Crain's Detroit Business, Jan. 16, 2017 issue

JANUARY 16-22, 2017

Focus: Hope’s new CEO eyes a better future

Healthy choices in hospital food

50-year-old nonprofit works to fix revenue, funding concerns, Page 3

Special Report, Page 9

Development

North American International Auto Show

Detroit parking space NAIAS touts new mobility event, becomes a driving issue but exhibitors look to Las Vegas

By Chad Livengood clivengood@crain.com

The fast-approaching advent of self-driving vehicles over the next decade has Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s administration starting to rethink the need to pair every new office building or residential development with a parking garage.

How much parking will they need? Well, that’s an open question, one that is already having effects on how projects are planned and financed, even as parking in some areas gets harder to find.

Real estate developers have plans to build 500,000 square feet of new office and commercial space in downtown and Midtown and 10,000 new housing units in the coming years, according to the mayor.

Duggan suggested last week at the North American International Auto Show that Detroit may not need

thousands of new parking spaces in multi-story parking garages to accommodate the influx of workers

and residents to the city’s central core.

“If self-driving vehicles are really close, it may not be that people are going to drive a car and store it for eight hours in a structure,” Duggan said at a forum of U.S. mayors at Cobo Center. “It may be that the self-driving car drives you to work, goes back home and does errands with your spouse.”

The Detroit Planning & Development Department is trying to forecast just how much parking Detroit will need once self-driving vehicles hit the road as early as 2021, when the Big Three and Silicon Valley startups hope to bring autonomous cars to market.

Duggan said the decision to build smaller parking garages will be data-driven, but it goes against conventional wisdom that more office space means a need for more parking space.

“We’re having discussions at the SEE PARKING, PAGE 18

Transportation

$2.4M for Detroit River ferries sits unspent after 7 years

By Kirk Pinho kpinho@crain.com

Early in President Barack Obama’s first term, more than $2 million in federal money was granted to the Detroit Wayne County Port Authority to buy ferry boats.

The boats still haven’t been bought seven years later, even though the $2.4 million grant application says they would be purchased and operational within 12 months.

Ferries could offer an easier way back and forth along a once-industrial riverfront transformed over the past decade by the creation of the Detroit RiverWalk and a redevelopment boom.

The head of the port authority, who took his job in the middle of 2014, several years after the 2010

grant was awarded, says he is investigating how best to use the money and plans to get more information later this year, while others are wondering what the holdup is.

These days, it’s a much different environment along the Detroit River than when the grant was awarded.

At the time the Ferry Boat Discretionary grant was announced, development activity was far more sluggish than it is today, and the Detroit RiverWalk, the popular 3.5-mile path stretching from Gabriel Richard Park west to Joe Louis Arena, had opened less than two years earlier. Now, the RiverWalk gets about 3 million visitors per year between typical users like walkers, runners and bikers and those attending Detroit RiverFront SEE FERRIES, PAGE 17

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The inaugural Automobili-D event tied to the auto show focused on mobility and ran during media and industry days.

First effort plants a flag, but suppliers aren’t aiming to skip CES

By Dustin Walsh dwalsh@crain.com

The North American International Auto Show is competing with the Consumer Electronics Show, whether it wants to or not, and Detroit’s first attempt to deliver a blow to the increasingly auto-centric gadget show in Las Vegas isn’t yet measuring up, attendees said.

NAIAS launched the Automobili-D exhibit in Cobo Center’s atrium, in part, to highlight the future of mobility and its intersection with the auto industry as well as steal a little thunder from CES’ growing importance to the industry.

While organizers believe Automobili-D effectively connected the traditional car show with the new era of technology, the exhibitors who make and sell the technology say Automobili-D did little to lure them to move their flashiest and most cut-

ting-edge exhibits from CES, which takes place only a week before, forcing exhibitors to choose.

Automobili-D combined a technology exhibit, including established suppliers like Visteon Corp. and startups like the California folding electric scooter maker Urb-E, with seminars

“I think it’s going incredible.

I’m not going to say (Automobili-D) was an answer to CES ... really, it’s an enhancement to what we’ve always had at the show.”

Rod Alberts, NAIAS executive director

featuring industry executives, investors and entrepreneurs.

“I think it’s going incredible,” Rod Alberts, executive director of NAIAS, said last week. “I’m not going to say (Automobili-D) was an answer to CES ... really, it’s an enhancement to what we’ve always had at the show.”

It’s hard to dispute that CES, which typically takes place the week before Detroit’s auto show, is now the first auto show of the year — a label the Detroit show’s organizers had championed for years. It began in earnest, as auto suppliers focused on advanced technologies began focusing efforts toward the world’s largest electronics show more and more in the past decade. Then, in 2012, Mercedes-Benz bypassed NAIAS to unveil a self-driving car concept. Last year, Audi AG sent a driverless car from Los Angeles to Las SEE MOBILI-D, PAGE 15

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MICHIGAN BRIEFS Analysis: ACA repeal may hit many Trump backers Among the hundreds of thousands of state residents likely to be affected by a repeal of the Affordable Care Act in the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration are many in counties that voted strongly for the law’s critic-inchief, according to a Bridge Magazine analysis of Donald Trump: government Supporters may be data. impacted by repeal.

The implications of an immediate repeal of the ACA could be felt by nearly one in 10 Michigan residents, and as much as 13 percent of the population in places as different from one another as the Detroit-area and rural Emmet County, according to the analysis.

For example, in Wayne County, dominated by Democratic-heavy Detroit, 12.7 percent of county residents receive health care through a combination of ACA enrollment or Medicaid expansion. But in Cheboygan County, the northern county where Trump routed Democratic

nominee Hillary Clinton by a 2-to-1 margin, even more residents —13.1 percent — depend on ACA coverage or Medicaid expansion.

Trump, who takes office Jan. 20, is pushing the Republican-led Congress to immediately repeal Obamacare. As many as 2 million Michiganders could be impacted by such a dramatic health care change, enrollment data show.

MICH-CELLANEOUS

J A bill to create a statewide infrastructure council was introduced last week in the Michigan House.

The bill, introduced by freshman state Rep. Patrick Green, D-Warren, would create the 21st Century Infrastructure Council to collect data on Michigan’s many infrastructure systems and come up with ways to pay for repairs. The council — to be housed within the Michigan Depart-

ment of Technology, Management and Budget — was one of the recommen-

dations from a task force appointed

by Gov. Rick Snyder to identify the state’s infrastructure needs related to transportation, water systems, energy transmission and communications. Business Leaders for Michigan, the state’s business roundtable, last week released a report that also recommended creation of a council.

J Some Michigan business leaders

These are times of epic change: an economic transition atop a technological revolution amid a new demography that is transforming the face of our nation. This confluence of transformative events creates a particular challenge for leaders.

have joined forces to rally against oil pipelines running through the Great Lakes and their potential for damage to the environment and their livelihoods. The new Great Lakes Business Network is demanding that politicians and legislators end operations of Enbridge Line 5, a line from Canadian company Enbridge that runs under the Straits of Mackinac. Among the founding members of the network are BarFly Ventures, Grand Rapids; Bell’s Brewery, Comstock; Cherry Republic, Glen Arbor; HopCat, Grand Rapids; and Shepler’s Mackinac Island Ferry, Mackinaw City. During a media conference call last week, the business owners voiced concerns and made clear demands for alternatives to the pipelines.

J The Pure Michigan tourism campaign has a new look for the new year. The $1.46 million campaign and a redesigned michigan.org website, part of an ongoing initiative by Travel Michigan, aims to integrate personalization and social media to better resonate with its audience. Broadcasting and digital advertising campaigns have launched in markets from Chicago to Ontario, and billboards featuring Grand Haven, Marquette and Munising will be on display in and out of state, the state travel agency said.

J The U.S. Supreme Court last week declined to hear a bid by Dow Chemi-

INSIDE CALENDAR

cal Co. to revive its claim to more than

$1 billion in tax deductions based on partnerships the Midland-based company entered into that lower courts said were created primarily to avoid tax liability and had no legitimate business purpose, Reuters reported.

The justices left in place two rulings by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of the U.S. government over the two partnerships, Chemtech I and II, that ran from 1993 to 2003. The lower courts agreed with the Internal Revenue Service that Dow did not merit the tax benefits.

J An unidentified patient contracted Legionnaires’ disease last fall while being cared for at McLaren Flint Hospital from Oct. 19 to Nov. 4 for an undisclosed medical issue, according to a letter sent by the Michigan

Department of Health and Human Services to McLaren Flint CEO Don

Kooy and Mark Valacak, health officer for the Genesee County Health Department. Last August, the Genesee health department and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Infection

said tests conducted on McLaren Flint’s water management system found the hospital had a comprehensive infection control plan, but that some parts were not being followed, including checking of disinfectant levels. McLaren Flint was notified to improve water management

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COMPANY INDEX: SEE PAGE 18 plans to avoid an outbreak of Legionnaires’, which has claimed at least 12 lives since 2014 in Genesee County and has been tied to the lead poisoning of Flint’s water supply.

J Citing a need to find talent, Southfield-based contractor Barton Malow Co. is joining a group of education and business leaders planning to study Michigan’s approach to funding K-12 schools. The initiative was announced last week by the School Finance Research Collaborative and has the support of the Small Business Association of Michigan.

The 18-member group includes leaders of traditional K-12 and intermediate school districts, university professors and business groups from across Michigan. Business groups say a need to develop and recruit talent is a major reason for their participation.

companies and communities navigate the currents of change.

These men and women don’t just react to change; they embrace and exploit it.

This special section will be published in the June 5 edition of Crain’s Detroit Business.

Submit your nomination by Tuesday, Jan. 31 at CrainsDetroit.com/nominate.

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RUMBLINGS

Crain’s Michigan Change Makers celebrates the state’s most innovative leaders who are helping their

Do you know an agent of change? Tell us about them.

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Nonprofits

Health care

Focus: Hope eyes future after setbacks

By Sherri Welch swelch@crain.com

Just four months into his new position as CEO of Focus: Hope, Jason Lee is tasked with figuring out what the 50-year-old nonprofit’s programs will look like going into the next half-century and finding a sustainable way to pay for them.

The issues are the same as those he faced as CEO of the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program, but on a different scale, he said. And they are the same issues Focus: Hope has faced for at least the past five years.

Despite a long list of corporate supporters, including the region’s top automakers and suppliers, Focus: Hope — established following the 1967 Detroit riots to help heal racial and economic divisions — has struggled with falling revenue and net losses in the wake of lost federal, state and local funding for workforce training.

“Every nonprofit is trying to figure out how to best serve its customer base ... and all nonprofits are looking for sustained revenue sources,” Lee said.

Focus: Hope Cos. Inc., the for-profit employee-leasing subsidiary that plans to eliminate 120 jobs in March was envisioned as a sustainable source of revenue that would alleviate some of the fundraising pressures on the nonprofit. But leasing employees to another company obviously relies on demand for their services from the company’s own customers.

Focus: Hope’s senior meal and early-childhood center programs have federal funding dedicated to support them. But most of its workforce development programs have not had sustained funding since 2011, when federal earmarks for its programs were cut. Since then, the

By Jay Greene jgreene@crain.com

ployees leased to other customers but we are looking into collaborating with more industry partners in the future,” Lee said.

Focus: Hope’s employee base has declined by 24 percent to 214 employees since September, the end of its last fiscal year, the nonprofit said.

Employees had seen reduced workweeks beginning in the summer of 2015, but remaining employees are back on 40-hour workweeks as of this month, Lee said.

Focus: Hope reported $24.3 million in total revenue for fiscal 2015, the year of its most recent tax filing, down from $29.3 million the year before. It had a $2.9 million loss in

A months-long stalemate in talks over a new deal between Wayne State University’s physician group for dermatologist coverage at Detroit Medical Center hospitals led to a shortfall in the specialists to check out patients’ unusual and sometimes life-threatening skin conditions, according to multiple sources.

A tentative deal was struck last week, and DMC says patients were never in danger and dermatologists were available. But two Wayne State dermatologists, a private dermatologist and a chief resident at DMC said consultations were often sought and not available for many months.

Lack of dermatology consultations — as is true for many other such specialties as neurology, psychiatry and nephrology and is especially acute for Medicaid and uninsured patients — can lead to life-threatening conditions or result in emergency hospitalizations that unnecessarily increase health care costs.

Last Nov. 15, two top DMC medical executives sent out a letter to private dermatologists in metro Detroit asking for dermatological coverage at DMC’s Harper University Hospital and Detroit Receiving Hospital’s level-one trauma center.

Dermatology sources told Crain’s that DMC has been suffering from a lack of dermatology consultations

SEE SETBACKS, PAGE 15

SEE DMC, PAGE 16

FOCUS: HOPE

Jason Lee, who has been CEO of Focus: Hope for four months, is working to figure out what the nonprofit’s future is going to look like.

“Every nonprofit is trying to figure out how to best serve its customer base ... and all nonprofits are looking for sustained revenue sources.”

Jason Lee, Focus: Hope

programs have relied on piecing together funding from the state, corporations and donors.

The for-profit subsidiary was es-

tablished to lease employees to automotive supplier Android Industries in 2011 to assemble headliners and suspension modules for the Chevrolet Volt for the nearby General Motors Co. Hamtramck assembly plant.

By law, revenue from the subsidiary must flow back to support Focus: Hope’s mission, given that it is wholly owned by the nonprofit.

Lee said he couldn’t immediately say what impact the lost employee leases to Android will have on the nonprofit’s bottom line or share financial data, as an audit of 2016 numbers is still underway. Focus: Hope continues to lease another 150 employees to Android.

“We do not have any other em-

Food economy

Investment to help startup pop up popcorn sales

By Sherri Welch

MUST READS OF THE WEEK

Pop Daddy hit $1 million in revenue last year. and its popcorn is now in more than 1,000 retail outlets.

swelch@crain.com

Local food startup Pop Daddy Popcorn has secured a first round of investment to support its expansion into other Midwestern states.

In exchange for the undisclosed investment, the Green Oak Township company is giving investment fund Pop Vision LLC a 25 percent stake in the business.

“The trend in food and snacking is moving toward simple ingredients.

People want to know where their food came from,” said Andrew Dickow, director of Birmingham-based Greenwich Capital Group and a Pop Vision member.

And Pop Daddy co-owner Mark Sarafa is at the forefront of that trend with his all-natural, simple products, Dickow said.

