FOCUS | HEALTH CARE: COVID’s deadly effect on mental health. PAGE 34
THE CONVERSATION
Lineage Logistics CEO Greg Lehmkuhl says acquisition tear is not over yet. PAGE 46 CRAINSDETROIT.COM I OCTOBER 5, 2020
HEALTH CARE
Fox blames pandemic for merger failure
THE D’S NEXT DECADE With city again at a turning point, seeking ways to advance equity
Beaumont, Advocate Aurora talks end
See BEAUMONT on Page 45
A decade makes a difference in unpredictable ways. Just look at the last 10 years for Detroit. Now Detroit seems to have hit another turning point, with great and unknown changes being wrought by a global pandemic and a national movement for racial equity. As part of the Detroit Homecoming event produced by Crain’s that seeks to re-engage successful expats with their hometown, we examine some crucial issues for the city at this turning point, and opportunities to expand the city’s renaissance of the past decade in ways that advance equity.
SPECIAL REPORT | PAGES 12-32 NIC ANTAYA FOR CRAIN’S
Beaumont Health CEO John Fox said Friday morning that the mutual decision to end more than four months of negotiations to merge with 26-hospital Advocate Aurora Health of Illinois was primarily made because the two systems and other interested parties could not meet in person because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “As you recall, in June, we had entered into a nonbinding letter of intent with Advocate Aurora that was going to lead us to a due diligence phase and a lot of other expanded work across our organizations,” Fox said in a virtual press conference with the Detroit media. “But this is all done in the middle of a terrible pandemic that gravely injured our normal interpersonal interactions,” Fox said. “(Normally) we’d have a process that are really essential for community-based organizations to build relationships, and get to know each other.” Fox said meetings between boards, committees, doctors and other constituent groups were impossible to conduct. He said more than six other hospital mergers have been canceled nationally this year because of the pandemic. “We’ve tried to Zoom a couple of times and other mechanisms, but it’s not really been adequate,” he said. The proposed merger, which would have created a 34-hospital, three-state regional system with $17 billion in annual revenue, was put on hold in mid-August after several critical surveys of Beaumont management by doctors and nurses were submitted to the 16-member Beaumont board of directors. Donors and legislators later joined the chorus to stop the merger.
LARRY PEPLIN FOR CRAIN’S
BY JAY GREENE
Caroline Sanders at the Detroit Homecoming dinner at Lumen in Detroit.
Entrepreneurship PAGE 17
Neighborhoods PAGE 14
Mobility PAGE 21
Redevelopment. PAGE 16 Riverfront. PAGE 22 Homecoming VII recap PAGES 26-32 Homecoming online: Videos of all Detroit Homecoming sessions are available at detroithomecoming.com. Click on “livestream events”
ECONOMY
Amid high unemployment, a puzzle: Where are workers?
VOL. 36, NO. 40 l COPYRIGHT 2020 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
NEWSPAPER
Downtown PAGE 12
BY DUSTIN WALSH
The unemployment rate in Calhoun County stood at 10.9 percent in July — the 72nd worst rate out of the state’s 83 counties. But Team 1 Plastics in Albion has been unable to fill four open positions at its transparent plastic auto components plant. “We’ve had people do all the training, and then on the very first day,
they ghost us,” said Gary Grigowski, vice president and co-owner of the 64-employee company. “A few times new hires just didn’t show up after a few days, and we’ve had people who work for a few hours, then don’t come back after lunch.” The tier-two auto supplier is joined by many others in the industry in facing a labor force riddle. Most automotive suppliers are hiring as automakers look to refill deal-
er lots depleted of vehicles during the more than six-week shutdown in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet nearly 400,000 in the state remain unemployed and hiring is as difficult or more difficult than before the pandemic during an unprecedented economic growth cycle where unemployment stood at 2.8 percent. See UNEMPLOYMENT on Page 44
Keeping Michigan safely on course. At work and play, Beaumont Employer Services is your safety net.
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VENUES
Interest in corporate events perks up with relaxed regulations BY SHERRI WELCH
The events outlook for Southeast Michigan brightened a little last week, following the governor’s move to relax restrictions on the number of people who can gather at indoor venues. Calls for corporate meetings and social events began trickling in to TCF Center in Detroit and Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi after restrictions shifted to allow up to 500 people at indoor events where there is adequate space for social distancing. The leaders of TCF and Suburban Collection Showplace, the region’s two largest exhibition centers, be-
NONPROFITS
Molinari
Bowman
lieved the increased limit would also enable large events on their books — which typically draw thousands of attendees — to move forward if held in separated rooms and exhibit halls of their massive convention centers.
But Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s press secretary Tiffany Brown late last week clarified that Executive Order 183, made Sept. 25, limits the number of people at any indoor gathering or event to 500 total. “The fact that an indoor space can accommodate more than 500 people while maintaining under 20 people/1,000 square foot doesn’t change that limit,” Brown said in an email. Top executives at Suburban Collection Showplace and TCF Center said Friday they planned to look further into the limits. “We are still investigating the state of Michigan’s directive and we will
follow the letter of the law, whatever it is at that time,” said General Manager Claude Molinari. “TCF has several large events still on the books, but they won’t move forward unless the restrictions are further relaxed.” Blair Bowman, owner of the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, said he also planned to seek additional clarity on the limitations imposed in the executive order. “I’m still very enthusiastic about this,” he said. A few events have been holding on to see if restrictions would be lifted, Bowman said.
“Come the first of the year, we are looking at (bringing back) our traditional lineup of consumer shows,” in compliance with the executive order, he said.
New limits Whitmer’s Executive Order 183 doubled the number of people allowed at indoor events to 20 per 1,000 square feet and raised the ceiling on the number of people allowed at indoor events to 500, beginning Oct. 9. Masks are required at those meetings. See EVENTS on Page 43
ENTERTAINMENT
Fundraising millionaire parties can resume after millions lost BY SHERRI WELCH
Charity poker games, which raise millions each year for small charities and school groups, can resume in Michigan this week. But whether they will actually restart this Friday isn’t clear. Nonprofits last week were waiting to hear about new guidelines or restrictions on the games, said Kate Hude, executive director of the Michigan Charitable Gaming Association. Those guidelines were released late Friday by the Michigan Gaming Control Board. Suppliers and venues have come up with safety guidelines on their own, modeled after restaurant guidelines of 50 percent capacity and required masks for employees and players, she said. And some venues are putting up Plexiglas shields for the charity representatives providing oversight of the games to sit behind. Suppliers and venues are scrambling to call back employees now. Now they’ll have to reconcile their own guidelines with those from the Gaming Control Board, which provides oversight of millionaire parties, the Detroit casinos, horse racing and now online sports betting, now taking shape in the state. Though the Detroit casinos reopened at 15 percent capacity in early August, poker games at the casinos aren’t yet permitted, and won’t resume until the casinos submit plans that comply with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s workplace safety Executive Order No. 175 and the Gaming Control Board’s minimum reopening guidelines order, spokeswoman Mary Kay Bean said. Those guidelines include a maximum of three guests to a poker table, masks worn by players and dealers, a strategy for breaking up crowds and a system for sanitizing cards and chips. The casinos have not asked to offer poker under those guidelines, Bean said last week. See PARTIES on Page 42
Erebus Haunted Attraction, the four-story haunted house with a half-mile walk-through in downtown Pontiac, opened with pandemic precautions. | EREBUS
SCARY SEASON
Real-life horrors haunt Halloween industry amid pandemic BY KURT NAGL
“WHEN YOU ONLY HAVE SEVEN OR SIX WEEKS TO MAKE A YEAR’S WORTH OF REVENUE, YOU GOTTA KIND OF JUST TAKE THAT RISK AT THIS POINT.” — Cody Bailey, board member, Haunted Attraction Association
Haunted houses have a new fear factor this season that is spooking operators just as much as patrons. As it does, the COVID-19 pandemic has dampened the Halloween spirit in Michigan, home to some 100 haunts and often dubbed the Halloween capital of the Midwest. At least a dozen major attractions have decided to stay closed because of the pandemic, forgoing this year’s harvest of scares and taking the risk of turning into zombie companies — in the financial sense. Experts fear the purge of smaller attractions will be permanent. Haunted houses can be money pits even in the best of times, and
during a pandemic they are even more of a liability. For the terror hobbyists or weekend warriors with a little extra farmland, it isn’t worth the risk to make a quick buck a few weekends in October. For the owners of larger attractions, whose haunts are their livelihoods, it is life and death. “When you only have seven or six weeks to make a year’s worth of revenue, you gotta kind of just take that risk at this point,” said Cody Bailey, board member of the Grandville-based Haunted Attraction Association. “We’ve run the numbers. Even with our reduced capacities, we’ll make enough to survive until next year.” Bailey founded Hush Entertain-
ment Group Inc. in 2013. His trio of haunted houses in Westland were set to open Oct. 2 after more than $10,000 invested in temperature screening machines, hand sanitizer stations and electrostatic sprayers that will be used in the haunts with the same frequency as fake chainsaws. All patrons and actors must wear face masks, in addition to any costume masks. Capacity will be reduced to less than 25 percent for the attraction, which typically welcomes several thousand thrill-seekers on a given fall Saturday. Not this year — timed ticketing will control crowds. Bailey expects half of the usual 20,000 people to come through. See HALLOWEEN on Page 44 OCTOBER 5, 2020 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 3
NEED TO KNOW
EMPTY STANDS
THE WEEK IN REVIEW, WITH AN EYE ON WHAT’S NEXT `BORGWARNER CLOSES ACQUISITION OF DELPHI THE NEWS: BorgWarner Inc. has completed its acquisition of Delphi Technologies in an all-stock transaction that puts Delphi’s enterprise value at about $3.2 billion. BorgWarner announced the close Friday. WHY IT MATTERS: The union of BorgWarner, a supplier of turbochargers and electric motors based in Auburn Hills, and Delphi, a powertrain and aftermarket parts supplier headquartered in London with a Customer Technical Center in Auburn Hills, was announced in January to better position the two companies for the long-anticipated industry shift toward electrification.
`DETROIT GRAND PRIX TO SPREAD OVER 2 WEEKENDS THE NEWS: The Detroit Grand Prix on Belle Isle will take place over two weekends next year for the first time in the event’s history, organizers announced Thursday. The International Motor Sports Association’s WeatherTech
SportsCar Championship is scheduled for June 4-5, while the NTT IndyCar Series will host its annual doubleheader the following weekend, June 12-13, according to a news release. WHY IT MATTERS: The Grand Prix had been scheduled for May 29-31 this year but was canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak. Organizers originally said the race would return the first weekend in June.
`GM AMONG COMPANIES TO SHARE DIVERSITY DATA THE NEWS: Detroit-based General Motors Co. is among more than 30 of the largest U.S. companies that have agreed to new disclosures of previously private race, gender and ethnicity workforce data as part of a push by the New York City comptroller and three city retirement funds. WHY IT MATTERS: The initiative is part of a broader push to compel workforce transparency at companies that have made explicit statements of support for equality after broad protest of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Two other groups were formed earlier this month to ensure all public companies have at least one Black director.
`ROCKET MORTGAGE CLASSIC SCORES ON CHARITY DOLLARS THE NEWS: The final total of charity dol-
lars raised this year through the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit was $2.7 million — more than twice as much as last year’s total despite the absence of fans in attendance at the golf tournament. Additional funds were raised through the tournament from corporate sponsorships and fans donating their ticket purchases and forgoing refunds. Money was also raised through the Rocket Mortgage Fall Classic at the Detroit Golf Club earlier this month. WHY IT MATTERS: Around $2.1 million of the money raised is going to internet connectivity efforts via the Connect 313 Fund, which is being administered by the United Way for Southeastern Michigan and the city of Detroit.
Detroit Lions refund season ticket holders ` The Detroit Lions told hopeful ticket holders Friday that they will not be allowed at Ford Field for the Nov. 1 home game or for the foreseeable future. “For weeks we have counted the days until our November home games in anticipation of welcoming you back to Ford Field,” the team said in an email to ticket holders. “As a result of the Governor’s most recent Executive Order, we are unable to honor the 3-game ticket package you previously purchased. To say we are disappointed is an understatement.” Lions executives had been looking to the Nov. 1 game against the Indianapolis Colts as the first potential game to welcome back fans to Ford Field. In anticipation, the team offered season ticket holders the chance to buy three-game ticket packages. The team said it has voided the tickets and refunded the purchases to ticket holders’ accounts.
`FOREST LAKE VOTES DOWN SALE TO DEVELOPER THE NEWS: Forest Lake Country Club in Bloomfield Township survived an equity-member vote Tuesday evening to remain a golf course. Creighton Forester, board president, said the 94-yearold club’s equity membership voted against “the outright sale” of the 104acre property south of Square Lake Road and west of Franklin Road to homebuilder Toll Bros. (NYSE: TOL). WHY IT MATTERS: The potential sale had drawn great interest among residents, and was seen as a signifier of difficulties that private country clubs are having engaging younger families with their offerings.
The Lions’ home, Ford Field | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
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6 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 5, 2020
The Majestic Theatre and Magic Stick music venues, The Garden Bowl bowling alley, Sgt. Pepperoni’s Pizzeria and Deli, and The Alley Deck restaurant and bar are being marketed for sale by Southfield-based brokerage firm Farbman Group. | COSTAR GROUP INC.
Interest in Majestic Theatre property from local, out-of-state buyers Some local suitors and some from outside Michigan are interested in the Majestic Theatre property in Detroit, according to one of the brokers Kirk with the listing. PINHO Daniel McCleary, associate broker for Southfield-based Farbman Group, also said, however, there have been no offers on the property since it went on the market last week. It’s still early, though. “The best use here would be an owner/operator/developer,” McCleary told me last week. “We have some of that activity. We have straight developer activity and straight owner/operator activity.” I reported on Sept. 25 that the Majestic Theatre Center and its related businesses are on the market for sale in a move that was partially nudged by the COVID-19 pandemic. For what it’s worth, I noticed a lot of concern on Twitter in recent days that the Majestic Theatre and Magic Stick music venues, as well as the Garden Bowl bowling alley, were permanently closing as a result of the listing and possible change of ownership. To be clear: The real estate and businesses are for sale, for sure, but that doesn’t mean they’ll close. It all depends on who, if anyone, buys them. Dave Zainea — one of the owners along with his brother and father — said that both the prime block of Woodward Avenue real estate between Willis and Alexandrine streets in Midtown as well as the businesses themselves are included in the offer, which has no list price. “We want to make sure if we do sell it, we certainly want to be sure it’s a new gatekeeper who follows somewhat the same values and principles,” Zainea said.
Another exec leaving Bedrock, 7th since July Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock LLC real estate company is losing another top executive, this one less than a year into the job. Lawrence McLaughlin, one of De-
The listing also includes 0.42 acres of parking with 75 spaces and a 4,890-square-foot multitenant office building with 4,900 square feet and 11 parking spaces. | COSTAR GROUP INC.
troit’s most prominent real estate attorneys, joined the Detroit-based company as chief development officer and executive vice president in January after McLaughlin more than four decades at Detroit-based law firm Honigman LLP, where he had been chairman of its real estate department for more than two decades before stepping down at the end of 2018. McLaughlin said that when he left Honigman, he had been looking to take on a C-suite position in a real estate firm “with a very high level of both responsibility and authority” — along the lines of a CEO or COO role. “When Matt (Cullen) took over as the CEO of Bedrock, he and I talked about taking on this CDO role, which wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, but because it was Bedrock, and because it was Matt, I made the decision to go ahead and accept that position,” McLaughlin said. “Matt left to pursue other arrangements a couple months back, and since then the role for me has not been as significant and as meaningful and as broad-ranging of a management role that I was originally looking to fulfill. I just made the decision that what’s best for me is to pur-
sue what I was originally looking for. I’ve been in discussions with leadership over there for several weeks now and it was formally announced internally to the company on Friday.” “As of Friday, Oct. 2, he has resigned in order to pursue a more senior management position,” Bedrock said in an emailed statement Wednesday afternoon. “We wish Larry well, and given his impressive career and the significant impact he had on Bedrock in just a short time, we know we’ll see great things from him in his next endeavors. Work to fill the CDO role will begin immediately, as it will be a key contributor at a pivotal time for our landmark portfolio.” It’s been a tumultuous three months at Bedrock, where McLaughlin’s departure brings the total number of executives and other employees who left since July 4 to no fewer than 10. Seven in the C-suite and department heads have left plus three others.
Kroger facility planned in Romulus There is a $95 million Kroger Co. distribution facility planned in Romulus, the company and city announced Monday. Its 135,000 square feet is slated to go in at 15675 Wahrman Road. The company said it would create 250 jobs. Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB
SPORTS BUSINESS
USPBL closes season near break-even after COVID-19 curveball League sees 60 percent to 70 percent revenue decline, owner Appleby says, but stayed afloat BY KURT NAGL
The United Shore Professional Baseball League will complete its fifth year at about break-even from a financial standpoint, which its owner says is “fairly miraculous” considering the circumstances. The Utica-based developmental league wrapped up a most unusual season Sept. 28 with the Utica Unicorns clinching another championship. A few hundred fans watched in person at Jimmy John’s Field, while another 41,000 watched online. As the company closes the books on 2020, Appleby league founder Andy Appleby said sales were down 60 percent to 70 percent from last year, when revenue was in the “high seven figures.” That’s due mostly to not being allowed to host more than 100 fans because of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive orders. Although Appleby did open the gates a little wider for the final weekend when Whitmer signaled that restrictions on large gatherings would loosen starting Oct. 9.
The USPBL closed an unusual season last weekend at Jimmy John’s Field in Utica. | USPBL VIA TWITTER
“It was a tremendously difficult season in so many ways. I pulled my hair out pretty much after every governor’s press conference,” Appleby said. “We were thinking that we were going to have a record year, and we would have with the weather that we had this summer in Michigan, but I think that we’ll be close to breaking even, and that’s fairly miraculous. “I can’t imagine many sports teams in the world breaking even in
2020, so I got to be proud of that." Despite the financial hit, Appleby said he prefers to focus on the positive aspects of the season. The most obvious was avoiding COVID-19 incidents among players, employees and fans. Only one player had been infected with the coronavirus early on, away from the ballpark. He was isolated, and it never spread to others, Appleby said. That was a major victory for a busi-
ness model built on providing safe, family-friendly entertainment. Appleby hopes it signals to the governor and other sports teams that it is possible to host fans safely. “I hope that we in some way helped the sports world because there’s no reason sports teams like the Lions and Red Wings, and Tigers and Pistons, and University of Michigan football — there’s no reason they can’t have at least a 20 percent capac-
ity where fans are socially distant,” he said. Another silver lining for the season was the popularity of its new broadcasting format, launched in July. In a bid to keep fans engaged and satisfy sponsors, most of which continued their support during the pandemic, the USPBL extended its livestreaming of games on YouTube and Facebook Live. It also invested in new cameras and added a play-by-play announcer and sideline reporter. An average of 16,000 people per game watched online this season, Appleby said, though that number was goosed by a huge viewership for the final game. Appleby said he plans to continue to invest in the league’s broadcasting operation but is looking forward to filling seats next year. In 2019, games at the 4,500-capacity ballpark drew an average of 3,400 people. Exceeding that number should be no problem next year, if the pandemic passes or a vaccine is widely available. “I really think there’s such a pentup demand for families to do things that, hopefully, if we can get this COVID out of our systems, we can go back to having all of our sellouts and all of our success,” Appleby said. Contact: knagl@crain.com; (313) 446-0337; @kurt_nag
Work continues at Michigan Central, a new mobility innovation district located in Corktown. Ford Motor Company is restoring Detroit’s iconic train station to be the centerpiece of this district, where mobility innovators and disruptors from around the world will develop, test, and launch new urban transportation solutions. Michigan Central will include new and revitalized buildings, public spaces, a mobility testing platform and exciting commercial opportunities. We are proud of Detroit’s entrepreneurial spirit and we invite residents and expats alike to join us to create tomorrow together.
michigancentral.com
facebook.com/MichiganCentral OCTOBER 5, 2020 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 7
COMMENTARY
COMMENTARY
Amazon project is opportunity Detroit cannot afford to miss
State Rep. Beau LaFave, R-Iron Mountain, did not wear a mask during two House Judiciary Committee meetings last week before testing positive Sept. 25 for COVID-19. He’s pictured here during a Sept. 22 committee hearing in the Anderson House Office Building in Lansing.
