Crain's Detroit Business, Oct. 10, 2016 issue by Crain's Detroit Business

Lansing turns into growth capital

Second Stage: Getting strategic

Planning helps you get to next level, Lisa Lunsford says, Page 29

After weathering recession, city sees boom in development, Page 26

OCTOBER 10 - 16, 2016 1991 Holly Arida, Jon Barfield, Patricia Braverman, John Breitmeyer III, Darrell Burks, Mark Carter, Alan Deal, R. Gary Diaz, Howard Leland Dow III, William Early, Bruce Fealk, Randall Fenton, Andrew Fisher, DeAnn Forbes, Daniel Gilbert, Steven Gordon, Jeffrey Hipchen, Jonathan Holtzman, Edward Janos, D. Lynn Kelley, Kenneth Kohn, Patricia Kukula, Mark Lieberman, Thomas McNeill, Kestutis Miskinis, W. Howard Morris, Mike Novak, Dominic Pangborn, Steven Proehl, Thomas Prose, Lynn Rinke, Ralph Roberts, Richard Shaffner, Gilbert “Buzz” Silverman, Paula Somerville, David Sowerby, Robert Taubman, Marie Vanerian, Peter W. Waldmeir, Gretchen Waters, 1992 Gregory Adams, Kedrick Adkins, Nancy Berg, Debra Cain, Chris Charlton, Joseph Corace, John Czarnecki, Marla Drutz, Steve Facione, Andrea Fischer, Mark Fitzpatrick, Nathan Forbes, Yousif Ghafari, Raymond Gunn, Richard Helppie, Steven Jackson, Tom King, David Kotzian, Dan Malone, Gerard Mantese, Beth McDermott, Aleksandra Miziolek, Mike Mnich, Timothy Morris, Andrea Morrow, Ken Nisch, Michael Palazzolo, Matthew Prentice, Kerry Reedy, Melanie Reinhold, Mark Roualet, Jeffrey Sakwa, Anmar Sarafa, Joseph Sarafa, Ian Schonsheck, Peter Steffes, Duane Tarnacki, Judith Thomas, William Wagstaff, Aubin Williams, 1993 Frederick Ade Jr., Marva Allen, Terry Barclay, Issam Berjouai, Mark Bertolini, John Bohenick, Jerry Byer, Kolleen Dibble, Diane Dietrick, James Duggan, Patrick Fenton, Shah Firoozi, David Gonynor Jr., Jeffrey Green, Scott Griffin, Theodore Hanss Jr., Kirk Hendrix, Ken Hollowell, Jonathan James, James Ketai, Steven Klochko III, Robert Kowalick Jr., Carol Larson, Piet Lindhout, Karen Livingston-Wilson, Michael Lowry, Bill Ludwig, Douglas Manix, Michael McGee, E. Powell Miller, Francine Parker, Ernie Perich, David Provost, Anne Regling, Leon Richardson, Daniel Roma, James Stapleton, Creighton Weber, W. Bernard White, Steven Wynn, 1994 Jay Alix, John Anderson, Mark Brewer, Larry Brinker, Richard Burks, Ronald Campbell, John Caponigro, Tim Copacia, Denise Darcel Davis, Stephen D’Arcy, Agnes Dombrowski Hagerty, Mark Freedman, Daniel Gorczyca, Beth Gotthelf, Douglas Graham, Kouhaila Hammer, William Hartman, Mary Ellen Holahan, Melvin “Butch” Hollowell, James Hughes, Atanas Ilitch, William Laimbeer, Lawrence Lichtman, Paul McBride, Judith McNeeley, Brian Niemiec, Valerie Niemiec, William Noakes Jr., Kelley Aldridge Osgood, Alex Parrish, Stephen Ragan, Dave Richards, Charles Rothstein, Marla Scafe, Brian Tauber, Mark Volpe, Steven Weikal, Cherie Whiting, Karen Law Wiltsie, Cynthia Wisner, 1995 Rod Alberts, Gerald Baut, Jim Bellinson, John Boyd, Walter Bridgforth Jr., Nancy Brown, Jeffrey Chaffin, Anne Cooke, Amy Courter, Dennis Cowan, Janice Dalfovo-Dawson, Andrea Dickson, Michael Fezzey, Maureen Gallagher, Terry Gardner, John Goodman, Rainy Hamilton Jr., Beverly Hannah, Kimberly Horn, Kathleen Hudson, Jay Juergensen, David Kwan, Nicole Lamb-Hale, Jesse Levine, Gary Maccagnone, John Matouk, Jennifer McCallum-Mulville, Thaddeus McCotter, David McKinnon, Clifton Mosley Jr., Cindy Pasky, Kevin Poston, Jean Redfield, Timothy Ryan, Marjorie Simmons, Kathleen Sinclair, Reginald Turner Jr., Gary Van Buhler, Margaret Whitman, Ronald Yolles, 1996 Kevin Akey, Jeanne AudetteJones, Mark Bartlett, Allan Benedict, Dennis Bernard, Kenneth Brower, Edward Clemente, Dana Cluckey, Mark Davidoff, Camilla Denison, Beverly Erickson, Julie Fershtman, Michael Gonte, Gregory Goss, Brian Gregorich, Mark Larson, Janice Sherman Malach, Mark McManus Jr., Thomas Moga, Jeffrey Morgan, Kelly Neill, Leonard Niehoff, Traci Phillips, Jeffery Prough, Dan Rodriguez, Douglas Savage, Robert Scheper, Lisa Schrenk, Greg Stanalajczo, Ted Stenger, Robert Stone, Jonathan Strager, James Toeniskoetter, Gary Topolewski, Dominick Tringali, Tyla Wells, Steven White, Julie Willett, Nancy Zimmerman, Frank Zychowski, 1997 Robert Allen, Joseph Angileri, Jeffrey Antaya, Rick Binford, Rodney Bowling, W. Steven Brooks, Kimberly Cahill, Denise Christy, James Cowper, Janiki Darity, Douglas DelGrosso, Roy Dixon Jr., William “Billy” Downs, Reginald Dozier, Lorri Fairchild, Gerald Fodale, J. Erik Fyrwald, Gary Giller, Harry Glanz, Amy Glendening, Kevin Godin, Jennifer Granholm, Nanci Grant, Valerie Kozikowski, Gary Marcicano, Anne Mervenne, William Murray, Mark Nickita, Donna Parolini, Susan Perlin, Ben Schmidt, Joseph Shannon, Sam Simon, Mark Sims, Thomas Summerill, Victor Tenuto, Sheryl Toby, David Trott, Murray Wikol, Edward Wizner, 1998 Lee Bailey, John Balardo, Bill Borgiel, Deborah Misner Broderick, James Carter, Andrew Cohen, Randy Dzierzawski, Scott Eisenberg, Craig Erlich, George Fadool, Naji Gebara, Gerard Giudici, Marva Goldsmith, Thomas Hartle, Scott Henderson, Renee Jennings, Cheryl Johnson, David Katz, Robert Kraemer, Thomas Lewand, Mark Lichtman, Jon Love, Scott Lund, Elizabeth Meter, Linden Nelson, Robert Norfleet, Kevin O’Connor, Michele Oliveto, Ann O’Neill, Jeffrey Palmer, Adorno Piccinini, Joan Primo, Catherine Pullen, Brian Schubot, Mark Schmier, Suzanne Shank, Michael Stewart, Maureen Thomas, John Van Osdol, Randy Walker, 1999 Paul Campbell, Eric Dobrusin, Steven Doman, Brendan Dunleavy, David Egner, Brian Elias, Renee Erlich, David Fry, Michael Gerard, Jacalyn Goforth, Paul Hatcher, La-Van Hawkins, Cindy Henderson, Paul Hoge, Andrew Jacob, Randy Lane, Karl LaPeer, Kirk Lewis, Jonathan Liebman, Richard Loewenstein, Jesse Lopez, Lynn Matson-Kazanowski, Cary Newman, Paul Oliver, Thomas Petrillo, Mary Petrovich, Chris Peyerk, Prasad Potluri, Thomas Purther, Rick Rogow, Louis Rosenfeld, Matthew Rossetti, Kenneth Sarafa, Paige Terracciano, Doug Venable, Edward Victor, Dean David Weston, Justin Wilcox, Russell Zack, Mary Zatina, 2000 Alice Andrews, Andrew Appleby, Russell Brown, Subir Chowdhury, H. Adam Cohen, Joe Dumars, David Farbman, Raymond Friedrich, Chris Hall, Mark Hammond, Steve Harms, Jay Harrison, Adam Helfman, Jimmy Hsiao, Terri Irvine, Mark Juzych, Michael Kaline, Emil Kang, Geoffrey Langdon, John Lauer, Christy Coleman Matthews, Catherine Metry, Jeffrey Moss, Janice Murray, Robert Palmer, Christopher Peppo, Gail Perry-Mason, Kevin Ransom, Shahzad Rauf, Tiffiny Reo, Kevin Rinke, Christopher Rizik, J. Adam Rothstein, Craig Schubiner, David Segura, Heidi Van Arnem, Mark Wayne, W. DeWayne Wells, Jeffrey Williams, Nadwa Yono, 2001 Joseph Aoun, John Birgbauer, Vickie Bostic, Steven Britten, Patrick Carey, Seema Chaturvedi, Robert Chioini, Lisa DiChiera, Tamara Door, Chris Eagle, David Eberly, Brad Frederick, Charles Gleeson II, Hiram Jackson, Jeffrey Jenkins, Douglas Kearney, Anthony Kellum, Bhushan Kulkarni, Daniel Labes, Sam LaGrasso, Anthony Lent, Susan Lichterman, Michael Malecki, Derrick May, Mark Mendola, Randall Miller, William Newman, Patrick O’Leary, Anup Popat, Arnold Reed, MaryAnn Rivers, Freda Sampson, Shawn Santo, Rick Sperling, David Stollman, Craige Stout, Vince Tyra, Sean Werdlow, Rebecca Salminen Witt, Wayne Wudyka, 2002 Robin Asher, John Beeding Jr., Larry Berg, Nasser Beydoun, Mark Bisard, Erika Block, Scott Carlton, Jeffrey Connolly, Mary Lee Corrado, Douglas Diggs, Edward Eberle, Dixie Eklund, Eric Ersher, Karen Finck, Julie Fream, Darshan Grewal, Yongping Gu, Douglas Hamburger, Debra Hanses, Marina Houghton, Amjad Hussain, Fred Karam, Kwame Kilpatrick, Anthony Lombardo, LeAnne McCorry, Colleen McDonald, Charlie Metzger, Dominic J. Moceri, Matthew Moroun, James Murray, Nader Samii, Steve Tobocman, Eric Verniaut, Joseph Vig, Kevin Warren, Brian Wenzel, Wayne White, Shaun Wilson, Jason Winters, Thomas Zidar, 2003 David Barfield, Patricia Marine Barrett, Thomas Brock, Daniel Cherrin, Kenneth Cockrel Jr., Scott Drumm, Ann Duncan, David Galbenski, Margaret Garry, Donna Gent, Derek Gentile, Pargat Singh Grewal, Colleen Haley, Jeff Hall, Sean Harrington, Ramzi Hermiz, Christopher Horne, Doug Kalitta, Jennifer Kluge, Tamara Knechtel, Steven Liddle, Josh Linkner, Scott Lozon, Kristi Mailloux, Dale Mansour, Marshall Mathers III, Patrick McInnis, Derrick Miller, Osman Minkara, Herman Moore, William Phillips, Mark Randon, Chris Rea, Toni Wisne Sabina, Ray Schiavone, Jeanette Schneider, David Scrivano, Brad Wardell, Norman Yatooma, Brian Yessian, 2004 Tony Antone, Randall Beck, Lori Grigg Bluhm, Michael Boettcher, Daniel Cobb, Jason Curis, Bryce Currie, Jim Diamond, Marke Dickinson, Don Dismuke, Mark Dixon, Richard Dugas Jr., Andrew Farbman, Bobby Ferguson, Anika Goss-Foster, Christopher Ilitch, Howard Jacobson, Heidi Kassab, Robert Kennedy, James Madaus, Dawn Dyer Magretta, Mark McCammon, Jennifer McLean, Nikolaos Moschouris, Joshua Opperer, Rick Portwood, Michael Sarafa, Ray Scott, Mark Sheena, Michelle Sherman, Rich Sloan, Jeff Stafeil, John Sznewajs, Frank Taylor, Randy Thomas, Chris Whall, Michael Whittaker, Robert Wolfe, Frank Wu, Craig Yaldoo, 2005 Keith Albertie, Edward Alterman, Keith Anderson, Dennis Archer Jr., Joe Barbat, Ron Boji, Kevin Bolding, Jon Carlson, Enrique Carrillo, J. Michael Davis, Sonya Delley, Brian Demkowicz, Craig DeRoche, Trisha Drueke-Heusel, Greg Grabowski, Andrew Greenlee, David Hall, Greg Haller, Jeff Hauptman, Kristen Holt, Sarah Hubbard, Vincent Keenan, Debbie Kenyon, Jason Luo, Kelly Major, Angelique Strong Marks, Marques McCammon, Rich Morgan, Tom Murar, Frank Orsini, Jane Palmieri, Erik Pekarski, Dana Raymant, Philip Ross, Dana Schmitt, Rupesh Srivastava, Jim Townsend, Duane Tursi, April Wagner, Chris Yatooma, 2006 Steven Atchison, Richard Bernstein, Michael Bishop, David Blaszkiewicz, Jon Campbell Sr., Mark DeMaria, Nino DiCosmo, Aaron Dworkin, Bryan Finnerty, Jamie Flinchbaugh, Jon Grabowski, Jeremy Haberman, Robin Hanks, Michele Hodges, Michelle Hucal, Jason Huvaere, Michael Jacobson, James Kamsickas, Michael Kern III, Rajesh Kothari, Ronia Kruse, Scott Lowell, Martin Manna, Karim Motawi, Heather Nabozny, Monica Navarro, James Nicholson, Debra Osuch, Robert Porcher, Kevin Prokop, Steve Robinson, Todd Smith, Nick Sousanis, Trisha Stein, Todd Stern, Robin Terry, Timothy Thorland, Angela Topacio, Marc Weiser, Denise Williams, 2007 Tonya Allen, Rumia Ambrose-Burbank, David Behen, Wael Berrached, Linda Blair, Nina Byrne, Stuart Carlin, L. Stanley Clark, Aaron Crumm, Mark Davis, Ahmad Ezzeddine, Glenn Forbis, Francis Grunow, Kenneth Harris, Nina Holden, Danialle Karmanos, Anessa Kramer, Soojin Kwon Koh, William Lichwalla, Anne MacIntyre, Steven McCarty, David Morris, Clint Mytych, Craig Nelson, Matthew O’Bryan, David Olivencia, John Rotche, Tami Salisbury, Robert Seestadt, Michael Semanco, Ben Smith, Mina Sooch, Lisa Stern, Peter Stevenson, Predrag Sukovic, Luanne Thomas Ewald, Martin Tibbitts, Thomas Timko, Aaron Timlin, Lyle Wolberg, 2008 Janis Acosta, Utz-Jens Beister, Jesse Berger, Amal Berry-Brown, Leanne Bowen, Rick Brockhaus, Ted Canaday, Dawndenise Capers, Heather Carmona, Francoise Colpron, Laura Covintree, Antoine Dubeauclard, Rita Fields, Saylor Frase, Scott French, Matt Friedman, Marie Galindo, Michael George II, Lisa Grosso, Kelley Hamilton, Amin Irving, John Lesser, Jeff Luckoff, Christian Lupo, James Maher, Kristina Marshall, Charles Moore, Heidi Mucherie, Mary Margaret O’Donnell, Stephen Potter, David Ripple, Steven Rybicki, Lauren Scarpace, Matt Schenk, Matthew Sosin, Rich Stromback, Janice Suchan, Michael Tenbusch, Terence Thomas Sr., William Wildern, 2009 Nicole Antakli, Shane Cerone, Justin Cherfoli, Arul Chinnaiyan, William Cosnowski Jr., Jennifer Lynn Dale, Deb Dansby, Angela Davison, Jonathan Dwoskin, Azzam Elder, Matthew Farrell, Mikki Gardner-Mood, Omar George, Paul Gieleghem, Mick Goik, Jeremy Gump, Mark Harper, Jonathan Kramer, Ryan LaFontaine, Corey Leon, Benjamin Miles, Daniel Milstein, Jami Moore, Dara Munson, Marisa Farinacci Nicely, Raj Patel, Glenn Pavey, J. David Posch, Susan Rafferty, Wendy Robinson, Douglas Salzenstein, Kevin Schnieders, Karriem Shakoor, Cristina Sheppard-Decius, Kelly Smith, Kevin Smith, Luke Song, Timothy Swanson, Casandra Ulbrich, A.J. Weiner, 2010 Michael Ansley, Jeff Bocan, Katerina Bocci, Paul Brown, Natalie Bruno, Betty Chu, M.D., Andrew Daitch, Peter Davis, John Decker, Michael Delaney, Jana Ecker, Bryan Geoffrey, Samit Ghosh, Jennifer Grieco, Michelle Hornberger, Tricia Keith, Kevin Kovachevich, David Kramer, John Latella, Katy Locker, William McCarthy, Derek Mehraban, Tim Melton, Jenice Mitchell 1,000 names. Every year, every line, some leap off the page. Ford, Michelle Morris, Darrell Parish, Charles Pugh, Kirk Rosin, Tricia Sherick, Neil Sherman, Steve St. Andre, Eric Stang, Jason Teshuba, Jason Dreamers, doers, leaders. Building businesses. Creating fortunes. Matthew Walsh, Bradley Wardell, Neil Weissman, Michelle White, Sonya Zanardelli, 2011 Joey Agree, Margarita Barry, Townsend, Mark Wallace, Valerie Brader, Christopher Brower, Robert Bruner, Sharlonda Buckman, Brian Calley, Jenny Cederstrom, Anton Chastang, Amanda Christides, Solving problems. They have shaped the Detroit of today. The Jonathan Citrin, Tim Diemer, Brian Draper, Jay Farner, Randall Fogelman, Jeff Freyer, Kala Gibson, Nick Gorga, Jeremy Grandon, Chad Grant, Meagan names you see here are now joined by 40 more shaping the Detroit Hardcastle, Mat Ishbia, Rishi Jaitly, Jason Langwell, Laura Marcero, Andrea Moody, Lesley Nuttall, Rob Parker, Harry Pianko, Brian Piergentili, Shane that will be. Meet them starting on Page 10. Pliska, Brandon Podolski, Melissa Roy, Mark Salamango, Bill Smith, Ned Staebler, Olga Stella, Yash Sutariya, Vince Thomas, Jeff Wigginton, 2012 Fadi Aoude, Itai Ben-Gal, Alisa Bennett, Ryan Blair, Ren Carlton, Paul Choukourian, Elizabeth DiStefano, Jacques Driscoll, Jonathan Dropiewski, Bernard Fuhs, Damian Gardley, Laura Glenn, Malik Goodwin, Lisa Katz, Meredith Kerekes, Storm Kirschenbaum, Joseph Kopietz, Jeffrey Laethem, Ryan Maibach, Chris Michalakis, Dan Millen, Kristin Myers, Danielle Olekszyk, Trevor Pawl, Jason Raznick, Lesley Esters Redwine, Scott Rice, Meg Roberts, Ed Siaje, Dug Song, Sandy Stojkovski, Jeffrey Stone, Marlowe Stoudamire, Mark Tapper, Chris Thomas, Chris Trebilcock, Patricia Van Pelt, Jamie Walters, Molly Williams, Sean Zecman, 2013 Devon Akmon, Amy Amador, Ioana Ben-Ezra, Samuel Beznos, Matthew Bissett, Andrea Bowers, Terrisca Des Jardins, Trish Dewald, Alexis Dishman, Brian Ellison, Elaina Farnsworth, Kelly Gasior, Paul Glomski, Kurt Harvey, Rejji Hayes, Patrick Hines, Lisa Hing, Laura Lawson, Sava Lelcaj, Dounia Lievan, David Lin, Andrew Lindamood, Scott Marcus, Eric McBride, Jennifer Merriman, Dan Mullen, Sagar Parvataneni, Kenneth Phillips, Bala Rajaraman, Afa Sadykhly Dworkin, Detavio Samuels, Eva Scurlock, Michael Shanlikian, Kari Shimmel, Michael Skitzki, Doug Skrzyniarz, Matthew Stone, Monique Vann-Brown, Jamie Westrick, Brandon Widmer, 2014 Eric Adelman, Elizabeth Alvarez, Dean Brody, Kara Brooklier, Hyaat Chaudhary, Nathan Conway, LaNesha DeBardelaben, April Donaldson, Stephen Dunn, Jordan Field, Karen Fordham, Elizabeth Godek, Jane Harper, Ryan Hoyle, Jennifer Jackson, Carrie Jones, Lamont Jones, MD, Jessica Kaminskas, John Kohl, Tekisha Lee, Ming “Michael” Lin, Kimberly Martin, Kirk Mayes, Rana Mohtadi, Cleamon Moorer, Shani Penn, Matthew Roling, Ted Serbinski, Aaron Seybert, Jason Shanks, Ricky Singh, Barry Spilman, Melanie Steele, Rachel Tronstein, Erik Tungate, Chris Uhl, Lora Vinande, Samantha White, Robert Wooley, Ke “Coco” Zhang-Miske, 2015 Abir Ali, Aaron Belen, Brooke Bowers, Larry Brinker Jr., Brian Burke, Jason Drake, Lilly Epstein Stotland, Michael Forbes, Adrian Fortino, Deirdre Groves, Elizabeth Hammond, Laura Hughes, Anika Jackson, Jennifer Jonika, Benjamin Kennedy, Charlie Knoll, Michelle Kotas, Alison Laesser-Keck, Kelly LaPierre, Carrie Lewand-Monroe, Anthony Majewski, Paula Nelson, Royce Neubauer, Van Nguyen, Bunia Parker, Ryan Plecha, Jim Richards, Gabe Rubin, Joe Saad, Tony Saunders, Kyle Anne Sasena, Candice Simons, Megan Spanitz, Guy Suter, Michael Taylor, Tiffany Taylor, Parker Tracey, Edgar Vann III, Tommey Walker, Michael Yessian

40 under 40 turns 25

Public works chief’s opponents claim pay-to-play politics By Chad Halcom chalcom@crain.com

Anthony Marrocco, the Democratic Macomb County Public Works commissioner long seen as a kingmaker, faces a fierce election challenge — and not just from his oppo-

nent, GOP congresswoman Candice Miller. Marrocco is meeting an opposition drive from a Democratic county executive and businesspeople who have felt locked out of what they call a culture of secrecy and pay-to-play politics.

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The Nov. 8 race pitting Miller against the six-term incumbent is a big cash battle, drawing nearly $750,000 in seven months. Much of the anti-Marrocco push is fueled by executives at companies that compete directly with longtime backers of the county political fixture. Marrocco has seldom faced any real opposition in re-election bids. Now, though, he has fellow Democrat and County Executive Mark Hackel hopping party lines and dredging up old scandals to aid his opponent. The stakes are big. The Macomb public works office has overseen $285 million in drainage projects funded through bonds issued by the

county since 2006. Miller, R-Harrison Township, has comfortably the best-funded campaign in the county, with about $575,000 worth of donations coming in through late August, according to campaign finance records kept by the Macomb County Bureau of Elections. Marrocco is largely relying on a coterie of contractor and real estate industry donors, with about $160,000 raised through late August. Miller has received funding from a range of political action committees, stalwart Republican supporters — as well as excavators, engineers and architects who either compete with Marrocco SEE MACOMB, PAGE 36

GOP U.S. Rep. Candice Miller (right) is not the only opponent Anthony Marrocco (left) faces in the battle for his Macomb County Public Works commissioner post.

