Crain's Detroit Business, Jan. 9, 2017 issue by Crain's Detroit Business

JANUARY 9 - 15, 2017

State of mobility

Finding space at auto show Executive Director Rod Alberts’ floor plan a “jigsaw puzzle.” Page 3

Crain’s locates Michigan’s best assets for keeping auto technology progress moving. Special Report, Page 7

SPECIAL REPORT

NEWSMAKERS OF THE YEAR

MARY KRAMER Group Publisher

Leaving the Best Job in Detroit

rain’s Newsmakers of the Year made their impacts in a multitude of ways. Finding lead poisoning in Flint’s children, then fighting on their behalf. Taking a drug developer public. Sealing big deals, holding the corrupt accountable, putting Michigan on the path to mobility, and so much more. Tom Gores will appear and speak at Crain’s Newsmaker of the Year luncheon Feb. 28 at MotorCity Casino Hotel SoundBoard. For more information, see crainsdetroit.com/newsmakerevent.

It’s taken nearly 28 years, but I’ve finally got a byline on Page 1 of Crain’s Detroit Business. The occasion: I wanted to help announce the appointment of my successor. Ron Fournier, who joined Crain’s last September, is the new publishCrain’s names er of Crain’s DeRon Fournier as troit Business, publisher and adding responsieditor. bilities for the Page 15 business side of our publication to his role as editor. I’ve held both of those jobs, and combined, they are simply the Best Job in Detroit. But after 28 years, it’s time to allow a new generation of leadership to take over. I’m stepping aside from day-to-day management to focus on new initiatives I’ve helped to create and now want to nurture. More on that later. Twenty-eight years in leadership at a single publication is rare in media these days. That’s one big advantage to working for a family-owned media company that takes a long-term view. I owe that tenure to the Crain family, especially to Keith Crain. It’s no wonder, then, that Keith had a high regard for another publisher I held as a role model — the late Neal Shine of the Detroit Free Press. Shine had a 40-year career with the Freep, from a rather modest start as a “copy boy” to reporter, managing editor, editor and finally, called out of retirement to be the Freep’s publisher. Shine loved Detroit and knew the community in a way few others did — not just the movers-and-shakers, but “average Joes” and “doers” around town. It was my good fortune to get to know Shine almost from the day I moved to Detroit. Community immersion is the same mantra that Keith Crain set for me in 1989 when he hired me to succeed Peter Brown, the founding editor of Crain’s. I told Keith then that I

MEET THE OTHER NEWSMAKERS OF THE YEAR BEGINNING ON PAGE 8

Tom Gores

Owner, Detroit Pistons By Bill Shea bshea@crain.com

After six years of being asked if he’d move the Detroit Pistons back downtown, team owner Tom Gores in November finally had a definitive answer: Yes. Since buying the National Basketball Association team along with the Palace of Auburn Hills and other entertainment venues for $325 million in 2011, Gores often fielded questions about his desire to relocate the team from Oakland County to the city it called home from 1957 to 1978. Post-bankruptcy Detroit, or at least its central core along lower Woodward Avenue, was rebounding with billions of dollars in new investment. It seemed only natural to many that the Pistons should capitalize on the renaissance, especially after a rumored new sports arena became a reality with a groundbreaking in 2014. Gores, 52, consistently said he’d consider a move if the situation was right. In 2016, after some initial flirtations with the Ilitch family about the Pistons joining their Detroit Red

The Pistons move is the splashiest in Tom Gores’ wider strategy of making business, civic and philanthropic investments in Detroit and Michigan. Wings in a proposed arena, talks got

serious. Negotiations eventually yielded something that met Gores’ approval, but the details haven’t been made public. The deal still requires several government approvals, but the plan now is that the Pistons will move into Little Caesars Arena in time for the 2017-18 NBA season as co-tenants with the Ilitch-owned Red Wings. The $635 million arena at I-75 and Woodward Avenue, the centerpiece of the Ilitches’ 50 block downtown rehabilitation, is scheduled to open in September. SEE GORES, PAGE 16

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MICHIGAN BRIEFS Report: Medicaid growth lifts economy More than 30,000 jobs and $2.3 billion in economic benefits accrued to Michigan last year based on the 2013 decision by the state Legislature to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, according to a new study by the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation.

“The important finding is that in 2017 and for the next four years the savings and increased tax revenues the state is getting is outweighing the costs to Michigan,” said John Ayanian, M.D., lead author of the study, “Economic Effects of Medicaid Expansion in Michigan,” published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Later this month, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is expected to release the results

of another UM study looking at how Medicaid expansion has reduced uncompensated care at hospitals and the impact it may have on reducing private health insurance premiums. Over the last two years, 31 states have expanded Medicaid coverage to more than 20 million non-elderly adults with annual incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, which was $16,400 for a single adult

in 2016. Michigan’s Healthy Michigan Medicaid expansion added 640,000 adults to Medicaid rolls. Medicaid now covers about 25 percent of the state’s population, primarily through private Medicaid health plans, more than half of which are for-profit companies. UM researchers found that Michigan saved $235 million in 2016 from Medicaid expansion. This primarily was done by federal dollars paying for some prison health care and mental health services. Jay Greene

State unemployment agency gets overhaul

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fice on an interim basis while a national search is launched for Moffett-Massey’s replacement. The leadership change is one piece of what Talent Investment Agency Director Wanda Stokes is calling a three-point plan to resolve ongoing problems with fraud and responsiveness to jobless residents and employers. Stokes said other administrative changes could be coming as she overhauls the agency’s operational structure, and she soon plans to update a phone switchboard system to reduce wait times for callers. Lindsay VanHulle

MICH-CELLANEOUS

Asked if he would run for governor in 2018, Attorney General Bill Schuette told The Associated Press that he intends to be “part of the conversation.” The Republican’s tenure has lately Bill Schuette: been dominated “Part of the by investigations conversation.” into the Flint water crisis. Meanwhile, former Democratic legislative leader Gretchen Whitmer filed paJ

The director of Michigan’s unemployment agency has been reassigned as part of a top-to-bottom restructuring of the embattled organization, in the wake of longstanding complaints about fraud and poor customer service. Sharon Moffett-Massey, who has led the Unemployment Insurance Agency since 2014, will work on special projects within the state’s Talent Investment Agency, which oversees the unemployment unit, the Lansing agency told Crain’s. Bruce Noll, the state talent agency’s legislative liaison, will lead the unemployment of-

perwork last week to run for governor, making her the first person to announce a candidacy to replace term-limited Republican Rick Snyder. J Gov. Rick Snyder last week signed legislation to let Michigan motorists drive faster on at least 1,500 miles of rural highways as long as safety studies say the higher speed limits are OK. The bill authorizes a 75 mph speed limit on 600 miles of freeways and a 65 mph limit on 900 miles of other non-freeway “M” roads, AP reported. The bills also raise the maximum speed limit for trucks from 60 to 65 mph and adjusts measures used by insurers to determine eligibility for auto insurance. J Former state Rep. Al Pscholka, who served as chairman of the House appropriations committee, will be the state’s next budget director starting in February. Pscholka, 56, will replace John Roberts, who will join Detroit-based Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Pscholka, R-Stevensville, was term-limited in the House in December. J The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has updated its regulations of toxic chemicals in industrial air emissions, AP reported. The changes will make the rules clearer and less burdensome for companies with emissions that don’t

KEITH CRAIN

OPINION

PEOPLE

RUMBLINGS

WEEK ON THE WEB

endanger the public, the agency said. They’ll also make DEQ assessments of chemical toxicity levels more open. J Grand Rapids-based American Seating is selling a division to a local competitor and laying off about 80 workers, the Grand Rapids Business Journal reported. The company plans to sell its Architectural Fixed Seating business to Grand Rapids-based Irwin Seating Co. in a transaction set to close in March. Financial details were not disclosed. J Michigan snowbirds will be able to roost at a HopCat restaurant and bar in Florida beginning in late 2017. Grand Rapids-based BarFly Ventures LLC announced plans to open its first Sunshine State HopCat location in Port St. Lucie, the hometown of HopCat COO Mark Gray. The restaurant chain is known for its selection of craft beers and “crack fries.” HopCat is slated to open a restaurant in Royal Oak in the first quarter of this year, making it the sixth HopCat in Michigan, including a Detroit location.

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Retail

Store closings may force landlords into new strategies By Kirk Pinho kpinho@crain.com

and Sherri Welch swelch@crain.com

An obituary for brick-and-mortar retail is unnecessary, despite the impending closure of five local Kmart Corp. and two Macy’s Inc. stores announced last week. Their landlords will just have to think outside the (big) box. Amazon-ification has turned shoppers to their smartphones, tablets and laptops instead of battling

lines inside four walls, thereby triggering an industry paradigm shift and causing migraines for landlords facing large vacancies in the coming months. Property owners should therefore think creatively about reuse of their space and court users that can not only withstand, and thrive in, the e-commerce onslaught, but also ones that might not even have to worry about it in the first place, such as civic and office uses. Take it from someone who knows

this all too well. “There is limited demand for large boxes for retailers,” said Joey Agree, CEO of Bloomfield Hills-based real estate investment trust Agree Realty Corp.

His company, a landlord to retailers in both neighborhood shopping centers and in freestanding locations, faced tough times more than five years ago as two of its key tenants, Borders Group and Kmart, were in their respective downward spirals. SEE RETAIL, PAGE 18

COSTAR GROUP INC.

The first Kmart store, on Ford Road in Garden City, is among those slated to close.

Initiative aims to match state auto biz, Silicon Valley

Transportation

By Dustin Walsh dwalsh@crain.com

A formula was created in the 1990s to determine a fair and equitable way to distribute space to the nearly 50 exhibitors now on the main floor at the North American International Auto Show in Cobo Center.

Auto show floor space measures up to director’s exacting standard By Dustin Walsh dwalsh@crain.com

North American International Auto Show is all about

The

Rod Alberts: Devises show’s “jigsaw puzzle.”

the numbers. More than 1,800 trucks are loaded with show props, 25,000 bottles of water are sold, more than 5,000 media members at-

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tend, and 300 cases of wine are bought for the Charity Preview. But its the floor plan that receives the most scrutiny. And it turns out there’s a number for that, too. Rod Alberts, executive director of NAIAS, created a formula in the 1990s to determine a fair and equitable way to distribute space to the nearly 50 exhibitors on the main show floor at Cobo Center and help draw nearly 1 million visitors and media annually. “Trying to lay out the floor plan is a like a jigsaw puzzle,” Alberts said

late last week. “Politically, it’s dangerous to look biased toward one brand or another, especially as an international show, so it was imperative that we create a balance to make sure everyone is part of the show.” Alberts’ formula is weighted — 30 percent based on North American market share, 40 percent based on the number of models available in the North American market and the rest based on commitment to the Detroit show, including the number of past world debuts.

Auto Show 2017 Automobili-D: Through Jan. 12 Press preview: Jan. 9-10 Industry preview: Jan. 11-12; tickets: $110 Charity Preview: Jan. 13; tickets: $400 ($390 is tax deductible) Public show: Jan. 14-22; tickets: $13, $7 for kids and seniors, children under 6 years old are free Economic impact: $430 million in 2016, including $270 million on displays Worldwide vehicle debuts: At least 40, compared to 51 last year Map: For an up-to-date map of the auto show floor, see crainsdetroit. com/autoshowmap.