Michigan’s Capitol is not immune to COVID-19. Why are legislators acting like it is? This column is an open letter to Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield. Last Thursday, state Rep. Beau LaFave entered the House Appropriations Committee room on the third floor of the state Capitol wearing a face mask. When he sat down, the Republican from Iron Mountain took off his mask and never put it back on for an entire 30-minute meeting of the House Judiciary Committee. During the committee hearing, Rep. LaFave got up and walked beside five members without a mask on. He could be heard off camera shouting two “yep” votes for House Bills 5847 and 5848 from the back of the room when he was apparently talking with someone faceto-face. THIS IS THE The next day, Rep. RESULT OF A LaFave tested positive for the coronaviLACK OF and started expeLEADERSHIP TO rus riencing symptoms of COVID-19, which MAKE MASKhas claimed the lives WEARING of 6,762 Michigan residents over the AMONG past six months. MEMBERS AN Let’s hope he’s like the 95,000 Michigan EXPECTATION. residents who have successfully recovered from this virus. But let’s not lose sight of what happened here. There are any number of representatives, House staffers and lobbyists who could have been exposed to the virus by LaFave — all because he wasn’t wearing a mask throughout the half-hour meeting. In fact, a half-dozen other members of the Judiciary Committee, including Chairman Graham
Chad
LIVENGOOD
Filler, also were not wearing masks for most of the meeting. And by extension, all of their families and staff have been potentially exposed to the coronavirus as well. This is the result of a lack of leadership on your part, Leader Shirkey and Speaker Chatfield, to make mask-wearing among members an expectation inside the Capitol and the House and Senate office buildings in downtown Lansing. I don’t work in the Capitol on a daily basis anymore, but I’ve heard from countless legislative staffers, lobbyists and reporters embedded in the statehouse each day who are concerned about their health and safety given the inconsistency in procedures to guard against the spread of COVID-19. Your respective business offices have already required all House and Senate staffers to wear masks. And yet, the 148 elected members are only encouraged to do so. We’ve heard the legal excuses: Constitutionally, short of expulsion, you can’t compel members to wear a mask as a condition of voting.
In 2009 Gov. Jennifer Granholm officially closed the State Fairgrounds, since then that massive swath of land at Eight Mile and Woodward has sat vacant and, as years have passed, increasingly derelict. In 2019, the city of DeRoy McAlister Jr. troit bought 138 acres of is a Detroit city the former fairgrounds councilman. from the state with the goal of redeveloping the land and creating job opportunities for Detroiters. So when in early August it was announced that Hillwood Development and Sterling Group would buy those 138 acres at the State Fairgrounds and that Amazon would build a distribution center there and, having reviewed details and met with the developers, I am excited by the tremendous possibilities this project represents. These possibilities include at least 1,200 new full-time jobs that start at $15 an hour with benefits. But beyond paychecks, this new Amazon facility will create opportunities for Detroiters to gain new skills, and get trained in and even start businesses in the dynamic logistics industry. And bringing jobs to Detroit is more important than ever as the city’s budget has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Income taxes are the city’s single biggest source of revenue, which means job creation is the most effective way the city can help itself rebound. This isn’t just about safeguarding the city’s fiscal health; it’s about residents’ quality of life. It’s a simple equation: More jobs and investment means more tax revenue, more tax revenue means more city services, more city services means a better quality of life for Detroiters. According to the fiscal analysis of the project, it’s projected that the city will net $43 million in tax revenue in the 10 years following the opening of the facility. So that’s $43 million that can be utilized to improve the lives of our residents.
See LIVENGOOD on Page 42
MORE ON WJR ` Listen to Crain’s Group Publisher Mary Kramer and Managing Editor Michael Lee talk about the week’s stories every Monday morning at 6:15 a.m. Mondays on WJR 760 AM’s Paul W. Smith Show.
The Michigan State Fairgrounds site in Detroit.
Write us: Crain’s welcomes responses from readers. Letters should be as brief as possible and may be edited for length or clarity. Send letters to Crain’s Detroit Business, 1155 Gratiot Ave, Detroit, MI 48207, or email crainsdetroit@crain.com. Please include your complete name, city from which you are writing and a phone number for fact-checking purposes. 8 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 5, 2020
It’s also important to note that Hillwood Development and the Sterling Group, as part of the purchase agreement for the Fairgrounds, have agreed to abide by Executive Order 2016-1 which will require that 51 percent of the laborers building the facility are Detroit residents. For its part, Amazon has committed to collaborating with Detroit At Work on employment opportunities for Detroiters at the facility, and with Executive Director Nicole Sherard-Freeman leading the way, I am confident that the city will find and place Detroiters in those jobs. Additionally, neither Hillwood, Sterling Group nor Amazon is receiving any tax incentives to make this project happen and at over $400 million, this represents by far the largest development done in the city without such incentives. Another important aspect of this project is the new $7 million transit center that will be built at the fairgrounds. This new terminal THIS ISN’T JUST will dramatically im- ABOUT prove the passenger experience by creat- SAFEGUARDING ing a safe and, on THE CITY’S many a cold winter’s day, warm place for FISCAL HEALTH, riders to rest while IT’S ABOUT they wait for their bus. It will also short- RESIDENTS’ en ride times and provide a more acces- QUALITY OF LIFE. sible transit opportunity for many residents seeking to get to the nearby Eight Mile Meijer located at the Gateway shopping plaza and future employment centers on the former fairgrounds site. Finally, bringing Amazon and these 1,200 jobs to Detroit represents an important opportunity to continue diversifying our city’s job market. While we Detroiters are proud of our Motor City moniker, Amazon’s new facility means the nonautomotive logistics sector will now have a permanent home in Detroit which will bring greater strength and versatility to our economy. This project is a profound opportunity to bring good jobs, a new state-of-the-art transit center, and continue diversifying our economy, and it’s an opportunity we must seize.
LARRY PEPLIN FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
MICHIGAN HOUSE TV SCREENSHOT
BY ROY MCALISTER JR.
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
Why business should care about the November rush BY PAUL SAGINAW
Everyone in retail or food service has experienced “The Rush.” It’s that surge of customers that pack your store or restaurant and push your staff Paul Saginaw is and operations to the max. Successco-founder of ful shop and Zingerman’s in restaurant owners Ann Arbor. learn and plan for it. We implement a playbook to rise and meet our customers’ demands while supporting our employees. For those in the election business, primarily our city and county clerks, there’s a historic rush coming in the form of the presidential election on Nov. 3. The August primary served as a good trial run with more than 2.5 million Michiganders voting. Of that total, more than 1.6 million cast a record-breaking total of absentee ballots, no doubt in large part due to health concerns related to the COVID-19 crisis. Heading into November’s heated presidential election, many election experts expect those numbers to at least double. That’s going to potentially create long lines while exacerbating election worker shortages due to the pandemic amid a record-breaking flood of absentee ballots. Sadly, Congress has not acted on repeated calls by secretaries of state and election offi-cials, including Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, for increased funding to best handle the expected turnout. The recent legislation passed in Lansing by the State Legislature that
ENERGY
Consumers Energy pledges $12M relief fund BY JAY GREENE
Consumers Energy, a Jackson-based public utility, has pledged $12 million in COVID-19 relief funds to support residential and small business customers who are behind in electric and gas bills. Consumers Energy President and CEO Patti Poppe said the fund is the largest Consumers has ever pledged and the first time a fund has supported small businesses. “We can’t stop the pandemic but we can help our customers weather the storm” and provide a “lifeline for small businesses and families to help them stay on their feet until this is over,” Poppe said. The goal is to help at least 25,000 households with up to $500 in bill credits for residential energy bills and 1,000 small businesses with up to $5,000 in bill credits. To access help, customers can call 2-1-1, a free service that connects people with nonprofit agencies in their communities, including Consumers’ financial help line.
That’s why I support VoteSafe Michigan, a coalition of voting experts, elected officials, health care professionals, and community leaders who support accessible, secure mail-in ballots and safe, in-person voting sites. As a business person, I understand that voters are employees and customers and they must be protected during this pandemic, as they are in our stores and res-taurants, and as they vote. Due to Congress’ inaction, it’s going to take all of us working together to help ensure a safe and secure election. As employers, that starts with raising awareness among our employees about voting options in our respective communities, including absentee vot-
allows clerks to start processing (not ing steps to ensure they have enough counting) absentee ballots the day be- election workers to safely mitigate long fore the election is a good first step. It lines. Many are adding secure ballot will eliminate some of the time-consuming IT’S GOING TO TAKE ALL OF US WORKING work on Election TOGETHER TO HELP ENSURE A SAFE AND Day but there’s still going to be a SECURE ELECTION. AS EMPLOYERS, THAT tremendous volSTARTS WITH RAISING AWARENESS ume of work. The good news AMONG OUR EMPLOYEES ABOUT VOTING that following August’s primary, OPTIONS. many of our clerks have a proven playbook to ensure safe drop boxes for absentee voting and voting. Clerks around the state contin- creating satellite voting centers. We ue to prepare for The Rush and are tak- need to support them in that effort.
ing in advance of Election Day. We also need to provide as much flexibility as possible to help them vote safely and vol-unteer to work at polling locations. Afterall, a successful election is one where the voices of our employees and customers are heard as they help shape our communities amid the pandemic. While COVID-19 will present an election surge in November unlike any we have seen, it doesn’t have to undermine this critical component of our democracy. As businesses have adapted with new options to protect our employees and customers, so too must our government to accommodate its voters.
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THE D’S NEXT DECADE: ADVANCIN
Again at a turning point, Detroit weighs opportunities amid crisis
A decade makes a difference in unpredictable ways. Ten years ago, Detroit was still in the throes of a recession that hit the country hard and Michigan harder. Nobody could have predicted the twists and turns the story has taken since then. A municipal bankruptcy that raised alarm bells but ultimately cleaned up the books for a city government reboot. A downtown renaissance that was just the glimmer of an idea in 2010. Now Detroit seems to have hit another turning point. A one-two punch of a global pandemic and a national call for racial equity have taken uncertainty to an extreme, seemingly overnight. Detroit has many reasons for optimism, but the city has far to go. Its population has yet to start rebounding, at least according to the Census Bureau. Poverty rates have declined in recent years but still remain double the national average. And questions remain about who is benefiting from investment in the city. As part of the Detroit Homecoming event produced by Crain’s that seeks to re-engage successful expats with their hometown, we examine some crucial issues for the city at this turning point, and some opportunities to expand the city’s renaissance in ways that advance equity. 10 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 5, 2020
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SPECIAL REPORT | PAGES 12-32
DOWNTOWN OUTWARD: Efforts to continue momentum proceed outside downtown; one neighborhood’s possibilities. PAGE 12 NEIGHBORHOODS: The Strategic Neighborhood Fund offers help for city’s neighborhoods, though some question strategy. PAGE 14 REDEVELOPMENT: Opportunity Zones are bringing money into the city and there is the prospect for more. PAGE 16 ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Detroit entrepreneurs are having to pivot. PAGE 17 MOBILITY: The new mobility corridor comes with the hope that it will help make the connected-vehicle future more equitable. PAGE 21 RIVERFRONT: Detroit’s remarkable riverfront transformation and the efforts to make it more accessible to Detroiters in the neighborhoods. PAGE 22 HOMECOMING VII RECAP: Mary Kramer on conversations uncomfortable and real, and other highlights from Detroit Homecoming. PAGES 26-32 DETROIT HOMECOMING ONLINE: Videos of all Detroit Homecoming sessions are available at detroithomecoming.com. Click on “livestream events”
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THE D’S NEXT DECADE | EXPANDING THE RENAISSANCE
A model for turnaround beyond downtown? $121 million in rehab projects take shape in Jefferson-Chalmers
BY CHAD LIVENGOOD
The inside of the once ornate Vanity Ballroom along East Jefferson Avenue looks like another Detroit ruin. Very little of the Aztec-inspired Art Deco interior architecture remains intact. Chunks of mortar rubble cover the floors and sunlight pours into the second-floor ballroom from an exposed roof, where trees are growing. A floating maple wood dance floor that once hosted jazz singers like Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington is long gone. But behind the crumbling concrete columns is reinforced steel — the kind that has kept much larger and older iconic buildings like Michigan Central Station and the Packard plant standing all of these decades later after their abandonment. To developer Derric Scott, that steel structure is going to give the Vanity Ballroom another chance at life, nearly a century after it opened on the eve of the 1929 stock market crash. “It’s allowed the building to be preserved a lot longer than it would have under other conditions,” said Scott, CEO of the East Jefferson Development Corp. The $14 million resurrection of the long-crumbling Vanity Ballroom and an adjacent former bicycle shop is one step away from becoming a reality, Scott said. It’s the neighborhood cornerstone of $121 million in rehab construction projects that the East Jefferson Development Corp. is quietly preparing to launch over the next 18 months using a first-of-itskind tax increment financing mechanism that could be a model for revitalizing other neighborhood commercial corridors in the city. Scott led a tour of his company’s 12 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 5, 2020
The Vanity Ballroom at East Jefferson Avenue and Newport Street in Detroit’s Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood is slated to get a $14 million makeover to revitalize the 91-year-old two-story building. NIC ANTAYA FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
“IT’S PATIENT EQUITY.” — Aaron Seybert, managing director of The Kresge Foundation’s social investment practice
redevelopment projects Sept. 24 during Detroit Homecoming VII. The revitalization of downtown Detroit over the past decade has been dramatic. Extending that resurgence will be a challenge for the next decade. The Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood has long been a priority for city planners and philanthropists to revitalize as part of a push to reverse the decades-long decline of neighborhoods outside of greater downtown. Penske Corp. has committed $5 million to the city’s Strategic Neighborhood Fund for a new community center at Alfred Brush Ford Park along the Detroit River. After years of planning, groundwork and wrestling away property from speculators, there are signs that a turnaround in Jefferson-Chalmers is starting to come together, even as Detroit still reels from a global pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 1,500 of its residents over the past six months. East Jefferson Development Corp., or EJDevCo, is a for-profit subsidiary of the not-for-profit Jefferson East Inc. , a multi-service organization in the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood. For neighborhood-level commercial redevelopment in the city, EJDevCo is a different kind of animal. Most of these entities are not-for-profit community development corporations that have the capacity to revamp one building at a time. The Kresge Foundation’s investment arm bought a 30 percent interest in EJDevCo for $2 million, giving Scott and his team cash to acquire or gain control of 87 percent of the properties along the Jefferson Avenue corridor. Separately, the Troybased Kresge Foundation has granted
The East Jefferson Development Corp. plans to build out 15,000 square feet of ground floor retail. Uses for the old ballroom include co-working space or fine arts and theater. | CHAD LIVENGOOD/CRAIN’S
$1.9 million to Invest Detroit for supporting EJDevCo’s operations. Kresge Foundation’s investment comes from the program related investments capital that it invests in companies or ventures that align with its philanthropic goals. And while they ultimately want to get their money back, they’re not in a rush to do so. “It’s patient equity,” said Aaron Seybert, managing director of The Kresge Foundation’s social investment practice. Traditional nonprofit developers “move so slow as compared to the for-profit sector in rapidly changing markets,” Seybert said. EJDevCo is tackling five buildings at
once in its $121 million project, including a new ground-up 38-unit residential and ground-floor retail mixed use building at East Jefferson and Manistique, two blocks west of the Grosse Pointe Park border. Construction for that project is slated to begin in 2022, with about 30 percent of the residential units designated affording housing, Scott said. By investing in a for-profit entity, Seybert said, Kresge takes the risk of being a first-loss equity partner but sees the reward of larger and faster redevelopment projects that are less contingent upon tax credits, grants and other subsidies. See PROJECTS on Page 18
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THE D’S NEXT DECADE | NEIGHBORHOODS
Strategic Neighborhood Fund plans take form $130M plan aims to improve select corridors; some question picking winners, losers BY ANNALISE FRANK
Akunna Olumba and Marcus Jones want 80 percent of employees they hire for their Detroit pizza restaurant to come from a 2- to 5-mile radius. Like most new businesses, Detroit Pizza Bar at Livernois Avenue and McNichols Road will create jobs. It’s among dozens of storefronts expected to grow out of the efforts of the Strategic Neighborhood Fund, Detroit’s financing machine for revitalization in targeted corridors outside downtown. But the question for Olumba and Jones, and for the fund’s real estate development at large, is the quality of that economic development and who it benefits. The public-private SNF continues to face questions on how to improve Detroiters’ built world fairly as it trudges through its second round amid a global pandemic. The 6-year-old fund started out planning changes to three separate multi-neighborhood areas outside downtown, and expanded that focus to seven additional swaths of property, for a total of 10. It’s now 3 percent away from meeting its $59 million philanthropic fundraising goal for that second iteration, termed SNF 2.0. The fund was created as a multi-stage urban planning process with end goals from rejuvenated shopping districts to bringing jobs, increasing a neighborhood’s attractiveness and bolstering economic activity. But the two developers renovating a 4,300-square-foot building and starting up the pizza restaurant for $1.3 million aren’t merely looking to set up shop. Olumba and Jones are being, as Jones terms it, “deliberate.” Not just researching the kind of restaurant from which the area would benefit, but also committing to train workers as part of a job pipeline. Olumba, a Detroit native and tax attorney by trade, and Jones, who co-founded the Detroit Training Center, say they want residents’ needs to guide their business. They want equitable development. And that loaded word — equity — is at the center of questions surrounding the Strategic Neighborhood Fund. As Olumba sees it, the fund’s role is to channel investment to the city’s existing commercial corridors, or “spokes.” Then, as jobs build and residents save money, they can buy houses and that growth can spread through the “wheels” of the city. She said SNF "feels different" from previous redevelopment initiatives in Detroit, in its supportive follow-up to see projects through completion. Others say the SNF’s approach creates a problematic model for success and chooses winners and losers. “I think cities believe that the only way they can avoid failing is to attract in middle-income and upper-income people and retain some of those same people,” said Donna Givens Davidson, president and CEO of the Eastside Community Network. “I think that the measure of success that some people have that is unwritten is that Detroit being the Blackest city is not really — (there’s) this concept that we need to diversify and bring in more white people so that we can sort of prove our worth. So Detroit comes back when white people come back ... and that’s seen as a sign of success.” As SNF fiduciary Invest Detroit nears the $59 million fundraising goal, the financial institution would not disclose its two most recent donors who gave a total $6.5 million. Past donors include the Wilson Foundation, JPMorgan Chase and the Kresge Foundation. 14 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 5, 2020
far this year — the Murray in southwest Detroit and the Obama Building renovation in northwest — with another four anticipated by year’s end. Twelve more projects are in predevelopment. All construction work halted in April and May. Some city staff turned their attention to housing insecurity during the outbreak. Community engagement, which was paused, is now being run in a hybrid fashion, digitally and in-person, Trudeau said. There is precedent for delays, even before the pandemic. One early facet of Mayor Mike Duggan’s flagship plans for redevelopment outside downtown, the Fitzgerald Revitalization Project under the Livernois-McNichols corridor plan, is expected to take at least three times longer than originally promised, the Free Press reported in February.
‘Winners and losers’ Marcus Jones and Akunna Olumba plan to open Detroit Pizza Bar this fall at 7316 W. McNichols Road with funding through the city’s Strategic Neighborhood Fund. | INVEST DETROIT
DETROIT IS “BASICALLY WHERE WE WANTED TO BE” ON SNF PROGRESS THIS YEAR. — Arthur Jemison, Detroit’s chief of services and infrastructure
Northwest Grand River
Gratiot/ Seven Mile
LivernoisMcNichols Campau/ Banglatown
East Warren/ Cadieux
Russell Woods/ Nardin Park Islandview/ Villages
Warrendale/ Cody Rouge
This map shows the 10 multi-neighborhood areas the Strategic Neighborhood Fund is targeting for housing, road and commercial redevelopment. | CITY OF DETROIT
Jefferson Chalmers
Southwest/ Vernor SNF planning projects (Original 3) Expanded SNF planning projects (Additional 7)
Among recipients of SNF’s gap financing for individual developments in targeted neighborhoods is Detroit Pizza Bar, which got a $400,000 forgivable grant for the restaurant. It’s aiming for a soft opening Oct. 30 and full opening Nov. 15. Along with a workforce training program, the 20-employee restaurant comes with a rooftop terrace and a concept that blends quick pizza options with a full-service sitdown model.
`Jefferson Chalmers: Framework plan completed.
Target areas
`Warrendale/Cody-Rouge: Framework plan to be finished within months.
The Strategic Neighborhood Fund started in 2014, pouring more than $40 million into three sections of the city: Livernois/McNichols, Southwest/West Vernor and Islandview/ Greater Villages. The $130 million SNF 2.0 began in 2018. The process starts with Detroit building a master plan, or neighborhood framework plan, for each region while holding community meetings to ilicit input. Then the city works with private partners to implement commercial and residential development. The SNF 2.0 areas are listed below, with updates on their progress from Katy Trudeau, deputy director of Detroit’s planning and development department: `Grand River Northwest: Framework plan completed. Grand River Avenue street construction underway with the Michigan Department of Transportation and construction of small park on Grand River set to start this week.
`Russell Woods/Nardin Park: Framework plan completed. `Banglatown/Campau: Framework plan completed. Major streetscape work started in early September on Conant Street, delayed from starting in spring as expected; expected to finish in the spring.