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MICHIGAN BRIEFS Retailers hire for holidays with positive outlook The upcoming holiday shopping season in Michigan could improve slightly when compared to last year, with most retailers expecting to see a modest increase in sales nationwide while hiring for seasonal positions in the state is expected to remain relatively flat, according to retailers and holiday outlook reports. Many large national and regional retailers say they’ll hire about the same number of seasonal employees in Michigan this year as they did in 2015. Last week, Texas-based J.C. Penney Co. said it would hire more than 500 seasonal associates in Michigan. Cincinnati-based retailer Macy’s Inc. is working to fill about 1,600 positions in Michigan for the holiday season, about the same as last year. Wisconsin-based Kohl’s expects to hire about 2,300 seasonal employees in Michigan, or about 50 people per store, about the same number as last year. And Walker-based Meijer Inc. also plans to hire for seasonal positions, but lacks a target number. Tom Scott, senior vice president of communications and marketing at the Michigan Retailers Association, said he expects holiday retail sales in the state to be “generally positive” and a little better compared to last year’s holiday season. He said retail

BLOOMBERG

National retailers and locally based companies are counting on similar or increased holiday sales and are hiring seasonal help as a result.

sales in 2016 have been slightly more positive although fairly inconsistent month to month compared to 2015 because of “really good economic conditions — the unemployment rate is consistently going down and we’ve had relatively low gasoline prices for most months out of the year.”

Biz survey: Slow economic growth for state, nation Michigan’s corporate leaders are expecting the state and national economies to grow slowly within the next 18 months, according to a new survey by Business Leaders for Michigan. The state’s business roundtable said last week that its most recent quarterly survey, covering the third

INSIDE

quarter of this year, suggests slow to modest economic improvement in Michigan and across the U.S. About three-quarters of business leaders who responded believe the state and national economies will stay at the same level in the next six months. Respondents were less optimistic when making projections for the next 18 months; however, 54 percent of business leaders surveyed said they believe the U.S. economy will stay unchanged, while half of respondents believe the Michigan economy will stay unchanged. “Michigan’s business leaders believe the economy will continue to improve, albeit more modestly, into the new year,” Doug Rothwell, BLM president and CEO, said in a statement. “But the longer-term view has gotten a bit more pessimistic over the course of 2016. Most of this is being driven by factors outside of Michigan — slower growth in some overseas economies, growing domestic regulatory pressures and uncertainty surrounding this year’s election.” More respondents, though, said they expected improvement over the long term — 13 percent believed the U.S. economy and 24 percent believed the state economy would improve over 18 months, compared to 8 percent and 15 percent, respectively, in the next six months. Nearly half of the business leaders who re-

sponded to the survey said they intend to add jobs or invest in capital needs in the next six months.

MICH-CELLANEOUS

Newly awarded federal funds will help Western Michigan University move forward with the second phase of its high-tech business park in nearby Oshtemo Township, MiBiz reported. The Kalamazoo university said it has received $2.1 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s J

Economic Development Administration to help with infrastructure de-

velopment on the second phase of its Business Technology and Research Park. With the original BTR Park full, WMU has been planning the expansion to the adjacent 55acre Colony Farm Orchard since 2015. The expanded park is expected to draw $50 million in new business investment and about 200 new jobs. Construction on the project is expected to begin sometime in 2017. J State officials have approved plans by pipeline company Enbridge to install additional supports for its twin oil pipelines in the waterway where Lakes Michigan and Huron meet, AP reported. The Department of Environmental Quality said it issued a permit for Canada-based Enbridge to install four additional supports beneath sections of the Straits of Mackinac pipelines known as Line 5. Enbridge

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COMPANY INDEX: SEE PAGE 37 wants to install anchors in up to 22 locations, but Michigan deferred a permitting decision on additional supports. J A frozen yogurt business is testing the idea of making deliveries using a drone, the Holland Sentinel reported. A test run of Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt’s drone delivery took place last week at Hope College in Holland. In what was dubbed “Project Flying Orange Unicorn,” the business said it plans to offer deliveries from its Orange Leaf Holland store near campus. Jeremy Latchaw, franchise owner of Orange Leaf locations in Holland and Grandville, is also president of Mishigami Group, a drone business that works with fire and police departments to develop unmanned aerial vehicle programs. Said Latchaw: “It made sense to put the two of them together.”

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Honigman turnover: Departures from the norm? Departures of veteran attorneys accompany strategy shift for one of state’s largest firms By Chad Halcom chalcom@crain.com

and Dustin Walsh dwalsh@crain.com

Several veteran attorneys from Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP are expected to leave the Detroit-based law firm in the coming weeks, capping a wave of turnover in its Southeast Michigan ranks since early 2015. The shakeup has resulted in

some 66 attorneys leaving the firm of about 270 since the beginning of last year, including more than 30 attorneys this year alone, and 81 new hires, according to Crain’s research and the firm’s own figures. The turnover signals a shift in strategy for the firm, which has more attorneys in Michigan than any other firm, as it pursues expansion, and a changing legal

business in which an improving economy and competition mean partners are more likely to seek jobs elsewhere. The departures include at least 15 partners with more than 230 years of combined experience (or just under 16 years per departing partner) since last December — about three to four times normal turnover for a firm of its size over that period, local

law firm executives and legal market experts said. Honigman has added to its attorney headcount as an expansion in intellectual property law and new hires have offset the Michigan departures, but those new hires often have significantly less experience. However, the departures may not be abating. Six-year partner Christopher Ballard and associate Christine Phillips are leaving to start at Varnum LLP before the

end of the year, both firms confirmed. The pair will join Tom Forster, who left Honigman after 16 years. David Foltyn, CEO of Honigman, told Crain’s last week that departures include voluntary and involuntary resignations. The turnover follows a strategic plan for growth that has particularly affected the litigation practice, where many attorneys “didn’t think they fit in” with the

David Foltyn: CEO says turnover is part of plan.

SEE HONIGMAN, PAGE 35

Valenti III, Valenti IV team to launch V5 New VC firm looks for winners in auto technology market By Tom Henderson thenderson@crain.com

Hooking up the old with the new is the theme of a new venture capital firm in metro Detroit. In more ways than one. The firm, Bloomfield Hills-based V5 Partners LLC, has raised $150 million in committed capital and arranged a $50 million line of credit with a New York bank to fund its investments. The managing partners and co-founders are Sam Valenti III, one of the pioneers nationally in private equity and venture capital investing, and his son, Sam Valenti IV, a longtime record company owner and investor in tech startups. Their business model is to combine the younger Valenti's contacts in Silicon Valley with the elder Val-

enti's contacts with Midwest manufacturing firms. They will invest in promising technology firms that need to scale up production and revenue, then help them find large customers who can use their products. A focus will be on choosing the winners of the many emerging tech companies who want to create products or services for connected and autonomous cars. The $200 million total is large by Michigan standards. Last September, Ann Arbor-based Arboretum Ventures LLC raised the largest VC fund in state history, $220 million, which surpassed the previous largest fund, the $180 million raised in 2013 by Farmington Hills-based Beringea LLC. SEE VALENTI, PAGE 34

MOCERI COS.

The Verandas development in Sterling Heights is intended for those 55 and older. It is expected to start construction in 2018.

Luxury senior living

Blossom Collection to offer spas, golf courses in growing market By Kirk Pinho kpinho@crain.com

FILE PHOTO (LEFT); JESSICA MILLER

Private equity pioneer Sam Valenti III (left) is joining forces with his entrepreneur son, Sam IV, in a new venture capital firm, V5 Partners LLC.

Moceri Cos. is betting the region’s aging population and what it says is a lack of comparable product will pay off big with its $1.2 billion Blossom Collection developments in Oakland and Macomb counties. The region’s population 65 and older is expected to grow 85.1 percent to 1.13 million by 2040, according to data from the Southeast Michigan Council of Government. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, it was 611,000, up from 567,000 in 2000. Yet few housing communities — ranging from independent living to memory care to assisted living — offer luxury amenities like spas, golf courses and others, executives for

the Auburn Hills-based residential home developer said. Those are what some aging baby boomers with money to spend are looking for. “We have an aging population base,” Dominic Moceri, partner of Moceri Cos., said last week, adding that his company has “created a new vision for independent and attainable luxury living.” That leaves a sweet spot they can swing for, said Kelly Scheer, president of the Blossom Collection, which is expected to bring about 3,400 units to the market geared toward those aged 55 and older in the next decade offering things like independent living, assisted living, memory care. “Our locations are premier loca-

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City must extend worldwide reach to have an event like Grand Rapids’ annual showcase, Mary Kramer writes, Page 26

Downtown construction, wider trend reasons for fewer fans at home, the team’s general manager says, Page 4

tions. These are in neighborhoods where people want to live,” said Scheer, who joined Blossom Collection in May after 10 years as vice president of strategy and operations for Livonia-based Trinity Senior Living Communities. “Then the services and amenities are head and shoulders above what other senior living communities are doing — full-service spas, golf courses, tennis courts, activities, all the kinds of things that we are doing. This is not a check-the-box scenario on features.” The first planned development is Blossom Ridge in Oakland Township, which faced years of delays during a lengthy court battle over a zoning change. The lawsuit was settled earlier this year and the development, which is expected to have 500 units, can move forward at Dutton and Adams roads. SEE BLOSSOM, PAGE 37

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Avila: Tigers attendance decline linked to construction, wider sports trend By Bill Shea bshea@crain.com

Al Avila thinks the decline in Detroit Tigers game attendance will stop once downtown construction wraps up. The team’s general manager was asked about the turnstile slide, which now has reached three years, during a conference call last week with reporters to discuss the Tigers’ decision to bring back manager Brad Ausmus. “What we drew I thought was pretty darn good,” Avila said. He’s not wrong. Attendance at Comerica Park was 2,493,859 this season (or 31,173 fans per game on average), the 11th-largest total in the Tigers’ 116-year history. However, that is a decline of 232,189 fans from 2015, a drop of 2,481 per game. Sellouts have been scarce — two this season, down from four last season. In 2014, the last year the Tigers made the playoffs, they sold out 27 of 81 home games. Since 2013, when the Tigers won the division and lost to Boston in the American League Championship Series, home attendance has fallen by 6,894 per game. Detroit still remains above the Major League Baseball attendance average of 30,097. Avila is coming off his first full season as GM after being promoted to replace his longtime boss and friend, Dave Dombrowski, in August 2015. He’s a baseball guy, having been an executive handling players since 1992, and with Detroit since 2002. But he’s got thoughts about why fewer fans are turning out. One of his theories is construction. His boss, Tigers owner Mike Ilitch, has the $2 billion “The District Detroit” mixed-use development underway over 50 downtown blocks, and there are billions more being spent in Detroit’s central business district on renovations, construction and the new M-1 Rail streetcar. That’s mean a lot of orange barrels and closed streets in recent years. “It’s hard to get in and out,” he said. “Once that construction is over, I think it’ll be easier to come in and out. When The District Detroit is finished, I think you’ll see a lot more friendly travel time.” Bad weather and the schedule also didn’t help early in the year, he said. Of course, a casual observer would suggest there are fewer fans in the stands because of the team’s frustrating, streaky play; injuries; and increasing apathy because the team hasn’t won a championship despite a roster of stars. Avila also said the Tigers are part of a broader attendance decline trend in professional sports. “I think you see that across the board, in sports in general,” he said. Data backs him up — partially. Total attendance across MLB’s 30 clubs this season was 73,137,445 fans, down 0.6 percent compared with 2015. Baseball’s peak historic attendance was 79.5 million in 2007, which quickly was sapped by the recession. It bottomed out at 73 million in 2010 before beginning a slow rebound for two years. After hitting 74.8 million in 2012, it’s continued to fall every season since. The 32-team National Football League grew at the gate from 2013 to 2014, but fell last season slightly to 17.5 million.

MLB attendance 2016: 73,137,445 2015: 73,606,675 2014: 73,739,622 2013: 74,026,895 2012: 74,859,268 2011: 73,415,306 2010: 73,061,781 2009: 73,418,479 2008: 78,588,004 2007: 79,503,175 2006: 76,042,787 2005: 74,702,034 Source: Crain’s research, Major League Baseball, BaseballReference.com

Both the National Hockey League and National Basketball Association saw attendance growth last year, with the NBA setting a new record. While teams derive much of their revenue from gargantuan national TV broadcast rights deals shared among the teams, they also rely on locally generated cash to pay bills and salaries. Going into 2016, MLB’s 30 clubs equally share 27 percent of the league’s estimated $9.5 billion in overall revenue,

while the NFL splits 65 percent of its $12 billion. Baseball, hockey, and basketball have smaller TV deals than the NFL, so they rely more on ticket sales along with ancillary revenue from fans spending, such as concessions and merchandise. That’s especially important for a team like the Tigers because, unlike the other pro sports leagues, baseball doesn’t have a salary cap that limits spending on players. Detroit’s $206 million payroll this season was a club record, and among the most expensive rosters in baseball. While an increasing number of Tigers fans are staying home, they’re at least watching on local TV. Southfield-based Fox Sports Detroit averaged a 7.01 household rating for its 152 Tigers broadcasts, according to Nielsen Co. viewership data for the Detroit market. That’s a 13 percent improvement over 2015’s 6.21 average rating for 150 games. It ranked as the thirdbest local viewership in baseball. Better TV numbers are an indirect benefit to the Tigers. The network pays the team about $50 million a season to air its games, and that total is expected to sharply increase after the current 10year broadcast rights deal ends in the early 2020s. No final year has been disclosed by the network or team. The deal was announced in 2008. Bill Shea: (313) 446-1626 Twitter: @bill_shea19

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Gilbert’s many roles put politics under microscope By Kirk Pinho kpinho@crain.com

Dan Gilbert talks about Detroit a lot more than he talks about politics. But the entrepreneur and Detroit booster has a lengthy record of political activity, donating mostly to Republicans but also to some prominent Democrats and meeting with presidential hopefuls from both sides. Gilbert received renewed attention to his politics last week after a Sept. 30 Republican fundraiser featuring presidential nominee Donald Trump was held at one of the many downtown buildings he owns. Sources familiar with the fundraiser who asked for ano-

nymity told Crain's last week that Gilbert, the founder and chairman of

Quicken Loans Inc. and Rock Ventures LLC, attend-

ed the fundraiser. Gilbert’s repreDan Gilbert: sentatives have Sources say he declined to conwas at candidate’s firm that he atfundraiser. tended. Gilbert’s status as chief business leader and booster of a predominantly Afri-

can-American city in transition makes his political leanings, which he rarely shares but has characterized as fiscally conservative and socially liberal, a source of great interest and some controversy. The location of the Trump fundraiser in one of his buildings fueled a small gathering of protesters last week who attacked Gilbert for implicitly supporting Trump. Madeline Chadwick, vice president of communications for Rock Ventures, said last week that Gilbert has met with many presidential candidates who have campaigned in Detroit, including Democratic nominee

Hillary Clinton and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican who lost in the primaries. She would not confirm that Gilbert attended the Sept. 30 event. Chadwick said Gilbert believes it important that presidential candidates “understand the city and the needs of the city.” The first $2,700 of each $25,000-per-person entry fee at the Sept. 30 fundraiser went to Trump, the New York City businessman, reality TV personality and real estate developer. The rest of the money went to the Republican National Committee, which a Gilbert spokeswoman said last week

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rented space in the Chrysler House for the event. Gilbert has a long track record of political donations, largely to Republican candidates, in the last 25 years, but he has ramped up his political spending this election season, donating $350,000 to the pro-Kasich PAC New Day for America and $1.25 million to America Leads, a PAC that supported New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in the GOP presidential primaries. He has also contributed large sums to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee in the last four years, and given smaller donations to Democrats Debbie Stabenow and Debbie Dingell and Republicans including John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, John McCain, Chuck Grassley and Rob Portman. “I Listen. Research. Analyze. Then form view,” Gilbert tweeted during an August speech to the Detroit Economic Club that Trump gave on the economy. Gilbert, sitting in the audience, was expressing dismay over hecklers interrupting Trump; he also at the time tweeted out a photo of him meeting Clinton. A recent WDIV-TV/Detroit News poll found zero percent of its residents — more than 80 percent of which are black — support Trump, which presents a special problem for Gilbert, who owns more than 90 buildings downtown. Trump won the March 8 Republican primary in Michigan, but only received 1,675 votes (about one-third) of the 4,910 ballots cast in Detroit for GOP candidates. The Trump votes represented about 0.2 percent of the city’s population. But there are nine votes in particular that Gilbert needs to worry about, said Steve Hood, host of “Wake Up With Steve Hood” on Farmington Hills-based WFDF AM 910. “Especially when Trump is perceived as racist and xenophobic: How can you ask the city of Detroit, with a 90 percent African-American (city) council, for a tax break on the new Hudson’s building, or a break on the 20 percent affordable housing rule? Maybe they’ll just roll over. Maybe they’ll do that, but then there is 2017 (the next City Council election), and they’ll have to answer for it.” But it’s important to consider that Gilbert bucked the prevailing wisdom five years ago when he moved thousands of his employees to downtown from Livonia, said John Truscott, the longtime spokesman for former Republican Gov. John Engler and principal of Lansing-based public relations and nonpartisan political consulting firm Truscott Rossman LLC. “Gilbert is the kind of guy who bucked a lot of trends and didn’t do what establishment businesspeople had done. He took huge risks, did things very differently, and look how successful he’s been. Some people could argue that it might be in his DNA.” Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412 Twitter: @kirkpinhoCDB

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MeridianHealth to offer insurance on marketplace By Jay Greene jgreene@crain.com

MeridianHealth of Michigan in Detroit and eight-hospital Beaumont Health in Southfield have agreed to a standard provider contract for new insurance products under the banner of MeridianChoice on the Michigan Health Insurance Marketplace for Oakland, Wayne and Macomb counties. As the state’s largest Medicaid HMO with 490,000 members, Meridian began participating on the private health insurance exchange in 2015 when it formed an exclusive provider relationship with Bronson Health Care in Kalamazoo. This year, it offered insurance products in Flint with Hurley Medical Center as its only contracted provider, said Sean Lancaster, MeridianChoice’s executive director of state exchange operations. So far, Meridian has signed up about 3,000 people for its exchange insurance products. Meridian now offers marketplace products in 11 counties. It plans to add other hospitals and doctors in the Flint and metro Detroit area over time. Open enrollment on the Michigan marketplace starts Nov. 1 and runs through Jan. 31. People must have signed up by Dec. 15 to be covered by Jan. 1. The marketplace offers people federal subsidies for health insurance based on their income levels. This year, the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services expects 13 health plans to offer marketplace coverage. Last year, about 346,000 received coverage on the exchange, a 2 percent rise from 2015. MDIFS is reviewing rate increases and expanded geographic coverage requests from the other health plans. Meridian was one of the first to receive approvals. MDIFS officials told Crain’s last week each health plan would be notified individually. Officials of Health Alliance Plan told Crain’s it received approval for its 16.8 percent rate increase and an additional seven counties. HAP now offers individual policies in 24 counties. HAP’s parent organization, Henry Ford Health System, acquired Jackson-based Allegiance Health earlier this year. Priority Health also confirmed state rate increase approval of 13.9 percent for its individual policies in the same 47 Michigan counties. Further information on other health plans wasn’t available at deadline. But the proposed health plan rate increases for 2017 average 17.2 percent, double the average increase in previous years. Experts believe rate increases will stabilize in 2018 to about a 5 percent increase as service utilization flattens and health insurers possibly receive hundreds of millions of owed “risk corridor” payments from the federal government for sicker-than-expected patients. Meridian, which is offering the lowest premium for a silver plan on the marketplace for the second straight year, is one of four plans to request premium increases of less than 10 percent for 2017, officials said.

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OPINION Biz must work to aid RTA plan passage

f you’ve noticed phone calls, direct-mail pieces, TV and radio spots — and just more chatter about regional transit — there’s a reason for that. A multimillion-dollar campaign — paid for by ballot committee Citizens for Connecting our Communities — is urging voters in Macomb, Oakland, Wayne and Washtenaw counties to vote yes on paying 1.2 mills toward a plan that would create a network of bus rapid transit routes and support commuter rail. The system would move people more easily from county to county, matching many of the prevalent commuting patterns. It also would solve the problem of “opt-out” communities because the state law creating the Regional Transit Authority does not allow cities to opt out. A yes vote is important, and the business community should play a more visible role in backing the proposal in the final weeks before the Nov. 8 election. While groups like the Detroit Regional Chamber have long been on board, what's also needed is a grass-roots push — more small-business owners talking to small-business owners, managers of stores in retail hubs and shopping malls starved for workers — and more large companies making very strong statements. So far, the roster of support includes names like DTE Energy, Ford Motor Co., Lear Corp. and Quicken Loans. That is counter to the usual business operator approach of staying out of the political fray. This is a workforce issue. According to the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, about 92 percent of jobs in the region cannot be reached with a commuting time of less than 60 minutes on existing transit. If an auto supplier assembly operation in Chesterfield Township, or a tech company in Ann Arbor, or a restaurant in northern Oakland County is having trouble attracting entry-level employees, this could help solve that pain point. As a matter of fact, the campaign is collecting such case studies on its website, under the title “The Disconnected Challenge.” Beyond a workforce issue, the RTA is an issue at the forefront for seniors and health care institutions. The rapid buses would give increased mobility to people with disabilities and people who don’t have a car. In addition, about a quarter of the state’s population will be 60 and older by 2030. While it’s clear many people will never take a rapid bus when they can drive, call an Uber or find another option, this is a case where the greater good of making sure workers can get to jobs and making sure seniors can get to the doctor is well worth a relatively minor additional tax. The RTA asks for a 20-year, 1.2-mill property tax increase to fund the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan’s master plan. Organizers have said an average homeowner in the four counties would pay about $95 a year. At 1.2 mills, the owner of a $400,000 house would pay about $240. It’s time for the region to get this done. Vote yes on RTA and tell a friend to do the same.

Quality health care in Southeast Michigan riding on November’s regional transit vote ddressing the health needs of Just as relevant is the enormous A the people of Southeast Michiimpact this could have on tens of gan starts long before a person walks thousands of employees and, subseinto a doctor’s office or emergency room. The impact of social and economic indicators on health is well-documented. One of those leading indicators is lack of transportation. All of us have the opportunity to take a major step forward in assisting people who need public transportation by voting for the Regional Transit Authority master plan in this November’s election. Approximately 26 percent of Detroit households are without a vehicle. The last city streetcar was taken out of operation in the spring of 1956. At least 50 suburban communities have opted out of public transportation, effectively gutting our bus system. And that’s just a quick glance at the state of affairs. The subsequent effect that the lack of public transportation has on public health is very real. We have a staggering number of patients who miss or cancel appointments due to transportation challenges. If these patients

can’t make those appointments, chances are they also aren’t getting to and from their local grocery store for nutritious food or the pharmacy for their medications. As health care providers, we know there’s a correlation between the lack of access to any of these things and the deteriorating health of our community — higher readmissions, preventable trips to the emergency department and worsening of chronic conditions, among other effects.

quently, the entire health care landscape in Southeast Michigan. Our region has long been fortunate to attract the best and brightest physicians, nurses and researchers. It’s one of the reasons we have such high-quality health care. But that reputation won’t be enough to keep that trend continuing into the future. The next generation of health care leaders is in high demand. At the same time, they are part of a growing movement that considers transit a determining factor of where they’ll live. Without a robust and reliable transit system, our region will lose its competitive edge, unable to recruit and retain those talented employees and physicians. Voters in four counties in Southeast Michigan have the opportunity to invest in our region, giving it a solid chance at a healthier, more competitive future. I’m strongly encouraging every one of them to support the RTA master plan.

The other obvious plan that’s in store for these independent transportation firms: Sooner or later, a state or local government where the vehicles operate will tax them. Taxi medallions in New York used to command prices of $1 million or more; they are required to operate a conventional taxi. Those prices have fallen since Uber has arrived. I don't understand why Lyft and Uber have been able to get away without paying something — to someone — to enter the market. While there are sales taxes baked into Uber black car pricing, there aren't the additional fees to support mass transit that are baked into cab fares.

Here in Detroit, Uber and Lyft have been operating under a special agreement with the city for more than two years that regulates them differently than cabs. The state Legislature has a bill to codify ride-sharing regulations that cleared the House but has been stuck in a Senate committee for more than a year. Regulation seems to be city by city; in Chicago, the mayor is a fan of the new services because they offer residents choice, especially in underserved neighborhoods. It’s no wonder that they have a competitive advantage with consumers in many markets. With fewer costs, they can charge less money and make

higher profits. So what’s next? I admit that I was perplexed when I learned that Ford was going to start to supply autonomous vehicles in a few years for ride-sharing services. And that General Motors is an investor in Lyft. There are lots of good opportunities available for creative folks who offer new services. But they should have to compete fairly and, more importantly, safely. I am not lobbying in favor of taxis and limos. I’m not lobbying for anyone. But it seems we should have an even playing field. Until then, all bets are off.