SEE SPACE, PAGE 16

Eyes on the future

Editorial: Tear it down

After a lengthy transition into his duties as CEO, Wright Lassiter II has taken the reins at Henry Ford Health Center, Page 4

A cringe-worthy moment on national television has reminded us that Pontiac’s crumbling Silverdome must be demolished. Opinion, Page 6

The state’s Planet M mobility initiative is aiming to play matchmaker between companies in Michigan and Silicon Valley. Planet M, a branding partnership between the state and local economic development firms, businesses and colleges, plans to identify and solve the manufacturing, testing and customer gaps faced by Silicon Valley’s tech industry players focused on transportation and mobility. Mass production, particularly of automobiles and automobile technology, has proven difficult for California companies. Apple Inc. pulled out of making its own car, and Tesla Inc. has repeatedly missed its delivery targets for its lower-cost Model 3. California needs Michigan’s expertise, but at the dawn of a new age of mobility and technology, the auto industry can also benefit from the fast-paced nature and vitality of Silicon Valley’s technology stronghold. “This was dreamt up by talking to industry, here in Detroit and in California,” said Trevor Pawl, group vice president of trade and procurement programs at the Michigan Economic Development Corp. The plan is his brainchild. “We want to get Michigan companies involved in the valley and get those startups and tech companies there access to the end clients here,” Pawl said. “If we can connect them to Ford or Delphi or whomever, that means they’re more likely to invest and create jobs in Michigan.” SEE PLANET M, PAGE 17

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Wright Lassiter eyes future go helm as CEO of Henry Ford H By Jay Greene

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Wright Lassiter III believes his first two years as president of Henry Ford Health System have been especially noteworthy with the number of deals finalized and several quality and financial achievements on the books. But he is certain the future for Henry Ford holds even greater promises with plans underway as he takes over as CEO of the Detroit-based system. He succeeds Nancy Schlichting, who retired Dec. 31 after 18 years with Henry Ford. In an interview with Crain’s during the closing days of 2016, Lassiter said Henry Ford has closed on deals since he has arrived to acquire Allegiance Health in Jackson and the commercial business of HealthPlus of Michigan in Flint. Those acquisitions pushed Henry Ford’s total annual revenue above the $5.5 billion mark, the highest among Southeast Michigan-based systems. Henry Ford also last year affiliated with a 33-hospital statewide clinically integrated network, Affirmant Health Partners, that will give its insurance arm, Health Alliance Plan, much greater geographic coverage toward its goal of taking care of 500,000 patients by HAP and its integrated delivery system. Moreover, Henry Ford has improved quality and patient safety scores, expanded personalized cancer medicine, boosted financial performance and hit record totals for research grants. Lassiter believes this is just a start for Henry Ford to fully capitalize on its portfolio that also includes six hospitals, more than 32 outpatient medical centers and a 1,100-physician employed medical group. After spending nine years as CEO at Alameda Health System in Oakland, Calif., Lassiter, 53, came to Henry Ford on Dec. 15, 2014, as part of a nontraditional two-year plan to succeed Schlichting. “I’ve had a couple years to be in the organization and spent some of that time with Nancy. I’ve told a lot of people, ‘I don’t see the transition as dark as some people are seeing it,’” he

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HENRY FORD HEALTH SYSTEM

Wright Lassiter III has taken over as CEO of Henry Ford Health System since the retirement of Nancy Schlichting on Dec. 31. said. “The transition process allowed Nancy to do some things (chair the VA Commission on Care) and for us to move forward on a number of areas.” Lassiter said he, Schlichting and the board had a lot of conversations about expansion and growth, and he has plans to make those goals happen over the next several years. “I am excited about the partnerships we formed with Allegiance and HealthPlus. It expands us into new communities. We will look for new communities where partnerships make sense and leverage our strengths,” he said. Sandy Pierce, board chairman of Henry Ford, said Lassiter has already made his mark within the system and community it serves. “During the past two years, our system board has had the pleasure to work with Wright and has found him to be a creative and compassionate

leader with the right skills and experience to lead Henry Ford into our second century,” Pierce said in a statement. Lassiter said other projects he has been involved with over the past two years have flown somewhat under the radar, given the high-profile nature of the Allegiance and HealthPlus acquisitions. “We had a banner year with research grants, up over $77 million, the highest ever,” he said. “We are excited about our long legacy on quality and patient safety and I am focusing on this to further raise the bar.” He said he wants Henry Ford to take the next leap in quality beyond its 2011 selection for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and its No Harm Campaign, begun in 2005, to reduce medical errors. During the past two years, Henry Ford has had a 52 percent improve-

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Crain’s to debut executive leadership ac Crain’s Detroit Business will introduce a Crain-branded executive leadership program to the Detroit market in February, with the opportunity for attendees to earn credit toward an MBA or master’s degree. The Crain’s Leadership Academy is designed for high-potential managers below the C-suite level. In five sessions beginning in late February, attendees will focus on leadership development using tools such as StrengthsFinder and DiSC assessments, group exercises and cross-sector perspectives with other members of the class. Guest speakers — leaders in their fields — will supplement the sessions.

The inaugural cohort will be limited to no more than 35 participants. Organizations are demanding more of midlevel management, the pool from which many future senior leaders will be tapped, noted Mary Kramer, Crain’s group publisher. “We borrowed the model from Crain’s Chicago Business, which is entering its third year for the program. The Crain’s Leadership Academy has two local sponsors — the professional services firm PwC and the Mike Ilitch School of Business at Wayne State University. Both sponsors will present content at one of the spring sessions. “What makes this program differ-

ent from other programs is the candidate must be nominated by the company’s CEO or another C-suite level executive. It’s a way to reward a high-performing, high-potential employee and receive dividends from the skills the employee will bring back to his or her job,” Kramer said. Another key difference is members of the cohort can earn college credit for completing specific work tied to the academy, earning credit hours toward an MBA or master’s degree in the Mike Ilitch School of Business. Kramer noted that research indicates promoting talent from within companies and organizations often

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ment in hospital-acquired conditions, a 44 percent reduction in urine infections, a 12 percent reduction in readmissions and a 25 percent reduction in surgical complications, said Michelle Schreiber, M.D., the system’s chief quality officer. Henry Ford also has improved its bond rating with S&P Global Ratings to “A” with a stable outlook and with Moody’s Investor Services from stable to positive while maintaining its “A3” rating. Another goal that Henry Ford began to implement the past two years is its plan to turn HAP into a statewide health insurance organization to integrate care and coverage. “We want to leverage HAP as a strategic resource,” Lassiter said. “I take some significant credit for that. When I got here, I asked if we are leveraging our current assets sufficiently. We have HAP and our members get care at Henry Ford hospitals and we have the Henry Ford Medical Group. Why not do more of it?” But Lassiter said developing a statewide financing and delivery network does not mean owning a string of hospitals and physician offices across Michigan. “HAP can’t achieve that on its own. I don’t see HAP across the state. We do it in a tightly aligned way,” Lassiter said. “It starts with the merger of Allegiance and Henry Ford. That’s a positive for HAP. Now we have a new delivery area with doctors practicing at Henry Ford, getting labs, X-rays, ambulatory surgery and go to Allegiance for Jackson (for inpatient care).” To go statewide, Henry Ford last year signed on to join Affirmant Health Partners, which includes many of the state’s leading regional health systems and more than 6,000 physicians. They include Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, Sparrow Health in Lansing, Bronson Healthcare in Kalamazoo, MidMichigan Health in Midland, Covenant HealthCare in Saginaw and Lakeland Health in St. Joseph. “We are just trying to understand how to best leverage member institutions to deliver innovative products

in the markets,” said Lassiter, adding he expects Henry Ford to announce at least one managed care deal with an Affirmant partner this year. Asked about whether Henry Ford is negotiating a partnership or affiliation with Kaiser Permanente, as Crain’s has reported, Lassiter declined comment. He suggested that because nothing has come out after one year, maybe there isn’t anything to the talks. However, Crain’s continues to confirm on background with sources within Henry Ford and experts in Southeast Michigan that talks are ongoing between the two health organizations, which share very similar operating cultures. “I’ve known the Kaiser CEO (Bernard Tyson) for more than a decade. Henry Ford and Kaiser executives have close relations and talk regularly” about health care trends and the industry, said Lassiter, declining to confirm or deny merger or affiliation talks. But Lassiter did say he envisions more hospital acquisitions or joint ventures between Henry Ford and others in 2017. “That would not surprise me. We continue to be open for discussions around broadening the footprint around (Henry Ford) services,” he said. “The chance is better than 50 percent. We continue to be open to deals, not just to be bigger and bigger, but to serve broader geographies.” On the possibility that Henry Ford might forge a larger contract and relationship with the Wayne State University School of Medicine, as several Crain’s sources have suggested, Lassiter said he hopes that happens in the future. “We have had a long-standing relationship with Wayne State and medical education is quite important to it. My goal is we are very disciplined to partnerships to achieve those goals,” he said. “We are constantly working with Wayne State about other models that make sense. I remain open to that.” Jay Greene: (313) 446-0325 Twitter: @jaybgreene

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yields higher productivity gains. “Internal talent already knows the culture and the players,” she said. “This is a great way to help high-potential employees find new ways to contribute to company success. Sessions will be facilitated by Todd Connor and Emily Drake, co-founders and principals of Chicago-based Flank 5 Academy. Connor is a U.S. Navy veteran and two-time entrepreneur who developed the experiential career development program originally for Crain’s Chicago Business. That program will be adapted to the Detroit market. Drake’s experience includes career counseling roles at several non-

profits and public relations stints at the Detroit-area public relations firm John Bailey & Associates, and at Ford Motor Co. Her expertise is creating and implementing holistic career fulfillment strategies that focus around strengths, purpose and potential. “We’re delighted that both Todd and Emily have experience in the Detroit market,” Kramer said. The final roster for the first academy class will be determined by Feb. 3. For more information about the program and to complete a nomination form, visit www.crainsdetroit. com/leadershipacademy.

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OPINION

No excuses: Tear down Silverdome F

or a few ugly seconds during its telecast of an ugly game between the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers, NBC cut to an aerial shot of a stadium. “Those are the ruins of the old Silverdome in Pontiac, which was the home of the Lions for so many years and the site of a Super Bowl back in the 1981 season,” announcer Al Michaels said. It was a cringe-worthy moment for Lions fans, putting a national spotlight on an open sore in Pontiac while the Lions were going down to defeat — a “ruin porn” moment, the kind we are all too familiar with. Which leads us to this point: Tear it down. The Silverdome must be demolished. The stadium’s owner, Triple Properties, has promised to raze the sad, old stadium this spring, but such deadlines seem to come and go without the swinging of a wrecking ball. Triple Properties has sued the brokerage firm it hired to market the property, accusing the firm of ignoring an opportunity to extend the lease on a portion of the site for parking. Those are excuses. We’ve run out of patience. Tear it down. We watched Tiger Stadium rot for a decade before it was demolished; the site is now The Silverdome, now in tatters, hosted the being converted to other Super Bowl in 1982. uses. The Palace is about to lose the Pistons, and Joe Louis Arena is about to lose the Wings to the new Little Caesars Arena in downtown Detroit. The Silverdome site has many of the same advantages as the Palace site: a big chunk of contiguous space near freeways and lots of office and light industrial areas, including the FCA US headquarters. Hopefully, Palace owner Tom Gores can do what the Silverdome’s owners have so far failed to do: Find a new use for his building, an unlikely result, or demolish it. Joe Louis Arena is required to be razed and replaced with a hotel, offices, retail stores, and residential and recreational space by 2022, under terms of a deal struck with bond insurer Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. during Detroit’s bankruptcy. But there’s wiggle room. For example, if the developer chosen by FGIC is unable to complete the project, the parcels revert back to the city. That worries us, but a least there’s a plan and a contract. Nothing like that in Pontiac. Tear it down.