After three years in business, Pop Daddy hit $1 million in revenue last

Dermatology stalemate shows risks for patients

year. Its popcorn is now in more than 1,000 retail outlets, including Busch’s, Kroger, Meijer, Whole Foods, Plum Market and Wal-Mart. And it’s going head to head with national brands like Skinny Pop, Smartfood Popcorn and Angie’s BoomChickaPop. Global sales of popcorn are expected to increase more than 40 percent to $12.4 billion between 2016 and 2020, with the U.S. share of the market declining slightly to about 59 percent, Bakeryandsnacks.com reported last year, quoting projections

from

global

Technavio.

market

analyst

“There’s an opportunity to leverage some of (the) relationships (Sarafa) has built with customers and distributors ... now that he’s got his foot in the door,” said Dickow, who met Sarafa as a judge of the inaugural Crain’s Food Summit pitch contest, in which Pop Daddy was named the winner in the startup category.

Pop Vision’s members also SEE POPCORN, PAGE 17

Help for the heart Thousands of people have died from often-misdiagnosed cases of pulmonary embolism, but Mahir Elder, M.D., a cardiologist at Detroit Medical Center, is saving lives in leading a response team nicknamed the “Clotbusters.” Special Report on health care, Page 13

Hailing to the chief Michigan business luminaries and political influencers are heading to Washington, D.C., this week for Donald Trump’s inauguration as president.

Rumblings, Page 19

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Joe Biden touts Detroit comeback as Motor City Match backs entrepreneurs

By Chad Livengood clivengood@crain.com

Nine months ago, brothers David and Jonathan Merritt built a small coffee shop inside Straight Gate International Church at Grand River and Livernois avenues, where their father is the lead pastor.

The café’s immediate popularity spurred discussion among congregants that there’s a lack of coffee shops on the nearby Avenue of Fashion along Livernois on the city’s northwest side, said David Merritt, who is a pastor at the church.

The Merritts are preparing to open Narrow Way Café & Shop at 19331 Livernois Ave. in the spring and have been awarded a $45,000 grant through Motor City Match, a Detroit Economic Growth Corp. pro-

gram designed to help aid small-business startups in the city.

“We want to take (the coffee shop) outside of the church and serve the community,” said Merritt, who will run the business with his brother and father, Bishop Andrew Merritt.

They were one of 15 entrepreneurs awarded a share of $600,000 in cash grants last week at an event at the Detroit School of Digital Technology that Vice President Joe Biden attended as part of his final days in office.

Biden said the Motor City Match cash grants — which are funded by federal aid for urban neighborhood development — is the kind of program that creates a recurring cycle of inspiring new business ventures.

“What happens is someone sees

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your business go up and they say …, ‘I can do that,’” Biden said.

Biden stopped in Detroit for the event with Mayor Mike Duggan before heading to the Manoogian Mansion for a private lunch with the mayor. Biden also visited the North American International Auto Show on his way out of town.

Motor City Match is a small-business development initiative that seeks to connect aspiring business owners with technical support, real estate locations and grant funding to leverage loans and private investments.

Other recipients of cash awards announced last week include a skateboard shop, a bookstore, a bakery, artist studios, a sports bar and a new microbrewery in Eastern Market.

Rozi Berishaj, co-owner of Nick’s Detroit sports bar on West Warren Avenue, is using a $40,000 Motor City Match grant to help cover the cost of a $100,000 expansion into an adjoining building. The expansion will add 10,000 square feet to the bar and grill, allowing the owners to expand the kitchen and menu.

“It’s nice to see things come out of the downtown area and into the neighborhoods where the people live and work,” Berishaj said.

The Motor City Match program was launched in 2016 with $7 million from a federal Community Development Block Grant that has been used for about $3 million in cash grants awarded to more than 60 new businesses with startup costs.

Biden said the program is helping fill vacant real estate along Detroit’s neighborhood corridors that were largely abandoned in the second half of the 20th century.

“Where I come from, everything in the city is defined by the neighborhood,” said Biden, who resides in Wilmington, Del. “The city is what happens between 5 in the evening and 5 in the morning. That’s the city.”

Narrow Way Café, located next to Kuzzo’s Chicken & Waffles on Livernois, plans to sell coffee and pastries from Ann Arbor-based Zingerman's Coffee Co.

“Our members really loved the product, and we think it’s going to have the same reception when we’re able to open up on a historic street like the Avenue of Fashion,” David Merritt said.

Last week’s event marked the sixth round of grants for small businesses in the Motor City Match program.

Tle latest recipients are: J People Skate Shop, 2000 Michigan Ave. A $10,000 grant to support a family-owned and -operated skateboard and snowboard retailer in Keego Harbor that’s opening a new store in Corktown.

J Truth Bookstore, 16180 Meyers

CHAD LIVENGOOD

Vice President Joe Biden poses for a selfie at the Motor City Match event on Tuesday at at the Detroit School of Digital Technology.

Road. A $15,000 grant for a community-oriented bookstore on the city’s west side. The owner’s first store was forced to close by the closure of Northland Center in Southfield in 2015.

J Cake Ambition, 4154 Third St. A $25,000 grant for a Midtown bakery specializing in custom wedding and sculpture cakes.

J LoveLifeSwagger, 277 Gratiot Ave. A $30,000 grant for a downtown clothing shop customizing and selling premium streetwear.

J Loose Massage Therapy Plus LLC, 19485 Livernois Ave. A $30,000 grant for a massage therapy business on the Avenue of Fashion in northwest Detroit.

J Mutual Adoration, 14500 Kercheval Ave. A $35,000 grant for an east-side business making custom handcrafted furniture, picture frames and housewares from reclaimed wood from Detroit homes and buildings.

The business is expanding from 3,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet of new space in the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood.

J Casting de Khrysopoeia, 4719 16th St. A $35,000 grant for an experimental design manufacturing studio for metal jewelry, handbags and fragrances on the Grand River Avenue corridor.

J Eastern Market Brewing Co., 25152519 Riopelle St. A $40,000 grant for an expanding microbrewery and taproom in Eastern Market.

J Nick’s Detroit, 16807 W. Warren Ave. A $40,000 grant for a longtime sports bar and restaurant that is expanding to build an outdoor patio and a bigger kitchen to offer a larger menu.

J Narrow Way Café, 19331 Livernois Ave. A $45,000 grant for a new coffee shop on the Avenue of Fashion selling coffee and pastries from Ann Arbor-based Zingerman’s Coffee Co.

J SavannahBlue, 1427 Times Square.

A $50,000 grant for a fine dining and soul food restaurant and lounge downtown that currently only serves dinner. The grant will help the restaurant expand its space and begin offering breakfast, lunch, deliveries and private event space.

J Rocco’s Deli, 3627 Cass Ave. A $50,000 grant to support the opening of a new full-service Italian deli in the Cass Avenue corridor.

J Montgomery Psychological Services PLLC, 2835 Bagley Ave. Edith Mont-

gomery, a lifelong Detroiter, is expanding her practice in Farmington Hills into a new space on the city’s southwest side.

J Detroit Artist Test Lab, 14616 Mack Ave. The co-working space on the east side received a $65,000 grant for development of a center that will feature a gift shop, pop-up art gallery, office space, outdoor patio and events area.

J Tiki’s Treasures, 2641 W. Grand Blvd. A $75,000 grant for a consignment shop in a renovated historic home being used for retail and tenant spaces.

In his remarks, Biden spoke at length about efforts the Obama administration has made to inject $300 million in federal funding into Detroit since the city’s historic bankruptcy.

“The city is fully lit, under budget and ahead of schedule,” Biden said. “… I’m glad to see Detroit is back, and it’s because of the incredible grit of the people of this city.”

Biden lavished praise on Duggan, whom he called “the real deal.”

“This guy’s the definition of this city,” Biden said.

“This guy’s about vision, this guy’s about grit, this guy’s about absolute confidence.”

Chad Livengood: (313) 446-1654 Twitter: @ChadLivengood

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5

MICHIGAN SCIENCE CENTER

The Michigan Science Center theater is getting a complete makeover, with the help of a $1.44 million grant from Toyota.

Michigan Science Center turns to tech to reach wider audience

By Sherri Welch swelch@crain.com

The Detroit Institute of Arts isn’t the only cultural institution that believes it’s been trapped in an ivory tower.

“For a long time, science was only for the smart, nerdy, no-personality guys,” said Tonya Matthews, president and CEO of the Michigan Science Center. “And that has never been true.”

It’s more imperative now than ever, however, to get everyone engaged in science, technology, engineering and math, given the complexity of problems the world faces today, she said.

“The more diverse the perspective, the more difficult the problems we can solve.”

Having technology-driven attractors like those going in as part of the renovation of the science center’s Toyota Engineering 4D Theater will help bring more children and families in the doors to experience STEM and expand the center’s reach to children and families around the state, Matthews said.

That’s the concept behind upgrades to the theater, which is getting a complete makeover to enable it to offer more immersive programs at the center and live-stream content to classrooms and other locations.

The renovations are backed by a $1.44 million grant from Toyota.

They include new technologies to enable live-streaming, more advanced interactive seats, lighting, wall and ceiling treatments.

“For a long time, science was only for the smart, nerdy, no-personality guys. And that has never been true.”

Tonya Matthews, president and CEO of the Michigan Science Center

In addition to enhanced seating that will enable more agile, instantaneous movement and puffs of air (think science meets amusement park), upgrades will include a stateof-the-art HD projection system with 3D viewing capabilities, enhanced space and lighting, and the creation of universally designed videos for 4D theaters.

Detroit-based construction management and architectural firm StudiozONE LLC is general contractor on the renovations.

With the technology upgrades, the Michigan Science Center will gain the ability to live-stream into classrooms, community centers or homes possibly, across the state, and connect the theater to its traveling science program as it takes science lessons to locations around the state.

The enhanced technology will also enable connected learning — linking classroom learning to real-world experiences, such as an astronaut in space or a surgeon in an operating room.

“Imagine how many surgeons I could create if I could let sixth-graders watch a live surgery and talk to the surgeon while he was doing it,” Matthews said.

That type of learning is taking place in other communities, she

said. And it’s time to bring it to Detroit and Michigan.

New and expanded programs helped the Michigan Science Center increase the number of people it reached last year by about 20 percent to 270,000 from 227,000 the year before.

The science center’s STEMinista Project launched last year to engage girls, the M-Step program that uses exhibits to reinforce topics students will see on the standardized test and the expansion of the center’s traveling science program, which last year reached its 42nd county, all contributed to the growth, Matthews said.

Revenue gains in 2016 were consistent with the science center’s impact gains. Last year, revenue increased $900,000 to $5.4 million on the strength of increases in admissions, memberships and corporate and individual contributions, Matthews said.

The DIA also sees countering an appearance of elitism as key for increasing outreach and attendance.

In March, the then-new director Salvador Salort-Pons told Crain's that the museum is making strides in its efforts to reach a more diverse audience.

Sherri Welch: (313) 446-1694 Twitter: @sherriwelch

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OPINION KEITH CRAIN Editor in chief

RON FOURNIER

Editor and Publisher

Here’s my hometown story; it’s time for me to write yours

H

ello again, Detroit.

My name is Ron Fournier. I grew up in the city’s northeast corner, the son of a cop and grandson of autoworkers. My address was 15285 Coram — on the same block where my grandparents raised my parents.

Neal Shine, the legendary editor and publisher at the Detroit Free Press, wrote about my side of town in his column. He stoked my first interest in journalism.

In 1984, I enrolled in Shine’s journalism class at the University of Detroit, where I met my future wife, Lori, a Garden City girl whose mother negotiated union contracts on behalf of the university.

I graduated a year later and couldn’t find a job. The Free Press and News rejected me. So did a nearly dozen suburban newspapers who, during my middle school and high school years, had gotten me started in the business as a stringer.

Newspapers throughout the state and half the country shelved my unsolicited resumes.

In October 1985, I heard from a college friend who had left Detroit a year earlier to cover cops and courts in Hot Springs, Ark. He was being promoted. His boss wanted to give me his beat.

I had no intention of taking the job. Lori and I had just gotten engaged and planned to have kids, and we wanted them raised near their grandparents. But now I had some leverage with the Free Press, or so I thought.

I called Shine. “I have an offer to work for a small daily in a place called Hot Springs, Ark. If you tell me there’s a chance I can work for the Free Press in the next two years — a chance, not a promise — I’ll stay in Detroit.”

Looking back, I can’t believe the arrogance. I wasn’t ready to work for the venerable Freep. Shine should have hung up on me.

“Ron,” he said, “I think you should move to Arkansas.”

It was great advice.

I learned in Hot Springs how to build trust with cynical cops and judges. I learned to write and edit and lay out pages.

I learned the importance of accuracy when I misspelled a man’s name in his obituary, and his widow called me. She politely asked for a correction, which I imagine is still stapled to a yellowed obituary and pressed into a family Bible somewhere in Arkansas — and my carelessness still makes me cringe.

I moved to Little Rock in 1987 to work for the Arkansas Democrat, where after a year I was assigned to cover a governor named Bill Clinton. Lucky break.

Covering the hyper-accessible Clinton was a graduate degree in political journalism earned at the Democrat and The Asso-

AARON ECKELS

Ron Fournier attended Crain’s Homecoming 2015 event as an expat. He has returned to Detroit as editor and publisher of Crain’s Detroit Business. ciated Press, which hired me in 1987.

When Clinton was elected president in 1992, the AP’s Washington bureau chief transferred me from Little Rock to the White House. That bureau chief — the man who threw me in over my head and surrounded me with talented colleagues who kept me afloat — was Jon Wolman.

You know Jon: He’s the publisher of The Detroit News. Life is a circle.

One of Jon’s reporters is my daughter, Holly, who moved to Detroit out of college to serve in a community service program called City Year. She fell hard in love with this city, journalism, and a local guy named Tom Flickinger. Holly and Tom married a couple of years ago and adopted a son — my first grandchild.

And now you now the first reason why Lori and I moved back home. We missed our families.

It was not hard to leave Washington,

I’ll use this space to share stories about Detroit’s rising. I’ll also warn when it’s falling back on bad habits. And I’ll explain how Crain’s can help you tell your stories — how we will help you succeed.

the White House or the national political beat. While I wrote extensively about institutional reform and the unique optimism and purpose of the millennial generation, my specialty was dysfunction and decay.

That’s not the story in Detroit. As I wrote for The Atlantic in my farewell column: “For the first time in my lifetime, my hometown has a chance to rebound from decades of decline — thanks to the cooperative energies of political leaders like Mayor Mike Duggan, business leaders like Dan Gilbert and Christopher Ilitch, and an influx of purpose-driven entrepreneurs.”