OTHER VOICES Bob Riney

Riney is executive vice president and COO of Henry Ford Health System and chairman of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association board.

It can’t last forever There are a lot of fans of both Uber and Lyft, the app-based ride-sharing services that seem to be growing by leaps and bounds. California has approved some stringent tests for drivers of these vehicles, something that seemingly should have been done a long time ago. California won’t let you drive for these companies if you had a drunken driving conviction within the past seven years. Or have some other felony convictions within the same period. Maybe this is a crazy thought, but shouldn’t the drivers of these cars have valid chauffeur’s licenses from the state(s) in which they work? The same license as any taxi driver would

KEITH CRAIN Editor-in-chief

need. Anything less seems to be putting the population at risk. I simply don’t want some unlicensed individual driving my family and me around. At a minimum, drivers should be required to show they have adequate commercial vehicle insurance.

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Study: SE Michigan companies plan 3.1% raises in ’17 Planned base pay increases in state are above state, national estimates By Lindsay VanHulle

Crain’s Detroit Business/Bridge Magazine

Metro Detroit employers are budgeting 3.1 percent for base pay raises in 2017, above national estimates of 3 percent, data from Lincolnshire, Ill.based talent and management consulting firm Aon Hewitt show. Statewide, the projected salary bump among employers in Michigan is 3 percent, the survey shows. Aon Hewitt, owned by London-based Aon plc, released the data

as part of its 40th U.S. Salary Increase Survey. According to the results, American employers plan to spend 3 percent on salary increases in 2017, up from 2.8 percent this year. Nationally, employers plan to budget 12.8 percent of payroll expenses on variable pay increases in 2016 and 2017, according to Aon Hewitt. “The organizations in Detroit are budgeting a number that is a little stronger than the national average,” said Frank Belmonte, compensation

practice leader for Aon Hewitt’s Midwest region. “I think employers are feeling a little bit more confident about the economy in Detroit.” That is despite reluctance nationally to raise wages, Aon Hewitt said, citing “challenging business conditions and strong global competition this year.” Aon Hewitt’s results are in line with a recent survey conducted by Livonia-based American Society of Em-

ployers, which found employers in

Michigan expected to award average merit raises of 3 percent next year. The organization also pointed to sluggish wage growth despite economic recovery. The Aon Hewitt study showed one in 10 respondents said they froze salaries in 2016, up from 4 percent in 2015; just 1 percent expect to do so in 2017. Survey participants included 1,074 companies, including 625 service organizations, 434 manufacturers and 15 multi-industry firms.

“I think employers are feeling a bit more confident about the economy in Detroit.” Frank Belmonte, Aon Hewitt

3rd quarter state VC investment up sharply Companies spend $118.8M in 18 deals By Tom Henderson thenderson@crain.com

Venture capital investment was up sharply in the third quarter in Michigan, according to a report issued last week by the Washington, D.C.-based National Venture Capital Association and PitchBook, a VC database.

There was $118.8 million invested in 18 deals in the state in the quarter, up from $58 million in the second quarter and $48.8 million in the first quarter. It was the best quarter in Michigan since $160 million was invested in the fourth quarter last year and the second-best quarter since $166.4 million was invested in the second quarter of 2014. The state ranked 17th nationally. As usual, California was No. 1 by a wide margin, with $6.7 billion invested in 612 deals. Massachusetts was No. 2, with $2.2 billion in 24 deals, and New York was No. 3, with $1.8 billion in 198 deals. Among Midwest states, Illinois was ninth, with $241 million in 53 deals; Minnesota was 14th, with $155 million in 14 deals; Ohio 21st, with $96.7 million in 29 deals; Wisconsin 24th, with $54.2 million in 14 deals; and Indiana 30th, with $22.7 million in 19 deals. Nationwide, almost $15 billion was invested in more than 1,600 companies. It was a 32 percent quarter-over-quarter decline in the number of deals, a decline for the fifth straight quarter. Dollar volume remains strong. About $56 billion has been invested in the first three quarters, putting the U.S. on track for the second-best year on record behind the $78.9 billion invested last year. Tom Henderson: (313) 446-0337 Twitter: @TomHenderson2

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Meet this year’s winners

Dana Antoun Anya Babbitt Kellie Becker Brian Berryman Kevin Chandler Marcus Collins Jennyfer Crawford Brian Eisbrenner Abdul El-Sayed Jenifer Esch LaKeisha Florence Michael Forsyth James Freed Jeremy Gershonowicz Seth Gold Emily Heintz Karissa Holmes J. Patrick Howe Adam Jahnke Paulina Johnson Zachary Klima Heather Kowalski Brianna Leonard Edward Lippincott Heather Madland Lisa Nuszkowski Verne Perigord Melissa Price Lottie Robertson Erik Rönmark Adele Saba Jeremy Sasson Joseph Schmitt Jeffrey Schostak Richard Sulaka II Tosha Tabron Stephen Thornhill Paul Wheeler Brad Williams Bryan Zair

Watch them give back Crain’s teamed up with Crowdrise to help this year’s 40 Under 40 winners raise money for their favorite causes. Learn about their chosen charities and donate at crainsdetroit.com/40s

Celebrate Meet this year’s winners and network with 40 Under 40 alumni at a special 25th anniversary event: 5:30-9 p.m. Oct. 26 at the Roostertail in Detroit. Register at crainsdetroit.com/events or call (313) 446-0300.

40s alumni At crainsdetroit.com/40sAlumni, tell us what’s happened since your award. Watch for an alumni database to launch this fall.

About this report More than 300 were nominated for this year’s class, which was selected by Crain’s editorial staff. Photos by Jacob Lewkow for Crain’s Detroit Business

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40 under 40: The silver anniversary class Dana Antoun, 37 IT manager, WABCO Holdings Inc.

There are business success stories, er, Americas at WABCO has Antoun and then there is Dana Antoun. developing new and challenging talHired at Rochester Hills-based ents, including helping to build a WABCO Holdings Inc. as a project man- manufacturing facility and managing ager, Antoun has been people. promoted twice within “The people aspect is What she’d tell her first year at the comvery difficult because of her 25-year-old pany. catering to each personself: “I’d tell myself Her first major ality,” said Antoun, who to not take achievement was to rewent from managing everything so vamp the company’s zero to 18 people. “I realseriously. That electronic data interly want to be a great leadmoney will come, so change system and proer. I’ve had great mengo for the cesses. The revamp elimtors, and that’s what I opportunity and inated sales and logistical want for my employees.” experience. And to failures that had plagued As a manager, Antoun keep networking.” the business for years, said she believes she can according to Jonathan make a difference in her Stone, WABCO’s director of big data. employees’ lives and show them what It also improved delivery, accounts they are capable of. “I believe you receivable and customer satisfaction. should always train your replaceAntoun’s efforts impacted the auto ment, and I am building my team to supplier’s bottom line by nearly be able to replace me,” Antoun said. $10 million in a matter of months. Antoun is responsible for $900 mil“I’ve gotten really lucky here,” she lion in business. said. “All of my past experience and What's next? “I love the acquisition skill sets are the perfect fit.” She previ- portion of business, building the new ously worked at Webasto-Edscha Cab- location, the global aspects; the oprio USA, Victory Packaging and Delphi. portunities are here!” Her latest promotion to IT managLaura Cassar

Anya Babbitt, 34 Founder and CEO, SPLT

Having an “international con- sional accomplishment. cierge desk,” a one-stop location for “Kellie is fearless, determined and Plante Moran clients with interna- willing to scale tall buildings to get it tional audit, tax or consulting needs, done,” said Bill Hermann, retired seems like a no-brainer. But it took partner of Plante Moran. “At the same Kellie Becker's skill set to time, she is caring and make it a reality for her staff focused. She has a What she’d tell employer. great blend of technical her 25-year-old As Plante Moran’s and interpersonal skills.” self: “Push leader of the internationBecker grew up in upmyself more on al tax services group in state New York and taking speaking Clinton Township, Beckworked for Pricewateropportunities.” houseCoopers in Rocheser helped brainstorm the ter, N.Y., after college. The concept and worked with the technology group to launch it in Plante Moran position brought her to 2012. “It was an efficiency inside the Detroit 13 years ago. In her role, she leads the tax sercompany, but from a marketing perspective, this was how we serve our vices portion of Plante Moran’s $60 clients with one point of contact,” million international group, a pracshe said. Initially, the service had tice she helped build. She is on the firm’s international 300 users a year, but in three years advisory board and is deputy chairusers climbed to 1,500. “The leadership skills utilized to person of the Praxity North Ameridevelop this tool was a key attribute can tax and fiscal group, which is an to being asked to lead the firm’s ininternational alliance of firms that ternational tax services group,” she have similar philosophies and valsaid, adding that she considers the ues on how clients are served. Marti Benedetti concierge desk her greatest profes-

Kellie Becker, 38 Partner, international tax services group, Plante Moran

A year ago, Anya Babbitt moved her Babbitt grew up on a farm in rural ride-sharing startup SPLT from New Massachusetts, where she learned to York City to Detroit to be part of the get up early and be cost conscious. TechStars accelerator. It landed DTE En- “The women in my family who raised ergy Co. and other local clients, grew me have made me a stronger entreprefrom four people to 15 (including 10 in neur and woman,” she said. She has Detroit), and Babbitt is working on a launched a string of companies: a luxupartnership with Lyft to ry marketing and events provide seniors and others company, a short-term What she’d tell with rides. The service is apartment rental service her 25-year-old expected to begin this fall in New York City, and a real self: “Life isn’t with patients of Beaumont estate consultancy. about work, and Health. The idea for SPLT, she work doesn’t exist “My proudest moments said, sprung from “a ranwithout family and always point back to the dom incident in not being friends. Understand team and seeing how able to catch a shuttle bus it’s a tripod that much they’ve hustled, and offering two guys I needs all three legs dedicated their efforts to was in line with who were to stand on.” SPLT and grown as individalso heading the same diuals,” Babbitt said. rection to share a car” in She's also proud of Los Angeles. speaking to the International Young She got the ride — and started on an Leaders Assembly at the United Na- entrepreneurial journey that continues tions in June and says success will really to accelerate. show up “when we have meaningfully Vickie Elmer started to reduce CO2 emissions.”

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Marcus Collins, 37 Senior vice president and executive director of social engagement, Doner Co.

Detroit native Marcus Collins was doing work; I created an enemy of the state — just fine in New York. As executive director Manhattan — to bring people together,” he of social engagement for the ad agency said. The campaign's success, he said, Translation LLC, Collins led successful so- could be measured in merchandise sales: cial campaigns for State The team went from No. 28 to Farm Insurance Co., the BudNo. 4 among National BasketWhat he'd tell his weiser Made in America Fesball Association teams. 25-year-old self: tival and Bud Light Lime-aBack home in Detroit, “Don’t waste time! Rita. where he returned last year, You’re not young; But the campaign he’s Collins has already helped Dostart now! The asset most proud of has roots in ner Co. become the digital you have the most of academia, where he’s also agency of record for Nescafé at 25 is time, and paving a path. and Taster’s Choice and inteevery day that asset Collins was adjunct prograted agency of record for is decreasing.” fessor of marketing at New Food Lion. York University, where he “In my heart, I feared a was teaching future advertising profes- smaller market might slow down my career, sionals about the power of propaganda, but it was a sacrifice I was willing to make,” among other strategies. That’s how he Collins said. came to use a propaganda approach to Collins is also teaching at the University launch the “Hello of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. Brooklyn” campaign “I am a proud representative of Detroit,” for the Brooklyn Nets Collins said. “I’m a product of the city, its when the team schools, its church. What a perfect time. moved from New Detroit is dusting itself off, rising like a Jersey. phoenix. I had to have my fingerprints on “This was my aca- that.” Laura Cassar demia being put to

Brian Berryman, 39 Executive director of baseball operations, United Shore Professional Baseball League

Brian Berryman jokes that every he brought me in and we sat down and time he sees a foul ball leave Jimmy had many discussions for what his viJohn’s Field in Utica, it costs $5. sion was and what I thought the league He’s the executive director of base- could be,” Berryman said. ball operations for the United Shore Berryman, son of a hall of fame high Professional Baseball League, which school coach, has long been into basejust completed its successful inaugural ball instruction and found a system, season at the stadium, and his job in- the North Carolina-based Delivery Valcludes negotiating contracts for base- ue System, that he said helped the USPBL have a zero injury balls. The league spent rate for pitchers while nearly $50,000 on 1,000 What he’d tell his improving player skills. dozen Rawlings base25-year-old self: “Play balls, he said, and the “I’m extremely hapthe long game and trust USPBL’s three teams py with how it turned your plan to reach your went through 980 dozen out,” he said. Major goals. But first and in games, practice and league teams are interforemost, outwork the promotions. ested in a handful of competition and you’ll More important, the other USPBL players find that you will be developmental league’s that could be signed in luckier than you could baseball instruction and coming months, he have imagined.” quality of play was so said. good under Berryman’s His job also inoversight that seven cludes hiring coaches USPBL players were signed by minor along with working out pricing deals league clubs affiliated with Major for equipment, field materials, uniLeague Baseball — a coup for a startup forms and player salaries — duties independent league. that will increase by a quarter when A former University of Michigan and the league adds a fourth team in minor league player, Berryman had a 2017. solid career in insurance sales when “I love my job. I get to help kids, USPBL owner Andy Appleby recruited which I’ve always loved doing. I get to him to run the baseball portion of the be around baseball. But I’m more pasnew league. They knew each other sionate about the operations than from Berryman’s playing days when anything else — contracts, relationAppleby owned a San Diego Padres af- ships with colleges and pro teams,” filiate. he said. Bill Shea “When he came up with the idea,

Two years ago, Jennyfer Craw- pany’s headline event, All Things ford arrived at the venue for her Detroit (now hosted at Eastern Marsmall-business expo event, All ket), has grown to about 200 venThings Detroit, and couldn’t believe dors. what she saw: The roof was leaking, An All Things Detroit app the temperature approached 80 de- launches this month. Crawford also grees and no vendor tables were up. would like to develop an Etsy-like So Crawford left a media inter- site for small-business owners and view about the event to start moving is considering small-business martables and directing her team to set ketplace events in Brooklyn, Georup for the vendors who were set to gia and Texas. arrive within the hour. She started the Sweating, she bought company in 2011 by What she'd tell her water and went to evhosting tiny events in 25-year-old self: ery vendor, apologizher apartment for “Think about what you ing. girlfriends with small want to do in life. Plan Afterward, she told businesses. for your future. Then her mother she wantNow she’s clear stay focused. And ed to quit. Her mother that her mission shut off the negativity.” gave her a pep talk, is to help other and not long aftersmall-business ownward, Crawford deciders gain customers ed to redeem herself and grow her and build their brands. She has company. signed up sponsors, including Shortly after, she left her con- Square and Kabbage. With her growth, Crawford has struction management job to focus on her company, Ask Jennyfer LLC, a hired a part-time assistant and exsmall-business marketing, brand- pects to add more employees ing and public relations service. “I soon. quit my job with only $1,500 (in the “Businesses come from Muskegbank) and said . ‘This has to work. on and Kalamazoo to participate in It's my business. It's my baby.’ ” All Things Detroit,” she said. “You Her baby is growing. Revenue is always want it to be great.” on pace to quadruple the $34,000 Vickie Elmer brought in last year. And her com-

Jennyfer Crawford, 36 Owner, Ask Jennyfer

Kevin Chandler, 39 Associate dean of arts and sciences, Macomb Community College Founder, NextGen Macomb There are subjects they teach you in college and lessons you learn from life. When Kevin Chandler was a student at Northern Michigan University in the 1990s, watching K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base shut down and seeing the closure’s effect on the city of Marquette was an eye-opening lesson, one that would stick — and guide future endeavors. Fast forward to 2014, when Chandler co-founded a military affairs committee through his involvement with the Macomb County Chamber of Commerce. It’s a 35-person bipartisan committee working What he’d tell to protect his 25-year-old and grow the self: “Don’t play it military footsafe. Set print in the challenging goals. county, and Have high for good reaexpectations for son: Selfridge yourself. Get out Air National there and talk to Guard Base in people. Make Harrison mistakes; they’re To w n s h i p lessons, not impacts the failures.” local economy by nearly $400 million annually, he said. Chandler was part of a small delegation that traveled to Washington, D.C., that year to lobby Congress not to retire the fleet of A-10 fighter jets at the base, which would have eliminated hundreds of jobs. The lobbying was successful. That same year Chandler founded NextGen Macomb, a nonprofit for young professionals designed to provide opportunities for networking, stewardship, volunteering and professional development in and around the county. The organization has grown to more than 100 young professionals. Harnessing the passions of today’s youth is important to Chandler, whose day job is associate dean of arts and sciences at Macomb Community College. A recent donation has funded a political science institute at the college that will allow students mentoring and internship opportunities as well as opportunities to study abroad. Laura Cassar

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Brian Eisbrenner, 35 President, Shelby Paint & Decorating

When the health of his father, Tim, declined in to Michigan’s four seasons. It is made in Lansing. 2008, Brian Eisbrenner took over the 40-year-old “Our business always relied on Benjamin family business, Shelby Paint & Decorating. It was Moore, but during the downturn of the economy, the Great Recession, but Eisbrenner wouldn’t Benjamin Moore started selling their product evhave it any other way. erywhere; we could not control the supply chain, “It taught me to live within my and I realized I never wanted to live means, that there’s more to life than through that again,” Eisbrenner What he’d tell his having things,” Eisbrenner said. said. 25-year-old self: “Be The next year, the company’s “It feels really good to see all the patient. Things you line of credit was pulled. Eisbrenproceeds from that paint staying in think are the biggest ner closed one store and moved Michigan, helping our state’s econdeal usually are not. two other stores to lower-rent locaomy and creating more jobs,” EisMost things aren’t tions. He said the hardest part was brenner said. Since launching in worth the worry.” having to let people go. April, Shelby Paint has sold about By 2011, Shelby Paint, with loca3,500 gallons of the Motor City tions in Shelby Township, Grosse Paint, with more than $77,000 in Pointe and Rochester Hills, was again profitable. sales. Eisbrenner’s goal is to have 50 percent of And in 2015, sales grew by 50 percent. the company’s sales in Motor City Paint. Taking the reins of the family business during “When I was 11 years old and I would work the downturn inspired Eisbrenner to introduce a with my dad on the weekends, I told him I wantcustom line of paint. Called Motor City Paint — ed to be his vice president,” Eisbrenner said. with names like “Ambassador,” “Renaissance” and “Here I am.” Laura Cassar “Guardian” — it is designed to be more conducive

Abdul El-Sayed wanted to be a pediatric neuro- health director. The two connected, and two surgeon in sub-Saharan Africa, where access to weeks later, El-Sayed had a complicated job with a surgeons is in short supply. whopping goal. When he discovered social epidemiology, the The Detroit Health Department was privatstudy of why some populations ized in 2012 when the city was unsuffer diseases more than others, dergoing bankruptcy proceedings. What he'd tell his he shifted his academic focus to El-Sayed has had to rebuild the 21-year-old self: “Don’t health policy and science. That department from a staff of 91 to be afraid of taking risks way, he could find out why people just under 180, envision how it even when everyone get sick and what we could do could reassume its responsibility around you is telling you about it. for leadership on public health isyou’re making a bad Although he earned his medical sues in Detroit, and take on the decision. Believe there degree, El-Sayed became a tenure city’s goal of interrupting interare real opportunities to track professor in the department generational poverty by focusing serve people and that of epidemiology at Columbia Union issues including infant mortaliwork matters.” versity. But he found his work ty, teen pregnancy, asthma, elderthere too esoteric and conceptuly isolation and health care access. al. And despite being labeled as misanthropic, he The city has committed to a budget increase of $4 said he loves people. million in the next fiscal year and $9 million over “I am devoutly Muslim,” he said. “One of the the next two years for the department, he said. Leslie Green verses of the Quran says, ‘He who saves a life, it’s as if he has saved all humanity.’” Knowing this, ElSayed, who is from Detroit, said he wanted to use his public health knowledge to do more tangible work. “I was sitting with a mentor of mine and told him about my change of heart and he asked what I wanted to do: I told him that I wanted to be health commissioner for Detroit. … I realized that it was how I wanted to spend my time — leveraging public health knowledge to drive better health for my city.” That was summer 2015. As it turns out, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan was looking to recruit a new

Jenifer Esch, 39 Lead business analyst, GE Digital

Jenifer Esch grew up with five siblings on a and to service on scholarship and STEM comdairy farm in Fowlerville, where she learned the mittees. power of hard work and connecting with the Esch’s background is in state government: community. She started her career as a writer in Today, Esch works in the Van constituent services for Gov. John What she’d tell her Buren Township hub of GE Digital, Engler before moving into media 25-year-old self: the data and analytics arm of Genrelations for two state representa“Find a career coach eral Electric Co., as the lead analyst tives. She then joined the state Atand a mentor. I had for its accelerated leadership protorney General’s office, where she no idea what I didn’t gram, known as XLP. In that role helped develop the Michigan Cyknow. I didn’t realize she leads a team working to douber Safety Initiative, a program to how much of an ble the number of leaders working combat cyberbullying, which overachiever I was, in GE globally, in half the time of reached close to 1 million Michibecause high the previous leadership program. gan students in four years. standards have “Jen leads with energy, delivers “It doesn’t necessarily map a always been part of results and perhaps most imporstraight path, but everything I’ve my DNA, and I was tantly leads with compassion and done has been driven by helping really hard on myself.” empathy,” said Nuha Elkhiamy, others,” Esch said. GE Digital’s executive IT leader. “I’m passionate about creating Esch has served on GE’s Women’s Network more connectivity and solving more problems in Detroit. Her passion for technology and using technology without losing sight of mentoring also led to her leadership in a Girls old-fashioned approaches,” she said. Vickie Elmer Who Code summer immersion program at GE

Abdul El-Sayed, 31 Executive director and health officer, Detroit Health Department

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LaKeisha Florence, 34

Audit senior manager, Deloitte & Touche LLP

LaKeisha Florence had two dreams unteers to Cornerstone Schools, on Degrowing up. The first was to wear a troit’s east side, and students go to Debusiness suit. loitte for an internship. Unsure of a specific career to ac“As a product of Detroit Public company the suit, Florence followed Schools herself, LaKeisha has brought the business track at Cass Technical a personal touch and a sense of empaHigh School and fell in love with ac- thy to this effort that makes the magic counting. Later, her work,” said Davidoff. teacher invited a guest “Within and outside What she’d tell her from Deloitte & Touche of the firm, I was the face 21-year-old self: LLP to speak. of the program, and with “Just own it. Don’t let “I knew then I wanted that came great responthings happen to you. to work for Deloitte,” sibility to see it succeed,” Make things happen Florence said. said Florence, who said for yourself. Be bold.” Once there, her passhe hopes to increase the sion for education garnumber of volunteers nered notice. First, a Deloitte partner and to expand the program to Cornersitting on the board of the YMCA was stone’s other campuses. looking for someone with a financial For the past two years, Florence also background to serve on the board of has been serving on the board of the two charter schools, and contacted Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Florence. Now she is treasurer of the Inclusion. The work, she said, is a way Y’s Detroit Leadership Academy. of lifting as she climbs. A few years later, Deloitte managing “There are tens of thousands of partner Mark Davidoff emailed Flor- CPAs in the state of Michigan and less ence about assisting with the firm’s than 1 percent are African-American. If planned Deloitte Cornerstone Career I can help encourage, that’s what I Pathways program. For the program, want to do.” Leslie Green launched in 2015, Deloitte sends vol-

Michael Forsyth, 33 Small-business director, Detroit Economic Growth Corp. Partner, Detroit City Distillery

Two years ago, Michael Forsyth and At the DEGC, he helped launch Rea group of friends turned business volve, a program focused on pop-up partners opened Detroit City Distillery retail in such areas as the West in the Eastern Market district. Village and along the Avenue of FashThe distillery project is growing — ion. That program evolved into Motor fast. In September, ForCity Match, a business syth and his team pitch competition that What he’d tell his opened a 20,000-squarelaunched in 2015. 25-year-old self: “I foot production facility In its first full year, Modon’t think I’d change inside the old Stroh’s Ice tor City Match awarded a thing. ... The biggest Cream factory at 1000 $2 million in grants that thing that I still Maple St., near Gratiot contributed to $13 million struggle with is Avenue. The factory is in investment and helped balance, having a life.” expected to increase 385 entrepreneurs with production “tenfold,” business plans, location said Forsyth, from what was possible at scouting, project design and financing, the 2,700-square-foot tasting room it he said. Of them, he added, 66 percent operates on Riopelle Street. are Detroiters, 72 percent are minoriHis foray into startup business own- ty-owned businesses and 52 percent ership also has informed his day job as are minority- and woman-owned small-business director for the Detroit businesses. Economic Growth Corp., where he has “What I learned was there was an worked since 2011. He now under- incredible amount of entrepreneurial stands from the other side what it’s like interest in Detroit, but you had to creto open with limited funds and navi- ate a platform to find it,” Forsyth said. Lindsay VanHulle gate the permitting process.