LETTER

Don’t underestimate Detroit building costs Editor: In regard to the Dec. 19 article “On Gilbert’s building cost claim: How do city’s numbers compare?” I believe it would have benefited from input from a local builder with experience in doing such projects here in Detroit. What Dan Gilbert is proposing are major developments that will transform downtown. As a builder, estimating the cost and then delivering the project within that cost are two of the most important aspects of construction. We use historical cost, current experience and local market conditions to predict the eventual price tag for a project. It’s easy to lean on statistics from a data service to form an opinion, but numbers alone don’t tell the full story. When you factor in a dose of Detroit market reality, the claim that building big in Detroit today would be just as costly as in other cities is easily substantiated. Gilbert’s developments represent a $3 billion investment in the next several years. There have been two skyscrapers taller than 25 stories built in downtown Detroit since the 1960s, and the cost of those projects

was a third of what Gilbert proposes. It takes considerable expertise to build these projects. Designers, contractors and subcontractors all need special experience, a certain comfort level, and the guts to take on a major downtown development. On top of that, there are other key factors: J Material costs make up 60 percent of the project, and pricing is about the same throughout the country. J Yes, labor in Detroit may cost less initially, maybe by as much as 10 percent. However, with the scarcity of workers who have experience on these types of large-scale transformational projects, labor costs will meet or exceed whatever wage differential may exist between Detroit and other major markets. In New York, Chicago and San Francisco, there’s plenty of large-scale development talent to choose from because building big is what they do the most. Not so in Detroit. The recession of 2008 caused a lot of subcontractors in this area to close up shop. The skills available here match what is being built right now, not necessarily what will be built in the future. Those subcontractors that have persevered have not been building

these types of transformational construction projects for decades. On top of that, local architects and engineering firms are already busy working on other major projects, including redevelopments of corporate campuses in Warren and Dearborn. This means there might not be enough local talent for every project in metro Detroit. You can’t look at just the “mean annual salary” of a laborer in Detroit and claim the cost to build a big project here will be lower. Does the market have enough craftspeople with highrise experience to staff the project? Do they know how to raise and install complex and large curtain walls, which are the “skin” of the building? If they don’t, productivity rates need to be adjusted. Or worse, you may need to import people with unique skills. When you do that, you reach or surpass any expected wage differential. Considering these real-life factors in Detroit, the cost of constructing the type of transformational development that Gilbert is proposing will most assuredly reach levels seen in other major metropolitan areas. John Rakolta Jr. Chairman and CEO, Walbridge Detroit

cause it is so important to the industry. They migrate here annually to see how the battle is going, whether it’s about electric versus gasoline power or the status of autonomous vehicles and to measure the progress and advancements made over the past year. This year, the talk will be about the impact our new president will have on the industry. Donald Trump has already had a big impact — and he hasn’t even been inaugurated. He has lots of opportunities to make life easier for the industry. I wouldn’t be

surprised to see President-elect Trump show up in Detroit during the press activities this week. Whether it’s in technology or regulation, we haven’t seen this much turmoil in a century in this industry. This is a critical time for the auto industry, and that’s why the international show here in Detroit is so important. This show is not just for auto executives and out-of-towners. Detroiters have a world-class, international show in their own backyard. Check it out. It is worth your time.

It is time to shine in Detroit

t all starts this week for industry folks, but everybody can participate starting on Saturday at the North American International Auto Show. It’s larger than the Super Bowl in terms of economic impact for our community, adding mightily to our economic bottom line, attracting more than 5,000 journalists from around the world, industry executives and hundreds of thousands of car enthusiasts, all wanting to see the latest and greatest from the global auto industry. If ever there was an event to clear-

KEITH CRAIN Editor-in-chief

ly establish Detroit as the Motor City, it is the auto show. Along with the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix in June, the show makes it clear

that Detroit is the Motor Capital of the world. Detroit shines during the auto show. Journalists arrive to write about the cars, but the veterans have to be impressed by the transformation of the city in recent years. Each one of us has an opportunity to be an ambassador for our community — not just sharing the story of the renaissance in Detroit but by being as helpful as possible to our visitors from all over the world. Auto executives from all over the world come to this motor show be-

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // J A N U A R Y 9 , 2 0 1 7

SPECIAL REPORT: MICHIGAN BUSINESS 17 Houghton

STATE OF MOBILITY By Dustin Walsh

Brimley

dwalsh@crain.com

ichigan’s future hinges on its largest industry’s ability to adapt to the transformation cultural change happening throughout the country. Tomorrow’s consumer will be less dependent on driving and more reliant on technology. The race for mobility is both a revolution and threat if the auto industry does not welcome change. In Michigan, auto research and development has exploded into the new year with a focus on mobility with autonomous and connected cars. Mapping those assets is now a critical part of the state’s strategy to dominate the space and capture investment. Below is a snapshot of those assets that position the state and its industry for a profitable future.

1 The American Center for Mobility, Ypsilanti Township Construction of the connected and autonomous vehicle test site began in November on the estimated $80 million center, which will offer highway, urban and rural simulations on more than 300 acres at a former General Motors plant at Willow Run. The state-owned facility will build a 2.5-mile highway loop as part of its first phase, which is expected to open in December 2017. The second phase requires additional funding by the federal government. 2 Center for Advanced

Automotive Technology at Macomb Community College, Warren Funded by the National Science Foundation, CAAT is a partnership between MCC and Wayne State University designed to offer training, certificates and degrees in automotive electrification, engineering, program management, laboratory services, etc. 3 Detroit Test Bed,

downtown Detroit An urban connected-vehicle test bed near Cobo Center installed with vehicle-to-infrastructure technology through a federally-funded program. 4 I-94 Truck Parking Information and Management System, Southwest Michigan Installed by the Michigan Department of Transportation in 2014, TIPMS is a system that delivers real-time truck parking availability along the I-94 corridor in southwest Michigan. The project is federally funded by the Federal Highway Administration. 5 Kettering University General

Motors Mobility Research Center, Flint Opened in October 2015, The $7 million research center includes a 3.25-acre test pad and outdoor lab space to test and develop autonomous vehicle systems. The site will use Kettering’s private 4G LTE cellular network to enhance testing. 6 MCity at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Opened in 2015, UM’s MCity was the first major connected vehicle test bed in the state. The $6.5 million facility, developed with MDOT, has replicated an urban driving environment and suburban streetscapes, highways and rural roads. The site has 40 building facades, intersections, a traffic circle, bridge, tunnel, gravel roads and entrance and exit ramps.

7 Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn Better known for its NASCAR events, MIS offers a reconfigurable network of tracks, including the two-mile race oval, to automakers, suppliers and researchers to test vehicles, including connected and autonomous. Its road courses feature elevation changes, natural line-of-sight interferences, garages, skid pad, off-road testing, a tunnel, and intersections.

12 Auburn Hills

8 NextEnergy, Detroit

A nonprofit created in 2002 to drive advanced energy and transportation investment in the city of Detroit. Part of its focus is to provide market analysis, collaborate public-private partnerships and support education around the concept of mobility. 9 Southeast Michigan Connected Vehicle Test Bed As part of MDOT’s highway reconstruction efforts, the state agency has installed the largest connected vehicle infrastructure in the nation along highways throughout Southeast Michigan. The sensors, connecting vehicles to infrastructure, are along nearly 200 miles of I-94, I-75, I-96 and I-275. The project is expected to continue as more highways see renovation. MDOT’s Southeast Michigan Transportation Operations Center in Detroit oversees a traffic monitoring system composed of 400 freeway miles instrumented with closed-circuit cameras, message signs and probe traffic monitors. 10 Ford Motor Co., Dearborn In 2016, Ford launched its Ford Smart Mobility subsidiary to invest in mobility development. The automaker is also testing semi-autonomous and connected vehicles with Uber in Pittsburgh and soon in Detroit. 11 General Motors Co., Detroit

GM acquired driverless car tech firm Cruise Automation for $1 billion, invested $500 million into San Francisco ride-hailing service Lyft, and launched its own car-sharing service, Maven, all last year. Maven is already offering service in metro Detroit to the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. In December, GM announced it would begin immediate testing of its autonomous Chevrolet Bolt on Michigan roadways and manufacture those cars at the Orion Assembly Plant in Orion Township.

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17 Michigan Technological University Transportation Institute, Houghton While more focused on infrastructure, the institute offers research and education in various mobility-focused areas, such as traffic data mining and monitoring.

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12 FCA US LLC, Auburn Hills The automaker partnered with Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, nee Google self-driving car project, to develop 100 autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans. It also unveiled its Chrysler Portal Concept electric minivan last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. 13 Hyundai-Kia America Technical

Center Inc., Superior Township The automaker’s G90 flagship sedan from its new Genesis luxury brand will feature a suite of advanced safety technologies, dubbed Genesis Smart Sense, that bundles adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assistance and technologies to reduce driver fatigue. Standard features also include an automatic emergency braking system with pedestrian detection and active blind-spot detection. Hyundai is expected to be a prime user of the American Center for Mobility in Willow Run for its continued mobility developments.

14 Nissan Technical Center North America Inc., Farmington Hills Renault-Nissan Alliance and Microsoft Corp. signed a global, multi-year agreement in December to partner on connected driving technologies and some of that work is expected to take place in Michigan. 15 Toyota Research Institute, Ann Arbor In May, Toyota opened its third U.S. operation focusing on autonomous vehicles, others are in Cambridge, Mass. and Palo Alto, Calif. The operations are part of a $1 billion program through 2020 on artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomous vehicles. Toyota has tested connected and autonomous technology at its technical center in York Township. 16 Roush Industries Inc., Livonia The engineering and specialty manufacturing company known for its custom Ford Mustang models, assembled Waymo’s test fleet of 100 Google prototype vehicles. That vehicle will be unveiled at this week’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

18 Continental Automotive Brimley Development Center, Brimley Continental Automotive, the Auburn Hills-based subsidiary of Continental AG in Germany, is spearheading the Cruising Chauffeur project, which equips vehicles with semi-autonomous driving capabilities. The supplier tests its technologies, including autonomous tech, at its winter test track in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. 19 Denso International America Inc., Southfield As part of a federal program, Telegraph Road in Southfield was outfitted with vehicle-to-infrastructure sensors, allowing Denso to test connected vehicle capabilities, such as traffic mitigation and human interaction with connected technologies. 20 Robert Bosch LLC Proving Grounds, Flat Rock Bosch, like Continental, has been developing sensors for decades, which now enable autonomous systems. The testing of those technologies locally occurs in Flat Rock. CRAIN’S GRAPHIC BY LISA SAWYER

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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 // J A N U A R Y 9 , 2 0 1 7

SPECIAL REPORT

NEWSMAKERS OF THE YEAR

Tom Gores Page 1

Mona Hanna-Attisha This page

Andy Appleby This page

Barbara McQuade Page 9

Joe Mullany Page 9

Ronna Romney McDaniel Page 10

Mina Sooch Page 10

Kirk Steudle Page 11

Mona Hanna-Attisha, M.D. Director, pediatric public health initiative, Hurley Medical Center

M. Roy Wilson Page 13

Andy Appleby Chairman and CEO, General Sports; founder, United Shore Professional Baseball League

By Jay Greene jgreene@crain.com

Mona Hanna-Attisha, M.D., the pediatrician who blew the public whistle on the lead poisoning of children and adults in Flint in one of the nation’s biggest preventable environmental disasters, continues to advocate for clean and safe drinking and bathing water. “To this day our water is still not safe,” said Hanna-Attisha, who practices at Hurley Medical Center in Flint and is the director of a pediatric public health initiative. “I am more hopeful than I have been because Congress passed federal funding for Flint that brings significant money ($170 million) for infrastructure to finally replace the plumbing.” Besides funds to replace aging lead pipes, the $10 billion federal water improvement bill also includes money to help Flint build a disease registry to track the health of children for decades. “This is just the beginning of the funds we will need to build this public health program to mitigate the impact” of the lead poisoning on thousands of exposed children, Hanna-Attisha said. During the summer of 2015, Hanna-Attisha began hearing talk about the high levels of lead being found in the Flint public water supply. She wondered if the lead was entering the bodies of children. She and other researchers began studying blood tests stored at city-owned Hurley. What she found shocked her and colleagues, and soon angered Michigan and the nation, for up to 9,000 children ages 6 and younger were being exposed to dangerously high levels of lead. Despite criticisms about creating hysteria from state officials at the time, Hanna-Attisha released a study in September 2015 that showed the percentage of children with more than 5 micrograms per deciliter of lead in their blood increased from 2.1 percent to 4 percent. Some children in certain ZIP codes were being exposed to triple the average blood lead levels from the water, up to 6.3 percent. The state was forced to acknowledge the problem. Lead mostly affects unborn children and those ages 6 and younger whose brains are still being formed. Research shows lead causes irreversible brain damage, developmental delays, speech problems, rashes, a boosted risk for behavioral issues and other conditions. In talks with Flint’s children, Hanna-Attisha has become more concerned recently because many children have expressed fear and anxiety over what happened to them. “Everything is being attributed to this water. Kids watch TV, read the internet and hear

Sam Valenti III Page12

By Bill Shea bshea@crain.com

Andy Appleby’s baseball league was an overnight success 30 years in the making, he likes to say. Using three decades-plus of experience, the Rochester sports entrepreneur financed the $15 million startup cost for the independent United Shore Professional Baseball League and a 2,000-seat stadium along M-59 in Utica. The developmental league for players 18 to 24 began play with three teams in May, averaged 3,200 fans per game while selling out 42 of 75 games at Jimmy John’s Field. Appleby’s model was to build a nice stadium and top-tier service, make it family friendly and inexpensive — a blueprint that worked. The league was profitable, Appleby said, and sent players to higher levels of pro baseRochester sports entrepreneur Andy Appleby financed the $15 million startup cost for the independent United Shore Professional Baseball League and a 2,000-seat stadium along M-59 in Utica.

