THE CONVERSATION Gerry Brisson, president and CEO of Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan.
Entrepreneurship: Auburn Hills-based AutoPets automates the litterbox. PAGE 6
PAGE 22
CRAINSDETROIT.COM I DECEMBER 9, 2019
CRAIN’S MICHIGAN BUSINESS | MONROE
PORTS IN A STORM
MORE MONROE Historic city enjoys a downtown revival. PAGE 11 Farm-to-table flourishes in a former Big Boy. PAGE 11 From oil shop worker to IT entrepreneur. PAGE 12 Laser-welded parts supplier goes global. PAGE 15
Customs has 2 sets of rules that mean big steel shipping containers can’t flow through Michigan ports. So they go to Ohio instead.
More stories online.
CRAINSDETROIT.COM
Flags fly over the Port of Monroe.
RETAIL
Pet Supplies Plus plots expansion as it passes $1B sales mark Retailer rides pet parents’ penchant to spend on fancier food, aims to sign up existing stores as franchisees BY ANNALISE FRANK
Livonia-based pet retailer Pet Supplies Plus is ramping up ambitious expansion plans as it passes $1 billion in annual sales. Pet Supplies Plus, whose pedigree goes back to 1988 and is approaching 500 stores, sees local ownership and serving community as its tandem tickets to more than $1 billion in sales this year. It is benefiting
from a booming industry as pet parents dole out more and more cash for their furry, feathered and scaly companions. It’s also a retail success story in a region that has few headquarters for major chain retailers and a data point for the notion that bricks-and-mortar is far from dead. The chain plans to open 50-70 more a year for the next several years. The current pipeline is 150. Right
NEWSPAPER
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“WE HAVE A LOT OF REALLY GOOD BEHIND-THE-SCENES PROCESSES THAT MAKE IT EASY TO RUN A PET STORE.” — Chris Rowland, Pet Supplies Plus CEO
now 55 percent of its stores are franchised, but for new locations moving forward, CEO Chris Rowland sees
that ratio tipping to about 90 percent franchised. Part of its expansion strategy tested over the last couple of years is converting small businesses into franchisees. The first test case, an 8-year-old store in Pennsylvania, saw sales rise 25 percent after the conversion. Another agreement is in-process with a yet-to-be-named six-store chain in upstate New York. “It became very obvious to us that
with our systems ... we have a lot of really good behind-the-scenes processes that make it easy to run a pet store,” Rowland said. “If we can help a local independent that’s been in the local market in 10-20 years but is struggling because of e-commerce and a more competitive market, can’t keep up with tech ... it became almost a no-brainer for us.” See PET STORES on Page 20
Report on region’s economic growth Sore spots: employment, education, exports. Highlights: reducing poverty, income growth. PAGE 5
PORT OF MONROE
STORY, PAGE 10
NEW IN ROYAL OAK
THE WEEK IN REVIEW, WITH AN EYE ON WHAT’S NEXT
Two firsts in Oakland County
BUDGET BILLS WOULD RESTORE SOME VETOED FUNDS THE NEWS: The Republican-led Legislature passed bills that would restore more than half of the proposed spending vetoed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer two months ago, a signal that a budget impasse that began over how to fix Michigan’s roads and turned into a fight about gubernatorial powers may be finally be coming to an end, The Associated Press reported. Legislation that would undo about three dozen of the 147 line-item vetoes, or roughly $574 million of $947 million that was nixed. WHY IT MATTERS: The vetoes affected everything from rural hospitals to local sheriff ’s departments to nonprofit-delivered human and social services. The spending bills do not address her largest single veto and the one directly related to the roads — a GOP-proposed $375 million shift in general funds to the $5 billion transportation budget.
CO-WORKING SPACE PLANNED IN ILITCH BUILDING THE NEWS: A new co-working venture is expected to open in downtown Detroit as part of a $25 million renovation of the Ilitch family-owned Women’s City Club building at 2110 Park Ave. is slated to become home to a
Spaces co-working space across 47,000 square feet, Olympia Development of Michigan said. Spaces is a subsidiary of IWG plc, one of the world’s largest co-working space companies, based in Switzerland. WHY IT MATTERS: It’s another step in a long expansion of co-working space in Southeast Michigan that includes WeWork, Bamboo Detroit, Ponyride, TechTown and many others. It also portends renovation of an Ilitch owned-building. The family has been criticized for the slow pace of redevelopment of its holdings.
$60M BOULEVARD COMPLEX OPENS IN NEW CENTER THE NEWS: Detroit-based developer The Platform celebrated opening a $60 million development it calls the first new residential construction of its size in the New Center neighborhood in three decades. Peter Cummings, executive chairman and CEO of The Platform, and Mayor Mike Duggan attended an unveiling of the 356,000-square-foot development with a mix of 231 apartments. WHY IT MATTERS: It was the first major apartment project that The Platform has built in Detroit and marks progress in New Center, where The Platform has driven development north of the downtown and Midtown cores.
2 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | DECEMBER 9, 2019
The Beaumont Healthled Woodward Corners development at 13 Mile Road and Woodward saw news from two major tenants last week that will offer up a couple of firsts for Oakland County. A smaller-format grocery store owned by Meijer Inc. to be called Woodward Corner Market set an opening date of Jan. 29. It would be the Walker-based retailer’s first small-format store in metro Detroit. Bucharest Grill will open its first restaurant In addition, the Bucha- outside Detroit, a carry-out only location in rest Grill shawarma chain Royal Oak. | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO announced it will open its first outpost outside the city of Detroit in the Royal Oak retail development. It would be the sixth location for Bucharest and its first location to be carry-out only. Bucharest owner Bogdan Tarasov has told Crain’s he intends to expand one restaurant by one and “see how much I can handle.”
HHS CHIEF OUTLINES NEW MENTAL-HEALTH PLAN THE NEWS: In a shift away from the controversial Section 298 proposal for integrating physical and behavioral health, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon has called for creating “specialty integrated plans” to oversee care for people with significant behavioral health issues. Gordon gave an
outline of the broader concepts before a legislative committee and said he did not expect to see final implementation of the proposal before 2022. WHY IT MATTERS: Controversy has dogged a push started under Gov. Rick Snyder to integrate Medicaid physical and behavioral health management under private managed-care plans, a shift away from the current public mental health system.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
NEED TO KNOW
MAY MOBILITY GETS $50M FUNDING ROUND THE NEWS: May Mobility, a self-driving shuttle company based in Ann Arbor, has raised $50 million in its latest round of financing with a substantial chunk coming from one of the world’s biggest automakers. Toyota Motor Corp. was the largest investor in the Series B round, Automotive News reported. WHY IT MATTERS: Beyond its autonomous-driving technology, one factor attracting investment is May Mobility’s business model, which focuses on first-mile-last-mile links for commuters near urban cores, a key issue in America’s cities. May’s pilot projects include Detroit and Grand Rapids.
CLARIFICATION The Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation made a $250,000 grant to Area Agency on Aging 1-B with funding from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation. A story in the Dec. 2 issue imprecisely reported the grant.
NONPROFITS
HEALTH CARE
Hope Network, one of Michigan’s biggest nonprofits, expands to east side of state
Beaumont lands one of largest gifts in its history
BY SHERRI WELCH
Grand Rapids-based Hope Network, one of the state’s largest nonprofits, has acquired St. Clair Shores-based Homes of Opportunity Inc. as part of a larger strategy to expand its multifaceted health and social services programs on the east side of the state. The deal comes as the statewide nonprofit is finalizing negotiations with Madonna University to open an
autism center with treatment and student training opportunities on its campus and, separately, planning another autism center in East Lansing in partnership with Michigan State University researchers. Founded 35 years ago, Homes of Opportunity Maniaci provides residential, vocational, transportation and chore services for developmentally disabled
adults in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties on a budget of just over $7 million. “I wanted to have the people I’ve served all these years and all these wonderful employees ... to do even better with a larger organization that has (more) resources,” said founder and executive director Lawrence Maniaci. Hope Network has larger medical
and clinical staffs and a stronger administrative structure, with internal training departments for current and potential employees and staff focused on recruiting caregivers, as well as more financial resources, he said. “Funding is shrinking, making it much more difficult to find caregivers,” Maniaci said. “With the level of funding we have, we’re competing with entry-level jobs in the fast food industry.” See HOPE on Page 21
REAL ESTATE
HOW THE PALACE WILL FALL
The Palace of Auburn Hills is set for demolition after 31 years in existence. | LARRY PEPLIN FOR CRAIN’S
Beams, roof to be imploded; most of rest will be reused, recycled BY KIRK PINHO
Metro Detroit is about to say goodbye to yet another abandoned sports arena. Part of the Palace of Auburn Hills will be imploded as the crescendo to its 31-year-old existence. Jeffrey Schostak, president of Schostak Development, a division of Livonia-based Schostak Bros. & Co., said Tuesday that Carleton-based Homrich Inc. demolition contractor will blow up 21 large concrete beams and the roof, likely in March, after several months of dismantling the former home of the Detroit Pistons using other equipment. “We went to multiple bidders and got different approaches from different groups. This we found to be the most efficient from a cost and timing” perspective, Schostak said. “The demolition is really just the first step of a large development. By doing it this way, we have the site development-ready for the next crop of users that will eventually occupy it.”
”THE DEMOLITION IS REALLY JUST THE FIRST STEP OF A LARGE DEVELOPMENT. BY DOING IT THIS WAY, WE HAVE THE SITE DEVELOPMENT-READY FOR THE NEXT CROP OF USERS THAT WILL EVENTUALLY OCCUPY IT.” — Jeffrey Schostak, president of Schostak Development
Schostak declined to reveal demolition and implosion costs. Steve Cohen, director of community development for Auburn Hills, said a demolition permit application has not yet been received although it expects to be “submitted and reviewed in the weeks ahead.” Mayor Kevin McDaniel said in a statement: “Our
team has met with Schostak and we stand ready to assist them in obtaining all the necessary approvals for demolition. Based on what they have presented, we expect the process to take about six months.” A joint venture between Schostak Bros. and Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores paid $22 million for the 110-acre site that includes the 22,076-seat arena that was built in 1988 for $90 million by former Pistons owner Bill Davidson. The property includes about 80 or so developable acres that are expected to be turned into office, tech, research and development and some retail space. The Palace opened Aug. 13, 1988. The Pistons played their last game at the Palace on April 10, 2017, before moving to the new Little Caesars Arena in Detroit along with the Detroit Red Wings, which began play there during the 201718 season. The Palace was also a popular concert venue, hosting acts including U2, Michael Jackson and Madonna. See PALACE on Page 21
$21M gift will support ER care, future needs BY SHERRI WELCH
Beaumont Health has landed one of its largest-ever gifts from Wallside Windows Co-President Stuart Blanck. The $21 million gift will support best-in-class emergency care at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, and other unmet needs in the future. It’s among the five largest gifts ever made to Blanck Beaumont, said Margaret Cooney Casey, chief development officer and president of the Beaumont Health Foundation, in an emailed statement. The health system plans to rename the emergency center at the Royal Oak hospital for Blanck in recognition of the gift. “I am very grateful for the wonderful care that Beaumont has provided me and my family for over 50 years,” Blanck said in an emailed statement. “I am proud to have my name associated with the phenomenal Beaumont team. Supporting education, training and program development is my way of saying thank you.” Blanck, one of the sons of the Taylor-based company’s late founder Martin Blanck and an owner of the company, said he wanted to make a major gift to Beaumont that would resonate for a long time. Beaumont Royal Oak is home to the only Level 1 trauma center in Oakland and Macomb counties, according to the health system. In 2018, Beaumont Royal Oak had 129,308 emergency room visits. It completed a three-year, $120.8 million expansion and renovation in February that nearly doubled the size of the emergency center. The hospital installed state-of-the-art technology and provided enhanced privacy and more comfortable amenities for patients and families. The center includes 73 private adult rooms, 20 semi-private rooms, 10 private rooms for behavioral health patients, 16 private pediatric rooms, four trauma care bays, a new rooftop helipad and a cafe called Beau to Go in a family lounge area. “I was very pleased that Beaumont made the investment in expanding the emergency center at Royal Oak,” Blanck said. He said he wanted his gift to be focused on supporting the emergency care physicians, nurses, technicians and other staff to ensure they “have the resources and opportunities they need to excel as caregivers, educators and researchers to ensure that bestin-class patient care is provided to the community.” Contact: swelch@crain.com; (313) 446-1694; @SherriWelch DECEMBER 9, 2019 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 3
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The owner of the building that houses the popular SheWolf Pastificio & Bar in Detroit is listing it for sale for $1.33 million. I don’t write arKirk ticles in all capital PINHO letters, but if I did, this statement would be in them: SheWolf is not closing or being sold. It’s just getting a new landlord if its building sells. An offering memorandum by the brokerage firm Fortis Net Lease in Farmington Hills also lets us peek in the oven a little bit on what the acclaimed restaurant is paying to operate in its space at 438 Selden St. west of Cass Avenue. According to the OM, the building has an annual gross income of $133,906, with SheWolf paying $33.75 per square foot for its 3,375 square feet. After $19,710 in taxes and $1,214 in insurance cost, the NOI is $92,982 per square foot, the OM says. The restaurant’s approximately seven-year lease began in June 2018 and expires in September 2025, with four five-year options included with a 10 percent rent increase during each one. The guarantor on the lease with current Detroit-based owner Ferlito Group is Ama Molto Hospitality LLC, which is registered to Timothy Ponton, one of the restaurant’s co-owners, along with Executive Chef Anthony Lombardo and Frank Arcori of Bloomfield Hills. “We’re not going anywhere, even if the building ownership changes,” Ponton said. “We put a successful project together and SheWolf, Anthony and Tim do an incredible job operating the restaurant,” Mike Ferlito, president of Ferlito Group, said. “It’s time to move on to the next project.” In addition to the SheWolf space, there is another 1,000 square feet that houses the Ferlito Group’s office, which is not for sale. The Detroit Free Press named SheWolf the third best new restaurant earlier this year, behind Albena and Marrow, both also in Detroit. SheWolf is part of Ferlito Group’s 12-unit The Selden condominium development.