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James Freed, 31

Jeremy Gershonowicz, 34

City manager, Port Huron

Vice president, Sachse Construction

At age 23, James Freed was appoint- million in pension obligations and ed the city manager in Lakeview, a $37 million in other post-employment small community in Montcalm Coun- benefits. He says the issue is his top prity. A few years later, he agreed to also ority due to its budget implications. lead the city of Stanton in a The city has offered a shared services agreehybrid retirement plan What he’d tell his ment with Lakeview. By for new hires that in25-year-old self: “I his mid-20s, Freed was recludes a smaller dethink I (would) just sponsible for a combined fined-benefit plan and a tell myself to lighten budget of $6 million belarger defined-contribuup a little bit.” tween the two cities. tion plan. Labor unions Since 2014, Freed has also have agreed to conbeen the city manager and chief ad- tribute more toward their health care ministrative officer for the city of Port and pensions. Freed said he now is Huron. His job duties have grown sub- working with state and local leaders on stantially larger — he oversees a budget a model to restructure the amortization of $90 million and roughly 400 schedule related to legacy costs. employees. He also is working to further mo“I love working at the local level,” mentum on the economic developsaid Freed, who grew up near Port Hu- ment front in Port Huron and greater St. ron. “People are passionate about their Clair County, which was profiled in community.” Crain’s in June. As city manager, Freed is taking on “We’re constantly marketing our Port Huron’s unfunded pension and area to developers and people who are retiree benefit liabilities, which he says looking to invest,” he said. Lindsay VanHulle amount to roughly $100 million — $66

Jeremy Gershonowicz likes quick some of Detroit’s most notable retail results, and he likes to be able to see projects, including retailer John Varvatos, Nike and Kit & Ace, all downtown. his accomplishments. He started his career at construcBoth of those factors led him to the tion giant JE Dunn Conconstruction industry. struction in Kansas City. “I’ve always liked to see What he’d tell his "I soaked up how a busithings come to fruition 25-year-old self: ness that size operated," quickly,” said the vice “Do a lot of listening, he said. After three president of retail estisurround yourself years, he decided he mating for Detroit-based with great people and Sachse Construction. wanted to move back to be passionate and Gershonowicz’s caMichigan and took the enthusiastic in reer is on the fast track at job with Sachse. everything you do.” the company. He joined Gershonowicz said his Sachse in 2011 as an estirole is to handle many asmator and by 2013 was pects of a construction promoted to the director of estimat- project prior to the job starting. Those ing. In his current role, he manages 20 include procurement, sales, generating employees. He is the youngest vice contracts and choosing subcontractors. president in the company’s history. Sachse is constructing several Since joining the company, sales high-profile buildings in Detroit and revenue has more than doubled — its suburbs. The largest project Gerfrom $65 million in 2011 to more than shonowicz has been involved with is The Scott at Brush Park, a $65 million, $140 million in 2015. Gershonowicz has overseen the es- 199-unit apartment complex. Marti Benedetti timating and pre-construction for

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Seth Gold, 35 Vice president, American Jewelry and Loan Seth Gold did not always see his family’s past as his future. The vice president of American Jewelry and Loan and star of TV’s “Hardcore Pawn” said he was adamant that he would not be a pawnbroker. But at the end of college, where he was majoring in psychology, he had a change of heart. “I realized we help a lot of people. Going to the bank is not an option for everyone. There are 25 million people in the United States who don’t have bank accounts. We are What he’d tell his a bank to those 25-year-old self: people,” said “Pause and reflect. Gold, noting Sometimes you that 80 percent push too hard and to 90 percent too fast and you of customers miss the experience are able to along the way. Take eventually time to enjoy the come back for process.” the merchandise they pawned. When he joined the family business, Gold launched its e-commerce division, which has grown to account for 30 percent of the company's sales. The e-commerce division is staffed with employees with autism spectrum disorders through a job-training program called Power to the Grid, based in Brighton. Gold said the skills required for online support are a great fit with the employees. “They’re dedicated, excited and eager,” Gold said. “People think it’s great we hired them but no, these individuals are doing great things for us.” American Jewelry and Loan continues to grow with a new location in Hazel Park and a larger location in Pontiac. Gold said a second Detroit location is in the works. The company has revenue of $5 million to $10 million with a projected growth this year of 20 percent. In 2013 Gold was recognized as National Pawnbroker of the Year, and, closer to home, he was asked to give the keynote address at the recent Midwest Pawnbrokers Convention. “It’s a responsibility when people want to learn from you,” Gold said. He is currently hosting roundtables for pawnbrokers from across the country to discuss changing federal regulations. The first thing he does is take his guests around Detroit. One stop is in Corktown, where the family business started with his great-grandfather’s store at what is now the restaurant Gold Cash Gold. “My history is tied to Detroit’s history,” he said. Laura Cassar

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Emily Heintz, 32 Associate director, Michigan Venture Capital Association

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As a result of the detailed annual reHeintz, a self-described â&#x20AC;&#x153;data geek,â&#x20AC;? port Emily Heintz has been compiling created a system for compiling accufor the Michigan Venture Capital Associ- rate data statewide in an annual report ation, she has been asked by the Na- on investments, company formation tional Venture Capital Association in and job creation by Michiganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s venWashington, D.C., to orture capital and angel inganize a group of state vestor community, What sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d tell her VC associations and use quantifying for state leg25-year-old self: her data-driven apislators and business â&#x20AC;&#x153;Not everything goes proach to make presenleaders the importance according to plan. tations in the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s of the sector. Follow your heart, be capital. Prior to joining the enthusiastic, work â&#x20AC;&#x153;With a community as MVCA in 2013, Heintz hard, and be good to diverse and active as the was an equity-capital people. Everything venture capital commumarkets associate for the else works itself out.â&#x20AC;? Michigan Economic Develnity, it can be a bit like opment Corp., helping herding cats. And Emily is design and implement a a master cat herder,â&#x20AC;? said variety of investment Chris Rizik, CEO of the Ann Arbor-based Renaissance Venture programs; an account manager for Capital Fund, which is affiliated with Ann Arbor Spark; and on the audit staff Business Leaders for Michigan. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s at Southfield-based Plante Moran. been a huge part of the development of Her latest goal? Growing awareness a strong, unified voice for venture capi- and appreciation in Lansing for the tal in Michigan, one that has made the entrepreneurial and investment comMVCA the best venture capital associa- munity so that funding continues. Tom Henderson tion in the Midwest.â&#x20AC;?

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Karissa Holmes, 32 Senior attorney, DTE Energy Co. President, Detroit Young Professionals

This is Karissa Holmesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; version of DTE, she was recruited by a friend to work-life balance: Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a senior attor- join the then-struggling DYP, an orney at Detroit-based DTE Energy Co., the ganization dedicated to attracting board chairman and president of De- and retaining young professionals in troit Young Professionals and co-founder the region. of Out of D Box, a company offering boxâ&#x20AC;&#x153;A lot of young professionals es filled with curated Detroit didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to be in the products. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also getting metro Detroit region,â&#x20AC;? What sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d tell her masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in business adHolmes said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t her 25-year-old ministration. see or have the opportuself: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all After earning her bachenity to interact with other going to work lorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and law degrees, she young professionals, and out. Calm down went straight to work for Hothose that were coming and enjoy where nigman Miller Schwartz and (to live in metro Detroit) youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re at. Know Cohn LLP, where she spent felt isolated.â&#x20AC;? thyself.â&#x20AC;? four years. But she knew she Holmes has been on wanted more control over her the board since 2012, and life than a law firm could offer. in that time, revenue and membership She accepted a position as in-house increased more than 200 percent to counsel at DTE, where she offers com- more than 500 members. DYP also led mercial legal support for the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s her to her next venture â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Out of D Box. non-utility midstream gas business. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I work with so many small, aweDuring her four years at DTE, revenue some businesses at DYP, and I realhas grown by more than 150 percent in ized nobody knew about them,â&#x20AC;? she the non-utility unit. said. Adrienne Roberts Around the same time she started at

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Bringing World-Class Advisory to the Middle Market

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J. Patrick Howe, 36

Owner, JPHowe PLLC

Mergers & Acquisitions¿ Capital Raising¿ Financial Advisory

www.greenwichgp.com½ www.greenwichgp.com

If you have eaten at a downtown or said, estimating he has represented up Corktown restaurant in the past de- to 40 clients in food and hospitality in cade, odds are that you have J. Patrick the past decade. Howe to thank in part for that. “I kind of got my feet wet in the SuThe attorney's clients have ranged per Bowl doing all the permitting for from Slows Bar BQ and the pop-up restaurants, Gold Cash Gold and bars and vendors with What he’d tell his Wright & Co., to Green Dot Plunkett Cooney.” 25-year-old self: Stables and Roast and In addition to focus“Burning the midnight Grey Ghost. And that's ing on liquor license and oil behind your desk just a handful of them. land use issues in the city will only get you so far. In short, many of the with his new firm, he has Your life outside of the notable restaurants to also started a student office, when open in the past 10 years housing development intentionally shaped have relied on Howe as company, Purpose Built to complement your Properties LLC, which is legal representation. long-term career getting off the ground. And now the former goals, may reward you Howard & Howard PLLC Since he started more in the long run.” attorney has a new firm, JPHowe, the wave of Bir mingham-based restaurant and hospitalJPHowe PLLC, specializity interest he has fielding in liquor licensing, land acquisi- ed has been from outside of Michigan, tion, land use and zoning variances. in areas like Las Vegas, California, Howe started JPHowe in January after Canada, Florida and New York. working for Howard & Howard for five “They are coming in with big years, building up his client base. names, big dollars and big ideas,” he “You could see that Detroit was on said. Kirk Pinho the verge of something happening,” he

Adam Jahnke, 33 Principal and founding partner, Vault Equity Partners

At age 24, Adam Jahnke knew two previously vice president of acquisithings for sure: He didn’t see himself tions at Agree Realty Corp. At Vault, Jahnke buys single-tenant being a lifelong attorney, and he knew he could get ahead by being a big fish net lease real estate — freestanding retail buildings such as franchise restauin a small pond. After graduating from law school in rants, pharmacies and urgent care California, Jahnke moved back home centers. In 2015, Vault acquired $11 million in real estate. So far to the Detroit area and in 2016, Vault has closed on started his legal career at What he’d tell Honigman Miller Schwartz $31 million in acquisitions his 25-yearand Cohn LLP. There, he with the expectation of old self: “Work practiced real estate law closing an additional $15 hard, be willing and was part of the team in million to $25 million by to learn, and charge of leasing spaces in the end of the year. keep your eyes downtown Detroit. “We don’t have to do open for “When you’re practicing much in terms of ongoing opportunities.” law, a lot of times you don’t management, which allows get to see your results,” he (Vault) to grow at a pretty fast said. “But to walk out my ofrate without having to hire a fice door at Honigman and see the city ton of people or overhead,” he said. being rebuilt was a special experience.” Besides running a company and After nearly eight years at Honig- raising a newborn son, Jahnke is also man, he wanted a change. A year and a on the board of JARC, a Farmington half ago, he decided it was time to do Hills-based nonprofit that offers sersomething on his own and founded vices for people with developmental Bloomfield Hills-based Vault Equity disabilities. Partners with Geoff Linden, who was Adrienne Roberts

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Paulina Johnson, 39 Account manager, ArcelorMittal USA President, National Black MBA Association, Detroit chapter

Paulina Johnson debated the title of â&#x20AC;&#x153;I navigate my femininity in a the one-sheet biography that tells the male-dominated industry,â&#x20AC;? she said. story of her life. It reads: â&#x20AC;&#x153;From Teen â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had plant managers tell me: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;I Mother to Tenacious Leader.â&#x20AC;? donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to deal with you.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? Yet she She knew it was a bit learned confidence of a risk, but she beand not to react to What sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d tell her lieves it shows how she slights and disrespect. 25-year-old self: has risen from a rough Johnson is presiâ&#x20AC;&#x153;Spend less time with childhood with parents dent of the Detroit peers and more quality who were substance chapter of the National time with individuals who Black MBA Association, abusers. Johnson had are at least two levels an organization she her first child at 16, yet above my current has been involved focused on education position. This gives one with since 2002. In this and a future. an opportunity to learn role, she organized a Johnson, an account from othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; successes black-tie 40th annivermanager for global and failures.â&#x20AC;? sary event with 15 corsteelmaker ArcelorMittal USA, is responsible porate sponsors and for a team of salespeomore than $40,000 ple who generate about $145 million raised for scholarships. Up next: The in revenue, mainly to General Motorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s national conference in suppliers and plants. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s moved Detroit in 2018. through several sought-after sales jobs â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve always prepared myself for the at the company. And sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s done so next step,â&#x20AC;? she said. Vickie Elmer while raising four children.

Zachary Klima, 28 Founder and CEO, WaitTime LLC

Zachary Klima had grown tired of analyzes how many people are waitwaiting for a seat at restaurants on Sat- ing. That data is displayed in real time urday mornings in Royal Oak. There on digital monitors on the concourse, had to be a solution that allowed him and via the teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mobile app. The to trim back all the time Palace now has walking he spent waiting in line. vendors sell beer at the What heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d tell â&#x20AC;&#x153;That was the lightbulb back of long concession his younger self: moment when WaitTime lines, Klima said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I would say, became a thing,â&#x20AC;? he said. WaitTime will sell the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Continue to The idea was an app that technology to venues, surround yourself stadiums and arenas can which can then find adwith the right use to tell fans how long vertisers to monetize it people and never the lines are for baththrough an app, or Klimaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stop learning.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;? rooms and concessions/ company will provide its merchandise stands. system for free with adverKlima in 2013 went about selling his tising it arranges, Klima said. idea to the talent he needed to develop â&#x20AC;&#x153;It has attracted the attention of bigthe technology â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the artificial intelli- brand sponsors and advertisers,â&#x20AC;? he gence, especially â&#x20AC;&#x201D; before assembling said. He predicts $10 million in reve$10 million in startup financing and nue within two years and $100 million support through Detroitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bizdom U in- within five years. cubator and other investors. The Indiana Pacers were scheduled The Detroit Pistons and Palace of to roll out WaitTime on Oct. 6, and Auburn Hills, where WaitTime uses a more than a dozen other teams are in suite as an office and command cen- talks to use it, Klima said. Next year, he ter, in January became the first venue hopes to have a deal with the Detroit to deploy the crowd science technolo- Red Wings to use WaitTime at the new gy. The Palace system uses 30 ceiling Little Caesars Arena, and plans are to cameras aimed at restrooms and any- add pro football and baseball clients. Bill Shea where fans are in line, and the software

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40 UNDER 40

Heather Kowalski, 37 Senior vice president, Comerica Bank

In fifth grade, Heather Kowalski completed a "what do you want to be when you grow up?" project. She was clear: She would be a stockbroker. She saved her money and a year later opened her first mutual fund. By high school, she worked as a teller in a local bank — and her career in finance was launched. After graduating from college, she joined Comerica Bank as a credit ana-

What she’d tell her 25-year-old self: “All of those late nights at work, taking conference calls on Sunday at the playground, logging in after the kids go to bed, emailing at all hours of the night, it does pay off.”

lyst, the higher paying of two jobs the bank offered. In September, Kowalski was pro-

moted to senior vice president-group manager at Comerica. In that role, she's charged with serving the lending needs about 40 major corporate clients in the Michigan, Wisconsin and Chicago areas. She oversees $2.5 billion in credit commitments — loans, bonds and lines of credit — and supervises six workers. She won the company’s Chairman’s Circle Award for new business growth for five consecutive years. Her 15 years of experience in corporate lending and underwriting gives her confidence. “When I say I’m going to do something, I typically do it. I know what can be done.” Two major clients are icons in Detroit. She worked on the bond underwriting for the new Detroit Red Wings arena and on the financing for Comerica Park. Vickie Elmer

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Brianna Leonard, 36 Senior director, Harman International Industries Inc.

Brianna Leonard is most comfort- debtors before emerging under Chiable in the boiler room. na’s Wanxiang Group in 2013. During After leaving her program manager that time, Leonard was promoted position at Lear Corp. in 2010, Leonard from program manager to director of joined A123 Systems, a startup that at sales and landed new customers, inthat time opened the largest automo- cluding Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghitive lithium-ion battery ni and others. plant in the country in Li“You couldn’t learn or What she’d tell vonia. There she saw the grow faster than being put her 25-year-old launch and production of in that environment,” self: “Take a deep its high-voltage and 12-volt Leonard said. “It was inbreath before you starter batteries to domestense, and I was forced to answer that tic and foreign customers learn in six months what question.” — but it was on shaky would normally take ground. years.” A123 expanded under a $249 milWith A123 on stable footing, Leonlion grant from the U.S. Department of ard left in 2014 for automotive and auLabor on a gamble that the government dio component supplier Harman Intercould jump-start alternative energy for national, where she manages a group of autos and reduce the country’s reli- 547 with a $100 million budget with the ance on foreign fuels. The risk landed goal of expanding its audio division to after slower-than-expected electric ve- generate $2 billion in revenue by 2020. “While it’s a much larger company, hicle adoption and a gaffe following in a more senior role I get to see real the supply of defective batteries. A123 filed for bankruptcy owing change happening,” Leonard said. Dustin Walsh millions of dollars to hundreds of

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40 UNDER 40

Heather Madland, 39

Lisa Nuszkowski, 37

Vice president of business development, Huron Capital Partners LLC

Edward Lippincott, 34 National director, Affordable Housing Advisors of Marcus & Millichap; and vice president of investments, Marcus & Millichap Edward Lippincott’s plans to pursue careers in law and real estate didn’t quite pan out, which is a good thing for low-income tenants. Today, the national director of Affordable Housing Advisors for Marcus & Millichap is one of the country’s leading affordable housing brokers. “The majority of Ed’s What he’d tell focus results his 25-year-old in the redevelself: “Stay opment of expositive, and keep isting affordit moving. You have able housing to approach every to preserve day with urgency long-term afand persistence. fordability for You have to go out tenants. In every day and work 2015, Ed brofor it and enjoy it.” kered 71 transactions in 18 states totaling over 10,000 apartment units, adding to his track record of over $1.5 billion in total sales,” said Steven Chaben, senior vice president of Southfield-based Marcus & Millichap. “Most importantly, these efforts have preserved more than 30,000 lowand middle-income housing units for elderly and family tenants,” said Lippincott. Each year, government restrictions or regulatory agreements keeping about 100,000 apartment units affordable expire. If that happens, the rentals could jump to market rates or be torn down. Lippincott uses his understanding of tax credits, preservation programs, legislation and other facets of the property to help keep those apartments affordable for another 30 years. The job plays to his love of people and problem-solving. There are always unforeseen hurdles, he said, but he enjoys “working through items as they come up, because you know they always will.” One challenge to the job is geographical. He said managing relationships with people you see only a couple of times a year when you have to be in 50 states at one time can be complicated. Having grown up just outside of Flint, Lippincott said he sees what some low-income communities deal with and likes the idea that he can help. In service, he sits on the boards of the National Leased Housing Association and the Institute for Responsible Housing Preservation. Leslie Green

Being the vice president of business on the Huron team,” said Michael Bedevelopment for Huron Capital Part- auregard, a senior partner at Huron. ners, annually the state’s most active “Her contributions range from written private equity firm, might seem like communication to database mining, enough to have on your plate. which directs our marketing efforts Apparently, Heather from a metrics-based Madland’s plate is very perspective.” What she’d tell her large. In addition to Madland is on the 25-year-old self: “Be traveling the country atboard of the Detroit proud of what you do tending industry conWomen's Forum of the and surround yourself Association for Corpoferences and sourcing with the best.” rate Growth and a deals, Madland, who member of the Cornell has an expertise in customer relationship management, has University Council. She was an associate led a substantial upgrade of Huron in the private equity group at Comerica Bank in Detroit from 1999-2004. SubseCapital’s CRM system. She also has helped oversee Hu- quently, she worked at firms in Chicaron’s digital and social media strate- go and San Francisco. Her current goal is to increase deal gies, website development and brand messaging. All the while, Madland has flow and deploy capital to take advanhelped lead Huron to record deal activ- tage of a new strategy recently anity the past two years: The firm has nounced by Huron Capital — its Flex closed on 115 investments since being Equity plan means the firm will now founded in 1999, and 39 of them have consider investments that don't require taking a majority share of equity. been since she joined in 2013. Tom Henderson “Heather is one of the most creative

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Executive director, Detroit Bike Share, Downtown Detroit Partnership

Some days, Lisa Nuszkowski rides of Detroit’s first public bicycle sharher LeMond road bike to her job at the ing system; she raised $4 million in Downtown Detroit Partnership; other public, private and philanthropic days, she takes a bus or a car from La- funding to make it happen. Her skills fayette Park, depending on errands. As at relationship building and research the executive director of helped her focus reDetroit Bike Share, which quests to varied fundWhat she'd tell her is installing 420 bikes in ing sources. She was 25-year-old self: “At 42 stations by next delighted when Henry 25, I had everything Ford Health System spring, she says multifigured out, and I knew rode up to become tiple transportation opeverything. I’d tell others tle sponsor. tions are the wave of the to trust the process. Nuszkowski has a future. Don’t worry. It will work role in the XXXIV class “This work makes out in the most Leadership Detroit of me a believer in bike serendipitous ways.” and is a board member advocacy. We have the of Tour de Troit and highest bicycle-pedesSouthwest Housing trian fatalities in the country. With more cyclists on the Solutions. One of her mentors, Michele Young street, drivers will become more aware,” Nuszkowski said. “Our role Hodges, president of the Belle Isle Conwith Bike Share is to reframe the con- servancy, says, “Lisa regularly demonversation about transportation so it strates the intellect, style and grace that squarely puts her on the list of risserves more people.” Nuszkowski is responsible for all ing stars in Detroit.” Maureen McDonald aspects of the launch and operation

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40 UNDER 40

Verne Perigord, 35 Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers

When Verne Perigord moved to the and financial issues of each. In the United States after growing up in the end, the client said it was the smoothBahamas, he created a vision board of est and most successful acquisition it goals. He made the board his phone’s had experienced, Perigord said. screen saver, so he was reminded “It is the best form of flattery when a many times a day of his desires, in- client doesn’t want you to go,” Perigord cluding the one to be a said. “I have found my Crain’s 40 Under 40. sweet spot with add-on What he’d tell Perigord’s goal is a realiservices and repeat clients.” his 25-year-old ty, thanks to him posting a At the same time, Perigself: “Don’t 733 percent revenue inord was asked to chair worry about it. crease at work. PwC’s Greater Michigan Keep working A PricewaterhouseCooMarket Community Outhard and it will pers client engaged Perigreach initiative to mentor come.” ord to advise it on a local youths and teach $1 billion multinational acthem financial literacy. He quisition. Although origisaw 100 percent staff parnally retained for six weeks at $300,000, ticipation and increased the number the client found Perigord’s advice so of volunteer hours by 183 percent. valuable that the engagement was ex“The people of Detroit are pastended by eight months, resulting in sionate about their city, and that has $2.5 million of additional revenue for rubbed off on me,” Perigord said. “I the firm. get to be part of the comeback with Perigord’s eight-person team dealt mentoring the youth — the future of with 17 different countries and the Detroit.” Laura Cassar laws, languages, cultures, time zones