Success is not promised; shortly after I wrote that column, one of the entrepreneurs I spotlighted decided to close his business. But maybe he can open a new one? That’s a story I can write for Crain’s.

Now you know the second reason why we moved back. For as long as the Crain family will allow me, I’ll use this space to share stories about Detroit’s rising. I’ll also warn when it’s falling back on bad habits. And I’ll explain how Crain’s can help you tell your stories — how we will help you succeed.

In the 1980s, when I left Detroit and so many of you stayed behind to fight for it, the city’s population declined by nearly 200,000. Today, more people seem to be coming than going — and some are returning home with hope and a hello.

What’s good for the auto industry The automobile industry is coming off a barn burner of a year, with just about every car company recording healthy profits. Domestic, European and Asian companies are all feeling pretty good about the year that just ended and looking forward to another healthy year in ’17.

The election of Donald Trump, although upsetting to a lot of Democrats, seems to be sending the right signals to business. Even with some controversy about trade with Mexico and Canada, the automotive companies are more than willing to give Trump a chance. During the North American International Auto Show last week, executives were all feeling pretty optimistic about the automotive future. It helps to just come off a year with very good profits. The companies are pleased — and so are the suppliers.

We’ll just have to wait a few months for the approval of Trump’s Cabinet to gauge what business thinks of the new administration.

Meanwhile, the other big news last week came in our own offices.

Crain’s Detroit Business has a new publisher/editor. Ron Fournier has come home. A guy who studied to be a journalist years ago at the University of Detroit, he had to leave town to practice his trade. Ron ended up in Washington for more than 20 years, covering the White House and politics before running into Mary Kramer at our Detroit Homecoming events.

Mary has a few other things on her bucket list, so a deal was struck.

Mary is now group publisher of both our Detroit and Cleveland publications, and Ron is back home and assumes the mantle of publisher, a job Mary describes as the best job in town — a description I can agree with, having been publisher for quite a while myself.

Ron is going to discover that he can have a lot of fun and become a real necessity to the business community of Southeast Michigan. As he will discover, our informal motto, “There is more to Detroit than just cars,” has become even more relevant. He understands the importance to deliver business news to our audience, and I have no question that Crain’s will become even more indispensable in the future. There is a lot going on that simply isn’t being covered or reported by other media.

He’ll have a lot of fun relearning about this new Detroit.

If you run across him, say hello. I am pleased to report that he’s glad to be home.

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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 1 6 , 2 0 1 7

Let’s find Silverdome property’s potential I appreciated the no-nonsense call by Crain’s Detroit Business for action on the Silverdome property (“No excuses: Tear down Silverdome,” Jan. 9) in the wake of the embarrassing aerial footage and “cringe-worthy” commentary that spotlighted the eyesore on a recent national broadcast.

As a lifelong Lions fan, I am forever hopeful that Detroit will taste postseason glory.

Call me a drinker of the “Honolulu Blue & Silver Kool-Aid,” but I still have faith that one day our beloved “Lie-downs” will make it to the football promised land.

Similarly, as Oakland County treasurer, I am forever hopeful that this most special of properties, accessible by two major freeways, will once again realize its potential and re-emerge as an economic engine and the regional destination it once was.

Since the sale of the property in 2009 by the city of Pontiac, which was under control of an appointed emergency manager at the time, we have heard promises of investment, “big events” and job creation.

When none of that materialized, last year representatives of the owner promised demolition and a renewed effort to redevelop the property.

“In the spring,” we were told in 2015. Obviously, none of this has come to pass.

The property remains neglected, recently victimized by an arsonist, with its latest temporary identity as a post-apocalyptic landscape in the next “Transformers” movie.

Such an important parcel of land can do so much more to help build our region’s prosperity and, at least up until now, represents a huge missed opportunity.

No doubt there are unique challenges that come with managing a structure and property this significant, which should not be minimized.

That said, the predicament left to the city of Pontiac and area stakeholders highlights the pitfalls of the hasty auction of public assets.

An inherently precarious way to sell property, a public auction can cause great exposure to the public interest without any way to ensure that a potential buyer holds a commitment to being a good neighbor.

In the case of the Silverdome, the property went to auction with no minimum bid, along with a pledge by the city to relax zoning regulations in order to spark development. However, without a development agreement, no leverage was gained to hold the buyers accountable, and now all we have been left with is broken promise after broken promise.

When a public body is disposing of property, the public interest is served not only from the revenue gained from the sale but also by making sure the property can realize its highest and best use.

This is especially true of a keystone property like the Silverdome.

Development agreements are one way to partner with developers and yield profits but do so in the context of a mutually beneficial schedule of construction and completion of the project and perhaps local hiring and sourcing requirements.

That didn’t happen with the Silverdome, and now the city of Pontiac, Oakland County and regional stakeholders have been shackled with this enormous eyesore and national embarrassment.

If one is to be found, perhaps the “Silverdome lining” of this saga can be a warning to other locals if and

OTHER VOICES Andy Meisner

Meisner is Oakland County treasurer. when public assets are disbursed, but only if decision makers recognize their point of leverage. As of this

Grant a wish help a local nonprofit today

writing, downtown Pontiac’s Phoenix Center is changing hands absent a development agreement, and we’re waiting for news on the Palace, which of course just lost its primary tenant and faces an uncertain future.

Despite the parade of challenges, I still believe this essential regional parcel can and will find a new life.

As Oakland County’s banker, I stand ready to assist in efforts to help make that dream a reality.

Just like our beloved Lions, we continually strive to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, instead of the other way around.

I am forever hopeful that this most special of properties, accessible by two major freeways, will once again realize its potential and re-emerge ...

There are more than 100 ideas and items on the Giving Guide Wish List that local nonprofits need. Here are just a few requests that would make their mission brighter: Area Agency on Aging 1-B wishes for PR/marketing support.

Cody Rouge Community Action Alliance wishes for a color copy machine.

Michigan Nature Association wishes for three pickup trucks.

National Kidney Foundation wishes for leadership training.

Ronald McDonald House wishes for cleaning supplies, paper plates and plastic utensils.

Take a look and donate or volunteer today! crainsdetroit.com/custom/giving

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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 1 6 , 2 0 1 7

CALENDAR TUESDAY JAN. 17

The Big Four. 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Detroit Economic Club. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and Macomb County Executive Warren Evans Mark Hackel will discuss regional successes, issues and their plans to drive Southeast Michigan forward.

The meeting, to take place during the 2017

Mark Hackel

North American International Auto Show in

Detroit, will also include the unveiling of the 2017 Detroit News Readers Choice Award winners. Cobo Center, Detroit. $45 members; $55 guests; $75 nonmembers. Website: econclub.org.

60 Minutes to Success: Connecting Business to the Education Pipeline.

3:30-4:30 p.m. Automation Alley.

Learn about the business benefits of MI Bright Future, a program created by the Workforce Intelligence Network that connects regional employers with local students. Speakers include Sarah Sebaly, senior program manager, and Lisa Gordon, program coordinator, MI Bright Future. Free.

Automation Alley, Troy. Contact: rivarde@automationalley.com.

FRIDAY JAN. 20

Ten Key Questions for Leaders: Moving From the Urgent to the Important.

8-10:30 a.m. Marketing and Sales Executives of Detroit. Priscilla Archangel, president of Archangel & Associates LLC, will talk about the key questions that, if properly addressed at individual, team and organizational levels, will strengthen your company’s effectiveness. Management Education Center, Troy. $45 members; $60 nonmembers. Website: msedetroit.org.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Global Business and Economic Outlook for 2017 and Beyond. 8-11 a.m.

Jan. 23. Automation Alley. James E. Glassman, J.P. Morgan Chase head

economist and managing director, speaks about the shifting dynamics of the global economy and how policies proposed by the incoming Trump administration may impact the doJeff Jorge mestic and

world economy at large. Jeff Jorge, principal, Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP, will discuss U.S. trade policies, strategies for international growth and how a company can thrive in uncertain times. Automation Alley, Troy. $30 members; $45 nonmembers. Contact: Lisa Lasser, email: lasserl@automationalley.com.

Perfecting Company Culture. 8:3010 a.m. Jan. 25. Automation Alley. A

discussion on creating a great culture and how to use it to reduce turnover, attract top candidates and find out how poor company culture negatively impacts an organization’s bottom line. Guest speaker: Kris Powell, president and CEO, HRPro/ BenePro. Automation Alley, Troy. $15 members; $25 nonmembers; $20 walk-in members; $30 walk-in nonmembers. Email: events@automationalley.com; phone: (800) 4275100.

State of the Region. 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Jan. 25. Detroit Regional Cham-

ber. Chamber President Sandy Baruah will deliver a presentation on the third State of the Region report, an analysis of the economic indicators related to Sandy Baruah b u s i n e s s growth, talent, innovation and international commerce for Southeast Michigan. The report highlights assets, rankings and opportunities for key industries. Westin Book Cadillac, Detroit. $50 chamber members; $100 nonmembers. Price increases on Jan. 18 to $65 members and $115 nonmembers. Contact: Andrea Rayburn, phone: (313) 596-0340.

2017 Technology Industry Outlook.

8-11 a.m. Feb. 13. Automation Alley.

The 2017 Technology Industry Report will be unveiled from Automation Alley’s survey of technology and manufacturing executives from Southeast Michigan and across the country to determine their knowledge of Industry 4.0, or the fourth industrial revolution, and whether they are ready for the coming changes in the manufacturing industry. Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit. $25 members; $45 nonmembers. Email: events@automation alley.com; phone: (800) 427-5100.

Giving Up the Wheel: The Future of Mobility and Its Impact on Michigan. 11:30

a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Feb. 14. Detroit Economic Club.

David Dauch, David Dauch chairman and CEO, American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings; Matt Simoncini, president and CEO, Lear

Corp.; and James Verrier, president and CEO, BorgWarner Inc., will dissect current mobility efforts and share insights on the rapidly evolving road ahead. Westin Book Cadillac, Detroit. $45 members; $55 guests of members; $75 nonmembers. Website: econclub.org.

Mobility — Its Disruption to the Auto Industry and Beyond. 5-8 p.m.

Feb. 16. Marketing and Sales Executives of Detroit. John McElroy, host of Autoline Daily and president of Blue Sky Productions, will discuss the ins

and outs of the auto industry. Management Education Center, Troy. $45 members; $60 nonmembers.

Website: msedetroit.org.

Young Professionals Panel — The Changing Face of Leadership. 7:30-9 a.m. Feb. 21. Leadership Oakland.

Moderator: Jennifer Korman, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services. Panelists: Talisa Norton, co-owner/COO, All Pro Color; Sara Stoddard, chief of

emergency management, Oakland County Homeland Security Division; Jordan Twardy, community and economic development director, city of Ferndale. MSU Management Education Center, Troy. $32 members; $36 nonmembers. Website: leadershipoakland.com.

The State of Manufacturing 2017: A New Way Forward. 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Feb. 24. Detroit Economic Club.

Jay Timmons, president and CEO, National Association of Manufacturers, on today’s industry, the latest on

the Trump administration, the new Congress and manufacturing in America. Westin Book Cadillac, Detroit. $45 members; $55 guests of members; $75 nonmembers. Website: econclub.org.

2017 Detroit Policy Conference: Reigniting an Innovative Spirit. 7:30 a.m.

March 2. Detroit Regional Chamber.

Urban planner Toni Griffin, founder of Urban Planning for the American City, will deliver a keynote address and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan will

have a one-on-one conversation with Stephen Henderson, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial page editor for the Detroit Free Press. MotorCity Casino Hotel, Detroit. $159 chamber members; $235 nonmembers.

Contact: Sarah Nagel, phone: (313) 596-0384; email: snagel@ detroitchamber.com.

Calendar guidelines. Visit crainsdetroit.com and click “Events” near the top of the home page. Then, click “Submit Your Events” from the drop-down menu that will appear. Fill out the submission form, then click “Submit event” at the bottom of the page.

More Calendar items can be found at crainsdetroit.com/events.

DEALS & DETAILS ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS

Clio Holdings LLC, Birmingham, an investment firm for countertop suppliers and fabricators, has acquired Solid Surfaces Inc., Rochester, N.Y. Website: clioholdings.com.

Moore Stephens Doeren Mayhew, the international arm of Doeren Mayhew, Troy, a tax consulting firm, has merged with Emerson & Partner U.S. Tax GmbH, Zurich, Switzerland.

Websites: doeren.com, emersontax. com.

CONTRACTS

Roush CleanTech, Livonia, a division of Roush Enterprises, an alterna-

tive fuel vehicle technology company, manufactured propane fuel systems for 10 school buses for the Waterford School District, Waterford.

Websites: roushcleantech.com, waterford.k12.mi.us.

Rubicon Genomics Inc., Ann Arbor, has an agreement with Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, Calif., a public research, development and manufacturing company, for supplies of Agilent’s PicoPlex WGA kits. The kits amplify DNA to increase the accuracy, speed and efficiency of genetic screening.

Websites: rubicon genomics.com, agilent.com.

Rockbridge Growth Equity LLC, Detroit, a private equity firm, announced a joint venture partnership with Penske Media Corp., New York City, a digital media and information services company, in the Robb Report, a magazine that focuses on luxury products and services. Websites: rbequity.com, pmc.com.

Asset Health Inc., Troy, a health and wellness consulting, managing and technology firm, and GreenPath Inc., dba GreenPath Financial Wellness, Farmington Hills, a nonprofit financial counseling and education organization, are launching Asset Health-GreenPath Financial Wellbeing Services. It combines online, financial assessment, education and achievement tracking and personalized coaching services. Websites: assethealth.com, greenpath.org.

Detroit Medical Center, Detroit, and Accumen Inc., San Diego, a health care consulting firm, have a three-year, multi-facility partnership for patient blood management.

Websites: dmc.org, acumen.com.

EXPANSIONS

Merge Live, Walled Lake, a broad-

casting and video production company, opened an office and studio at 201 Legato Drive. Telephone: (248) 956-1287. Website: mergelive.com.

GLR Advanced Recycling, Livonia,

opened an auto salvage operation in Flint at 5273 N. Dort Highway. It will service the public and commercial accounts for scrap vehicles. Website: glradvanced.com.

AtWork Group, Knoxville, Tenn., a national staffing franchise, has opened at 27440 Hoover Road, Warren. The firm is owned by Daryl Ayers. Telephone: (586) 204-2136.