`Gratiot/Seven Mile: Framework plan approximately a third to halfway done. `East Warren/Cadieux/East English Village: Framework plan approximately a third to halfway done; city wants streetscape work to start next year. Even with the pandemic impact, Arthur Jemison, Detroit’s chief of services and infrastructure, said the city is “basically where we wanted to be” on SNF progress this year. He pointed to streetscape work underway on Kercheval Avenue in the Villages area and the $22.5 million Parker Durand mixed-use development rising nearby. Financing packages closed for five SNF commercial real estate projects in 2019, according to Carrie Lewand-Monroe, executive vice president of strategy and programs for Invest Detroit. She said two have closed and started construction so
Jemison said the plan is still to deliver improved commercial corridors as a “public good.” Davidson, of the Eastside Community Network, said she sees public officials doing good work. But she thinks there’s also a harmful placemaking mentality in Detroit and other cities where development seeks to redesign cities to look like “what they believe a successful city will look like” and draw in “certain types of people” seen as bringing success. “The neighborhoods where you see most growth are areas becoming more white than other neighborhoods,” Davidson said. “(Under Duggan) you had this focus on building up the downtown Detroit and this influx of young white people moving into the city, moving into these expensive places ... and this was looked at as success ... Downtown is better, most neighborhoods in the city are not.” When the city’s administration looks at how to spend money in neighborhoods, it’s looking at the performance and potential of real estate markets — the “spokes” of the city, as Olumba of Detroit Pizza Bar called them. However, Davidson said, “Markets do not favor poor people.” She calls it a “color-blind” solution. One can argue it’s not about race, but “what you see is policy that disproportionately benefits white people at the expense of Black people," she said. As urban planning changes a city, the attention to those goals can make people lose focus on vulnerable residents. “We don’t have a plan at all for housing all of Detroit,” Davidson said. “You’re not raising dollars for this comprehensive plan, you’re raising dollars for this neighborhood and that neighborhood, and you have winners and losers ... I want the city to be working with everybody around the most urgent needs of the most vulnerable citizens whose public policy needs have been ignored ... As long as our principles and values are not aligned to the thought that we’re going to provide or create a city that takes care of the least of us, this is what’s going to happen.” Jemison said the city is looking to create places people want to be near to stop them from choosing to live elsewhere. “And I think if people are saying they want what’s happening on Livernois (for their area) … we want to expand, we want to do that,” he said. “What I would also say, though, is … We want every part of Detroit to be ready for that kind of growth.” Contact: afrank@crain.com; (313) 446-0416; @annalise_frank
17 Businesses. 1 Million Dollars. Rocket Mortgage Detroit Demo Day is back for 2020 with a new virtual format that you won't want to miss. Watch as 17 Detroit businesses compete for $1 million in funding and cast your vote for the People's Choice winner. Find out more at DetroitDemoDay.com!
THE D’S NEXT DECADE | REDEVELOPMENT
Opportunity Zone dollars start to flow New $30M fund highlights progress from tax-advantaged investment program BY KIRK PINHO
Greatwater Opportunity Capital LLC, a Detroit-based real estate firm focused on multifamily investment in Opportunity Zones, is launching its largest fund totaling more than $30 million. The company, which has grown to nine employees with a pair of recent new hires, expects its eighth fund — and its fifth devoted to the federally designated Opportunity Zones — to launch by the end of the year, said Justin Golden, partner along with Jed Howbert and Matt Temkin. “It will be a diversified portfolio of buildings in the North End, New Center, Midtown, Villages and Southwest (neighborhoods), so it really covers a lot of the neighborhoods where we already have existing assets,” Golden said, adding that the company has invested $60 million in the past year in building purchases and rehabilitation. The company’s portfolio has nearly 1,000 units across the city, including The Barbara at 512 W. Grand Blvd. in southwest Detroit, Kean Residences at 8925 E. Jefferson Ave. and the Hibbard Tower Residences at 8905 E. Jefferson Ave. on the east Detroit riverfront. Sarah Pavelko, the former Detroit Economic Growth Corp. director of development services, recently joined as director for Greatwater, and India Solomon joined as associate, leaving her previous position as program officer for Enterprise Community Partners in Detroit. “They bring valuable local development experience and share our mission of providing attainable and attractive housing in Detroit,” Howbert said in a statement. Greatwater, which was founded in 2015, specializes in Opportunity Zones, which are federally designated areas offering financial sweeteners to investment in poor communities. Golden said the zones help draw investment capital to the city. “Opportunity Zone tax incentives create a framework that sophisticated investors are comfortable with, and are partnering with local developers to bring much needed additional investment to Detroit,” he said. Golden declined to identify other investors but said they include other Detroit expats who attended Detroit Homecoming.
How Opportunity Zones work Opportunity Zones are designated according to U.S. Census tracts where the poverty rate is at least 20 percent and the median household income is less than 80 percent of that in the surrounding areas. The Michigan State Housing Development authority says they are for “low-income communities nationwide that have been cut off from capital and experienced a lack of business growth.” MSHDA says there are 1,152 tracts that are eligible for the designation, but only 25 percent (288) were allowed to be declared Opportunity Zones. They work as follows: Investors place their capital gains in so-called Opportunity Funds, which then invest in Opportunity Zones. They can invest in things like real estate and business development. The upside for investors is that they can defer and lower capital gains taxes. Under the law, in general terms, capital gains must be invested in Opportunity Funds within 180 days after the gain is realized. Due to COVID-19, the Internal Revenue Service extended the investment win16 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 5, 2020
The Corner development on the former Tiger Stadium site utilized Opportunity Zone financing. | COSTAR GROUP INC.
“OPPORTUNITY ZONES HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BE A GREAT RESOURCE FOR LOW- TO MODERATEINCOME COMMUNITIES, HOWEVER WITHOUT OVERSIGHT AND REPORTING REQUIREMENTS, THERE IS NO WAY OF KNOWING THE TRUE IMPACT OF THE FUNDING.” — Melinda Clemons, vice president and Detroit market leader for Enterprise Community Partners Inc.
dow for gains that would have expired between April and December 2020 such that investors can contribute to the fund as late as Dec. 31, 2020. Generally, patience is rewarded with lower taxes. If the gains are contributed to a fund by Dec. 31, 2021, and stay within the fund for five years, the investor only has to pay federal capital gains taxes on 90 percent of the tax due on the capital gains from the initial investment. In addition, capital gains tax on the initial investment is deferred until Dec. 31, 2026. There’s an extra carrot for investors if they leave the money in the fund 10 years or longer: They don’t have to pay any capital gains tax on the appreciation of the Opportunity Fund or depreciation recapture, in addition to getting the 10.9 percent discount rate on the tax due on the original investment and the deferral of the tax on the initial investment until Dec. 31, 2026. If they pull that money out before then, they pay normal capital gains tax on the fund’s appreciation.
Questions about oversight Opportunity Zones have not been without controversy. In general, critics argue that they could have been more acutely targeted in U.S. census tracts where investors may need more of a two-handed shove than a gentle nudge to put cash into things like real estate developments and business investments. There is also little oversight over the program, making it difficult to measure its true impacts, although some lawmakers have sponsored legislation calling for more accountability. “Opportunity Zones have the potential to be a great resource for low- to moderate-income communities, however without oversight and reporting requirements, there is no way of knowing the true impact
of the funding,” said Melinda Clemons, vice president and Detroit market leader for Enterprise Community Partners Inc. The Economic Innovation Group spearheaded the initiative that first started gaining traction in Congress in 2016. Dan Gilbert, the billionaire founder of Detroit-based mortgage giant Rocket Companies Inc. (NYSE: RKT), is a founding member of that organization. A story last year in the nonprofit news outlet ProPublica said that a census tract laden with Gilbert-owned real estate in and around downtown did not meet certain requirements of the new break on capital gains taxes, yet it became a Qualified Opportunity Zone anyway. The piece suggests Gilbert’s team influenced the White House to add it to the list of census tracts that the state could ultimately select. Gilbert’s team strongly disputed that. U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, and others have called for Opportunity Zones to be eliminated, introducing legislation a year ago on the matter. “Opportunity Zones were supposed to help uplift low-income communities and those living in poverty, but instead we are seeing them benefit billionaires and their luxury projects,” she said in a press release at the time. The Michigan State Housing Development Authority says in a document on its website that “clustering census tracts will enhance economic opportunity.” “Investors are not likely to invest in high-risk census tracts that have no potential,” the document reads.
Key projects A new tower planned for Greektown that would create that neighborhood’s first residential units in decades is expected to utilize Opportunity Zone equity,
said Marisa Varga, senior director of project development for LiftBuild, a Southfield-based subsidiary of Southfield-based general contractor Barton Malow Co. working on the project. She declined to say how much Opportunity Fund equity is being used for the 16-story building, which is anticipated to cost about $64.8 million and bring 165 residential units, with the 12 units on the top floors being for-sale condos and the other 153 being apartments. The project is planned for five parcels totaling a halfacre at Gratiot Avenue and Brush Street. Opportunity Fund capital was used for land acquisition and demolition of Shapero Hall, the former site of a Wayne State University pharmacy school, to make way for the planned Lafayette West development in the Lafayette Park neighborhood, said Amin Irving, president and CEO of Novi-based developer Ginosko Development Co., which is spearheading the planned $108 million project. “Opportunity Zone funding is important to Lafayette West because it made the capital raise process a lot quicker than anticipated,” Irving said. “As a result, we were able to acquire the property and ultimately demo the blighted building in an expedient manner.” Construction has not yet begun on the project, which was announced more than two years ago. The site sits wrapped in a scrim. In addition, Opportunity Zone funding was deployed in the redevelopment of the former Tigers Stadium site in Corktown by Eric Larson as well as Detroit-based The Platform LLC’s redevelopment of a vacant building in the Milwaukee Junction neighborhood now referred to as Chroma. Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB
THE D’S NEXT DECADE | ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Support for entrepreneurship shifts gears Renewed focus on equity comes as groups aim to help businesses make it through a storm BY NICK MANES
If the last decade was the one in which the entrepreneurial seed was planted in Detroit, the next decade will be focused almost entirely on making it blossom for far more people. Between 2007 and April of this year, the New Economy Initiative awarded 567 grants totaling more than $120 million — $36.1 million of which was focused directly on Detroit. That’s according to the most recent annual report from the Detroit-based entrepreneurial development organization that supports many of the other entrepreneur support programs in the region. More than 3,000 companies have been launched with help from the initiative, supported by grants from many of Michigan’s largest philanthropic foundations, during that period. “I am still hopeful that the small businesses in metro Detroit will come through this crisis,” NEI Director Pamela Lewis wrote in the April report just as the pandemic was at its peak in the Detroit area. “However, I think it will be a different landscape for them and for the network of support that has assisted thousands of them over the past 12 years.” The support network for Detroit entrepreneurs has grown substantially over the last several years, with a variety of organiza-
“WE HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO REBUILD THIS ECONOMY IN A FAR MORE EQUITABLE WAY.” — Ned Staebler, president and CEO of TechTown Detroit
tions operating in multiple capacities. Most provide some combination of funding, mentorship, cheap office space and practical business information. Like the entrepreneurs and small businesses they serve, most have also had to adapt to a new world requiring work be done in all new ways. And most of the support organizations are also working to better understand what their role might look like once the virus itself is gone, but the economic inequities that were shown under an ultra-bright spotlight during the pandemic still remain. “We’re going to need to rebuild this economy. It’s going to require a ton more stimulus, whether it’s at the federal level or state levels,” said Ned Staebler, the president and CEO of Wayne State University-affiliated business incubator TechTown Detroit. “When we use that, economic developers and policymakers are going to have to rethink who they work for, what their programs are designed to do, and who they benefit? We have an opportunity to rebuild this economy in a far more equitable way.” Doing so, Staebler said, will take far more “intentionality” than has been used before when designing programs and figuring out vehicles for getting funds into the hands of entrepreneurs. April Boyle, the founder and executive director of Build Institute in the Corktown
neighborhood, also shares that view. “I think the work of Build Institute will be more important than ever given the racial reckoning, all of the injustices that have been uncovered to the light of day,” said Boyle, who plans to leave the organization at the end of this year for a new, yet-to-beannounced opportunity. “Things we’ve known for 10 years ... are now becoming more clear,” Boyle said. “The understanding that women and people of color have been under-capitalized, under-invested, under-supported. And even though Detroit has a robust ecosystem, the amount of investment and support has just not been enough.” Making the region’s entrepreneurial community more equitable and inclusive was on the mind of most every support organization official contacted for this report. But as the organizations have had to pivot to virtual work and take myriad precautions to slow the spread, they’ve also uncovered other areas that require attention. For Invest Detroit, a community development finance institution that has deployed more than $400 m illion since 1995, the pandemic has meant having to work extra hard in order to help existing clients weather the storm. “It’s just being patient, being understanding,” said Keona Cowan, Invest Detroit’s executive vice president of lending.
“Trying to be as flexible as we can working with them, identifying needs. Trying to get them resources and fill the gaps ... to hopefully help them survive.” Boyle with Build Institute noted that the organization quickly ramped up its virtual offerings shortly after the pandemic, but later found that many people found themselves “inundated” with webinars and other virtual events. The organization ultimately decided to cut its programming in half. Going forward, sources say there’s sure to be some pruning as more and more organizations have come forward trying to offer some form of support to the city’s budding crop of entrepreneurs. “There are a lot of players in the Detroit entrepreneurial space, but this crisis has revealed who the necessary ones are, who the strong ones are,” said TechTown's Staebler, who pointed to organizations such as Detroit Economic Growth Corp., Invest Detroit and others. “Who’s really doing the work that has that impact, that is necessary. I’m not sure we’ll necessarily see a consolidation going forward, but with presumably some dwindling resources, there will be a refocus on some of those core institutions that serve the entrepreneurs in the community.” Contact: nmanes@crain.com; (313) 446-1626; @nickrmanes
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THE D’S NEXT DECADE | EXPANDING THE RENAISSANCE
PROJECTS
The former Kresge store at 14300 E. Jefferson Ave. in Detroit’s Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood is being renovated for a restaurant facing Jefferson Avenue and a community room in the back half of the building.
From Page 12
“It felt like it was worth doing to see if we could partner with a (community development corporation) in a different way,” Seybert said. “... This allows us to get in a bunch of different transactions and accelerate them in a way that we never could be project by project.” Kresge’s investment into EJDevCo is the first time the foundation has invested in a for-profit real estate development company, Seybert said. For the foundation, there’s a bit of its retail heritage rooted in the deal to provide the seed money for the redevelopment work. Across the street from the Vanity Ballroom sits a former Kresge store at 14300 E. Jefferson, where $2.2 million in renovation work is nearing completion. Before the pandemic, EJDevCo had lined up Alma Kitchen to open a Asian-Mexican fusion restaurant. But the coronavirus pandemic has upended those plans, so the company is shifting to creating a ghost kitchen for popup restaurants and commercial use until the restaurant industry rebounds and a long-term tenant can be secured, Scott said. Wendy Lewis Jackson, managing director of The Kresge Foundation’s Detroit Program, said the foundation is pleased to see EJDevCo is able to finish the project. “Given the challenges as well as opportunities with development in this city, particularly given the pandemic, they’re going very well,” she said. “We’re very glad to see that projects haven’t gotten derailed.”
CHAD LIVENGOOD/ CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
Pending final approval EJDevCo’s $14 million rehab of the Vanity Ballroom — which is just the white-box cost — still wouldn’t be financially possible without some philanthropic sources, which are expected to contribute $1.5 million to the project. Neumann/Smith Architecture has provided pro bono design services, Scott said. The building has 15,000 square feet of ground floor retail space that would need to be built out, Scott said. Upstairs, the developers are seeking community input for how to activate the one-time ballroom space. Ideas include co-working offices that also include access for residents to use the space for fine arts or theater, Scott said.
“Given the context of what’s currently happening, that may be something that might have to evolve in the future what that looks like in this space,” said Scott, who previously worked for Ford Land Development Co. EJDevCo is awaiting final approval from Mayor Mike Duggan’s administration to create the state’s first neighborhood-level Targeted Redevelopment Area that allows for growth in property taxes on occupied buildings to be captured on a commercial corridor to finance the redevelopment of neighboring buildings. “A lot of that is contingent upon the approval of the TRA,” Scott said of the $121 million in projects. “It’s huge for this. It gets it over the finish line.”
“WE’RE VERY GLAD TO SEE THAT PROJECTS HAVEN’T GOTTEN DERAILED.” — Wendy Lewis Jackson, managing director of The Kresge Foundation’s Detroit Program
Arthur Jemison, the city of Detroit’s group executive for housing, planning and development, said in a statement that the city is working with the developer and the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority “to find the right match to support this project” under existing law. “These are exciting developments,” Jemison said in an email. Under Michigan’s mid-1990s brownfield redevelopment financing law, cities and the Michigan Strategic Fund can designate specific redevelopment areas encompassing no fewer than 40 parcels and no more than 500 parcels for incremental captures of property tax growth on buildings within that area. It’s an alternative to abating the taxes altogether, providing a recurring source of funding for redeveloping other properties on the corridor, Scott said. Scott said property tax growth would be captured from a handful of redeveloped buildings in Jefferson-Chalmers — the Marlborough apartments, Norma G’s Caribbean restaurant and Yellow Light Coffee & Donuts, which opened this winter just before the COVID-19 public health crisis hit Detroit in March. For the Vanity Ballroom project, the TRA’s tax capture will contribute $3 million to the project. Scott said about $1.5 million is needed to put a new roof on the building and repair its exterior. “Once we get the final approval for the TRA, we’ll get the roof on and shore up all of the façade work,” Scott said. Contact: clivengood@crain.com; (313) 446-1654; @ChadLivengood
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Detroit Homecoming VII created a memorable virtual and live experience in September: 55 speakers (virtual), 5 neighborhood tours (including hidden, potential gems like the Vanity Ballroom in this picture), small group dinners across Detroit and more than 500 attendees, including 40 “Detroit expats” who attended in person. After seven years, Detroit Homecoming continues to inspire.
THANK YOU TO THE GENEROUS SPONSORS WHO SUPPORTED DETROIT HOMECOMING VII:
SPECIAL THANKS TO: Bloomscape | Carhartt | Detroit Institute of Arts | Detroit Out Loud | KLA | NoHo Hospitality & San Morello Restaurant | Salonniere Mary Riegle, Downtown Detroit Partnership CRAIN/HOMECOMING PRODUCTION TEAM: Reginald Brown | Kristin Bull | Medvis Jackson | Sylvia KolaskI | Timothy Simpson | Kelsey Strachan
Read all about it and watch the archived livestream video at detroithomecoming.com VII
THE D’S NEXT DECADE | MOBILITY
Mobility and equity aren’t synonymous, but can be Providing cheap options for commuters can open up opportunity for job holders, seekers BY DUSTIN WALSH
As the states prepares to begin a viability study for the planned 40-mile autonomous corridor between Detroit and Ann Arbor, the question of mobility’s role in creating social, economic and racial equity remains. Mobility projects throughout the state have been built on the promise of delivering new services to those who need it the most. But as the region’s auto sector continues to double down on autonomous vehicles, the path to a more equitable future is unclear. Experts in the state tackled the topic during Crain’s Detroit Homecoming event last month and the consensus is that mobility can deliver on its pledge but equity is not a foregone conclusion. “When we want to talk about new economic opportunities, I believe (Detroit) can also become a model for the country on how we grapple with civil and social unrest along with a pandemic and an economic crisis,” David Woessner, executive vice president of corporate development and regulatory affairs for Phoenix-based Local Motors Industries said in a virtual panel discussion on the issue. “How we truly create opportunities for not just one type of demographic in certain areas that’s what this city and this industry can con-
Cavnue is leading a multicounty effort to create an autonomous and connected vehicle corridor from Ann Arbor to Detroit. | CAVNUE
tinue to grapple with ... talking about equity and how you create an equitable approach for the future of manufacturing mobility along the way.” Racial equity in manufacturing has been at the forefront for decades — since white flight began in the late 1940s. As white families fled to the suburbs, businesses followed. Between 1947 and 1963, 25 new auto plants were built by General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler — all in the suburbs. The deindustrialization of the city led to more than 143,000 job losses. The city has never recovered those jobs, but leaders hope that could
change as projects like the mobility corridor along Michigan Avenue can create a more connected region. A 2017 study by the board, funded by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., revealed that Detroit had 258,807 jobs in 2014 and a population of 706,663. That’s only 0.37 jobs for every resident. Connecting Detroit and the suburbs remains critical. “Sometimes good jobs have come for us but mobility and innovation haven’t lifted up the people in the city of Detroit itself,” Jessica Robinson, co-founder and board member of Detroit-based nonprofit Michigan Mobility Institute, which is set on training
workers for new jobs in the mobility space, told Crain’s in an interview. “I do think that mobility innovation has an opportunity to raise up communities and connect them ... but it’s not necessarily a given.” The mobility industry believes it can play a role in providing cheap options for commuters, opening up more equity to job holders and seekers. The poorest 20 percent of Americans spend 40.2 percent of their take-home pay on transportation, while those who make $71,898 and greater only spend 13.1 percent, according to a 2018 report from The Greenlining Institute. But beyond helping people access jobs, the industry is focused on creating jobs, and where those jobs are located is critical to the region. For the Mobility Institute, equity begins with training to augment a local mobility workforce, Robinson said. The nonprofit estimates autonomous vehicles and electrification alone will create 120,000 new jobs in the U.S. over the next 10 years and the demand for these jobs is outpacing the supply of qualified college graduates by sixfold. “We don’t have a choice; we have to figure it out,” Robinson said. “The accelerating pace of the job change for this industry ... these are good-paying jobs and they can go somewhere else in
many cases. They can even be done remotely. We need these skills today.” Mobility’s role in job creation can extend beyond its own sector — or at least that’s the hope of the Michigan Avenue project. The 40-mile project will include communities along Michigan Avenue and I-94 in Wayne and Washtenaw counties and include up to 12 Opportunity Zones in which investors can park investment dollars for tax breaks. Economic development to create equity is part of the formula. Real estate investors lined up to develop properties along Woodward Avenue ahead of the build-out of the privately funded QLine light rail route. Investors spent more than $1 billion on properties along the 6.6-mile route ahead of its opening in May 2017. But whether that investment translated to an economic boost for city residents is not clear. “From what I’ve seen ... mobility infrastructure investment, whether that’s rail, bus rapid transit or a corridor like this often does have an economic development benefit,” Robinson said. “ ... I think it’s not a necessity that it has those same community benefits, but it can.” Contact: dwalsh@crain.com; (313) 446-6042; @dustinpwalsh
“We hope for better things; it will rise from the ashes.” City of Detroit Motto
Join us in celebrating and supporting the spirit, creativity, and resilience of our region.