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Melissa Price, 39 CEO, dPOP

Twelve years ago, Melissa Price sat in the office of Quicken Loans Inc. CEO Bill Emerson and shared her goal: She wanted to be a CEO. That milestone was achieved in 2013 when Quicken’s award-winning office space took on a life — and a company — of its own. “Everyone wanted to see the space (of the new downtown offices). We gave tours, and we kept getting asked if we could help with (other) spaces,” said Price, who had a lead role in imagining Quicken’s office space in her role as director of facilities for Detroit-based Quicken Loans. From these What she’d requests, tell her dPOP was 25-year-old born; it’s an inself: “Be terior design patient! (with firm that is myself and part of Rock others around Ventures LLC, me).” the parent company of Quicken Loans and Bedrock Real Estate Service. The “POP” in dPOP stands for “People, Office, Places” and its tagline is “breaking out of the cubicle and redefining the workplace.” The company’s portfolio includes the Detroit Institute of Music Education, the Globe Tobacco Building and LevelEleven. The company has 123 active projects right now. Price had a unique skill set to work in the predominantly male industry of technology, construction and architecture. “My dad was a nuclear engineer,” Price said. “I was his first child. He was going to teach me everything he knew. I had to read a physics book before I could get a Cabbage Patch doll.” This “mechanical mindset” has benefited Price and dPOP. “My job is to serve this team, to serve our clients and to make sure these Detroit projects are amazing,” Price said. The company, with $19 million in gross revenue, employs 32 people, more than half of whom reside in Detroit. Besides the importance of her designers knowing and experiencing the city by living in it, Price said, “there is a tremendous amount of pride to say, ‘I live in Detroit.’” Laura Cassar

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40 UNDER 40

Erik Rönmark, 39 Vice president and general manager, Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Though he was born and raised in hands. He also oversaw the orchesSweden, Erik Rönmark’s family was tra’s now $13.4 million budget coverno stranger to Detroit. ing both its operation and the musiHis parents had been musicians in cian salaries. And he assisted with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and both collective bargaining agreein a way it was only natural he’d wind ments and the individual contracts up at the orchestra himself. the orchestra’s musicians are entitled A trained saxophonist, to negotiate. Rönmark came to MichiHe played an integral What he’d tell his gan in 1996 to pursue his role in negotiating a 25-year-old self: doctorate in musical arts contract with Local 5 of “Understand that at the University of Michithe American Federation your college degree gan. of Musicians, helping to can open doors to When his wife — whose forge a new, three-year opportunities in parents were also former agreement in January areas outside of DSO musicians — joined 2014, nearly eight your field of study. the orchestra herself, Rönmonths before the previTake the time now mark began working as a ous agreement expired. to explore and ask part-time assistant in the “Being a musician questions.” DSO’s music library in myself ... I understand 2005; there, he marked up where they are coming copies of music and made from on the artistic isphotocopies. sues. And I think it was Soon, he moved to a full-time posi- very helpful in having a face they’ve tion as artistic coordinator, creating known for a decade,” Rönmark said. artist contracts and overseeing logisIn late September, he was protics for guest artists and conductors. moted once again, this time to vice Over the next six years, he was pro- president and general manager, moted twice more to artistic manager, with added oversight of all earned helping to review scores submitted by revenue for the DSO, from ticket outside composers, and then general sales to rentals to CD sales, as well as manager and artistic administrator. In its communications and media relaaddition to programming more than tions staff. 150 concerts each year, he managed He’s set his sights now on balanc24 staff members involved in all facets ing new compositions with beloved of putting on a concert, from artistic classics, and collaborating with other planning and orchestra personnel to art forms. Sherri Welch operations, the library and stage

Lottie Robertson started moving up at Chrysler after a short conversation in an elevator at its Auburn Hills corporate headquarters. She was working in a contract position as a powertrain program manager, and the woman on the elevator said she looked like a buyer. What she'd tell The woman's her 25-year-old background self: "There’s no closely recomfort in the sembled Robgrowth zone and ertson’s — no growth in the she had a comfort zone. technical deMake yourself gree and an uncomfortable MBA — and every day." after they met for lunch, she introduced Robertson to her boss in the supplier diversity department. Robertson was hired as a program manager a few weeks later. “I’m an advocate of speaking to everyone in the elevator because you nev-

Lottie Robertson, 39 Manager of exterior vision purchasing, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

er know where it will lead you,” she said. Robertson, a Detroit native, loved her two years in supplier diversity, yet she has changed jobs twice since. In 2014, she led an inter-disciplinary team of 25 to overhaul processes and secure more vehicle building capacity as demand increased. When they started the task, “it was huge ... insur-

mountable,” she recalled. Yet after her team finished, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles produced another 260,000 cars and trucks worth an extra $600 million in revenue through increased capacity. Today, she is head of exterior vision purchasing for the automaker. Vickie Elmer

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40 UNDER 40

Adele Saba, 30

Lead program analyst, U.S. Army Tacom Life Cycle Management Command

Sometimes it pays to keep up on reports about federal budget funding changes. For Adele Saba and the U.S.

transferred into “Base-to-OCO,” averting possible sequestration. Last year Base-to-OCO accounted for about Army Tacom Life Cycle Management $74 million in spending on Tacom Command in Warren, it programs, she said, has paid at least $400 and this year it’s over What she’d tell her million to date. $120 million. 25-year-old self: “I In early 2013, Saba, “I noticed that these think I was really then a budget analyst, funds were allocated cautious in my noticed that other subthrough other (commethods when I first ordinate commands to mands) under AMC so got started here. Now I the U.S. Army Material I asked, ‘Why don’t we would tell myself go at Command based in Alalook into this and save it full force, and don’t bama were taking adthe funding rather than look back.” vantage of a new budget have to give it back?’” funding category, “Base she said. to Overseas Contingency Operations,” Now a lead program analyst, Saba that would not be counted against a heads a small team handling strategy national debt ceiling ratio created un- and disbursement in a $500 million der the federal Budget Control Act of piece of the Tacom budget. 2011. That act triggered a series of “se“The biggest sense of accomplishquestration” cuts that have particular- ment that I felt was that soldiers ly targeted military operations and wouldn’t have received the resetting of maintenance accounts. vehicles, so maybe soldiers wouldn’t Further research determined that get back as much needed equipment about $200 million in funding the ini- and lives could have been in danger tial year for various equipment main- without the funding stream.” Chad Halcom tenance programs was eligible to be

Jeremy Sasson, 32 Owner, Heirloom Hospitality

If restaurateur Jeremy Sasson had a thing that did not exist, therefore eleblueprint for success, it would be this: vating the neighborhood and giving Identify what interests you, focus only people a reason to visit,” said Sasson, on those things, and realize that cas- giving credit to his crew of nearly 300 tles are built brick by employees as the most brick. important part of his sucWhat he’d tell When Sasson applied cess. Finding “earth-shathis 25-year-old this plan to his own life, he tering spaces” is a priority self: “Ask for realized his passion is for Sasson. He has found a advice, but listen restaurants — not just the couple more. to your gut.” food aspect, but every deSasson’s next goals intail of the experience, clude two types of growth. from the quality of linen to the weight First, growth of the Townhouse brand, of the glasses. with an Ann Arbor location opening in “I ate out so much, I was basically a late 2017. He also wants to grow the professional restaurant guest,” Sasson culinary brand of Detroit. said. “I was such a particular guest that it Sasson is developing Prime + Proper, a steakhouse in Detroit’s Capitol Park makes it easy to be a particular owner.” The first brick of his castle that neighborhood described as an “old would become Heirloom Hospitality world meet new world clash.” Now in was opening Townhouse Birmingham the design phase, the 11,000-squarein 2010. That laid the foundation for foot restaurant at 1145 Griswold St. what Sasson calls his greatest achieve- will seat 285 and is slated to open in ment, Townhouse Detroit. April or May 2017. “With Townhouse Detroit, my team “I’m a realist but I dream big, but had a goal of revitalizing a neighbor- not so big that I can’t deliver,” he said. Laura Cassar hood in the city and providing some-

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40 UNDER 40

Jeffrey Schostak, 33

Vice president and director of development, Schostak Bros. & Co.

When Jeffrey Schostak was working real estate portfolio and 10 of the comin the mail room of his family's busi- pany's 65 employees. ness, he knew he wanted to work in He has notched some impressive real estate. Of course, he wins in the past couple of had some serious name years since returning in What he’d tell his pedigree that helped him 2010 from Chicago, 25-year-old self: in that direction, and towhere he worked for Ur“Listen and learn ban Retail Properties LLC. day he is vice president from all the smart, His most recent win was a and director of developexperienced people joint-venture partnership ment for Livonia-based around you.” Schostak Bros. & Co. between Schoolcraft College in Livonia and Masco Schostak, son of COO Bobby Schostak and grandson of mall Corp. to build a $20 million-plus global development pioneer Jerome headquarters of 93,000 square feet on Schostak, now oversees about one- the college's campus. He has also been active with new third of the Schostak Bros. $783 million

development in Oakland County, helping guide a deal that brought in the construction of a 300,000-square-foot FedEx Corp. distribution center in Oak Park on the site of the former Detroit Artillery Armory. Schostak Bros. owns the 100-acre property on which the $35 million facility is expected to open in the first quarter next year. Working in real estate is all part of a lifelong goal for Schostak, who recalls as a kid “going to Vegas, ICSC (the International Council of Shopping Centers conference) with my dad, carrying his briefcase around. ...” Kirk Pinho

Joseph Schmitt, 38

Managing director, Greenwich Capital Group LLC After spending most of his career at large organizations, Joseph Schmitt co-founded Greenwich Capital Group LLC with his mentor, Bob Coury, who had retired as a partner at Deloitte LLC last year. They hit the ground running, serving as advisers to Allen Park-based Control-Tec LLC, a provider of telematics and analytics software provider, in its sale last August to Delphi Automotive LLC, a deal valued at more than $100 million. Since its founding, Birmingham-based Greenwich has hired six senior investment banking What he’d tell professionals his 25-yearand opened an old self: “Take office in Clevethe long view. As land. Schmitt cliché as it says they plan sounds, life and to double the your career are team next year marathons and and expect deal not sprints. volume this Don’t focus on year of $200 the next deal million, with instead of two possible building deals in due dillong-term igence. relationships.” Previously, Schmitt, who has an MBA, was a financial analyst with Bon Secours Health System Inc.; an associate at Plante Moran PLLC; a vice president at Deloitte Corporate Finance LLC; and, before co-founding Greenwich, executive vice president and CFO of the The Energy Group Inc. in Detroit. “We’ve worked together on several projects over the years, and I can honestly say that I would not want anyone else on my side of the table,” John Fauster, president of the Livonia-based Sullivan Corp., a general contractor and construction manager, said about Schmitt. “Joe has caught his stride in joining Greenwich Capital. He’s a very astute financial adviser,” Fauster said. “First, he is extremely detail oriented and quick on his feet. Secondly, his good nature and business acumen put his clients at ease, which allows them to profit from his creativity.” Tom Henderson

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Stephen Thornhill, 38

Vice president of development, Patient Access Solutions

Stephen Thornhill recalls the story of a chance meeting in the fall of 2015 at Crain’s Health Care Leadership Summit between Sam Compton, co-founder and president of Patient Access Solutions LLC, and Leapfrog

Group CEO Leah Binder, who was the

keynote speaker at the annual event. The two discussed the importance of health care transparency and how difficult it is for the public to navigate through reams of online quality and

patient safety data. about their inpatient experience. Leapfrog, an independent nonprofThornhill took Leapfrog’s data and it that measures quality and safety at designed a user interface that “would hospitals nationwide, allow the general public “was looking to update to easily understand What he’d tell his their system and make what is an otherwise ex25-year-old self: “That it more user-friendly,” traordinarily complex in 2007, Apple would Thornhill said. “We set of measurements,” release the first iPhone, were hired in January Thornhill said. that it would forever and had it ready by “We provided the change the way people April.” individual hospital’s live and interact, and to As vice president of score, the average, best, get into that space as development for and worst scores in that fast as you can.” Farmington Hillscategory, a description based Patient Access, of what the score means a digital software and application de- to the patient, an automated gauge sign company, Thornhill had already graphic, and what safer hospitals do,” developed an app to help hospitals get Thornhill said. Jay Greene immediate feedback from patients

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Richard Sulaka II, 31 General counsel, Detroit Water and Sewerage Department Richard Sulaka II feels he brings many special qualities to his new role as general counsel of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department — but he didn't consider his age to be one of them. Sulaka joined the department in March after about three years as a deputy commissioner to Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Anthony Marrocco. But he points out that department COO Rob Presnell and Deputy Director/Chief Engineer Palencia What he’d tell Mobley are also his 25-yearin their 30s — old self: “I’d and that the exstay on this ecutive team same path, but formed in the my advice would past year under be, ‘Don’t repeat DWSD Director the same Gary Brown is mistakes, and one of the youngmake a point of est in the counlearning from try. your mistakes.’” “It is like a startup culture here, and it’s an exciting time for people who are interested in making a difference,” he said. Sulaka, son of the former Warren city clerk and councilman of the same name who died in 2015, was recommended by U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox to help analyze the feasibility of the 40-year, $50 million annual payment to the city. The newly formed Great Lakes Water Authority assumed that lease following the city’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy reorganization, under a reorganization of water and sewer assets that took effect Jan. 1. He cites a new department drainage fee policy that took effect Oct. 1, which charges city property owners for runoff based on how much impervious acreage they have, and the Water Residential Assistance Program providing financial help for qualifying low-income residents, as some of the more engaging issues facing DWSD during his first six months. “From my first day on the job, we can tell the type of enthusiasm that Gary Brown brings to his role as director, and it’s infectious. We’re excited to come to work and handle the challenges facing us,” he said. “With ... programs that exist to make sure people who are unable to pay have assistance, it forces you to be creative, and think of solving the problems over the long term.” Chad Halcom

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Tosha Tabron, 39

Paul Wheeler, 38

Vice president of global philanthropy, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Detroit

Senior manager, CooperStandard Automotive Inc. President, Society of Automotive Analysts

At an age when most kids are still trying to fig“She is the perfect person for the bank’s role in ure out if they want to be a first-grader, Tosha Ta- Detroit,” said John Carter, the managing director bron knew she wanted to be a banker. and market manager for Chase in Michigan. “She “My parents walked me into a bank when I was has boundless energy and passion for the city. 6 years old to open my savings ac“Within the bank, she is a trusted count,” she said. “There were tellers partner to many internal groups as What she’d tell her counting what seemed to me milshe leads the Detroit activities,” he 25-year-old self: lions of dollars right in front of me. I said. “She cares deeply about our “Develop a tough skin. knew then that banking was for me.” city and has the moxie to make the If you're afraid of ‘no,’ Her father, Samuel Brown, helped bank’s work more impactful. She you'll eliminate hone her attraction for the financial. has boundless energy and passion yourself and your He was a broker for Rivers Realty and and brings intelligent discipline to potential before you Rivers Investment Management her philanthropic role.” even start. And Group in Detroit, where she worked Before joining Chase in 2013, Tagravitate to women during her summer vacations. bron was vice president of corpowho raise their hand, Tabron is on the boards of the rate social responsibility for Bank of use their voice and America and its charitable foundaGreat Lakes Women's Business Councompete big-time.” cil; the Community Development Adtion, spending 14 years at Bank of vocates of Detroit, the trade associaAmerica and its predecessor orgation for nonprofit, community-based nizations through a string of bank mergers and development organizations in Detroit; and the consolidations. Detroit Regional Workforce Fund. Her current goal is to support more of Detroit’s She was named J. P. Morgan Chase & Co.’s local health care, advanced manufacturing and trade philanthropy manager when Chase announced apprenticeship programs to give Detroit residents its $100 million commitment to the city of Detroit access to the training in demand by employers. Tom Henderson in 2014.

Brad Williams, 39

Vice president, government relations, Detroit Regional Chamber

“We are in a global war for talent,” said Brad nity like never before,” he said. Williams, vice president of government relaWilliams is used to challenges. tions for the Detroit Regional Chamber. “The next When Gov. Rick Snyder, Emergency Manager generation wants options on mobility; they de- Kevyn Orr and Mayor Mike Duggan began their cide where to build their lives based push for a “Grand Bargain” during on the quality of life. If Detroit is gothe Detroit bankruptcy, Williams What he’d tell his ing to compete with Chicago, Bosgathered bipartisan support to 25 year-old self: “I ton and Washington, D.C., we have push the Legislature for action on would tell myself to to develop a transit system to attract the deal. have more confidence talent.” “I developed a messaging stratin my ability to make That's Williams' view of the vexegy that was executed by our team a significant impact ing, decades-long problem that is that made Detroit a state issue on the world.” the metro Detroit transit system, that resonated with all political and he is intent on fixing it. parties,” Williams said. In his role with the chamber, Wil“The passage of the ‘Grand Barliams is a part of the effort to support the 20- gain’ legislation with strong bipartisan majoriyear, $3 billion Regional Transit Authority tax pro- ties in the Legislature was one of the most reposal on the November ballot. His most pressing markable exercises in good government and goal is to communicate to voters across all four bipartisanship that has been seen in Lansing in counties that a regional transit system is in years,” he said. Laura Cassar “their own best interest to connect the commu-

There he led a rebranding of the organization, Paul Wheeler is learning to bet on himself. After spending the first 16 years of his career at launched a new website and created bunAuburn Hills-based TI Automotive Inc., he dled-pricing options. jumped ship in February for a new opportunity “What I saw was declining membership, at Novi-based Cooper-Standard Auevents that weren’t engaging and, tomotive. even more frightening, a board that What he’d tell his Wheeler made the move bewas entrenched and full of older 25-year-old self: cause he knew stagnation at one people,” Wheeler said. “We need to “Make the most of company wouldn’t help him reach bring in peak talent into the organievery opportunity. his ultimate goal of becoming a zation and engage the younger You never know CEO someday. “How do I get to the generations.” what’s behind the ultimate goal of becoming the Wheeler has successfully creatdoor. Don’t stagnate.” CEO?” Wheeler said. “I needed ed a student chapter at Oakland University and is working with Unimore experience and to prove myversity of Michigan and Michigan State University self.” Since joining Cooper-Standard, Wheeler has to open up the meetings to all students. “We had to make it less exclusive,” Wheeler helped to update the supplier’s strategy for its $675 million fuel and brake business, new-prod- said. “I never really had any mentoring or touchuct acceleration and identify merger and acquisi- points with executives when I was coming tion targets, including the recent acquisition of through my career path. I could have used somethe automotive fuel and brake business of Lewis- one to take me under their wing and help me ton-based AMI Industries Inc. He’s also the lead of make choices on the opportunities that came the division’s manufacturing council, which as- before me. If I could have had someone watchsesses processes to standardize plant operations. ing over me a bit, I think that would’ve made a Since 2015, Wheeler has served as president of huge difference in my career.” Dustin Walsh the Society of Automotive Analysts.

Bryan Zair, 39 Partner, Jones Day

Bryan Zair is a Detroiter. The son of Chaldean plishments,” he said. immigrants from Iraq, Zair worked full time at As a partner at Jones Day and head of its local his father’s convenience store in Detroit’s Bright- merger and acquisition practice, Zair was inmoor neighborhood while in college. He spent volved in two large transactions: the $11.3 billion three years as an associate at Clark acquisition of ITC Holdings Corp. by Hill PLLC’s Detroit office before opFortis Inc. and the $670 million diWhat he’d tell his portunity led him to Chicago. He vestiture of L&W Supply Corp. by 25-year-old self: USG Corp. to ABC Supply Co. Inc. started as an associate with Mayer “Take the day-to-day Brown LLP in 2007, later becoming Zair led the USG divestiture. ups and downs (and a partner working with one of its Zair’s father has since retired successes and failures) largest clients, Dow Chemical Co. from running the convenience in stride, because it is Detached from Detroit’s fall store, which is no longer open. very rare that a single from the financial crisis and subseBut Zair is still big on Detroit. success or failure will quent automotive collapse, Zair “We were in the Brightmoor area have a lasting effect on felt the longing to return home. In for more than 20 years,” Zair said. your career or your life.” September of last year, he returned, “The truth is, that neighborhood helping one of the country’s largest had a lot of people that lived there firms, Jones Day, open a Detroit office. for a very long time, and a number of community “Being able to be back in Detroit and start an organizations. Now there’s urban farming and ininternational firm in the city, to participate in the vestment. It shows they never gave up, and that’s rebirth of this city in some way ... that’s some- what’s so special about Detroit and Detroiters.” Dustin Walsh thing I consider to be one of my greatest accom-

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NAME OF WRITER MARY KRAMER writer@email.com mkramer@crain.com Twitter: @twitteracct Twitter: @mkramercrain

Detroit needs to expand its lure to region, world By the time you read this, ArtPrize in Grand Rapids will be over. Prizes totaling $500,000 were to have been awarded to eight artists in a ceremony held Friday night. A tiny number of the more than 1,400 artists participating would take home cash; many more will sell their pieces to venues or collectors. But the real winner is the city of Grand Rapids. The eighth annual ArtPrize may have exceeded the 2015 self-reported totals of 438,632 visits. Those people are paying for meals and, in some cases, hotel rooms, creating an economic impact of more than $22 million. Last year, ARTnews dubbed ArtPrize the highest-attended art exhibition in the United States. In a city with fewer than 200,000 residents within its limits. Broadcasting live from Grand Rapids last month, Detroit-based WJR personality Frank Beckmann wondered aloud: Why doesn’t Detroit have an ArtPrize? That sounds like a great idea. But Oscar Wilde’s addendum might apply: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” In other words, Detroit needs to nourish and create its own crowd-pleasing “people magnets.” Not copy somebody else. A couple of years ago, the nonprofit ArtPrize organization in Grand Rapids inked a deal to help create a Dallas version. But that fell apart in 2015 when fundraising goals apparently couldn’t be met. Detroit has a lot of “people magnets” — Eastern Market can draw as many as 80,000 people in a single day in the peak season, drawing from the city and surrounding suburbs. Many attend a Lions, Tigers or Red Wings game. And thousands more attend the North American International Auto Show at Cobo Center in January. But tens of thousands of Southeast Michigan residents have yet to experience the energy and revival taking place from downtown to Midtown. What ArtPrize does that Detroit could use is getting people from throughout the region — and visitors from around the world — into venues and locations that are not part of their normal routine. That’s why everything from the annual Detroit Jazz Festival to Detroit Design Festival, both held last month, are important. Detroit's next big opportunity might come from the QLine. What kind of inaugural events or experiences can be created along the 3-mile stretch of streetcar that connects everything from Campus Martius Park to the Detroit Opera House, Orchestra Hall, the MOCAD and the Detroit Institute of Arts? That's one way to put a stamp on an experience that is uniquely Detroit's own. Mary Kramer is publisher of Crain’s Detroit Business. Catch her take on business news at 6:10 a.m. Mondays on the Paul W. Smith show on WJR AM 760 and in her blog at www.crainsdetroit.com.

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RISE REAL ESTATE

Skyvue: This artist rendering shows the $90 million student housing project being built on the Lansing-East Lansing border that will include retail and commercial space.

After weathering the recession, Lansing area is experiencing a boom in development By Kevin Polzin

Special to Crain’s Detroit Business

LANSING — Bob Trezise likes numbers. Ask him about economic development in the Lansing area, and they’ll roll off his tongue in rapid-fire succession:  $2.2 billion in private investment in Lansing over the past 10 years for projects negotiated or spearheaded by regional business development organization Lansing Economic Area Partnership Inc., where he is president and CEO.  $199.5 million in private investment from 2013-15 in projects outside the city limits that were spearheaded or negotiated by LEAP.  3,818 jobs created throughout the region from 2013-15. Trezise has reason to be excited. Developers are building large, multistory projects along main thoroughfares, while deep-rooted companies such as General Motors Co. and Jackson National Life Insurance Co. are spending big on local expansion, and Michigan State University continues to be an economic powerhouse. It all adds up to billions in investment and thousands of new or retained jobs. But the recent development boom is largely a reflection of pent-up demand that started to spike in 2013 after several recession-tainted years, local developers and officials said. They caution that while the Lansing-East Lan-

sing region is poised for long-term growth, it will be at a slower pace than the current spike as large-scale projects are completed and development settles into stable, steady growth. “I think it’s sustainable to a lower degree,” with less reliance on big projects, said Van Martin, CEO of commercial real estate company CBRE Martin in East Lansing.