A $50 per square foot office in Birmingham The Southfield office of Los Angeles-based CBRE Inc. has received the contract to list new office space in downtown Birmingham to tenants. CBRE says the 24,000 square feet in The Jeffrey redevelopment should “test the market” with rents possibly at $50 per square foot plus electricity costs. That figure certainly grabbed my attention when I first read it, but brokers said that’s a fair price for what tenants would get, and that’s where some portions of the market are headed for top of the line offices. New space generally fetches a premium, and that’s a big number that may be unprecedented locally, said Eric Banks, who is principal, board member, partner and executive director of brokerage services for Bingham Farms-based Dominion Real Estate Advisors. (The developer of The Jeffrey, however, said there was some nearby office space that leased
“WE PUT A SUCCESSFUL PROJECT TOGETHER AND SHEWOLF, ANTHONY AND TIM DO AN INCREDIBLE JOB OPERATING THE RESTAURANT.” — Mike Ferlito, president of Ferlito Group
at that rate recently, which would mean that the project isn’t necessarily a trend-setter in leasing cost arena.) But regardless, Banks said, $50 a square foot makes sense. “That said, the market has moved to a place where that may not be a ridiculous scenario for the right user,” Banks said. That could be a single user, a tech firm or high-end law or advertising agency, for example, that values the prestige of the downtown Birmingham address. “There are only two markets in metropolitan Detroit that would/ could attract the right user willing to pay (that rate), and that’s Birmingham and more recently CBD Detroit, both walkable urban environments with all the amenities that those locations offer.” AJ Weiner, managing director in
the Royal Oak office of Chicago-based brokerage JLL, said the amount of work put into the building and the end result justify $50 per square foot. “They are doing a massive renovation of an old church into a truly Class A environment throughout. It will be a beautiful space. You can’t spend all that money and not be able to return it,” Weiner said. “It’s going to be small, boutique-type tenants that want to be in Birmingham and that environment where rent isn’t the biggest consideration. That would never fly in Troy or Southfield or Auburn Hills or Dearborn.” Class A office space in downtown Birmingham has an average asking rent of $35.30 per square foot, according to a third-quarter office market report from the local office of New York City-based brokerage house Newmark Knight Frank. The central business district office market is 1.27 million square feet with a vacancy rate of 12.4 percent. (Downtown Ann Arbor isn’t too far behind in terms of Class A office asking rents at $34.42 per square foot.) “There are few opportunities like this in the Detroit market that will offer new, Class A office space in the heart of a thriving downtown setting,” Jasper Hanifi, an associate in CBRE’s Advisory & Transaction Services group, said in a press release. “This project will test rents for the entire market and will likely achieve as much as $50 a square foot.” The Jeffrey is a project by Birmingham-based development company The Surnow Co. and its president, Sam Surnow, who is converting the 1926 Church of Christ, Scientist property at 191 Chester St. into the project named after his late father, well-known Birmingham developer Jeff Surnow, who died in March 2015 when he was struck by an on-duty Hawaii police officer’s patrol vehicle while bicycling. “The quality, design, amenities and location are why it is appropriate to be at the top of the market,” Sam Surnow said. “Where deals are being done at the same rent per square foot in town, we believe that our product is another validation of the demand for premium space in Birmingham.” Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412 Twitter: @kirkpinhoCDB
ECONOMY
Report: Regional economic growth slowing, lagging nation Sore spots include employment, education, exports; but region outpacing nation on reducting poverty, income growth “WE’RE NOT AN ISLAND, SO NATIONAL POLICY DOES HAVE AN IMPACT ON THE HEALTH OF OUR ECONOMY AND INDUSTRIES.”
BY DUSTIN WALSH
Despite progress in recent years, Southeast Michigan continues to lag behind the nation in its economy, education, employment, population and other key indicators, according to the annual State of the Region report released Thursday by the Detroit Regional Chamber. “Our regional economy continues to grow ... but in many areas we lag our peers, we lag the nation,” Sandy Baruah, the chamber’s president and CEO, said in a call with reporters. Key findings include: ` The labor force participation rate of the Detroit MSA improved 0.3 percent in 2018, compared to 0.1 percent growth in the U.S. But Detroit remains the lowest among major metropolitans at 62.6 percent and below the national average of 63.3 percent. ` Private sector job growth continues to lag, with the Detroit region growing 1.4 percent in 2018, below the national average of 1.9 percent. Between 2014-2018, private sector job growth in the region was 7.7 percent, but still below the national growth rate of 8.2 percent. ` Per capita income growth for the region slowed last year at only 2.5 percent, versus the national average of 4.4 percent. However, the region outperformed the national growth rate of 17.1 percent between 2014-2018 with a growth rate of 18.2 percent. ` Residential construction permits plummeted in 2018 by 29 percent in the Detroit region, compared to 3.6 percent growth nationally. Median home values continued to grow last year at 5.1 percent, but below the national average of 5.6 percent. Since 2014, however, the region outpaced the national average and peer cities including Cleveland, Chicago and Boston. ` Population growth also slowed,
— Sandy Baruah, Detroit Regional Chamber president and CEO
The Detroit Regional Chamber’s 2019-20 State of the Region report notes that Detroit remains the most impoverished major city in the country with a poverty rate of 33.4 percent, compared to 13.1 percent nationally. | LARRY PEPLIN FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
down to 0.1 percent in 2018 compared to 0.6 percent nationally. However, millennial generation population growth exceeded the nation last year at 2.5 percent versus 0.8 percent. ` The region continues to lag behind peer cities in educational attainment, with an annual increase in those with undergraduate and graduate degrees by 1.9 percent in 2018 versus 2.7 percent nationally. Only 40.7 percent of Michigan adults hold a college degree, below the national average of 41.2 percent and below cities like Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis and Atlanta.
` Despite increasing focus education and employment in science, technology, engineering and math, the Detroit region’s job growth in STEM is behind the nation at 1.4 percent in 2018 compared to 2.1 percent nationally. However, it’s outpaced the nation since 2014 with a growth rate of 10.6 versus 9.9 percent. The state and region is also being negatively impacted by national issues, such as the White House’s various trade disputes, Baruah said. ` Foreign-direct investment in the Michigan last year dropped to the lowest level since 2013 at $1 billion
versus $2 billion in 2017. ` Exports from the Detroit region fell 3.1 percent last year to $44.1 billion, compared to a national growth of 7.7 percent.
“We’re not an island, so national policy does have an impact on the health of our economy and industries,” Baruah said. A few bright spots exist in the region’s economic prosperity. Last year, the region outpaced the nation in median household income with a 3.6 percent growth rate, rising to $60,513. Nationally, median household income rose just 2.7 percent. The poverty rate in the city of Detroit also declined by 1.1 percent last year in the region, compared to just 0.3 percent nationally. The kicker, of course, is that Detroit remains the most impoverished major city in the country with a poverty rate of 33.4 percent, compared to 13.1 percent nationally. The Detroit Regional Chamber uses its annual State of the Region report to benchmark the region’s economic progress. Contact: dwalsh@crain.com; (313) 446-6042; @dustinpwalsh
SERVICES
Parent to lead Deloitte Michigan practice
Succeeds the retiring Mark Davidoff; has been with the firm for 22 years BY DUSTIN WALSH
Deloitte last week named longtime consulting executive David Parent to head its Michigan practice. Parent, 48, succeeds Mark Davidoff, 60, as the Michigan managing partner, effective Jan. 1. Davidoff announced his retirement from Deloitte in September, leaving the consulting and accounting firm after 14 years to serve as the president and CEO of The Fisher Group LLC, which handles the financial affairs of the Max Fisher family. Parent has been with Deloitte for 22 years and currently serves as a principal with the firm’s consulting unit, Deloitte Consulting LLP, leading the workforce transformation effort in its government and public services practice. He will maintain his consulting role as well as lead Deloitte's Michigan operations. As the firm’s managing partner, Parent said he will focus the firm on targeting new business, such as in the space of mobility. “That includes autonomous vehicles, obviously, but also smart cities
“DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IS CERTAINLY PART OF OUR NATIONAL STRATEGY, BUT BEING A HISPANIC MYSELF, I EXPECT TO BRING A LOCAL PASSION.” — David Parent
and so on,” Parent said. “That’s an opportunity that’s not only in the automotive industry ... because it intersects so many different dimensions. Things like technology, cybersecurity and government.” Parent also said he plans to continue and hone the company’s focus on diversity and inclusion. Parent’s mother emigrated from Cuba in 1962 as part of Operation Peter Pan, a nongovernmental program created by the Catholic Church to bring Cuban children to the U.S. to escape the political rule of Fidel Castro. Parent’s mother later earned a doctorate and became a college professor. “Diversity and inclusion is certainly part of our national strategy, but being a Hispanic myself, I expect to bring a local passion,” Parent said. Parent earned a bachelor’s from the University of Illinois and two master’s degrees from the University of Michigan. He was appointed by former Gov. Rick Snyder to serve on the Michigan Community Service Commission. Contact: dwalsh@crain.com; (313) 446-6042; @dustinpwalsh DECEMBER 9, 2019 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 5
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Brad Baxter (right), founder of AutoPets and the Litter-Robot automatic-cleaning cat litter box, and Executive Vice President and COO Jacob Zuppke with a variety of AutoPets products. | AUTOPETS
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Visit crainsdetroit.com/cannabis 6 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | DECEMBER 9, 2019
$31M growth equity investment fuels expansion for Litter-Robot cat box maker CEO founded AutoPets as solution for litter-box woes BY ANNALISE FRANK
Auburn Hills-based AutoPets, which makes the Litter-Robot automated cat litter box, has taken more than $31 million in growth equity financing to fuel faster expansion and provide a payout to its founders. An investor group led by Chicago-based growth equity firm Pondera Holdings LLC took a 50 percent stake in the company founded by Brad Baxter and his original investor and adviser — and his father — Jim Baxter. Brad Baxter created the automatic cleaning litter box after inheriting cats from a former girlfriend, and has overseen what he calls “organic growth” without debt. Now the 20-year-old AutoPets is partnering with Pondera, which bought out Jim Baxter, a 35 percent owner. Brad said he took “some chips off the table,” declining to elaborate. But now Brad Baxter and Chief Operating Officer Jacob Zuppke own 50 percent. “There is a significant opportunity in front of the company to change the future of pet care,” Seth Barkett, a partner at Pondera Holdings, said in a news release. Pondera previously invested in Dollar Shave Club and Dash Financial, the release said. The investment in AutoPets is helping to fund marketing, hiring, operations and infrastructure. To accommodate the expected growth, AutoPets is moving shop. The company will lease a 50,000-square-foot Auburn Hills building on 8 acres — bought by Baxter for $2.25 million — to build out a new corporate campus for $800,000 to start. The current Auburn Hills headquarters is 18,000 square feet. The Litter-Robot maker is also nearly doubling manufacturing and shipping space in Juneau, Wis., from
33,000 square feet to 63,000 square feet for approximately $1.4 million. Baxter, now CEO after the financing round, is funding the Wisconsin build-out and leasing the facility back to AutoPets. The company with what it calls a “bootstrapped” approach, until now, has filled 10 new leadership, engineering and higher-up jobs in six months. Zuppke and Baxter are recruiting for a CFO, and anticipate
“I ENDED UP REALLY LIKING THESE CATS ... BUT I WAS HAVING SOME DIFFICULTY WITH THE LITTER BOX SITUATION.” — Brad Baxter
growing from around 90 employees to 130 by the end of 2020. “What we recognized was that for our next chapter, we needed a little bit more senior leadership support,” Zuppke said. “We needed to form a more professional board and professionalize the organization as we bring on more senior hires.” Bringing in financial support means AutoPets can reinvest all of its profits back into growth, Baxter said. It won’t need to be as conservative. AutoPets’ revenue has climbed from $7 million in 2015 to an expected $40 million in 2019. It expects that to accelerate in 2020, but officials said they don’t yet have a concrete projection. The pet product maker started when a relationship’s end left Baxter, a mechanical engineer by training, with two cats. “I ended up really liking these cats ... but I was having some difficulty with the litter box situation,” he said. As the Litter-Robot website puts it, Baxter “set out to never scoop again.”
The LitterMaid was already on the market, but Baxter said he felt a better solution was out there. He designed and tested the Litter-Robot, launching in 1999. His venture became profitable in 2005 and saw “steady, organic growth” through 2015, he said. Baxter brought on Zuppke as a consultant and then full time to help brand the company and launch a third generation of the product. With the investment, Zuppke becomes executive vice president and chief operating officer. He is also now a shareholder. The third-generation Litter-Robot is $500, according to its website. When a cat leaves the box, the robot allows time for the litter to clump and then starts cleaning. The spherical box rotates, separating clumps from clean litter, and sends the clumps into a carbon-filtered drawer underneath. If all goes correctly, the pet owner never scoops, just empties the drawer. As for new product plans, the manufacturer is releasing a different, yet-to-be-announced robot line early next year. Before that, AutoPets has been busy rolling out Litterbox. com, a shopping site for cat owners. Litterbox’s 130 products are either manufactured or co-designed by AutoPets. They include litter, catnip, biodegradable hemp toys, lasers, T-shirts, cleaners and cat furniture. AutoPets partners with a Wyoming ranch and Washington farm to produce its litter and organic catnip, according to a news release. It worked with the Sauder furniture brand to create cat furniture that hides the litter box from view, including a “farmhouse-style credenza.” A lot of pet companies focus on dogs, but cat parents need a go-to place for high-quality products, Zuppke and Baxter said. Contact: afrank@crain.com; (313) 446-0416; @annalise_frank
REAL ESTATE
After years of delays, Five & Main project moving forward Retail project will bring commercial anchor to hundreds of acres targeted for development at M-5/Pontiac Trail intersection BY KIRK PINHO
A Commerce Township development long in the works is moving forward as a developer has purchased more than 30 acres of land for a new lifestyle center. Birmingham-based Robert B. Aikens & Associates LLC has closed on the $4.25 million purchase of about 34 acres for the first phase of what is being referred to as the Five & Main development at M-5 and Pontiac Trail. There, the developer plans the first of two phases of retail development that in the end is anticipated to total about 500,000 square feet of lifestyle center space akin to the Village of Rochester Hills project that Aikens completed in 2002 with 375,000 square feet at the northeast corner of Adams Road and Walton Boulevard. Uses ranging from restaurants to retail and entertainment to hotel space are planned, providing an expansive commercial anchor to the hundreds of acres of land that has been assembled by the Downtown Development Authority beginning in the early 2000s for the effort. The project has been delayed several times, but those involved say construction should now begin next year on the first phase with some of the outlot development. In 2014, Aikens anticipated both phases opening by the end of 2017. “The Village of Rochester Hills, we started working it in late 1980s and opened in 2002. These are very complex transactions, and tenants are very powerful in their own minds,” Bruce Aikens, vice chairman of Robert B. Aikens & Associates, said with a chuckle. Randy Thomas, the president and CEO of Commerce Township-based Insite Commercial which worked on the deal, said the sale closed at the end of October. “He’s been working on it for almost five years and these types of developments aren’t easy,” Thomas said. “Retail is tough now, so it’s tough to aggregate the necessary tenants and get this thing financed, but it’s definitely moving in the right direction. He has a couple anchors, a high-end market and a theater in there.” Aikens declined to reveal tenants during an interview, but said that in the age of Amazon and with the rise of e-commerce, tenant makeup has gone from 60 to 70 percent apparel and other retail in a typical shopping center a few decades ago has shifted to 45 to 50 percent entertainment, such as theaters and restaurants. “The apparel/fashion component is down to 25-30 percent,” Aikens said. Ken Nisch, a retail expert who is chairman of Southfield-based JGA, a brand strategy and retail design firm, said physical retail isn’t dying. Instead, it’s adapting, although perhaps slowly. “It’s not that Amazon is killing brick-and-mortar retail, but it’s changing the dynamic into not a ‘build it and they will come’ mentality, but more, ‘How do we serve the market in different ways?’ Amazon has impacted the future more than the past, it has taken the need for that additional stores out of the market.”
A rendering shows the “walkable town center” concept developers aim to create with the Five & Main development.
Alleviating traffic tie-ups The lifestyle center is one of several components of Commerce’s effort to develop the land surrounding the M-5/Pontiac Trail intersection, which had long been a thorn in the side of township officials until Martin Parkway, a north-south extension of the federal M-5 highway, was built in 2010 as a way to alleviate some of the heavy traffic congestion in the area. Farmington Hills-based Hunter Pasteur Homes completed the Wyncliff development with 37 houses with an average sale price of $500,000 to $550,000. They are between 2,800 and 3,500 square feet. More than 300 townhomes are in the works by Farmington Hills-based M. Shapiro Real Estate Group southwest of the Hunter Pasteur site, according to Mark Stacey, director of the Commerce Township DDA. The rents are expected to be between $1,350 and $1,700 per month for twoand three-bedroom units with two bathrooms. “All underground is in, paving, cement work is done, nine basements are in and you should see those going up by spring,” Stacey said of the site immediately west of the Aikens site on the other side of Martin Parkway. Atlanta-based PulteGroup, which for decades made its headquarters in Oakland County, has also built 69 single-family homes starting at $600,000 at the northern edge of the development site. In addition, the northwest corner of Pontiac Trail and Haggerty Road is open for development in what Stacey envisions as a milestone project for the area at a key intersection. “It should be a capstone piece coming into downtown that should be exceptional,” Stacey said. “We have had lots of offers but nothing we have found acceptable.” Robert Gibbs, president of Birmingham-based planning firm Gibbs Planning Group Inc., said the lifestyle center project should flourish given that “many of the most popular retailers are seeking walkable town centers as Aikens is proposing.” “The Commerce site is an excellent location for an upscale lifestyle or walkable town center,” Gibbs said in an email. “It will provide needed goods and services for much of northwest Oakland County and will complement Twelve Oaks Mall (in Novi). Many of the mall’s visitors will combine their mall shopping with the walkable town center experience
for dining and specialty shopping, much like the Birmingham and Somerset Collection relationship.” Gibbs’ company consulted Aikens on the Village of Rochester Hills development.