Website: atwork.com.

NAME CHANGE

Utopia Salon,

Northville, has changed its name to Studio 170, after a change in ownership to one of the original owners, Tita Daskal. Website: studio170mi.com.

NEW PRODUCTS

ZipLogix LLC, Fraser, a real estate

technology company, announced zipTMS, an agent dashboard transaction management system. Website: ziplogix.com.

IOSiX LLC, Ypsilanti, an automotive engineering firm, announced an electronic logging device interface for use between a vehicle and device via Wi-Fi. Website: iosix.com.

Merillat Cabinetry, Ann Arbor, a division of Masco Cabinetry LLC, a cabinet manufacturer, has launched new door styles, accents and finish options. Website: merillat.com.

NEW SERVICES

Rain BDM, Bloomfield Hills, a

business development and marketing consultancy, has expanded its digital legal service offerings, with traditional marketing and digital content creation to bridge relationships between attorneys and clients.

Website: rainbdm.com.

Continuity Programs Inc., Walled Lake, a customer relationship marketing firm, has launched MyCRMDashboard, a tool that provides marketing campaigns and reporting with lead generation. Website: continuityprograms.com.

Magnet Consulting, Rochester Hills, a firm that helps business assess, hire, develop and train workers, announced its onsite professional development center The Mettle Foundry, located in Suite C12. Website: magnetconsulting. com, themettlefoundry.com.

Deals & Details guidelines. Email cdbdepartments@crain.com. Use any Deals & Details item as a model for your release, and look for the appropriate category. Without complete information, your item will not run. Photos are welcome, but we cannot guarantee they will be used.

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SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTH CARE

Restaurateur develops high-protein frozen yogurt

By Jay Greene jgreene@crain.com

Employee Ebony Powell (right) looks at fresh produce during a summer farmers market at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak.

Healthy choices Hospital food services moving away from high-fat, high-calorie items

By Jay Greene jgreene@crain.com

Out with the fried, unhealthy food. In with nutritious, low-fat, cholesterol-free and heart-healthy food.

That’s what hospitals want patients, employees and visitors to believe. On the whole over the past five years, it is mostly true. But not all hospital food is created equal for Michigan’s 130 hospitals.

Despite a new food court with multiple healthy choices managed

by Detroit-based gourmet market vendor Papa Joe’s, Detroit Medical Center’s Harper Hospital still has a Wendy’s franchise, one of several fast-food chains discouraged by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an organization that fre-

quently criticizes hospital food.

Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit dropped Little Caesars several years ago. However, it still has Subway, a more healthy choice but one that experts call out for failing to remove harmful therapeutic antibiotics from its turkey, beef and pork, at its downtown hospital and at Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital.

St. Joseph Mercy Health System, Beaumont Health and Henry Ford Health System are among many health care organizations in Southeast Michigan that have removed deep-fat fryers from their hospital kitchens, dramatically lowering the tons of fat sold to customers and employees. Like a few other hospitals, the health organizations also

offer seasonal farmer’s markets with St. Joe’s owning one of the few hospital farms in the nation that also grows vegetables for its food service operation.

First promoted in 2010 by the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, a growing number of hospitals

in Michigan have signed on to various healthy food initiatives, includ-

“All hospitals talk about this, but it often comes down to the budget, and there is huge pressure to keep margins up.”

Cardiologist Joel Kahn, M.D.

ing its own Healthy Food Hospitals program and the Healthier Hospitals Initiative sponsored by Health Care Without Harm.

Standout hospitals for food preparation in Southeast Michigan are C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor and Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, experts say.

Mott Children’s is rated a best hospital by the Physicians Committee and Henry Ford West Bloomfield features the nation’s only hospital greenhouse, a resident farmer and a gourmet cafeteria menu at Henry’s, the hospital’s cafe.

Despite the recent movement to

offering more healthy food, Bloomfield Township cardiologist Joel Kahn, M.D., contends too many hospitals still sell too many high-fat, high-sugar, high-sodium foods.

Kahn, also known as “America’s Healthy Heart Doctor” and a member of the Physicians Committee, said the key for hospitals to encourage health for their employees, visitors and patients is through transparency and education.

“The World Health Organization has issued a report that classified processed meats as a class one carcinogen. Hospitals still have too much processed red meats like bacon, pepperoni and hot dogs on their menus,” said Kahn, noting these foods directly cause colorectal cancer and are also linked to other cancers, asthma, diabetes and congestive heart failure.

Despite improvements, Kahn said he has approached several Southeast Michigan hospitals about banning processed meats but so far hasn’t received any commitments.

Most are adopting other healthy food practices, including using lower sodium, lower fat and serving more unsweetened beverages.

“It is unfortunate the money still dictates hospital food policy,” he said. “Hospitals are improving food slowly. Mainly they are doing it by adding healthy options, but not as much by eliminating” the unhealthy.

Ironically, Kahn said, hospital employees are generally less healthy

BEAUMONT HEALTH

than the general public. As a result, they are more likely to be diagnosed with chronic conditions like asthma, obesity and depression.

“It should be the hospital’s mission to educate patients, staff and guests about healthy eating and not serve fried foods, processed meats and sweetened drinks,” he said. “All hospitals talk about this, but it often comes down to the budget, and there is huge pressure to keep margins up.”

But factors such as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 and a general increase in health-conscious consumers have put hospital food service in the limelight.

Now, hospitals have to balance food service profit margins with patient satisfaction scores and readmission rates. Under Obamacare, these factors are much more important for revenue than food service sales.

Many hospitals are adopting strategies from restaurants, embracing new trends that include healthy menu options, room-service ordering, gluten-free foods, authentic foods from other cultures and purchasing farm fresh foods that also help boost the local economy.

David Brooks, CEO of St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor, put it this way: “If our role is to move from medical care to health care, we need to start with the food in our cafeteria. We need to do this so our patients don’t bounce back. How can we not do that?”

Brooks said hospitals offer acutecare and emergency services to patients, but they also must advocate prevention and wellness.

“You can’t find onion rings here.

We took out our fryers,” he said.

“Texas Children’s Hospital once put SEE HEALTHY, PAGE 10

Veteran restaurateur Jeff Kulis polled his customers three years ago on what ingredients they most wanted in their frozen yogurt and got the usual comments: low fat, low sugar, low calorie. But one request surprised him.

“High protein,” said Kulis, who is president and founder of BreakA-Whey LLC, a Bloomfield Hillsbased startup.

Kulis, 52, has been in the restaurant business his whole life, operating Papa John’s and Tubby’s franchises. His last gig was running a restaurant at Magna International Inc., an auto supplier in Novi.

“I searched for a product online and couldn’t find one with high protein, not in the soft-serve world. I found a good dry powder yogurt mix and started to experiment with recipes,” he said. “Six months later, I created the recipe for chocolate and vanilla. The customers liked it.”

In mid-2015, Kulis gave notice to Magna with a plan to strike out on his own as a soft-serve yogurt entrepreneur, spending about $40,000 for trademarks and other startup costs to form Break-AWhey.

“I found a supplier in Evansville (Ind.), Healthsmart Foods, and they help me perfect the recipe and produce it,” he said. “It is a healthy alternative to other soft serve products that are generally high sugar, high carbohydrate and low or zero protein.”

A 4-ounce serving of Break-AWhey yogurt contains 100 calories, less than 1 gram of fat, 115 mg sodium, 25 mg cholesterol, 15 SEE YOGURT, PAGE 10

BREAK-A-WHEY

In mid-2015, Jeff Kulis gave notice to start his own soft-serve yogurt company, Break-A-Whey.

10

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SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTH CARE

HEALTHY FROM PAGE 9

in a McDonald’s and at that time were admired for it. If we put one in now, we would be crucified for it.”

St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor Lisa McDowell, a registered dietitian who is St. Joe’s director of prevention, nutrition and wellness, said the Catholic hospital began to improve its food service in 2008. Its menu now meets guidelines recommended by the American Heart Association.

“My father was a patient here in 2002,” said McDowell. “He had pancreatic cancer. I went to Whole Foods to feed him while he was here. I didn’t let him eat hospital food.”

During the next several years, at McDowell’s insistence and with the support of top executives, St. Joe’s began to make healthier food for patients, employees and visitors.

“Cheap food sells and is what people wanted,” said McDowell, who has been with the hospital 23 years and is also is dietitian for the Detroit Red Wings and has worked with the U.S. Olympic Team. “When we took away Monster energy drinks, the ER staff complained. We had to teach people, even doctors, good nutrition.”

Jim Tripp, St. Joe’s director of retail services the past 11 years, said one of the biggest blowbacks to the movement to healthier food occurred five years ago when the hospital stopped selling traditional, high-fat pizza and replaced it with healthier flatbread margherita pizza.

“Pizza deliveries increased (to the hospital) and Jimmy John’s added staff” as employees bypassed the cafeteria, Tripp said. “We have done a lot of education, but the 65-year-old wants a Snickers bar and the 21-yearold wants granola.”

Tripp said cafeteria sales went down the first couple of years, but after a public education campaign, has since rebounded. Two years ago, St. Joe’s overhauled its cafeteria and turned it into a cafe with six food stations, including a salad bar.

“All our food is now made in the front, not behind closed doors,” said Tripp. “We have educated employees to talk with customers. We went away from food service workers to Schoolcraft (College)-trained chefs.”

McDowell said cashiers at the cafe and coffee shops also were trained in nutrition and customer service to handle staff and visitor resistance to the move to healthier foods.

YOGURT FROM PAGE 9

grams of carbohydrate, 7 grams sugar and 10 grams of protein.

After talking with family friend Don Bortz Jr., who recently sold his nursing home chain to Villa Healthcare, a Skokie, Ill.-based chain, Kulis got a referral to talk with executives at Henry Ford Health System, which has been moving its food selections to healthier choices.

“They took the brunt of the complaints. We wanted to arm them with information and the right phrases to address the complaints,” she said.

But one of the hospital’s toughest challenges in converting to healthier foods was renegotiating corporate food contracts.

“You are only as good as your food chain,” McDowell said. “You have to look closely at ingredients, artificial colors and flavors. We try to use whole food and learned how to create recipes.”

Twenty years ago, hospital cafeterias specialized in meatloaf, mashed potatoes and canned green beans, Tripp said. “Not anymore. Visitors are demanding tastier and more nutritious foods,” he said.

Each year, St. Joe’s purchases about $4 million in food for its retail and patient services. “We are buying more locally if we can. Less than 5 percent comes from our farm,” Tripp said.

“Before the cafeteria and the patient (food service) lost money. ...

Now we make money on retail (even though) food costs are a little more (10 percent more) expensive,” said Tripp, adding that retail food helps offset the unreimbursed costs of feeding patients.

McDowell said St. Joe’s also serves antibiotic-free poultry, turkey and pork. “It is difficult to buy red meat in Michigan without antibiotics. We buy (antibiotic-free) red meat when available. Our vendor (Gordon Food Service) knows we want it and gets it when they can,” she said. “We went to Boar’s Head meats because it is higher in quality.”

Henry Ford Health System

JAY GREENE/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Java Joe’s coffee shops can be found at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor. prices for nutritious and trans-fatfree foods. For example, 95 percent lean ground beef costs more than 80 percent lean beef, he said.

“The industry that provides us the food is making products that are more (price) competitive as time goes on,” Miller said. “When making fresh products, the cost of the product will be less. It costs more in labor to make fresh, so there is a balance there.”

Overall, Miller said, Henry Ford’s move to serving more healthy food

“Our net cost per patient day is going down” because of increasing retail sales. “We are doing a better job at running the business overall.”

John Miller, Henry Ford’s director of system culinary wellness

Miller said Henry Ford earns a profit on the retail food side, but like most hospitals loses money on patient food services.

“Our net cost per patient day is going down” because of increasing retail sales, he said. “We are doing a better job at running the business overall.”

In 2012, Henry Ford also was one of the first hospitals in Michigan to sign on to the Partnership for A Healthier America. The partnership was former First Lady Michelle Obama’s initiative to reduce childhood obesity.

“We have taken out seven tons of fat out of foods by making all these changes — taking out the fryers, using lower-fat meats, changing recipes and doing other things,” Miller said.

“We are absolutely impacting the overall health and wellness of all our dining guests. It has an impact on health.”

Beaumont Health

John Miller, Henry Ford’s director of system culinary wellness, spent a career in the hotel and restaurant business before joining the health care industry some 20 years ago, the last 14 with Henry Ford.

“Food service at hospitals 20 years ago was dismal,” said Miller, who has spent the last 14 years at Henry Ford.

“I knew we could do a better job. We started making changes in 2003 and am really proud of what we have done to create an environment and operation where people want to come back to. Like at restaurants, you want repeat dining guests. We get that now.”

Each year, Henry Ford spends about $8 million to purchase food for patients and retail operations, Miller said. Annual food costs rise about 2.5 percent a year, partially due to inflation but also due to higher food

did not impact its retail operations.

“We had a plan and strategy to make these changes,” Miller said. “We knew we couldn’t take something out without putting something in better.

When we took out the deep-fat fryers, we had a short-term reduction. But we added panko-crusted baked chicken and let them sample it.”

Miller said adding variety to the hospital menus — stir fry stations and Asian noodle bowls — also added patrons who never dined before at a Henry Ford hospital.

“Within the first year, we created a whole new market by having healthier foods,” said Miller, adding that sales increased at some food locations by 3 percent to 11 percent.

Maureen Husek, director of nutrition services at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, said Beaumont began slowly moving toward healthy diets about 10 years ago. The conversion began with selling fresh fruits and vegetables with its farmer’s market.

Eight years ago, Beaumont began its My Healthier Choice menu, which focuses on using less fat and sodium.

“Most recently, we are purchasing more products closer to home, food grown and raised and processed in Michigan,” Husek said.

Husek said Beaumont tries to improve food that helps both patient, employee and retail customer. “It doesn’t make sense to do for one area and not the other,” she said.

“Many employees and visitors may

In late November, Kulis gave a product presentation to John Miller, Henry Ford’s director of system culinary wellness, and got the green light to offer Break-A-Whey at One Ford Place, the health system’s corporate headquarters in Detroit.

Officials for Henry Ford confirmed they are piloting Break-AWhey. They declined comment because they haven’t completed their evaluation.

Kulis said he has demonstrated

the yogurt product several times.

He hopes Henry Ford employees like it and the company chooses to offer the dessert at all six of its hospitals and possibly at its 32 outpatient medical centers.