OCTOBER 5, 2020 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 21
THE D’S NEXT DECADE | RIVERFRONT
With east RiverWalk nearly complete, focus turns west Efforts push to add connections, accessibility to the river from Detroit’s neighborhoods BY SHERRI WELCH
Less than two decades after the transformation of Detroit’s riverfront began, the eastern RiverWalk is nearing completion. The project has opened up the city’s east riverfront to residents and visitors, converting once vacant, blighted and industrial properties to public parks and inviting green spaces. “It’s mind-blowing,” said President and CEO Mark Wallace. “It’s something our community has wanted for a very long time and something the Riverfront Conservancy has been working on for close to 20 years.” Now the nonprofit shepherding the project, the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, is extending its work to the west riverfront and the twomile span of RiverWalk planned there. It completed the first two pieces of the west RiverWalk this summer, projects leading up to development of the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park (formerly known as West Riverfront Park.) The park, funded as part of a $100 million grant from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation in 2018, is expected to wrap up in 2023. There are places in other cities like farmers’ markets or in New York City, Central Park that attract a large number of people, said Wallace. Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial
The Detroit RiverWalk boardwalk in front of Riverfront Towers was one of the first pieces of the western span completed this summer. | JOANN CASTLE
The transformation of the riverfront through the RiverWalk has nearly reached completion on the city’s east riverfront. | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
Park is going to be that “magnet” for Detroit, he said. Completion of the park will leave a roughly one-mile stretch of the west RiverWalk to complete the conservancy’s vision for a 5.5-mile span stretching from Gabriel Richard Park, east of the MacArthur Bridge to Belle Isle, west to the Ambassador Bridge. If things go according to plan, construction on the final leg of the east RiverWalk — a roughly half-mile
connection across the Uniroyal site to Gabriel Richard Park — could be completed by early 2022, Wallace said. The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy in late August teamed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on a $2.9 million project to clean up contaminated sediments along the Detroit River, setting the stage for construction of the final portion of the east RiverWalk. As the east span has progressed,
Detroit Riverfront Conservancy president and CEO Mark Wallace. | JOE POLIMENI
it’s sparked a series of public park developments and greenway paths to connect the neighborhoods to the riverfront. At the same time, greenway paths have taken shape to give residents access to the river. The Dequindre Cut Greenway opened along a former, below-ground Grand Trunk Railroad line in 2009, provides a biking and walking path from Detroit’s Eastern Market to the river. And the city-developed, 1.2-mile Joseph Campau Greenway is nearing completion, Wallace said. It will connect the East Vernor Highway and Joseph Campau Avenue area on the city’s east side to the riverfront. Those pathways send “a strong message that everyone who lives on the east side deserves a permanent path to the riverfront,” he said.
Building to the west Work on the two-mile span of the west RiverWalk took a leap forward this summer with completion of the first two pieces of the west RiverWalk: a small length along the river side of the former executive parking lot for Joe Louis Arena, property owned by The Platform Group, and a boardwalk 17 feet off land’s edge to continue the RiverWalk over the water in front of Riverfront Towers. “Those two projects are incredibly significant for us... they connect the east riverfront to the west riverfront,” Wallace said. Next year, construction is expected to start on the next piece of the west leg along property owned by the Detroit Downtown Development Authority, taking the RiverWalk to the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park. Construction on the park is set to be22 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 5, 2020
gin in early 2021 and wrap up by the end of 2023, Wallace said. As planned, the final connection of the west RiverWalk extends roughly a mile from Centennial Park to Riverside Park on the west side of the Ambassador Bridge. The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy doesn’t yet have control of that site, Wallace said. “It’s a complicated site. From what we understand, the Morouns own the land and there are some longterm leases with some of the national train companies.” “That’s been part of our vision since 2003. When the opportunity arises to move forward with that, we’d certainly like to see that project get done,” Wallace said. The goal for the west riverfront is to provide an experience that’s every bit as exciting for residents there as the east riverfront is for east siders, he said. The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy is working with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and others on plans and land assembly for the May Creek Greenway. As envisioned, the greenway will start at Vernor near Michigan Central Train Station and end at Centennial Park, running alongside the Michigan Central Railway Tunnel. The goal is to complete it in 2022. The conservancy has invested $169 million in the RiverWalk project so far, Wallace said. Work on the last piece of the east RiverWalk and up through completion of the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park on the west riverfront are expected to bring total costs into the neighborhood of $325 million-$375 million, he said. Contact: swelch@crain.com; (313) 446-1694; @SherriWelch
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n 2019, The Kresge Foundation formally adopted equity as its sixth organizational value alongside Opportunity, Partnership, Respect, Stewardship and Creativity. Our 2019 Kresge Annual Report, now available in print and online, charts how Kresge adopted the principle of equity and a mandate to bring fairness and justice into every facet of our grantmaking, social investing and operations. We are raising consciousness about what equity means, and what it requires of us in our work in our hometown of Detroit, in cities across the country and within our own four walls.
n o i t a d n u o F e g The Kres t n e m e t a t S y t Equi
The Kresge Foundation centers equity as one of its organizational values. Equity to us means that all people — regardless of race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, zip code, health and ability status or any other consideration — have equal and inviolable dignity, value and opportunity to participate justly, fairly and fully in all dimensions of civic and economic life . . . to prosper . . . and to reach their full potential.
r Learn more about ou our journey – and that of e– partners nation wid ty in working toward equi In, Inside Out & Outside dation the 2019 Kresge Foun Annual Report.
SCAN OR VISIT EQUITYINSIDEOUT.ORG TO LEARN MORE.
Since this country’s inception, every facet of community life has been shaped by pervasive, enduring, corrosive, and invidious structural and institutional impediments to racial equity and racial justice. The progress toward urban opportunity to which Kresge is dedicated cannot be accomplished without an explicit acknowledgment that these impediments have caused communities of color to suffer systemic and systematic underinvestment, active disenfranchisement, pernicious prejudice, and visceral intolerance. Kresge’s mission will be realized only when those impediments have been dismantled and pathways of equitable opportunity substituted in their place. We commit to examining in all ways and at every opportunity how our foundation’s work can repair, heal, and renew communities to be places where diversity thrives, where inclusion and belonging is the norm, and where equity in all its forms is the outcome. That commitment begins inside our own organization. We welcome difficult conversations and commit to continuous learning about how to do better. Through critical examination of the values, implicit biases, policies and practices that drive both our internal culture and external engagements, we will strive to fashion an institutional role that propels, rather than impedes, progress for the communities we aim to serve. We are unequivocal in our commitment to equity. We invite all to join us in it . . . hold us to it . . . help us deepen it . . . and persevere until we achieve it.
kresge.org
“Society is calling for racial equity, and we have the power to turn that call into action.” —La June Montgomery Tabron, W.K. Kellogg Foundation President & CEO
As leaders, we have an opportunity to change the trajectory of our organizations and our communities. Society is calling for racial equity. If we take action collectively, it could reap an $8 trillion dollar gain in U.S. GDP. That’s what we’ve learned in producing The Business Case for Racial Equity. The full report is available on the Detroit Homecoming RESOURCES page. The takeaway from that analysis is that equitable practices in employment, income, home ownership and health coverage drive economic growth. Racial equity is more than a slogan. It’s a pursuit that requires action in every circle — and we all have a role to play. Detroit’s homegrown champions — past, present and future — can build the city all of our children deserve.
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THE D’S NEXT DECADE | HOMECOMING RECAP
Unfiltered, uncomfortable and real talk from Black execs
L
ast month, during the Crain-produced Detroit Homecoming, I had the chance to moderate a conversation about “Corporate America’s” response to the country’s urgent racial equity conversations. It was a powerful conversation, and it took some turns I didn’t expect. (In that, I have new sympathy for Chris Wallace.) The speakers were four powerful Black executives with ties to Detroit: self-made media mogul Byron Allen, founder and chairman of Entertainment Studios and Allen Media in Los Angeles; Roz Brewer, COO of Starbucks and a member of Amazon’s corporate board; Ford Foundation CEO Darren Walker, who is on the boards of Pepsico Inc., Ralph Lauren and Square; and Robin Washington, whose experience as a tech company CFO has led to corporate director roles at Alphabet, Honeywell and Salesforce. Three of the four were born in or around Detroit. Walker has strong ties here and reconnected the Ford Foundation to Southeast Michigan, where it was born. I asked some questions. But mostly, I listened. Others did, too. Karen Hudson Samuels, who runs the WGPR TV Historical Society and museum devoted to Detroit’s Black broadcast history, wrote me later: “This particular panel should be required viewing by all business leaders, white and Black alike, and included in every company’s diversity initiative.” The four were candid and largely unfiltered. And the dominant voice was Allen’s, who started in standup comedy but was deadly serious when he shelled out $1 million over the summer to buy two facing pages of advertising in eight of the nation’s top newspapers — Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, the New York Times and even the Detroit Free Press. The headline read: “Black America Speaks. America Should Listen.” Across two pages, Allen described his childhood in Detroit in the 1960s, with National Guard troops on the streets and laid out his 10-point manifesto on actions needed to ensure we “never come
26 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 5, 2020
Mary
KRAMER
Group Publisher
“DO BUSINESS WITH US IN A WAY THAT’S REAL, AND IT’S NOT TOKENISM. DO BUSINESS WITH US IN A WAY THAT YOU’RE NOT AFRAID OF OUR COMPETITION.” — Byron Allen, founder, chairman and CEO, Allen Media Group/Entertainment Studios
“WE’RE BEYOND BEING LUCKY AND GRATEFUL TO BE IN THE ROOM. THERE SHOULD BE MORE LIKE US IN THE ROOM AND WE HAVE TO SAY THAT.” — Darren Walker, Ford Foundation CEO
“I CAN TELL THAT THE CULTURE IS NOT READY FOR ME. I REFUSE TO COME IN THE ROOM AND NOT BE HEARD, NOT BE LISTENED TO AND NOT BE RESPECTED FOR WHO I AM, AN AFRICAN AMERICAN BLACK WOMAN FROM DETROIT, EDUCATED AND WITH SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCE IN A CORPORATE SETTING… I WANT TO HELP RAISE THE BAR.” — Roz Brewer, COO of Starbucks and a member of Amazon’s corporate board
back here again,” from police and justice reforms to economic inclusion to reparations and jobs, internships and mentorships. At one point in the live discussion, he criticized General Motors and Ford Motor Co. for not spending advertising dollars in Black-owned media, namely his media properties and others. (Allen owns The Weather Channel, network TV stations and several cable networks.) He singled out GM CEO Mary Barra for not taking a Zoom call with him recently; his meeting was instead with a high-ranking executive in global marketing. To Allen, it was insulting. But I could also see, from the GM side, that delegating to the appropriate person closer to the actual business at hand — media buying — would be typical. Or perhaps GM was aware of Allen’s recent lawsuits against Comcast, AT&T and Charter Communications alleging racial bias in not carrying Allen-owned cable networks. (Two of the three suits were settled; a third, against Charter, is moving ahead in court.) In any event, the remarks were startling and difficult. Picking on GM is gutsy. When I reached out to GM after the session, the company supplied a fact sheet: GM has more minority dealers — which includes people of color and women — than any other automaker in the U.S. It also created the first diversity supplier initiative more than 50 years ago, spending more than $7 billion with minority suppliers in 2018. And in June, Barra announced the goal that GM would become the inclusive company in the world, creating an advisory group that included two outsiders to help it reach that goal. In the live broadcast, Allen argued that in most any corporate measure of “diversity spending,” white women are included as minorities. And Black America is 14 percent of the population overall. (Black Enterprise magazine reported in 2016 that 5 percent of auto dealerships overall were Black-owned.) So Allen was purposely disruptive. He
(Left to right, top to bottom): Mary Kramer, Byron Allen, Roz Brewer, Darren Walker and Robin Washington discuss corporate response to racial equity in a Detroit Homecoming webcast. CRAINSDETROIT.COM/ HOMECOMING
HEAR THE DISCUSSION ` The video of this discussion and all Detroit Homecoming sessions are available at Detroit Homecoming. com. Click on “Livestream Events” at the top of the page. ` Listen to Crain’s Group Publisher Mary Kramer and Managing Editor Michael Lee talk about the week’s stories every Monday morning at 6:15 a.m. Mondays on WJR 760 AM’s Paul W. Smith Show.
wanted to make a direct point, but in doing so, I’m not sure he’ll ever get that call from Barra. Disruption was on Walker’s mind, too, when he spoke about the need for Black corporate directors to have courage to disrupt what he described as a “white male perspective,” a consensus on many corporate boards. Black executives, especially women “have been made to feel lucky to be in the room. We’re beyond being lucky and grateful to be in the room. There should be more like us in the room and we have to say that.” Brewer told of turning down board positions if she got a whiff of anything like what Walker described. “This (Amazon) is my fourth board seat… there are some I have flat-out turned down. I can tell that the culture is not ready for me. I refuse to come in the room and not be heard, not be listened to and not be respected for who I am, an African American Black woman from Detroit, educated and with significant experience in a corporate setting… I want to help raise the bar.” Washington, with a CFO background, said companies now are creating goals and metrics on racial equity, and it’s up to the corporate directors to “make sure what we say we’re going to do gets done.” The consensus on the panel was hopeful that in a country with growing distrust in major institutions, Corporate America can actually lead. “There is a place for corporations to show up just because of the influence we have on the everyday work place,” said Brewer, who chairs the board at her alma mater, Spelman College. Education is key to social mobility, she added, pointing to the impact of Starbucks offering its “baristas” free tuition for online courses at Arizona State University toward degrees. Clearly, this one-hour conversation could have easily been two hours. We were hearing perspectives and experiences, largely uninterrupted and unfiltered, from four people with different and important things to say.
DAY ONE LINEUP STACEY HOTWAXX HALE • BALLET FOLKLORICO DE DETROIT • GOOD CAKES AND BAKES • JAMON JORDAN AND JOEL FLUENT GREENE • DETROIT ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES CHOIR • JESSICA CARE MOORE • MR. & MRS. SMOOTH • DJ ERNO • CHARITY • RAYE WILLIAMS
DAY TWO LINEUP THE BUSHMAN • MALIK YAKINI • SOCIAL CLUB GROOMING CO. • MIKE’S KABOB GRILLE • KING THOMAS MOORE • DJ KILLA SQUID • PHIL “FRESH” SIMPSON SHEEFY MCFLY • KING DIDDO • KEEP JIT ALIVE DANCERS JOEL FLUENT GREENE • INNER CITY Check out DetroitOutLoud.com to see the full virtual event and show how much Detroit means to you!
THE D’S NEXT DECADE | HOMECOMING RECAP
Real estate veterans outline challenges, opportunities in fostering equitable development in Detroit BY KIRK PINHO
People keyed in on real estate and economic development in Detroit’s neighborhoods examined successes and setbacks — as well as the future — in a discussion at Detroit Homecoming. The Rev. Barry Randolph of the Church of the Messiah; former CIO of The Platform LLC, Everard Findlay; Derric Scott, CEO of the East Jefferson Development Corp.; and David Alade of Detroit-based Century Partners were the panelists during the Crain’s Detroit Business-produced event. In addition, Chris Leinberger, managing partner and cofounder of Washington, D.C.-based Places Platform LLC and professor emeritus at the Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis at the George Washington University School of Business, delivered remarks. Randolph and Findlay said the Islandview area near Belle Isle where the two men are focused represents a microcosm of Detroit. “It is a well-knit community and neighborhood,” Randolph said. “Islandview has a lot of assets and a lot of community organizations working to make sure the community is
looked after during times of development.” The church, which also has a housing development corporation that is working on new housing in the area, sits in the area collectively known as The Villages, which includes the East Village, Gold Coast, Indian Village, Islandview, Joseph Berry Subdivision, North Village and West Village neighborhoods. And Scott said the broader vision for the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood at Jefferson’s eastern edge before it reaches the Grosse Pointe area is a $600 million-plus, five-phase
#
Clockwise from top left: David Alade, Eric Larson, the Rev. Barry Randolph, Everard Findlay, and Derric Scott on the webcast
master plan that includes new residential and retail. Crain’s reported in August that the plan has a total estimated cost of $643 million over 17 years; the plan’s first phase began in 2018 and the second phase is set to begin by the end of the year and continue into next. “We are one of the few neighborhoods in Detroit where you can actually access the river from the neighborhood,” Scott said during the
panel. “We haven’t seen market forces really hit this area yet. We’ve really tried to get ahead of what we thought were gentrification pressures and get behind an environment that would produce neighborhood development on this side of Detroit.” Randolph and Scott are both attempting to secure the right to develop new housing on a 1.2-acre site at East Grand Boulevard and East Jefferson Avenue, Crain’s reported on Tuesday. And Alade, whose Century Partners is working with The Platform in Detroit’s Fitzgerald neighborhood on an ambitious development effort there, said it remains difficult to access financing around the city, but particularly in the neighborhoods outside downtown, Midtown, New Center and Corktown. “Unfortunately, the same financing challenges we ran into in 2015, they still exist in Detroit, even for a development as high-profile as this,” Alade
said. “Some of the wealthiest and most dense parts of the city need financial support to be sustainable via subsidy, tax credits, low-interest construction loans. In Fitzgerald, there aren’t those types of resources available. “For development to really occur and happen in a scale that we and the city would like it to, we need to have financial tools for single-family housing, duplexes, four-unit buildings.” He said early in the company’s development history for other projects, it received financing from groups like Detroit LISC ($600,000) which allowed it to continue to invest in other areas, including Fitzgerald. And although the project has experienced delays, Alade said it is starting to bear fruit. Since it started 3 1/2 years ago, home values have increased by over 300 percent, according to Alade, who founded Century Partners with Andrew Colom. In addition, there are 12 new residents and seven first-time homebuyers, Alade said. “From our perspective, we are only in the second inning, and this is really, really, really cool,” he said. Contact: kpinho@crain.com; (313) 446-0412; @kirkpinhoCDB
DEPSA Girls Varsity Basketball State Champions Celebrate a talented young Detroiter you know using #DetroitGenius Detroit youth possess genius. Their talent comes in all forms: academics, arts, sports, service to the community, and more. To celebrate Detroit genius, we asked the community at-large to let us know of young people who astonish and inspire. See 60 examples at skillman.org/60x
28 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 5, 2020
t i r i p S MSU and DETROIT
THE
FOR A BETTER TOMORROW
For decades, Michigan State University Spartans have worked with partners in Detroit to support economic development, advance the arts, transform schools, improve health and protect the environment. Like Detroit, the Spartan community is resilient, hardworking and committed to empowering people for better lives. Together, we’re finding solutions to make a smarter, healthier and more prosperous tomorrow for all. Learn more about MSU partnerships in Detroit and across Michigan at mispartanimpact.msu.edu
THE D’S NEXT DECADE | SCENES FROM DETROIT HOMECOMING VII
Black artists, collectors celebrated at exhibition As part of the theme “Advancing Equity,” Detroit Homecoming VII partnered with Salonnière to highlight Black artists and Black collectors during the September event. Salonnière created an Art & Activism campaign to give high school art students in Detroit a platform to use the power of art to voice their feelings on issues such as racial justice, immigration, climate change and activism. The Detroit Public Schools Community District students included Alejandra Cantu, Cass Tech; Brooklynne Walker, Academy of the Americas; Lakayla Walton, East English Village Preparatory Academy; Nevaeh Corbiser-Brummitt, Martin Luther King; Earl Williams, Detroit School of Arts; and film students Brionne David and Dea’onne Reynolds, Detroit School of Arts. Digital downloads of their works are available for $20 each, with proceeds going to benefit the fine arts program in the Detroit public school district. The artwork can be seen on Salonnière’s website, salonniere.co/art-activism. To kick off the project, the Shinola Hotel and San Morello restaurant hosted an art salon “takeover” dinner on Sept. 23, featuring conversations with Black artists, collectors and student artists. Detroit artists featured at the event were: Judy Bowman, Desiree Kelly, Mario Moore, Tylonn Sawyer, Tiff Massey and Colibri Harris. Collectors included Harold Braggs and Henry Harper, co-founders of the De-
Student participants in Salonnière’s Art & Activism campaign included (left to right) Lakayla Walton, East English Village Preparatory Academy; Brooklynne Walker, Academy of the Americas; Alejandra Cantu, Cass Tech; Earl Williams, Detroit School of Arts. DANIELA LISI FOR SALONNIÈRE
troit Fine Arts Breakfast Club; Linda and David Whitaker, Troy Mooyoung and Doris Rhea. Some of these collectors had loaned works to the Detroit Institute of Arts for the 2019 show, “Detroit Collects.” The Sept. 23 art salon event also sparked a special menu paired with Kelly’s work, “The OG’s: Grandma and Auntie.” Patrons can order the menu at San Morello or for delivery and pickup through Oct. 24, with a portion of the proceeds gifted to DPSCD fine arts programming. Artist Desiree Kelly described the collaboration with Chef Andrew Carmellini: “Grandma and Auntie are two of the
strongest people I know…. I love the idea of a creative interpretation of my work and transforming it into another medium (cooking) and just like my artwork, creating a new genre.” Salonnière is a culture and conversation agency inspired by historic, female-led salons in Harlem, Paris, Cairo, Berlin, Buenos Aires and other spots around the world. “We want to encourage the Homecoming community and the wider Crain audience to support, collect and purchase work from Detroit-based artists and celebrate the work of youth artists,” said Sa-
lonnière founder Julie Egan, who attended Detroit Homecoming I while working for the U.S. State Department. Egan noted that the French meaning for “Salonnière” is “the woman who holds salons.” Besides Shinola Hotel/San Morello, other sponsors of the initiative include the Richard and Jane Manoogian Foundation, the Knight Foundation and the audio-visual firm, KLA. To support featured artists, Kelly’s limited edition signed prints of The OGs: Grandma and Auntie are available through October at salonniere.co/desiree-painting.
