology to the governor of North Carolina and was executive director of the North Carolina Board of Science and Technology.

McMahan has published more than 50 articles on astronomy and astrophysics, engineering and public policy and holds five U.S. patents.

Tom Henderson

Still growing, Kettering has long history of training auto and tech talent

BY TOM HENDERSON

Flint’s Industrial Fellowship League founded the School of Automobile Trades in 1919 to train technical and management talent for the rapidly growing auto industry.

Today the school, now named Kettering University, is generally acknowledged as one of the leading engineering and STEM-focused universities in the world. According to a 2017 study, Kettering ranked No. 4 in patents granted per alumnus just behind of Cal Tech, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvey Mudd College of Claremont, Calif., and ahead of Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon. Kettering, which continues to grow, sits on an 85-acre campus a mile west of downtown Flint.

How Kettering got its name

e school’s rst president Maj. Albert Sobey served for 31 years. Sobey received his engineering degree from Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State University) in 1909 and earned his rank in Army Intelligence during World War I.

e title stuck when his clothing was misrouted after his discharge and took weeks to arrive in Flint. Frugal, Sobey wore his Army uniform when he started his new job, and students began calling him Major.

When the School of Automobile Trades grew to 600 full-time students by 1923, Sobey renamed it the Flint Institute of Technology. ree years later, General Motors Corp., which was hiring most of its graduates, bought FIT and renamed it the General Motors Institute or GMI.

GM divested itself of ownership 56 years later, in 1982, and it became the GMI Engineering & Management Institute, a private, nonpro t university that o ered master’s programs to students who lived on and o campus.

In 1998, GMI became Kettering University in honor of Charles Kettering.

e inventor and auto pioneer held 186 patents, including the spark plug and electric starting motor that replaced hand cranks in automobiles, and was GM’s head of research for 27 years.

Kettering also invented the Freon refrigerant for DuPont Chemical Co., was a Delco founder and invented the rst aerial missile for Dayton-Wright Co., the airplane manufacturer he helped found in 1917 after the decla-

ration of war between the U.S. and Germany.

A ‘working class’ school

From the start, Kettering emphasized pairing students’ academic studies with stints in the workforce.

Its 2,300 undergraduate and graduate students generally alternate a semester of classwork with a semester of work in co-op assignments at one of Kettering’s partner companies, which include automotive suppliers and OEMs, hospitals and medical-device manufacturers and a wide range of other businesses worldwide. Most students take on seven to nine co-op semesters throughout their academic careers.

Every senior does a thesis project that involves the university and addressing a problem at their co-op employer organization.

According to the school, students on their co-op assignments make an average of $15.38 an hour their rst year, $18.72 an hour their senior year and are hired after graduation at an average salary of $70,000.

Contact: thenderson@crain.com (231) 499-2817; @TomHenderson2

Robert McMahan is Kettering University’s president since 2011 and a tenured professor of physics. | KETTERING UNIVERSITY

Phil Hagerman puts iconic former GM building up for sale, expands Forum Health

BY TOM HENDERSON

Phil Hagerman is selling his second iconic o ce building on Saginaw Street in downtown Flint. He expects a purchaser for the Dryden Building, the original headquarters for the Durant-Dort Carriage Co., which morphed into General Motors, before the end of the year. e building also housed one of the earliest J.C. Penney stores in the country.

Four would-be buyers have shown a serious interest already, and Hagerman expects to get o ers from at least two of them.

Hagerman and his wife, Jocelyn, spent $6.8 million to buy and renovate the Dryden building, which was built in 1902 and reopened in 2015 after sitting vacant for 20 years. She managed the renovation.

Last year, Hagerman sold the iconic Ferris Wheel building next door to former Dryden Building tenant Dave Forystek. He is CEO of Premier Security Solutions, a fast-growing security rm that outgrew its third- oor space in the Dryden.

e Ferris Wheel sat empty for 30 years and reopened in 2017 after a $7.5 million buildout, including $1.5 million from the Michigan Strategic Fund. Built in 1930, Ferris Wheel originally housed the Gainey Furniture Co., with the Ferris Brothers Fur Co. moving in a few years later.

e building is home to the 100K Ideas program, an incubator for area startups. Forystek is one of its graduates. Premier, which has grown to 1,000 employees in several states, takes up two oors of the seven-story art-deco building.

e sale price for the Ferris Wheel wasn’t disclosed. Hagerman said he hopes to get about half of what he put into the buildings when the sale of the Dryden — home to the Hagerman Foundation and his investment rm SkyPoint Ventures LLC — isnalized.

“I never expected to get all our investment out. It was a family o ce investment, but we did it with a philanthropic philosophy to help a struggling city when it needed it,” he said. “I feel like we did what we wanted to do in Flint. We moved the needle. We helped the real-estate corridor in Flint.”

He said the Hagerman Foundation has made grants of about $18 million for projects in Flint, including $4 million toward the $37 million renovation and reopening of one of Flint’s downtown jewels, the historic Capitol eatre on east Second Street. e Capitol opened in 1928 as a vaudeville house and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

e foundation also contributed $2 million to the Hagerman Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Michigan-Flint.

Describing himself as “healthy and a young 70,” Hagerman said he decided to sell the buildings “because it was time to simplify my life a bit.” ough the word “simplify” might be relative.

When he talked to Crain’s about the Dryden’s sale, he was in an airport in Reno, Nev., having own

there to pitch buying a health care practice for one of his portfolio companies. In October, he purchased Doctors Studio in Boca Raton, Fla.

In 2011, Hagerman co-founded Chicago-based Power2Practice LLC, a software-as-a-service company that managed electronic medical records. In February 2019, he formed Forum Health Enterprises through the mergers of Power2Practice, which had grown its business to 1,000 physicians nationwide, with two health care practices — Chicago-based Agenixs and Whole Health Medical Group of West Jordan, Utah.

Forum Health has been acquiring medical practices that focus on integrative medicine, which combine traditional medicine with alternative medicine, including acupuncture, aromatherapy, chiropractic manipulation, relaxation techniques, dietary and herbal approaches and life coaches.

When he sold the Ferris Wheel, Hagerman said he had grown Forum to 22 practices. Today, he has 26 practices in 13 states, including six practices in metro Detroit, and plans to close on at least two more this year.

He also has grown revenue from about $12 million in 2020 to $21 million last year and about $35 million this year. Hagerman said he’d like to remain a tenant in the Dryden, but that will depend on the new owner’s plans.

In 1975, Hagerman and his father, Dale, founded Diplomat Pharmacy Inc., which went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014. e company supplied rare and expensive drugs and support services to patients with cancer and immunological disorders in every state, and at one point, employed about 3,000

people in 17 facilities in 14 states, including 1,200 at its Genesee County headquarters a few miles south of downtown Flint.

In 2019, a year after Hagerman retired as CEO, Minneapolis-based UnitedHealth Group bought Diplomat for $300 million.