DTN MANAGEMENT

DTN Gateway: Work is well underway on the “Gateway” mixed-use project at the corner of Grand River Avenue and Delta Street in East Lansing.

Hannah Lofts: The $33 million project in Meridian Township, across from the Michigan State University campus, has 282 units, a fitness club, a parking deck, more than 7,500 square feet of retail space and, of course, an outdoor hot tub.

Spark for resurgence For Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, it all started in the middle of the Great Recession with the Ottawa Street Power Station, a dormant facility once operated by the city’s utility, the Lansing Board of Water and Light. In 2007, the city brokered a deal to convert the historic building along the Grand River in downtown Lansing into a corporate headquarters for workers’ compensation insurer Accident Fund Holdings Inc., now known as AF Group. The $125 million project, completed in 2011, served three main purposes: It put an aging, largely unused building back in use, kept hundreds of Accident Fund jobs in Lansing and gave the company’s parent, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, room at the former Accident Fund headquarters space to consolidate its regional operations. Bernero sees the project as the catalyst, one that showed Lansing could SEE NEXT PAGE

CAMPUS ADVANTAGE

GILLESPIE GROUP

Marketplace Apartments: This contemporary development in downtown Lansing, near Cooley Law School Stadium, is one of several projects in the area built by Gillespie Group.

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pull out of a down economy and spark a resurgence built on largescale, high-profile corporate or private developments and smaller, yet significant, ventures. Among them: animal safety testing products maker Neogen Corp., particle accelerator company Niowave Inc. and the Skyvue mixed-use development on Michigan Avenue near the city’s border with East Lansing. According to data from the Lansing Economic Development Corp., the city’s economic development arm that contracts with LEAP, there has been more than $2.2 billion in private investment in the city of Lansing alone over the past 10 years. A bulk of that — nearly $1.1 billion — came in the past three years and was mainly the result of GM spending roughly $1 billion on its Lansing Delta Township assembly plant, along with adding a stamping plant, logistics operation and hundreds of workers as it retooled its Lansing Grand River assembly plant. Regionally, there has been an additional $199.5 million in private investment outside the city since 2013, according to LEAP. To be sure, not every project has come to fruition. Multiple efforts to transform a dilapidated corner of East Lansing anchored by an abandoned bank building have collapsed

over financing issues and community opposition. And a proposed $380 million complex of hotels, apartments, town homes and restaurants along the Michigan Avenue gateway on Lansing’s east side has yet to materialize amid legal challenges, plan revisions and financial issues. Concern continues to hang over a sprawling mixed-use project surrounding the Eastwood Towne Center upscale outdoor retail center in Lansing Township, north of Lansing near U.S. 127. And the Heights at Eastwood project, initially pitched as a combination of retail space, luxury apartments and hotels, has been beset by financial problems, the Lansing State Journal reported.

‘Mix of everything’ Martin, whose firm publishes periodic analyses of aspects of the Lansing-East Lansing market, said the region might not always have flashy developments, but the market nonetheless tends to expand steadily as it builds on a foundation of the auto industry, the insurance sector that has several big-name players based in the Lansing area, and state government. Then there’s Michigan State University, an economic driver with more than 50,000 students, high-profile projects such as the $730 million Facility for Rare Isotope Beams for nuclear science and the basic con-

struction and employment that come with being a Big Ten university. In fact, MSU, directly or indirectly, is a driving force behind much of the mixed-use development that has sprung up in the Lansing-East Lansing market the past few years. For example, the $90 million, nine-story Skyvue project being built by Georgia developer Rise Management near the Lansing-East Lansing border on Michigan Avenue will largely be a student-housing development. Rise’s plans call for 338 apartments with one-, two- or four-bedroom floor plans and 4,000 square feet of retail and commercial space once the project is ready for tenants in 2017. Most of the apartments are geared toward students, though Rise officials told the Lansing State Journal the company will market to all demographics. Meanwhile, Grand Rapids builder Wolverine Building Group and Grand Haven’s Capstone Cos. teamed up on a $33 million, 529,000-square-foot Hannah Lofts project that was completed in 2014. Made up of 688 beds in 282 units with multiple floor plans, a fitness club, parking deck and 7,545 square feet of retail space, the development is in Meridian Township but across from the east side of MSU’s campus. On the smaller end, a $1.8 million project being built by Lansing’s DTN Management Co. further east on

Grand River Avenue near the East Lansing campus, calls for 39 apartments and 6,500 square feet of ground-floor retail. “MSU is an economic engine, even though (it’s) an educational institution,” Martin said, whether through its core university operations or the construction and jobs that come with projects tied to it. East Lansing Mayor Mark Meadows, a former state representative, said the student housing component reflects a growing demand for MSU students to live closer to campus and the city’s downtown core. But student housing isn’t the only sector on which to build long-lasting, successful projects. Some developers, whether by design or by city ordinance, are targeting a broader demographic as they eye areas close to downtown East Lansing — including the student component but reaching out to older adults. And city leaders are pushing hard for the mix — East Lansing now requires 50 percent of a development in specific zones downtown to be made up of owner-occupied condos or apartments for senior citizens. “A mixture downtown benefits everybody,” Meadows said. “There’s something for everybody downtown.” The plethora of student housing developments on the books and on the ground has sparked a debate about the long-term viability of the

market. But concerns about overbuilding and saturating a market are being offset by continued demand and, in some cases, revising projects to add diversity. Trezise cites the Skyvue project as an example. Originally proposed as solely a student-housing development, the city of Lansing and LEAP insisted on more than 140 apartments targeting young professionals. “This is the direction we want to go,” Trezise said. “A mix of everything.”

Corporate players Then there are the corporate players, notably GM and Jackson National Life Insurance Co. The timing of their decisions has not revolved around pent-up demand as much at it has overall business needs. GM, for example, is adding a stamping plant and a logistics operation to its Lansing Grand River plant to support moving production of the Camaro from Canada to Lansing. It’s part of a long-term strategy to operate its plants at full capacity and adhere to terms of its labor contract with the United Auto Workers. For Jackson National Life, the $114 million expansion of its headquarters in Ingham County’s Alaiedon Township — it is considered part of Lansing through an Act 425 shared revenue agreement with SEE LANSING, PAGE 28

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the township — had been planned for several years before actual work began in 2013. The insurer was anticipating growing demand for its annuities and other products. This convergence of corporate planning, an economic recovery with pent-up demand and a concerted effort by local leaders to retain and expand business is the kind of development that business and municipal leaders see as the building blocks for long-term economic growth.

The price of growth For developer Pat Gillespie, whose firm, Gillespie Group, has built some of the more visible projects in and near downtown Lansing, the development boom has been building for years and was overdue. The region, he said, in many ways is playing catch-up to other metropolitan areas of the state. “We’re about eight years behind Detroit and Grand Rapids, but we’re getting there, “ said Gillespie, whose projects have ranged from the $12 million, 84-unit Outfield Lofts apartments at the minor league Cooley Law School Stadium to the $3.5 million Lansing Brewing Co. craft brewery nearby. He, too, predicts steady expansion for the area and is seeing a market shift from young professionals to a broader mix that also includes “empty nesters” and baby boomers from the suburbs. But all of the development boom comes at a price — mainly as incentives. Lansing, East Lansing and other

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municipalities have offered tax breaks, infrastructure improvements and revolving loans. These municipalities often work with LEAP and other groups to take advantage of state lures as well, whether in the form of brownfield tax credits or assistance through various Michigan Economic Development Corp. programs. For some leaders, such as Bernero, these incentive packages are part of the cost of doing business in a competitive landscape in which other states and communities pitch hard and offer big-money packages to draw development and employers. “I’m unabashedly pro-incentives,” Bernero said. “All they’re doing is leveling the playing field.” In the city’s case, “leveling” has involved $78.7 million in incentives offered to developers and their projects over the past three years — and $477.4 million from 2006-15. In return, according to the LEDC and LEAP, there has been $1.08 billion in private investment in the past three years — everything from GM’s retooling and expansion to the conversion of a dilapidated building near Cooley Law School Stadium into a craft brewery. Others, such as Meadows, prefer to be more discriminating when using incentives such as tax breaks and TIF tax-capture programs. The mayor said East Lansing is more inclined to offer incentives that offer a public benefit — such as brownfield credits for environmental cleanup — and turn down requests for assistance that do little more than defray a developer’s costs. “I don’t have a problem using incentives,” Meadows said, “just how the incentives are (sometimes) used.”

Meanwhile, some of the state incentives Bernero and his team have chased are starting to dry up. The state has cut back on brownfield funding and money for the MEDC. That has led to cuts in incentive programs Lansing and other municipalities have been able to use to draw major developers and their projects. This has forced the city — and the Lansing region in general — to look for other ways to lure businesses. In the case of the $380 million, 30acre Red Cedar Renaissance hotel-retail-housing project proposed for part of a former city golf course along Michigan Avenue near U.S. 127, Lansing is offering bonds for part of the development to help local developer Joel Ferguson get the project off the ground. However, Ferguson and his group of developers recently asked Ingham County to issue bonds to help with infrastructure costs instead of Lansing, citing lower costs. In other cases, it’s a matter of keeping in touch with developers and existing businesses to find non-incentive ways to draw them to or keep them in the Lansing area. “We … relentlessly say ‘yes’ to projects big and small and are still ultra-aggressive with incentives because we still understand Michigan’s Rust Belt position in the country and world and how we must compete with other states and cities throughout the Midwest, the coasts and the world who throw everything at a project in addition to the natural status,” Trezise said. For Lansing’s mayor, the mantra is more concise. “Persevere and persuade,” Bernero said.

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SPECIAL REPORT: SECOND STAGE

Lisa Lunsford, CEO of Global Strategic Supply Solutions, says a strategic plan “makes you look at your company and its culture to see what needs to happen ... to get to the next level.”

LARRY PEPLIN

Strategies for success About this report: Tips on strategic planning To survive and thrive, second-stage companies need to think seriously about forming a strategic plan. “Information moves much quicker. Without a plan, you don’t have as much of a chance to survive, and definitely not very much of a chance to grow your business,” said Robert Tokar, CEO of Detroit-based Wolverine Solutions Group. Strategic planning means a company must determine what it should or should not pursue, what’s going to lead it into the future and how it’s going to get there. Dino Signore, manager of entrepreneurial education at the Edward Lowe Foundation in Cassopolis, said strategic planning can help prevent threats that can blindside a business. A business consultant with an expertise in strategic planning can help a company prepare for those threats by identifying a company’s strengths and weaknesses, and to help plan short- and long-term goals of where it wants to go. “It’s really hard for any company to be objective about what they’re capable of doing,” said Signore. “Usually one person did (the plan), and then they pass it on to others and it doesn’t get done,” Signore said. Lisa Lunsford, co-founder and CEO of Livonia-based Global Strategic Supply Solutions LLC, said a way to implement a company’s strategic plan is to directly involve team members. “Once you start inviting people into a discussion, thoughts can be challenged, and they can make the plan better,” she said. In this month’s Second Stage, we talk to three business owners about strategic planning — the steps they took, who was involved and how their goals are being met.

Planning helps Global Strategic Supply Solutions manage growth By Rachelle Damico

Special to Crain’s Detroit Business

Lisa Lunsford, co-founder and CEO of Global Strategic Supply Solutions LLC, said forming a strategic plan was necessary for the company to manage its growth. “It was part of our strategy, but we wanted to make sure that growth was making sense,” Lunsford said. The Livonia-based tier-one OEM supplier also specializes in providing engineering, assembly and supply chain management. GS3 has grown to more than 100 employees and generated more than $36 million in revenue in 2015. Next year, the company expects to reach $41 million in revenue. It is part of Livonia-based Deshler Group Inc., a holding company composed of seven sister companies, which provides manufacturing, assembly, transportation, packaging and IT. The company has more than 400 employees worldwide and had 2015 revenue of more than $135 million. As the vice president of sales and marketing, Lunsford is also in-

volved with the strategic leadership of Deshler. As for GS3, it has grown rapidly since its birth in 2010 and formed its strategic plan in 2012, when that growth increased, Lunsford said. “It makes you take a look at your company and its culture to see what needs to happen in order to get to the next level,” she said. To help with the process, GS3 worked with a business adviser to do an internal scrubbing of the company, which included determining what markets GS3 should pursue and avoid, and more difficult discussions about the company’s strengths and weaknesses. “When you hire an outside consultant, they start bringing things to the forefront, so you have to be honest with yourself,” Lunsford said. “It was a painful process, but it was a good process.” It took GS3 about a year to form and implement its strategic plan, which includes how much money the company is looking to make and invest, markets the company wants

to explore, and planning for future acquisitions. Following the plan, the family of companies in March closed on a $9 million acquisition of Livonia-based MSD Stamping Co. Lunsford said a company’s strategic plan should include an understanding of its market, who its target customers are, and have one-year and five-year goals. For GS3, those goals focus on diversifying markets and its customer base, which ties into its long-term — or “stretch” — goal to create a successful company for long-term sustainability. “We know we want to be more than automotive,” Lunsford said. The company will begin making plans to expand into the military and defense industry. To help keep itself on track, GS3 uses a market assessment tool, tracked in a Microsoft Excel document, that analyzes each market or business opportunity that arises. SEE GS3, PAGE 30

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // O C T O B E R 1 0 , 2 0 1 6

SPECIAL REPORT: SECOND STAGE

Strategic plan pushed growth for Wolverine By Rachelle Damico

even worth it?’” Now, WSG has quarterly 90-minDetroit-based Wolverine Solutions ute meetings with its leadership Group says its revenue growth has team to discuss where the company been the direct result of forming a is going and how it will get there. strategic plan. Goals include revenue growth, “The progress we’ve made has rising to more than 500 employees, been phenomenal,” said CEO Robert and opening a Detroit production Tokar. plant within five years. The second-generation family The team discusses the compacompany, founded in 1978, has ny’s vision and goals, and members about 200 workers and work on weekly projects directs 1 million pieces of they must commit to finishmail per day to customers ing by the end of each quarthat include health care, ter. automotive, insurance “There are issues every and gaming industries. It week that come and go,” Toposted $25 million in revkar said. “We discuss what’s enue last year and exnot working or what’s keeppects to reach $30 million ing us from making our in 2016. goal.” Back in the early 2000s, Robert Tokar: WSG’s strategic plan inhowever, revenue was “The progress ... cludes industry diversificastagnant, compared with has been tion, leadership developthe 1980s and 1990s, phenomenal.” ment and defining and when revenue had grown redeveloping its company rapidly, Tokar said. culture. “It was going OK, but we didn’t Team members get T-shirts that have that growth we experienced in list values such as “embrace chalthe past,” he said. lenge,” “open arms” and “full contriThe company began forming a bution.” strategic marketing plan in 2013. Tokar said it’s important that the WSG’s longtime business adviser, company’s leadership believes in the Tip Quilter, recommended the com- strategic plan and its long-term vision. pany go beyond its marketing plan “That was the key — people that and form a more formal strategic want to work, that I could trust and plan using the Entrepreneurial Oper- could understand my vision and ating System, which has tools to help where I wanted to take the compaentrepreneurs create a stronger ny,” he said. business model. A timeline is in place for mileTokar said WSG attempted to im- stones that include one-year, fiveplement a strategic plan in the past, year and 10-year revenue targets. but it never proved effective. Tokar said the milestones help the “It was kept in the minds of the company consistently work toward few (who) created it, and it ended up its goal of becoming a $100 million being put on the shelf and business company by 2025. went on as it did in the past,” Tokar “I truly believe we will make that said. “I thought, ‘Is a strategic plan goal,” he said. Special to Crain’s Detroit Business

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The tool was provided by Troybased Automation Alley. “We ask ourselves some hard questions: Does this meet our financial goals? What value does it have, and does it make sense?” Lunsford said. For instance, GS3 considered expanding to the agriculture and lawncare manufacturing market. However, Lunsford said, the company decided not to pursue that market at this time as it would require new technology and training for employees, potentially requiring another three years to grow into the market. “When you start laying out what you know about a potential industry, you have to decide if it meets your growth plan or market,” Lunsford said. “Are you going to get that return on the investment?” One of the ways GS3 stays on top

of its goals is to meet quarterly with a team that includes executives, general managers, an outside sales executive and an accountant. The team discusses the plan and makes changes as needed. “You have to communicate with the people who actually are going to make this strategy happen — it can’t just be you,” Lunsford said. “As a business leader, I want to make sure everybody in the company knows that they’re important to the company’s success and sustainability.” As technology within the automotive industry evolves, strategic planning helps the company consider new trends like driverless cars and how it can evolve its manufacturing capabilities, Lunsford said. “It’s continually looking toward the future and making sure you’re moving in that direction. You have to ask yourself, ‘How can I be there when that happens?’”

C R A I N â&#x20AC;&#x2122; S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // O C T O B E R 1 0 , 2 0 1 6

SPECIAL REPORT: SECOND STAGE

Zoup! hires outside company to keep strategic plan focused

â&#x20AC;&#x153;No company should acquire ... machinery unless ... they have the ability to operate it.â&#x20AC;?

By Rachelle Damico

Superhero cape maker finds new equipment can be like kryptonite

Special to Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Detroit Business

Eric Ersher, founder and CEO of Southfield-based Zoup! Systems LLC, said strategic planning allows his company to stay focused on its vision. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy to be drawn into the shiny new thing, and thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a cost to it,â&#x20AC;? Ersher said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;With strategic planning, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re much more deliberate.â&#x20AC;? The national soup and sandwich franchise company has 93 franchise locations and three corporate stores. Zoup! reached $48 million in revenue last year and is expected to reach $57 million in 2016. Zoup! implemented its strategic plan 12 years ago, when the company hired Gino Wickman, founder of Entrepreneurial Operating System. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We needed the clarity and unbiased views of an outside and experienced third party,â&#x20AC;? Ersher said. Zoup!â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strategic plan defines the company, outlines its core values, paints a three-year picture of where the company wants to be and defines â&#x20AC;&#x153;big hairy audacious (long-term) goal.â&#x20AC;? Ersher said that goal is â&#x20AC;&#x153;to create and lead the soup differentiated category of fast casual, and to become synonymous with premium quality soup

with locations coast to coast.â&#x20AC;? Following the EOS system, Zoup! uses a scorecard to track figures weekly, including same-store sales, cost of goods and labor. Members of Zoup!â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leadership team are then responsible for tracking those figures. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It helps to lessen the management burden of running the company and provides an opportunity for management to be spread across the leadership team,â&#x20AC;? Ersher said. The team meets weekly to discuss the scorecard, goals and issues within the company. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important for our leadership team because it keeps us all on the same page,â&#x20AC;? Ersher said. To keep its strategic plan fresh, the company plans a quarterly two-day offsite meeting with Wickman to discuss and update the strategic plan. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We take a look at our annual goals and determine what needs to be done in order to achieve those goals,â&#x20AC;? Ersher said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The leadership team is then held accountable for those goals.â&#x20AC;? During startup mode, strategic planning revolved more around finding the right people, Ersher said. Now that Zoup! is growing, the company has become more project-oriented. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We stay much more focused than we used to be,â&#x20AC;? Ersher said.

Jim McTevia, McTevia & Associates

By Rachelle Damico

Special to Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Detroit Business

In 2008, when Superfly Manufacturing Co. was founded, employees made its capes manually. That meant employees had to unroll fabric by hand and cut it with a hand roller that supports only four or five layers of fabric at a time. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was highly inefficient and difficult to do,â&#x20AC;? said Justin Draplin, founder and CEO. Solution: Following the advice of an employee, Superfly invested in new manufacturing equipment that would allow employees to handle the job more efficiently. This year, the company bought a cutting table that allows employees to cut hundreds of inches of fabric at time and a fabric spreader that requires only one employee rather than two. As a result, the company has saved more than 40 hours a week, and the equipment allows the company to process large orders more quickly, Draplin said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s going to save us hundreds of thousands of dollars over the life of the equipment,â&#x20AC;? Draplin said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re more efficient and are able to take bigger orders without thinking twice because we can quickly cut a lot of product.â&#x20AC;? Risk and considerations: Superfly had difficulties learning to use the new equipment. The commercial cutter burned fabric because it moves quickly, and the core of the fabric was being

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Location: Livonia Description: Manufacturer for customized superhero capes, plush toys and costumes Founded: 2008 Employees: 18 Revenue: $2 million in 2015 Problem to be solved: Superfly Manufacturing Co. began by making customized superhero capes for children by hand. New equipment was bought to make the process more efficient, but without adequate training, workers burned time and fabric.

crushed when the fabric spreader was in use. For three months, fabric was discarded while the company isolated each individual step, reached out to the manufacturer for advice, and even visited a facility nearby that had similar equipment. It took about six months for the company to get up to speed, and it lost thousands of dollars, Draplin said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It blew my mind as to how many things could go wrong,â&#x20AC;? Draplin said. Although looking back at the time gives Draplin a headache, he said his biggest regret was not purchasing

Justin Draplin: â&#x20AC;&#x153;It blew my mind ... how many things could go wrong.â&#x20AC;?

Jim McTevia: Companies should take advantage of training.

the equipment sooner. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our staff is more productive and able to produce more,â&#x20AC;? he said. Expert opinion: Jim McTevia, principal of Bingham Farms-based business consulting firm McTevia & Associates LLC, said many companies experience this issue. â&#x20AC;&#x153;No company should acquire a piece of machinery or equipment unless theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re familiar with the machinery and have the ability to operate it,â&#x20AC;? he said. McTevia said companies should research equipment before itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s purchased, and see it being operated. â&#x20AC;&#x153;For any company to buy a piece of equipment and learn how to operate it on the job is called nonrecurring expense. It only happens at the very beginning of the educational process of the piece of machinery â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but it could have been alleviated,â&#x20AC;? he said. Companies should take advantage of training directly from the manufacturer, which is often at no cost to an employer, McTevia said.

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cation Center, Troy. $32 members; $36 nonmembers. Website: leadershipoakland.com. Automotive & Economic Outlook for 2017: Bumps in the Road. 5-8 p.m. Oct. 19. Marketing and Sales Executives of Detroit. Charlie Chesbrough,

executive director, strategy and research and senior economist, Original Equipment Suppliers Association, will discuss the North American economic outlook for 2017. Southfield Marriott. $45 members; $360 member table of eight; $60 nonmembers; $480 nonmember table of eight. Website: msedetroit.org. Calendar guidelines. Visit crainsdetroit.com and click “Events” near the top of the home page. Then, click “Submit Your Events” from the drop-down menu that will appear. Fill out the submission form, then click “Submit event” at the bottom of the page. More Calendar items can be found at crainsdetroit.com/events.

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Hertel to leave state post for Trinity job Elizabeth Hertel, director of policy and legislative with the

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state government after 3½ years to join Livonia-based

Trinity Health

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Page 3333

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VALENTI FROM PAGE 3

The firm will operate as a family office. The Valentis have a controlling interest and will be managing partners. They said two wealthy families in San Francisco and two in New York, who have requested anonymity, are also investors. V5 has already made its first investment, an undisclosed amount in San Francisco-based Trucks Venture Management LLC, which is raising a $20 million fund in San Francisco that invests in startups in the hot space of connected cars. Trucks was co-founded by a pair of University of Michigan grads, Jeffrey Schox, a prominent patent attorney in Silicon Valley, and Reilly Brennan,who is director of the Revs Program at Stanford University, an interdisciplinary program centered on autos and mobility. Trucks has nine portfolio companies, including Nutonomy, a spinoff from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that has launched an unmanned taxi service in Singapore; San Francisco-based Zendrive Inc., which uses sensors in smartphones to track driver and auto behavior; and Nauto, which monitors driver performance

and awareness in real time with a backward-facing dash cam and monitors the road ahead for trouble with a forward-facing dash cam. Schox is also a limited-partner investor in Ann Arbor-based eLab Ventures, a VC firm founded by Silicon Valley veterans with ties to Michigan, and he has been the patent attorney for local tech companies, including Farmlogs, Duo Security and Akadeum Life Sciences Inc.