Novi project delays Elsewhere in west Oakland County, Aikens is working on a mixed-use development geared toward the Asian population in Novi and other nearby communities on property just shy of 10 acres bounded by Grand River Avenue to the south, Town Center Drive to the west and 11 Mile Road to the north. Crain’s reported last year that a new market/food hall concept by One World Market would anchor the development, and across 75,000 square feet, there would be things like fitness, style, food and entertainment space. Residential and possibly office space are also part of the effort. However, that project $50 million to $60 million project has been delayed at least three times, and the Novi City Council is continuing to mull whether to give Sakura Novi LLC, an affiliate of Robert B. Aikens & Associates, a sixmonth extension until June 21, 2020 to close on the purchase of the property. The current deadline is Dec. 21. As of Dec. 5, the item was not on the council agenda for Dec. 9. Kevin Adell, the broadcast entrepreneur who is developing another 22-acre Novi site, has sent attorneys to city council meetings to impart his desire to develop the site that Aikens is working on.
| JPRA ARCHITECTS
But still, it had a heavily traveled freeway in M-5 that dead-ended at its northern terminus at Pontiac Trail, dumping traffic eastward and westward, and then on to smaller northsouth arteries so travelers could continue their northbound journey
farther into Commerce, West Bloomfield, Milford, White Lake and other communities in the area. The DDA issued a series of bonds totaling $80 million to pay for the land, Commerce Township’s $12.5 million portion for the southward extension of Martin Parkway and its contribution to the construction of a roundabout at M-5 and Pontiac Trail. The rest of the bond proceeds were used for things such as engineering, environmental surveys and purchasing other properties outside the project area. The road extension and roundabout created land that would be valuable for developers to build things like shops, residences, hotels and other uses. Now all of the work over the last 15-plus years has been materializing the last few, with an end product coming more into focus. “We are getting closer to fulfilling the DDA’s dream of having a downtown for Commerce,” Stacey said. “We are excited and things are moving forward.” Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB
You know. The Motor City has both fueled and felt the power of the Laker Effect. Many of our students not only hail from the Detroit area, but they also return there: as analysts and engineers, biochemists and health professionals, as leaders in business and leaders of communities. Support them. Support us. And see the power of what can be.
Building a downtown For years, Commerce Township wanted two things — badly: a bustling downtown-like area, and to relieve growing traffic congestion that has plagued the area. It effectively thought it could pull both off at once with a major roadway extension. First, the DDA bought 50 acres of Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority parkland and the El Dorado Country Club in 2003. Then it bought 70 acres of Dodge Park No. 5 from the Michigan Department of Transportation and several other parcels. The various land purchases, totaling 330 acres and $41.2 million, gave the township enough space to build a new library in 2005 and redevelop the former Links of Pinewood clubhouse into a new township hall in 2009.
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DECEMBER 9, 2019 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 7
PORT OF MONROE
EDITORIAL
One set of rules for shipping
A
quirk of rulemaking that could be easily fixed is costing Michigan ports millions of dollars in potential revenue and causing shippers to route cargo to other ports. The problem? The Detroit office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection enforces a rule on ships that want to load or unload large steel shipping containers to have them scanned for radiation and X-rayed. None of Michigan’s ports has the required equipment. Other offices of the agency, including those that oversee Cleveland and Chicago, don’t have any such rule, so shippers send containers through those ports. The most stark contrast, as related by Tom Henderson on Page 10, is between the ports of Monroe and Toledo, just 17 miles apart. The Monroe port lacks the required scanning equipment. So does the Toledo port, but it is governed by the Cleveland office, which imposes a different set of rules. To say this is nonsensical is an understatement. Differing rules don’t increase security. They don’t increase trade. They simply make life more difficult for shippers and logistics companies. The agency that runs the field offices argues that every port is different and each needs different rules and requirements. Much less clear is how the Monroe and Toledo ports’ security needs differ for the exact same type of cargo.
The Detroit office, observers say, believes that it’s the only office doing things correctly and that other offices should adopt the same rule. By all appearances, this is an intra-agency tempest in which the field offices have too much power and too little oversight, which has real consequences in the world outside of agency politics, for shippers, end users and Michigan’s economy. The simple, short-term solution is that the agency should tell its THE MONROE PORT LACKS THE REQUIRED field offices, at least those that govern Great Lakes shipping, to en- SCANNING EQUIPMENT. SO DOES THE force one set of rules. TOLEDO PORT, BUT IT IS GOVERNED BY THE For Michigan, it would obviously be better to adopt the less-strict CLEVELAND OFFICE, WHICH IMPOSES A rules. But even if the stricter scan- DIFFERENT SET OF RULES ning was required, at least all ports would be operating on a level playing field. In the long term, this seems like a job for Congress to sort out what the requirements really should be, and who should have the power to create them.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Nonprofits work to get entrepreneurs capital TO THE EDITOR: Thanks to Dennis Archer Jr. for raising his voice about the challenges and needs of businesses in Detroit’s neighborhoods (Page 22, Dec. 2). Those who have a voice and a platform are needed to amplify the voices who are speaking these same truths. People who are starting and growing businesses in Detroit neighborhoods need more and better access to capital. The good news, however, is that a growing group of nonprofit organizations is working to address this challenge. Detroit Development Fund (www.detroitdevelopmentfund.com), ProsperUS (www.prosperusdetroit.org), and Michigan Women Forward (https://miwf.org/) all administer programs that provide low-interest loans to new and established businesses in Detroit neighborhoods. In addition, Build Institute (www.buildinstitute.org) has partnered with Kiva, the crowd sourcing loan fund, and continues to explore other alter-
Write us: Crain’s welcomes responses from readers. Letters should be as brief as possible and may be edited for length or clarity. Send letters to Crain’s Detroit Business, 1155 Gratiot Ave, Detroit, MI 48207, or email crainsdetroit@crain.com. Please include your complete name, city from which you are writing and a phone number for fact-checking purposes. 8 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | DECEMBER 9, 2019
native business lending models. Community Wealth Fund (https://detroitcommunitywealth.org) provides support and capital to those looking to develop and grow cooperative businesses. More is needed, of course, to create equitable access to funding for people living in Detroit neighborhoods who wish to start or grow businesses. But let’s not forget the several programs and tools that are already available. Get in touch with one of the organizations above to learn how you can support their efforts, or how they can help you get your idea off the ground. Don Jones Associate director New Economy Initiative The New Economy Initiative (NEI) is a philanthropic collaboration that is building an inclusive network of support for entrepreneurs in Detroit and Southeast Michigan. Learn more at https:// neweconomyinitiative.org.
Sound off: Crain’s considers longer opinion pieces from guest writers on issues of interest to business readers. Email ideas to Managing Editor Michael Lee at malee@crain.com.
OTHER VOICES
Savvy policies can grow Michigan’s renewable energy jobs BY HOWARD LEARNER
Along 12 Mile Road outside of Detroit, 24-yearold John Jevahirian of Michigan Solar Solutions goes to work feeling like a superhero: “Every day I Howard Learner sell a solar panel, I feel like I’m saving is executive the world.” director of the John is among Environmental 9,500 MichiganLaw & Policy ders working in Center, an the renewable enenvironmental ergy business seclegal advocacy and eco-business tor. From the Heritage Garden Wind innovation organization. He Farm in the UP, to Energy Compois also an nents Group on adjunct the Thumb, more professor at the than 300 MichiUniversity of gan companies Michigan Law engage in the School teaching clean energy busiClean Energy ness supply chain. Law. That includes more than “just” manufacturing the solar panels and wind turbine blades. It also includes the polysilicon which Hemlock Semiconductor produces in Saginaw County, and the power controllers that SES Flexcharge sells around the world from Charlevoix. These clean energy jobs and businesses include solar panel installers and wind farm construction companies, technical analysts, project developers, and engineering and finance companies. Smart policies make a difference. To keep growing Michigan jobs and businesses in the renewable energy supply chain, Michigan should keep advancing supportive policies to help drive the market. Other Midwest states are stepping up with forward-looking policies and actions. The clean energy market is rapidly growing and is highly competitive. Michigan can’t stand still if it wants to gain — let alone retain — its market share in the clean energy economy. The Environmental Law & Policy Center’s new Michigan Clean Energy Business Supply Chain Report available at elpc.org/michigansupplychain provides both a directory of Michigan solar energy and wind power companies and a set of targeted policy recommendations. Here are some focused Michigan policies to accelerate renewable energy in ways that are good for both the economy and environment: Fix the distributed generation tariff: If you put solar panels on your roof or wind turbines on your land, you receive a bill credit for the surplus energy generated — beyond what you use — that’s added to the grid. Michigan law requires that credit to be fair and equitable, but the credit currently does not reflect the full monetary value of solar. That’s unfair, and the imbalance discourages people’s investment in distributed solar and wind energy generation. The Public Service Commission should redesign the DG tariff to restore balance and fairness in pricing and valuing distributed renewable energy generation.
Make community solar more ac- by your participatory share of the igan statute requires utilities to processible: What if you can’t afford to community solar project. The vide renewable energy as 15 perinstall solar panels on your roof, or Michigan Legislature should pass cent of their total supply mix by you don’t own the building? What if House Bill 4995, which would allow 2021. Illinois, Minnesota and other states are stepyour house faces ping forward west or is shaded THE CLEAN ENERGY MARKET IS RAPIDLY GROWING AND with at least 25 by tall, leafy trees percent by 2025. or other build- IS HIGHLY COMPETITIVE. MICHIGAN CAN’T STAND STILL Gov. Gretchen ings? CommuniIF IT WANTS TO GAIN — LET ALONE RETAIN — ITS Whitmer should ty solar programs challenge the offer an alterna- MARKET SHARE IN THE CLEAN ENERGY ECONOMY. Michigan Legistive. You should be able to buy into a community community solar across the state. lature to set a more aggressive resolar array just like you’d buy a Clean energy should be accessible newable electricity standard to grow Michigan jobs and businesses share of vegetables through com- for everyone. in the renewable energy sector. munity-supported agriculture or Whitmer recently signed bills participate in a community garden. Accelerate Michigan’s renewable Your utility bill would be adjusted energy standard: The current Mich- smoothing out inconsistent taxa-
tion for solar panels on homes and businesses. That removed an obstacle and confusion. Consumers Energy has announced plans to buy or build 5,000 megawatts of solar energy generating capacity over the next decade — that’s enough to power almost 1 million Michigan homes. This is important progress, and there’s more work to be done. Michigan should be a leader in seizing its competitive advantages to grow the clean energy economy. Let’s accelerate Michigan’s renewable energy business future. It’s good for jobs, good for economic growth and good for the environment.
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Carol Strong hasIte Tina Bond hasIte Michael Banks hasIte Jenn Stone hasIte Bella Jones hasIte INSURANCE CONSTRUCTION volo officte Singletree LLP volo officte volo officte volo officte volo officte mpossitatint volut mpossitatint volut Calla LLP mpossitatint volut mpossitatint volut mpossitatint volut Marble Agency Michael Banks hasIte fugiaec tibus, fugiaec tibus, fugiaec tibus, sumqui fugiaec tibus, sumqui Ground Up Bella Jones hasIte fugiaec tibus, sumqui volo officte sumqui temposa temposa ndianti temposa ndianti Tina Bond hasIte sumqui temposa volo officte temposa ndianti hasIte mpossitatint volut Stone Jenn se ndianti onserrumende et ndianti onserrumende se et onserrumende se volo et officte tint volut onserrumende se et mpossita sumqui Carol Strong hasIte tibus, fugiaec volo officte doles doles cus, quaeceres erro doles tibus, doles sumqui doles doles cus, quaeceres errovolut onserrumende se et doles doles cus, quaeceres erro mpossitatint fugiaec ndianti doles doles cus, quaeceres erro volo officte tint volut temposa mpossita quia volorehendam aut cus, quaeceres errotemposa quia quia volorehendam aut quia volorehendamfugiaec aut tibus, ndianti quia volorehendam aut ende se et mpossitatint volut tibus, sumqui onserrum fugiaec temposa volorehendam aut moloratem et moloratem cus net aperibus moloratem cus net aperibus moloratem cus net aperibus moloratem cus net aperibus sumqui se s erro ende onserrum fugiaec tibus, ndianti doles doles cus, quaecere s erro dicta nem ligendatemposa nditis cus net aperibus dicta nem dicta dicta nem ligenda ndianti nditis dicta nem ligenda nditis cus, quaecere doles aut nem ligenda nditis doles dam et sumqui temposa se volorehen doles ende doles nditis endantiaesed aut endantiaesed quosonserrum doluptur endantiaesed quos doluptur endantiaesed dolupturende se etligenda quos quia doluptur se et aperibus s erro quosonserrum quia volorehendamendantiaesed ndianti onserrumende moloratem cus netsitatur doles cus, quaecere quia doluptur sitatur doles erro quaeceres erroquos aperibus sitaturseproviduste volende eproviduste volende sitatur volende eproviduste volende moloratem cus netsitatur aut eproviduste cus, doles doles cus, quaecere nem ligenda nditis m dicta volorehendamriatum quia dam aut molorate riatum verum expel ipicatenis nditis eproviduste volende riatum riatum verum expel ipicatenis verum expel ipicatenis riatum verum expel ipicatenis volorehen aut ligenda dam nem dicta sed quos doluptur quia volorehen cus net aperibus nem molorate doluptur voluptaendantiae net aperibus dicta doluptatiunt volupta quam, m verum expel ipicatenis volupta quam, doluptatiunt volupta quam, quam, cus volende tedoluptatiunt endantiaesed quosdoluptatiunt moloratem cus net aperibus ligenda nditis sed sitatur eprovidus dicta nem nditis endantiae ommolup tatur? 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ACCOUNTING
Jon & Jon Co.
DECEMBER 9, 2019 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 9
STEPPING OUT A Monroe shop becomes a community hub for runners. CRAINSDETROIT.COM
CRAIN’S MICHIGAN BUSINESS: MONROE
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The Happy Ranger arrives in the Port of Monroe.
Strict Michigan customs rules send cargo shipping business to ports in Ohio and beyond BY TOM HENDERSON
A policy by the Detroit office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection has cost Michigan millions of dollars in revenue — much of which ends up in Ohio. That’s according to a report by the University of Michigan evaluating the economic impact of the policy on Michigan ports. The rule, in place since 2016, requires large steel shipping containers and other crated cargo entering or leaving Michigan ports to be scanned for radiation and X-rayed. None of Michigan’s 40 ports has equipment in place to do that. Cargo that is prohibited from being unloaded in Monroe and other state ports is routinely offloaded in the nearby ports of Toledo and Cleveland, creating large docking and unloading fees and hundreds of jobs. Toledo, which is just 17 miles from Monroe, doesn’t have scanning or X-ray equipment. According to David Gutheil, the chief commercial officer for the Port of Cleveland, his port has two radiation scanners but no X-ray equipment. The Chicago office of Customs and Border Protection oversees ports in Ohio and Wisconsin and has far more lenient rules than the Detroit office. Container shipping is used worldwide in more than 90 percent of international cargo movements, according to industry data cited in the UM report. The Detroit policy effectively locks Michigan out of the marine container shipping trade entirely.