Contact: thenderson@crain.com (231) 499-2817; @TomHenderson2

Phil Hagerman is selling the Dryden Building in Flint. Last year he sold the Ferris Wheel building next door. | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

The Hagermans renovated the Dryden Building on Saginaw Street in downtown Flint and it is now for sale. AVRAM GOLDEN

“I FEEL LIKE WE DID WHAT WE WANTED TO DO IN FLINT. WE MOVED THE NEEDLE. WE HELPED THE REAL-ESTATE CORRIDOR IN FLINT.”

—Phil Hagerman, entrepreneur, philanthropist

CRAIN'S LIST |

OAKLAND COUNTY'S LARGEST EMPLOYERS

Ranked by full-time employees July 2022

TOP LOCAL EXECUTIVE(S)

COREWELL HEALTH (FORMERLY BHSH SYSTEM) 1 formichiganbymichigan.org

STELLANTIS (FORMERLY FCA US LLC) 1000 Chrysler Drive, Auburn Hills48326-2766 248-576-5741; stellantis.com

TinaFreese Decker president and CEO, Corewell Health

14,644 NA 23,227 NA Hospital system 2

MarkStewart COO, North America

11,615 12,897 44,010 NA Automobile manufacturer

UWM HOLDINGS CORP. (UNITED WHOLESALE MORTGAGE)

585 South Blvd. East, Pontiac48341 800-981-8898; uwm.com

MathewIshbia chairman, president and CEO

8,058 2 9,126 8,058 2 8,058 2 Mortgage lender 4

6

GENERAL MOTORSCO. 300 Renaissance Center, Detroit48265 313-667-1500; gm.com

ASCENSION MICHIGAN

28000 Dequindre Road, Warren48092 866-501-3627; ascension.org/michigan

HENRY FORD HEALTH

1 Ford Place, Detroit48202 800-436-7936; henryford.com

7 U.S. POSTAL SERVICE 1401 W. Fort St., Detroit48233-9998 313-226-8678; usps.com

8

OAKLAND COUNTY 1200 N. Telegraph Road, Pontiac48328 248-858-1000; www.oakgov.com

TRINITY HEALTH MICHIGAN

MaryBarra chairman and CEO

JonathanNalli 3 interim ministry market executive, Ascension Michigan

RobertRiney 4 president and CEO

5,498 5,577 19,096 19,096 Health care system

7,983 7,291 53,918 166,194 Automobile manufacturer 5

5,301 5,079 2 19,266 32,754 Health care system

RichardMoreton district manager 5,000 5 5,000 e 20,000 e5 640,000 5 Postal service

DavidCoulter county executive

9

20555 Victor Parkway, Livonia48152 734-343-1000; trinity-health.org, .stjoeshealth.org

3,567 3,468 3,567 3,567 County government

RobertCasalou president and CEO 3,558 e 3,505 2 20,143 e NA Health care system

10

MAGNA INTERNATIONAL OF AMERICAINC. 750 Tower Drive, Troy48098 248-631-1100; magna.com

FLAGSTAR BANCORPINC. 5151 Corporate Drive, Troy48098 248 312 2000; agstar.com

12

13

14

ROCHESTER COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT 52585 Dequindre Road, Rochester48307 248-726-3000; rochester.k12.mi.us

COMERICA BANK

411 W. Lafayette, Detroit48226 248-371-5000; comerica.com

LEARCORP. 21557 Telegraph Road, South eld48033 248-447-1500; lear.com

AlessandroDiNello president, CEO and director 2,102 1,996 3,052 5,111 Financial institution

SwamyKotagiri CEO 2,640 2,284 10,525 161,000 Mobility technology 11

Dr. RobertShaner superintendent 2,020 1,911 6 2,020 NA Public school district

MikeRitchie executive vice president, head of national and specialty businesses

1,972 2,007 4,494 7,424 Financial institution

RaymondScottJr. president, CEO and director 1,958 1,919 4,290 183,962 Automotive supplier

15

CONTINENTAL AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS U.S.INC.

1 Continental Drive, Auburn Hills48326 248-393-5300; continental-corporation.com/en-us

RobertLee 7 CEO 1,877 e 1,845 e 1,947 e 190,875 Automotive supplier 16

AMAZON.COMINC. 150 West Je erson, Detroit amazon.com

OAKLAND UNIVERSITY

AndyJassy 8 CEO Je Bezos executive chair and founder

1,850 9 NA 15,257 e10 NA Ecommerce, tech and telecom

17

2200 Squirrel Road, Rochester Hills48309 248-370-2100; www.oakland.edu

OraHirsch Pescovitz president 1,823 1,832 1,833 1,833 Public university 18

BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD OF MICHIGAN/BLUE CARE NETWORK

600 E. Lafayette Blvd., Detroit48226 313-225-9000; bcbsm.com

MCLAREN HEALTH CARE

DanielLoepp president and CEO 1,708 1,814 9,264 11,465 Nonpro t mutual insurance company and subsidiary companies 19

One McLaren Parkway, Grand Blanc48439 810-342-1100; mclaren.org

PhilipIncarnati president and CEO 1,707 1,430 18,997 19,982 Health care system 20

WALLED LAKE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS

850 Ladd Road, Walled Lake48390 248-956-2000; wlcsd.org

JohnBernia 11 superintendent 1,658 12 1,637 12 1,658 12 NA Public school district 21

THE SUBURBAN COLLECTION 13 1795 Maplelawn Drive, Troy48084 877-471-7100; suburbancollection.com

DavidFischerJr. president and CEO 1,597 e 1,577 e 2,618 e NA Automobile dealerships and related businesses 22

24

25

WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY

42 W. Warren, Detroit48202 313-577-2424; www.wayne.edu

M. RoyWilson 14 president 1,579 1,638 4,592 NA Public university 23

STATE OF MICHIGAN 3042 W. Grand Blvd., Cadillac Place, Suite 4-400, Detroit48202 313-456-4400; michigan.gov

U.S. FARATHANE 2700 High Meadow Circle, Auburn Hills48326 248-754-7000; usfarathane.com

BORGWARNERINC.

3850 Hamlin Road, Auburn Hills48326 248-754-9200; borgwarner.com

GretchenWhitmer governor 1,374 1,093 43,961 NA State government

AndrewGreenlee president and CEO 1,222 1,311 2,636 5,731 Plastic injection molder, extruder, thermal compression molder

FredericLissalde president, CEO and director 1,135 2 NA 1,387 2 49,300 2 Manufacturing company of components and systems solutions for electric vehicles