While the first investment was in a VC firm, V5 will primarily invest in young but established tech firms in need of capital to scale up production. The fund is doing due diligence for other investments it hopes to make soon. According to the elder Valenti, the firm generally wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do seed or early-stage investing but in what are called B and C rounds in companies that are further along in development. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We want to invest in Shetland ponies and turn them into unicorns,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;For every unicorn, there are hundreds of Shetland ponies.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Unicornsâ&#x20AC;? is the term used for early-stage companies that have already reached a valuation of at least $1 billion. He said there were 20 such firms just three years ago and 170 today. The

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Valentis hope to help create more. One of the new unicorns is San Francisco-based Cruise Automation, a 3-year-old developer of autonomous vehicle technology with 40 employees, which was bought by General Motors in March for more than $1 billion. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The headline here is: Two generations, $200 million to invest and no time to lose,â&#x20AC;? said the elder Valenti. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Unicorns all need customers. The hard part is matching them up. A lot of technology is locked up on the coasts, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the heartland where the manufacturing companies that need technology exist. That's where I come in.â&#x20AC;? For example, Valenti is on the board of Detroit-based American Axle & Manufacturing Inc., which is opening its 350,000-square-foot, $30 million Advanced Technology Development Center

in the fourth quarter this year. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an inflection point. Startups need capital to scale up, and big companies need innovation. This (V5) can be where the two meet,â&#x20AC;? said the younger Valenti. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is exciting news. I'm glad to hear it,â&#x20AC;? said Kevin Prokop, a managing director of Detroit-based Rockbridge Growth Equity LLC, a private equity firm affiliated with Quicken Loans Inc. founder Dan Gilbert, when told of V5. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sam is a legend and a pioneer. For him to capitalize on his long career and his relationships, and to integrate that with leading-edge technology companies, is just a great story.â&#x20AC;?

An investing legend, an impresario son Valenti, currently president and CEO of Valenti Capital LLC, a wealth management firm in Bloomfield Hills, was honored in 2012 with the lifetime achievement award at the annual Crain's M&A awards, held in conjunction with the Detroit chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth. In his career, he engineered more than 100 acquisitions for Taylor-based Masco Corp., helping it increase revenue from $10 million when he joined the company in 1968 to about $13 billion at its pre-recession peak. He also was among the first investors in the

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We want to invest in Shetland ponies and turn them into unicorns. For every unicorn, there are hundreds of Shetland ponies.â&#x20AC;? Sam Valenti III

state's two largest private-equity firms â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Detroit-based Huron Capital Partners LLC and Detroit-based Peninsula Partners LLC â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and an early investor in Ann Arbor-based EDF Ventures, the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s oldest VC firm, and in Arboretum Ventures. In 1976, Valenti invested in the first fund of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. LP, which grew into an international powerhouse that now has $80 billion under management. From 1992 to 2000, Valenti was chairman of the investment committee of the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pension system, helping it grow from $5 billion in assets to $52 billion, and in 2002, he co-founded the Ann Arbor-based Michigan Venture Capital Association. Valenti is co-founder and chairman of the Ann Arbor-based Renaissance Venture Capital Fund, which is affiliated with the Business Leaders for Michigan; executive chairman of Bloomfield Hills-based manufacturer TriMas Corp.; and executive chairman of Troybased Horizon Global Corp., a company spun off from TriMas last year. Sam Valenti IVâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bona fides arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t as extensive, but are impressive. Valenti got his business start by founding independent record label Ghostly International LLC while a sophomore at the University of Michigan in 1998. Ghostly now has offices in Ann Arbor, Brooklyn and Los Angeles. An internationally recognized electronic music label that helps artists coordinate tours and do licensing deals, Ghostly also runs an online store that sells an eclectic range of objects, from

T-shirts to paintings and sculptures to high-end sunglasses. Valenti, who at 15 was a DJ with the moniker of DJ Spaceghost, has founded a second record label, Spectral Sound, and in 2011 founded Drip.fm, a subscription music service that in March became the first acquisition of Kickstarter, the crowdsourcing company, for an undisclosed amount of money. The local investment community has greeted the news of the new VC fund with kudos. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve known Sam the fourth for maybe 10 years. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s super bright. He created things in the music world that were way ahead of the curve. He foresaw the opportunities and challenges in the music business before anyone, and it helped him establish a global reputation,â&#x20AC;? said Chris Rizik, CEO and portfolio manager of the Renaissance Venture Capital Fund. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Father and son coming together here is a great combination of complementary skills.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sam is one of two or three godfathers in the venture capital industry in Michigan, and we have a lot to thank him for where we are today,â&#x20AC;? said Paul Brown, a managing partner at eLab Ventures. Brown said the V5 model of investing in later rounds was not unique, that it is the focus of many of the large West Coast funds, which avoid early-stage investing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The differentiator is Sam and his contacts with manufacturers,â&#x20AC;? Brown said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If Sam says thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a technology they should look at, they will.â&#x20AC;? Asked why he would start another endeavor at 69 when he already has so much on his plate, the elder Valenti said first and foremost it was a chance to finally be in business with his son. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He never worked for me. He never worked for Valenti Capital. From the time he was a sophomore in college, he was doing his own thing. So this is going to be a blast.â&#x20AC;? Second, he used a baseball analogy. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m 69, but I can still hit 98 on the radar gun. I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do it every day, but I can do it. When Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m only able to hit 75, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll quit." Tom Henderson: (313) 446-0337 Twitter: TomHenderson2

Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Health Care Summit seeks ideas on engaging millennials We Uphold a Fiduciary Standard ç&#x160;&#x2021;ç&#x160;&#x2020;ç&#x160;&#x2021; :HVW %LJ %HDYHU 5RDG ç&#x160;&#x2021;ç&#x160;&#x160;WK )ORRU 7UR\ 0, ç&#x160;&#x160;ç&#x160;&#x17D;ç&#x160;&#x2020;ç&#x160;&#x17D;ç&#x160;&#x160; ç&#x160;&#x2C6;ç&#x160;&#x160;ç&#x160;&#x17D; ç&#x160;&#x152;ç&#x160;&#x17D;ç&#x160;? ç&#x160;&#x2021;ç&#x160;&#x2C6;ç&#x160;&#x2039;ç&#x160;&#x17D; RU ç&#x160;&#x17D;ç&#x160;&#x17D;ç&#x160;&#x17D; ç&#x160;?ç&#x160;?ç&#x160;? ç&#x160;&#x2020;ç&#x160;&#x2021;ç&#x160;&#x2C6;ç&#x160;&#x152;

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Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s is looking for entrepreneurs and companies with unique ideas to help employers get the millennials in their workforce engaged with health care. Through the Healthy@Work project, submissions are being taken through Oct. 14 for companies to be recognized at the Nov. 17 Health Care Leadership Summit and have a chance to explore a pilot project for the idea with Oakland University. Ideas can be in the form of an app, new technology, in-person events or other formats. The only requirement is that the idea must be able to be implemented in six months. New ventures, startups or collaborations are invited to apply. Healthy@Work is a collaboration of Priority Health and Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Detroit Business, in partnership with TechTown De-

troit, Hacking Health and the We-Tech Alliance.

A team of judges will vet the ideas to choose three finalists. The judges include Dan Kidle, a senior associate at Arboretum Ventures; Ron Watson, assistant vice president for human resources at Oakland University; and Krischa Winright, chief information officer of Priority Health. Those finalists will present to the 400-600 executives at the Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Health Care Summit on Nov. 17. The audience of the Health Care Summit will select the winner. Other prizes will be announced in the coming weeks. The winner of the Healthy@Work challenge will have the opportunity to vet its idea with the Oakland University HR team; academic administrators and faculty from the schools of Busi-

ness, Education and Human Services, and Health Sciences; and potential other key contacts to explore the idea of a pilot project. To sign up, go to crainsdetroit.com/ healthy. If you have questions or comments about this application, please contact Daniel Duggan, managing editor of custom and special projects, at dduggan@crain.com or (313) 446-0414.

BANKRUPTCIES The following business filed for protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Detroit Sept. 30-Oct. 6. Chapter 7 involves total liquidation. Art & Sal Inc., 9125 Greenfield Road, Detroit, voluntary Chapter 7. Assets and liabilities not available. Chris Ehrmann

C R A I N â&#x20AC;&#x2122; S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // O C T O B E R 1 0 , 2 0 1 6

HONIGMAN FROM PAGE 3

management strategy. But, he said, the firm is coping, adding 81 new attorneys since the start of 2015. Those include almost 25 attorneys in its Chicago office, which the firm acquired in May 2015 by adding the 14 attorneys of Schopf & Weiss LLP and two lateral hirings. Honigmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s total attorney headcount was 271 in June, compared with 267 right after the Schopf addition a year earlier, and Michigan headcount was down from 254 to 249 over the same period, according to Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s research. (Honigman does some legal work for Crain Communications Inc., parent company of Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Detroit Business, as well as some Crain family members.) Among the senior attorneys to leave Honigman in recent months were former partner and health care practice leader Linda Ross, who became a senior vice president and mergers and acquisitions counsel at Trinity Health in July after 27 years at the firm, and former litigation partner Lawrence Murphy, who joined Rochester-based The Miller Law Firm PC in August after more than 20 years at the firm. Former Honigman litigation department vice chairman and class-action practice group leader Arthur Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Reilly joined the Detroit office of Jones Day last month, after about 10 years at the firm, while practice leader Brian Wassom of its social, mobile and emerging media industry group joined Warner Norcross & Judd LLP in Southfield after 16 years at Honigman. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Turnover is really part of law firm life,â&#x20AC;? Foltyn said, though agreeing that Honigmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s litigation practice has seen higher-than-average departures. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re doing a lot of strategic alignment and development. Some departures were a result of that strategy. There are some people that I wish hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t left. There is some turnover that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m delighted with, quite frankly.â&#x20AC;?

Money and competition Former Honigman attorneys interviewed by Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s said new competition has changed the local legal market. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Jones Day is considered to be a big rival for the (Honigman) firm, and there was a lot of anxiety here when it moved actively into this market and opened an officeâ&#x20AC;? on Jefferson Avenue in mid-2015, said one former Honigman employee who asked not to be identified but went elsewhere. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Because Honigman aspires to be a national firm of that caliber, and people could naturally transition.â&#x20AC;? Compensation was also a common complaint of various expatriates contacted by Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s this month. Some said the Chicago office addition came with annual compensation commitments to the former Schopf partners, whom some have said have been paid at the expense of Michigan attorneys. Foltyn said certain attorneys from Chicago entered Honigman with compensation commitments, but most exceeded those commitments with new business while a few fell short. All the firmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s partners voted to approve the commitments, but only the senior partners on the compensation committee know whether those attorneys outper-

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Turnover is really part of law firm life. There are some people that I wish hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t left. There is some turnover that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m delighted with, quite frankly.â&#x20AC;? David Foltyn, Honigman, Miller, Schwartz and Cohn LLP

formed or underperformed the commitment figures, he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We had some who exceeded the guarantee and others that fell short, but all those deals are up this year, so that will be righted,â&#x20AC;? Foltyn said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It would be hard to imagine someone would get worked up about it (enough to leave the firm).â&#x20AC;? Foltyn said the firm recorded a record profit last year, thanks to the formation of the Chicago office. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We paid for Chicago in the first year we acquired it,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We now have years and years of income and growth all coming in without a penny coming from the partners. Maybe some could say we would have had an even larger record profit if we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do it, but weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re planning for the future.â&#x20AC;? Other expatriates point out that a recent management push to build a national footprint and improve the firmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profits per equity partner has led to some gentle prodding to litigators and others who largely work on referrals to look elsewhere. Several former partners, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said a top tier or â&#x20AC;&#x153;inner circleâ&#x20AC;? of 15 or more management attorneys retain seven-figure annual compensation packages in part via â&#x20AC;&#x153;client credit,â&#x20AC;? or claiming a stake in business referred to litigators, intellectual property attorneys and others from their long-standing clients. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the inner circleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mind, no matter how much a client relationship has become your own, through your practice, their client is always their client,â&#x20AC;? another ex-partner said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So there are several people still there, some of them 75 to 80 years old, insisting onÂ a share of client credit to be compensated for lines of business they havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t personally touched in 20 years.Â And for the other partners, this has become a serious concern." Foltyn said thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not happening. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We pay by merit,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Someone that is no longer enhancing the client relationship is no longer getting credit. We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have financial targets. We do have some expectations among the owners to do things that are good for the firm.â&#x20AC;? The Honigman turnover is unusual, other law firm management officials and business development experts said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It could be very troubling,â&#x20AC;? said Julie Savarino, managing director at Ann Arbor-based legal marketing and placement firm Business Development Inc. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The average number of rainmakers in a firm of any size is usually about 6 percent of the partners. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an average, industrywide, so if a quarter or a third of the partners are unhappy and some of those leave, almost certainly some of them are going to be within that key (highly productive) percentage. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And when you look at laterals com-

ing in to replace those people, and just the learning curve and time involved to make those new laterals at the firm into performers, that means Honigman is going to have a tough year.â&#x20AC;? Foltyn said Honigman has lost an immaterial amount of business from the recent departures, and actually strengthened its relationship with some clients who hired away attorneys as in-house counsel. For example, Brian Quinn is now assistant general counsel at Michigan State University, and Howard Luckoff left after 16 years to become general counsel at Rock Ventures LLC in August. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re having another great year,â&#x20AC;? Foltyn said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our balance sheet is strong, and we continue to recruit incredibly well. We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have debt; we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t borrow. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re the best place for the best lawyers to build and grow their practice.â&#x20AC;? Foltyn did agree the turnover is â&#x20AC;&#x153;unsettling.â&#x20AC;?

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Market for talent Other law firm management officials said the talent market in the law firm world is changing, amid increasing client pressure to change fee structures, fluctuating demand for specialty practices and new generations of talent that are less focused on spending an entire career within one firm. But that does not always translate into heavy turnover. John Sier, partner and executive committee member at Detroit-based

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Kitch Drutchas Wagner Valitutti & Sherbrook PC, said the firm hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t had any

equity partner-level departures for at least two years. William Sider, CEO of Southfield-based Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss PC, said the firm has hired an average of three summer associates as first-year associates and one lateral per year, to compensate for regular attrition, and President Justin Klimko of Butzel Long PC in Detroit said his firm has less than typical turnover recently, outside of placing a partner as in-house counsel within a client company in the past year or two. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I know these things tend to go in spurts, and sometimes itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s client pressure, sometimes itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s management, or a partnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s changing lifestyle. But sometimes itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strategic plan,â&#x20AC;? Sier said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It could be decisions theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re making, like this practice area or that one is something weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not going to pursue anymore because of the changing market. So then some partners and associates have a choice of trying to transition into something else â&#x20AC;&#x201D; or to go someplace else.â&#x20AC;? Foltyn said the firm is transparent about its compensation process, even if several ex-partners called it a â&#x20AC;&#x153;black boxâ&#x20AC;? where the methodology is hard to decipher, but also acknowledged that longtime partners can be friends or close acquaintances and their departure can be unpleasant. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When I started, 36 years ago, nobody left a law firm. Clients didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t leave. We didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have all this technology. We didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have three generations of lawyers with very complex issues in a much more business-oriented environment,â&#x20AC;? Foltyn said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You just see more movement, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s harder to stay happy. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s harder to stay happy and joyful in a more challenging environment. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just harder.â&#x20AC;? Chad Halcom: (313) 446-6796 Dustin Walsh: (313) 446-6042

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MACOMB FROM PAGE 1

donors or used to back Marrocco years ago.

High-stakes campaign Miller and Hackel have alleged cronyism, a pay-to-play culture for contractor bids, resistance to transparency and a record of scandal in Marroccoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 24 years in the drain commission office. Marrocco denies playing political favorites among contractors and calls Miller a hypocrite on environmental issues â&#x20AC;&#x201D; beholden to special interests and polluters during her 14 years in Congress. At least $80,000 of the nearly $300,000 of direct political contributions to Miller since April have come from owners or senior executives in companies that have bid or subcontracted on Southeast Michigan public works projects in the past, some of whom said they have felt shut out of the process. That compares with at least $75,000, or just under half, the donations to Marroccoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s campaign so far this calendar year. But while the balance of Marroccoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s war chest also comes largely from developers and other real estate companies, Miller pulls from a variety of mostly smaller donations across a range of industries, over a wider portion of the state. Though donors may just be reading the political winds and trying to back a winner, some said their long-held be-

liefs about cronyism and Marroccoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s business practices is part of what drew them to Miller. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our hope is that in the future there would be a more level playing field and proposals, ours and others, would get their fair consideration on merit rather than their relationship to the officeholder, or other concerns,â&#x20AC;? said Cathy DeDecker, vice president of Spalding DeDecker Associates Inc., an engineering and surveying firm that specializes in infrastructure and development in Rochester Hills. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been in there for 24 years, so itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been done the same way a pretty long time in that county.â&#x20AC;? Trevor Birberick, office manager at Mancini/Ward Architectural Design Co. in Shelby Township, agreed and said he knows other companies that do business with Mancini/Ward have lost out on Macomb projects in the past â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and he suspects a lack of political favor might have been a factor. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The need for change is dire, and to get somebody into this race that can engage better with his or her peers in the field. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been stagnant for so long, and nothing has changed,â&#x20AC;? he said. Birberick has donated $1,000 to Miller, while DeDecker and other Spalding executives, including President and CFO Steve Benedettini, have donated close to $5,000 combined this year. Benedettini declined to comment to Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. Marrocco said the fact that donors also handle public construction projects doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t suggest an inappropriate working relationship. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If you go to a (Detroit mayoral)

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fundraiser, there will be businesspeople there who work in the city. If you go to a judgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s political fundraiser, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to find be a lot of donations coming from lawyers,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is no different. The opposition is just trying to make an issue of something that isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t. Talk is cheap, but facts are facts.â&#x20AC;?

Contractor support But Miller has no shortage of support from contractors who have stayed out of past races or previously supported Marrocco, while Marrocco draws largely upon a faithful business base â&#x20AC;&#x201D; much of which works on various public works projects in the region or on residential and commercial development that can involve drainage permits. The Marrocco support bench includes President and CEO Roy Rose and four senior company executives at Shelby Township engineering firm Anderson Eckstein & Westrick, who combined for $2,500; and $2,500 from President Thomas DiPonio of Jay Dee Contractors Inc., the Livonia company that won a $46 million rehabilitation contract from Marroccoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office for a segment of the Oakland Macomb Interceptor Drain, completed last year. Anderson Eckstein was also a subcontractor on the Interceptor project and has conducted several engineering studies for Marrocco, including one in 2011 to retroactively evaluate a Sterling Heights sinkhole construction project. Another $15,000 came from executives at Hubbell, Roth & Clark Inc., which has design service contracts with Macomb County Public Works to manage various tree removal and drain renovation projects. Some $8,500 comes from ex-CEO Avinash Rachmale of the bankrupt Lakeshore TolTest Corp., a contractor that has also worked on sewer line projects in Macomb County, and his wife, Hema Rachmale, owner of Lakeshore Healthcare Group. CEO Kevin Hoppe and Executive Chairman Keith Swaffar of the Northville engineering firm Neyer Tiseo & Hindo Ltd., doing business as NTH Consultants Ltd. (which has also handled some Oakland Macomb Interceptor work) gave a combined $2,500 to Marrocco. George Hubbell, president of Hubbell Roth, said the company has had a business relationship with public works for decades, and he respects the leadership Marrocco has provided, though he said Marrocco is not a personal client. The firm does not typically contribute to or endorse political candidates, he said, but individual partners do at times. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They try to do the right thing environmentally at his (Marroccoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s) office, and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the business weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in and quite concerned about,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have kind of supported incumbents, but people at the company always make their individual decisions.â&#x20AC;? The firmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s executives basically increased past donations in 2012 ($3,400) and in 2008 ($2,760), when Marrocco faced only token opposition. Anderson Eckstein executives gave at least $3,400 each of the past two election cycles, according to county records, while NTH executives also donated $3,400 to Marrocco in 2012 and $2,400 in 2008. Rose, at Anderson Eckstein, also said the firm shares Marroccoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s concern for

the environment and said its business relationship with the public works office actually predates Marroccoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first election in 1992. He also said he sees no payto-play practices at public works. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We represent a lot of municipalities and we understand the requirements most have, so when we draft and turn in plans for a private developer or a public (agency), they tend to go in smoothly,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We review the plans of other engineers who do not do very good work, and they have probably sometimes cried wolf about us, because there are requirements you have to meet.â&#x20AC;? Not every business is picking only one side. Executives at Salvatore Excavating Co. of East China Township gave $600 to Marrocco and $300 to Miller, and Roncelli Inc. executives gave $2,500 to Miller and $500 to Marrocco. But for the most part, the donor lists donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t overlap. Miller is focusing part of her campaign on water quality in the county that borders Lake St. Clair. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve worked for years on improving water quality and protecting our waters, and I have a passion for it,â&#x20AC;? Miller said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When millions of gallons of sewer overflows affect our water and beaches have to be closed, my opponent has said that just always happens. And I think thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exactly why Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m running against him.â&#x20AC;? Miller went on to say that Marrocco blames others for pollution discharges into Macomb waterways and fosters a pay-to-play culture where contractors who donate politically are rewarded and suffer little oversight, while others are all but locked out of bidding. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a very bad culture in that office, that needs to change, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s happened the same way for decades â&#x20AC;&#x201D; donors getting permits, and lack of concern with water quality in the region,â&#x20AC;? Miller said. Hackel echoed the cronyism allegation, and said his office has several requests for documents from Marrocco under the Freedom of Information Act. He said he has tried to get details of a settlement between the commissioner and a former employee who sued for sexual harassment more than 10 years ago, as well as whether a law firm representing Marrocco in litigation over the Oakland Macomb Interceptor is also getting public funds to represent Marrocco personally in a dispute about a golf course he coowns in Macomb Township. Hackel also said Marrocco was the only one of six department heads not to turn in a proposed budget on time to the executiveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office, and wrangling information from public works is difficult. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The last six years working with the (current) public works commissioner have been a challenge, to put it lightly. Everything I hear from contractors, local governments is that the office is not well-run, there isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t transparency, and that he (Marrocco) uses his personal interest and influence with people. If this was someone I could terminate, I would do it tomorrow.â&#x20AC;? Marrocco, for his part, said his budget met delays this year because his former finance officer, Nancy Ryan, retired and he was trying to hire Jerry Moffitt, former deputy county treasurer to the late Ted Wahby, as her successor â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but Hackelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office would not approve the new hire and also can-

celed a meeting with his office about the budget on short notice in mid-August. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Nothing surprises me about what Hackel does,â&#x20AC;? Marrocco said of the Miller endorsement. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But if she (Miller) wants to try and go march on the beach now after 14 years of her voting record in Congress, we have studies that say none of the beaches are closed due to discharges from our own system.â&#x20AC;? The League of Conservation Voters gives Miller a 2015 voting score of zero for siding against more than 30 environmental measures last year, he noted, or worse than six of Michiganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eight other Republicans and all its Democrats in Congress. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This womanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just trying to go for a grand slam â&#x20AC;&#x201D; collecting a pension from Harrison Township, from the state (as former Secretary of State), and the federal government, and now possibly a fourth from Macomb County,â&#x20AC;? he said.