10 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | DECEMBER 9, 2019
In 2014, Cleveland was the first Great Lakes port to begin offloading and shipping out cargo in large steel shipping containers. Gutheil said his port will handle about 5,000 inbound or outbound containers this year. While the Detroit office of CBP requires other crated or wrapped cargo to also be scanned and X-rayed, neither are required of crated or otherwise wrapped cargo in Cleveland, said Gutheil. “The CBP-Detroit imposes clearance requirements on Michigan ports that are not required elsewhere in the United States. This renders Michigan ports unable to handle crated or containerized cargo, putting them at a comparable disadvantage,” concluded the UM report, released in May. “CBP-Detroit’s policy has damaged the reputation of the Port of Monroe and the state of Michigan, resulting in lost business and the potential loss of region-lifting economic developments like the Arauco project.” See CARGO on Page 14
“THE CBP-DETROIT IMPOSES CLEARANCE REQUIREMENTS ON MICHIGAN PORTS THAT ARE NOT REQUIRED ELSEWHERE IN THE UNITED STATES. THIS RENDERS MICHIGAN PORTS UNABLE TO HANDLE CRATED OR CONTAINERIZED CARGO, PUTTING THEM AT A COMPARABLE DISADVANTAGE.” — University of Michigan report
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CRAIN’S MICHIGAN BUSINESS | MONROE
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Former Big Boy becomes farm-to-table success Public House prides itself on fresh, local food BY TOM HENDERSON
A view of downtown Monroe from the river.
Something old, something new
Downtown Monroe’s momentum is fueled by its 235-year history
PORT OF MONROE
BY TOM HENDERSON
Monroe has a longer history than most Michigan cities. It was founded as Frenchtown in 1785, then rechristened for President James Monroe in 1817 in the patriotic aftermath of the War of 1812. The area saw several military conflicts during the war, most notably the Battle of Frenchtown, also known as the River Raisin Massacre, the deadliest single conflict of the war. On Jan. 18, 1813, Americans forced the retreat of the British and their Native American allies from Frenchtown, the first step in a planned campaign to retake Fort Detroit. But four days later, the British and their allies counterattacked, killing 397 American soldiers and capturing 547. Dozens of wounded prisoners were murdered the next day by Native Americans, and others died during a forced march to a nearby British fort. Monroe has another interesting historical note: It was the childhood home of George Armstrong Custer, the lieutenant colonel who was killed with all of his troops in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer’s Last Stand, in 1876. Yet despite its storied past, Monroe met the same recent fate as most Michigan cities: First, in the 1980s and ’90s, its downtown business district went into severe decline: parking meters sat empty, foot traffic disappeared from sidewalks and for-sale signs cropped up in the windows of storefronts and office buildings. Then, happily, its downtown began a remarkable revival. In October, the latest new business, $20 & Below, opened downtown, joining a long list of niche retail shops and businesses to open in recent years, including Brown Bag Boutique and Deez Beez Boutique, women’s clothing stores; Ryan Donaldson Photography; the Salon 23 hair salon; Wise Mind PLLC, which offers therapy services for sex offenders, distressed families, substance abusers, those with family members who are incarcerated and those who have been released from incarceration; daVinci’s Brain, which offers occupational therapy; Barn Owl Studio, a DIY workshop
for woodworking; Monroe Jiu Jitsu; Jack’s Bicycle Shop and RunHip. Cafes and restaurants to open recently include The Public House (see related story, this page); Libbie Bacon Kitchen, another October opener; 17 West Cafe, Amaya’s Fresh Mexican Grill and the Aqua Dulce Coffee & Tea Room. But the conversion of a flophouse with structural issues into a boutique hotel, the Hotel Sterling, best characterizes downtown Monroe’s rebirth, according to Mayor Robert Clark. “That’s the barometer for me,” he said. Clark has been Monroe’s mayor for 10 years. He moved to Monroe 24 years ago, when he was still a state police officer. He has also served on the city’s zoning board and the city council. “The city was pretty well down when my wife and I arrived,” he said. “We have a new generation of business owners with a commitment to downtown. When I moved here, I used to say, ‘Look at how bad that block is.’ Now I say, ‘Look at that building.’ We’re down
“THE MARKET IS WORKING. WE DON’T HAVE TO ACCEPT BLIGHT ANYMORE. WHEN BUILDINGS GET COMPLETED, THEY GET TENANTS.” — Vincent Pastue, Monroe city manager
to half a dozen buildings that are in need of repair and renovation.” Ken Wickenheiser was an early investor in Monroe’s downtown revival. He bought the former City Hotel on W. Front Street in 2006, a month before it was scheduled to be torn down. People thought Wickenheiser was delusional when he bought his first dilapidated building downtown in 1998. Who wanted to live downtown? asked the doubters. Answer: The people who rented out the apartments as soon as they became available, and who rented out the upstairs apartments he built in other downtown buildings over the years,
some 15 buildings in all, with ground floor retail and shops. People still thought he was crazy when he decided to convert the City Hotel into an upscale boutique hotel. The Hotel Sterling, which opened in 2008, has 11 suites, La-ZBoy leather furniture, Carrara marble walk-in showers, flat-screen HD televisions and wireless internet. The River Raisin is just a block away and St. Mary’s Park, host of the River Raisin Jazz Festival each August, is a short walk away. “The market is working. We don’t have to accept blight anymore. When buildings get completed, they get tenants,” said city manager Vincent Pastue. “We have young people moving in. They want to live downtown and walk to dinner.” Last year, the city approved a new master plan in partnership with the Monroe Downtown Development Authority, commissioned from Detroit-based MKSK Studios, an urban planner. The plan calls for, among other things, converting Front and First streets downtown into two-way streets; continued development of the River Walk now in place along the south side of the River Raisin and easier pedestrian access to it; the creation of more public spaces and the installation of more public art. Even during the low ebb downtown, Monroe, the largest city in Monroe County and the county seat, had a lot going for it. A city block downtown houses government offices and the county courthouse, which has always meant daily pedestrian traffic for nearby businesses. And it has stable neighborhoods notable for their architecture within walking distance or a short drive from downtown. Also downtown was the large headquarters building for Monroe Bank & Trust, a bank founded in 1905 that weathered the Great Recession in fine fashion. When it was bought by First Merchants Corp. of Muncie, Ind., in September, it had 20 branches, about 300 employees and assets of about $1.5 billion. The city also benefits from the nearby River Raisin National Battlefield Park, which draws more than 200,000 visitors annually.
Bellaire, Frankenmuth Brewery in Frankenmuth, Midland Brewing The Public House Food + Drink, a Co., Big Lake Brewing in Holland restaurant in downtown Monroe, has and Arbor Brewing Co. in Ann Arcome as far from its roots as possible. bor; wines from Fenn Valley VineFor many years it was a Big Boy yards in Fennville and Chateau restaurant, but in 2014 the franchise Grand Traverse in the Leelanau owners decided that a resurgent Peninsula; and liquor from Ann ArMonroe was ready for a farm-to-ta- bor Distilling Co. and Valentine Disble, organic-food dining concept, tilling Co. in Ferndale. “You don’t see Tito’s or Smirnoff with a focus on Michigan craft beers and wines, and the restaurant was re- on our shelves,” said Darany. Among the craft beers the restauchristened. “Our franchise agreement came rant sells is its own branded Public up and we wanted a fresher product, House Interurban Ale, made by Arsomething more unique with a twist,” bor Brewing and named for the insaid Fred Corser, who co-owned the terurban train line that ran from ToMonroe Big Boy with George Darany ledo to Detroit and had a terminal right behind where and who had a the Public House 35-year-histo- “OUR FRANCHISE sits. ry with Big The menu changBoy, for many AGREEMENT CAME UP AND es each month. Noyears as a re- WE WANTED A FRESHER vember’s menu, regional managflecting the month’s er overseeing PRODUCT, SOMETHING big holiday, offers operations in MORE UNIQUE WITH A such fare as: the Upper TWIST.” ` Turkey fritters for Peninsula. $8, which include Darany also — Fred Corser, Public House co-owner turkey roasted on had a long history with Big Boy. “I grew up in the the premises, stuffing, sweet potato, business. My family has had a Big swiss cheese and cranberry-orange Boy franchise in Taylor going back to dipping sauce 1968,” he said. His father and uncle ` A roasted pear salad for $12, which opened the Monroe Big Boy in 1972. includes glazed roasted pear, canIt was in a building that had been died walnuts, dried cranberries, feta built in 1938 and over the years had cheese, field greens and a cranberry been a grocery store, lumber yard vinaigrette drizzle ` A turkey grilled cheese for $12, and furniture company. His family sold the Monroe Big Boy which includes sourdough bread, in 1978. “It got run into the ground sliced roasted turkey breast and swiss and I bought it out of foreclosure in cheese with cornbread dressing, 1992 and brought Fred in as a cranberry-orange sauce and houseco-owner,” said Darany, a retired law- made chips yer. “We said, ‘Let’s get this going as a ` A turkey burger for $14, which includes ground turkey, garlic goat Big Boy, again.’” Darany said when the franchise cheese spread, red onions, roasted agreement was expiring, he and Fred red pepper and house-made chips talked it over with their families. They ` Orange glazed duck breast for $20, also co-own a Big Boy in Adrian, but which includes a six-ounce duck they wanted something different, breast, cornbread dressing, cranberand better, in Monroe. “But we were ry-orange sauce and a salad terrified. How would it go over here? ` Butternut squash pasta for $14, We wanted fresh food, locally which includes fettuccine, roasted sourced, nutritious, organic and nat- butternut squash, alfredo sauce, garlic bread and salad, with a choice of ural,” said Darany. Nothing against milk shakes, Big protein, including chicken, steak, Boy combinations and Slim Jims, salmon, shrimp and duck for an adbut the Public House prides itself on ditional fee its craft cocktails, craft beers from Michigan brewers such as Short’s in See PUBLIC HOUSE on Page 13
Fred Corser (left) and George Darany, owners of the Public House in Monroe, an upscale farm-to-table restaurant in a former Big Boy. | PUBLIC HOUSE DECEMBER 9, 2019 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 11
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MNX. We still have BorgWarner as a customer today.” They soon landed another big cusNick Wilkens’ path toward owning his IT consulting, cloud hosting and tomer, Los Angeles-based Katharion managed-services business had an Inc., a developer of hosted email filtering services. “At the time we startunusual and humble start. It all began with a job changing oil ed the company, Linux talent was at a Victory Lane quick-oil-change hard to come by,” said Wilkens. They also had expertise in Unix, another outlet in Monroe. Wilkens grew up in Monroe, grad- large operating system, and SAP Bauating from Monroe High School in sis, the system administration plat1997. Needing to save some money form for SAP, a German corporation to go to college, he got the job at the that makes enterprise software to Victory Lane. “I was the guy under help companies manage business operations. the hood,” he said. MNX had a strong focus on LiHe was good at the job, prompt, courteous and competent and soon nux-based consulting and managewas promoted to assistant manager. ment, and a customer base that was And in that capacity, his real career largely outside Michigan, until 2013. That’s when Wilkens and Stolisov took off. In 1995, as a sophomore in high broadened their services and began school and a computer geek, Wilkens hustling up local customers by got seriously into Linux, an open- stressing security capabilities and source operating system that is the adding an interactive cloud-hosting leading operating system for servers, platform for smaller companies, inmainframes and large supercomput- cluding a service called business ers. He eventually developed coding voice, a cloud-based phone system expertise, which paid off soon after with dial-by-name directories, autohe started showing customers clean matic call recording, voicemail to email transcriboil on their diping and call resticks. ports for as low as As an assistant “WE OFFERED LOCAL $29.95 a month. manager at Victo- SUPPORT. THERE WAS A “We offered lory Lane, he had cal support. access to the GAP IN THE MARKET, NOT There was a gap company’s com- MUCH COMPETITION. IT’S in the market, not puter system and much competidiscovered a big GROWN QUITE A BIT THIS tion. It’s grown flaw, what he YEAR.” quite a bit this calls a privilege year,” said v u l n e r a b i l i t y . — Nick Wilkens, CEO and chief Wilkens of MNX’s Anyone with ac- technology architect, MNX cloud-hosting cess to the system could overwrite any file. He alerted services, which have their own webthe company, the software was fixed site, MNX.IO, and now count about and he was suddenly one of the com- 500 customers, many of them paying less than $100 a month for what is ofpany’s IT experts. In 1999, Wilkens was visiting a for- ten an add-on capability to their own mer high school teacher who knew in-house IT teams. In November, MNX added of his coding skills and told him about another local IT job, an open- GitHub, a Microsoft company, as a ing on the help desk for Holcim U.S. partner, offering tech support for Inc., the parent company of the GitHub’s student developers. “We’re Dundee Cement Co. in Dundee. A onboarding 100 students a day,” said year to the day after he started Wilkens. Symbolic of downtown Monroe’s changing oil, he was hired at Holcim, where he met and hit it off with an- rebirth, MNX Solutions is based in other IT employee there, Mike Stol- what looks to be a new small strip isov, who was an IT infrastructure mall at the south end of downtown, with onsite parking for tenants. architect. In 2007, the two founded MNX Looks are deceiving. The building is Solutions LLC. Wilkens is CEO and an elaborately redone former Kroger chief technology architect. Stolisov grocery store. MNX’s office has the feel you exis COO. Like Wilkens, Stolisov is well pect from an IT company run by young founders. It has stand-up versed in Linux. Stolisov continued at Holcim for desks, a shuffleboard against the far two years while they built up a client wall and a lounging area with Adbase. Wilkens was able to leave Hol- irondack chairs. There is an open, cim immediately, thanks to MNX airy feel to the space, and the office getting off to a great start, landing regularly hosts events on cybersecuthe kind of large national client a rity and meetings of the Young Prostartup usually only dreams about. fessionals of Monroe County. The company recently hired a The client was BorgWarner Inc., which they landed through a referral tech specialist and now has seven employees. from a friend. Thomas Stalcup Jr. is a senior web “BorgWarner was having trouble getting SAP Solution Manager up developer at Traypml Inc., a printand running on a Linux server, and ing-services company in Maryland. “Nick has saved Traypml from diwe had a great deal of experience in that area,” said Wilkens. “This oppor- sasters on our web server. Nick hantunity allowed me to leave my previ- dled each situation like a profesous employer and go full time at sional and had us up and running
within the hour. We have never experienced IT consulting like we had with Nick and MNX Solutions,” he said. “We have a lot of secretive information and MNX Solutions was able to not only fix every problem we presented to them, but explain to us how they did it and how we could prevent it in the future.” Charlene Rowe is the practice administrator for one of MNX’s newer clients, Eye Surgeon Associates PC in Monroe, a practice with three ophthalmologists. She said the practice was very dissatisfied with its previous tech support. “We’d have a problem and they might not respond to me for two weeks,” she said. “We needed someone more re-
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CRAIN’S MICHIGAN BUSINESS | MONROE
PUBLIC HOUSE
From Page 11
The cocktail of the month is a cranberry liqueur cosmopolitan for $12, which is made with vodka, Water Hill cranberry liqueur, orange liqueur, lime juice and cranberry juice The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nonseasonal breakfast fare includes pulled pork hash with eggs over easy for $9, steel-cut oatmeal for $6, and the Public House breakfast of two eggs, home fries, thick cut bacon and toast for $7. Lunch and dinner fare includes a chicken pot pie with carrots, peas, corn and onion with a side order for $15; pan-seared wild Pacific salmon with yogurt dill sauce or black jack pineapple salsa, a house vegetable and one side for $18; and a half-pound grilled hangar steak with thick cut seasoned fries and one side for $18. The restaurant grows its own peppers, eggplant, herbs and, on trellises in five large aluminum tubs that line the side and front of the building, its own heirloom tomatoes. It sources fresh mushrooms sourced from the Michigan Mushroom Hunters Club, including the vaunted morel mushroom in the spring. The Public House has its own pastry chef, Darany’s daughter, Madelaine Darany, who had been the pastry chef at the Riverside Hotel in Ft. Lauderdale, and it buys gluten-free bread from Rumi’s Passion Bakery in Plymouth. It all resulted in the Public House being honored in 2017 with the Michigan Grown, Michigan Great Restaurant Award in 2017 at the Michigan Restaurant Association’s annual show in Troy. The award, sponsored by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural
The Public House in Monroe. | PUBLIC HOUSE
Development and the Michigan Ag Council, goes to three businesses each year, one in the Upper Peninsula, one on the western side of the state and one on the east. Darany said the restaurant has grown revenue each of its five years. He said 50 percent of their business comes from customers outside the Monroe area, who came across the restaurant on various social media sites and have become repeat visitors. The restaurant now employs almost 50. Employees get paid vacations and health insurance. Stephanie Lara has worked for Darany and Corser since 2003, at a Big Boy on Dixie Highway in Monroe they used to own before transferring to the Public House when it opened. She wasn’t sure an upscale, farm-to-table restaurant was going to work there. “I’ve been really surprised. Honestly, I didn’t think Monroe would take to it. But it has,” she said. “The first year was a little rough and then it took off.”