NYC’s Doctoroff bullish on cities bouncing back from COVID-19
Former Twitter CEO Costolo weighs in on social media
BY CHAD LIVENGOOD
BY NICK MANES
Don’t write off people’s inclination to congregate in cities just yet. That was Birmingham native and former New York City Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff’s message on the opening day of Detroit Homecoming. Doctoroff spoke via webcast in an interview with Rip Rapson, CEO of The Kresge Foundation, which has been a leading philanthropic advocate for revitalizing and repopulating Detroit. “The long-term opportunities continue to be extremely favorable,” Doctoroff said. “I think the question is really a short-term issue.” Doctoroff, who served as deputy mayor of New York under Mike Bloomberg, said the benefits of city life — from job opportunities to networking and “excitement” — remain “fundamentally the same,” even as some New Yorkers have left the city for socially distanced life in rural areas of the Northeast. “I’m a believer that people want to congregate, they want to be together, that there are enormous benefits to being in dense places,” said Doctoroff, who is now CEO of Sidewalk Labs, a tech company owned by Alphabet Inc. that’s focused on improving urban life. Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners LLC, a company that spun out of Sidewalk Labs, recently won a contract through its subsidiary Cavnue with the state of Michigan to study and eventually develop an autonomous vehicle lane on Michigan Avenue between Detroit and Ann Arbor. Doctoroff spoke about that project during Monday’s Homecoming session. “Massive amounts of money have gone into the development of autonomous vehicles,” he said. “Dramatically less money has actually gone into the infrastructure that enables them.” 30 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 5, 2020
”GOING FORWARD, IN ORDER TO GROW, WE HAVE TO EARN PEOPLE’S TRUST. AND MAKING INVESTMENTS IN COMMUNITIES AND PEOPLE HAVING CONFIDENCE THAT THAT’S GOING TO OCCUR IS REALLY, REALLY CRITICAL.” — Former New York City Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff
If Detroit and Michigan can develop the autonomous vehicle corridor, Doctoroff said, it would give the state “another calling card in the race to be real urban innovators with respect to mobility.” Rapson noted Kresge’s work in recent years on trying to get voter and political support for improved regional mass transportation in Southeast Michigan. Some opponents of increased use of buses and the introduction of light rail has been the region should wait for the launch of autonomous vehicle shuttles and other next-generation technology. “One of the pushbacks that occasionally arose was you’re sort of overlooking the potential of next-generation technology by sort of wedding yourselves to buses and rail lines,” Rapson said. “The irony may be that people may have been partly right to be able to look at this kind of solution, or partial solution, to regional mobility — it could be quite extraordinary.” Doctoroff said Detroit could benefit from not having existing infrastructure such as light rail to grapple with the changing ways people move around metropolitan areas. “We are where we are and the question is how do you use what you’ve got in order to create something new and exciting and powerful that could be a real jobs generator and also tie the region together in a way that it hasn’t been in the past,” he said. Cities such as Detroit need “inclusive growth” that guards against gentrification while not turning away investment, Doctoroff said. “Finding that new model, I think, is going to be the challenge to enable cities to really recover and actually be stronger than they were before,” said Doctoroff , a former CEO and president of Bloomberg L.P. Contact: clivengood@crain.com; (313) 446-1654; @ChadLivengood
Dick Costolo has a bit of a different tone than many of the present-day social media executives when it comes to regulating content on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Costolo — the former CEO of Twitter Inc., as well as a Troy native, graduate of the University of Michigan and serial entrepreneur — says he’s not buying the notion that all content on social media platforms needs to be treated equally. “The notion that you can treat every account equally, I think is both untrue and ... shouldn’t be a goal,” Costolo said during aconversation with Sam Gill, senior vice president and chief program officer at the Knight Foundation based in Miami, as part of this year’s mostly virtual Detroit Homecoming event. “”ou know, why should an account that was created an hour ago, that hasn’t validated their phone number or email address, and has zero followers be treated as be treated the same as, I don’t know, the National Review or the New York Times or pick your political affiliation publication? They shouldn’t be treated equally.” Large social media companies have been reluctant to regulate speech on their platforms, which has led to considerable pushback from users and major advertisers. But the reluctance by social media companies like Facebook to regulate often hateful speech on their platforms amounts to an “abdication of responsibilities” by the companies, according to Costolo, who added that’s something the companies do every day as a matter of practice. “It’s nonsense,” Costolo said. “Obviously, you do decide what can and can’t be on the platform because you take down criminal behavior, you take down people ... selling Nazi paraphernalia in Germany, you take that down. So to say, ‘Hey, we’re just a plat-
form, we’re not here to determine what’s what’s right and what’s wrong or what’s true and what’s false.’ It’s just nonsense. They already do.” Costolo’s discussion with Gill is far Costolo from the first time he’s been outspoken about the shortcomings of social media companies when it comes to dealing with such issues. “We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we’ve sucked at it for years,” Costolo wrote in 2015, according to reporting by The Verge. “It’s no secret and the rest of the world talks about it every day. We lose core user after core user by not addressing simple trolling issues that they face every day.” Now residing in the San Francisco Bay area, Costolo spoke fondly of growing up in metro Detroit, saying it gave him a “sense of humility” not often found in Silicon Valley. Costolo earned a bachelor of science degree in computer science from UM and had a stint after college working in improvisational theater and comedy in famed Chicago venues including Second City. While based in the tech and venture capital-heavy Bay Area, Costolo said he believes the COVID-19 pandemic and increasingly devastating wildfires are sure to accelerate an exodus from the West Coast and that metro Detroit should be well-positioned to capture some of the runoff. “It is no longer the case and is becoming obvious to people here in the Bay Area, that you don’t need to be in San Francisco or Silicon Valley. Contact: nmanes@crain.com; (313) 446-1626; @nickrmanes
SUPPORTING IDEAS FROM DETROITERS WITH THE VISION, TENACITY, COURAGE, AND COMMITMENT TO SEE THEM THROUGH.
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THE D’S NEXT DECADE | HOMECOMING RECAP
Guests mingle during the Detroit Homecoming dinner at Lumen Detroit.
Lisa Milton, lead designer of Redesign and Restoration, smiles during the Detroit Homecoming open air market event at Cadillac Square on Sept. 25. | SYLVIA JARRUS FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS Caroline Sanders, left, talks with Alecia Gabriel during the Detroit Homecoming dinner at Lumen.
A DIFFERENT LOOK Detroit Homecoming VII took on a different look this year. Most of the event, which aims to re-engage successful metro Detroit natives with their hometown, was held virtually. But there were small, masked and socially distanced neighborhood tours and dinners for both Detroit expats and locals. PHOTOGRAPHS BY NIC ANTAYA FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
Derric Scott, CEO of East Jefferson Development Corp., right, leads the Detroit Homecoming Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood tour in Detroit.
Lutalo Sanifu presents at Alfred Brush Ford Park during the Detroit Homecoming Jefferson-Chalmers Neighborhood tour Beth Konrad participates in the Detroit Homecoming Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood tour. 32 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 5, 2020
A R T TO TA B L E M E N U TM
SAN MORELLO | SHINOLA HOTEL Chef Andrew Carmellini x Detroit Artist Desiree Kelly x Salonniere An artful culinary experience inspired by Desiree Kelly’s artwork “The OGs: Grandma and Auntie.” *Portion of proceeds supports DPSCD Fine Arts Programs during COVID-19
Purchase Prints: salonniere.co/art-to-table
Dining Room | Takeout | Delivery until October 24th www.sanmorello.com @sanmorellodetroit @desireekellyart
A R T + AC T I V I S M
@salonniere
TM
SUPPORT DPSCD FINE ARTS STUDENTS Buy an Art + Activism student art digital download and Support Detroit Public Schools Community District Fine Arts Program during COVID-19. To purchase student digital art go to www.salonniere.co/art-activism or
Scan code to view student artwork
scan code using your phone camera: "Las Reinas" By Brooklynne Walker
"A Beautiful Ending" by Nevaeh Corbiser-Brummitt
“The Champ” by Earl Williams
"Land For All Or Land For None" by Alejandra Cantu
"Pieces of the Detroit Story" by Lakayla Walton
ONLINE CARE During pandemic, virtual care broke ground for mental health counseling
HEALTH CARE
PAGE 36
COVID’S HEAVY TOLL
Depression, suicides, opioid overdoses increase in the pandemic era
The COVID-19 pandemic, which has taken lives and jobs and stressed families, has made existing serious mental health and substance use problems worse, say mental health experts in Michigan. Data on suicides, substance use overdoses and deaths, psychiatric hospital admissions, domestic abuse and outpatient behavioral health visits for serious mental health issues is limited since March, when coronavirus began to spread in Michigan. But those on the front lines of the field say they believe serious mental health issues have increased dramatically as some people have despaired, lost hope and isolation has set in because of the mandatory lockdowns to prevent the virus spread and social distancing precautions that followed. John Greden, M.D., founder and director of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Depression Center, said the impact of the steadily mounting numbers of COVID-19 deaths and positive case counts, unemployment, political disagreements and the inability to freely socialize creates stress and anxiety that plays out in many ways. “We have a collision of things underway. The combination is toxic. Some people have preexisting depression, bipolar and anxiety conditions. They are intensified because of the pandemic, job loss, social isolation and sleep disturbances,” said Greden, a psychiatrist in Ann Arbor. See TOLL on Page 35
34 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 5, 2020
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FOCUS | HEALTH CARE
TOLL
From Page 34
“If there are brain changes, which is something nobody seems to acknowledge, that intensifies anxiety and depression. There are all these social consequences of staying at home and keeping safe distances from people when they have job and financial worries. We won’t know fully until this is over.” Joy Wolfe Ensor, a clinical psychologist and president of the Michigan Psychological Association, said she fears Michigan’s fragile resources for behavioral health support will be overwhelmed once the pandemic eases and people feel more comfortable seeking services. “Whatever else is going on in the background, whether it is stress, or depression, or anxiety, or learning disability, or family conflict, or the political conflict, we all are just experiencing this through the lens of the impossible. It’s seemingly neverending stress. We are depleted, and we don’t have the reserves,” Ensor said. “That’s why everybody’s feeling more miserable than before. And that’s why it’s gonna take a toll on our physical and mental health for years into the future because the body holds that memory of stress.” Analyzing the Great Depression of the 1930s and even the Great Recession of 2008-2009, suicide rates tend to drop during the early days when everyone appears to be suffering equally and then rise dramatically during the eventual recovery, said Jonathan Singer, president of the American Association of Suicidology. “One of the hypotheses is that in the winter months, there is a shared sense of it’s gloomy out, it’s dark, it’s terrible. Everybody feels a little bit down,” said Singer, who also is associate professor of social studies at Loyola University in Chicago. “But when the weather starts getting better, everybody’s like, thank God, it’s sunny out, I can go out, we can hang out outside, I feel so much better.” On the other hand, Singer said, the people who are suffering depression and had suicidal thoughts before feel the same. “It’s the folks that don’t start feeling better, that have thought about killing themselves who are the ones at increased risk because their sense of suffering is greater. They’re no longer in the same boat with everybody else. Suddenly, it’s not about the weather’s crappy. It’s not about this thing that we’re sharing together,” Singer said. “Some folks realize their boats are full of holes and they’re sinking.” (If you or someone you know is feeling suicidal, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24 hours a day at 1-800-273-8255.) Nationally, Singer said suicides have averaged about 50,000 per year for the past three years. In Michigan, suicides have been steadily increasing since 2007. During the three-year period from 2016−2018, an average of 1,441 Michigan residents died by suicide per year, according to the Michigan Violent Death Reporting System. Earlier this year, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer launched the Michigan Suicide Prevention Commission to analyze suicide rates and come up with policy recommendations on how to reduce suicide deaths. The 30-member commission is expected to complete a
Greden
Ensor
report by the end of the year. “We have been seeing an increase the past few years and now we have coronavirus,” Greden said. “It started out looking at the issue broadly, but we have been talking a lot about COVID-19 and all those people who have lost jobs, those forced to say at home and in isolation, and the front-
line health care and essential workers who are dealing the stress and anxiety.” Nearly 60 percent of 2,300 physicians said in a recent survey they are feeling symptoms of burnout since the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to the Physicians Foundation. Two years ago, 45 percent of physicians said the same thing in a similar survey by the foundation.
Overdoses climb Debra Pinals, M.D., medical director of behavioral health and forensic programs with the state Department of Health and Human Services, said national data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in an Au-
gust report shows increases in people reporting anxiety, substance use and thoughts of suicide. The CDC said a nearly 60 percent jump in suicides by young Americans since 2007 has experts alarmed. From 2007 to 2018, suicides among children and young people aged 10 to 24 rose from about 7 per 100,000 in 2007 to nearly 11 per 100,000 in 2018. While it’s too soon for the state to know whether suicide rates are increasing in Michigan this year, the rising numbers of opioid overdoses sometimes can indicate rising suicide numbers, Pinals said. “We are hearing anecdotal concerns and seeing (an increase in) people use our resources for wellness,” Pinals said. “(There is) fear of infection
for themselves, for their loved ones. When there is anxiety and depression, some people turn to substance use.” Greden said some overdoses are passive suicides. He said it is likely that 50 percent of opioid overdoses are suicides or attempted suicides. “Forty thousand people are dying each year because of opioids. It is very much part of whole story (with COVID-19) with people turning to opioids and drinking,” Greden said. Because data on mental health conditions, including suicides, drug overdoses and domestic abuse, takes time to gather and confirm, experts must rely on historical patterns and anecdotal evidence. See TOLL on Page 36
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OCTOBER 5, 2020 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 35
FOCUS | HEALTH CARE
BY JAY GREENE
Growing use of telemedicine resources during the pandemic may pay dividends down the road, say mental health experts. Online, telephone and telemedicine resources are available for people experiencing mental health or substance abuse problems, said Debra Pinals, M.D., medical director of behavioral health and forensic programs with the state Department of Health and Human Services. People with anxiety, depression or suffering trauma can go to the Michigan Stay Well website or call a COVID-19 crisis “warmline” to find counselors and local crisis services, Pinals said. Established in April, Pinals said more than 11,000 people have used the service, which is staffed every day from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Call 888-PEER753 (888-733-7753). In June, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order that expanded telemedicine to mental health services. Medicare offers coverage and many private and Medic-
aid payers are waiving copayments this year. While telemedicine visits have tapered off in September from the peak in April, telehealth companies such as MDLive and Teladoc say mental health visits are still high. John Greden, director of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Depression Center in Ann Arbor, said telemedine is a tool that can be used to help people and identify undiagnosed depression, which has been a longstanding health care access and stigma issue. “There is a profound shift to virtual care. We helped start it and the 26 other (depression) centers around the country have cranked it up,” he said. “Some people have access for the first time, and they don’t have to worry about being exposed to coronavirus.” Greden also said people who are homebound and not interacting as they used to should use Zoom, FaceTime or other social media tools to connect with friends and family. John Piette, a researcher in the UM School of Public Health, said a recent
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36 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 5, 2020
GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
During pandemic, virtual care broke ground for counseling
aging survey the university conducted with AARP showed a big increase in people using social media and video chats to create community, Piette said. Some 70 percent said they connected through social media. “It’s not the same as the real world, but it can be helpful to people. I encourage people to make the effort to
TOLL
From Page 34
But a snapshot of statistics from MDHHS on opioid overdoses illustrates part of the problems facing society, health care providers and state and local governments. Emergency medical services response for probable opioid overdoses increased 33 percent from April to May from 1,030 to 1,374. Increased for all age groups except those 65 years and older. EMS responses for opioid overdoses from April through June 2020 were 26 percent higher than the same period in 2019, increasing from 2,994 to 3,756 during those periods. Hospital emergency visits for opioid overdose increased 42 percent from 439 to 625 from April to May. Black residents have higher opioid overdose rates than whites. The average monthly overdose rate for Blacks was 219.8 per 100,000 residents compared to 123.4 among whites. Jennifer Peltzer-Jones, R.N., assistant medical director of emergency behavioral services with Henry Ford Health System, said the number of people coming to the emergency department with a mental health crisis has increased in the last few months. “An interesting anecdotal observation is that the patient population now presenting in mental health crisis seem to consist more of those who have never sought help in an ED before as opposed to people we have worked with in the past,” Peltzer-Jones said in an email. Peltzer-Jones said there has been an “alarming increase in people with intellectual and developmental disabilities presenting to EDs during the pandemic.” She said people with these conditions have suffered the most due to the physical distancing needed for safety. “I have not seen as much attention to this vulnerable population, which is contributing to their increased ED use,” she said. “Families and home providers need more support. This is a population that is struggling right now.”
call their friends or family,” he said. “It is very important to make a 10-minute call. It helps you and older adults and prevents cognitive decline and depression.” Joy Wolfe Ensor, a clinical psychologist and president of the Michigan Psychological Association, said telemedicine has made it easier for her to
talk with her patients, some of whom have moved out of state. “Telemedicine is a blessing to increase access in ensuring access to care for physical and mental health alike, but it is only available for those who have access to the technology and broadband services,” said Ensor. Greden said face-to-face appointments are still the gold standard and necessary in some cases, but increasing use of telemedicine may be one major benefit coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said people in rural areas, many miles away from counseling, can more easily access care. “We’ll look back, if we can keep the use up, and hang on to that because part of the government responsiveness is that telemedicine was being picked up and paid for,” Greden said. “Combined with face-to-face appointments, I think it will actually improve outcomes and quality of care.” Contact: jgreene@crain.com; (313) 446-0325; @jaybgreene
“AN INTERESTING ANECDOTAL OBSERVATION IS THAT THE PATIENT POPULATION NOW PRESENTING IN MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS SEEM TO CONSIST MORE OF THOSE WHO HAVE NEVER SOUGHT HELP IN AN (EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT) BEFORE ...” — Jennifer Peltzer-Jones, R.N., assistant medical director of emergency behavioral services, Henry Ford Health System
Carol Zuniga, executive director of Livonia-based Hegira Health Inc., said the high number of ER visits for overdoses makes sense because, while the acuity level of patients served by the agency’s crisis center has increased dramatically, the overall number of people seeking outpatient services is lower than normal years. “Substance use is worse. It brings us backwards in the opioid fight,” Zuniga said. “Access to services and availability has been impacted as people are choosing not to get into treatment because of social distancing concerns and fears of contracting COVID-19.” Zuniga said more people are unemployed and are “just hiding it more at home. We are encouraging them to come in for treatment. We know they are having problems because ERs are getting more critical care with serious cases.” Travis Atkinson, a crisis systems consultant with TBD Solutions in Kentwood, said a survey on the behavioral health crisis in Michigan showed an increase in mental health problems this year. The 2020 COVID-19 Impact Survey was funded by the Michigan Health Foundation. “There has been a significant increase in call volume in the suicide prevention hot lines, we found in the survey, but a decrease in crisis services,” Atkinson said. “People are so fearful of going out of the house because of COVID.” Atkinson said another trend the survey found is an increase in people accessing the mental health system for the first time.
“If a person lost a job, lost a loved one to COVID, they are experiencing new stressors in their life, and it creates a challenge if they never used services before,” he said.