ResearchedbySonyaD.Hill:shill@crain.com |ThislistofOaklandCountyemployersencompassescompanieswithheadquartersinLivingston,Oakland,Wayne,MacomborWashtenawcounties.Companieswithheadquarterselsewhere arelistedwiththeaddressandtopexecutiveoftheirmainDetroit-areao ce.Thisisnotacompletelistingbutthemostcomprehensiveavailable.Unlessotherwisenoted,informationwasprovidedbythecompanies.Numberoffull-timeemployees mayincludefull-timeequivalents.NAmeansnotavailable.NOTES: e. Crain'sestimate. 1. BeaumontHealthandSpectrumHealthmergedasanintegratedhealthsystemwiththetemporaryname,BHSHHealthonFeb.1.RebrandedasCorewellHealth inOctober. 2. AsofJanuary. 3. SucceededJosephCacchioneinAugust. 4. NamedpresidentandCEOonSept.8.PreviouslyservedasinterimCEOafterWrightLassiter'sdepartureinAugust. 5. AsofJuly2021. 6. FiguresareFTEcountsfromtheCenter forEducationalPerformanceandInformation. 7. E ectiveJan.1,Robert(Bob)LeesucceededSamirSalmanasCEO. 8. SucceededJe BezosasCEOinJuly2021. 9. EstimatebasedonnumbersfromMWPVLInternationalInc. 10. EstimatefromMWPVL InternationalInc. 11 SucceededKennethGutmanassuperintendent. 12. FigureisFTEcountfromtheCenterforEducationalPerformanceandInformation. 13. LithiaMotorsInc.acquiredTheSuburbanCollectioninApril2021. 14. Willstepdownas president when contract ends July 31, 2023. Want the full Excel version of this list — and every list? Become a Data Member: CrainsDetroit.com/data

BOARDS

Detroit Regional CEO Group

Vinnie Johnson, Founder and Chairman of the Piston Group has become a member of the Detroit Regional CEO Group which is focused on systemic change to help drive regional prosperity. The CEO Group’s priorities include education, economic and workforce development, regional transit and public spaces & greenways. The Piston Group’s world-class manufacturing facilities deliver operational excellence through employee empowerment. Their team of more than 11,500 proudly adds value every day.

CONSULTING

Inspire11

Inspire11, a modern value-creation rm, is proud to welcome Rick Whitney as Managing Director. Rick will lead Inspire11’s growth in Detroit through innovation, client outcomes, talent development, and community impact. Rick joins Inspire11 with over 25 years of global leadership in business and technology and a passion for growth. In addition, Rick is a Children’s Center of Wayne County Board Member, where he helps lead philanthropy and fundraising to improve the lives of children and families.

FINANCE

Michigan First Credit Union

Michigan First Credit Union announced Jennifer Borowy as its new Chief Executive Of cer. Jennifer, who joined Michigan First in 2018 and most recently served as Chief Operations Of cer, is the 7th President/CEO in company history and brings a wide array of industry skills to the role. The credit union also announced Delonaka Edwards, who has been a part of Michigan First since 2014, as the company’s new Chief Operations Of cer. Michigan First, with $1.5 billion in assets and 29 branches, offers expanded nancial solutions through its Michigan First Mortgage division, as well as Michigan First Insurance Agency and the Michigan First Foundation.

MANUFACTURING

Paslin

Paslin is pleased to announce Joseph Perkins as Paslin’s CEO effective November 1st, 2022. With over 30 years’ experience in the automotive industry Joe brings extensive knowledge of both local and global markets. Joe joins Paslin from Mobex Global, where he was President/CEO. Previously, Joe held executive leadership positions at Joyson Safety Systems and Nexteer. Joe earned his master’s degree in Business Administration from Wayne State University and completed his undergrad at Michigan State University. Founded in 1937, Paslin is a full-service design and build organization serving the global automotive industry through the concept, design, construction and deployment of complex automated assembly and welding systems.

BREADLESS

Marc Howland, L.C.’s husband, is open about his struggles to nd healthy food options while growing up in New York. Howland, who earned an MBA from Harvard University, stresses how big a part accessibility is when it comes to Breadless.

He would not provide detailed sales or revenue gures, but said the business is performing well relative to expectations.

Je Ponders II, principal of portfolio success at ID Ventures, said in an email that Breadless represents much of what the venture capital rm looks for in early-stage companies.

HEALTHCARE

Straith Hospital For Special Surgery

Straith Hospital announces Brad Bescoe as President and Chief Executive Of cer and Lamia Alfatlawi as Chief Operating Of cer.

Bescoe joined Straith Hospital in 2012. He served as the Chief Financial Of cer for the Hospital for the previous ten years. He is a CPA and licensed accountant in the State of Michigan.

Alfatlawi joined Straith Hospital in July of 2020. She previously served as the Director of Surgery. She is a licensed Registered Nurse in the State of Michigan.

Bescoe and Alfatlawi have led a 75% increase in surgical cases at the Hospital since 2020. They will continue to focus on patient safety and growth in surgery, inpatient rehabilitation, pain management, and orthopedics.

TECHNOLOGY Lowry Solutions

Lowry Solutions (Lowry) is pleased to announce the appointment of Sean Lowry to President of Lowry Solutions. Sean joined Lowry in 2006, beginning his career at Lowry as an RFID Product Specialist. Sean moved into sales targeting Strategic Accounts & then joined Lowry’s Federal Government Sales division. His most recent position was Sr. Vice President of Sales & Marketing where he held responsibility for Lowry’s Enterprise & Territory sales teams as well as driving the overall marketing strategy.

“I’ve been the guy making special requests on the menu my entire life, asking for the low-carb, gluten-free option,” he said. “ e lettuce bun, wrap instead of bread, has always been an afterthought product for every other concept. After a decade of frustration of looking for those healthier options that actually have avor, we decided to do it ourselves.

“Everyone should have access to these types of options, and the type of tness and nutrition education we provide. You shouldn’t have to go to the suburbs to get those things.”

Breadless operates with a sta of eight out of a 1,200-square-foot space with seating for 20 guests and a walk-up window for carryout orders.

It o ers eight wraps that can also be ordered as a bowl, as well soups and salads. e majority of the greens come from LaGrasso Bros. in Detroit.

Each menu item has a fun name. For example, the Cloud 9 Pastrami comprises pastrami, spicy mustard, reuben sauce, cheese, tomatoes, sweet pickles, onions and cabbage wrapped in collard greens. e Chardi B includes chicken, cilantro avocado sauce, pepper jack cheese, tomatoes, sweet pickles and onions wrapped in swiss chard.

“We put a lot of work into the names,” Salter said. “We want people to know that eating more healthfully can be a little fun, too. e goal is to give people something that’s healthy that they can enjoy eating.”

at fun has garnered the attention of some notable investors, including Detroit Venture Partners and Detroit-based ID Ventures.

Breadless opened after raising $1.1 million in capital. In January, it won a $50,000 cash grant as part of round 18 of Motor City Match. Initial costs to open the Detroit location were about $200,000, according to Marc Howland.

“ID Ventures is proud to support Breadless,” said Ponders, a 2021 Crain’s 40 Under 40 honoree. “ ey have a strong, passionate founding team, a high-quality and innovative product that reaches an underserved market, and a commitment to building a business here in Michigan.

ey’re proof that entrepreneurs from all walks of life can build successful businesses right here in Detroit and in Michigan.”

Despite being open less than a year, Breadless has gotten some strong visibility opportunities.

It worked a handful of dates as a vendor at Comerica Park over the summer and Nov. 14-Dec. 13 will sell its products during events at Little Caesars Arena, according to Brett McWethy, Ilitch Sports and Entertainment director of marketing communications.