Flint pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha blew the public whistle on amount of lead entering the public water supply and endangering the health of children and adults.

about brain damage,” she said. “We are trying to fight that stigma. When I talk with them, I reiterate that you are strong, beautiful and resilient.” While funding to replace pipes is slow to come and is less than half what is needed, Hanna-Attisha said, her work helping children with potential medical and psychological issues is just beginning. “We are conducting developmental assessments, hiring folks, creating teams to help children,” she said. “We have no idea what the next presidential administration will bring to Flint. We try to be nonpartisan, but we need more help.” At the state level, Hanna-Attisha said the

Legislature still must extend funding for early childhood intervention and the school nursing program. It also must finalize and improve policies on the state’s lead and copper rule, which works to reduce pipe corrosivity. Hanna-Attisha said she has moved past the stage of pointing fingers. “I look forward to the investigation completing. It is so important to the people of Flint to know who did what and when they did it. They want prosecution. It’s important so it doesn't happen again,” she said. On a personal level, Hanna-Attisha has been in high demand the past 18 months, speaking before Congress, public health meetings and university commencements. Demands on her time have been overwhelming at times, but she isn’t complaining. “Last week I was in five states. I have fortunately been supported by my hospital and university to do a lot of this work. We don’t want this to happen again,” said Hanna-Attisha.

ball. A ninth USPBL player was recently signed to a Major League Baseball farm team, exceeding Appleby’s first-year expectations and increasing his odds of reaching his chief goal: Getting a player to an MLB club. He recently announced that a fourth team, the Westside Woolly Mammoths, will join the Birmingham Bloomfield Beavers, Eastside Diamond Hoppers and Utica Unicorns in 2017 at the stadium. Plans are to expand to cities elsewhere in the country after 2017, with the goal of a second stadium opening in summer 2018. The league has been in talks with a dozen cities as far west as Colorado, he said. Appleby got his start in sports with Palace Sports & Entertainment in the 1980s, and in 1998 launched his own company, General Sports & Entertainment. He’s owned a San Diego Padres farm team and a British soccer club, but the USPBL is his legacy project. He used that experience to shape his baseball venture.

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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 // J A N U A R Y 9 , 2 0 1 7

SPECIAL REPORT: NEWSMAKERS OF THE YEAR

Barbara McQuade U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of Michigan By Kirk Pinho kpinho@crain.com

Barbara McQuade doesn’t know if she’ll have a job later this month. But even if McQuade, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, is not selected by President-elect Donald Trump to continue serving in her post after his inauguration, she certainly has spent the last six years building up an impressive resume. McQuade, 52, is a crusader against public corruption and has brought charges against officials in Macomb County and Detroit Public Schools, among others, in the last 12 months. “Government can help solve many problems, but when we have corrupt officials, they are violating the contract they signed with us, the

Barbara McQuade is a crusader against public corruption and has brought charges against officials in Macomb County and Detroit Public Schools, among others, in the last 12 months.

duty of public loyalty and public trust, whether it’s police officers, school principals or others,” said McQuade, who received both her bachelor’s degree and juris doctorate from the University of Michigan. McQuade, a native of Sterling Heights, has charged three local elected officials in Macomb County in connection with an alleged kickback scheme involving the former Rizzo Environmental Services Inc. Nei-

ther McQuade nor the FBI has identified Rizzo as the company at the center of the investigation, but Rizzo’s successor company, GFL Environmental USA Inc., has acknowledged it is part of the investigation.

Charged so far are Dean Reynolds, a Clinton Township trustee; Clifford Freitas, a Macomb Township trustee; and Michael Lovelock, the former Chesterfield Township supervisor who was unseated in November’s election. “The investigation is continuing,” McQuade said. “Good government is important everywhere, and we want to make sure all citizens get the honest government that they pay for with their tax dollars.” In March, she filed charges against a dozen DPS principals, one of the district’s assistant superintendents and school supplies vendor Norman Shy over a bribery and kickback scheme, which centered on over $900,000 in payments allegedly made to the officials in exchange for about $2.7 million from DPS in fraudulent invoice payments. Shy was sentenced to five years in prison, and the principals were all convicted. Her office is also helping with a

Joe Mullany

acquired DMC in 2013) and were working on it.” In early November, the Michigan

Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs completed its survey and

CEO, Detroit Medical Center By Jay Greene jgreene@crain.com

Joe Mullany, CEO of Detroit Medical Center, had a busy 2016 that really got going in February with the opening of DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan-Troy, a new outpatient health center that already is contributing to DMC’s bottom line. Mullany also got caught up news events last year that turned into controversies — contract talks with Wayne State University School of Medicine

and state and federal investigations into DMC infection control and instrument cleaning practices — that he felt were overblown in the media. But Mullany’s 30-year health care career has taught him that external distractions should never interfere with internal policies that he believes are moving DMC toward higher-quality and lower-cost care. “We opened Troy in February to a much-heralded debut. It is a hospital without beds and has every service except for long-term patient care,” said Mullany, noting that the $42 million facility met its three-year patient projections during the first three months of operation. “There clearly was need for specialized pediatric care services” in Oakland County, said Mullany, who has been at DMC since April 2012, when former CEO Mike Duggan hired him as his successor in preparation for his successful run for Detroit mayor. Mullany, 52, said DMC is looking at additional outpatient clinic locations in Macomb County for a children’s center and western Wayne County for adults. He said DMC gets about 60,000 patient visits from Oakland and Macomb counties to downtown DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan. From a financial standpoint, given the high startup costs he projects the children’s outpatient center to break even in 2017, Mullany said. Meanwhile, the center is generating

Joe Mullany had a busy 2016 with the opening of DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan-Troy, and news events that turned into controversies — contract talks with Wayne State University School of Medicine and state and federal investigations into DMC infection control and instrument cleaning practices.

60 new pediatric admissions per month for Children’s Hospital. Earlier this year, officials for Wayne State and DMC began contract talks to extend their long-term clinical services and administrative relationship. Both sides also hoped the agreement would be “transformational,” enabling the medical partners to achieve national prominence over the 5- to 10-year contract period. It didn’t turn out that way. By the end of September, the sides agreed to an 18-month services contract that Wayne State describes as a simple vendor relationship. Mullany still believes DMC is on the path toward its goal of becoming a top 15 academic medical center, but he clearly feels an opportunity was missed to speed up that timetable. “The process was much better this time around and fairly positive in nature,” Mullany said of the sixmonth negotiations. “Simply put, it covers payment for administrative duties and clinical coverage.” Mullany said the only blip in the talks — that caused the two sides to suspend talks in August — occurred because Wayne State insisted on nonsolicitation language that would have prevented DMC from making employment offers to Wayne State physicians. “Even the (medical school) faculty was opposed to this,” said Mullany, who said the terms were excluded from the contract. “This (discussion) opened up the eyes of the department

federal investigation into the Detroit Land Bank Authority and Detroit Building Authority over the city’s demolition program, which has been under investigation for several months amid escalating costs. McQuade took her job in January 2010, becoming the first woman to hold that post after five years as deputy chief of the office’s National Security Unit. During her time heading the office, it has prosecuted many high-profile cases, including those of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick on public corruption charges and the so-called “underwear bomber,” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, an al-Qaida trainee who in 2009 spearheaded a botched bombing attempt on a Delta Air Lines flight to Detroit. “You always worry about a terrorist attack occurring in our community, so that’s the thing that keeps me up at night, that I worry about,” she said. “We are as diligent as we can be.”

chairs for what this relationship is.” Since October, some Wayne physicians have asked DMC to expand the relationship going forward, Mullany said. “We have attempted to contract with them for resident supervision for our programs,” he said. “There will be more talks with them.” And despite recent statements made by Wayne State officials, Mullany said he believes the corporate cultures between the two institutions are compatible. He hopes future contract talks will open greater possibilities between the two institutions. In one of the biggest health care stories of the year, The Detroit News in late August reported that hundreds of leaked emails from DMC physicians and managers suggested

more than a decade of problems with sterilization of surgical instruments at DMC’s four downtown hospitals — Detroit Receiving, Children’s, Harper and Hutzel. At the time of the revelations, DMC was getting close to resolving the problems in the massive central sterile processing department, which cleans and disinfects more than 17 million instruments and tools per year, Mullany said. “We made improvements every single year and were well on our way to correcting the problem when former and terminated employees leaked the information (to the Detroit News),” said Mullany. “We inherited the problem (when Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp.

said DMC had resolved health code violations that resulted from lack of employee and management training, documentation and various infection control practices. Some sloppy infection control practices were noted by surveyors, including failure to regularly preclean surgical instruments in operating rooms, mixing dirty gloves with clean ones and mopping bloodstained floors without moving cleaned equipment. “We were surveyed by the state and the Joint Commission, and they never found any patient issues,” Mullany said. “What we learned was with complicated issues you need to pull all parties together — how instruments are cleaned and how doctors dress for surgery — and work together toward a solution.” DMC has set up a multi-disciplinary perioperative council to continuously review how the process can be improved. “I was disappointed it got to a point where” the news was overblown in the press, Mullany said. “The issue (of cleaning instruments) is a part of health care, but we were not prepared for the (Detroit News) to take a one-sided view,” he said. “For those who did follow the paper, we suffered some reputational damage, and it put a lot of employees on the defensive who were attacked.” Looking ahead, Mullany said he is optimistic about DMC’s future, as it moves past the Wayne State contract and the sterile processing issue. DMC also has nearly completed its $850 million building improvement and services plan that will accrue benefits for years. “We are done with the regulatory process and passed with flying colors,” he said. “We are internally confident with our processes and people. From a community perspective, we have been here 150 years, and people understand” the hospital will be here for them.

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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 // J A N U A R Y 9 , 2 0 1 7

SPECIAL REPORT: NEWSMAKERS OF THE YEAR

Ronna Romney McDaniel Chairman, Michigan Republican Party By Lindsay VanHulle

Crain’s Detroit Business/Bridge Magazine

LANSING — When it comes to drawing election-free zones around holiday dinner tables, it turns out that even the Romneys are not unlike the rest of us. “We might not be talking politics,” said Ronna Romney McDaniel, chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, who helped President-elect Donald Trump flip Michigan to a Republican presidential candidate for the first time in nearly 30 years. “This is a tough election for a lot of people. And I’m sensitive to that, because I have people in my own family who had those issues.” She’s referring to her uncle, Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 GOP presidential nominee who criticized Trump’s fitness for office during the primaries. Romney McDaniel volunteered for her uncle’s presidential campaign.

President-elect Donald Trump has thrown his support behind Ronna Romney McDaniel’s bid to lead the Republican National Committee, which could happen this month.

Their differing opinions of Trump led to a “lapse of communication,” she said, though the impasse has started to end. Trump was the first Republican presidential candidate to win Michigan since George H.W. Bush in 1988. Much of his success here can be attributed to Romney McDaniel, 43, who has led the state party since February 2015. Trump since has thrown his support behind Romney McDaniel’s bid to lead the Republican National Committee, which could happen this month. She would succeed current party Chairman Reince Priebus, whom Trump named his chief of staff.