Family stresses Older adults also say they’re more lonely than ever and have little contact with friends or family, according to a poll released in September from the University of Michigan. Some 56 percent of respondents over the age of 50 reported in June 2020 that they sometimes or often felt isolated from others — more than twice the 27 percent who felt that way in a similar poll in 2018. The National Poll on Healthy Aging survey was conducted along with AARP and Michigan Medicine. John Piette, a researcher in the UM School of Public Health, said many seniors who are isolated and not interacting with other people have feelings of depression. “They can’t exercise because the gym was closed. They can’t connect with the community because they closed the churches,” he said. Ensor, who said her clients range in age from 12 to 75, said one common theme is parenting stress. “If you are in a two-parent family, and especially if you’re a single parent and you’re trying to work remotely, you’re trying to manage your kids’ education, which is being delivered remotely. It’s just impossible to do it all, do it all well, and do it all without enormous stress,” she said. Contact: jgreene@crain.com; (313) 446-0325; @jaybgreene
SPONSORED CONTENT
“AN EVENING OF UNITY”
to bring our community together Yeshiva Beth Yehudah’s annual event to support education and community goes virtual on Oct. 18
Creating future leaders The Yeshiva Beth Yehudah, or “The Yeshiva,” widely known for its annual celebration of community, education and shared values, is transitioning the annual event online for the first time on Sunday, Oct. 18 at 7 pm.
SPONSORED CONTENT
“An Evening of Unity” is sponsored by: DTE Foundation, Huntington Bank, TCF Bank, The Suburban Collection, Princeton Management, and many others.
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah’s commitment to education, community a focus of annual dinner “DTE is supporting this wonderful education of 1,200 children at the Yeshiva Yeshiva Beth Yehudah, or, “The Yeshiva,” as it is called by those in the know, has become “the cause” for some of the biggest movers and shakers in Detroit. The Detroit-area school, known as a vibrant and celebrated educational institution The largest event of its kind in cultivating the future leaders of our community, the country, the Yeshiva Dinner has announced that Jim Nicholson will be the historically pays tribute to a Honoree for the 2019 Yeshiva Annual Dinner. SteveAnnual Steinour's visita gala event The Yeshiva’s Dinner, hallowed institution that has January 2020.at the Reheld in lateto fallYBY at theinDetroit Marriott ensured a strong, united Jewish naissance Center, has become Detroit’s not-toDetroit for over a century. The be-missed event, challenging the laws of physics dinner is typically attended by as it bursts with nearly 3,000 guests. The dinner’s thousands of guests and graced by local, national and international political, dais will feature the A-list of dignitaries, includcivic and philanthropic leaders. ing Michigan’s governor, U.S. Senators, local mayors, Michigan Supreme Court justices, a today’s climate, this year’s theme is “An Evening of Unity”— host ofAppropriate members oftoMichigan’s Congressional bringing communities putting all differences aside, united with a goal delegation and state legislative together, leaders, along to bring business positiveand change to the world with numerous philanthropic lead- while supporting our children’s education. ers. simply:have we pivoted,” said Gary Torgow, Chairman of TCF Financial Past“Quite guest speakers included President GeorgeCorporation W. Bush, Prime Minister Tony Blair, and President of the Yeshiva. “Not only in terms of format, but Vice President Joe Biden, Colin Powell also in scope andGeneral purpose. While we are typically limited to the largest and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Th is this year, our limit is uncapped — ballroom at the Renaissance Center, year’s guest speaker will be Ambassador Nikki everyone everywhere is invited to join this event online, with unity as its Haley. Gerry Anderson, CEO of DTE Energy, purpose and education as its raison will serve as Honorary Chairperson of the d’etre.” event, while 2018 Honoree Mark Davidoff, Themanaging event is apartner naturalofcontinuation Yeshiva the Dinner’s longstanding history Michigan Deloitte, servesof the Michigan, Michigan Nature Conservancy of drawing from both sides of the aisle while remaining completely nonas the General Chairperson. and the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit. He is a partisan, inclusivity amongst a diverse crowdand all coming together Yeshiva Beth showcasing Yehudah proudly provides a current member past chairman of the to support of the Yeshiva. aims toOrchestra create anand top quality Jewish the andchildren secular education to all Now, boardsthe of organization the Detroit Symphony who seek regardless of theirby ability to paythought Detroit Publicfrom Television. Hethe alsoworld servesto on the evenone, greater movement inviting leaders around tuition.share In doing so, the Yeshiva lives and boards of the Michigan Colleges Foundation uplifting messages of unity, hope and optimism for the future. breathes the Jewish traditional concepts of and the Detroit Economic Club. Knowledge, Service, ese values thatNicholson’s commitment to President community, This year, TheCompassion. Yeshiva hasTh announced Steve Steinour, Chairman, will make a fitting and appropriate tribute to Inc.good and education ledOutstanding him to admire and itCEO of Huntington Bancshares willvalues be awarded the ‘2020 Nicholson, co-chairman of PVS Chemicals, the Yeshiva Beth Yehudah and the legions of Leadership Award,’ the Yeshiva’s highest honor. when he is presented with the Yeshiva’s highest alumni that have become community, civic and citation, the Outstanding Leadership Award, at philanthropic leaders. The Yeshiva is the oldest “When it became clear that an in-person dinner was not a possibility, the its Nov. 10 gala. and largest Jewish day school in Michigan and [Yeshiva] leadership approached me with the idea of bringing thousands Nicholson’s philanthropy and community inthe values it promotes are universal. The 1,100 of people together virtually from across the county,” said Steinour. was volvement are legendary in Detroit. He current- students of the Yeshiva include “I over 200 chiltremendously approach thisvarying challenging and ly serves as chairman ofinspired the boardbyoftheir the Comdrentowith degrees situation of special educationmunityhow Foundation for Southeastern Michiganopportunity, they turned it into a limitless not only forwith their annual al needs, which are met a variety of special and the Futuresbut Foundation. He ismore.” a past chair- services, therapies and educational modalities. guests, for so many man of the boards of Business Leaders for In addition to K-12 classrooms, the Yeshiva
where they are teaching a comprehensive secular and religious curriculum that helps prepare students to be leaders of tomorrow,” said Jerry Norcia, President and CEO of DTE Energy. “Every child has a place at the Yeshiva regardless of their financial and academic capabilities and every child graduates and goes on to higher education.”
Norcia also serves as the Yeshiva’s Honorary Chairman and the DTE Foundation is this year’s Event Sponsor. Over the past three years, the Yeshiva’s Outstanding Leadership Award has been awarded to Jim B. Nicholson of PVS Chemicals, Mark Davidoff, President and CEO of The Fisher Group, and former Lear Corporation CEO, Matt Simoncini. Each awardee continues to be involved with the annual event, serving as co-chair. “I really look forward to seeing how we continue to build what is the world’s premier yeshiva — here in Detroit,” said Steinour. “Any other city in the world would desperately hope to have this asset — but it’s here. It’s unique." This year, attendees can look forward to hearing guest speakers including Jamie Dimon, CEO, JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, U.S Senator Gary Peters, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Mayor of Detroit, Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony, President, Detroit Chapter, NAACP, and many more. “The Yeshiva Beth Yehudah is educating the next generation of leaders, the vast majority of whom receive tuition assistance,” said Mayor Mike Duggan. “The Yeshiva gives out $8 million in scholarships, doesn’t turn anyone away, Dinner details Nicholson explains: “Everything our father regardless of their financial means or their Nikki Haley, former U.S. does for the community is driven by our mothacademic to ability. They have a remarkable er’s assertion: ‘To what purpose.” For that, the Ambassador the U.N., special division, is the guestneeds speaker for which I saw myselfYeshiva is honored to bestow upon Nicholson Yeshiva Yehudah’s whenBeth I visited — over 200 students who its 2019 Outstanding Leadership Award. He is annual dinner. receive a wide range of assistance from an authentic leader who lives and breathes these principles; he will be celebrated by hundreds of physical and2019 occupational therapists, speech When: Nov. 10, therapists, workers 1:1 shadows, communal leaders and thousands of communiWhere: Detroitsocial Marriott Renaissance ty members for a lifetime of service. It is an honremedial reading and math specialists, the Center or well deserved, yet Nicholson will tell you he list goes on. Every child gets the help theyhas benefited as much from his relationship Tickets: $360; more info at ybydinner.org need to grow and succeed.” with those at the Yeshiva.
OCTOBERis18, 7:00toPM houses a post-graduate scholars’ program and The metroSUNDAY, Detroit community blessed unity Partners in mind,adult all tickets to this year’shave many outstanding leaders who, in their the With well-known educational proevent haveprovides been generously sponsored gram, which programming to thou- own right, have made significant contributions making attendance free of charge, with theto education, social justice, and the arts. We can sands of metro-area adults. GUEST Knowledge. Service.together Compassion. Thesepeople are only imagine which gifted leader will emerge as hope of bringing as many REMARKS the from Yeshiva’s values, andas they are embodied the Outstanding Leadership Awardee JAMIEat next all core backgrounds possible. in practice by Nicholson. As his son Jim M. year’s Yeshiva Annual Dinner. DIMON
CEO, JPMorgan Chase
For more information and to register for “An Evening of Unity,” visit: www.aneveningofunity.com
PA S T HI G HLI GH T S
DIGNITARIES: YESHIVA A ‘BEACON’ FOR COMMUNITY
CHAIRPERSONS
JIM & NANCY GROSFELD HONORARY CHAIRPERSON
JERRY NORCIA
President and CEO, DTE Energy
First Lady Laura Bush First Lady2012 Laura Bush GUEST SPEAKER 2012 xxxx Guest Speaker "There are two educations: There are educations: onetwo should teach us how one should teach us howand to the to make a living, other and should make a living, theteach other us should how teachtouslive. howFor to nearly live. a century, the Yeshiva has For nearly a century, the students both." Yeshiva taught has taught students
General Colin Powell General Colin Powell 2016 GUEST SPEAKER 2016 Guest Speaker "Education is the path to Education is the future. path toI only a successful a successful I wish that future. every person in country had the kind onlythe wish that every of deep transformational person in this country experience that these had the kind of deep Yeshiva students receive." transformational
both.
experience that these Yeshiva students receive.
Matt Simoncini Matt Simoncini 2017 OUTSTANDING LEADERSHIP AWARDEE 2017 Outstanding Leadership Awardee "The unique combination of an uplifted Torah education, The unique combination of with a critical focus analong uplifted Torah and secular on love along for learning education, with a and high ethical teachings, is critical focus on love for a remarkable recipe for learning and high producing highethical achievers teachings, is a remarkable for our next generation." recipe for producing high achievers for our next generations.
Prime Minister Tony Blair Mark Davidoff 2018 GUEST SPEAKER 2018 Outstanding Leadership "When I saw those young Awardee people, I was gripped by a Although primary mission sense ofits their passion and that comes iscommitment, to serve students of the from acommunity, spirit deepthe within Jewish them,has theevolved peopleas that Yeshiva a look after them, and the beacon for the general community of Detroit." community. Thorughout the year, and at this dinner, we can lean on the Yeshiva to refresh our understanding that we are grounded in common values that unite us.
GENERAL
Prime Minister CHAIRPERSON Tony Blair 2018 Guest Speaker MARK
DAVIDOFF When I saw those young President and CEO, people, I was gripped by a Group The Fisher sense of their passion and commitment, that comes from a spirit deep within them, the people that look after them, and the community of Detroit.
CRAIN'S LIST | HEALTH INSURERS/MANAGED CARE PLANS Ranked by 2019 Michigan revenue MICHIGAN REVENUE ($000,000) 2019/ 2018
MICH. PERCENT CHANGE
SE MICH. REVENUE ($000,000) 2019/ 2018
MICH. ENROLLED MEMBERS 2019/ 2018
SE MICH. ENROLLED MEMBERS 2019/ 2018
MICH. ENROLLED MEMBERS IN HMO/ DHMO, PLAN
MICH. ENROLLED MEMBERS IN PPO PLAN
MICH. ENROLLED MEMBERS IN POS PLAN
MICH. OTHER MEMBERS
COMPANY ADDRESS PHONE; WEBSITE
TOP LOCAL EXECUTIVE(S)
BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD OF MICHIGAN/ BLUE CARE NETWORK
Daniel Loepp president and CEO
$30,220.0
3.1%
$30,220.0 $29,300.0
4,702,961 4,713,493
4,702,961 4,713,493
1,118,243
3,428,680
0
156,038
PPO, HMO, HSA-eligible products, Medigap, Medicare Advantage, Medicare Part D, commercial prescription drug plans, dental and vision benefits, Medicaid HMO
PRIORITY HEALTH
Rick Morrone SVP, employer solutions
$4,137.2
7.7%
$606.5 $543.3
940,000
203,000
400,000
NA
NA
NA
HMO/PSO, Medigap, PHIC, Medicare Advantage, Medicare PDP, Medicaid, self-funded
MERIDIAN HEALTH PLAN OF MICHIGAN INC. 1
Sean Kendall plan president and CEO
$2,026.0
4.7%
NA $1,988.4
519,533 519,373
519,533 519,373
519,533
NA
NA
NA
Medicaid, Medicare, Marketplace
HEALTH ALLIANCE PLAN OF MICHIGAN 2
Michael Genord, M.D. president and CEO
$2,016.1
-0.0%
NA NA
402,324
NA
202,686
93,164
13,099
93,375
HMO, PPO, EPO, Medicare, Medicaid, DSNP, MedicareMedicaid dual eligible (MMP), ASO/self-funded, network lease
5
DELTA DENTAL OF MICHIGAN
Goran Jurkovic president and CEO
$1,966.0
-1.1%
$947.6 $940.6
5,617,595 5,672,521
2,621,574 2,610,020
0
4,674,687
0
942,908
Delta Dental Premier, Delta Dental PPO, Delta Dental EPO
6
MOLINA HEALTHCARE OF MICHIGAN INC.
Christine Surdock president
$1,692.5 3
-5.4%
NA NA
362,421 3 383,277 3
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
Medicaid, Medicare
7
MCLAREN HEALTH PLAN INC.
Nancy Jenkins president and CEO
$848.1
1.4%
NA NA
253,074 262,446
0
0
NA
NA
NA
Small Group; Rewards: Platinum, Gold, Silver; Standard: Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze; HSA: Bronze ; HRA: Gold - Large Group; POS; HMO; HSA; HDHP ASO; ASO Captive Arrangement
8
UNITEDHEALTHCARE
Dustin Hinton CEO, UnitedHealthcare Michigan and Wisconsin
$410.4
-8.2%
NA $447.0
0
0
0
NA
NA
NA
UnitedHealthcareChoice, UnitedHealthcareChoice Plus, UnitedHealthcare Options PPO, HRA, HSA, Dental PPO, Dental INO, Dental Select Managed Care, Dental Indemnity, vision, Medicare, Medicaid
AETNA BETTER HEALTH
Randy Hyun CEO
$318.0 3
8.3%
NA NA
47,678 3 45,032 3
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
Aetna Better Health of Michigan and Aetna Better Health Premier Plan
10
UPPER PENINSULA HEALTH PLAN LLC
Melissa Holmquist 4 CEO
$286.3 3
12.6%
NA NA
48,957 3 48,878 3
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
Medicaid, Medicare
11
TOTAL HEALTH CARE USA INC. 5 3011 W. Grand Blvd., Suite 1600, Detroit 48202 313-871-2000; www.thcmi.com
Randy Narowitz SVP, Total Health Care
$197.2
-0.8%
$197.2 $198.8
38,942 42,382
38,942 42,382
36,556
0
2,044
342
HMO, POS, HDHP
12
PHYSICIAN HEALTH PLAN
Dennis J. Reese president
$178.7 3
-10.5%
NA NA
32,987 3 34,341 3
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
13
HUMANA INC.
Ryan Zikeli market VP, employer group sales Kathie Mancini president, East Central Medicare region
$153.0 3
72.5%
NA NA
NA 212,600
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
14
MICHIGAN COMPLETE HEALTH INC. 6 800 Tower Drive, Suite 200, Troy 48098 844-239-7387; www.michigancompletehealth.com/
Sean Kendall plan president and CEO
$67.0
5.1%
NA NA
2,604 2,417 3
2,604
2,604
NA
NA
NA
Medicare, Medicaid, HMO
15
PARAMOUNT CARE OF MICHIGAN
Lori Johnston president
$24.3 3
6.1%
NA NA
2,123 3 2,012 3
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
Medicare, Medicaid, commercial
1 2 3 4
9
600 E. Lafayette Blvd., Detroit 48226 313-225-9000; www.bcbsm.com
27777 Franklin Road, Suite 1300, Southfield 48034 800-942-0954; www.priorityhealth.com
1 Campus Martius, Suite 700, Detroit 48226 888-773-2647; www.mhplan.com
2850 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit 48202 313-872-8100; hap.org
4100 Okemos Road, Okemos 48864 800-524-0149; www.deltadentalmi.com
100 W. Big Beaver Road, Suite 600, Troy 48084 248-925-1700; www.molinahealthcare.com
G-3245 Beecher Road, Flint 48532 888-327-0671; www.McLarenHealthPlan.org
26957 Northwestern Hwy., Suite 400, Southfield 48034 800-842-3585; uhc.com
1333 Gratiot, Suite 400, Detroit 48207 313-465-1519; www.aetnabetterhealth.com/Michigan
853 West Washington St., Marquette 49855 906-225-7500; uphp.com
1400 E. Michigan Ave., Lansing 48912 517-364-8400; www.phpmichigan.com
26600 Telegraph Road, Suite 220, Southfield 48033 800-486-2620; www.humana.com
106 Park Place, Dundee 48131 734-529-7800; www.paramounthealthcare.com
$29,300.0
$3,840.8
$1,934.3
$2,016.3
$1,988.7
$1,789.7 3
$836.1
$447.0
$293.6 3
$254.4 3
$198.8
$199.6 3
$88.7
$63.7 3
$22.9 3
TYPES OF HEALTH PLANS
Researched by Sonya D. Hill: shill@crain.com | This list of leading Michigan insurers/managed care plans encompasses medical, dental, optical and other health care organizations. It is not a complete listing but the most comprehensive available. Unless otherwise noted, information was provided by the companies or the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation. Companies with headquarters elsewhere are listed with the address and top executive of their main Detroitarea office. NA = not available. Health care plan types include: Exclusive Provider Organization (EPO) - Members must use the EPO provider network exclusively and medical services received outside of the EPO network are not covered except for emergencies. Exclusive Provider Arrangement (EPA) - Similar to an HMO. Members must choose a physician who authorizes referrals and arranges hospital admissions. Point of Service Plan (POS) - Members designate a primary care physician but can go outside the network for services. Administrative Services Only (ASO) - Offered by insurers to self-insured employers. NOTES: 1. Acquired by Wellcare Health Plans in September 2018. Centene Corp. acquired WellCare Health Plans Inc. in January. 2. Merger of HealthPlus of Michigan in Flint and Health Alliance Plan in Detroit was approved in February 2016. 3. From Department of Insurance and Financial Services. 4. Succeeded Dennis Smith in July. 5. Priority Health to absorb Total Health Care HMO in a merger. The deal is expected to be finalized later this year. 6. Formerly Fidelis SecureCare of Michigan Inc. Effective April 1, 2017, Fidelis became Michigan Complete Health Inc.
Want the full Excel version of this list — and every list? Become a Data Member: CrainsDetroit.com/data 38 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 5, 2020
U-M + Detroit:
MA K ING CO NNECTI ONS T HAT M AT T ER Whether in person or in the digital realm, the connection between the University of Michigan and the city of Detroit continues to grow stronger each year. Faculty, students, and staff from all three U-M campuses work alongside Detroit residents, educators, businesses, and nonprofits, creating mutual benefit. Innovative partnerships and programs keep the university deeply engaged with the city, both physically and through online channels. In these days of COVID-19 and social distancing, our important mission of teaching, research, service, and patient care is more critical than ever, and remains at the core of our commitment to Detroit, our state, and the world.
detroit.umich.edu
The University of Michigan continues to deepen connections with the city of Detroit. The pandemic has meant that we’ve had to find different ways to accomplish our important mission of teaching, research, service, and patient care. But whether virtual or in person, U-M remains strongly committed to the city of Detroit, with ongoing projects like the Detroit Partnership on Economic Mobility, the Poverty Solutions initiative, and DMACS (the Detroit Metro Area Communities Study). To read more about the exciting collaborations between Detroit and the university, visit detroit.umich.edu.
Advertising Section
FINANCE
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
To place your listing, visit www.crainsdetroit.com/ people-on-the-move or, for more information, contact Debora Stein at 917.226.5470 / dstein@crain.com ARCHITECTURE / ENGINEERING
GOVERNMENT / NGO
OHM Advisors
McKenna
Jon Kramer, PE, has been named presidentelect of community advancement firm OHM Advisors, headquartered in Kramer Livonia with 15 offices across Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. A 27-year veteran of the architecture, engineering and planning firm, Kramer has held numerous leadership Putala positions, most recently the firm’s first-ever Chief Operating Officer since 2019. He assumes the presidency January 1. Vicki Putala, PE, OHM Advisors’ Director of Environmental & Water Resources, was appointed to the firm’s Board of Directors. A professional engineer and firm shareholder, she has helped expand the firm’s expertise to multiple offices, mentor young talent into leaders, and deepen the firm’s holistic service capabilities since joining OHM in 1993.
McKenna, a community planning, design and building services firm, headquartered in Northville, Mich., with offices in Detroit, Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, is pleased to welcome Paul Urbiel, AICP to its Detroit office team as senior principal planner. Urbiel specializes in equitable and sustainable urban development and design, as well as neighborhood and land use planning. He’ll be responsible for ongoing planning and zoning services to the Cities of Fraser, Grosse Pointe Farms and Harper Woods.