“We are proud to welcome Breadless to Little Caesars Arena for upcoming events in November and December,” Ilitch Sports and Entertainment President and CEO Chris McGowan said in an email.

“ is past summer at Comerica Park, we began showcasing small, Blackowned businesses in the city of Detroit. We’re privileged to continue bringing those opportunities to Little Caesars Arena, right in the heart of e District Detroit.”

Detroit is at the heart of what the Breadless team does, but they have their eyes set on expansion. Plans call for a second Detroit location at an undisclosed space, Marc Howland said, with an eye on further expansion.

“We’ve been seeing a lot of great enthusiasm around the brand,” Howland said. “ at’s giving us condence in being able to grow and expand to be in line with sort of what you consider top-tier fast-casual, healthy, quick-service options.”

Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB

Borowy

Edwards

Bescoe

Alfatlawi

From Page 3

A yoga class takes place July 27 outside of Breadless. The Detroit business o ers a variety of tness classes, in additon to serving low-carb, gluten-free food. | BREADLESS VIA FACEBOOK

BRIDGE

From

e proposed changes would cost $2 million, and the Michigan Strate gic Fund on Wednesday approved a performance-based grant to cover those costs.

For families downtown for the an nual reworks display and events along the Detroit riverfront, having a pedestrian bridge over the eightlane avenue “seems a lot more invit ing and potentially a bit more safe,” DDP President Eric Larson said.

“What we’re trying to do as the Downtown Detroit Partnership is continue to foster ... real, truly equi table and safe access.”

e temporary crossing at Wood ward and Je erson will serve as a pilot to test whether pedestrians use the structure and then, working with the city and other public partners, to make decisions on whether a per manent structure would be bene cial, he said.

“We are hoping ... that this is a demonstration of a permanent bridge crossing ... and we’ll use this opportunity to test that business case,” Larson said.

e DDP, state and city have been looking at ways to improve the safety and accessibility of the crossing there.

With the state funding in hand, DDP will purchase three smaller, temporary (but reusable) bridges and install them at busy pedestrian

MANSION

From Page 3

Monday, Golden said she didn’t want to talk about the purchase. She told Crain’s earlier this year that she “rescued” the home because she didn’t want to see it destroyed.

“We need someone to see it for the special thing it is and carry on the tradition,” Golden said in the spring.

“We would like to see somebody have a family here.”

Purdon said when she rst walked in the front door, she knew the home was something special.

“Does it remind me of the Detroit Institute of Arts?” she asked. “Does it remind me of Architectural Digest magazine with a romantic air?”

She described the house as “an on going piece of art,” saying she expects it will always be a work in progress.

Dillon said he respects what Gold en has done to the home, which orig

EGGERT

From Page 6

“When it comes to these types of elections, which we see more frequent ly, which are supposed to be waves or mini-waves, if you’re going to take ad vantage of those circumstances, you need a top of the ticket that’s going to motivate people. In this political envi ronment, Republicans should have won pretty much everything.”

Despite Dixon’s criticism of Whit mer for her COVID-19 restrictions, her campaign appears to have over estimated voters’ anger over the or ders more than a year after they were lifted. Many business groups, which traditionally favor Republicans, sup ported the governor, stayed neutral or — in the case of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce — got be hind Dixon very late.

Her campaign's focus on banning transgender students from sports and

crossways at yet-to-be determined points along the Grand Prix route.

e DDP will also buy or rent a larg er covered span to install at Je er son at Woodward, connecting Spirit Plaza to Hart Plaza on the riverfront.

e bridges, from Ira Town ship-based Kehrig Steel Co. Inc., will include counters to gauge the num ber of people crossing, something that should give the DDP a sense of usage and a business case for invest ments in permanent bridges, Larson said. Usage data is something that will help make the case for the Mich

inally belonged to James Burgess Book, and wanted to carry her e orts over the nish line. Purdon said she would like air conditioning and an updated kitchen, but otherwise re spects the e orts Golden made to re store the property.

e tour that Golden gave them at the rst showing, explaining the work that she did — tearing down an as bestos- lled addition, pulling up lay ers of carpet and tile to unearth mo saic oors, scrubbing paint o marble walls — made Dillon feel a responsibility to the home, he said.

“It wouldn’t have been the same without her there. She really put the heart into it,” he said. “It’s just a building if it doesn’t have a story. We want to nish the story.”

Dillon and Purdon intend to live in the home, he said, renovating it room by room. He said he expects it to cost as much as $1.2 million more to n ish the project, but thinks it will be an “adventure” for the couple. ey

“pornographic” books from schools fell at, particularly with indepen dents, at a time of anxiety over high in ation.

After Dixon won a wide-open Au gust primary with help from the DeVos family and former President Donald Trump following the disquali cation of two leading contenders, she had lit tle money and faced a nancial jugger naut in Whitmer and a Democratic Governors Association-a liated group that ran ads nonstop. Many vot ers did not know Dixon.

Sellek said Whitmer bene ted from then-President Donald Trump’s deci sion to single her out when she criti cized the federal government’s re sponse early in the pandemic.

“ at made her into a national can didate, not just a Michigan candidate,” he said. “She’s Gretchen Whitmer, a presidential candidate. at showed in the bank account. Donald Trump helped, and Gov. Whitmer took full ad vantage of that skirmish. (It) resulted in

igan Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Adminis tration, which have a lot of say over rights-of-way like Je erson Avenue.

“ at’s the neat thing about this ... before you make that permanent investment, (we) will actually be able to determine what works and what doesn’t work,” Larson said.

events, 70 percent of participants use the Cumberland Bridge, a pe destrian bridge that connects the

WILL ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO DETERMINE WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESN’T WORK.”

—Eric Larson, Downtown Detroit Partnership

In Nashville, which hosts its own grand prix race and other large

want to restore it to its original look as much as possible, though Dillon said he’s a little intimidated by the size of the project.

“I think there’s going to be a very large learning curve,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Matt O’Laughlin, a Realtor with Max Broock Detroit who represented the couple, said they are continuing to negotiate with Golden over anoth er half-acre parcel she continues to own, the possible purchase of histor ic tax credits she received for the ren ovation as well as a historic stove and wrought iron fence she purchased for the house. O’Laughlin said he ex pected the mansion to be “one of the most amazing houses in the city” when Dillon and Purdon are done with it.

“It’s going to be a fun house for them to work on,” he said. “It’s a pret ty awesome property, that’s for sure.”

e couple originally o ered $1.5 million, but an appraisal came back

having 40 or 50 million bucks in the bank by the time she’s all done. at allowed her to blitz the beginning of the general election. at was some thing that Tudor Dixon could never re cover from.”

Whitmer won by 468,000 votes, or 10.5 percentage points, in uno cial re turns. at margin boosted her party’s legislative candidates and proved di sastrous for the GOP.

A better-resourced Republican gu bernatorial nominee could have been on TV in the crucial months of August and September, said Republican strat egist John Yob of Strategic National.

“ ese days, voters make their deci sions much earlier than they did a de cade ago, partially because of early vot ing but also because of the intensity of politics these days — in amed by so cial media and by diversi cation of media consumption,” he said.