“I’d love to be able to serve it to patients at hospitals, nursing homes or adults in day care centers. It is very nutritious and fits in well with the healthy food trend,” Kulis said.

This month, Lakeland High School

will be using a portable yogurt machine to sell Break-A-Whey at some of its swim meets. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the school will offer it in its cafeteria, he said.

“I don’t provide the machines, just the products sold by the case,” he said. “If I get into leasing machines, then I have to get into maintenance and I am not ready for that.” Each case contains eight bags of the dry yogurt and yields 350 4-ounce servings.

be patients.”

For patients, the hospital provides room service and weekly specials that feature vegan dishes, fresh Michigan blueberries and asparagus, Husek said. Michigan food purchases have increased the past five years to about 16 percent of purchases from 4 percent. The goal is 20 percent by 2020, she said.

“Some hospitals say 30 percent to 35 percent, but they aren’t counting things like coffee,” she said.

To minimize the initial revenue impact, Husek said, Beaumont gradually phased in healthier foods. “To use an old saying, it is a sprint, not a marathon. If you are too aggressive, you turn people off.”

Beaumont uses a variety of techniques to encourage customers to purchase healthier foods. “We rearranged the food table and put vegetables first.

We offer meatless Monday and have a vegetarian item. Now we have meatless Mondays through Saturdays.”

While Beaumont executives wanted to jump on the healthy-food bandwagon, Husek said, customers also were demanding healthier alternatives.

“Our administration has been supportive of us and encouraging of it,” she said. “When we converted our vending and took our snack machines out, we did so to meet our My Healthy criteria.”

Food outlets at Beaumont include only one franchise, Papa Joe’s. Like most hospitals, Beaumont offers coffee bars and a main cafeteria. It also offers three small cafes and a baker’s deli for soups, sandwiches and salads.

“Papa Joe’s were brought in (six years ago) for another alternative for staff,” Husek said. “They are a gourmet produce market that sell fresh fruits and healthier choices as well.”

Husek said hospital food service profits dipped slightly when the vending machines were converted to fit the healthy guidelines, but the cafeteria and other food outlets remain strong revenue generators. “We lost a little when we brought in Papa Joe’s, but not much,” she said.

Another big change was when Beaumont removed its deep-fat fryer in 2014. Before, french fries were the cafeteria’s highest single revenue item. After the fryer was removed, the salad bar became the number one revenue producer, she said.

“We have reduced meat buying.

The number of ounces of meat per serving has dropped and the amount of vegetables has increased. That saved us money,” Husek said.

Some hospitals like Beaumont are also moving to purchase a greater Kulis said he has talked with Taylor Freezer of Michigan in Livonia about providing dispenser equipment leases to clients.

Long-term, he hopes more hospitals will become interested in his healthy yogurt and eventually would like to partner with a national food service company and possibly sell Break-A-Whey at grocery stores in a pushup or bar type style.

Jay Greene: (313) 446-0325 Twitter: @jaybgreene

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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 1 6 , 2 0 1 7

amount of antibiotic-free meat. “We have not done in the patient area because of costs,” Husek said. “We did it in 2013 in the retail areas because we can pass on the costs.”

For example, Husek said antibiotic-free chicken is just a few cents per pound more, but “the overall purchased cost is huge. We are trying to find more opportunities for savings.”

One of the biggest impacts to Beaumont’s decision-making on food was signing a pledge in 2011 to participate in the Michigan Health and Hospital Association’s Healthy Food Hospitals program.

Beaumont is one of 73 hospitals participating in the healthy hospitals program that encourages hospitals to reduce use of meat, buy local foods and offer lower-sugar beverages.

Laura Wotruba, MHA’s director of public affairs, said Michigan’s hospitals have begun to offer healthier foods with each hospital taking on its own individual, market-based approach.

“We certainly are seeing a movement toward healthy eating,” Wotruba said. “Anytime you go to the doctor, they tell you to eat better and move more. We need to reflect in our hospitals what people are hearing at their doctor's office.”

Wotruba said hospitals are getting rid of high-sugar drinks, developing healthy heart cookbooks and buying farm-fresh vegetables.

But barriers to improving food include long-term vendor contracts and still insufficient community education about eating more healthy, she said.

“When we began this, it was about eliminating trans fat from foods,” Wotruba said. “Hospitals have come a long way. We are reaching out to the community with education, and food is getting better.”

become personally healthier and set good examples for patients.

“We want to teach our leadership team to be the best version of themselves,” she said. “We are looking to our own system to be champions of health.

How can we help our patients when we are not ourselves healthy and filling ourselves with Coke and cookies?”

McDowell said St. Joe’s held a leadership development meeting before Christmas that was attended by 300 staffers and doctors. The message sent was to drop pizzas and hamburgers and pick up such foods as kale and fruit, oatmeal, dark chocolate, almonds and cashews.

“We are investing in cultural change in our own workforce to really impact own community measures,” McDowell said. “(Food) can affect employee (sick) call-in rates and how much we spend on health insurance.

When we look at our own data, we found many employees are sicker than the patients we take care of.”

Toward that end, St. Joe’s has developed a community-supported agriculture program with local farmers.

“We are becoming a food hub for local farmers,” she said. “Each week, employees get a bag of fresh vegetables from coolers we have at the farm.

We are working on having a cooler placed at the hospital to make it easier. I pick up a bag and it lasts all week.”

Jennifer Jones

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Jay Greene: (313) 446-0325 Twitter: @jaybgreene

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For Beaumont, Husek said it wants to develop a “Beau to Go” food sale business where food can be purchased to take home. “We are in Oakland County, one of the richest in the country, but we still have a number of people with food insecurity,” she said.

Upon discharge, Husek said, sometimes food is sent home with patients to ensure they have a good diet. “The ill elderly sometimes don’t have resources to shop. We sell them dinner meals to get them started. They can buy a two-week supply,” she said.

At Henry Ford, Miller said the system will start purchasing antibiotic-free chicken and turkey during the first quarter of 2017. It also will further reduce sodium in its foods by changing its recipes this year, he said.

“We chose poultry because we wanted to have the biggest impact, and chicken and turkey is the biggest opportunity” to improve, Miller said. “We already lowered our sodium content in our sandwiches by asking our company, Milano Bakery, to make lower-sodium bread. Now our sandwiches are less than 600 milligrams sodium.”

For St. Joe’s, McDowell said the effort this year will be to encourage executives, nurses and physicians to

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SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTH CARE

Texas company finds pharmacy success in Flint Dallas-based Senderra Rx looks to grow specialty drug call center in Michigan

By Jay Greene jgreene@crain.com

Win Purifoy, chairman and co-founder of Dallas-based Senderra Rx Specialty Pharmacy, said when the decision was made in 2013 to locate a national call center in Flint Township for the mail-order specialty pharmacy, he wondered about the possible culture shock of Texans hiring Michiganders with a belief that many might not have the required pharmacy expertise.

But Purifoy said he and top Senderra management have been especially pleased with the hard work, quick learning abilities and personable nature of the company’s now 100 employees in Flint.

So pleased that Senderra plans to double the space of its Flint footprint to up to 30,000 square feet, hire 70 more employees and build or rent a new facility to accommodate growth and employee-centered services.

“We are from Texas and didn’t know how they would accept us,” Purifoy said. “We love these people.

They are best in class.”

To sweeten the deal, the Michigan Economic Development Corp. in 2013 awarded Senderra $500,000 in a performance-based grant. In return, Senderra invested $675,000 and opened its customer service center later that year. The company chose Flint over competing sites in Alabama and Ohio. Flint Township also provided employment assistance.

Purifoy said the company now is looking at other buildings and could end up building its own facility. He wants to add a cafeteria, a larger employee educational and training room, a health and wellness room and a 5,000-square-foot pharmacy dispensing center.

“We are going to add infusion and oncology in Flint. We just started these services in Dallas,” he said.

Founded in 2010 by Purifoy and Will Howard, two venture capitalists with no health care experience, Senderra specializes in disease management, serving patients with rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis and hepatitis C. “Our patients have complicated conditions that in many cases they will have for the rest of their lives,” said Purifoy, who also is managing partner of Cibolo Capital Partners LLC that mostly invests in energy companies. “We take the approach that patients are people and to treat them as if they were your family.”

In six years, Senderra has 25,000 active customers in 50 states, 13,000 ordering physicians and makes 15,000 medication shipments per month that average $4,100 for a 30-day supply, he said. The company has 300 to-

SENDERRA RX

Win Purifoy, chairman and co-founder of Dallas-based Senderra Rx Specialty Pharmacy, said when the decision was made in 2013 to locate a national call center in Flint Township for the mail-order specialty pharmacy, he wondered about the possible culture shock of Texans hiring Michiganders. tal employees, including 100 in Flint, 26 sales representatives and the rest in Dallas where many of the nurses and pharmacists are located.

After five years, Senderra’s annual revenue topped $700 million in 2015 with projections calling for revenue to exceed $900 million this year.

“Our way is different. Other companies get patients by managed

“Our way is different. Other companies get patients by managed care contracts. We get patients by working directly with doctors.”

Win Purifoy, chairman and co-founder of Senderra Rx Specialty Pharmacy

care contracts. We get patients by working directly with doctors” and patients, said Purifoy, adding that Senderra’s 30 percent annual growth rate is higher than any national competitors like Express Scripts Holding and the pharmacy benefit management arms of CVS Health and UnitedHealth Group.

“Doctors like to see us come because we are like the cavalry coming to help them out,” he said.

Tom Bohannon, senior vice president of sales and another co-founder, said his 26 sales reps regularly

visit physician offices to explain the company’s philosophy.

“I saw the challenges nurses and physicians face to help patients improve their quality of life and felt we can provide them streamlined services that patients desperately need,” said Bohannon, who had been in the specialty pharmacy industry for more than 12 years when he gave Purifoy the idea to start Senderra.

Bohannon said his sales reps work with up to 13,000 physicians to encourage them to send prescriptions to Senderra.

“We present the physician offices with our class of drugs and talk about how we manage the work flow and can take care of their needs and their patients’ needs,” said Bohannon, who said Senderra helps practices cut their administrative time in making sure their patients get their medications.

Many times patients can’t afford the drugs, which can cost up to $10,000 per month, said Jelena Opancina, Senderra’s senior vice president of operations and the company’s fourth co-founder.

Senderra call center employees are trained to help patients seek a variety of financial assistance from drug manufacturers’ coupon programs, pharmacy drug sponsorship programs and nonprofit organizations that help patients pay for their drugs, Opancina said.

Senderra’s service center in Flint provides prescription education and coordination with the fulfillment team, prior authorization with

payers, compliance education and training and help for patients enrolling in support and financial assistance programs.

“We get incoming calls from patients about their disease, dosage requirements and insurance change assistance,” Purifoy said. “If they need to talk with a pharmacist or nurse, we pass them to the right person.”

Call center employees also make a number of outgoing calls to schedule deliveries, reminders about ordering and making sure patients stay on therapy, said Sarah Wurt, a nurse who is the manager of the patient service center in Flint.

Wurt has worked in the specialty pharmacy field for eight years and decided in 2013 to leave Diplomat Pharmacy in Flint for a chance to get in on the ground floor with Senderra.

Starting pay is $11 per hour with full benefits and a 401(k). Many of their employees come from diverse backgrounds with little medical experience and are trained for the call center job.

Vonda Bonner, a supervisor in the patient services center, said she had been working at McDonald’s before coming to Senderra in 2013 with only a pharmacy technology certification under her belt.

“I was looking for a job, and Senderra hired me for the answer team,” said Bonner, who now supervises the team of 21 patient care coordinators. “We treat patients as people and strive to make them feel at ease.”

Senderra also has developed a patented patient information management system called CarePath

that allows call center employees to verify and validate clinical information on patients. “We don’t want anything to fall through the cracks,” Purifoy said.

Bonner said even if new employees don’t have computer skills, the CarePath program is easy to use.

“Senderra trains us. You just have to update it correctly,” she said.

Sabrina Patrick, another supervisor in the call center, also started at Senderra in 2013 with no prior medical experience.

“Before, I was a stay-at-home mom and worked in the real estate field,” said Patrick, who supervises the immunology and osteoporosis call teams. “One of the great things about Senderra is they provide a training program, extensive and ongoing. They don’t just train you and forget about you. You get fine-tuned down the road for leadership."

Besides the entry-level training and orientation, the company also offers advanced training through its Senderra Leadership Training Institute

in Flint and Dallas.

Wurt said the company’s training program helps its diverse team in Flint work together and with the Dallas office via videoconferencing.

“The leadership program teaches you to better manage time, how to coach people and gives us all advanced customer service skills,” Wurt said. “We want to bring patients the best outcomes we can. To do that we all work as a very close team and serve each other for the patients.”

Jay Greene: (313) 446-0325 Twitter: @jaybgreene

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 1 6 , 2 0 1 7

13

SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTH CARE

DMC cardiologist pioneers embolism treatment

By Jay Greene jgreene@crain.com

Thousands of people have died over the years from what originally was believed to be a heart attack when the actual cause was a massive pulmonary embolism, said Mahir Elder, M.D., a top interventional cardiologist at Detroit Medical Center’s Cardiovascular Institute who has developed a new diagnostic check for these serious kinds of emergency cases.

In the nation’s largest study of its kind, Elder and his Pulmonary Embolism Response Team (PERT) — also called the Clotbusters — have treated more than 250 patients the past two years for massive pulmonary embolisms with a lifesaving rate greater than 90 percent, far higher than the 42 percent save rate documented in other studies where patients received the blood-thinning drugs tPA or heparin.

“It started when I noticed a few cases in the (Detroit Receiving Hospital) ER back in 2012,” said Elder, who also is assistant director of the Wayne State University School of Medicine’s interventional cardiology fellowship program.

“PE can often be masked as MI (myocardial infarction, or heart attack),” said Elder. “It is often misdiagnosed, which can result in an unfortunate mortality. It is completely preventable if discovered promptly.”

Many ER physicians and other specialists don’t immediately diagnose the blood clot in the lung that is causing the emergency.

“A patient presents to the ED with difficulty breathing, short of breath and sharp chest pain, requiring oxygen therapy with low blood pressure (80/40 or less),” said Elder, a former Crain’s Health Care Hero. “This requires quick action. Before, there was no standard way to treat it. No research, no procedure.”

Elder said reviews of national registries of unexplained deaths have shown that thousands of deaths were caused by massive pulmonary embolisms. This most usually happens when a blood clot dislodges from the leg and travels up into the lungs, blocking blood flow. This progresses to cardiac arrest, or a heart attack.