She said the clientele is enthusiastic and the tips are better than before. “Honestly, this is the best serving job I have ever had. I’d never worked directly for George before the Public House opened. Working with him has been amazing. He’s just a really good guy.” When Darany’s family first opened the Monroe Big Boy, two old heavy doors that were part of the original building were put into storage. To reflect the Public House’s emphasis on quality, Darany and Corser spent $4,000 to strip and restore the doors and reinstall them. They also had the Workshop in the Fisher Building in Detroit build them a big table that seats 12, from two by fours reclaimed from Detroit houses. The other table tops in the restaurant were made from reclaimed barnwood by Reclaimed Wood Inc. of Clare. Tom Henderson: (231) 499 2817 Twitter: @TomHenderson2
SINGLE GAME SUITE & LOGE RENTALS Mike Stolisov (left) and Nick Wilkens of MNX Solutions.
liable.” She and the doctors met with Wilkens in September. Wilkens gave them a quote to upgrade their computer system and install better software. Rowe said they were happy with those results and subsequently hired MNX to provide monthly maintenance and hacking prevention. “It’s not inexpensive to have that kind of service, but we’ve been very happy. They are very responsive whenever we have an issue,” she said. “I’ll call them and usually within 30 or 45 minutes it is resolved.” Michelle Dugan is executive director of the Monroe County
Chamber of Commerce. She said MNX has been a service provider to the chamber for three years. “Their DNA is very compatible with ours. They are change agents and problem solvers,” she said. The chamber first purchased a phone system from MNX and then added IT support. “The quality of their service is great. They are partners in helping us be better business people. When my lack of technical knowledge shows, they’re blunt with me. They bring me up to speed, and I recommend them to our members.”
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CRAIN’S MICHIGAN BUSINESS | MONROE
Port of Monroe’s economic impact grows in recent years The Port of Monroe, categorized as a deep-draft commercial harbor, opened on the River Raisin where it flows into Lake Erie in 1932. Historically, the port has primarily focused on bulk commodities cargo, including huge amounts of coal to the giant Detroit Edison power plant that is its neighbor, as well as petroleum products, limestone, synthetic gypsum and liquid asphalt. Currently, the Paul R. Tregurtha, the largest ship on the Great Lakes at 1,013 feet in length, makes weekly delivery of coal to DTE, with a capacity of almost
65,000 tons. Limestone cement dust is also delivered to the port, where it is used to scrub DTE’s smokestacks. That scrubbing in turn creates a byproduct called synthetic gypsum, which is then shipped to Alpena. According to a report released in September 2018 by the consulting firm of Martin Associates of Lancaster, Pa., there were 751 jobs directly associated in 2017 with the port of Monroe, generating wages and salaries of $37.6 million. “Direct” means jobs directly gen-
erated from maritime cargo movement, including port operating jobs and jobs associated with movement of the cargo via additional transportation modes such as trucking and rail. In addition, there were 334 indirect jobs associated with the port, generating $15.7 million in wages and salaries. “Indirect” refers to jobs supporting the port, including jobs at office supply firms, maintenance and repair firms and parts and equipment suppliers. Finally, there were about 574 in-
duced jobs associated with the port generating $67.8 million. “Induced” means jobs associated with economic activity that is generated with direct job holders who spend money on goods and services in the region, including housing, clothing and food. In total, in 2017, the port was associated with 1,659 jobs that generated $121.1 million in wages, salaries and consumption expenditures. Those figures are a substantial increase from 2011 figures, when it was estimated the port created 577 direct, indirect and in-
duced jobs and $44.1 million in wages, salaries and consumption expenditures. Most of that growth has been under Paul LaMarre, a former Navy fighter pilot who became director of the port in 2012. “The Port of Monroe has expanded exponentially under Paul LaMarre. I’d hate to see that growth stopped because of the Detroit office of Customs and Border Protection,” said U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg. —Tom Henderson
CARGO
From Page 10
In 2015, Ft. Mill, S.C.-based Arauco North America Inc. reached a deal with the state to build the largest particleboard mill in North America, a $400 million project that broke ground in April 2017. The plan was to have ships from Europe loaded with construction materials travel through the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Port of Monroe, then have the cargo loaded onto trucks to be transported up I-75 to Grayling. The shipping company, Houston-based Spliethoff USA, had gotten approval for the cargo to be unloaded through the CBP’s web-based process, but while the first ship was en route, in Lake Ontario, the Detroit office of CBP told Spliethoff it would not allow the cargo to be unloaded in Monroe. Eventually, the ships were unloaded in Cleveland and Toronto without being scanned or X-rayed. This past August, another ship arrived in Saginaw with cargo to be offloaded for a $500 million Lansing Board of Water & Light power plant under construction in Lansing. The Detroit office of CBP wouldn’t let it be unloaded, so the ship sailed back to Toledo, where the cargo was unloaded without being X-rayed or scanned, put on trucks and driven to Lansing. “There appears to be a regional CBP policy on Monroe and Michigan in general that is certainly different from other ports around the county. There needs to be a uniform rule,” said U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, the ranking member of the U.S. Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “Every state should be treated the same, and that’s not happening. Border security is top of mind for me, but Monroe needs to be treated the same as the port of Toledo.” Paul LaMarre, the director of the Port of Monroe, joined Peters at a meeting with CBP officials in Washington in early November to try to find out why there are different requirements for what kinds of cargo can go in and out of ports that are in competition just a few miles from each other. Also attending the meeting was Gregg Ward, the Monroe port’s international trade specialist and president of the Detroit-Windsor Truck Ferry Inc., which operates an international border crossing for tractor trailers transporting hazardous materials between Michigan and Ontario; Chris Perry, the director of CBP’s Detroit field office; and acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan. “You can take a container from Europe to Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin, but you can’t bring it into the state of Michigan,” said Ward. “Even through we are a peninsular state, trucks and rail are your only options.
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Daybreak at the loading towers, Port of Monroe. | PORT OF MONROE
You ask Customs why there are different rules and the Detroit field office says the Chicago field office is doing it wrong.” “I was pleased Commissioner Morgan came to the meeting and seemed to want to come to a solution,” said Peters. “I got a commitment they would work on it and get back to me soon. So, I am hopeful.” Representative Tim Walberg also met with CBP officials in Washington in November in a separate meeting and said he’s been trying to get the agency to establish what he calls a sensible and uniform policy for four years. “I don’t know why we’ve had this challenge for several years. It’s not short term,” said Walberg. “Why is the Port of Monroe coming under requirements not in place in other regions? Yes, our ports have to be safe, but why is the Port of Toledo allowed to do something that can’t take place in Monroe?” Walberg said he asked Morgan to enforce equal rules throughout CBP’s various regional offices. He said he hopes that will ease requirements in Michigan. “But if Customs decides to enforce tougher rules everywhere, then let my colleagues in Ohio go crazy,” he said. Ward said expanding the tougher rules of the Detroit office throughout the Great Lakes could spur congressional action. He said the tougher rules would be devastating to the busy Port of Milwaukee. U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and likely wouldn’t take the imposition of tougher rules there lightly. Walberg said if tougher rules were expanded, that might force Congress to fund X-ray and radiation scanning
14 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | DECEMBER 9, 2019
equipment for smaller ports. “Why should local ports bear the cost of all this equipment? A number of years ago, Congress appropriated funds for equipment at large ocean ports. There ought to be funds in place for this.” “I believe Customs will come back with answers sooner rather than later,” said LaMarre, “but we won’t have any good answers. The Detroit office strategy is to get Chicago and other field offices in alignment with them, which will be incredibly harmful to Great Lakes seaports and the St. Lawrence Seaway.” LaMarre estimates it would cost up to $6 million for the X-ray and scanning equipment the Detroit office demands of his port. Although cheaper portable machines do the X-raying and radiation scanning at the truck ferry in Detroit, he said Detroit CBP has told him he cannot use portable equipment in Monroe but instead must use larger, fixed equipment, which is much more expensive. The Detroit office of CBP declined to make Chris Perry available for an interview despite three requests. After the second request, Kristoffer Grogan, a public affairs officer for the Detroit office of CBP, responded by email with a quote that he said could only be attributed to an unnamed CBP official: “Because no two ports are exactly alike, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) must evaluate all requests for new services individually. CBP is committed to evaluating the totality of circumstances — including facilities, equipment, resources and appropriate security — when evaluating requests for new services. “CBP at multiple levels and on several occasions has met with the Port of
Paul LaMarre, director, Port of Monroe. | TOM HAWLEY/MONROE NEWS
Monroe to provide clarification, guidance, and feedback regarding CBP requirements as it relates to international marine cargo, vessel processing, and alternative funding programs/opportunities. CBP is sensitive to and understands the value of local initiatives to expand international business throughout the local area, and will continue to provide the Port of Monroe with the necessary information regarding the proper facilities, technology and infrastructure required to allow for the proper and adequate inspection of containerized cargo in the maritime environment.” Before the meeting with CBP officials in Washington, Peters’ staff contacted ports around the U.S., including Baltimore, Philadelphia, Miami, Cleveland and Los Angeles/Long Beach. They found that different CBP offices operate with a great deal of autonomy, without clearly articulated and enforced screening requirements, resulting in the equivalent of picking winners — Toledo and Cleveland, for example — and losers — including Monroe, Detroit and Saginaw. The UM report estimated that within the first three years of being allowed to handle containerized cargo shipping, the Port of Monroe could generate more than $50 million in docking and unloading fees. LaMarre said if the Port of Monroe were allowed to operate under the same rules as the Port of Toledo, it would be reasonable to expect two foreign vessels a month to unload cargo there. At about $1 million in local economic impact per unloading and a nine-month shipping season, that would mean a local economic impact of about $18 million a year.
LaMarre said Detroit customs officials have told him their focus is on truck traffic across the Ambassador Bridge. Ward said his ferry company averages about 40 trucks a day going across the Detroit River. All are scanned and X-rayed with a portable machine made by Leidos of Reston, Va. He said the truck traffic on the bridge goes past stationary radiation scanners but that the X-ray equipment on the bridge is so old and cumbersome that only a tiny fraction of trucks are X-rayed. The ongoing dispute with the Detroit office of CBP didn’t stop the Port of Monroe from receiving its first European vessel in several years when the M/V Happy Ranger from the Netherlands docked on Oct. 14, carrying what LaMarre said may very well have been the largest single item ever to make its way into the Great Lakes from Europe. The ship was carrying something called a stator, an 800,000-pound component to be installed in a power generator at DTE’s Fermi 2 nuclear power plant in Newport, northeast of Monroe. Since it was too big to be put in a cargo container or boxed up in a crate, Detroit CBP rules for radiation scanning and X-rays didn’t apply. The stator was loaded directly onto a rail spur at the port that was installed earlier this year after grants from the Michigan Department of Transportation and DTE. The ship was then loaded with 42 wind-turbine-tower segments, which were also too big to be crated or containerized. Manufactured by Ventower Industries LLC of Monroe, they set sail for Peru, where they were to be assembled into 14 towers.
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A door panel made by TWB Co. LLC | TWB CO. LLC
Monroe-based auto supplier goes global with laser-welded parts Makes tailor-welded ‘blanks,’ corporate office now in downtown Monroe BY TOM HENDERSON
Founded in Monroe in 1992 as a joint venture to carve out market share in a new auto-supply manufacturing niche, TWB Co. LLC has grown into an international operation with almost 800 employees, about 280 of them in Monroe, where it is headquartered and operates its largest plant. The Monroe plant was TWB’s only facility for its first 15 years. Then the market for its laser-welded components exploded. Over the next 10 years, it added eight more plants — two in Tennessee, one in Kentucky, four in Mexico and one in Canada. “That shows you a sense of our growth and our willingness to expand beyond our headquarters and this ZIP code,” said company President Ivan Meltzer. TWB was founded as a joint venture between Columbus, Ohio-based Worthington Industries Inc. (NYSE: WOR) and German-based Thyssenkrupp AG to commercialize new welding processes. In 2013, Thyssenkrupp sold its share to Wuhan Iron and Steel Co. of China, which merged with the Shanghai-based Baosteel Group in 2017 to form China Baowu Steel Group Corp. Ltd. Worthington Industries, which had revenue of $3.8 billion in the fiscal year of 2019, is a 55 percent owner. Worthington itself had an unusual beginning. It was founded in 1955 with a $600 loan made with a 1952 Oldsmobile as collateral and managed to eke out a profit of $11,000 in its first year. TWB stands for tailor-welded blanks, which are metal components of a wide variety of sizes and shapes that are made for automobile OEMs, which then stamp them into their final shapes for assembly. Blanks are made from welding together individual sheets of steel of different thicknesses, strengths and coatings. This welding process allows for flexible part design and ensures the right material is used in the right place. Thicker or higher-strength steel, for example, can go on the front of a piece of frame most likely to bear the brunt of a collision, while other welded pieces on that same part that wouldn’t take the head-on blow can be thinner and less
“WE RAN OUT OF SPACE. WE HAD TO DECIDE: ‘DO WE ADD ON TO THAT FACILITY IN BRICKS AND MORTAR, OR DO WE LOOK FOR LEASED SPACE AND TAKE THE CORPORATE TEAM OUT OF THE PLANT?’ ” — Ivan Meltzer, president, TWB
rigid, saving on cost as well as providing a way to release energy away from passengers as the parts deform during the collision. TWB Co. is the leading maker of laser-welded parts for the auto industry, producing about 40 million blanks each year. According to Meltzer, that production represents about half of the North American outsourced market and about 40 percent of the total market, including OEM in-house production. Welded parts it sells are as light as five pounds and as heavy as 105. In October, TWB Co. was named by General Motors Co. as one of its suppliers of the year. GM recognized 133 of its more than 4,500 suppliers in 15 countries that, according to GM’s press release, “have consistently exceeded GM’s expectations, created outstanding value or introduced innovations to the company.” “We hold our suppliers to a high bar,” said Steve Kiefer, GM’s senior vice president of global purchasing and supply chain. “They went above and beyond to deliver the innovations and
quality that help us earn customers for life.” In 1995, TWB finished building a 200,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on Nadeau Road in Monroe and added 110,000 square feet just a year later. In March this year, TWB moved its executive team, sales, finance, HR, new-product design and engineering, 38 employees in all, into 7,600 square feet in the renovated Landmark Building in downtown Monroe, a building built in the 1890s for the Lauer Furniture Co. and which was a J.C. Penney store from the 1930s to the late 1960s. The building sits on the south bank of the River Raisin, and TWB employees have ready access to the river walk the city has built along the river. Welded steel frames are used in increasing volumes on all vehicles. TWB’s most complex part is a body side that incorporates five welded parts. It also makes three-piece structural rails and three-piece floor pans. Meltzer said there are about 70 welded-blank applications in all for passenger cars or light-duty truck vehicles, though no vehicle currently has more than 20 tailor-welded parts. Welded parts include frame rails, inner door liners, pillars, body sides, hinge reinforcements, engine cradles, sunroof reinforcements, decklids and liftgates. Meltzer said the company has no current plans to expand. “But we are open and available,” he said. Meltzer has had an unusual career path for the president of a large tier one auto supplier. He had been in media relations and marketing, working for the University of Miami, the University of Texas and finally the University of Maryland. “I got to know the Worthington folks in Baltimore, where they were supporters of the Maryland athletic program,” he said. “At the time, all I knew about steel was it was made from iron ore.” He was recruited to Worthington as a salesman and was named president of TWB in September 2013 when Thyssenkrupp sold its part of the business to Wuhan. “Worthington gives folks lots of opportunities to grow and develop. I happened to join a joint venture with a lot of growth opportunities,” he said.