NONPROFIT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Building Community Value Building Community Value, an institution for real estate training and technical assistance, is proud to announce that Daisha Martin has joined its team as Manager of Technical Assistance. Through its “Better Building, Better Blocks” course, BCV teaches Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park residents the skills to successfully complete neighborhood real estate projects. Daisha Martin recently graduated from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, receiving her Masters in Urban Planning and Real Estate. She specializes in mixed-used real estate development and has worked on more than 10 real estate projects across the globe, including in Boston, Washington D.C., Vietnam, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, and South Korea.
40 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 5, 2020
NONPROFIT
The Michigan Association of CPAs (MICPA) The Michigan Association of CPAs proudly welcomes Frank Maselli, of the accounting firm EY, as its newest board chair! A partner in EY’s Detroit assurance services practice and senior partner in the EY Central Region Real Estate Group, Frank served as Program Director of EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year Program for 10 years as well as the firm’s Growth Markets Leader. An avid volunteer, Frank is a voting Council member for the American Institute of CPAs & board member for Jack’s Place for Autism.
NONPROFIT
Detroit at Work Dana L. Williams joins Detroit at Work as its Chief of Staff & Director of Employer Engagement. Dana will report to Nicole Sherard-Freeman, Executive Director of Workforce Development in Mayor Mike Duggan’s Office. She will be responsible for leading strategic partnerships with employers, and will also serve as an advisor to the Executive Director in executing the Mayor’s Workforce Development Board vision to build talent pipelines for key industries.
A Bloomscape greenhouse. The company has raised a total of $24 million. | BLOOMSCAPE
Gardening startup Bloomscape closes on $15 million Series B round Company plans to invest in logistics hubs around the country BY NICK MANES
Equipped with $15 million in new venture capital funding, Bloomscape Inc. has its eyes set on being the Amazon of at-home gardening. The Detroit-based online gardening supplier has found a plethora of new customers during the COVID-19 pandemic as people have found that “plants offer a healthy contrast to all the virtual time we spend” on our laptops, phones and tablets, Bloomscape founder and CEO Justin Mast said. Gardening serves as a way of destressing, he said. With the boost in sales, Mast’s company has closed on a $15 million Series B round, completed an acquisition of a mobile application focused on plant care and plans a “significant” hiring spree in the next 18 months. And Mast said he’s already got seeds planted for the company’s next period of growth, something that is likely to take some time. “Our mission is really to reinvent the garden center for a new generation of gardeners,” Mast said. “So we’re seeing a massive opportunity there to create value that’s just not there in the industry right now. And that’s a huge project ... to be that full-size, full product, full breadth national retailer. We certainly have a ways to go.” The $15 million in Series B funding brings the company’s total fundraising to $24 million. The latest round, announced Wednesday morning, was led by venture capital firm General Catalyst of Cambridge, Mass. Bloomfield Hillsbased Annox Capital Management and other funds and investors also participated in the round, according to a statement. Joel Cutler, co-founder and managing director of General Catalyst, along with Bob Mylod, managing partner of Annox, will join Bloomscape’s board. “You’d be hard pressed to find a team that understands a consumer vertical better than Bloomscape does with home gardening,” Cutler said in the statement. “The team has found
“Our mission is really to reinvent the garden center for a new generation of gardeners,” said Justin Mast, founder and CEO of Bloomscape. | BLOOMSCAPE
not just excellence in the complicated logistics of cultivating and shipping live plants nationwide, but also a strong resonance with today’s consumer who’s looking to green up their living spaces.” Bloomscape hauled in $7.5 million in a Series A round last year. Beyond the new investment, the company also announced it acquired Vera, a plant care mobile app, to help customers new to gardening properly maintain their purchases. Many new customers have an “initial unease” about caring for plants, Mast said. Having an in-house service that provides that knowledge helps with that and makes for a more “scalable” opportunity than how the company previously handled that, which was receiving tips from Mast’s mother. Terms of the deal with Vera were not disclosed and Mast declined to provide an annual revenue figure or specific number of employees at this time. He did say that sales have quadrupled since closing the Series A round last year. The company has more than 100 employees and plans to grow that number over the next 18 months. Mast also confirmed a Crain’s report from earlier this year that the
company plans to move its headquarters into a new development at 5000 Grand River Ave. in Detroit’s Core City neighborhood. The pandemic has slowed those plans, however, and a specific move-in date remains unclear, he said. Bloomscape, whose greenhouses are near Grand Rapids, plans to invest in a handful of regional distribution sites around the country — likely three or four — that will allow for much faster shipping and less time that plants have to spend in a box, thus improving the quality, Mast said. By building out that infrastructure, Mast said he sees opportunity for the company to differentiate from other similar startups, and similar to an Amazon model. “There’s not a lot of existing ... logistics infrastructure that we get to take advantage of,” Mast said. “Plants, because they’re perishable, because they really require unique handling, we’ve had to really design and build that system from the ground up. It’s been a lot of work, but it’s also a big advantage of ours now that we’ve built that.” Contact: nmanes@crain.com; (313) 446-1626; @nickrmanes
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Large gathering limits curb charity raffle sales BY SHERRI WELCH
Raffles, the most popular gambling activity that makes money for charities Michigan, CRAIN’SinDETROIT BUSINESSaren’t banned, but charities typically sell 50/50 tickets and charity game or pull-tab tickets at big events, which aren’t happening. In fiscal 2019, raffles benefiting charities in Michigan grossed over $85 million and netted $43.6 million for charities, plus net profit of just over $13,000 from the sale of pull-tabs. Being able to host online raffles could help the small charities, but they aren’t legal right now in Michigan, said Kate Hude, executive director of the Michigan Charitable Gaming Association. The state, however, passed legislation last fall enabling online
“THEY (DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTER) HOLD AN ANNUAL DUCK DERBY EVERY YEAR, AND BECAUSE OF THE PANDEMIC THEY FACED A REAL OBSTACLE SELLING TICKETS.” — state Rep. Eric Leutheuser, R-Hillsdale
sports betting and the Gaming Control Board in May issued an order allowing online horse racing betting through a third-party vendor. As they struggle to fill revenue gaps, some charities are doing live
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42 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 5, 2020
pulls for raffle tickets during virtu- sored the main bills in a package of al event fundraisers. Those groups legislation passed late last year to are actually in violation of current legalize online sports betting and law which requires in-person ex- gaming through the state’s casinos. change of tickets and moneyPage paid41 Leutheuser said in an email that he is continuing to work on the for them, Hude said. A bill introduced in the House in legislation but doesn’t have a timeJune would allow charities to do line for when it might be taken up. A domestic violence shelter in online raffles through June 2023. Introduced by state Rep. Eric his home district of Branch and Leutheuser, R-Hillsdale, and Rep. Hillsdale brought the idea of legalTriston Cole, R-Mancelona, on izing online raffles to him, he said. “They hold an annual duck derJune 17, House Bill 5862 would amend the 1972 Traxler-McCau- by every year, and because of the ley-Law-Bowman Bingo Act to al- pandemic they faced a real obstalow charities that were licensed to cle selling tickets,” Leutheuser hold raffles in 2018 or 2019 to con- said. “Since more and more people duct them online through June 30, are comfortable doing things on2023. The bill is now before the House line, one can imagine online ticket Ways and Means committee, sales could become an important which is chaired by Rep. Brandt means for all kinds of charities to Iden, R-Kalamazoo, who spon- gain fundraising support.”
PARTIES
From Page 3
The Gaming Control Board late last week released minimum reopening guidelines. Under those, games are limited to no more than three seats per table. In accordance with executive orders, they can’t take place at bars and restaurants, given restrictions on those venues and locations where the games take place can have no more than 20 people per 1,000 square feet. Charities must collect contact information for all people present for contact tracing and submit a plan of their safety protocols to the board for approval before a game can be scheduled. “While we understand it may be difficult to resume Millionaire Party events under these orders and requirements, safety must remain a top priority during these unprecedented times,” Bean said in an email. Texas Hold ‘em games known as “millionaire parties” are included in
LIVENGOOD
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From Page 8
From
Yet, it’s a violation of House rules if a male legislator shows up on the floor without a necktie or wearing blue jeans. In fact, tie-less members, staff and even journalists have historically been turned away at the chamber’s front entrance. Past legislative leaders have sent members back to their office to retrieve a necktie. That’s why longtime House staff have kept neckties handy to bail out a member or staffer who forgot to wear one in order to gain access to the floor. That’s been a longstanding tradition and hard-and-fast rule for decorum reasons. A face mask in the middle of a global pandemic where human-to-human transmission can be deadly extends far beyond decorum. And health screenings, which have become common in every other workplace in Michigan, also are nonexistent at the Capitol. No legislator is required to state in writing that they’re not running a fever or that they haven’t been in direct contact with anyone who has tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 14 days. House staffers and members are getting their temperatures checked at the Anderson House Office Building. But senators and their staffers are not getting their temperature checked when they enter the Senate’s Binsfeld Office Building a block away. And you think Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s pandemic executive orders are inconsistent. The House sergeants are checking for ties and identification cards for journalists, but they’re not checking the temperatures of anyone entering the chamber. Something’s wrong here. When in-person session resumed in April, you both took a number of measures to make the Capitol a safe place to work, promising it would be as safe as a trip to Walmart. This occurred shortly after one of the House’s own members, Rep. Isaac Robinson, died suddenly of complications of a suspected case of COVID19.Since Gov. Whitmer can’t constitutionally put restrictions and requirements on how the legislative branch operates, you’re on a self-governing island. But you’re not isolated from this virus. In fact, there’s arguably not a simi-
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Masks and health screenings are not required to enter the Michigan Capitol. | GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
lar place of employment in all of Michigan where dozens of people from virtually all 83 counties gather in a shared indoor workplace each week — and then return to their home communities. The capital city itself and Ingham County as a whole is one of the higher-risk areas of the state right now because of the return of thousands of Michigan State University students to East Lansing. And that’s something you have professed a desire to see — people going about their regular economic activity. That activity has produced nearly 1,300 positive cases of COVID-19 over the past month just a few miles from the Capitol. It’s one of the main reasons schools in the Lansing area remain virtual. Given the current community conditions, it doesn’t take an epidemiologist to figure out that the lack of consistent mask-wearing on the House and Senate floors, in committee rooms, in cramped closed-door caucus rooms and in legislative offices makes the Capitol complex susceptible to becoming a super-spreader site. This could be especially true during post-election lame duck session in December, when there will be a lot of people at the Capitol complex. The House and Senate have sued Gov. Whitmer to challenge her use of an emergency powers law that a past Legislature granted governors. As the Legislature’s top leaders,
you’ve also professed a belief that businesses don’t need a dictate from the governor to safely operate with proper mask-wearing, hand-washing and social distancing. And yet you can’t even get your own co-workers to operate this way. How do you expect this to work if and when the executive orders go away but the pandemic rages on? The Legislature has yet to adopt any mechanism for remote voting, even though session got canceled for two weeks in August after Sen. Tom Barrett tested positive for COVID-19. This resulted in delayed decision-making and planning for hundreds of public schools because the Legislature was unable to vote remotely on critical school restart legislation. I’m not going to mince words here: It’s appalling that you have let this institution operate like there’s not a real threat to public health raging outside of the Capitol’s sandstone walls. The news early Friday that President Donald Trump tested positive for the coronavirus underscores that no one is immune. You’ve been bestowed the political power to set expectations for the behavior of all members of both parties. Masking up to protect those who work at the Capitol complex starts with leading by example. Crain’s Senior Editor Chad Livengood was a daily Capitol reporter for The Detroit News in 2012-17.
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Executive Order 183 issued late last Friday, along with movie theaters, performance venues and bowling alleys. Being able to restart millionaire games means a lot for the small charities and school groups that benefit from them, Hude said. The millionaire or charity poker parties have been prohibited by executive order since March,. The number permitted at indoor bingo games rose to 20 per 1,000 square feet on Sept. 25. Restrictions have cost the small charities that benefit from them an estimated $8.5 million-$9 million and the small businesses that provide gaming supplies, dealers and locations millions more, Hude said. The association’s membership is made up largely of charities but also includes licensed suppliers that rent equipment or provide dealers for the charity poker games, along with a handful of locations that host the games, Hude said. The Michigan Gaming Control Board reports net profits to charities
EVENTS
From Page 3
Planners for corporate meetings and social events began calling as soon as the order passed, inquiring about booking events that typically draw 200500 people, said Claude Molinari, general manager of TCF Center in Detroit. “I didn’t expect (the new relaxed restriction) this soon. It was a pleasant surprise. ... There’s been nothing in the pipeline for months and months.” Mass cancellations of events this year due to the pandemic have added up to a loss of $9.6 million in meeting and convention business and $2.4 million in parking revenue, Patrick Bero, CEO and CFO for TCF Center’s operator, the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority, said on Sept. 25. To help TCF weather the losses, the state allocated $36 million in additional support for the Detroit events center over six fiscal years. In any given month, TCF needs to be doing about 20 events to break even, Molinari said. The corporate meetings and social events wouldn’t be enough to sustain the center, “but while we’re in this event recession, we’re able to get a few things in here so we’re still working toward having events and putting our people to work.” “We were budgeting with the idea we aren’t going to have any events until April 1. ... We’re treating it like anything we get is going to be gravy, and I’m hoping to get a lot of gravy,” he said. Suburban Collection Showplace and its affiliate Novi Diamond Banquet & Conference Center also began getting calls from excited brides and corporate meeting planners after the executive order was issued, owner Bowman said. A number of events are now scheduled through the end of the year, including some weddings and an award ceremony for the Building Industry Association of Southeast Michigan. Those calls were welcomed but aren’t enough to sustain exhibit halls on their own, leaders said. TCF and Suburban Collection Showplace have been cautiously optimistic they will be able to hold the larger events still on their books for early next year. The Ultimate Fishing Show and Novi Home Show are on the schedule for January at Suburban Collection Showplace. Bowman said plans were also in the works to hold the Southeast Michigan Auto Show in January. The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championships is still scheduled, for now, to take place in March at Little
but not suppliers and venues. Last year, chip sales in the millionaire party or Texas hold ’em games totaled approximately $72.4 million, the Michigan Gaming ConBilan trol Board said in its annual report. Charities, which secured 2,149 millionaire party licenses, saw a net profit of about $6.3 million, with licensed suppliers, venues and the poker players themselves splitting the remainder. Gross revenue from charity bingo games and pull-tab tickets sold during the games by charities like the Knights of Columbus and Veterans of Foreign Wars totaled just over $127 million last year, and charities netted just under $11 million of that, according to numbers released by the state. Hude estimates charities this year have lost over $5 million in gross reveCaesars Arena. The Detroit Boat Show is still on TCF Center’s calendar for January, along with the Michigan Democratic Party 2021 State Convention in February and Alexander Autorama and the SAE World Congress in March. “The Boat Show and Autorama have strong wishes to move forward if allowed to do so,” Molinari said. TCF believes it can safely host up to 500 people each in different parts of its venue, including its ballroom and its open exhibit halls, he said. Similarly, last week Bowman and his team were developing plans to accommodate large consumer shows while adhering to the limit of 20 people per every 1,000 square feet. Those plans included putting up walls to divide up the Novi convention center, he said. This past January, its inaugural year, the regional Southeast Michigan Auto Show drew 30,000 people. It took place in 120,000 square feet, Bowman said. “This year we are dedicating 320,000 square feet that will be divided by full, enclosure walls into four separate zones.” The venue will work on ticketing and division within the distinct, separated auto show zones to make sure there are no more than 500 attendees in any one area at a time, he said. “If we can effectively and safely manage 500 people in defined zones and areas over the course of the entire weekend … we’ll be able to accommodate a meaningful amount of attendance.” Some business-to-business and trade shows and conferences set for Suburban Collection Showplace shifted their events to later in 2021 or early 2022, Bowman said. But the vast majority of the consumer events have stayed on the books. The Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Center, which works to bring events to the region as a whole, including citywide events that typically attract tens of thousands of people, has 73 events on its books at local venues for 2021. Though that number is far below the 252 events it booked in 2019, it’s an encouraging start, President and CEO Larry Alexander said. “I would say this is a good indication that people are starting to meet again,” Alexander said. Contact: swelch@crain.com; (313) 446-1694; @SherriWelch
nue on bingo games and pull-tab tickets. And they’ve lost roughly $35 million in revenue from charity poker games and net profit of about $3 million of that. In the aggregate, it doesn’t sound like very much, Hude said. But most of the charities that do charitable gaming tend to be smaller organizations — the booster clubs for schools, civic organizations like Kiwanis and Optimist clubs, Moose and Elks lodges, veteran organizations, religious organizations like Knights of Columbus and smaller animal rescues and arts and culture groups. Most are volunteer-run and count on millionaire parties to raise $20,000-$30,000 per year, Hude said. Without those funds, charities are facing cash shortages, and some are close to closing. VFW Post 6250, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary in May, shares rented space in a Sterling Heights building with American Legion Post 326. Both organizations provide services for veterans, from memorial cere-
monies for honorably discharged veterans to benefit application and tax assistance, transportation, housing referrals, furniture and professional clothing for job-seeking veterans. The groups typically raise a combined $24,000-$30,000 per year to help fund those services and cover rent and utilities, said Stephen Bilan, the commander of the two posts and a personal and corporate tax accountant with Bilan Accounting Service in Sterling Heights. Eighty percent or more of its budget each year comes from hosting millionaire parties, Bilan said. “I’m not going to charge people to fold a flag. And we do have stuff to do honors; it’s just a matter of finding people to do them,” he said. But the organizations haven’t been able to provide any additional services to veterans that require cash outlay, unless its efforts to raise individual donations through a Facebook appeal and a developing silent auction bear fruit.
“It’s a sigh of relief that the games are open finally, but now we stand in line to be able to get one of the licenses to raise the funds” and to find a venue to host them, Bilan said. Given their reliance on the games for the majority of the revenue they bring in each year, the two organizations have anxiously been waiting for a green light for them to restart. The VFW post has cash reserves to cover expenses for another three months, he said. But the American Legion post is out of cash. Bilan said he has asked the Michigan Gaming Control Board if charities that are out of cash can secure a license for a four-day game on credit until after the games are held. While he waits to hear back, he plans to take a request to the VFW post’s board of directors to make a $200 donation to the American Legion post he also leads so it can apply for a license. Contact: swelch@crain.com; (313) 446-1694; @SherriWelch
A virtual meeting platform designed by Premier Event Technology LLC mirrors TCF Center’s layout to help attendees more easily navigate virtual events.| PREMIER EVENT TECHNOLOGY LLC
TCF Center teams with Premier Event Technology to offer virtual, hybrid events Gives associations, industry groups way to host events BY SHERRI WELCH
While it waits for the return of large events and conventions in its halls, TCF Center has found a new way to make them a reality. It’s teamed up with Rochester Hills-based Premier Event Technology LLC to coordinate virtual events that pair its expertise with TCF’s inhouse television studio and bandwidth capabilities 10 gigabytes of bandwidth. It began marketing the virtual and hybrid events last month. For TCF, those events are likely to be a loss leader, General Manager Claude Molinari said. It will get some revenue from leasing space to any organizations opting to host a virtual event and 15 percent of the online events revenue under a revenue-sharing agreement with Premier, he said. But the virtual offerings are really about “maintaining the relationship
with our customers, staying relevant and frankly, helping customers to stay in business,” he said. “If they go out of business before this pandemic ends, it’s another potential client ... TCF (and) the entire industry won’t have as a future client.” The broadcast stage/studio installed at TCF in 2013 provides the perfect backdrop for virtual and hybrid events, Molinari said. And its 10 gigabytes of broadband capability can support hundreds of thousands of users on the web. Premier has developed a custom hybrid platform that resembles the TCF Center floor plan, he said, to help attendees of the online events find their way in a way that simulates a live experience. As a user enters a virtual show, they come to registration in the TCF Center atrium and then go into a virtual ballroom or exhibit hall that mirrors TCF’s own layout. “There
are plenty of options there to give the live experience but remotely,” Molinari said. TCF is speaking with several groups about the potential of doing a virtual event, he said, including two that had to cancel events planned at the venue. TCF will get 15 percent of the revenue from virtual and hybrid events provided by Premier, as its preferred but not exclusive partners for the events at the Detroit convention center. Customers will drive whether the virtual and hybrid events are permanent offerings or end with the pandemic, Molinari said. “If people are going to be less likely to travel in the future or participants in these hybrid meetings like or enjoy it, I think it will continue.” Contact: swelch@crain.com; (313) 446-1694; @SherriWelch
OCTOBER 5, 2020 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 43
UNEMPLOYMENT
“IT HASN’T PARALYZED US, BUT IT’S BEEN CHALLENGING FOR SURE. WE’RE SEEING FEW INTERESTED PARTIES AND WHEN WE DO FIND SOMEONE, WE’RE EXPERIENCING NO-SHOWS. PEOPLE AREN’T ANSWERING THE PHONE OR THEY ARE NOT SHOWING UP FOR THE INTERVIEW AS WELL.”