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“I’m very honored that President-elect Trump has that faith in me,” said Romney McDaniel, who, if elected, would commute between Washington, D.C., and her home in Northville Township while her son and daughter finish the school year. “I’m so excited for this new opportunity, if it happens.” A member of a prominent Michi-

gan political family — her grandfather is former Michigan Gov. George Romney — Romney McDaniel got her start in politics as a driver on her mother’s 1994 U.S. Senate campaign. “I like being part of the strategy, the ground game, the messaging,” she said, citing an app the state party developed to target individual voters to boost turnout on Election Day and a 3-year-old Detroit office designed to improve outreach in the heavily minority and Democratic city. “I love thinking about ways that we can message to millennials or women or people who haven’t been traditionally Republicans.” The strategy in 2016 meant convincing Republican presidential candidates that Michigan wasn’t automatically a blue state. Romney McDaniel, who as party chairman was neutral in the race, said she attended campaign events for every candidate who visited the state during the primary cycle. She said she told the candidates and their teams about how she believed Michigan could be competitive, and how the Republican governor and majority Legislature helped Michigan recover from the recession. And she said she repeatedly called national Republican leaders to convince them to hold a primary debate in Detroit, which happened in March at the Fox Theatre. “If you could connect to the Michigan story, you would have a chance

to really be competitive in our state. Donald Trump recognized that early on,” Romney McDaniel said. “He was coming here and talking to Michiganders about issues that resonated with them and their homes — fair trade, Obamacare, jobs, economy — and it didn’t take really any convincing to get him to invest in Michigan.” Trump, though, was not an ordinary candidate. On the campaign trail, he made disparaging comments about women, minorities and people with disabilities, and has used his Twitter account both during and after the election to criticize the press and comment on foreign affairs. Romney McDaniel said she did not agree with everything Trump said, but his position on key issues won over voters. His use of social media, she said, could be a way to connect with younger voters who buck party affiliation in favor of identifying with individual candidates that share their values. “He’s created a great platform to reach out to the people who supported him, and why would we he turn that messaging over to a middleman who may not be able to accurately articulate what he’s trying to say?” she said. “This is a new age of politics, but I think the people who support Donald Trump appreciate that he’s going to continue to reach out to them directly.”

Mina Sooch

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President and CEO, Gemphire Therapeutics Inc. By Tom Henderson thenderson@crain.com

It was a roller-coaster year for Mina Sooch, the president and CEO of Gemphire Therapeutics, a small pharmaceutical startup in Livonia. She had planned on an initial public offering of $60 million for Gemphire early in the year, but a cooling market nationally for pharma IPOs pushed the timing back to June and the target amount down to $45 million. In June, world markets were roiled by the unexpected vote by those in the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, and her IPO was pushed back to August and the amount downsized, again, to $30 million. (Also in June, Sooch was named by Crain’s as one of the 100 most influential women in Michigan.) Finally, on Aug. 5, Gemphire, which had licensed a cardiovascular drug called gemcabene from Pfizer Inc., had its offering and began trading on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol GEMP. Immediately, Sooch began proceeding on two human trials on different potential patient populations for Gemcabene and laying the groundwork to enroll patients for a third trial, all of which are expected

peut

It was a roller-coaster year for Mina Sooch, the president and CEO of Gemphire Therapeutics, a small pharmaceutical startup in Livonia.

to start reporting results in 2017. Favorable results — the three will enroll a total of about 200 patients in medical centers around the country — could lead to a secondary public offering or to a sale to a larger pharmaceutical company. Sooch said the IPO raised enough money to fund all three trials and get Gemphire through the first half of 2018.

“It was a year of highs, but also one of uncertainty for quite some time. I learned patience,” Sooch said. “It was very rewarding to go public and execute on our plan the rest of the year, to hire a team and get our trials up and running. We’re exactly where we want to be as a company. “We got advice from our bankers that we should consider waiting for January 2017 to go public, but we wanted to launch three trials, and we couldn’t do that until we went public,” she said. Sooch put her money where her mouth was regarding the IPO. To show her faith in gemcabene and

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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 // J A N U A R Y 9 , 2 0 1 7

SPECIAL REPORT: NEWSMAKERS OF THE YEAR

Kirk Steudle

Director, Michigan Department of Transportation By Dustin Walsh dwalsh@crain.com

Kirk Steudle has kept an orange safety vest in the trunk of his car since he joined the Michigan Department of Transportation more than 30 years ago. Yet the danger he’s faced since becoming director in 2006 sits in the Michigan State Capitol, not in a driver’s seat. Most recently, Steudle was targeted by Democrat representatives in 2015 during the state’s chaotic road-funding debate. State Rep. Scott Dianda, D-Calumet, a former MDOT employee, described Steudle as “a poor steward of the taxpayers’ dollars” and called for his resignation. Steudle persevered, as he has when these issues crop up. He’s been loathed and adored from both sides of the aisle, but his legacy won’t rest on road funding or reconstruction. Steudle is the godfather of the state’s mobility efforts, which reached new heights in 2016. “I started talking about how cars were going to talk to each other in 2006, how cars would become safer and more intelligent, but I didn’t really know what that meant,” Steudle said. “When (Gov. Rick) Snyder got in office, the concept took off. He got that new trials would reflect the successes of earlier trials, Sooch and her co-founder and chief science officer, Charlie Bisgaier, each invested more than $500,000 in the IPO. “That’s a meaningful number, and it showcased our belief in gemcabene,” she said. Sooch was also a Crain’s Newsmaker of the Year in 2014, a year that established her as a superstar on the local biotech front. In January that year, she raised $12.5 million in venture capital for what had been a struggling pharmaceutical company that she joined in 2012 as president and CEO, Plymouth Township-based ProNAi Thera-

peutics Inc.

Then that April, she raised an additional $59.5 million for the company, then the largest single round of venture capital in state history. Both of those funding rounds were based on results that ProNAi presented at a major oncology convention in New Orleans in December 2013 on how its lead product improved the conditions of patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma whose cancer had been resistant to other treatments. In September 2014, Sooch left ProNAi, which was setting the stage for an IPO of $158 million in 2015. It was time for the company to bring in a CEO who had experience leading public companies, and time for her to move on to another startup in Gemphire. Interestingly enough, for this IPO, she didn’t feel the need to bring in another veteran of public companies.

it. He understood the technology and gave me the legs to get out and push the plan.” That plan was to become the leading state in efforts to connect vehicles to infrastructure and make way for the region’s automotive industry to build a new future. This expanded well beyond the traditional role of state road agencies. “A lot of people still believe the DOT is just a (department of public works) garage and workers that fill potholes and plow snow,” Steudle said. “We’re so much more. We have access to federal funds, cutting-edge research on asphalt, bridge construction, etc. What we did was to direct a portion of those funds to make a much larger impact for our state. We harnessed technology.” The result is hundreds of miles of Michigan highways equipped with advanced sensors, ranging from road weather stations that are capable of sending weather-related warnings to vehicles, a truck parking information and management system, red light warning communication and many more abilities. Now, the industry can test advanced connected and autonomous

Kirk Steudle is the godfather of the state’s mobility efforts, which reached new heights in 2016.

technologies locally, as opposed to places like California, Nevada and Florida. The state doubled down on Steudle’s efforts in December, enacting a series of bills that made Michigan the most open and welcoming location for companies looking to test driverless vehicles. Steudle played a critical role, along with the state’s industry, in its language.

“No other state DOT was talking to auto companies and suppliers, so we did,” Steudle said. “Before, the only intersection of the auto industry and the DOT was the tire and the road. That’s been blurred significantly. We’re all here to provide mobility, to provide a transportation network to improve economic development and quality of life.” MDOT is now a partner in several public-private partnerships, including the American Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti Township, which is intended to be the state’s pre-eminent connected and autonomous vehicle

test bed. The center broke ground last year, and the first phase will be completed by the end of this year. Steudle doesn’t know if he’ll be retained as MDOT’s director following Snyder’s departure in 2019, but he hopes the framework he established remains. “I want this conversation so ingrained that these partnerships continue to develop,” he said. “Frankly, if I can look back and say we created something that brought these different audiences together to give independence to the young, to the old, I’ll be quite happy.”

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SPECIAL REPORT: NEWSMAKERS OF THE YEAR

Sam Valenti III

Horizon Global Corp. (NYSE: HZN),

Chairman and CEO, Valenti Capital LLC, Bloomfield Hills; co-founder, V5 Partners LLC, Bloomfield Hills By Tom Henderson thenderson@crain.com

Sam Valenti was involved in a string of headline-making events in 2016, some with his name prominently attached, others with him playing an active but behind-the-scenes role. The biggest headlines came in October, when Crain’s broke the news that V5 Partners LLC, a new venture-capital firm founded by him and his son, Sam Valenti IV, had raised $150 million in capital and arranged a $50 million line of credit with a New York bank to fund its investments. Their business model is to combine the younger Valenti’s contacts in Silicon Valley with the elder Valenti’s contacts with Midwest manufacturing firms. V5 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. In September

Sam Valenti was involved in a string of headline-making events in 2016, some with his name prominently attached, others with him playing an active but behind-the-scenes role.

2015, 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. Another big funding event found Valenti playing an active but unheralded role. It was the surprise announcement in November that American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. was buying Metaldyne Performance Group Inc. in a $3.3 billion deal

that would create a company with nearly $7 billion in revenue, a deal criticized by some as coming at too high a cost, which was a 50 percent premium, above the 30 percent premium for recent auto supplier deals. Valenti joined American Axle’s board in November 2013, filling the seat of former chairman and CEO Richard Dauch after his death that

August. Valenti said at the time he planned to be an activist member of the board and was a proponent of the Metaldyne deal. Valenti said the premium paid by American Axle was worth it because Metaldyne “is a world leader in forging, casting and powdered metal, the

deal creates a $7 billion auto supplier with unparalleled engineering capabilities, gives American Axle new customers in new product categories and establishes a powerful base for further acquisition.” A lesser deal he was involved in was as co-chairman of Troy-based

which closed in October on the $190 million acquisition of Westfalia-Automotive Holding GmbH and TeIJs Holding BV, two companies that make towing components, from a German investor consortium led by DPE Deutsche Private Equity. The deal boosted shares in Horizon Global to nearly $20 a share, up from a low of $8.25 in November 2015. It gave Horizon Global annual revenue of $850 million, well on the way to Valenti’s goal of growing the business to $1 billion a year when he spun it out from Bloomfield Hills-based TriMas Corp. (Nasdaq: TRS) in July 2015. After the deal closed, Valenti turned over his co-chair seat to Denise Ilitch but remained on the Horizon Global board. Valenti is also executive chairman at TriMas. In that capacity, in July this year, he negotiated the departure of David Wathen as president and CEO of the diversified manufacturing company after a decline in sales and was active in the hiring of Thomas Amato as his replacement. Wathen had been CEO since 2009. “It was an interesting year, when you take it from the top. It was interesting how it all came together,” said Valenti, who is also on the board of the Zell Lurie Institute at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and on the endowment committee of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

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President, Wayne State University swelch@crain.com

Under the direction of President M. Roy Wilson, Wayne State University made news on many fronts last year, from increasing enrollment and research dollars and raising a record amount of donations to breaking ground on the new Mike Ilitch School of Business and brokering a new clinical services agreement with the Detroit Medical Center after months of tense negotiations. Research funding to WSU rose to $200 million last year, capping consecutive increases every year since 2013 when Wilson joined the university. Including funding for chemical trials at WSU’s cancer institute, total funding reached $243 million last year as Wilson led a shift to a team science approach in grant proposals rather than individual researchers applying for grants. Last year the university stemmed enrollment declines for the first time in seven years on the strength of its graduate programs, nursing program and the Mike Ilitch School of Business. Total enrollment for the fall semester was 27,326, up 104 students or 0.4 percent from fall 2015.