Norman A. Yatooma ATTORNEY AT LAW
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DECEMBER 9, 2019 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 15
Advertising Section
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
To place your listing, visit www.crainsdetroit.com/ people-on-the-move or for more information, please call Debora Stein at (917) 226-5470 or email dstein@crain.com. ACCOUNTING
ENGINEERING / DESIGN
RSM US LLP
Nowak & Fraus Engineers
Greg Burnick has recently joined RSM’s growing Detroit team as a Tax Principal. He has over 22 years of experience, formerly with EY, working with entrepreneurs, flow thru businesses, and large global corporations. Greg has a broad tax background having provided; federal and international tax planning, tax controversy, tax compliance, family planning, tax accounting, and indirect tax services to his clients. Greg will be leading RSM’s Detroit tax practice.
Carol Thurber, PE, CFM has joined Nowak & Fraus Engineers (NFE) as a principal responsible for developing new business opportunities in Macomb County. Thurber has over 30 years of civil engineering experience in the public and private sectors, where she specializes in the study, design and construction of water mains, sanitary sewer, storm water and trail development. She has a Bachelor of Science degree from Ohio State and is a certified floodplain manager.
ACCOUNTING
INSURANCE AGENCY / BROKERAGE
RSM US LLP
Brieden Consulting Group
Colin Gallagher has joined RSM to help the firm’s growing Detroit team. Prior to RSM, Colin was the Chief Accounting Officer with a NASDAQ listed publicly traded company. Colin has extensive experience with consumer and industrial products firms as well as privately held businesses and SEC registrants. His previous experiences also include Senior Manager with PwC’s Private Company Services practice and Director of Global Accounting and Finance Director of a Fortune 500 company.
Brieden Consulting Group is pleased to announce the addition of Ron Markovitch as an Account Director. Ron will be responsible for managing client’s strategic plans including positively impacting & improving their culture with a focus on corporate profitability. Ron brings exceptional industry experience in employee benefits. Brieden Consulting Group is a Michigan based employee benefits management and consulting firm.
ACCOUNTING
Fenner, Melstrom & Dooling, PLC Brian J. Hunter, Managing Partner of Fenner, Melstrom & Dooling, PLC, was elected Global Chair of Integra International on October 31 at the Global Board’s annual meeting. Integra International operates under the guidance of its 16-member Global Board and the two-year term for the role of Chair begins on January 1, 2020. The Global Board sets worldwide policy and direction for its 4500 members who shape the future of business and serve clients around the world.
LAW
Bodman PLC Attorney John J. “Jack” Carver has joined the Ann Arbor office of Bodman PLC, a leading Midwest business law firm. Carver is a member of the Banking and Business Practice Groups. He represents clients in a variety of general business transactions and in matters involving corporate governance, commercial contractual issues, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, and debt and equity financing. Before joining Bodman, he was General Counsel to a Detroit-based technology company.
16 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | DECEMBER 9, 2019
LEADERSHIP
Commerce Township-based Nuspire replaces founder as top executive Saylor Frase launched the firm in 1999, becomes board chairman BY ANNALISE FRANK
A Commerce Township-based network management and online security provider has replaced its CEO. Founder Saylor Frase, 44, transitioned to board chairman of Nuspire while new hire Lewie Dunsworth, 48, joins the company in the top executive role. Dunsworth’s placement comes after a national search, said Brian St. Jean, Nuspire board member, in a news release. St. Jean is a partner at Abry Partners, the Boston-based private equity firm that acquired Nuspire in 2016. Frase launched the firm in 1999 and was a Crain’s 40 under 40 honoree in 2008. He previously told Crain’s he got the entrepreneurial bug at Central Michigan University, where he majored in computer science and earth science. It has grown from three to 200 employees. In a statement Tuesday, Frase said his job change is a continuation of Nuspire’s growth path as it “specialize(s) roles and add(s) layers.”
Frase
Dunsworth
“THE POSITION OF CHAIRMAN WILL ALLOW ME TO FOCUS MORE CLOSELY ON STRATEGIC ANALYSIS AND PLANNING AT THE BOARD LEVEL...” — Saylor Frase
“The position of chairman will allow me to focus more closely on strategic analysis and planning at the board level, M&A initiatives and the opportunity to work more closely with our key enterprise clients to grow, learn from and leverage that success,”
Frase said. “My entire career I have strived and prided myself on hiring people who were smarter and better than myself. I am excited and secure in the confidence that we have done that with Lewie Dunsworth; his expertise and wisdom will be a fantastic addition to the Nuspire team.” Before joining Nuspire, Dunsworth was chief information security officer and executive vice president of global security services at Herjavec Group, chief information security officer at H&R Block and senior vice president of advisory services and managed services at Optiv, the release said. His bachelor of science degree is in network and communications management from DeVry University. He also has an MBA from the University of Missouri in Kansas City. The Commerce company recently grew to Colorado by acquisition of a Centennial, Colo.-based security services company called GBprotect. Before that it bought a Cincinnati-based IT security and disaster recovery service company called Security Confidence in 2015.
CALENDAR THURSDAY, DEC. 12 Positive Links Speaker Series: Authenticity on One’s Own Terms. 4-5 p.m. Center for Positive Organizations. Speaker Patricia Faison Hewlin, associate dean of Undergraduate Programs and associate professor in the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University, will discuss how people can be authentic on their own terms by identifying thresholds of authenticity as well as personal values that can be integrated into the workplace to increase work engagement, foster positive relationships and enhance overall personal well-being. Ross School of Business, Ann Arbor. Free. Contact: Center for Positive Organizations, email: cpoevents@umich.edu; phone: (734) 764-0544.
UPCOMING EVENTS 2020 Michigan Economic Outlook. 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Jan. 7. Detroit Economic Club. Grant Thornton chief economist Diane Swonk and Jeff Donofrio, director
Hilton, Bloomfield Hills. $32 members. $40 nonmembers. Contact: Troy Chamber of Commerce, email: t h e t e a m @ t r o y c h a m b e r. c o m ; phone: (248) 641-1606.
Donofrio
Swonk
of Michigan’s Labor and Economic Opportunity Department, discuss the 2020 Michigan Economic Outlook. MotorCity Casino Hotel. $45 members, $55 guests of members. Website: econclub.org CEO Series: Mary Corrado. 8-9:30 a.m. Jan. 23. Troy Chamber of Commerce. Mary Corrado, American Society of Employers president and CEO, Corrado will lead a presentation on workplace flexibility topics and trends. DoubleTree By
2020 Detroit Policy Conference. 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Jan. 29. Detroit Regional Chamber. The 2020 Detroit Policy Conference: Defining a Decade, will discuss Detroit’s path to economic sustainability. Local and national leaders will highlight the work underway, new ideas, opportunities and challenges that will define the next 10 years for the Detroit region. MotorCity Casino Hotel. $169 members; $245 nonmembers. Contact: Katy Palahang, phone: (313) 596-0384. To submit calendar items visit crainsdetroit.com and click “Events” near the top of the home page. Then, click “Submit Your Events” from the drop-down menu that will appear. Fill out the submission form, then click “Submit event” at the bottom of the page. More Calendar items can be found at crainsdetroit.com/events.
DEALS&DETAILS CONTRACTS Near Perfect Media, Bloomfield Hills, a public relations firm, has been named the agency of record for Berylls Strategy Advisors, Munich, Germany, an automotive consultant; The Institute For Higher Learning, Ann Arbor and New York, N.Y., a test preparation and educational consulting firm; and Oakridge Dental Center, Rochester Hills, a dental practice. Websites: nearperfectmedia.com, berylls.com, ihlprep.com and oakridgedentalcenter.com BMG Media Co., Birmingham, a web design firm, has been awarded the contracts to develop and manage
websites for Beyond Juicery + Eatery, Madison Heights, a juice bar and restaurant chain; Hayman Co., Southfield, a property management firm; HealthRise, Southfield, a health care consulting firm; Green Lantern Pizzeria LLC, Royal Oak, a pizza chain; and Cunningham-Limp Development Co., Novi, a construction company. Websites: bmgmediaco. com, beyondjuicedetroit.com, haymancompany.com, healthrise.com, greenlanternpizza.com, cunninghamlimp.com
EXPANSIONS N’Namdi Center for Contemporary
Art, Detroit, an art gallery, has opened a new location at 6505 NE Second Ave., Miami, Fla., in The Little Haiti Arts District. Website: nnamdicenter.org
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS Detroit-based private equity firm Huron Capital Partners LLC’s Pueblo Mechanical & Controls LLC, provider of HVAC services, Tucson, Ariz., has acquired Niemeyer Brothers Plumbing, Phoenix, Ariz., provider of commercial plumbing services. Websites: huroncapital.com, pueblo-mechanical.com, nbplumbing.com
REAL ESTATE
Kelly Services renovating HQ in Troy consolidation Will vacate 2 properties in sale-leaseback deal BY KIRK PINHO
A sale-leaseback deal expected to close early next year will result in a real estate musical chairs for Troybased Kelly Services Inc., which is consolidating employees into a renovated headquarters building and another building nearby. The publicly traded staffing company (NASDAQ: KELYA, KELYB) on Thursday announced a pending sale of three of its owned properties, including its headquarters building, to Bloomfield Hills-based A.F. Jonna Development LLC that means nearly 420,000 square feet of office space on the West Big Beaver and Crooks corridor will be shifted around. The properties in the sale are the Kelly Services headquarters at 999 W. Big Beaver Road, which is 180,500 square feet; the headquarters annex, a 50,000-square-foot property once known as the Kimberly Scott Building at 911 W. Big Beaver; and the Lindsey Centre, which is 88,000 square feet at 2690 Crooks Rd. The latter two buildings will be vacated by Kelly Services, with its employees consolidating into the headquarters building as well as a 100,000-square-foot building at 295 Kirts Rd. that Kelly will retain ownership of. Kelly has about 1,100 employees in Troy. Brian Mioduszewski Sr., senior director of Kelly real estate services, declined to reveal the purchase price and lease terms of the deal. “Kelly conducts an annual review of space and assets, and this year decided to consider real estate options based on our analysis,” Mioduszewski said in an email.
Olivier Thirot, executive vice president and CFO, said in a statement: “By consolidating our employees into these two properties, including a renovated, modern headquarters building, we will be able to provide more employees with better accommodations and greater connectivity.” The architecture firm on the renovation is Pontiac-based TDG Architects and Interior Space Management, which has offices in Troy and Southfield, is working on the flooring at the under-renovation headquarters, Mioduszewski said. According to a third-quarter office market report from the local outpost of New York City-based brokerage house Newmark Knight Frank, the average office space asking rate in Troy is $20.39 per square foot, with higher-end Class A space asking $23.48 per square foot and more modest Class B space asking $19.67 per square foot. The market has 13.38 million square feet and is 17 percent vacant, according to NKF. Plans for the headquarters annex and the Lindsey Centre that are being vacated will be revealed by AF Jonna at a later date, according to a press release from Kelly Services. A message was left with Arkan Jonna, head of A.F. Jonna. The four properties total 418,500 square feet and are spread across about 19 acres, according to information compiled from CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service. Kelly Services says it had $5.5 billion in revenue last year. Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB
HEALTH CARE
Zomedica Pharmaceuticals CEO and chairman resigns BY ANNALISE FRANK
Zomedica Pharmaceuticals Corp.'s CEO, chairman and director, Gerald Solensky Jr., resigned from the Ann Arbor-based veterinary diagnostic and pharmaceutical company. Solensky's exit is effective immediately, Zomedica (NYSE: ZOM) announced Tuesday in a news release. He will continue to consult on subsidiary Zomedica Phamaceuticals Inc. and is a major Zomedica shareholder with 37 percent of shares. Chief Financial Officer Shameze Rampertab, who has been with the company since 2016, will take on interim CEO duties while the company board searches to find a replacement, the release said. An independent Zomedia board of directors member, Johnny Powers, will add strategic oversight in the meantime, as well. Another member, Jeff Rowe, will become chairman. Zomedica recorded a net loss in the third quarter ending Sept. 30 of $2.8 million or 3 cents per share. That's up from the $1.9 million or 2
cents per share loss in the same quarter last year. Research and development and administrative expenses each rose quarter-over-quarter. The drug company's stock has fallen 75 percent over the year to date and nearly 15 percent in the last five days. It was trading at 35 cents as of midafternoon Friday. Solensky said in the release that he looks forward "to seeing its future accomplishments" and that his time at Zomedica had been a "privilege." Requests for more details on Solensky's reason for leaving were referred by a representative to Solensky, who was not immediately reachable. Rampertab has 20 years of experience in life science, according to Zomedica's website. He was previously CFO and secretary at Profound Medical Corp., a medical device company, and CFO and vice president of finance at pharmaceutical company Intellipharmaceutics International Inc.
Advertising Section
CLASSIFIEDS To place your listing, contact Suzanne Janik at 313-446-0455 or email sjanik@crain.com www.crainsdetroit.com/classifieds
MARKET PLACE Receivership sale of assets of Visiting Physicians Business Residential Physicians Association, PLLC & RPA Management, Inc. includes account receivables, 7 vehicles, outstanding insurance, Medicare and Medicaid claims, office equipment, office furniture, medical supplies, and intellectual property. Contact Sonya Goll at (248) 354-7906 ext. 2234 or sgoll@ sbplclaw.com for additional information, form purchase agreement, financials of business, and deadlines for offers.
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Business Development Sales Associate The Global Polymer Group is looking for a Business Development/Sales Associate who will be expected to work with inactive accounts and new prospects to pre-sell the brand with the objective to set up a meeting with the Regional Manager. They will work with the sales team to help establish relations to ensure a smooth transition of the account. The Business Development Associate will need to be able to effectively research and uncover new opportunities both endemic and nonendemic clients. Visit crain.com/careers/ for more information and available positions.