Each year, pulmonary embolisms kill at least 600,000 Americans, many of whom had no or little symptoms. It is one of the leading causes of sudden death.

In 2014, Elder received institutional review board approval from the Wayne State medical school and the DMC. His boss, Theodore Schreiber, M.D., president of the DMC Heart Hospital, was supportive of his plan to create the PERT team and institute the special PE guidelines in DMC Receiving’s emergency department. Schreiber is also on the PERT team.

“ER doctors will perform a cardiac ultrasound or CT scan of the lungs to confirm diagnosis (of PE). Once confirmed, the PERT team is activated,” said Elder, adding that the patient is then transferred to DMC’s catheterization lab at the Heart Hospital for

JAY GREENE/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Mahir Elder, M.D., a top interventional cardiologist at Detroit Medical Center’s Cardiovascular Institute, has developed a new diagnostic check for pulmonary embolism cases. Elder and his team have treated more than 250 patients the past two years for massive pulmonary embolisms. an emergency procedure.

Elder, who is one of Michigan’s highest-volume operators of peripheral arterial disease and amputation prevention, said the approval process for PE guidelines was not easy.

“The naysayers (initially ER physicians, pulmonologists, vascular surgeons and interventional radiologists) were concerned that it may not work and there could be other options,” said Elder, who also is medical director of DMC Harper Hospital’s cardiac

“We treat massive PE better in Detroit than anywhere in the country. We can say we are a world authority.”

Mahir Elder, M.D., Detroit Medical Center

care unit. “We won them over because we were saving lives. The ER doctors are very proud of what we did.”

The first step Elder needed was to develop the massive/submassive pulmonary embolism guidelines for the ER physicians to use in screening patients. The procedure algorithm is multifaceted, but begins with an initial patient evaluation. The guidelines recommend the patient be given 15 minutes of CPR. For example, the patient presents with chest pains and other heart attack-like symptoms. ER doctors then order an IV, cardiac monitor and EKG, appropriate blood tests, CT an-

giogram or echocardiogram of the chest and heparin.

If the CT scan confirms symptoms of PE, ER doctors page a PERT team member and the patient is sent to the cath lab for an immediate procedure.

DMC’s PERT team includes five interventional cardiologists, several fellows, nurses, cardiovascular technologists and radiology therapists.

Once the patient is in the cath lab and the PERT team is ready, Elder or another team cardiologist inserts a thin plastic tube (catheter) through a large vein in the patient’s groin area.

The catheter tube is maneuvered through the patient’s circulatory system and deep inside the pulmonary artery close to the blood clot. Once in place, cardiologists break up the coagulated blood with ultrasound and inject anticlot medications.

“The procedure takes about 30 minutes and we are done,” Elder said. “It takes another four to six hours, depending on the size of the clot, to dissolve it.”

Technologies used for the procedure, known in the medical field as catheter-directed thrombolysis, were developed for other heart- and artery-related procedures. Elder’s team uses the EKOS Acoustice Pulse device.

“We use EKOS ultrasound to break up the fibrin clot, which is a web of strands that are connected together.

Simultaneously, we use the anticlotting medication to dissolve it,” he said.

The EKOS technology allows Elder and team to use much less blood thinner, which makes the procedure safer.

Under some extreme circumstances for highly unstable patients,

Elder said, a small pump, the Abiomed Impella RP, is used to keep the heart going. “It is a temporary pump that decreases the pressure on the heart and offers circulatory support,” he said. “It is removed once the patient is stable.”

At first, Elder’s PERT team received referrals from DMC’s ER physicians and from the co-located Karmanos Cancer Institute.

“Now, pulmonologists, oncologists and surgeons with patients who develop PEs are seeing the benefit in our program” 24/7, Elder said.

Elder said DMC now has received referrals from several hospitals in Michigan, including patients who are airlifted from around the state.

Soon after Elder began researching options with PE, he discovered cardiologists at Massachusetts General Hospital were starting a similar program, and he called them to discuss options. He found they did not have a standard procedure. Since then, Massachusetts General has formed a national PERT consortium, which DMC has joined, to help spread the word at hospitals and with doctors.

To be successful, Elder said PERT teams must be inclusive and collaborative. They also must be able to quickly respond to PE cases. Mortality rates rise quickly as time passes, he said.

“We are ahead of Mass General.

They have a team but not as efficient as us because we are in-house and open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. They have a meeting first, then call in the team. It takes too long,” Elder said.

“Our hospital is the nation’s high-

est enroller in PE clinical research.

We get more patients into the cath lab than anyone because we are here 24/7” through DMC’s Cardio Team One, he said.

Elder said having the PERT staff on call 24/7 is expensive, but after several years the service is now profitable. “You need at least 50 cases per year to be proficient,” he said.

But Elder said the ability to save lives makes it worthwhile for his team and the hospital.

“You should see them when they come into the ER. They are in very poor condition. They can’t breathe on their own and have a tremendous amount of chest pain. After the procedure, they are comfortable and they walk out of the hospital,” Elder said.

The majority of patients treated at DMC understand the importance of taking care of their health, Elder said.

They hydrate, exercise and make sure they don’t sit too long without some form of movement, he said.

“About 90 percent of our patients make changes in their behavior, which significantly reduces the recurrence rates,” Elder said.

Physicians and nurses involved in the program are proud of what DMC Heart Hospital and Cardiovascular Institute are doing to prevent unnecessary deaths, he said.

“We treat massive PE better in Detroit than anywhere in the country,” Elder said. “We can say we are a world authority. We can say we are at the top in innovation and treatment for massive PE. We are proud of that.”

Jay Greene: (313) 446-0325 Twitter: @jaybgreene

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PEOPLE: SPOTLIGHT Living Arts names executive director Alissa Novoselick has been named executive director at Detroit-based nonprofit Living Arts, which uses performing, visual, literary and media arts to engage city y o u t h , Novoselick teachers and families.

Novoselick, a native of Muskegon, previously was executive director of the Tamarack Foundation for the Arts in West Virginia.

She also taught high school in Southfield and Native American students in Arizona.

Novoselick succeeds Cara Graninger, who has served for nine years as executive director.

Rouge River nonprofit selects new leader The Friends of the Rouge in Dearborn has named Marie McCormick as executive director.

McCormick, 30, brings experience in watershed management, sustainable community development and nonprofit leadership to the organization, which proMcCormick motes restoration and stewardship of the Rouge River ecosystem.

A Northville native, she served two years as executive director of the Oak Creek Watershed Council in Sedona, Ariz.

MSHDA exec director named as state judge The Michigan State Housing Development Authority is seeking a new executive director after its current leader was appointed to a judge post in northern Michigan.

Kevin Elsenheimer was named last week by Gov. Rick Snyder to the 13th Circuit Court, which hears cases in Grand Traverse, Leelanau and Antrim counties.

Elsenheimer replaces Philip Rodgers Jr., who retired from the bench in October.

Elsenheimer has worked as senior chief deputy director for the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs

and as an administrative law judge. He worked in the Antrim County prosecutor’s office and co-founded the law firm Young, Graham, Elsenheimer & Wendling PC in Bellaire.

January 16, 2017

SETBACKS FROM PAGE 3

2015, and $4.4 million in net assets/ fund balances as it headed into 2016.

Focus: Hope was conservative in budgeting for revenue from the subsidiary for this fiscal year, Lee said.

“We anticipated there would be some shutdowns or phase-outs of shifts in response to the demand in the car market. As we see the truck is king again, there’s been a slowdown with small car (production), ” he said.

The nonprofit suspended its machinist and information technology workforce training programs in the fall of 2015 for lack of funding.

“We are looking at all of the programs, going through an exercise to understand what’s needed,” Lee said.

“Some of the programs will be phased out. ... (But) we are not exiting workforce development; we’re looking at how we can maximize the opportunities through workforce development for the needs of the community and business.”

The agency continues to do good work in the community in other areas, he said. “We are still making impact in the lives of people from age zero to senior.”

In addition to its early-childhood center program, which serves a total

MOBILI-D FROM PAGE 1

Vegas, live-streaming the trip for all the world to see.

This year, Fiat Chrysler chose to debut its Chrysler Portal concept at CES instead of NAIAS. While Automobili-D provided ample room for auto-tech startups, for many established players, including suppliers of advanced automotive/mobility technologies, CES simply offers a better business case.

“Both shows are important, but CES has the momentum,” Kathryn Blackwell, vice president of communications and marketing for Auburn Hills-based Continental Automotive Inc. “We were overwhelmed at CES. Where we maybe only get 50 media people at NAIAS, it was standing-room-only in Vegas with 200 or more reporters.”

NAIAS confirmed it did not track attendance into the Automobili-D during the press preview. Alberts said traffic was up during the industry preview on Jan. 11-12.

Continental, which had a booth at CES this year for the first time, demonstrated biometric technology, such as fingerprint and face recognition, technology at CES as well as a real-time traffic app. None of the tech from CES made it back for NAIAS. Blackwell said it is “literally impossible” to get assets from Las Vegas to Detroit in time for the auto show.

Continental isn’t alone. Visteon was also unable to bring its 40 advanced technologies showcased at CES, including an augmented reality headsup display suite, to NAIAS. Instead, its booth in Automobili-D displayed current production in-dash displays.

Page15 15

RAIN C R A I N ’ S D E T R O ICT B’SUDSETROIT I N E BSUSINESS S // J A N U A R Y 1 6 , 2 0 1 7

of 222 children, Focus: Hope continues to distribute food through the supplemental commodity food program funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to 41,300 seniors from across the region each month.

Focus: Hope organizes “Keep it 100!,” a three-day anti-blight project launched in summer 2015 to clean up the 100 blocks around its Detroit

rolled in each or if they are currently active. They include an integrated advanced manufacturing machinist training program to ready people for midlevel positions; the FastTrak program to give people the soft skills and basic academic skills needed for a job; and Tech Hire, information technology training presented with

Detroit Employment Solutions Corp., Southwest Solutions, Grand Circus

campus on Oakman Boulevard.

It also offers a small-business education series led by ProsperUs Detroit and rents office space at affordable prices and offers business assistance on marketing and branding through a business village on its campus, which is also operated in collaboration with ProsperUs. Programs set to begin in early February include truck-driver training, a job-seeker boot camp and financial literacy classes presented in collaboration with the Greater Detroit Center for Working Families.

Focus: Hope said it also offers other training programs, but it did not say how many people are en-

and the city of Detroit.

On the workforce development front, the goal is to align Focus: Hope’s programs with the needs of the workforce community and employers, Lee said. As part of that effort, he was in Washington, D.C., recently, attending the American Apprenticeship Initiative conference hosted by the U.S. Department of Labor for current apprenticeship grantees.

Focus: Hope was awarded a $3 million apprenticeship grant in September 2015 to help train people for higher-wage and higher-skill jobs.

The grant requires it to train and deploy apprentices as CNC operators, machinists and information technology professionals, working with Pontiac-based DASI Solutions and the Jackson Area Manufacturers Association.

“We’re a year and a half into this grant. ... I’m learning about what we can really do with that,” Lee said.

“People are looking at the appren-

The auto show is about cars, not technology, and that is why it’s difficult for Automobili-D to be successful, said Mary Gustanski, vice president of engineering and program management for Troy-based Delphi Automotive plc.

Delphi, which has been showcasing at CES for 21 years, hosted a sixmile autonomous ride at CES with technologies it anticipates will make production in 2019. It also showcased 3-D technology for in-dash displays and more. None of those technologies made it to Detroit.

“We cycled a lot of media at CES,” Gustanski said. “(In Detroit), I’m not sure we’d get the attention. We’re not showing a car. We’re showing technology. We’ll always take a backseat to the (carmakers). I don’t think you can do both in the same space and do either justice.”

Automobili-D was closed Monday morning during the North American Car and Truck of the Year awards program and high-profile auto reveals. Alberts said organizers did not want Automobili-D to pull media away from the awards program.

Alberts said Automobili-D is as much about connecting businesses as it is about showcasing new technologies.

“There’s going to be engagement you and I are not seeing,” Alberts said during Wednesday’s industry preview of NAIAS. “We’ve got 45,000 people here today, and those are corporate people that are trying to make things happen.”

A portion of Automobili-D is on engaging startup technology companies with industry players and investors. Detroit-based Techstars Mobility, an accelerator designed to

bring startups to Detroit, assembled a list of 50 startups for Automobili-D. Automobili-D “is relevant right now,” said Glenn Stevens, executive director of industry advocacy group MichAuto, which assisted NAIAS. “These startups now have the ability to connect with C-suite decision makers and financiers. That’s a positive step. We leverage a rebirth of Detroit with talent, and that’s what this is all about.”

But for Continental and Delphi, CES still provides a much better business proposition.

“We have better access to customers and suppliers at CES,” which rented a private room at the Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel to entertain customers, Blackwell said. “I get more impact for my budget.”

More than 100 different customers, suppliers and entrepreneurs talked shop with Visteon executives at CES during invite-only meetings, Tim Yerdon, Visteon’s director of marketing and communications said at NAIAS. Delphi’s experience was similar.

“We’re not going to miss CES because that would be a missed business opportunity,” Gustanski said.

“If you look at what Delphi needs, it’s not looking at new vehicles, it’s finding the cutting-edge technology and that’s what’s at CES.” Alberts said NAIAS will build on Automobili-D in the years to follow.

“It took off like a rocket this year,” Alberts said. “2018 is going to be on fire.”

NAIAS is looking to expand Automobili-D next year, potentially being open during the public days of the show, Alberts said. CES, by contrast, is a trade show only open to media and businesses.

“We have to connect with the consumer as well,” Alberts said.

“We are looking into collaborating with more industry partners in the future.”

Jason Lee, Focus: Hope

ticeship programs as an opportunity to develop that future workforce, and we’re looking to maximize our alignment with that.”

The joke at the Washington conference was, given that President-elect Donald Trump hosted the reality television show “The Apprentice,” hopefully he’ll have a soft spot for additional apprenticeship programs, Lee said.

The federal government has identified over 1,000 apprenticeship programs across the country, Lee said, including a Boston apprenticeship for hospitality, to train the people to clean rooms in preparation for positions earning $14-$15 per hour.

“We’re … still staying true to our roots in manufacturing and technology but recognizing there are areas beyond those fields that … could play a role in Michigan,” he said.