Contact: david.eggert@crain.com; (313) 446-1654; @DavidEggert00

downtown area to the other side of the Cumberland River, said Larson, who benchmarked it.

If Detroit could see that kind of

at $1.2 million and so negotiations continued, said John Apap, president of Apap Realty Group at Signature Sotheby’s International Realty, who represented the lien-holder, Soaring Pine Capital. at group bought the house at auction last year for $937,000.

Apap said the home, which had been zoned commercial and previ ously housed a hair salon, attorneys and other businesses, had been re zoned as a residence. He said Golden helped Dillon and Purdon see the possibilities of their purchase, even though she had lost the house.

“She loved the house and wanted to make sure there was someone to take care of it and restore it,” Apap said. “It made the buyers feel much more comfortable.”

Purdon said Golden was meticu lous and had done a fantastic job with her work.

“I don’t think I would want to buy a historic home from anyone else,” she

activity and demand, “that could be pretty telling as to how, on a yearround basis, an investment in that type of infrastructure could bene t,” he said.

e 2023 Detroit Grand Prix and ancillary activity is expected to at tract more than 2 million people to the downtown area, he said. at compares to a couple hundred thou sand going to Belle Isle for the event and an unknown number visiting the downtown area during previous years.

Where the smaller bridges will go has yet to be determined. DDP is working with the business commu nity, the mayor and city to make sure those are placed in the most opportune locations, Larson said.

In addition to the bridges, DDP plans to make a signi cant invest ment in new barriers. With more than half of the Grand Prix race course open to the public, security and safety are key considerations, he said.

“Creating safe spaces for people to actually get up close to the event requires additional barricading and fencing,” Larson said.

e bridges and extra infrastruc ture could be used for other events, such as the NFL draft, which the city will host on April 14, 2024, at Cam pus Martius, as well as the revamped Detroit auto show as it expands to new outdoor activities.

Contact: swelch@crain.com; (313) 446-1694; @SherriWelch

said.

Faiz Simon, the managing partner of Simon Group Holdings, said the loan to Golden had been made seven years ago and the fund that had orig inally lent her the money had closed. He said Golden ran out of money to complete her vision for the property, but he expects the nished home to be a “jewel” for the city of Detroit. e company will net $1.1 million in the sale, he said.

Apap said he sees the completed renovation as an opportunity for the entire neighborhood.

“To me, that’s the agship,” he said. “It can really make a di erence in the long run.”

Dillon said he feels a responsibility to the house and the city of Detroit, having purchased a piece of history.

“In a sense, it’s kind of part of the American Dream,” he said.

Contact: arielle.kass@crain.com; (313) 446-6774; @ArielleKassCDB

A rendering of a temporary pedestrian bridge over Je ferson Avenue in Detroit. DETROIT GRAND PRIX

“(WE)

“I think we’ll de nitely see some of the issues that are big on their cam paign literature, whether that’s right to work or others,” said Jim Holcomb, president and CEO of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, noting that he’s con dent his organization can work with the new Democratic ma jority on policy issues.

“We’re gonna be practical problem solvers with whoever is in o ce. My gut is I don’t think (the Democratic) agenda is going to be as dramatic at the beginning,” Holcomb said. “I think you’re going to have people g uring out exactly what they want to do.”

But it’s still early — the proverbial honeymoon phase when business leaders and others publicly express optimism about working with an in coming group of lawmakers.

Battles between the business com munity and the Democratic Legisla ture and governor are inevitable, but where and when they happen is to be determined.

A speci c legislative agenda has yet to be set; House and Senate com mittee chairs are expected to be named in the coming months after leadership positions were set on ursday, and that will help shape the contours of the policies emerging out of Lansing moving forward, Hol comb said.

Here are some of the issues that lo cal industry leaders expect — and hope to see — coming out of Lansing in the coming two years:

‘Revenge issues’

Democrats’ core constituencies, like organized labor, will want to re peal the Republican-enacted rightto-work laws.

“ ere’s pent-up demand for al most payback or revenge issues that they feel they got burned on by the all-Republican majority and with the Snyder administration in particular,” said Mark Burton, a Honigman LLP attorney and former top aide to Whit mer. “But I think their majority is more precarious if they put their fo cus on those larger kind of special-in terest issues as opposed to kind of bread-and-butter issues that are go ing to a ect people’s child care, edu cation and health care.”

Democrats had been optimistic about winning the Senate but less so the House.

“Everybody’s waking up saying, ‘Oh wow, this is entirely di erent playing eld than we thought we had,’” Burton said.

It is unclear, for example, the extent to which Democrats may try to rewrite the tax code. Whitmer has long pro posed repealing the taxation of retire ment income and restoring a tax cred it for lower-wage workers. In 2019, she unsuccessfully proposed raising taxes on some businesses to o set undoing the “retirement tax.” She wanted to tax 150,000 corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies at the equivalent of the 6 percent corporate rate instead of the 4.25 percent per sonal rate. e state “pass-through” tax would have been deductible for federal tax purposes.

Beyond pocketbook issues, envi ronmental protections, health care access improvements and gun-con trol/anti-violence measures could be priorities for Democrats.

Commercial real estate

e a ordable housing crisis and

economic development is front of mind for many in the industry, and leaders hope lawmakers will tackle those issues.

Among the options suggested by industry experts: An expansion of the state’s historic preservation tax cred it, which was reinstated with limited funding two years ago, and adoption of a local a ordable housing tax cred it like other states have done to sup plement Low-Income Housing Tax Credit dollars doled out from the fed eral government to the states.

Financing projects in Detroit and many other cities remains a chal lenge as construction costs rise but commercial and residential rents ar en’t increasing at the same rates, cre ating nancing gaps that developers struggle to ll.

“I’m hopeful there is an acknowl edgement of how di cult it still is to get deals done for the types of proj ects local governments keep de manding: A ordable and workforce housing, all electric sustainable de velopments and buildings, and mixed-use developments,” said Luke Bonner, the economic development adviser for the city of Sterling Heights and CEO of Ann Arbor-based Bonner Advisory Group. “ ese projects out side of wealthy communities need major incentives.”

J. Adam Rothstein, co-chair of De troit-based law rm Honigman LLP’s real estate department, said in an email that it’s “probably too early to predict e ects on commercial real es tate but I’d suspect we will see some movement in the incentives area and some movement on infrastructure

funding/improvements” such as roads, bridges, dams and pipelines.

Residential real estate

Housing policy often has biparti san support, and so some experts think the legislative changes will have a minimal impact on what hap pens to their priorities.

Bob Filka, CEO of the Home Build ers Association of Michigan, said in an email that a vote on some housing bills was scheduled prior to the election and could take place this week. Other proposals, he said, might move more rapidly since it’s no longer “stuck in some election-year jockeying.”

He said because the Democratic majorities in the two chambers will remain tight next year, it could mean more across-the-aisle cooperation than the state is used to.

“Housing is one of those issues that shouldn’t get stuck in partisan politics, and we remain upbeat about working with our strong bipartisan coalition to bring more housing solu tions forward,” he said.

e Michigan Realtors had a simi lar sentiment.