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DECEMBER 9, 2019 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 17
NONPROFITS
DIA’s early millage renewal headed to March primary ballot Macomb arts authority clears last hurdle for museum to take renewal to voters BY SHERRI WELCH
The Detroit Institute of Arts will get the chance to take its ballot proposal for an early millage renewal directly to voters in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties in March. The Macomb County Art Institute Authority on Tuesday unanimously approved placing the DIA’s proposal on the March 10 primary ballot, joining the other two counties that approved the measure in November. “We on the authority are proud of the work that the DIA has done with and for Macomb County residents, and we hope that voters will agree,” said Chair Jennifer Callans, UX senior design researcher at Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC. “The DIA has increased its services to residents pretty much every year of the millage in numerous ways, so it makes sense to give voters an early opportunity to show how they feel.” In Oakland County, the measure was subject to approvals from two bodies: the art authority, just like in Macomb and Wayne counties, but also the Oakland County Board of Commissioners. While the board of commissioners passed the measure, due to a typo, it inadvertently approved a 12-year millage rather than the 10-year millage the DIA is seeking. The board is set to meet next week to amend the term of the millage. The approvals needed to seek a 10year extension of its current operating millage in the three counties come less than a month after the DIA announced it would seek an early millage renewal on the March ballot. The timing of the ballot measure has drawn some concerns, given that the primary election is expected to see lower voter turnout. The current 10-year, 0.2 mills tax passed by voters in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties expires in
The Detroit Institute of Arts’ current 10-year, 0.2 mills tax passed by voters in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties expires in 2022. | DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS
2022. The proposal headed for the March ballot would extend it 10 years through 2031. “We are grateful to have been able to serve the residents of Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties in such meaningful ways since 2012,” said DIA Director Salvador Salort-Pons in a statement. “The relationships we have built with the three counties have transformed the DIA into an outward-facing institution, highly engaged in our communities. Today, we are a museum that goes beyond the walls of our building to serve the community and to function as a resource for its residents and we are very proud of it.
“TODAY, WE ARE A MUSEUM THAT GOES BEYOND THE WALLS OF OUR BUILDING TO SERVE THE COMMUNITY AND TO FUNCTION AS A RESOURCE FOR ITS RESIDENTS AND WE ARE VERY PROUD OF IT.” — DIA Director Salvador Salort-Pons
“We look forward to being able to continue to provide these critical services such as free field trips and bus transportation, free senior programs every Thursday, community partnerships and free general admission thanks to the support of tri-county residents.”
While the DIA said it plans to work toward the $400 million endowment target it set when voters first passed the millage, additional funding beyond that is needed to maintain services, programs and benefits. The DIA’s operating budget has risen to $38 million for fiscal 2020 from
$25 million in 2012. The $400 million endowment would contribute an estimated $20 million annually to help fund operations. Continued public support through a millage renewal will keep the museum operating at its current level of service and education programs, the DIA said. It would also take pressure off longtime supporters who stepped up to help the DIA raise $100 million to protect its collection from the city’s creditors as part of the Detroit bankruptcy. Contact: swelch@crain.com; (313) 446-1694; @SherriWelch
HEALTH CARE
McLaren Healthcare plans to acquire hospital near Toledo First expansion outside Michigan for Grand Blanc-based health system BY SHERRI WELCH
Grand Blanc-based McLaren Healthcare Corp. plans to acquire St. Luke’s Hospital in Maumee, Ohio, a deal that would give McLaren its first hospital outside of Michigan. Through the deal, McLaren would become the sole shareholder of St. Luke’s and commit to as much as $120 million in capital investments in the hospital over the next five years, McLaren President and CEO Philip Incarnati said. Those plans include building a cancer center that would be affiliated with the National Cancer Institute-designated Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit. McLaren said it would also invest in a new orthopedic, neuro and spine center, renovate St. Luke’s intensive care center and surgical suites and fund other infrastructure upgrades at the Ohio hospital. That would enable St. Luke’s, which has operated in the red the
Incarnati
Wakeman
past three years on a budget of about $200 million, to provide quality services to its market while also helping stabilize its finances, President and CEO Dan Wakeman said. The organizations expect to complete the deal, pending board and regulatory approvals, by mid-2020. Located near Toledo, St. Luke’s has 176 beds but is licensed to operate 314. It queried 15 large, Midwest health systems before identifying McLaren as the strongest partner, Wakeman said. The two organizations had been in
18 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | DECEMBER 9, 2019
talks the past six months but have known each other and talked about different opportunities for years, he said. “Critical to our decision was the framing opportunities that position St. Luke’s to continue to play an important role in delivering essential and expected health services to the community, while providing an attractive environment for our physicians to practice and being an employer of choice,” Wakeman said. St. Luke’s has been financially challenged, like other independent hospitals in urban markets in the Midwest, he said. “We knew we needed to have an organization with scale to provide the capital ... to do the strategic things we need to do for this community,” Wakeman said. Given McLaren's scale in Michigan, “there’s only so much more we could do (in the state), short of a merger with another similar- sized company,” Incarnati said.
While McLaren is in discussions with unnamed parties in Michigan, he said, right now, the biggest opportunities for growth are going to come in Ohio and Indiana. “St. Luke’s Hospital is a valuable health care provider in this region,” Incarnati said. “We look forward to growing and enhancing the hospital’s services and programs to continue their long-standing tradition of providing superior-quality health care close to home.” Bringing St. Luke’s into the McLaren fold will offer opportunities to grow in Northwest Ohio, Incarnati said. And given that it’s a contiguous market to Michigan, it creates opportunities for operational savings. McLaren expects to post $5.7 billion or more in revenue for fiscal 2020, Incarnati said. The fully integrated health network includes 14 Michigan hospitals, about 350 outpatient ambulatory surgery and imaging centers, 490 employed primary and specialty care
physicians, commercial and Medicaid HMOs, home health and hospice providers serving Michigan and Indiana. It also operates a network of cancer centers and providers, anchored by the Karmanos Cancer Institute. The deal would bring 1,200 employees at St. Luke’s to the 26,000 employed by McLaren. St. Luke’s merged with ProMedica, another health provider, in 2010. ProMedica fought the government’s efforts to block the merger for five years in the courts before being ordered to separate by the Federal Trade Commission, according to a February 2017 Toledo Blade report. The FTC said the merger severely limited competition in the Toledo area and would drive up medical care prices, according to the report. St Luke’s has been struggling to operate independently since, Wakeman said. Contact: swelch@crain.com; (313) 446-1694; @SherriWelch
RESTAURANT ROUNDUP
HEALTH CARE
UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Platform pulls plug on food hall Trust selects new CEO
A COMPENDIUM OF FOOD, DRINK AND RESTAURANT NEWS
BY ANNALISE FRANK
BY ANNALISE FRANK
The UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust has hired a new CEO to replace its leader since inception, Francine Parker. After a national search, the decade-old trust picked Debbie Rittenour to take over for Parker, who announced plans in May to retire. Rittenour, 60, starts Feb. 1, coming from a position as senior vice president of government markets and commercial products at Capital Blue Cross in Harrisburg, Pa., according to a news release. Parker will stay on during the transition. Parker Parker, 65, joined the trust in 2008 as a consultant after years as CEO of Health Alliance Plan of Michigan, and became full-time executive director in 2009. The trust, which was created as part of a 2007 collective bargaining agreement to manage health benefits for 875,000 United Auto Workers retirees, officially launched in 2010, overnight becoming one of the largest nongovernmental health care organizations in the nation. It administers health care plans for eligible UAW-represented retirees and family members from General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and FCA US LLC. The trust with around 650,000 members credits Parker for her visionary leadership, and overseeing the creation of its team and infrastructure.
“She and a small team built the trust from the ground up, in essence ‘writing the book’ on retiree health care while building a trust organization that meets the unique needs of the trust’s retiree members at every stage of life,” Bob Naftaly, chair of the trust’s governing committee, said in the release. “The trust is truly a national model for retiree health care.” Now Rittenour is readying to take the helm at an “ideal time,” and with a “depth of health care knowledge and experience,” Naftaly continued in the release. He said the trust is strong financially, due to Rittenour good stewardship of assets, good market conditions and “prudent purchasing of benefits and services.” Under Parker’s leadership, the trust saw improving investment returns, better management of medical costs, and added benefits in an effort to keep people healthier and costs under control. While at health insurer Capital Blue Cross, Rittenour oversaw government-sponsored offerings such as Medicare Advantage, and took on strategic planning and financial reporting, the release said. She started there in 2015. Other past employers include Florida Blue, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee. Contact: afrank@crain.com; (313) 446-0416; @annalise_frank
The building in Detroit's Milwaukee Junction neighborhood with the bleeding rainbow mural on it is no longer getting the food hall originally envisioned for it. Detroit-based developer The Platform LLC announced early this year that its redevelopment of the building, dubbed Chroma, would include co-working space, office and a public market by West Palm Beach, Fla.-based Grandview Public Market. It was to feature 14 chef-driven concepts, mostly local, alongside a bar in the first two floors of the 1913 building at 2937 E. Grand Blvd. The Grandview concept has been canceled, but The Platform is in discussions on a replacement. The Platform CEO and Executive Chairman Peter Cummings declined to give a reason why or say what, exactly, that replacement is. Chroma is still moving forward. "There's an entirely different (food and beverage) concept that we're working on with a really great operator that we're not ready to announce yet," Cummings said Thursday. He said The Platform may be ready to announce the "really exciting concept" early next year. "And the other thing that's different that I can tell you is that we're going to be penetrating the base of the western wall where the mural is with ... these two garage doors that will open, so there'll be an outdoor dining patio to work with the indoor food and beverage operation," he added. Multiple requests for comment from a Grandview Public Market representative were not answered.
CAPTAIN D'S TO OPEN FIRST MICHIGAN SPOT
A former Dunkin' building in Clinton Township is set to become the first Captain D's seafood restaurant in Michigan. Gerdom Realty & Investment of Novi announced the sale of the building on Groesbeck Highway, just north of 15 Mile Road. The Nashville-based fast-casual chain has more than 500 locations in 22 states. Captain D's said in fall 2018 that it was looking at Taylor, Madison Heights and Roseville.
ZOUP! GROWS TO 7,000+ STORES Southfield-based broth maker Zoup! has added 2,400 retail outlets to its roster, meaning it is now in more than 7,000 U.S. stores. Locations include Walmart, Fresh Thyme and Stop & Shop stores, according to a news release. Zoup!'s retail offerings are organic and nonorganic chicken and veggie broth, chicken and beef bone broth and low-sodium chicken broth. Its tagline is "Good enough to drink."
DRAGONMEAD EXPANDING Dragonmead Brewery, based in Warren, plans to open a second taproom Wednesday on the Nautical Mile in St. Clair Shores, the Detroit Free Press reported. Previously on the property at 24409 Jefferson Ave. was Shipwreck Brewing Co. Dragonmead was previously targeting a mid-November opening.
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DECEMBER 9, 2019 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 19
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Pet parents are increasingly opting to buy natural and grain-free foods for their furry companions. Livonia-based Pet Supplies Plus is among retailers in the growing industry that are expanding. | LISA ANSTETH/ PET SUPPLIES PLUS
PET STORES
Paws on the pulse
From Page 1
Pet Supplies Plus gets another store, while the local owners can be the face in the neighborhood — a quality of brick-and-mortar retail that shoppers seek, Rowland said. The chain is increasingly focusing on providing services such as pet washes, grooming, vaccination clinics and offering community space. He said none of these store conversions have taken place yet in Michigan, but he is in talks. Local owners can keep a trace of their branding: The chain generally allows them to keep their name at the top left corner of the Pet Supplies Plus sign. Prices are generally 5-15 percent cheaper for consumers at a Pet Supplies store than an independent, locally owned store, according to Rowland. Another enterprise whose calling card is locally branded stores under its umbrella is True Value Co. But True Value’s model differs from a typical franchise. Rowland told Crain’s he sees Pet Supplies’ niche as more of a dash-indash-out shop than big-box competitors Petco Animal Supplies Inc. and PetSmart Inc., each with approxmiately 1,500 stores. Rowland himself previously worked at PetSmart. Petco does have a small-format model it calls Unleashed By Petco. As in other industries, mom-andpop pet stores battle chains and the increasing normalcy of online shopping for a share of the market. However, the sector has seen recent growth in smaller, regional
Livonia-based Pet Supplies Plus plans to ramp up its franchising. | PET SUPPLIES PLUS
“WE’VE SEEN A (GROWTH) TREND THAT’S BEEN GOING ON FOR OVER A DECADE NOW, WHICH WE KIND OF ATTRIBUTE TO THE HUMANIZATION OF PETS. PEOPLE REALLY EMBRACING PETS AS PART OF THE FAMILY, WILLING TO SPEND MORE ON THEIR PETS FOR BETTER FOOD, BETTER TREATS, BETTER TOYS, SORT OF UPGRADING THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE.” — Steve King, CEO of the American Pet Products Association
20 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | DECEMBER 9, 2019
chains that serve their demographic area well, said Steve King, CEO of the American Pet Products Association. As an example he mentioned Mud Bay, a more than 40-store retailer in Washington and Oregon that he would still consider an independent “but they’re getting to be a sizeable chain in their area.” Smaller chains and independents use strategies such as focusing on all-natural products or adding grooming and other services to compete with e-commerce — like Pet Supplies Plus is. “The one- and two-store independent is not growing as much, probably, as these regional chains,” King said. He added that Pet Supplies differentiates itself by selling a variety of small starter pets such as fish, birds and reptiles, and the products they need. He also mentioned the chain’s Pets in the Classroom Grant Program as an example of its purported community bent.
Pet Supplies Plus has been expanding its footprint more rapidly in recent years. New York City-based private equity firm Sentinel Capital Partners acquired Pet Supplies Plus in late 2018. Rowland previously told Pet Product News that the new ownership “understands franchising more than our previous equity company ...” Pet Supplies Plus is tapping into a market that’s been on the rise for decades. Now 67 percent of U.S. households have at least one pet, according to the American Pet Products Association. Americans spent $72.56 billion on pets in 2018, more than triple the same figure two decades prior — $23 billion. And the APPA expects that to grow to $75.38 billion this year. “We’ve seen a (growth) trend that’s been going on for over a decade now, which we kind of attribute to the humanization of pets,” APPA CEO King said. “People really embracing pets as part of the family, willing to spend more on their pets for better food, better treats, better toys, sort of upgrading the whole experience.” King said that has proven out recently as the millennial generation has become a main driver of the trend. With it, the prevalence of natural, holistic and fresh foods has increased — as well as the amount spent on those more high-end goods. The APPA expects the amount pet owners spend on food alone to rise by more than a billion this year to $31.68 billion. These owners gen-
erally buy toys and care products made from natural materials, too. “Products that were considered luxury items with older generations are more considered essentials for millennial pet owners,” King said. “Whether it’s clothing for their dog or a stroller for their pet ...”
Goals by the numbers Pet Supplies Plus plans to open a total of 30 franchise and four or five corporate-owned stores in 2019. Rowland expects to have made franchise deals for more than 90 stores this year by the end of December. Annual sales are expected to rise past $1 billion for 2019, according to Rowland. Sales have grown each year over the past eight years, aside from one. The company has 3,000 corporate employees. An average franchised store employs 12-20. Depending on the landlord’s input and the size of the store — generally around 6,0006,5000 square feet this year — the franchisee’s startup costs can range from $500,000-$800,000. Pet Supplies’ first franchisee, who opened his first location 29 years ago, just opened a store in Sterling Heights in October. Jeff Bonanni currently operates five stores. Total there are around 23 locations in Southeast Michigan. Rowland said he doesn’t expect many more to come online in the near future. “We’re pretty built out here,” he said. Contact: afrank@crain.com; (313) 446-0416; @annalise_frank
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PALACE
From Page 3
Real estate and development experts have long predicted that the Palace property will eventually be demolished and redeveloped. Crain’s reported in April that Schostak had the Palace property under contract and planned to tear down the arena to make way for new tech and office development. The property was rezoned in 2017 as a technology and research district in advance of the Pistons’ move, which was announced in November 2016. In June 2017, Oakland County rejected an offer to buy the Palace for $370 million from Palace Sports & Entertainment. The late Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said at the time that it would have been a bad financial move for the county. Oakland University had been in discussions to purchase the property, Crain’s and other outlets reported a year ago.