Focus: Hope has work to do as it refines its workforce development programs and finds sustainable funding for them, Lee acknowledged, noting the first four months of his tenure have been “interesting.”

“But we’re going to achieve that goal,” he said. “There’s a long legacy here of making an impact in the lives of people, and there’s industry demand and demand from this community.”

Sherri Welch: (313) 446-1694 Twitter: @SherriWelch

MSU gets $500,000 grant for Flint registry

By Tyler Clifford tclifford@crain.com

Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine received a $500,000 grant Friday to support the development of a registry for victims of Flint’s ongoing water crisis.

The one-year grant was awarded by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and will allow for the planning of a database that was recommended by the Flint Water Advisory Task Force. The registry will be used to monitor the long-term health of more than 100,000 people, primarily children, affected by the use of contaminated drinking water.

Of the funds, $450,000 will go to MSU and $50,000 will be held for a liaison position to work between MSU and MDHHS. “Much feedback has already been gathered from Flint residents and stakeholders about how to implement a registry that truly works to better assist residents in ensuring they receive the services they need,” MDHHS Director Nick Lyon said in a news release. “This planning grant is an important next step in the development of this registry and I am confident that MSU will establish a solid foundation for the registry moving forward.”

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Crain’s Classifieds Gets Results

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DMC FROM PAGE 3

directly related to expiration nearly two years ago of a contract with the seven-physician dermatology department at Wayne State University Physician Group, the medical school's 500-physician academic medical group, and the ending of a dermatology residency position sponsored by Wayne State.

“We are currently in need of attending dermatology physicians to respond to inpatient consultations,” Monique Butler, M.D., Receiving’s chief medical officer, and William Berk, M.D., Receiving’s chief of staff, said in the letter obtained by Crain’s.

For more than six weeks, DMC officials declined to comment on the letter and why it was sent but issued a statement in early December to Crain’s about dermatology coverage.

“Inpatient dermatology consults are covered by DMC’s 28 staff dermatologists,” said DMC spokesman Melanie Moss. “These dermatology specialists, as well as our team of highly trained emergency, surgical and internal medicine providers respond to requests for consults at all of our DMC locations. In the case of a potentially life-threatening disease, rash or medication allergy, a patient would be admitted and cared for by this team.”

But in a joint statement e-mailed to Crain’s Wednesday morning, Jan. 11, one minute before an interview began with DMC officials, DMC and Wayne State said they had reached preliminary agreement on a contract. “(We) are pleased to announce a new program agreement in which the DMC will host Wayne State University dermatology residents at DMC’s various inpatient and outpatient sites. This opportunity will further the education of future medical specialists who will help serve the dermatologic needs of our community. Once finalized, this agreement will be mutually beneficial to both parties,” said the statement.

Wayne State officials declined further comment, but confirmed that the outline of a new contract was unexpectedly reached.

In the interview with Crain’s, Reginald Eadie, M.D., DMC’s regional COO, said DMC CEO Joe Mullany on Monday night spoke with Jack Sobel, M.D., Wayne State medical school dean, about resolving the issue to return the dermatology resident and UPG coverage, among other topics. Tuesday night, Sobel talked with Suzanne White, M.D., DMC’s chief medical officer, to further discuss the tentative deal.

Eadie also confirmed that DMC had a previous agreement with WSUPG for dermatology coverage.

He said he wasn’t privy to why the older contract ended.

“They (Wayne State) decided not to provide coverage, so we needed to shift to non-UPG doctors,” said Eadie, who previously was CEO of Receiving, Harper and Hutzel Women’s Hospital.

In response to the Nov. 15 letter, Butler said several private dermatologists have agreed to accept inpa-

DETROIT MEDICAL CENTER

The Detroit Medical Center has reached an agreement for dermatology services.

tient consultations at DMC’s downtown hospitals.

“We play a role in recruitment,” Butler said. “We had changes that occurred with coverage, but there has never been a situation where we did not have coverage. We have a group of dermatologists who provide coverage.”

But sources told Crain’s that the need for inpatient dermatology consultations on difficult to diagnose skin cases has been a long-term problem that began when former CEO Mike Duggan, who is now Detroit’s mayor, eliminated funding for the Wayne State University School of Medicine’s dermatology department in a cost-cutting move in 2006.

Duggan also terminated funding for Wayne State’s departments in family medicine, urology, orthopedics, and ear, nose and throat as DMC was teetering near bankruptcy. Four of the five departments shifted clinical services and residency programs from DMC to former Oakwood Healthcare hospitals. Family medicine residency went to Crittenton Hospital.

For several years, WSUPG dermatology had a small contract for a dermatology resident with Receiving to cover inpatient consultations, but that ended Jan. 1, 2015, when DMC cut funding, sources said. From that time until July 2016, WSU dermatologists provided consults without funding as a community service, sources told Crain’s.

“We continued to try to negotiate during that time,” said a Wayne State dermatologist, who asked to remain anonymous. “Budget cuts at other hospitals reduced our funding and caused us to be unable to provide DMC consults. Since July, we have been trying to negotiate, but the DMC has given us no response.”

On Jan. 10, Wayne State issued the following statement to Crain’s:

“The Wayne State University School of Medicine currently does not have a dermatology contract, but would consider any proposal for those services. Despite any contention to the contrary, we are interested in providing our high-quality dermatology services to Tenet Healthcare Inc.’s Detroit Medical Center.”

Last September, Wayne State medical school and DMC agreed to an 18-month clinical services and administrative contract. But the contract did not cover dermatology services, which sources said was disappointing to the UPG dermatology department.

Eadie declined to comment on why dermatology was not included as a provision in the contract. Wayne State sources told Crain’s that DMC did not propose an agreement for dermatology to accept or reject in the contract talks last year.

Over the last few months, however, Eadie said several doctors and dermatologists have asked DMC to reinstate the subsidy for the residency position and attending coverage.

“I gathered the facts and I now have a plan to reinstate the subsidy,” said Eadie, referring to the joint statement and proposed deal with Wayne State. He declined to detail the terms of the agreement. Sources said the agreement could range from a single year to multiple years and could include several dermatology residents.

Despite DMC’s denials, Crain’s sources confirmed the lack of dermatology consultation affected Receiving, Harper, Hutzel and the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan.

WSUPG dermatology has separate agreements with DMC Children’s Hospital of Michigan and Karmanos Cancer Institute. Sources also said DMC’s other hospitals, including Sinai Grace and Huron Valley-Sinai, have sufficient dermatology consultations and were not affected.

“Dermatology inpatient services may not seem very important, and many patients in the hospital don’t require them,” said the Wayne State dermatologist, who estimated three to four dermatology consultations are needed each week at Receiving and Harper, but that some weeks consultation requests can be as high as 10.

“But there are some very serious skin disorders that can be life-threatening. One of those diseases is called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome/ Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis. It is a skin problem in which a medication causes all the patient’s skin to start to blister and fall off. The mortality rate can be as high as 35 percent.”

The Wayne State dermatologist said these Stevens-Johnson skin patients can require intense care at Detroit Receiving’s burn unit. It takes a specialist to identify the Stevens-Johnson infections because it can mimic other less-severe conditions that require only antibiotics, the source said.

A senior internal medicine resident at DMC also circulated an email last fall among Wayne State dermatologists and DMC officials that indicated problems residents had last year with dermatology consultations. The resident said the top-

ic of dermatology consultations became an issue because they were often needed, but unavailable for patients.

“Our fear is that a patient will develop a complication ... and we will not have dermatology to help,” the senior resident said. “We did try to circumvent this by consulting surgery for a patient who required a biopsy; however, surgery is not trained for punch biopsies, and therefore there are issues with the preparation and handling of the sample.”

Need residency position In early 2015, DMC terminated funding for a Wayne State dermatology residency position as a cost-saving move to save about $100,000 per year. Eadie confirmed the funding decision.

Over the past year or more, Ali Moiin, M.D., a Troy-based dermatologist, has been the only doctor to take inpatient consultations at DMC hospitals, sources said. He also is on staff and takes consultations at St. John Providence Hospital in Detroit.

“DMC has a lot of indigent patients, and dermatologists don’t want to see patients if they don’t get paid,” Moiin told Crain’s. “I have no problem doing it, but DMC needs more (dermatologists) for consultations.”

Moiin said DMC’s lack of funding for the Wayne State dermatology residency position put a crimp on some consultation services for Medicaid and indigent care patients.

“They took away that spot,” Moiin said. “I am doing a lot of consultations now for emergency patients, but DMC needs the residency position because there is no coverage in the middle of the night.”

Moiin, who said he is unaware if any more private dermatologists have agreed to accept consultations at DMC, acknowledged that dermatology consultations can usually wait 12 hours or until the next morning.

“Nobody is willing to do it other than me. It is an epidemic issue in hospitals in the U.S. DMC doesn’t want to pay dermatologists for coverage and can’t find anybody willing to do it,” Moiin said.

Crain’s sources said most dermatologists have busy practices and don’t want to take two hours out of their day to consult for either a Medicaid patient with low reimbursement or an indigent patient with no payments.

“We have a contract to see patients at Beaumont Dearborn (formerly Oakwood),” the Wayne dermatologist said. “Oakwood has private dermatologists and if it is a Medicaid or indigent patient, they say ask Wayne State and we see them. They don’t get paid a lot, even for commercial insurance. It takes an hour to drive and then the time in the hospital. They can see patients in their office and make a lot more.”

Beaumont Health, the At eight-hospital system has several groups of private practice dermatologists that cover various hospitals for 24/7 for consultations as part of their medical staff requirements,

said a Beaumont official.

The Wayne State dermatologist said physicians who most often need dermatology consultations are primary care, infectious disease, allergy, oncology and rheumatology.

“There was a case where a patient (at DMC) who was on seizure medications got a rash. The oncologists thought it was cancer and ordered chemotherapy treatment. (Wayne State dermatologists) consulted on the case and got her back on the right meds. She was OK,” said the Wayne State dermatologist.

“Sometimes patients have lupus or another skin problem and are discharged,” the dermatologists said. “These patients can have something more serious, and we end up seeing them in the clinic.”

While more dermatologists need to provide more inpatient consultations, the Wayne State dermatologists said hospitals need to provide funding to at least cover basic costs for the consultations either for indigent patients or to enhance payments for Medicaid and commercially insured patients.

Michael Siegel, M.D., chair of the Michigan Dermatological Society’s ethics and professionalism committee, said lack of inpatient dermatology consultations is a common problem for hospitals.

“Often the dermatology resident is the first line and the attending is responsible for that consultation,” Siegel said. “Large hospitals can require dermatologists to provide consultation coverage as a condition of (being on the) medical staff.

Smaller hospitals have more trouble.”

Siegel said he is the only dermatologist who provides inpatient consultations at St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Hospital in Pontiac.

“Many consider it an arduous portion of their practice. There are more complicated and sick patients in the hospital with complex medical problems,” he said. “I bill insurance when I can and do pro bono for Medicaid” and the uninsured.

Siegel said he does it because he believes he is needed for good patient care.

“I get a call on Sunday afternoon when I am watching the football game, and I am irritated,” he said.

“When I leave (the patient), I feel good because I felt I made a difference.”

Nationally, some dermatologists are taking action to address what they believe is an dire need for inpatient consultations because of increasingly complex patient conditions.

Through the American Academy of Dermatology, a small group of dermatologists has created the Society for Dermatology Hospitalists in an effort to re-establish dermatologists as key members of the hospital team.

“The group showed in a study that hospitals can save money on antibiotics and admissions by getting more consults,” the Wayne State dermatologist said. “Dermatology consultations can save lives and reduce health care costs.”

Jay Greene: (313) 446-0325 Twitter: @jaybgreene

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POPCORN FROM PAGE 3

include the principals of Vision Investment Partners LLC, the Bloomfield Hills firm that bought the Bert’s on Broadway building in downtown Detroit and a Randolph Street building in December and is the Michigan franchisee for California-based smoothie company Jamba Juice.

The principals of Vision Investment, which launched in August, include Mark and Kevin Denha and Omar and Saber Ammori, majority owners of Bloomfield Hills-based Wireless Vision Holdings LLC. In September, they recruited former Bank of Michigan president Mike Sarafa — brother of Pop Daddy’s co-owner — to serve as group president for management and investments.

Aside from the family connection, Vision Investment’s Kevin Denha is a lifelong friend of Mark Sarafa.

It was at the inaugural Crain’s Food Summit held at Detroit’s Eastern Market last August that Vision Investment’s members met Dickow. Before joining Greenwich Capital, Dickow had spent nearly 10 years working at General Mills in various financial and operational roles, from finance manager and corporate development working on mergers and acquisitions to supply chain and operations and as a controller at one of the company’s manufacturing sites.

Attracted by his experience and potential to consult on the food investment, Vision Investment Partners invited Dickow to co-invest in Pop Daddy.

Dickow, in turn, brought his own brother, Randy Dickow, into the deal.

Outside of Pop Daddy, the pair own Calexico, an upscale Mexican food franchise that opened in the building at One Campus Martius in Detroit in August, and three other Detroit restaurants: Lunchtime Global, Freshii Detroit and Sweet Lorraine’s Fabulous Mac n’ Cheez in the Renaissance Center. They also bought the Mad Hatter Bistro in downtown Birmingham in November.

AARON ECKELS

Mark Sarafa, co- founder of Pop Daddy Popcorn Inc. in Highland Township, pitches his business during the Crain’s Food Summit last summer at Eastern Market.

“I’ve seen what works in the marketplace,” Dickow said. “ I’m excited to bring that to ... try and help mitigate any chance of failure as we look to expand” Pop Daddy.

Mark Sarafa and his wife, Erin, began making the popcorn at home after he discovered reported health concerns with microwave popcorn and banned it from his house.

They use a red kernel that pops smaller and has a crunchier texture than other popped versions, popped in olive oil, and use natural flavors to produce five varieties: original with olive oil and salt, kettle corn, white cheddar, black pepper and a hot-

sauce-infused version.

Mike Sarafa said his brother’s background in the food and beverage industry is as compelling as his popcorn.

“A lot of people have a product.

(Mark) worked for Coca-Cola, Frito-Lay and Absopure in sales, so he knows how to get his product out there in the trade channels,” Mike Sarafa said.

The “turn” or replacement rates for Pop Daddy Popcorn in the stores are proof it’s gaining a consumer following, as well, Sarafa said.

“He’s going head to head with the nationals in the places he’s in, and he

FERRIES FROM PAGE 1

Conservancy, Cobo Center and Hart Plaza events, said Marc Pasco, the

conservancy’s director of communications.