“I don’t know that it means a whole lot of di erence,” said Brad Ward, the vice president of public policy and legal a airs for the group. “It’s de nitely an issue that crosses both sides of the aisle.”

He noted that the supplemental budget passed in late September in cluded almost $1 billion for housing. But he did say some stalled tax credit legislation might get new life with new lawmakers taking o ce.

ere is some optimism that a Democratic government could move to make it harder to evict renters and foreclose on homeowners.

Terance Bowers, the president-elect of the Detroit Association of Realtors, said he thinks legislators would be in clined to give people more time to stay in their homes. He also expects more of an e ort to go toward a ordable housing, and less regulation of some housing programs.

“We’re in a housing crisis right now,” Bowers said. “We de nitely will see a lot more money.”

Forrest Wall, CEO of the Home Builders Association of Southeastern Michigan, said he thinks housing at tainability and workforce development for the building trades will be priorities of the Democratic-run government. But he emphasized the necessity of co operation regardless of party.

“Both parties are going to need to work together for meaningful re sults,” he said. “My biggest concern is that partisanship gets in the way.”

Health care

Voters codi ed abortion access into the state constitution Tuesday night, which likely comes as a relief for many local hospitals.

“Now that the state has spoken and that’s a constitutional right to be agreed upon, we’ll do what we always do and that’s care for our patients,” said Marc Corriveau, vice president and chief government relations o cer for Henry Ford Health. “From our standpoint now, there’s nothing dif ferent from (Tuesday). We will con tinue doing what we do.”

From a future policy standpoint, the ending of election season may mean the Legislature moves to try to solve the current mental health crisis in the state. However, the outcome of the election isn’t likely to have much e ect, Corriveau said.

“As Democrats take over both chambers, leadership and chairman ships, I don’t see a tremendous amount of di erence occurring,” he said. “We’re all concerned about mental heath and the cost of pre scription drugs. ere is agreement on both sides of the aisle that those problems need to be addressed.”

Democrats have allocated budget and education spending to address mental health in schools, and Re publicans have also submitted legis lation to increase mental health

funding and expansion of available hospital beds.

Republican Senate Majority Lead er Mike Shirkey and Rep. Mary Whit eford, an Allegan County Republi can, have submitted bills to change how mental health services are fund ed in the state. Neither has really re ceived bipartisan support.

Manufacturing

e strong showing by Michigan Democrats in Tuesday’s election is a win for the “clean energy economy” and for automakers and electric vehi cle battery makers, said Tom Lyon, pro fessor of business economics and pub lic policy at the University of Michigan.

“Gov. Whitmer has been very sup portive of the clean energy transition, and she’s helped work to bring new companies and new manufacturing facilities to the state,” Lyon said. “So, I think this is a referendum on those policies to some extent, and I think we’ll see more of them.

e election results have so far not brought the same level of chaos as the last major election, and stability is good for business, Lyon added.

“ ey don’t want chaos,” he said. “ ey want predictable policy. We’ve been hearing a lot of businesses talking about support for democracy since January 6. I think this gives them a little more breathing room on that.”

Small businesses

e Small Business Association of Michigan is ready to work with the incoming Legislature on pro-small business policies, its leader said.

SBAM President and CEO Brian Calley in a statement called Michi gan’s small businesses a driver of the state economy. Calley said his orga nization would continue its biparti san e orts to support and strengthen small businesses in Michigan.

“Small businesses need skilled people to thrive,” Calley said. “People need communities that are growing and present opportunities to them. And communities need small busi nesses to thrive. SBAM is committed to working with elected o cials on both sides of the aisle to advance pol icies that unleash the potential of Michigan’s small businesses.”

e Michigan Retailers Associa tion said it is hopeful the new leader ship understands what its members have gone through in recent years.

“Michigan’s retail stores have faced a hard several years of closures, in ation and shortages, as well as (problems) nding sta to help them keep their businesses open,” MRA Vice President of Communications and Marketing Andrea Bitely said Wednesday. “We have positive rela tionships with the assumed new Democratic leadership, and we look forward to working with them to un derstand their goals, and make sure they understand the challenges our members have and continue to face.”

Financial services

ose in the nancial services sec tor see little changing — at least in the short term — as Democrats take full control in Lansing for the rst time in decades.

Executives at statewide business groups representing bankers, as well as the venture capital and startup com munity, say their work is nonpartisan in nature, and long-standing relation ships with lawmakers will carry on, re gardless of which party is in power.

Ara Topouzian, executive director of the Michigan Venture Capital As sociation, noted that the administra

Union protesters furiously opposed the Republican-backed passage of the right-to-work law in 2012. Some Democrats have said the part could seek to overturn the law now that they control the Legislature. | AP

The Capitol hasn’t been controlled by Democrats since the 1980s. GETTY IMAGES

tion of Whitmer

Gov. Garlin Gilchrist — a former software devel oper who worked at Microsoft Corp. — has been a strong supporter of the state’s entrepreneurial and venture capital community.

Topouzian, whose organization does not endorse or nancially sup port candidates, said he expects that support to continue in Whitmer and Gilchrist’s second term, and is hopeful that the state Legislature might ramp up funding for startup initiatives.

e MVCA director pointed to the rst round of State Small Business Credit Initiative 2.0 funding from the U.S. Department of Treasury, which was deployed by the state in August and included $75 million for capital to early-stage, technology-based businesses.

at funding was a big deal for the state’s entrepreneurial community, said Topouzian, but more is needed. “ ere are more opportunities in Michigan than there are funding sources,” he said.

Bankers, meanwhile, are cogni zant of the changes in Lansing, but point out that more of their policy work happens at the federal level. Work at the state level is more fo cused on meeting and “educating” lawmakers, according to executives.

Rann Paynter, CEO of the Michi gan Bankers Association, said his or ganization remains hopeful that Congress will pass the long-stalled SAFE Banking Act, which would open up cannabis businesses to fed erally regulated banking services.

Michael Tierney, CEO of the Com munity Bankers Association of Michi gan, said his trade group that rep resents many of the state’s smaller banks worked closely with Democratic legislative leaders on ensuring that employers were not legally liable for essential employees getting sick on the job during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As long as the new Democratic stronghold on Michigan government remains “focused on the best interest of the Michigan economy, we’ll be ne,” said Tierney.

One area he pointed to that could see improvement under Democratic control is housing, which he said re mains scarce in many parts of the state where a lack of reliable and af fordable options hinders growth.

Democrats, Tierney said, “might be able to move forward,” that issue. “I just think it’s been a higher priority for them.”

Both Tierney and Paynter said they’d welcome the opportunity to weigh in on members of the state House and Senate nancial services committees.

Detroit, Michigan investment

Whitmer’s re-election and the pas sage of Proposal 1, which will enable elected o cials to serve for up to 12 years in the House and/or Senate, bodes well for investment in the state and in Detroit, said Eric Larson, CEO of the Downtown Detroit Partnership.

“One of the best things for us in the downtown is consistency, consisten cy of leadership,” Larson said.