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In some ways, the November election is a culmination of long-brewing tension between Marrocco and Hackel, dating back 12 years. Marti Parker of St. Clair Shores sued Marrocco and Macomb County for sexual harassment, after working in Marroccoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office for six months in 2004 and starting a romantic relationship with him months earlier. She contended she lost her job after ending the relationship, though he contends it was because she lacked a high school diploma that the job required. But while Parker was a temporary public works employee, and Hackel was county sheriff, Marrocco contacted his office to make a police report that his personal vehicle had gone missing while in Parkerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s possession. A trace via OnStar found the vehicle and Parker in Huron County, and Marrocco went on to allege later in court that Parker â&#x20AC;&#x153;has a pattern of ... exploiting dating relationships ... for financial gain in order to support a drug habit and other questionable activities,â&#x20AC;? according to court records. But the harassment case was settled for undisclosed terms in 2006, and Parker died in a late 2008 Detroit homicide that remains unsolved. Hackel contends Marrocco and attorneys he retained at Bodman PLC in Detroit took the lead in that case and engineered a settlement, and he has never been able to see its terms. In August he sought records from Marroccoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office under the state Freedom of Information Act, inquiring what funds were spent on the Parker case or on two other unrelated lawsuits involving Marrocco. A response sent back in October indicates no county public works funds were used in Parkerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s suit, but did not elaborate. Clinton Township-based Kirk, Huth, Lange & Badalamenti PLC represents Marrocco both professionally in his 2013 lawsuit against fellow Oakland Macomb Interceptor Drain board members, Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash and Michael Gregg of the Michigan Department of Agriculture, and personally in litigation with Simone Mauro of Shelby Township-based Mauro Engineering SEE NEXT PAGE

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C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // O C T O B E R 1 0 , 2 0 1 6

Candice Miller has drawn donors from a range of industries; some contractors say they have felt shut out of the process. Marrocco has a reliable group of donors.

Employer

Donors

Total

C-suite donors included

2012 donations

The Webber Group, Clinton Twp.

$14,200

Joan and Wayne Webber, owners

Dan’s Excavating Inc., Shelby Twp.

$10,114

Chris Peyerk, President

$1,875 to Marrocco

L. D’Agostini & Sons Inc., Macomb Twp.

$8,500

L. Robert D’Agostini, sons Michael, Antonio $0

Urban Science Inc., Detroit

$7,067

Jim Anderson, Founder-CEO

Edward C. Levy & Co., Dearborn

$6,000

S. Evan Weiner, CEO; Edward C. Levy Jr.

Robert Clancy Contracting, Casco Twp

$5,884

Robert Clancy, CEO; Christine Clancy, treas. $0

Mauro Engineering, Shelby Township

$4,600

Simone Mauro, owner

Abaris Great Lakes Counseling, Troy

$4,500

n/a

Spalding DeDecker Associates, Roch Hills

$4,500

Steve Benedettini, president

$3400 to Marrocco

Midwest Steel Inc., Detroit

$3,800

Gary Broad, President-CEO

C-suite donors included

2012 donations

Citizens for Anthony Marrocco Employer

Donors

Total

United Auto Workers Michigan V-PAC

$22,500 n/a

$2,500 to Marrocco

Hubbell, Roth & Clark Inc., Bloomfield Hills 14

$15,000

George Hubbell, president; Thomas Biehl, EVP $3,400 to Marrocco

Metco Services Inc., Detroit

$15,000

Rajaram Vijayendran, president

$3,400 to Marrocco

Lakeshore Engineering & related cos., Detroit 4

$12,500

Avinash Rachmale, Lakeshore Global CEO

Wolverine Strategies LLC, Plymouth

1 (10 rec) $7,399

Michael Radtke Jr., owner

O’Reilly Rancilio PC, Sterling Heights

$5,000

Lawrence Scott, board of directors

Giffels-Webster Engineering Inc., Detroit

$4,500

Scott Clein, president; John Redash, treas $6,790 to Marrocco

Kirk, Huth, Lange & Badalamenti, Clinton Twp 2

$3,300

Rob Huth, Raechel Badalamenti, partners

Anderson, Eckstein & Westrick Inc., Shelby Twp 5

$2,500

Roy Rose, CEO

$3,400 to Marrocco

Jay Dee Contractors Inc., Livonia

$2,500

Thomas DiPonio, co-owner

Source: Macomb County Bureau of Elections All entries reflect donations by election cycle to a candidate committee, from individuals, sorted by employer, or by a corporate PAC. Donations in different election cycles may be by separate employees of the same firm, and some sums here include in-kind, non-cash contributions to the committee. Sums listed only reflect the two public works candidates’ committees, and may not reflect contributions where a donor’s employer was not specified.

FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

Ltd. and a business partner.

Hackel said he wants to be sure there is no conflict of interest, or use of public funds for any private litigation. The FOI response indicates about $1.3 million of public works funds were spent on the Interceptor lawsuit, but had no specifics on a separate Mauro lawsuit brought earlier this year, officials said. Mauro, Marrocco and several other former co-owners of Burning Tree Golf & Country Club in Macomb Township have been in litigation since 2011, after Marrocco and Anthony Fanelli recovered the golf course property from a foreclosure by Fifth Third Bank. The Michigan Court of Appeals found in 2014 that a lower court should have required Marrocco and Fanelli to compensate Mauro and former partners Salvatore DiMercurio and Sergio

BLOSSOM FROM PAGE 3

Another project is planned in Sterling Heights, the Verandas, which is expected to include 807 townhouses, condominiums and luxury apartments at the 288-acre Maple Lane Golf Club off East 14 Mile

Gesuale for their share of a liquor license held by the golf club company, and for a past tax refund. Mauro, who also provides civil engineering and building design services for developers at Mauro Engineering, also brought a new suit in 2016 alleging Marrocco abuses his office, and said he sees an uneven competitive landscape compared with companies who are Marrocco supporters. “If he doesn’t like you, he doesn’t approve your project. He’s the kind of person where either you go along with his program and his rules, or there can be consequences for you,” he said. In the Interceptor lawsuit, meanwhile, Marrocco is challenging the Interceptor Drain Drainage District board’s decisions and seeking to get himself appointed secretary and project manager of the district’s $170 million, seven-year repair project set to wrap up this year.

Rob Huth, partner at the Kirk Huth firm, said the cases are managed separately and did not expect a FOIA request to uncover anything fruitful for Hackel. “There categorically is no commingling between those cases — the files are not commingled, the time billed is not commingled, and nothing improper is occurring,” he said. Mauro Engineering executives and Mauro attorney Cindy Rhodes Victor of Auburn Hills-based Kus Ryan & Associates PLLC together donated more than $6,000 to Miller this year, according to county records, while attorneys at Kirk Huth have donated more than $3,000 to Marrocco. Hackel and Marrocco again locked horns in 2012 when the Board of Commissioners halted a $24,000-plus pay raise for Marrocco, days after a finance committee of all 13 commissioners had already approved it — along with

Road east of Van Dyke Avenue, which Moceri Cos. bought last year from the Roehl family. The Verandas is supposed to begin construction after the 2018 golf season and cost $300 million. Maple Lane is expected to be redesigned as an 18-hole resort-style golf course and a nine-hole practice course, ac-

cording to a news release. The designer is Raymond Hearn. About 500 units in Auburn Hills; 800 units in Clinton Township; 500 units in other Macomb County locations; 160 units in downtown Rochester; and 160 units in Orion Township round out the mix of projects. “The demographics are very strong in our market; they are absolutely showing growth in the 55 and over crowd,” Scheer said. “This is a growing group of people that are going to need these.” The population of those 35 to 59 is expected to fall by about a quarter-million by 2040, according to SEMCOG, but those 65-74 is expected to increase by 175,000 and 75 and up by 345,000. Dale Watchowski, president and CEO of president and CEO of Bloomfield Hills-based American House Se-

INDEX TO COMPANIES

These companies have significant mention in this week’s Crain’s Detroit Business: Anderson Eckstein & Westrick ......................... 36

Jackson National Life Insurance ...................... 26

Beaumont Health ..................................................7

Lansing Economic Area Partnership ............... 26

CBRE Martin ........................................................ 26

MeridianHealth of Michigan ................................7

Deshler Group ..................................................... 29

Michigan State University ................................. 26

Detroit Tigers ........................................................ 4

Moceri Cos. .............................................................3

General Motors ................................................... 26

Superfly Manufacturing ..................................... 31

Gillespie Group .................................................... 26

V5 Partners LLC .....................................................3 Wolverine Solutions Group ...............................30

ering

Global Strategic Supply Solutions LLC ........... 29 Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP .........3

Zoup! Systems LLC ............................................. 31

AGE

Hubbell, Roth & Clark ........................................ 36

raises of $14,000 each for top executives Nancy Ryan, Chief Deputy Public Works Commissioner Bill Misterovich and Engineering Operations Manager Dino Bucci. Hackel said the vote had gone to the committee without his knowledge.

Public-facing battle Hackel and Miller both told Crain’s it was her idea, not his, to take on Marrocco after she announced in March she was not seeking an eighth term in Congress. But the executive enthusiastically supported that idea when they met earlier this year to discuss her options in the November election. “My job as a leader in the county is to connect the best-qualified people with positions to use their abilities, and make sure we hire the most qualified person,” Hackel said of his cross-party endorsement of Miller. Marrocco, for his part, has taken to television and online advertisements on his commitment to the environment and on Miller’s congressional record, while Miller has approached several media organizations and made some high-profile local appearances for her campaign. Many of Miller’s supporters were also water-sewer contractors on the opposite side of a lawsuit Marrocco brought in his capacity as chairman of the Macomb Interceptor Drain Drainage District in 2011. They include Macomb Township-based L. D’Agostini & Sons Inc. President Luigi Robert D’Agostini, and sons Michael and Antonio, for nearly $9,000 combined this year; and Anthony Soave, President-CEO of Soave Enterprises in Detroit, who gave $1,000 to Miller ahead of the primary. Both were on the opposite side of Marrocco’s Macomb Interceptor district suit. But Mark McAlpine, president of McAlpine PC and attorney for several water-sewer contractors including L. D’Agostini & Sons, said much of the contractor community also supports Miller as a known commodity on both business and the environment. “The contracting community on the whole will breathe a breath of fresher air if they found to be working for a more open and transparent community the way Miller is promising.” Chad Halcom: (313) 446-6796 Twitter: @chadhalcom

nior Living Communities, which is partially owned by Redico LLC, said

many developers and investors look at senior living as sound investments. For example, last year Southfield-based real estate investment trust Sun Communities Inc. closed on the final phase of a $1.32 billion deal with Green Courte Partners LLC that increased Sun’s portfolio share of age-restricted manufactured housing communities from 13 percent of its approximately 89,000 residences at the time to 24 percent. “I know the Moceri family and they ... have had a history of delivering nice developments,” Watchowski said. American House has 51 communities with more than 5,500 units across the country. Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412 Twitter: @kirkpinhoCDB

www.crainsdetroit.com Editor-in-Chief Keith E. Crain Group Publisher Mary Kramer, (313) 446-0399 or mkramer@crain.com Associate Publisher Ron Fournier, (313) 446-1674 or rfournier@crain.com Editor Jennette Smith, (313) 446-1622 or jhsmith@crain.com Director, Digital Strategy, Audience Development Nancy Hanus, (313) 446-1621 or nhanus@crain.com Managing Editor Michael Lee, (313) 446-1630 or malee@crain.com Managing Editor/Custom and Special Projects Daniel Duggan, (313) 446-0414 or dduggan@crain.com Assistant Managing Editor Kristin Bull, (313) 446-1608 or kbull@crain.com Digital Editor Carlos Portocarrero (313) 446-6056 or cportocarrero@crain.com News Editor Beth Reeber Valone, (313) 446-5875 or bvalone@crain.com Senior Editor Gary Piatek, (313) 446-0357 or gpiatek@crain.com Research and Data Editor Sonya Hill, (313) 446-0402 or shill@crain.com Newsroom (313) 446-0329, FAX (313) 446-1687, TIP LINE (313) 446-6766

REPORTERS Marti Benedetti General assignment (313) 446-0416 or mbenedetti@crain.com Jay Greene, senior reporter Covers health care, insurance, energy, utilities and the environment. (313) 446-0325 or jgreene@crain.com Chad Halcom Covers litigation, the defense industry, education, Macomb and Oakland counties. (313) 446-6796 or chalcom@crain.com Tom Henderson Covers banking, finance, technology and biotechnology. (313) 446-0337 or thenderson@crain.com Kirk Pinho Covers real estate, city of Detroit. (313) 446-0412 or kpinho@crain.com Adrienne Roberts General assignment, retail. (313) 446-1612 Bill Shea, enterprise editor Covers media, advertising and marketing, the business of sports, and transportation. (313) 446-1626 or bshea@crain.com Lindsay VanHulle, Lansing reporter. (517) 657-2204 or lvanhulle@crain.com Dustin Walsh, senior reporter Covers the business of law, auto suppliers, manufacturing and economics. (313) 446-6042 or dwalsh@crain.com Sherri Welch, senior reporter Covers nonprofits, services, food and hospitality. (313) 446-1694 or swelch@crain.com ADVERTISING Sales Inquiries (313) 446-6032; FAX (313) 393-0997 Advertising Director Matthew Langan Senior Account Manager Katie Sullivan Advertising Sales Christine Galasso, Gerry Golinske, Diane Owen, Sarah Stachowicz Classified Sales Manager Angela Schutte, (313) 446-6051 Classified Sales Lynn Calcaterra, (313) 446-6086 Marketing/Events Director Kim Winkler Events Manager Kacey Anderson Senior Art Director Sylvia Kolaski Marketing Manager Marilyn Banes Special Projects Coordinator Keenan Covington Sales Support Suzanne Janik Production Manager Wendy Kobylarz Production Supervisor Andrew Spanos CUSTOMER SERVICE Main Number: Call (877) 824-9374 or customerservice@crainsdetroit.com Subscriptions $59 one year, $98 two years. Out of state, $79 one year, $138 for two years. Outside U.S.A., add $48 per year to out-of-state rate for surface mail. Call (313) 446-0450 or (877) 824-9374. Single Copies (877) 824-9374 Reprints (212) 210-0750; or Krista Bora at kbora@crain.com To find a date a story was published (313) 446-0406 or e-mail infocenter@crain.com Crain’s Detroit Business is published by Crain Communications Inc. Chairman Keith E. Crain President Rance Crain Treasurer Mary Kay Crain Senior Executive Vice President William A. Morrow Executive Vice President/Director of Strategic Operations Chris Crain Executive Vice President/Director of Corporate Operations KC Crain Vice President/Production & Manufacturing Dave Kamis Chief Financial Officer Bob Recchia Chief Information Officer Anthony DiPonio G.D. Crain Jr. Founder (1885-1973) Mrs. G.D. Crain Jr. Chairman (1911-1996) Editorial & Business Offices 1155 Gratiot Ave., Detroit MI 48207-2732; (313) 446-6000 Cable address: TWX 248-221-5122 AUTNEW DET CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS ISSN # 0882-1992 is published weekly, except for a special issue the third week of November, and no issue the third week of December by Crain Communications Inc. at 1155 Gratiot Ave., Detroit MI 48207-2732. Periodicals postage paid at Detroit, MI and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS, Circulation Department, P.O. Box 07925, Detroit, MI 48207-9732. GST # 136760444. Printed in U.S.A. Contents copyright 2016 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial content in any manner without permission is prohibited.

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // O C T O B E R 1 0 , 2 0 1 6

THE WEEK ON THE WEB OCT. 1-7

Beaumont closes 3 medical centers, leases 1 to Molina

eaumont Health has leased its

Dearborn medical center to

Molina Medical Management

Inc. and closed three other centers: in

Detroit, Livonia and Taylor. A fifth center in Romulus will remain open under Beaumont ownership. Officials at Southfield-based Beaumont did not explain the reason for the moves.

COMPANY NEWS J Fuyao Automotive North America Inc. plans to invest $70 million to transform the former American Blind & Wallpaper Factory Inc. building in

Plymouth into an automotive glass plant and research and development center. Fuyao bought the building in August. J Troy-based Horizon Global Corp. said it completed its acquisition of Westfalia-Automotive Holding GmbH and TeIJs Holdings B.V. from an investor consortium led by Germany’s DPE Deutsche Private Equity. Horizon was

to pay about $189 million in cash, debt and stock to buy the European towing companies. J Bloomfield Hills-based MJR Digital Cinemas will spend $18 million next year to renovate the former Cinemark Movies 16 in Warren into an MJR theater, as well as add electric recliners and reserved seating to its theaters in Southgate, Waterford Township, Westland and Sterling Heights. J Virginia-based used car dealership chain CarMax Inc. plans to open its second store in Michigan, along M-59 in Sterling Heights. Construction could begin as early as next spring on the property, owned by Birmingham-based Center Management. CarMax is to open its first Michigan location in Grand Rapids in November. J Elegus Technologies Inc., a University of Michigan spinoff that hopes to make lithium-ion batteries safer and longer-lasting, formed a $1.5 million joint venture with battery makers XALT Energy of Midland and Energy Power Systems LLC of Troy. Terms were not disclosed. J Ann Arbor-based Truck Hero Inc., a maker of truck bed covers and other accessories, bought Winfield, Kan.based Husky Liners, a maker of custom-fit floor and cargo liners, for an undisclosed sum. J Ford Motor Co. employees will move this month into the former home of Lord & Taylor at the Fairlane Town Center across from the automaker's headquarters in Dearborn. They’ll be based in a 240,000-square-foot space renovated by Ford and mall owner Starwood Retail Partners. J Auburn Hills supplier BorgWarner Inc. will sell its Remy aftermarket business to an investor group for $80 million. The deal includes manufacturing plants in Ohio, Oklahoma, Mexico, Belgium, Tunisia and Hungary. J The Zell Founders Fund, created to fund startups by recent University of

Detroit Digits A numbers-focused look at last week’s headlines:

$5 million

The amount of a 10-year grant by the Michigan Masonic Charitable Foundation to author-journalist Mitch Albom’s S.A.Y. Detroit charity to help provide literacy and tutoring support to thousands of youths and their families.

$28.5 million

What Detroit Diesel Corp. will spend in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency for selling diesel engines that didn’t meet emissions standards.

$85 million

The cost of a new five-year plan to promote diversity and inclusion at the University of Michigan. The plan was announced days after racist fliers at the mostly white Ann Arbor campus caused unease among some black students. Michigan graduates, made its first in-

vestment commitment, of $100,000 in

Sneakers by Jordana. The company was founded by Jordana Schrager,

who will use the money on a new footwear and fashion line. J Maru Sushi & Grill is set to open this month in the former Federal Reserve Building in downtown Detroit. Maru is part of a chain of Asian restaurants with locations in East Lansing, Grand Rapids, Midland and Okemos. J The Townsend Hotel in Birmingham transformed its The Corner bar into a multiuse group dining, private meeting and intimate event space called The Clancy Room. J Greektown Casino-Hotel in Detroit won its first AAA Four Diamond Award after being cited for outstanding guest service and upgraded inroom amenities. J Two federal research institutes in Detroit, the Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow and the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation, said they will invest $47 mil-

lion in equipment and upgrades over the next two years. J Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is

revising its agent commission schedule for those working in the individual, small and medium-size business markets up to 1,000 employees. The decision by the Detroit-based company affects dozens of insurance agencies and hundreds of agents, most bracing for a cut in fees. J Detroit-based Fontinalis Partners LLC led an investment of $2.5 million in Israel-based Karamba Security, which makes cybersecurity solutions for connected and autonomous vehicles. J Pet products retailer City Bark will open in The Albert in Detroit’s Capitol Park next year. It will be the Grosse Pointe-based retailer’s second store. J Hope Center in Macomb, a client-choice pantry, plans to shut down Nov. 1 after six years of operation. J In a $5.5 million deal uniting two of America’s largest outdoor sports equipment retailers, Nebraska-based Cabela’s Inc. agreed to be bought by Missouri-based Bass Pro Shops. In Michigan, Cabela’s has stores in Dundee, Grandville and Saginaw, plus a store slated to open next year in Chesterfield Township. Bass Pro Shops’ lone Michigan store is at Great Lakes Crossing Outlets in Auburn Hills.

OTHER NEWS J The Heidelberg Project is launching a $100,000 capital campaign as creator Tyree Guyton looks to remake and largely dismantle the Detroit outdoor art installation. Money raised in the Heidelberg 3.0 campaign will go to renovate the Numbers House, one of the structures left in an area where Guyton-decorated homes were targeted by arson since 2013. J The U.S. Department of Commerce said it invested $3.2 million into the revelopment and expansion of the I-94 Industrial Park in Detroit. Plans are to immediately create more than 600 new jobs and $120 million in private investment. J The Southeast Michigan Purchasing Managers Index slipped to 60.2 in September, off from the six-month high of 66 recorded in August.

OBITUARIES J Jefferson Porter, associate vice president for principal gifts at Wayne State University’s Division of Development and Alumni Affairs, died Sept. 29. He was 52. J Brock Yates, former editor of Ann Arbor-based Car and Driver, died Oct. 5. He was 82.

ADRIENNE ROBERTS

More than 2,500 people attended last week’s eighth annual TEDxDetroit event at the Fox Theatre and hundreds attended the TEDxLabs event at Comerica Park. Local companies, startups and nonprofits got an opportunity to share their products, services and missions.

RUMBLINGS

JONATHAN GO

The Container Globe theater would be lit from within and enclosed by metallic mesh to preserve an open-air feeling, while providing some protection from the elements.

To be or not to be? Theater idea is shopped around n idea to build a replica of panies and foundations, arts orgaA made nizations and the city. The reLondon’s entirely from shipping containers sponse has been “extraordinarily Globe Theatre

is being floated in Detroit. Angus Vail, a New Yorker who manages the business affairs of rock musicians and opera singers, came up with the idea for the Shakespearean theater. He’s designed and patented the “Container Globe,” a full-size, open-air reimagining of the Globe Theatre. Though he has had preliminary discussions with associates in Denver, Los Angeles and other cities about building the theater in one of those cities, Vail said in a news release that he’s most interested in bringing it to Detroit’s cultural district along the Woodward Avenue corridor. While in the city on music tours and working on trademark and intellectual property matters for his bands with Warner Norcross & Judd LLP, Vail said he’s become a fan of Detroit. “I love this city’s grit and its stunning comeback, and also the way Detroiters support all kinds of cultural events — rock, electronic music, opera, Broadway and … Motown.” A small theater with engaged audiences participating in the action will be “a home run, or as Shakespeare might say, ‘such stuff as dreams are made on,’” he said. Vail has been in Detroit this year, sharing his vision with local com-

positive,” said Bud Liebler, principal of the Liebler Group, which is assisting Vail with local outreach. Liebler declined to say which organizations Vail has approached, but said the early feedback has been very encouraging. Vail estimates the cost of building the theater, which could be disassembled and moved, would be about $6 million. As planned, it would be lit from within and enclosed by metallic mesh to preserve an open-air feeling, while providing some protection from the elements. The theater would have capacity for 650 seated patrons and space for another 550 to stand in the “yard.” It would operate April through October and be available to host other events, from rock concerts and other musical performances to contemporary theater conferences and educational events. Vail’s business plan calls for ticket prices ranging from $75 for seats to $10 or less for the yard to attract students and other young people. For its part, the Globe Theatre in London has encouraged Vail to go forward with the project and voiced interest in participating at a production level, perhaps by sending its world-class productions to Detroit, Liebler said.

OU to launch Women’s Leadership Institute Negotiation is the theme of a daylong conference planned to launch the Oakland University Women’s Leadership Institute next month.

pell, Plante Moran Audit Partner Sue Novak, Beaumont Health Senior Vice President Mary Zatina and BW Limited President and CEO Barbara Whittaker

will tell their stories of neThe institute is part of the gotiation in a panel discusuniversity’s diversity, equity sion moderated by Crain’s and inclusion programEditor Jennette Smith. ming. The Nov. 4 conferThe conference will also ence will feature leaders feature breakout seminars from business, higher educalled “Matilda Talks,” a cation, nonprofits and govnod to university founder ernment speaking to the Matilda Dodge conference’s title: “Asking Wilson: Seminars Matilda Dodge Wilson. Registration is $100 and for More: Positive Strategies honor OU founder. includes lunch and an affor Change.” One highlight: Detroit Economic terglow reception; details are at Club President and CEO Beth Chap- wwwp.oakland.edu/diversity/ouwli.

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4:22 P.M.

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JIM ANDERSON is reflecting a new detroit ENGINEER. SCIENTIST. PASSIONATE DETROITER. IT CAN BE DONE. Jim Anderson has proven the right man, with the right insight, and the right computer, can change the world. In 1977, he pioneered an automated mapping process and Urban Science was born. As president and CEO, Jim is still a can-do guy, setting the company’s strategic direction and sharing his passions for science and technology with Detroit. And he’s motivating a new generation of entrepreneurs – because he can. GMRENCEN is celebrating the spirit and vision oI the people oI Detroit. /earn Pore at reŴectingdetroit.coP. #REFLECTINGDETROIT

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