In June, it dropped its math requirement in the general education curriculum until 2018, as part of a general overhaul of its general education requirements that will include new math courses and other new requirements for courses in things like diversity and community engagement. After some backlash, WSU has accelerated the timeline to reintroduce the math requirement. It would like to have something completed on math by fall 2018, before rolling out the new general education curriculum, Wilson said. Wilson, who was also a Crain’s Newsmaker in 2014, last year helped broker a deal with Rhode Island-based Corvias that will bring 842 new units of housing through two new residential buildings by the fall 2018. Under the deal, Corvias will manage the university’s housing, while WSU maintains ownership of the land and all of the facilities. Corvias will pay WSU $1.4 billion over the 40-year term of the contract, with initial investments used immediately to pay off $102 million in existing housing debt and future payments used to maintain the buildings and fund other strategic needs. “This way of doing it, where it’s off

Contract negotiations broke down in early September between the two over the issue of whether DMC could continue to recruit physicians employed by Wayne State University Physician Group. Wayne State wanted a “nonsolicitation of physicians” clause in its contracts with DMC to protect its business interests. DMC officials refused, saying they couldn’t agree to that for various business and regulatory reasons. The two academic health partners arrived at an 18-month contract in early October, about six weeks after DMC negotiators walked out of contract talks and Wayne State officials threatened privately to begin talks with Henry Ford Health System, sources told Crain’s at the time. Terms of the contract were confidential. The value systems of WSU and DMC, which is owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp., one of the nation’s largest investor-owned hospital chains, are very different, Wilson said in December. “Trying to develop a partnership when our values are so different was difficult; it took a long time to get this done.” Wilson said that WSU intends to use the 18-month term of the renegotiated contract to do some longer-term planning. “We continue to talk with potential partners; we have residents and medical students at other institutions,” he said.

our balance sheet, we pay off our debt and allow them to manage all housing but we keep land and facilities, has only been done one other place,” the University of Georgia, Wilson said. But other universities are now looking at the model. During its fiscal 2016 ended Sept. 30, WSU raised a record $131 million in gifts and pledges. Wilson brought veteran fundraiser Susan Burns back to her alma mater in February to head up development efforts.

Among the large gifts secured during the year was a $5 million donation from both Dan Gilbert and Stephen Ross. And a $40 million gift that Wilson helped secure late in 2015 led to the July groundbreaking on the Mike Ilitch School of Business. For much of the year WSU, the academic partner for the Detroit Medical Center, was embroiled in at-times acrimonious negotiations with the for-profit hospital for a new clinical services agreement.

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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 // J A N U A R Y 9 , 2 0 1 7 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

January 9, 2017

KRAMER FROM PAGE 1

aspired to be the editor or publisher of a community newspaper and help set a community agenda. His response: Then you’ll love this job because that’s what Crain’s is — a community paper but for a very specific community: people doing business in metro Detroit. He was right. Crain’s has enjoyed — and I think earned — a special connection with our readers. We deliver significant news and data to business readers, and we take pride that the information often leads to new business opportunities that benefit companies, careers and even nonprofits. Three examples: Just last week, I spoke with a local entrepreneur who had been a featured speaker at a Crain event last summer. He told me that his turn on stage led to 20 new clients for his new consulting business. Last summer, reporter Tom Henderson learned that his coverage of a new $250 million family office in downtown Birmingham prompted another local investment group to reach out to the principals who they had no idea were literally a stone’s throw away. The result: Two funds that were near neighbors are now sharing investment opportunities and may do some deals together. One of my all-time favorite Crain-inspired outcomes: the rekindling of a dormant connection at a reception for Crain’s 100 American Dreamer immi-

grant success stories. That encounter led to the $20 million gift to Henry Ford Health System and the creation of the Vattikuti Urology Institute. It’s been a remarkable ride. But now it’s time for new leadership. My role at Crain’s will remain “group publisher” in Detroit and Cleveland. But Ron is running the show in Detroit. I’m focusing on specific initiatives, such as the annual Detroit Homecoming we created in 2014 as well as talent-related initiatives like the Michigan Women’s Directory to help companies find diverse talent for their company boards, and the Crain’s Leadership Academy. (See story, Page 4.) Ron will build the quality and impact that Crain’s has for readers in our region and our state. As other news media have been shrinking news staffs, Ron has already created a structure to expand our news team. You’ll find more about Ron and his big-league journalism background in another story that starts on Page 1. Together with Director of Sales Lisa Rudy, now just three weeks into her role, they will lead our brand into new ventures but with the same philosophy: Journalism matters. Without news that matters to our readers, we have nothing to offer our advertising clients who want to share that special connection to our readers. Lisa and Ron are working closely with KC Crain, Keith’s son and the next-generation leader for our entire company. I can’t wait to see where the new team leads this remarkable institution.

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Fournier named Crain’s publisher Ron Fournier, an award-winning journalist who returned home to Detroit after a 20-year career in Washington, has been named publisher and editor of Crain’s Detroit Business, replacing the company’s groundbreaking leader Mary Kramer. Kramer recruited Fournier to Crain’s four months ago, naming him associate publisher as part of her succession planning. She will remain with Crain’s as group publisher, consulting with Fournier and his team on major revenue initiatives such as the Detroit Homecoming and Crain’s Leadership Academy. As publisher and editor, Fournier will be responsible for sales, audience development and editorial operations of Crain’s Detroit Business. “This is such an exciting time for Crain’s Detroit Business and the city of Detroit,” said KC Crain, executive vice president of Crain Communications Inc. “We couldn’t be happier to have Ron take over the publisher role. His experience will continue to position Crain’s as the go-to news brand for the city.” In the last half of 2016, Fournier worked with Kramer to reorganize Crain’s newsroom, focusing its best reporters on high-end enterprise reporting to deepen Crain’s coverage while building a breaking news team to broaden it. Kramer named him editor and associate publisher after they implemented the plan, which

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also shifts resources from print to digital platforms. Before coming to Crain’s, Fournier was a nationally acclaimed political columnist for the National Journal and The Atlantic, both owned by the Atlantic Media Co. He also served for two years as editor-in-chief of the National Journal. Prior to joining Atlantic Media, he was the Washington bureau chief and a 20-year veteran of The Associated Press wire service. Fournier’s acclaimed 2016 parenting memoir, Love That Boy: What Two Presidents, Eight Road Trips, and My Son Taught Me About a Parent’s Expectations, debuted at No. 10 on Amazon.com and spent multiple weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. He is the co-author of the New York Times best-selling Applebee's America: How Successful Political, Business, and Religious Leaders Connect with the New American Community, which examined the shared attributes of successful chief executives.

“This is an incredible honor,” Fournier said. “Building on Mary’s foundation, Crain’s will serve the Southeast Michigan business community in two ways: An indispensable source of business news and, through its independent custom content division, high-utility marketing and events consulting.” He called Kramer a mentor and friend. “When my wife and I decided three years ago to move back home, we had no idea where to start. Then along came Mary Kramer and the Detroit Homecoming, and now I’m a proud ‘ex-expat,’” Fournier said. Kramer is a seasoned expert with more than 40 years of reporting and management experience. She joined Crain’s Detroit Business in 1989, and in 1990 was named associate publisher. In May 1994, Kramer was named a vice president of Crain Communications, and in May 2005, she was named publisher. In 2012, she was named group publisher at Crain Communications, supervising Crain’s Cleveland Business in addition to Detroit. Today, she is active in many Detroit-area business and civic organizations, including several that support at-risk girls and education. She is a trustee of both the Skillman Foundation in Detroit and Grand Valley State University in the Grand Rapids area. She was also the first woman to be elected president of the historic Detroit Athletic Club.

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GORES FROM PAGE 1

As part of the relocation, the Pistons will build a team headquarters and practice facility at a cost of up to $55 million near the arena. Gores’ Palace Sports & Entertainment unit will become part of a joint venture of theaters and amphitheaters with the Ilitches’ Olympia Entertainment. The Pistons move is the splashiest part of Gores’ wider business strategy of making business, civic and philanthropic investments in Detroit and elsewhere in Michigan. While his decision to bring the Pistons home drew applause for civic pride, Gores’ most important accomplishment locally may be his investment in helping his hometown of Flint. He took the lead last year on private-sector aid for Flint’s drinking water catastrophe by creating the FlintNOW campaign that has made available $25 million in direct aid for those affected. Gores, who grew up in suburban Flint after his family emigrated from his native Israel when he was 4, in January 2016 announced creation of FlintNOW, an initiative aimed at raising $10 million in corporate and organization funding intended for immediate water relief and longterm economic development, nutrition and health care in Flint and Genesee County. Two months later, Gores announced a joint effort with Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington Bank — which has nine branches in Genesee County — to make $25 million available in the form of loans and grants for businesses, entrepreneurs and residents of Flint and Genesee County affected by the ongoing water crisis. Gores isn’t doing it alone: Helping administer and manage the efforts are the Flint-based Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Community Foundation of Greater Flint, Flint & Genesee Chamber of Commerce, Metro Community Development and the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

“This is exactly the kind of private-sector partnership we envisioned when we launched FlintNOW,” Gores said in a statement at the time of the announcement. “The government is responsible for fixing the water supply in Flint, but we’re all responsible for fixing the commu-

SPACE FROM PAGE 3

“There’s always pushback, but it’s hard to argue with penetration and products; these rules apply to everyone,” Alberts said. “It’s not arbitrary, and we’re precise on every detail of the formula.” For instance, Ford Motor Co. will occupy 49,106 square feet at Cobo. That figure is calculated using Ford’s 14 percent North American market share, its 16 models available on the continent and its world debuts in the past. Ford debuted the 2017 Ford Fusion and 2017 F-150 Raptor SuperCrew at last year’s show. Alberts begins the next year’s formula as soon as each show ends in late January, but it’s not completely solidified until days before the next show. There are always last-minute

nity.” Gores himself gave the first $1 million, which went directly to the

Flint Child Health & Development Fund, United Way of Genesee County’s Flint Water Fund and the American Red Cross, which is coordinating re-

lief efforts in Flint and operating the Volunteer Reception Center for people to help with the distribution of water, water filters, replacement cartridges and water testing kits. He also provided more than $500,000 to match a telethon that raised $1.1 million for Flint. He said he intends to do more in the future. “I think we’ve made a difference, and I’m proud of the work we’ve done so far, but there is a lot more to do. I’ve always viewed this as a longterm initiative,” Gores said in emailed comments last week. Gores, a 1982 Genesee High School graduate who went to Michigan State University, has promised that 100 percent of all donations to the FlintNOW Fund will be distributed to programs that directly support its mission, with full transparency and without administrative overhead or fees. Leading FlintNOW for him are Platinum Equity partner Mark Barnhill and Palace Vice Chairman Arn Tellem. It was Tellem, the noted super-agent and deal-maker, whom Gores hired in 2015 as vice chairman of Palace Sports & Entertainment to lead investment strategy. Gores has also put money into youth programs, education and scholarships. Other examples of his involvement include being part of the financing of new police cars and ambulances for the city of Detroit, and the Pistons pledged $1 million over 20 years as part of the Detroit Institute of Arts’ $100 million pledge in the “grand bargain” settlement of the city’s bankruptcy. Gores and his private equity firm, Los Angeles-based Platinum Equity, in 2015 spent $50,000 for LED lighting to replace the broken lights on the MacArthur Bridge to Belle Isle in time for the annual Grand Prix. Other efforts have included Gores donating $75,000 to former Detroit Mayor Dave Bing’s youth mentoring program, and $250,000 donations to the Rose Leadership Academy in Detroit and a Lansing scholarship program with Magic Johnson. changes, Alberts said. As of last Thursday, NAIAS staff had drafted 56 iterations of the floor plan for this year’s show, which runs through Jan. 22, but they’ll likely reach 60 before the doors open, he said. That figure is down significantly from last year, when an avalanche of brand-new displays made the puzzle harder to assemble. Last year, Alberts and his staff drafted 163 floor plans. Alberts used to draft the floor plan on a lightboard with a pencil and ruler in the early days of his tenure. Now it’s done internally by his staff using software. It has to be precise. “In the late 1990s, we mismeasured by 2 feet, and two displays bumped into each other,” Alberts said. “The builders designed the build on our specs ands were left