“Obviously, it has to be quality leadership, but … people like to in vest in places that they know. ey may not always agree, but they like to know what they’re investing in.”

Having another four years of something that is known “bodes well for us in the downtown, and I would expect will bode well for us as a state,” he said.

David Eggert, Dustin Walsh, Sherri Welch, Arielle Kass, Jay Davis, Kurt Nagl and Nick Manes contributed.

From

autonomous driving further into uncertainty. But that does not mean AV work has stalled, said Reuben Sarkar, president and CEO of the American Center for Mobility near Ypsilanti, the state’s public-private nerve center for AV testing.

“In the venture community, you might see an autonomous winter where one decision not to invest in Argo leads to other companies be ing more skeptical,” Sarkar said. “But in almost every innovation cy cle I’ve seen, you have a urry of new companies, you have lots of new activity out there, and eventu ally there’s a consolidation.”

In the past decade, investors have poured about $330 billion into 2,000 mobility companies, with two-thirds directed at AV technolo gy and smart mobility, according to McKinsey & Co. e driverless car future hasn’t panned out, but those watching closely caught on early that the splashy announcements and gran diose projects were a fantasy, said Hayder Radha, director of the Con nected & Autonomous Networked Vehicles for Active Safety depart ment at Michigan State University.

“Back in 2017, there was a lot of enthusiasm for AV technology, and there was a big rush from many of the major players, obviously from the Big ree, speci cally Ford and GM,” Radha said. “I think after awhile, the reality really started to set in, that we are really not that close to developing truly self-driv ing, safe cars within this short time.”

e reality has been challenging to reckon with in Michigan, the country’s disputed AV tech capital alongside Silicon Valley. However, the work done by the private and public sectors, and the millions of dollars invested by the state into AV-related projects, has not been in vain, said Trevor Pawl, the state’s chief mobility o cer.

“I’m not going to say it’s a sur prise where we’re at,” Pawl said. “Complex problems defy simple solutions, and autonomous driving is one of the hardest challenges that you can face in the world today.”

e concept of fully driverless cars captures all the attention, but that’s no longer fueling AV tech de velopment, Pawl said.

Companies have shifted away from the cash-burning moonshot of full autonomy to making incremen tal improvements to advanced driv er-assistance systems. Features such as hands-free driving on select freeways, lane centering and adap tive cruise control have been de ployed by Tesla, GM, Ford and oth er automakers.

“I would say that much of the in novation and real-world deploy ment has shifted modes,” Pawl said. “ e other change is it’s gone fea ture by feature versus full Level 5 based autonomy.”

Levels of automation

Most of the action in AV tech is now happening at Levels 1-3, and it’s happening in the shadow of electri cation, which has become the industry’s biggest priority. e shift has forced companies and the state to rethink their approach to advancing mobility.

e American Center for Mobili ty is a prime example. Sarkar took over in 2020, when it was becoming clearer that driverless cars weren’t

Levels of automation

The industry recognizes six levels of driving automation:

` Level 0: no automation

` Level 1: driver assistance

` Level 2: partial automation

` Level 3: conditional automation

` Level 4: high automation

` Level 5: full automation

SOURCE: SAE INTERNATIONAL

going mainstream anytime soon. His mission has been to make sure the center — pumped with more than $200 million by the state and founding investors, including Ford, Toyota, Hyundai and Visteon since it opened in 2018 — doesn’t turn into a boondoggle.

at’s meant big changes to its business case. Now that automak ers have hit the brakes on full au tonomy, most testing done on the track is for driver assistance fea tures, Sarkar said. Additionally, the center is broadening its o erings to meet changing industry demands, including electric vehicle charger testing and hydrogen fueling, which is gaining traction in the clean en ergy race.

“ e Argo AI announcement, I don’t think that’s the tipping point where things are now going to change,” Sarkar said. “I think that’s the result of just a repositioning of where people are putting their dol lars.”

Reilly Brennan, founding partner at San Francisco-based Trucks Ven ture Capital, said Argo’s rise and fall exempli es the ckle nature of the business.

“We’ve probably made more in vestments in (AV companies) than just about anybody, which proba bly means I’ve made more mistakes than anybody,” Brennan said.

Around 30 percent of Trucks’ $70 million seed-stage fund is in AV companies. It’s found some win ners — Aptiv’s $450 million acquisi tion of NuTonomy was a windfall for investors, and John Deere’s $250 million acquisition of Bear Flag Ro botics was a lucrative exit. It has also had losers, including Starsky Robotics, which sputtered out in 2019.

Include technology that assists in the driving process, but still requires a driver to operate a vehicle and make judgments.

Include arti cial intelligence technology that vehicles use to intervene, make decisions and control operation.

e way Brennan sees it, AV tech development will go on after Argo, and investors will continue to put their money on the next big thing, as they always have.

“ e dream that Mark Fields sketched out when he was CEO of Ford, I don’t think that happened as he described it, but that’s totally ne because our vision of what’s ac tually going to happen with tech nology is virtually always wrong,” Brennan said.

Ford’s decision to cut o Argo does not mean the company is backing away from AV technology, MSU’s Radha said. In fact, the auto maker said it plans to absorb some impacted employees. Automakers cannot a ord to not continue in vesting in AV tech and driver safety, Sarkar added.

Ford is a lead investor in Wash ington, D.C.-based Cavnue LLC, which aims to develop the rst con nected and autonomous vehicle corridor on I-94. Earlier this year, the startup closed a Series A round of $130 million.

Mark de la Vergne, vice president of project development for Cavnue, said he doesn’t see investor interest waning — just shifting.

“We’ve expanded our scope as a company to di erent use cases around autonomous and automat ed technologies,” he said. “We’re obviously still very bullish on what folks are doing at these companies and the gains that they’re making.”

Cavnue, which focuses on Level 2-4 autonomy with communication between the car and infrastructure, will launch the pilot corridor with MDOT in 2023 or 2024, de la Vergne said.

Other AV startups are also mak ing progress in the pursuit of full

autonomy. Waymo, backed by Goo gle and Magna, recently announced that it will expand its robotaxi o er ings in the Phoenix area. e com pany operates a factory in Detroit where it up ts vehicles including the Chrysler Paci ca, Jaguar I-PACE and Class 8 trucks. Waymo has worked on hundreds of vehicles in Detroit and brought more than 100 jobs to Michigan, according to a spokesperson.

Meanwhile, Ann Arbor-based May Mobility, which closed a $111 million Series C round this year, said it is aiming to launch fully au tonomous shuttles by next year af ter running tests in Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and elsewhere in the U.S. and Japan.

at might suggest that driver less cars are closer to being a reali ty, but experts say it will be at least another ve years before Level 4 AVs are deployed widely. e pro jection sounds a lot like projections ve years ago.

While it seems AVs are inde nite ly stuck on the cusp of a break through, Pawl said he expects it to follow a trajectory similar to EVs.

“ ere was also a lull in EV tech nology, and look at where we are today,” he said. “It was sort of a dark side of the mood period. Everyone knew we were going to go to electric but there needed to be some work done behind the curtains. I think AVs are sort of entering now into that natural next stage.”