From Page 1
Executives blame changing attitudes toward work following generous state and federal unemployment payments as well as an oddly competitive jobs market. Livonia-based metal stamper and engineering firm Alpha USA has three out of 10 positions left to fill, said David Lawrence, chief administrative officer, and is experiencing the same challenges as Team 1. “It hasn’t paralyzed us, but it’s been challenging for sure,” Lawrence said. “We’re seeing few interested parties and when we do find someone, we’re experiencing noshows. People aren’t answering the phone or they are not showing up for the interview as well.” Alpha, which employs 130, is working directly with Michigan Works and other workforce training groups in the area to find workers, but so far hasn’t seen the desired results. Lawrence believes rising wages in the sector and copious signing bonuses in other industries are crimping the entry-level pipeline for smaller suppliers. “It’s hard to explain, but one of the things I’ve noticed is that everyone is hiring,” Lawrence said. “I know part of the reason we’re not able to hire is those potential employees are being attracted by other employers who have more resources. Plus, other industries have been stepping up hiring with big bonuses.” For instance, the Wendy’s fast food chain is offering $450 signing bonuses at several locations around metro Detroit. Amazon is offering a $1,000 signing bonus for warehouse work in Wixom. Lawrence said the hard work of manufacturing may be losing out to jobs perceived as easier, especially if the wages are comparable. “We compete in a different industry than a lot of these companies, and we just don’t have that flexibility (with bonuses),” Lawrence said. “We’ve adjusted our starting wages and other benefits, but it’s not having an effect yet.” He declined to reveal the company’s entry-level hourly rate. Team 1’s entry level positions pay $11-$12 per hour, a figure that’s competitive for Calhoun County, Grigowski said. “We’re not paying as much as a Denso would and we’ve heard some of our (customers) have raised wag-
HALLOWEEN
From Page 3
Haunted houses are legally clear to open this season if they follow rules set forth by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. “In regards to fall traditions, the public health rules in place still apply, including capacity limits for organized events, the requirement to remain at least six feet from people outside the individual’s household to the extent feasible under the circumstances, and the mask requirement where a person cannot maintain six feet of social distance outside,” Whitmer spokeswoman Tiffany Brown said in a text message. Bailey’s business is on the medium to large end of haunted attractions that make up the industry in Michigan, which brings in tens of millions of dollars each season. Nationally, more than $400 million is spent on
David Lawrence, Alpha USA
“SOME HAVE MOVED ON TO DIFFERENT WORK, OTHERS HAVE PRE-EXISTING HEALTH CONDITIONS AND ARE AVOIDING POTENTIAL CORONAVIRUS EXPOSURE. AND SOME HAVE CHILD- OR FAMILYCARE ISSUES THAT PREVENT THEM FROM WORKING.” Julie Fream, Original Equipment Suppliers Association
“WE’RE NOT PAYING AS MUCH AS A DENSO WOULD AND WE’VE HEARD SOME OF OUR (CUSTOMERS) HAVE RAISED WAGES $2-$3 AN HOUR TO KEEP THE PEOPLE THEY HAVE. EVERYONE SEEMS TO BE STRUGGLING TO FIND THE RIGHT CANDIDATES.” Gary Grigowski, Team 1 Plastics
es $2-$3 an hour to keep the people they have. Everyone seems to be struggling to find the right candidates.” Michael Robinet, executive director of automotive advisory services for Southfield-based IHSMarkit, said all suppliers are feeling the labor pinch, but suppliers further down the chain are hit harder. “There is going to be some pressure in the higher reaches of the tickets to 1,200 attractions, according to the Haunted Attraction Association. Half are expected to stay closed this year, and more than a quarter are expected to never reopen. “I do fear for some of the smaller locations,” Bailey said. “They’re not going to be able to weather this.” Most haunted houses in Michigan fit into that category, employing a couple dozen seasonal workers and drawing 10,000 customers per year, for maybe $250,000 in sales. The largest ones, though, typically count on more than $1 million in revenue and have at least a handful of year-round employees and up to 100 seasonal workers. But even some of the higher profile haunts are taking the year off. Terror On Twenty-Seven, a popular attraction for college students that sits half way between Mount Pleasant and East Lansing, announced it is staying closed. “We feel this is the most responsi-
44 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 5, 2020
supply base, but more acute as you work your way down,” Robinet said. “To be honest, it’s more of the same from before the pandemic where labor was hard to find. It’s just more apparent now as manufacturers work to get back lost production.” When automakers and suppliers ramped up production in late May, many executives blamed the federal government’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which
paid the unemployed an additional $600 per week on top of state benefits, as the reason many refused to return to work. Among U.S. workers eligible for unemployment insurance, 68 percent collected more than their typical earnings before the pandemic, according to a study published in May from the University of Chicago’s Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics. Roughly one in five unemployed
Ed and Jim Terebus own Erebus Haunted Attraction in downtown Pontiac. | EREBUS
ble choice to ensure the continued health and safety of our staff, our customers and our communities,” the business posted on its Facebook page.
The Scream Machine in Taylor will also stay quiet, owners announced. “We do not feel that we would be able to pull together the high quality
workers received benefits at least twice as large as their previous earnings. But funding for that program ended at the end of July. A new $300 weekly payment program was rolled out by Michigan last month. “It is perplexing,” Lawrence said. “We’ve seen the studies that show people aren’t staying home because of the extra money. We’re all just trying to figure that out. But if another
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show that you all enjoy in time for the 2020 season,” it said in a Facebook post. “We’re going to take this time to redesign our show to conform to the new norms while still giving you the high energy experience that the Scream Machine is known for.” Ed Terebus, who owns one of the largest and well-known haunts in Michigan with his brother Jim Terebus, is confident he can still sell a spine-tingling experience that complies with the governor’s executive orders while making customers feel safe. Erebus Haunted Attraction, the four-story haunted house with a halfmile walk-through in downtown Pontiac, opened Sept. 25. It was a decision made in the final hour, but one that felt right for tradition’s sake. “People are still looking to enjoy Halloween,” Ed Terebus said. “Halloween is the second largest commercial holiday next to Christmas.
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MARK DANE
round of stimulus is going to come out, we do fear that is going to tilt us even further.” Perceptions of plant safety could be another factor, though Lawrence and Grigowski are skeptical. Both Alpha and Team 1 were able to rehire all of the workers who were laid off or not working during the six- to eight-week shutdown in March and April. “I think, at first, there were unemIt’s a selfish holiday. You don’t have to go visit nobody. You don’t have to buy anybody presents. You get to dress up and be whoever you want and nobody’s gonna criticize you.” Like Bailey, Terebus owns the real estate and relies on the haunted house to make a living. He’s been in the business for 40 years and has no interest exiting, but his house of horrors will look different this year. There will be no “buried alive,” and animatronics will be dialed back slightly to reduce touch points. Also, no food or drinks will be sold. Masks must be worn by all, hand sanitizer dispensers will be placed at the end of railings and social distancing will be monitored with the help of 40 cameras throughout the building. Tens of thousands of people typically visit the attraction each year. Terebus said he’s bracing for as much as a 75 percent reduction, which will have ripple effects for downtown Pontiac.
ployed people generally concerned about going back in the workforce from a safety standpoint,” Lawrence said. “But manufacturing, we figured out ways to set up our workplaces safely. We tend to have more space and resources to put in safety precautions. And we don’t interface with the general public.” Julie Fream, CEO of the Troybased industry organization Original Equipment Suppliers Association, said the ongoing child care crisis may still be forcing some workers from returning to work as students largely remain at home for learning and caring for at-risk or elderly family members continues to prevent others. “Not all employees returned to their former production facility when called back,” Fream told Crain’s in an email. “Some have moved on to different work, others have pre-existing health conditions and are avoiding potential coronavirus exposure. And some have childor family-care issues that prevent them from working.” Grigowski said the obvious factors don’t align with what his human resources department is learning from the no-shows and the walk-offs. “We’ve been analyzing the issue internally, and if it’s because they get a job closer to home or pays more, we don’t begrudge anyone for that,” he said. “The impression we have is that most of the people who have left were not going to another job. They just were not coming to work because they don’t want to work.” IHS projects U.S. car sales at 12.9 million units, a stark decline from last year’s 17 million vehicles. But Robinet said with the shutdowns in March, April and into May, the industry is still playing catch-up. “We were building at a probably low 16 million unit type of pace in March when everything stopped,” Robinet said. “Yes, the forecast is much smaller now but with lean inventory and the additional challenges like lack of travel between location, etc., the production market is much stronger than it seems. We have to be careful to think of this labor pool as some sort of lake that you can just pull more and more labor from without draining it. We’ve largely done that and the skilled labor shortage is still here, and now we’ve got one with general labor. There’s just a lot of overtime going on right now.” Contact: dwalsh@crain.com; (313) 446-6042; @dustinpwalsh “Everybody’s impacted by what we do over here, all the bars and restaurants,” he said. New this year, Terebus opened on Oct. 1 the Mythos Museum in an old daycare center building he bought next to Erebus. The “oddities and curiosities” museum will be filled with five decades’ worth of his and his partners’ collections — a saber tooth tiger skull, funeral parlor and embalming equipment and Halloween masks dating back to the 1950s. Combined with the escape room it launched in 2017, which opened its doors recently after being forced to shut down due to the coronavirus, Terebus hopes to stay in the black and maintain his institution of horrors. “We want to do it right and do it safely,” he said. Contact: knagl@crain.com; (313) 446-0337; @kurt_nagl
BEAUMONT
From Page 1
In late June, Southfield-based Beaumont and Advocate signed a nonbinding letter of intent and had hoped to complete a final agreement later this year. Any deal would have required a vote by the 16-member board of directors and signoff by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. If completed, the combined Advocate-Aurora-Beaumont system would have become the nation’s seventh-largest not-for-profit health system by revenue, behind Livonia-based Trinity Health. “We have great respect for Beaumont Health and we continue to believe scale will play a critical role in advancing quality, accelerating transformation and reducing cost in the health care world of tomorrow,” Jim Skogsbergh, president and CEO of 26-hospital Advocate Aurora, said in a statement Friday. But over the past three months, physicians, nurses and donors have expressed dissatisfaction with Fox, COO Carolyn Wilson and Chief Medical Officer David Wood over a number of management decisions they say has led to low morale, inadequate staffing, lack of supplies, changes in anesthesia services and departures of top doctors and nurses. When asked if he would resign or retire from Beaumont when his contract ends, Fox said: “I am not going anywhere.” Fox’s five-year contract expired in March 2020 and there has been no word it was extended, although Fox told Crain’s Friday only that his contract does not expire in 2021. The deal with Advocate Aurora isn’t the only time Beaumont merger talks ended in termination. In May, Beaumont abruptly Beaumont Health called off a merger with four-hospital Summa Health, an Akron, Ohio-based system. The systems had already received all state and federal regulatory approvals and the deal was nearly completed. Beaumont officials said the delay was to allow both hospital systems to navigate the coronavirus pandemic and its financial fallout, but Summa executives said they were surprised by the announcement. In response to Friday’s announcement, three Oakland County legislators applauded Beaumont’s decision to terminate the merger with Advocate Aurora. “We commend Beaumont for acting in the best interest of its patients and employees and ending merger discussions with Advocate Aurora Health. Evidence suggests that the proposed merger of these health systems might have led to higher health care costs and, potentially, worse patient outcomes. That is a risk to our constituents we were unwilling to accept,” according to a statement from Congressman Andy Levin, D-Bloomfield Township; State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak; and State Rep. Jim Ellison, D-Royal Oak. The three legislators earlier this week voiced opposition to the merger and urged Beaumont leadership to re-evaluate it. “As our communities continue to grapple with this devastating pandemic, we believe every health system should remain 100 percent focused on serving patients and protecting the hardworking people who care for them and keep our hospitals running — not on maximizing revenues,” the legislators said. “We stand ready to support
Beaumont, its employees and other health care providers throughout Southeast Michigan as they continue the essential work of caring for Michiganders.” Oakland County Executive David Coulter said terminating the merger was the right thing to do. “Beyond financial benefits, any partnership must demonstrate tangible community benefits and improved quality of health care for our residents not readily apparent in this proposal,” Coulter said in a statement. “I look forward to Beaumont’s renewed focus on local market priorities and the critical role they play in the quality of life in this region.” In a Zoom teleconference with reporters Friday morning, Fox spoke
“WE DISCUSSED IT, WE AGREED THAT IT WOULD BE A MUTUAL DECISION. CLEARLY, WE HAD A LOT OF GROUPS WE NEEDED TO PROCESS WITH. AND IT WAS EXTREMELY CUMBERSOME WITH THE PANDEMIC.”
` How much of an impact were the doctors, nurses, major donors and others, who opposed the merger, in your final decision? They were the ones, in fact, who slowed it down? FOX: “It’s all kind of one ecosystem. It’s very natural, when you start to discuss these kind of partnerships with major community assets, such as Beaumont, that there’ll be some initial concerns. The pandemic gets in your way, and the ability to process that is what would have happened in normal situation. I’m not saying the pandemic is the cause. But it really got in the way, if you will. The other issues are, when they are legitimate concerns, (and) addressing the concerns and processing that, you know, with all the requirements we have under the pandemic, makes it really difficult to address.” ` Were there other concerns besides the pandemic? FOX: “I think that, frankly, the board and management and I endorsed the decision. (We) looked at all the issues from all the constituencies, all the processing we need to do to the issues we face going forward, that being a second surge, (and) getting ready for the vaccine phase in the first and second quarter. The collective decision was we need to discontinue these discussions, focus on that and get on the other side of this pandemic. And then see where we are at that point in time.”
On the decision to terminate the merger.
` Could merger discussions pick up again after the pandemic?
“I THINK THAT, FRANKLY, THE BOARD AND MANAGEMENT AND I ENDORSED THE DECISION. ... THE COLLECTIVE DECISION WAS WE NEED TO DISCONTINUE THESE DISCUSSIONS, FOCUS ON THAT AND GET ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS PANDEMIC. AND THEN SEE WHERE WE ARE AT THAT POINT IN TIME.” On the possibility that other concerns derailed the merger.
for nearly 10 minutes about the decision to terminate talks. Fox was then was asked a number of questions by the media: ` Was it really a mutual decision with Advocate to terminate the merger? It seemed as if Advocate Aurora was taking cues from Beaumont on how to proceed, given the problems expressed locally. FOX: “I don’t know whether I’d say it that way. We discussed it, we agreed that it would be a mutual decision. Clearly, we had a lot of groups we needed to process with. And it was extremely cumbersome with the pandemic. So again, we stand by what we said.”
FOX: “It’s possible. Again, I am a little careful in predicting the future. Right now, when I talk to my colleagues around the country, who like us may have been in conversations in 2019, have been interrupted or distracted by their primary responsibility for their communities, which is to protect them from the effects of the pandemic and to treat those infected with the pandemic with the virus.” ` Will you resign or retire in the near future? FOX: ““I am not going anywhere. Fortunately, I have a lot of support from the board.” ` You are quite aware that these problems expressed by doctors, nurses and donors have been bubbling up for some time, more than two years before COVID-19. Does Beaumont plan to address the number of problems raised by doctors and nurses on staffing, support, equipment and various contract issues? FOX: “That is a compound question. I believe we’re addressing all those issues. As we navigate through (COVID-19), do not underestimate the stress everyone has been under courtesy of the pandemic and it’s truly been extraordinary. ... There is a lot of tumult and you know, there’s general concerns which are very valid. There’s some sub-agendas with respect to other issues of decisions may have. But what we’re doing is keeping the dialogue wide open. We’re talking to them, and we’re working it through it.” Contact: jgreene@crain.com; (313) 446-0325; @jaybgreene
OCTOBER 5, 2020 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | 45
THE CONVERSATION
Lineage Logistics CEO Lehmkuhl says acquisition tear not over yet LINEAGE LOGISTICS: Since 2015, Lineage Logistics has been led by industry veteran Greg Lehmkuhl, who served in leadership of Ann Arbor-based freight carrier Con-way Freight and Menlo Logistics before they were both acquired by XPO Logistics. He’s led the company through one of the most aggressive growth strategies in recent memory. Lineage Logistics is on a tear. The food cold storage warehousing firm has made more than 50 acquisitions in the past five years, including a $900 million deal to acquire competitor Emergent Cold in June. Lineage Logistics has spent billions of dollars in recent years on acquisitions. Luckily, the private-equity backed firm has continued backing from its owners. Last month, the firm closed on a $1.6 billion fund raise from investors including Oxford Properties Group, private equity firm BentallGreenOak and Dan Sundheim’s D1 Capital Partners. | BY DUSTIN WALSH ` How many more acquisitions can we expect in 2020? I can’t disclose that, but we have plenty more in the hopper. Some are in (letter of intent) phase, some are closing soon and others are in different phases. I can’t determine when they’ll close, but you’ll definitely see more by the end of the year. The deal process will determine how many. ` The pandemic put stress on many industries and some sellers just need out. Did this provide any advantage in your acquisition strategy? I would say that our M&A growth is unrelated to the pandemic. All the deals we’ve closed this year were in process before the pandemic. So there’s not a correlation between the pandemic and our path of growth. It’s counterintuitive, but it’s true. ` The acquisition strategy is unmatched in my years of reporting. How are you achieving success with so many acquisitions? Lineage was founded in 2008, but we ramped up slowly at first. But we friended the industry in an increasing way. We’ve clearly established ourselves now around the world as the acquirer of choice to family owners. We have a deep understanding of the needs of each family seller. We strive to get the people in our culture first, like finding the right path from a career standpoint. We always pay these owners a fair price and always follow through on our promises to them. We also allow them to become owners of Lineage through equity. Using this formula in the very beginning and sustaining for more than a decade, we have a reputation now worldwide. When we approach a company about acquisition, we can give them a Rolodex from more than 50 former owners. Everyone wants to join a winning team.
` That’s a lot of integrations to manage. How could they all be successful? We’re batting near a thousand in integration. I came here in 2015. So prior to that, we were using people who were involved in the day-to-day operations. We changed that, took our former president of the Eastern region, Mike McClendon, and established him as the executive vice president of network optimization. We built a team with key roles that are fully in charge of due diligence and full cultural integration. Instead of burdening our front-line leadership with the core task of integration. We have a separate team in charge of this that runs our play book. ... Our first poor integration could be our last acquisition, so we have to be flawless every time. I think of (acquisitions) like children. We have to integrate each one differently … We put a ton of thought into how were are going to integrate and the pace we’re going to integrate so we don’t lose the secret sauce of what made that company successful prior to the acquisition.
cold storage facility. The operational complexity is expanding and because of the explosion of e-commerce, they want someone else that knows how to do it. That’s only accelerated through the pandemic, so even more end customers for us and leading to more inventory placed in more locations. ` Lineage raised $1.6 billion from existing investors. What is the time line for an IPO? So I would say the investors we’ve taken on, we’ve done for a reason. They are long-
term strategic partners. They believe in the long-term strategy. We didn’t just go out and get capital. We could have raised a whole lot more than $1.6 billion. Going for an IPO is about optimizing capital structure. Right now, we’re not lacking in capital. We can get it from new and existing structures. We are more concerned with working to be IPO ready; having the controls in place to be the best company we can be. We’re quickly putting in place in case we do want to pull the switch. But we’ve promised no timetable. It’s if and when it makes sense, we’re ready to go. Greg Lehmkuhl, CEO, Lineage Logistics
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` Why is the cold storage warehousing market so hot right now? The overall market is already large, just from population growth but also consumer preference changes. My son loves the frozen food aisle. I didn’t want the Hungry Man TV dinner back then. But he loves the PF Chang’s ready-made meals. The real change is in increased outsourcing due to the increasing complexity in food safety regulations and advancing supply chain technology. Our customers no longer want to do it themselves. They want to focus on broadening their brand, so the last place they want to put capital is a
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RUMBLINGS
Bold new look to debut with glass building at Eastern Market A plan to tear down an Eastern Market property is moving forward as its owner looks to replace it with a new four-story retail and office building with a glass facade. Firm Real Estate, the company headed up by Sanford Nelson, said in a press release that the building at 2701 Russell St. at Division Street next to Bert’s Warehouse will be torn down soon after site preparation completes. The existing building’s mural by artist DENIAL that prominently spells “DOOM” is expected to be recreated, instead replacing the ominous word with the upbeat “DO!”
This 40,000-square-foot building with a glass facade is envisioned to replace a property on Russell Street. | MVRDV
46 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | OCTOBER 5, 2020
New art by Detroit artist Sheefy McFly is also going to adorn the upper half of the 40,000-square-foot building, the development cost of which was not disclosed. The “DOOM” mural is being recreated and enlarged on the new building’s glass facade and wrapping around the entire building. Detroit-based L.S. Brinker Co. is the contractor on the project, dubbed in the press release as Glass Mural, while Rotterdam, Netherlands-based MVRDV is the project architect. Eastern Market’s future has been
the subject of discussion the last two years as new landlords buy occupied and vacant buildings there. There have been concerns about rising rents as the building owners, particularly Nelson, the son of serial entrepreneur Linden Nelson, and his investors with Firm Real Estate, fix up properties that they and others say have suffered from years of deferred maintenance. Nelson and Ben Hall, a co-owner of the now-shuttered Russell Street Deli, had a public falling out last year stemming from a building repair dispute.
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SUPER. HEROES. Thank you to all of the Wayne State University heroes putting their Warrior spirit into action at a time of crisis to improve the lives of others — and at times, even risking their safety to serve communities around our city and around the world. Your acts are beyond heroic.
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