Gores is funding contributions to organizations such as S.A.Y. Detroit, Detroit PAL and The Greening of Detroit. The Pistons relocation deal also comes with community benefits: Gores agreed to spend more than $2 million to build about 60 basketball courts in parks throughout Detroit over the next six years. In addition, it’s also expected to include 20,000 free Pistons tickets per year for Detroit students and residents. Other community benefits components include having at least 51 percent of the hours worked on the construction of the practice facility be done by Detroiters; at least 30 percent of the value of all construction contracts related to the practice facility be given to Detroit-based companies; a $100,000 donation to the Detroit Employment Solutions Corp.; and mentorship opportunities. The Pistons aren’t Gores’ only Detroit sports investment: He’s in a joint venture with fellow billionaire and sports mogul Dan Gilbert to bring a Major League Soccer team and stadium downtown. That idea was hatched in April, and plans for a $1 billion stadium and mixed-use development on the site of the unfinished Wayne County jail were made public to much fanfare. The effort remains in limbo while the jail site’s fate is negotiated. “We are still working through the process. I’m going to speak with (MLS Commissioner) Don Garber in the next few weeks, and I’m excited to make the case for Detroit. I know we have everything we need here for a team to succeed,” Gores said. Gores said he plans to make further investments in Michigan, not just in Detroit and Flint. “We will support programs that benefit everyone,” he said. “From a business standpoint, there is a lot of opportunity. We invest in automotive, transportation and logistics, manufacturing and many other industries. There is a lot of opportunity throughout Michigan. In addition to several Detroit-area companies, we invested in a boat manufacturing business in Cadillac, for instance, that was very successful. I think Michigan has a lot of exciting potential, and I expect we’ll do more.” Bill Shea: (313) 446-1626 Twitter: @Bill_Shea19

wondering who gets the 2 extra feet.” The show floor now fits together down to the last millimeter, Alberts said. None of Cobo’s more than 700,000 square feet of concrete floor is exposed. Alberts calls the layout “pristine.” Critical to the plan is lines of sight, allowing attendees to see from one end of the show to another from any one of the major aisles, Alberts said. “There is no lakefront property,” Alberts said. “(Exhibitors) can’t argue with being in the middle of the show floor. There’s an ease to going through our show and a buzz from the ambiance of being able to see across the room. Our customers are the media and (automakers), and we take pride in what we’ve built.” Dustin Walsh: (313) 446-6042 Twitter: @dustinpwalsh

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // J A N U A R Y 9 , 2 0 1 7

PLANET M FROM PAGE 3

The MEDC and its partners will spend $250,000 in 2017 on sponsorships, creating “Shark Tank”-style events where California startups pitch Michigan’s auto players and, ultimately, set up a state economic development office in Silicon Valley. Additional funds will be spent on marketing the concept, Pawl said. The state plans to become a sponsor of Santa Clara, Calif.-based processor maker Nvidia Corp.’s GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, Calif., in May. Planet M would be marketed and state economic agencies would be present, once a deal is reached, Pawl said. The conference attracts global scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs focused on artificial intelligence, virtual reality and driverless cars. The goal of the initiative is to create or be involved in 12 events between Silicon Valley and Michigan. Pawl said too often Michigan’s auto industry is used as the commercialization piece of the supply chain, losing out on the profitable aspects of innovation. “We’ve spent years touting that we’re the auto capital, that we have 375 (research and development) centers,” Pawl said. “But what happens too often is a raw idea comes from, say, Japan, then to Silicon Valley for early-stage development, then to testing in Tennessee, then to Farmington Hills for validation. We’re the last stop on the innovation chain. We need to be stop number two. We need to be the innovation center.” Farmington Hills-based Flextronics Automotive USA Inc., a subsidiary of Singapore technology conglomerate Flex Ltd., is already in discussions with

the MEDC to get involved with the initiative. Flex is involved in 12 businesses, including a $2 billion automotive unit dedicated to autonomous, connected and electrification vehicle technology. Its U.S. headquarters is located in Silicon Valley. Flextronics employs 600 in Michigan and its customers include Ford, General Motors Co., Tata Technologies Inc., FCA US LLC, etc. Chris Obey, president of Flextronics Automotive, speaking from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, said Flextronics is often overlooked in the automotive conversation because its U.S. headquarters is in Silicon Valley, where automakers look more to Delphi Automotive plc and Robert Bosch LLC that have more established relationships. “We’re trying to get recognized as a tier-one supplier in the auto sector, so being on top of a contact initiative like this is important,” Obey said. “We’re looking to continue to invest in the Detroit area, so we want to help bring our knowledge base in Silicon Valley to Detroit as it becomes a larger and larger tech zone and an autonomous vehicle center.” Flex, and Flextronics, is the sort of multifaceted business Detroit wants to attract. Flex’s business lines include manufacturing of 80 percent of the world’s wearable devices, including all of the activity trackers for San Francisco-based Fitbit Inc. It supplies customers in the connected home, energy, server, storage and mobile fields. “Speed is currency and the world is moving faster and faster, and we’re hoping to show Michigan’s auto sector how important it is to innovate at high speed,” Obey said. “We’re working with several local companies on autonomous projects, and we’re going to fo-

cus more of that work in Michigan. This initiative should help others to do more of the same.” Glenn Stevens, executive director of the Detroit Regional Chamber’s MichAuto, an automotive advocacy group that works closely with the MEDC, said the auto companies are now technology companies, so aligning with the world’s greatest idea generators is important. “A lot of these entrepreneurs have this perception that the traditional auto companies move slow,” Stevens said. “That’s just not true. With programs like this, we’re able to change this perception and show them how automotive is a real target market.” Tim Yerdon, director of marketing and communications for Van Buren Township-based Visteon Corp. and chairman of MichAuto’s talent and retention committee, said getting products to market is now the auto industry’s greatest challenge. “It’s all about how quickly we can get these new (automotive) functions to market,” Yerdon said. “Anything the state can do to expedite that is another feather in our cap and to the state and industry.” Stevens said the Silicon Valley plan is the first in what he hopes will be a full expansion of the state’s economic prowess across the country. “There’s real opportunity with the Valley, but not limited to just there,” Stevens said. “There’s opportunity in Austin or Boston or other parts of the world. It’s not just about accelerating something that’s happening today, but connecting those with these ideas all over the world with the consumers (Michigan auto companies) of that technology.” Dustin Walsh: (313) 446-6042 Twitter: @dustinpwalsh

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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 // J A N U A R Y 9 , 2 0 1 7

RETAIL FROM PAGE 3 www.crainsdetroit.com Editor-in-Chief Keith E. Crain Executive Vice President KC Crain Publisher/Editor Ron Fournier, (313) 446-1674 or rfournier@crain.com Group Publisher Mary Kramer, (313) 446-0399 or mkramer@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 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 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 Jay Greene, senior reporter Covers health care, insurance, energy, utilities and the environment. (313) 446-0325 or jgreene@crain.com Chad Livengood Covers Detroit rising. (313) 446-1654 or clivengood@crain.com Kirk Pinho Covers real estate, city of Detroit. (313) 446-0412 or kpinho@crain.com 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

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“Developers and landlords have to be creative,” Agree said.

The possibilities Civic complexes. Movie theaters. Grocery stores. Hunting and fishing outlets. New office space. All are possibilities for the soon-tobe shuttered former Kmart properties, and that's just the start of it. “If you survey the market, there are very few of these box spaces left,” said Michael Lippitt, co-owner of Farmington Hills-based Landmark Commercial Real Estate Services Inc., a retail brokerage firm. “We have seen unique uses like government offices to entertainment uses with bounce houses to carving the spaces up for things like Hobby Lobby, furniture stores like Art Van Furniture, and boxes like Dick’s Sporting Goods, TJ Maxx, car dealerships.” For example, Westland, which was hit with not just a closure announcement of its Kmart on South Wayne Road but also its Macy's store in the Westland Shopping Center last week, took a rotting, 64,000-square-foot Circuit City electronics store and converted it into its new city hall. Several old Kmart stores are becoming or have been converted into Kroger Co. grocery stores in Commerce Township on Union Lake Road, in Southgate on Fort Street and in Warren at 13 Mile and Schoenherr roads. Another former Circuit City, this one in Troy outside Oakland Mall, was demolished, with a Field & Stream store taking its place two years ago. Ford Motor Co. reconfigured a former Lord & Taylor department store in Dearborn’s Fairlane Town Center into office space, plus space in an adjacent mall wing, taking 240,000 square feet. The Container Store, which specializes in organizational and storage products, opened in a former Best Buy store in Novi last year. And a former Kmart in Troy is now the site of a 16-screen MJR movie theater at Maple and Main in 2014. At Southland Center in Taylor, a former Mervyn’s department store site was likewise turned into a 12-screen Cinemark theater. But look no farther than Canton Township locally to see how to transform a vacant box store. One of the biggest retail destinations in the region, Ikea, opened its first Michigan location on the site of a former Super Kmart at Ford and Haggerty roads. Elsewhere around the country, former Kmarts have been transformed into flea markets, like one in Fayetteville, N.C., and the headquarters for Hormel — plus a museum for its iconic Spam product — in Austen, Minn. In Missouri, a shuttered Kmart was turned into a library, museum and cafe. In cases like those out of state, for example, it could be cost prohibitive for the local landlords to pursue such a strategy of dividing the spaces between multiple tenants because dividing them costs about $65 per square foot, Agree said. So a 90,000-squarefoot Kmart building would cost approximately $6 million to split into 30,000-square-foot blocks, he said.

The casualties n Kmart, Garden City, 29600 Ford Road

Owner: Kin Properties Inc. Size: 95,000 square feet n Kmart, Plymouth Township, 40855 Ann Arbor Road

Owner: Sears Holdings Corp. Size: 108,000 square feet n Kmart, Roseville, 17580 Frazho Road

Owner: Kmart Size: 149,000 square feet n Kmart, Waterford Township, 3541 Highland Road

Owner: Kamin Realty Corp. Size: 102,000 square feet n Kmart, Westland, 165 S. Wayne Road

Owner: AFP Fifty Corp. Size: 91,000 square feet n Macy’s, Eastland Center, Harper

Woods, 18000 Vernier Road

Owners: Macy’s Inc.; Spinosa Management Group Size: 1.3 million square feet; 443,000 square feet for Macy’s n Macy’s, Westland Shopping Center, 35000 W. Warren Ave.

Owners: Macy’s Inc.; Namdar Realty Group; Mason Asset Management Inc. Size: 1.2 million square feet; 350,000 for Macy’s Sources: CoStar Group Inc.; Westland Shopping Center

Sudden losses Last week marked a retail bloodbath in metro Detroit. Seven stores — five Kmarts and two Macy’s — representing an astounding 1.34 million square feet and hundreds of jobs, were wiped out within several hours of each other with back-to-back announcements. Kmart’s parent company, Illinois-based Sears Holding Corp., has been shedding stores for years; Macy’s announced the pending closure of 100 stores in August, and just last week announced the locations. The flagship Kmart on Ford Road will close, as well as locations on Ann Arbor Road in Plymouth Township, Frazho Road in Roseville, Highland Road in Waterford Township and South Wayne Road in Westland. Macy’s department stores in the Westland Shopping Center — after which the city is named — and in the struggling Eastland Center in Harper Woods will go dark, representing the loss of 227 jobs. Macy’s stores in Lakeview Square Mall in Battle Creek and the Lansing Mall, employing 108, will also close as part of the cost-cutting move. In all, the closures mark one-fifth of the company’s Michigan stores. Outstate Kmart stores closing are in Jackson, Adrian, Lansing, Muskegon and Acme Township; a Sears store in Grand Rapids will also be lost. In all, Sears Holding Corp. is closing 150 stores with an undisclosed number of jobs affected.

Kmart and Sears have been hemorrhaging shoppers in recent years with the shift toward online shopping, competition from competitors Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp., and what analysts have decried as a cycle of underinvestment in stores, which many shoppers see as tired or lacking inventory. “If you are going to go for a shopping experience, would you rather go there or a newer Target or a newer Wal-Mart? The product line is very thin,” said Christopher Brochert, partner of Bloomfield Hills-based shopping center and retail developers and investors Lormax Stern Development Co. LLC, which owns Macomb Mall in Roseville. “A lot of those Kmart stores were built in the 1960s and early 1970s,” he said. “The ceilings are low, the buildings are old, the infrastructure on the buildings is poor. Basically, they’ve got to be gutted.”