Whereas EVs are positioned as a solution to global warming, AVs are the answer to solving tra c deaths, Pawl said. Fatalities on Michigan roadways hit a 16-year high in 2021 at 1,131, according to the state. More than 10,000 people have died in crashes in the past 10 years.

For that reason, Pawl doesn’t think the pursuit of fully driverless cars will stall out.

“To me the step isn’t necessary a groundbreaking technology that’s introduced as much as it is a sym phony of di erent smart infrastruc ture technologies, autonomous fea tures, that begin to move cities and states toward zero fatalities,” he said.

Contact: knagl@crain.com; (313) 446-0337; @kurt_nagl

and Lt.

Ford Motor Co. had high hopes for its Argo AI collaboration when they tested the driverless Ford Fusion Hybrid third-generation test vehicle in Detroit in 2019. FORD MOTOR CO

DDF President Ray Waters on keys to success for entrepreneurs

Detroit Development Fund President Ray Waters has led the nonpro t since its inception 20 years ago, after owning three businesses, serving as president of mezzanine venture fund Horizon Bidco and as managing partner of BBC Ventures. He currently serves on the Advisory Council on Small Business for the Federal Reserve of Chicago and works as managing director of Detroit Community Loan Fund, a community development nancial institution and low-pro t limited liability company created by DDF and Invest Detroit. DDF provides loans to small businesses in Detroit. This year, the organization issued 60 loans averaging $55,000 each. DDF has also partnered with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to create the Entrepreneurs of Color Fund to provide people of color and businesses that primarily hire people of color capital for expansion, equipment, short-term cash ow needs and contractor lines of credit.

BY | MINNAH ARSHAD

` What need does DDF ll that banks do not in Detroit?

Banks aren’t able to do the types of loans that we do because they’re highly regulated. So we ll that need for small companies here in the city who aren’t yet able or ready to get their bank loans, and then as we grow these companies, our goal is to get them to the point where they can go to a bank and get a loan.

What many banks do, like JPMorgan Chase, Fifth Third and PNC, is provide us with di erent types of operating grants so that we can do the work to help those companies grow so that they can move up the ladder and become bankable.

` What has it been like working in nonpro t the last 20 years and how does it compare to working in forpro t companies before that?

I wasn’t used to working in the nonpro t world, as you might imagine, and in the nonpro t world, we rely on a lot of support from grants and from foundations to do the work, because the interest we make o our loans would not pay for all our expenses here, and that was a new experience for me. But we’ve had some incredible support here from foundations who appreciated the work we were doing in Detroit and wanted to help DDF grow through its potential.

And it’s really not about us. It’s what small companies have been able to do and how they’ve grown and how many jobs they’ve added for Detroit residents.

In the for-pro t world, it was about our sales, making sure our sales grew and that we grew our company.

But in the end, it’s the same, and by that I mean it’s all about people. You hire good people, you treat them well, you pay them well and you bring them in as a team, and that’s how I’ve been able to do it, is hire good people and bring forward and let them do their job. It’s how you build and direct your team without pounding on the table — you don’t have to do that. I believe you just work with people and treat them as people, and they’ll end up working well.

` What would you caution new entrepreneurs against?

I would caution them against starting without doing serious market

research. Understanding the market, understanding who your customers are and making sure that whatever product they have that there’s a market out there for it. So many people have a great idea and they just run 7,000 miles straightforward and then nd out that they’re hitting a market problem. So I think it’s the planning of a business that is really a critical piece.

But I think the most important thing that we see: You have to have a passion and a determination, and if you don’t have that, you’re going to have trouble, because every small business and every business I’ve run has run into a wall, and if you don’t have that passion, drive and determination, it’s going to back you up and you’re going to back away.

` What do you see for the future of business in Detroit?

I think obviously with bankruptcy and the challenges the city has had, it really slowed down the growth of business here in the city, particularly startup companies, and then of course the COVID situation hit pretty badly with a lot of small companies.

But we’re starting to see growth in startup companies in a variety of areas, and we think with the program we have and the programs the city has, we’re seeing more neighborhood stabilization. It’s not anywhere near where we want it to be, but we’re starting to see more neighborhood stabilization and then putting small businesses in those neighborhoods, so that people that work here can walk to work. So, we see it happening little by little. The businesses in our pipeline have shown some really

nice growth this last year.

` What’s ahead for you and DDF? What we hope is ahead for us is doubling the amount of companies in the next ve years that we’re able to work with, and creating the type of energy here in Detroit for those companies where they can add substantial amount of new jobs for Detroit residents.

And at the same time as we grow, be able to nd solid support from various funders who’ll help us as a nonpro t run the operation part of it. We’re not large enough in our interest to be self-su cient yet, but we want to grow the loans outstanding, so that we can become more self-su cient and don’t rely so much on grants.

We think that our Entrepreneurs of Color Fund will surpass $18 million by the end of the year, and I hope that it’ll be $25 million in loans by the end of next year.

` What was your dream job as a child?

I wanted to be a football player. That never worked out very well for me … I ended up playing football at the University of Montana, broke my back and ended my football career. So, that was what I wanted to do but things don’t always work out the way you want.

But my second dream job, funny how I remember this, I wanted to run one of the machines at Disney World, like the Ferris wheel or the merry-go-round. And that sounds kind of crazy, but I didn’t have any big plans of being presidents of companies or starting companies at that time.

RUMBLINGS

Mary Kramer inducted into Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame

LONGTIME CRAIN’S Detroit Business publisher and Detroit Homecoming co-founder Mary Kramer was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame on Wednesday evening along with four other women.

is year’s inductees also included: ` Mary Locke Petermann, a cellular biochemist best known for her key role in discoveries about cells and how they synthesize protein.

` Esther Gordy Edwards, Motown Records executive and sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy who also helmed the Motown Museum for decades.

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troit, Chicago, New York and Cleveland, and now works on special projects for parent company Crain Communications Inc. She recently launched a new brand, Crain Currency, which o ers news and insight for family o ces.

Kramer is a former board member at Grand Valley State University, serves on the board of the Skillman Foundation and was the rst woman elected president of the Detroit Athletic Club.

Reprints: Laura Picariello (732) 723-0569 or lpicariello@crain.com

Crain’s

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Danielle Camille Woods, a Detroit police o cer who was the department’s rst liaison to the LGBTQ community.

` Carol Sue Hutchins, University of Michigan softball coach who is the winningest coach in any sport in UM

history. Her team won a national championship in 2005.

Kramer has served as editor, associate publisher, publisher and group publisher at Crain’s Detroit Business starting in 1989. She helped create

and has directed the Detroit Homecoming Detroit expats event since 2013.

She was named group publisher for Crain’s city brands in 2017, responsible for business news brands in De-

e Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame is operated by Michigan Women Forward, a certi ed community development nancial institution that works to expand economic opportunity for women and entrepreneurs of color, empower the next generation and celebrate the accomplishments of Michigan women.

Mary Kramer at Detroit Homecoming. | NIC ANTAYA/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Ray Waters is president of Detroit Development Fund

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