Palace Sports & Entertainment asked several developers and other real estate companies last summer to pitch ideas and provide their assessments on the property’s value as well as how much it would cost to tear down the arena, a source familiar with the matter said at the time. Gores bought the Pistons and the Palace in 2011 for $325 million and spent $40 million in upgrades. Billionaire William Davidson, the Auburn Hills commercial and industrial glass industrialist who bought the Pistons for $8 million in 1974, built the Palace with partners Robert Sosnick, the former president of Southfield-based developer Redico LLC, who died in 2000, and dealmaker David Hermelin, who also died in 2000. Davidson died in 2009. Schostak Bros., founded in 1920, developed Livonia Mall and Macomb Mall in 1962, as well as one of metro Detroit’s first Kmart stores. The company is also developing Woodward Corners by Beaumont in Royal Oak along with Bloomfield Hills-based
AF Jonna Development LLC, among other projects. The Palace implosion would be the second partial implosion of a sports stadium in the region in the last two years. In December 2017, the owners of the Pontiac Silverdome property needed two tries to successfully imploded the upper ring of the Detroit Lions’ former home. The 127-acre site is now expected to become an Amazon distribution center and warehouse.
Reuse, recycle Most of the Palace of Auburn Hills will be recycled or reused in future development, the demolition contractor says. Scott Homrich, CEO of the Carleton-based Homrich Inc. demolition contractor, said about 80,000 tons of material — concrete, and ferrous and nonferrous scrap material — will stay out of landfills. That amounts to about 90 percent of what’s left over being reused in future redevelopment or recycled off
site, with the remaining 10 percent being disposed of, Homrich said. The ferrous material consists of plate and structural steel containing significant amounts of iron, while the nonferrous material is things like electrical wirings containing copper. That 90 percent figure is not unheard of. For example, when Detroit-based Adamo Group tore down the Georgia Dome in 2017, about 97 percent of the materials was recycled or reused, according to the contractor’s website. From the outside, demolition likely won’t be apparent for a while, Homrich said, because the interior — including the stadium seating, concourse, restaurants, and souvenir shops — will be demolished first, almost concurrently. Then the exterior demolition will take place as 30-ton to 125-ton excavators, some with higher reaches, bring down the structure. Ultimately, come the spring following demolition activities in January, February and March, the implosion will take down 21 concrete
HOPE
From Page 3
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About 220 Homes of Opportunity employees will join Hope Network’s staff, bringing its Southeast Michigan employee count to about 600 and statewide employee numbers to more than 3,000. No immediate staff cuts are planned, said Stephen Ragan, executive vice president at Hope Network. Homes of Opportunity will nearly double the number of group homes and service sites the West Michigan nonprofit operates for the developmentally disabled and mentally ill in Southeast Michigan. It will add 26 group homes and two other sites in the tricounty area to Hope Network’s 35 residential, day-center and vocational sites. Hope Network was “a good match for the mission we’ve had for all these years,” said Maniaci, 73, who will remain with the local operation in a consulting role for at least the next couple of years. The combination of the two organizations translates to more effective operations for both on the east side of the state, said Hope Network President and CEO Phil Weaver. “We’ll be able to take overhead costs out of programs and put more dollars, over time, into services.”
More consolidation The acquisition is Hope Network’s second in Southeast Michigan in the last year. It acquired Pals Inc. in Dearborn Heights less than a year ago, when its board sought to transition out of homes for people with developmental disabilities and severe mental illnesses, Weaver said. “I think we’re going to see more mergers coming forward in our system across Michigan,” Weaver said, in behavioral health organizations providing services in the areas of autism, developmental disabilities and mental health. The founders of many smaller nonprofits in those areas are getting ready to retire, he said. “They’re looking for assistance in how to make their organizations sustainable because they have a very personal relationship with the people they serve.” Increasing technology demands on nonprofits are also spurring consolidation, Weaver said. “We’re always looking at how do we make things more effective to put more dollars toward people needing
The former Ladywood High School on Madonna University’s campus is the site for a Hope Network autism center. | MADONNA UNIVERSITY
Allen
Cruickshank
services. We’ve been very open to taking on others,” Weaver said. Hope Network started off in 1963 serving people with disabilities and began adding programs as needed to fill service gaps, Weaver said. Today, it serves 23,000 Michigan residents annually through a wide range of programs providing integrated social and health services to people of all ages. Programs range from in-class third-grade reading literacy and autism services, to affordable housing and group homes, transportation assistance for seniors, to workforce development for people with developmental disabilities and mental health services. Weaver said the nonprofit is operating on a fiscal 2020 budget of just under $177 million, with roughly 42 different legal entities under its umbrella. Hope Network is still closing its books on fiscal 2019 ended Sept. 30 but said it closed out fiscal 2018 with $148.9 million in total revenue and $147.6 million in expenses.
Beyond its group homes and outpatient clinical facilities in the tricounty area, it operates administrative offices for the eastern region in Pontiac. But it has much Weaver larger footprint, with a presence in 240 communities around the state.
New autism center Hope Network is finishing up a deal with Madonna University to open a clinical site for youths from age 18 months to 21 years on its Livonia campus during the first quarter of 2020. The center will come on the heels of another expected to open in the coming weeks in East Lansing, in partnership with Michigan State University researchers, Weaver said. And Hope Network is also working with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan to develop an assessment center near the state’s capital. Those sites represent the first of several new autism centers planned for high-need areas on the eastern side of the state over the next couple of years, Weaver said. There is a long waiting list for parents and children diagnosed with au-
tism to get into behavioral therapy programs on the state’s east side, especially in Wayne County, he said. Madonna University and Hope Network are finalizing an agreement for the longterm lease of about 20,000 square feet and use of activity and gymnasium spaces in the former Ladywood High School on the university’s Livonia campus, said Cam Cruickshank, executive vice president and COO at Madonna. The remainder of the 110,000-square-foot building will house athletic offices and programs. Hope Network expects to invest $900,000 or more to fund space and infrastructure improvements for its portion of the building, Ragan said. It plans to hire about 60 autism professionals, speech and occupational therapists and social workers as the new center comes online and ramps up to serving about 100 people each year. Locating the new center at Madonna will provide real-world learning opportunities for students in Madonna’s Master of Education in Autism Spectrum Disorders program and build on the university’s longtime relationships with autism service providers in the community, Cruickshank said. Madonna already hosts educational and vocational programs for people affected by autism on its campus with Plymouth Canton Community Schools, Western Wayne County Skills Center and the Exceptional
beams holding up the roof about 150 feet off the slab. “We’ll let gravity bring it to the ground,” Homrich said Wednesday. At the most, about 15 workers will be on the site at any given time, with four or five excavators. Hours for the demolition haven’t been established, but something like 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays seems likely, Homrich said. A demolition permit has not yet been issued, the city said last week. When the nearby Pontiac Silverdome was torn down, 1,700 tons of structural steel were recycled as were 1,800 tons of rebar, Crain’s reported at the time. Three hundred pounds of dynamite were to be used to blow up the stadium’s upper ring, a process that unexpectedly took two tries. The Palace demolition is expected to cost between $3 million and $4 million, a source familiar with the matter said. Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB Academy, he said. “Bringing Hope Network on campus is just a logical expansion of that and congruent with our mission ... to help people,” Cruickshank said. Youth coming to the new center will get applied behavior analysis (ABA) treatment while gaining access to skill-building programs like recycling, shredding and cafeteria work, and social interaction with the university’s student athletes and teams. “Maybe some will help with our athletic programs,” serving as water boys or managers to the football and basketball teams, he said. “There’s a great symbiotic relationship ... (when) we work together to help meet this large, unmet need of serving folks on the autism spectrum.” The new center is expected to bring more private insurance revenue to Hope Network, helping to further diversify its revenue, Weaver said. Philanthropy will also play a role, Ragan said. There is a workforce shortage of behavioral health professionals at all levels, from psychiatrists to social workers, counselors and especially of those who serve the most severely affected populations, said Colleen Allen, president and CEO of the Autism Alliance of Michigan. Given the scope of services that Hope Network is able to provide, the new center “will offer our families and our community an option for wraparound services we know most effectively address need,” she said. Tapping into an educational institution offers the opportunity to not only utilize students to provide supervised care, but also gives them real world, practical experience, Allen said. “I hope eventually that Hope Network will consider autism services to address the full spectrum of age, ability and severity. “There are so many older children, teens and adults who need services, but the state’s existing network of board certified behavior analysts are not specifically trained to address the behavioral challenges and skill deficits seen with the population that didn’t benefit from the earliest of interventions, before Michigan’s autism insurance laws and the Medicaid autism benefit became effective,” she said. “While there are wait lists for younger children in some regions of our state, it is this (older) segment I worry about most.” Contact: swelch@crain.com; (313) 446-1694; @SherriWelch
DECEMBER 9, 2019 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 21
THE CONVERSATION
Obedience was deal-breaker that kept Gleaners CEO from friar life Gerry Brisson, president and CEO of Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan, planned to become a Capuchin friar. That’s what brought him to Detroit, but new career interests developed during the 15 years he lived and worked with the Capuchins — and an aversion to the required vow of obedience — led him to a career in organizational consulting and eventually, Gleaners. The innovation and spirit of collaboration Brisson has brought to Gleaners are putting it on the map. Washington, D.C.-based Feeding America named it as its 2019 Food Bank of the Year from among 208 peers across the country. | BY SHERRI WELCH ` You grew up in northern Michigan, didn’t you? I was born in Newberry in the U.P. In the fifth grade, I moved to Baraga, right on the bottom of the Keweenaw Peninsula. It’s beautiful up there, no doubt about it. We go to the U.P. to vacation. Our kids couldn’t believe that is where I grew up. It’s so different. ` So what led you to Detroit? I came to Detroit to be a Capuchin. My parish priest in the U.P. was a Capuchin. The Capuchins have a mission in Baraga. The priest that was at our parish was a native American medicine man. He was a phenomenal man, a holy man. One week after I graduated from high school, I was 17 years old, in 1983, I moved to Detroit to enter the formation program at the Capuchins and lived at Assumption Grotto, a former convent at Six Mile and Gratiot Avenue. It was a way to get introduced to the Capuchins and community life without taking vows. You got into a routine, with daily prayer and all the things Capuchins do. People worked while they were in the program. I was a clerk for the Capuchin Mission Association and was also the night phone operator for the monastery. And I played guitar and sang at the church. People didn’t have PCs then, but the Capuchins were moving to everything being on computer. I worked for the Capuchin Soup Kitchen in the early ’90s, helping them computerize their donor records. I had left the formation program. Eventually, I was asked to head up their fundraising, and I became the development director for the Capuchin Soup Kitchen, which I did for almost seven years. It was during that time when I decided to get my degree. ` So you never took vows? I came close, but I did not do it.
` Why not? You have to take three vows: poverty, chastity and obedience. Poverty was not that hard. I never grew up with any money. My parents were fine but not wealthy. The chastity vow wasn’t that hard for me to think about it. But obedience is not something I’m good at. I think, to be honest, that was the hardest part of Capuchin life: the idea that you have to be beholden to authorities. That’s just not comfortable for me. If I really look at what was the hardest thing about religious life, it was the institutional part. While I’m disciplined, I think there’s lots of ways to experience life and God and spirituality. ` How did you get to Gleaners? When I left the Capuchins in 1999, I started my own company, providing consulting in organizational management. In 2006, a friend working for a search firm knew I loved Gleaners. She called me out of the blue during a chief development officer search for them. I thought they’d be a great client. I met with Augie Fernandes, who was the president. He was giving me a tour of the building, and we walked into the room with the computer servers. They were all labeled with my initials: GFB, Gerry Francis Brisson. It was so freaky. Auggie tells me what Gleaners is trying to do, and I was just really moved. I told my wife (Katie Brisson at the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan) that Gleaners can never pay me what I make as a consultant. She told me, “If it’s what your heart is telling you to do, I support you 100 percent.” So I gave up consulting and went to work for Gleaners. ` The efforts you are now leading are focused not only on hand-to-mouth but also system-level change, right? Yes, and it’s also very focused on what it is the people we serve want and need
the most. We’re focused on growth to meet the need. We don’t just want to throw pounds out in the world. We’re working in health care and education, specifically to address food insecurity in innovative ways. We’re working on pilots like Henry’s Groceries with Henry Ford Health System to meet food insecurity needs of chronically ill patients, and a partnership with Warren Consolidated Schools and the Michigan Department of Education to measure the impact of food security on the whole education ecosystem from attendance, grades to behaviors in the classroom. Our milk program is making eight truckloads of milk per month available through our network through a partnership with the milk industry. Those were the three big programs that got the attention of Feeding America, in addition to work with (Oak Park food rescue) Forgotten Harvest.
up food insecure. If you want to solve poverty, you have to solve hunger first. ` When you aren’t trying to solve hunger, what’s your favorite thing to do? I’m a musician. Music is really important to me. So is being with my family, doing things with my kids. I’m also a bowler. My average right now is 167. I’m having a little bit of a slow year. I’ve never rolled a perfect game, but I have bowled a 276. That was a pretty good game. Gerry Brisson, president and CEO, Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan
` Are we making an impact on hunger as a region? No question, food insecurity is getting better. A lot of that is related to having a better economy. But both Gleaners and Forgotten Harvest have grown over the past five years and are helping more people. The positive energy in our community as people get more excited about Detroit and move back, I think that’s spurring change as well. And more and more people understand the cost of having hunger in our society is ridiculously high. There are educational and societal issues caused because we allow people to grow
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Caffeination and illumination: Coffee beans into headlights?
Ford Motor Co. and McDonald’s USA will soon be giving vehicles a caffeine boost by using coffee beans, in vehicle parts. | FORD MOTOR CO.
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22 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | DECEMBER 9, 2019
` WINTER BLAST TRIMMED TO ONE WEEKEND FOR 2020 Downtown Detroit’s winter festival is back down to one weekend after last year’s four-weekend experiment. It’s the 15th year for the festival, scheduled for Feb. 7-9. Detroit-based Quicken Loans
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materials that otherwise would be side or waste products,” Debbie Mielewski, senior technical leader of Ford’s sustainability and emerging materials research team, said in a statement. Ford has a long history of using sustainable materials to build vehicles. Company founder Henry Ford used soybean-based plastics in his products.
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You can file this under illumination, or maybe caffeination: Ford Motor Co. and McDonald’s, with help from a Plymouth-based auto supplier, have brewed up a way to make some vehicle parts lighter and more sustainable while reducing waste. The Dearborn-based automaker is using remnants of coffee beans from McDonald’s to make headlight housings for the Lincoln Continental. Ford plans to use the composite material in a number of vehicles, including the Mustang. McDonald’s said it would donate “a significant portion” of its North American coffee chaff to the cause. The Ford-McDonald’s project involves Plymouth-based Varroc Lighting Systems, which supplies
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Inc.’s philanthropic arm, the Quicken Loans Community Fund, returns as naming sponsor for a second year. “We experimented last year and tried to keep something going in a steady fashion, which we had heard was of interest from stakeholders, to keep activity going throughout the winter,” said Jon Witz, Winter Blast festival producer. “What we learned pretty quickly is people who were coming down for Winter Blast really wanted to come down and experience everything at the same time.” The festival was three days in 2018 and then spread out over four weekends in January and February this year. Winter Blast will remain free to enter, as it was in 2019.
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