Nothing off the table Patrick Derrig and others have been preparing for the Macy’s closing possibility for several months. Derrig, the marketing manager for Westland Shopping Center, said “preliminary discussions" have been held about what to do with the store’s 350,000 square feet at the 1.2 millionsquare-foot mall on West Warren Avenue, which has an occupancy rate of about 98.5 percent. “There were always discussions of the possibility that would take place,” he said. “We’ve had several discussions about how to reimagine, repurpose the space to better serve the needs of our shoppers. “Nothing is off the table.” Failure to create an attractive store experience and relevant product offering has hurt Kmart in recent years, local retail experts said. Kmart has made very little capital improvement in its stores to keep the design fresh with competitors, and it’s failed to attract new or interesting brands that resonate with consumers, said Ken Nisch, chairman of Southfield-based JGA, which designs branded environments for customers. The availability of health and beauty goods, home goods and other non-food products core to Kmart’s offerings at stores consumers are already going to, like a Kroger Marketplace store, has also dampened foot traffic at Kmart stores, he said. The fact that Kmart’s customer base is the demographic that’s been most impacted by wage stagnation and lack of liquidity as a result of the housing crisis hasn’t helped the retailer either, Nisch said. “I think if you even look at the Kmart flier 20 years ago and compare them to now, there’s been little change,” said retail consultant Cindy Ciura of CC Consulting in Bloomfield Hills. Kmart has also had ongoing inventory problems, she said, advertising on-sale items in its circulars but not having them in stock when customers came to buy. “You do that enough times, and your customers won’t come back,” Ciura said. The biggest asset the retailer has going for it is its real estate, Ciura said,

given that all of the Kmart locations — even those closing — are large properties in key locations, making them valuable. The company’s real estate holdings are “probably more important than their brand,” she said. Kmart locations already shuttered are attracting looks from sporting goods retailers, health clubs like Planet Fitness and home goods stores like At Home, which moved into the former Kmart site on Telegraph Road in Bloomfield Township. At other sites, like the former Kmart on Grand River Avenue in Farmington Hills, a developer leveled the store and is constructing a new, mixed-use development, Ciura said.

Macy’s decline Last week, in conjunction with its announcement of continued store closures, Macy’s said its sales during November and December were lower than expected. Its revenue declined by 2.1 percent over the holidays when compared to the same two-month period in 2015. The retailer saw double-digit gains in its online business at macys.com and bloomingdales.com, but store sales “continued to be impacted by changing customer behavior,” Macy’s Chairman and CEO Terry Lundgren said in a release. Macy’s is “strategically cannibalizing (its) brick-and-mortar stores rather than let other retailers do it,” Nisch said. Rather than lose sales to Amazon, Macy’s is offering special pricing online and black Friday events starting on Monday or Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, Nisch said. “The consequence of that is they are shifting sales in many cases from their stores to their online channels.” With that in mind, Macy’s needs smaller or different kinds of stores, Nisch said. He sees a brick-and-mortar store as becoming more of a showroom where people can get a better sense of the goods before buying them online. The Eastland and Westland Macy’s locations are older stores with changing demographics in the market around them that may not include their target customers. If sales aren’t optimal and the rent and other charges they are paying are costlier than what they are paying at more profitable stores, the deals (many inherited from the days the stores operated as Hudson’s) don’t make sense, Ciura said. Overall, there’s likely to be more rationalization of brick-and-mortar stores operated in Southeast Michigan by national chains, Nisch said. But he and Ciura both agree physical stores will not go away altogether. Magnet stores such as those at The Somerset Collection, Twelve Oaks Mall, Lakeside Mall, The Mall at Partridge Creek and Southland Center will grow. “The losers will be legacy retailers, those with mature retail footprints that are imbalanced or inappropriate to the change in online and physical shopping,” Nisch said. Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412 Twitter: @kirkpinhoCDB Sherri Welch: (313) 446-1694 Twitter: @SherriWelch

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // J A N U A R Y 9 , 2 0 1 7

THE WEEK ON THE WEB DECEMBER 17-JANUARY 6

6 metro Detroit Limited stores set to close

ix The Limited stores in metro Detroit were set to close by Sunday, part of the Ohiobased clothing retailer’s announcement Friday that it would shutter all its brick-and-mortar stores at the end of the weekend. The company had locations in Somerset Collection and Oakland Mall in Troy, Laurel Place in Livonia, Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi, Great Lakes Crossing in Auburn Hills and Lakeside Mall in Sterling Heights.

COMPANY NEWS

J Six companies owned by Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel “Matty” Moroun filed a year-end lawsuit in the Michigan Court of Claims that seeks to stop the Michigan Department of Transportation from condemning parcels of land that five of Moroun’s companies own that sit in the pathway of the long-planned Gordie Howe International Bridge linking Detroit and Canada. J The developer behind the Village at Bloomfield project in Bloomfield Township and Pontiac expects to bring a new Menard Inc. store to the 87-acre site. An executive from Southfield-based Redico LLC declined to identify the Eau Claire, Wis.-based home improvement retailer as the tenant going into a planned 236,000-square-foot building on the site, but an amended site plan filed with township officials identifies Menard. J The sale of the former Robert Scott Correctional Facility site in Northville Township was completed as the township announced the $8.5 million sale of the 53-acre site to Northville Five LLC, an affiliate of Farmington Hills-based Pinnacle Homes. Initial plans were to develop the site into a Village at Northville project with residences, retail, restaurants and an anchor retailer. J Billionaire investor Carl Icahn raised his offer 75 cents a share to gain total control over Southfield supplier Federal-Mogul Holdings Corp. as a previous offer deadline ap-

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

$48 million The amount of a settlement between Troy-based United

Shore Financial Services LLC

and the U.S. Department of Justice. The agency said United Shore failed to comply with federal requirements after it issued hundreds of “materially deficient” mortgages.

$55 million

The sale price being paid by a San Diego-based real estate investment trust for a parking deck west of the Renaissance Center in Detroit. The deck is being purchased by an entity affiliated with MVP REIT Inc. from Center Parking Associates Limited Partnership, which is registered to Bloomfield Hills attorney Lawrence Jackier.

$700 million The planned investment by Ford

Motor Co. at its Flat Rock

Assembly Plant as part of a new plan to bring to market 13 electrified vehicles. Ford announced it would cancel its $1.6 billion assembly plant in Mexico after criticism from President-elect Donald Trump.

proached. Icahn, through a subsidiary of his Icahn Enterprises LP, offered $10 per share, up from a previous offer of $9.25, to acquire the remaining shares of Federal-Mogul the firm does not own — about 18 percent. J Detroit-based iRule LLC, a maker of cloud-based controls for consumer, corporate and institutional entertainment systems, was sold to Kramer Electronics Ltd., a provider of audio and video systems based in Israel. Financial terms were not disclosed. The company will continue to operate as iRule. J Ann Arbor-based Altarum Institute expanded its service mix to alternative payment models by adding the Health Care Incentives Improve-

OLYMPIA DEVELOPMENT

When done, the Detroit Red Wings’ playing surface inside Little Caesars Arena downtown will sit about 40 feet below street level and the Detroit Pistons’ basketball court will be erected over the ice during the concurrent seasons.

ment Institute, according to a statement by the two nonprofit health care consulting organizations. J Detroit-based In-House Realty, part of the Quicken Loans Family of Companies, said it will buy a Toronto-based technology group and its proprietary technology platform from OpenHouse Realty, a Santa Monica, Calif., residential real estate company. Terms were not disclosed. J International Bancard Corp. plans to grow its payroll by up to 50 employees in the next two years in its new space in Detroit. About 70 employees work out of the new headquarters at 1505 Woodward Ave. J The former Varsity Shop Inc. building in downtown Birmingham has sold to C. Michael Kojaian, owner of Bloomfield Hills-based real estate company Kojaian Management Corp. Kojaian is the registered agent on 277 Development Associates LLC; Oakland County land records show that entity purchasing the building in September from the Secontine Family Limited Partnership. J Troy-based supplier Delphi Automotive plc acquired Plymouth Township-based over-the-air software update provider Movimento Inc. Terms were not disclosed; Movimento will remain an independent entity. J The Lark restaurant in West Bloomfield Township is back up for sale, after an initial plan to sell it fell through. The Lark closed in December 2015 after 35 years of business.

OTHER NEWS J

Jim Caldwell, often a target of fan

and media criticism, will return next season for the final year of his contract as coach of the Detroit Lions, the team confirmed. Caldwell has led the Lions to the National Football League playoffs in two of his three seasons in Detroit. J After a championship football season at Western Michigan University, P.J. Fleck is leaving to become head coach at the University of Minnesota, AP reported. Fleck led Western to a 13-1 record, the Mid-American Conference title and a berth in the Cotton Bowl this season. J Work by Detroit-based RBV Contracting began on what will eventually be the ice rink at Little Caesars Arena, the $635 million building that will be home to the Detroit Red Wings and Pistons when it opens in September. J The Albert Kahn-designed, 63,000-square-foot Detroit Trust Co. Building at 201 W. Fort St. downtown is for sale. Constructed in 1915, it is owned by Comerica Bank, which has a branch on the first floor. The Southfield office of Los Angeles-based CBRE Inc. has the sales listing. J A museum about one of the country’s first African American-owned and -operated television stations is set to open in Detroit on Jan. 16, AP reported. Located inside the East Jefferson Avenue building that housed the original studio for WGPR-TV 62, the William V. Banks Broadcast Museum & Media Center is named after the man who founded the station in 1975.

RUMBLINGS Lions hit 1 million Twitter followers The Detroit Lions reached 1 million Twitter followers at 2:03 p.m. Wednesday when Kody Larsen (@larsen_kody) followed the team on the social network at @Lions. Detroit was the 16th National Football League team to reach the 1 million follower mark. Among local teams, the Lions trail only the Detroit Tigers in Twitter followers. A glance at the 32 NFL team to-

numbers, obviously, will have increased from when they were initially gathered: J New England Patriots: 2,804,916 J Dallas Cowboys: 2,367,267 J Denver Broncos: 2,016,241 J Carolina Panthers: 1,931,964 J Pittsburgh Steelers: 1,679,599 J Seattle Seahawks: 1,623,442 J Green Bay Packers: 1,513,175 J Philadelphia Eagles: 1,439,210 J San Francisco 49ers: 1,437,744 J New York Giants: 1,330,716 J Chicago Bears: 1,283,163 J Houston Texans: 1,232,229 J Atlanta Falcons: 1,073,884 J New York Jets: 1,054,720 J New Orleans Saints: 1,009,284

The Detroit Lions reached 1 million Twitter followers about 2 p.m. Wednesday — and the number continued to grow. tals suggests that Twitter follower level is fueled by several factors: Traditional popularity of the team, its current success level, market size and the team’s level of social media activity. Struggling teams in smaller markets mostly fill out the bottom third of the list. Seven of the top 10 most-followed NFL teams are from the National Football Conference. Here are the Twitter follower totals for the NFL’s 32 clubs, collected at approximately the same time the Lions surpassed 1 million. The

J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J

J Detroit 1,000,000

Lions:

J Baltimore Ravens: 997,202 Oakland Raiders: 887,479 Washington Redskins: 858,194 Cleveland Browns: 779,041 Minnesota Vikings: 766,846 Kansas City Chiefs: 759,854 Indianapolis Colts: 735,926 Miami Dolphins: 734,865 Cincinnati Bengals: 661,597 Buffalo Bills: 649,228 San Diego Chargers: 615,284 Arizona Cardinals: 612,305 Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 561,239 Tennessee Titans: 506,784 Los Angeles Rams: 454,862 Jacksonville Jaguars: 407,249

Center to honor Ferriby as philanthropic scholar The Center on Community Philanthropy at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service has named local planned giving expert Robin Ferriby as a distinguished scholar in residence for the 2016-17 academic year. While presidents of community foundations around the country have been named as such, Ferriby, vice president of philanthropic services at the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, is the first community foundation vice president to be selected. Established in 2009, the pro-

gram recognizes researchers, practitioners and senior executives who have demonstrated outstanding contributions in philanthropy. Each scholar joins the center for one week at the Clinton School, and will write an essay on community philanthropy, interact with students and faculty, and present their work as a part of the Clinton School Speaker Series. Ferriby, whose residency will take place in late February, will write and present on the impact of community philanthropy in creating social change.

Bridal readers cite 3 state locales Three Michigan sites made the 2017 “Best Venues in America” list in Brides magazine. The annual list is set to come out in its February-March issue. Locally, the Planterra conservatory in West Bloomfield Township

is on the list, as is Zingerman’s Cornman Farms in Dexter. The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island rounds out the Michigan venues, which were among 11 Midwestern sites readers hailed as their favorites.

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