And developers like Richard Baron are building apartments at the Orleans Landing project, large properties like apartment towers and parking decks along the river are selling for tens of millions of dollars, and Dan Gilbert’s team and General Motors Co. are in discussions about a 10-acre mixed-use development east of the Renaissance Center.

John Loftus, executive chairman of the port authority, said a monthlong “demonstration” of the water ferries is expected to take place this summer and the authority will have more concrete information following that which will help determine the size of the boats and number to purchase.

The demonstration would also help determine demand for a water taxi service and whether it would

DETROIT RIVERFRONT CONSERVANCY

The RiverWalk along the Detroit River in downtown Detroit has been transformed in recent years. generate enough revenue to support its operations.

“You don’t want to screw up a federal grant. I would rather give the money back than screw it up. I will move with great caution,” Loftus said.

He said limited demonstrations

have taken place during the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix and the 2015 American Society of Associate Executives conference at Cobo Center.

The ferry operators turned away 540 non-ASAE conference goers and gave 617 people rides in four days. He also said some or all of the money might

does well,” he said. “We think the company has a really strong value.

We’re poised to do this now and (invest) more later if we can help him become a regional and then a national product.”

Pop Vision’s investment will fund marketing efforts designed to expand Pop Daddy into other Midwestern states.

Mark Sarafa said the company plans to exhibit at food distributor shows and national trade shows that attract retail buyers, like the Sweet and Snacks Expo in Chicago in May. Pop Daddy also plans to do more sampling with consumers at Midwest

fairs and festivals and to do more tastings at retailers in those areas.

The hope is to double revenue this year, Sarafa said. But it wouldn’t be possible without the Pop Vision investment.

“Traditional bank loans are still not available to us; we’re still very risky as far as the bank is concerned,” he said.

But Pop Vision’s members bring background in the food industry and have all built businesses themselves.

“I think I can learn a lot from them,” Sarafa said.

be reprogrammed to improving docks along the river, as well.

“We would love to see water taxis on the Detroit riverfront in the near future,” said Mark Wallace, president and CEO of the Detroit RiverFront Conservancy.

The funds are currently being held by the Michigan Department of Transportation; to access the funds, a business plan and other information would have to be submitted to MDOT, Loftus said.

A study completed in January 2015 for the Detroit RiverFront Conservancy by Detroit-based Freshwater Transit Solutions LLC suggests phasing in water taxi service in three stages with stops at various points along the river: the Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle, the former Uniroyal Tire Co. factory site, the Roberts Riverwalk Hotel, Rivard Plaza, the RenCen, the port authority and the west riverfront. It also says operations should start small and be expanded in varying phases.

“The plan we released a year ago focused on an early phase where we

utilized existing docks, which we had built along the RiverWalk in anticipation of a future water taxi program,” Wallace said. “What we have seen in benchmarking these operations is that they typically require sponsorship dollars. I think there would be companies in Southeast Michigan that might want to support this type of transportation option.”

“Whatever the thinking was at the time about going ahead and buying these boats, other people decided you have to look beyond just the purchase about how you’re going to maintain them, operate them,” said Sheila Cockrel, president of Detroit-based Crossroads Consulting & Communications Group LLC and a former longtime Detroit City Council member.

“I think the city has been doing a much better job of being on top of grant reporting, grant monitoring, when there is a problem, getting it fixed rather than it just showing up for the city in a particular report.”

Sherri Welch: (313) 446-1694 Twitter: @SherriWelch

Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412 Twitter: @kirkpinhoCDB

18

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 1 6 , 2 0 1 7

PARKING 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

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FROM PAGE 1

planning department that nobody in our lifetime ever thought that we’d be having in trying to figure out how to look at data and make a decision to add (spaces) as opposed to looking at history and looking backward,” Duggan said. “This is a challenging thing for us."

As the Duggan administration plans for a future of fewer people owning and operating vehicles, near-term demand is rising, especially along Midtown’s burgeoning corridors.

“We can’t pretend that there isn’t a need (for parking) as we bring in more robust commercial activity,” said Sue Mosey, executive director of Midtown Detroit.

But economic development officials are trying to strike a balance between a changing mobility culture and near-term needs for a city experiencing tremendous redevelopment in its central districts.

Cities across the country are wrestling with how to prepare for the possibility that automakers may one day have fleets of self-driving vehicles that eliminate the need to drive and park a car at work, said David Rich, director of project development at Rich & Associates in Southfield.

But predicting how many spaces will be needed a decade or more from now is anyone’s guess, Rich said.

“It’s just impossible to put a percentage on the potential reduction on a community’s parking demand at this point in time,” said Rich, whose family-owned firm works exclusively on planning, designing and engineering parking garages.

“The difficult question is, do you build today to meet near-term demand knowing that 10, 15, 20 years from now that demand isn’t going to be there?” Rich added.

City planning director Maurice Cox said his department’s change in thinking on the future of use of cars for commuting is being driven by its own employees.

On the 25 new employees hired by the planning department in the past year, only five of them drive a personal vehicle to work every day, Cox said.

The other 20 are using ride-sharing services, taking a bus, riding a bike or walking, he said.

“If they are any way a reflection of the next generation of people moving to Detroit, it suggests we don’t have to build parking for everyone to have a car,” Cox said.

Building for change One solution for cities to hedge against a future drop in parking demand is to require multi-story concrete parking garages to be adaptable for reuse as office, commercial or residential space in the future, Rich said.

“That’s the only prudent strategy you can take now," Rich said. "The alternative is not to do anything and continue to suffer with a lack of parking until such time the demand is reduced by mobility.”

Mary Smith, a Indianapolis-based parking consultant, said building a parking garage that can be converted to a different use requires more expen-

CHAD LIVENGOOD

A parking lot at Cass and Hancock was nearly full early Friday afternoon in Midtown. sive planning for electrical, heating and mechanical functions.

“It’s pretty expensive and pretty risky,” said Smith, senior vice president and director of parking consulting for Walker Parking Consultants, which has offices in Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo.

With most parking garages having a 50-year lifespan, lenders are starting to scrutinize capacity and parking supplies in cities with data showing demand in some urban areas declining, Smith said.

“They’re starting to get a little nervous about financing parking,” she said.

Bedrock LLC, the real estate management company of billionaire Dan Gilbert’s downtown Detroit properties, is starting to research future use of parking garages in the event that parking demand dwindles, said Melissa Dittmer, director of architecture and design at Bedrock.

In addition to future reuse, new parking garages could also could be used as a transportation hub for Uber drivers to drop off riders, storing bicycles for ride-sharing programs and even a parking spot for Amazon’s package-delivering drones, Dittmer said.

“This is sort of a revolutionary moment in the design and construction of the parking garage,” Dittmer said.

“And it may be a moment that lasts a couple of years until the technology shakes out.”

New requirements In anticipation of new residents shedding personal vehicles for public transit or ride-hailing services, Detroit rezoned large sections of the Midtown neighborhood to require 0.75 parking spaces for every new housing unit. That's half the amount of parking spaces previously required under the code, Mosey said.

But lenders often require one parking space for every residential unit to finance a project, Mosey said.

Mosey is more skeptical that there will be a rapid decline in parking demand.

“We have to build a bridge over time to still deal with the realities of underwriters, developers, customers and residents,” she said. “And they’re

all telling us they still need parking.”

Midtown lost 196 spaces along Woodward Avenue for construction of M-1 Rail’s QLine streetcar service, which is expected to transport residents on a 6.6-mile loop between Grand Boulevard in New Center and Woodward Avenue and Congress Street downtown.

Street-side spots are routinely filled throughout the workweek, leaving limited options for patrons at new restaurants, coffee shops and bars along the Woodward and Cass corridors, Mosey said.

At the Detroit Institute of Arts, public parking is limited to often-crowded side streets and a 350-space lot off John R Road that the museum shares with the Michigan Science Center and Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.

The city of Detroit gave the DIA a 350-space underground garage at the end of its bankruptcy in 2014 that has been closed due to structural problems since 2011.

The DIA hopes to get a price tag for bringing that 1960s-era garage back into operation by this summer, said Elliott Broom, DIA vice president of museum operations.

“It’s the No. 1 complaint we receive – the lack of available parking,” Broom said. “There are no nearby solutions."

On Selden Street, Midtown Detroit plans to build two small surface lots later this year on land the association owns between Second and Third streets, Mosey said.

Angle parking will be added to Selden Street between Cass Avenue and Third Street, Mosey said.

“That’s the only street that’s wide enough for us to do that,” she said.

Midtown Detroit has plans to build a 260-space parking deck on city-

owned land on John R Street near Garfield Street as part of the Sugar Hill Arts District project.

The city will help finance construction of that parking deck — estimated to cost between $6.5 million and $7.8 million — using a federal loan fund, Mosey said.

“We’re looking at every low cost and shared parking opportunity that’s available out here," she said.

Where the demand is In downtown Detroit, more than 39 percent of the land between the freeways is devoted to 65,000 parking spaces in garages, surface lots and on-street spots, according to Data Driven Detroit.

“The parking downtown isn’t always necessarily located where the demand is … next to the employment and entertainment hubs,” said Eric Larson, president and CEO of the Downtown Detroit Partnership.

Larson said he wants to see new parking garages tied to the QLine streetcar service along Woodward.

“We really do want to be careful that we’re not overbuilding today for a future that is less dependent on the single-occupant, single-destination vehicle,” Larson said.

Bedrock owns 19,000 parking spaces in garages and surface lots. The company does not have any new garages planned at this time, Dittmer said.

Even if self-driving cars do emerge in the next decade as a viable transportation option, Larson believes there will continue to be a demand for garages.

“This is still an auto-centric town,” Larson said. “The right to own a car in Detroit is like the right to bear arms under the Constitution.”

Chad Livengood: (313) 446-1654 Twitter: @ChadLivengood

INDEX TO COMPANIES These companies have significant mention in this week’s Crain’s Detroit Business: Beaumont Health

9

Michigan Science Center

Break-A-Whey LLC

9

Midtown Detroit

Detroit Economic Growth Corp.

4

Narrow Way Cafe & Shop

Detroit Medical Center

18 4

North American International Auto Show

1

1

Pop Daddy Popcorn

3

Focus: Hope

3

St. Joseph Mercy Health System

9

Henry Ford Health System

9

Wayne State University Physicians Group

3

Detroit Wayne County Port Authority

3, 9, 13

5

19

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 1 6 , 2 0 1 7

THE WEEK ON THE WEB JANUARY 7-13 Takata to pay $1B penalty in airbag probe; 3 indicted

T

akata Corp. has agreed to

plead guilty to a single criminal charge and will pay $1 billion in fines and restitution for a years-long scheme to conceal a deadly defect in its automotive airbag inflators. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit announced the plea deal Friday, the same day it unsealed a six-count grand jury indictment against three former Takata executives accused of executing the scheme by falsifying and altering test reports that showed the inflators could rupture. At least 16 deaths and more than 180 injuries worldwide have been attributed to the defect.

Takata is based in Japan; its North American operations, TK Holdings Inc., are in Auburn Hills.

COMPANY NEWS J

Microsoft Corp. is expected to

move its local offices from Southfield to downtown Detroit in an unspecified Dan Gilbert-owned building, according to multiple real estate sources. Gilbert, speaking with Bloomberg TV at the North American International Auto Show, said he planned soon to announce a new 50,000-squarefoot tenant for downtown.

J Nexteer Automotive Corp. and Continental Automotive Systems Inc. will form a joint venture to supply safety systems for autonomous cars. In an announcement at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the Auburn Hills-based companies said the JV is set to begin operation in the first quarter of this year.

J

Denso International America Inc.

has opened a research and development lab at the University of Michigan, the Southfield supplier said.

J German auto supplier ZF Friedrichshafen AG plans to create as many as 800 jobs with most of them being filled in Michigan, CEO Stefan Sommer said at the North American International Auto Show. ZF has its North American headquarters in Livonia and a technical center in Northville.

J Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will spend a combined $1 billion retooling its decades-old Warren Truck Assembly plant to build Jeep Wagoneers and Grand Wagoneers as well as its Toledo Supplier Park facility to one day build Wrangler-based Jeep pickups, Automotive News reported. Both retoolings are expected to be completed by 2020 and will add a combined 2,000 jobs.

J Citing a lag in development projects in the pipeline, Bloomfield Hills-based Taubman Centers Inc. confirmed it has laid off 19 employees. A spokesman for the mall development and ownership company said the layoffs amounted to a small portion of corporate staff.

J Ride-hailing service Uber plans to open a technical center in Wixom to be closer to tier-one suppliers and automakers, a top executive for the

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

56.2

The digital channel number at which Detroit PBS Kids, a new local TV outlet for children, is broadcasting. The Children’s Hospital of Michigan Foundation is helping to fund the Detroit Public Television channel.

$200,000

The amount of a new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant to the Wayne County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority to redevelop a DTE Energy Co. plant site in River Rouge that is set to close by 2023.

7.2 percent

The increase in median sale prices for metro Detroit homes and condominiums in December from the year before, to $159,900 from $149,200, according to Farmington Hills-based Realcomp Ltd. II. On-market listings in the four-county region fell from 19,634 to 11,255 over the same period.

San Francisco-based company told the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit.

J California-based social fundraising platform GoFundMe acquired CrowdRise, a Royal Oak online fundraising platform for charities and nonprofits.

J Peter Karmanos Jr. and Michael McInerney officially launched their new car-buying service, Deliver My Ride LLC. The Pontiac-based service, part of Karmanos’ Birmingham-based Mad Dog Technology LLC, matches customer needs with offers from multiple dealers, and the user remains anonymous until the deal is complete. Karmanos is co-founder and former CEO and chairman of Detroit-based Compuware Corp. and owns the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes.

J Delaware-based Negri Bossi North America, which sells injection molding presses made in Italy by Negri Bossi SpA, is building a technical center in Plymouth in September to grow in the automotive sector.

J Musicians ratified a new contract with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra more than eight months before the current pact was to expire. Among the terms are annual minimum pay increases of 4 percent over three years.

J Boston-based Bain Capital Private Equity closed on its purchase of Detroit-based MSX International for an undisclosed amount in a deal iniitially reported about in November.

J T&M Associates, a New Jersey-based environmental engineering firm, has opened an office in Detroit’s Renaissance Center and is planning to add another eight new employees this year, officials said. T&M already has an

office in Novi with three employees and two in Detroit.

J Farmington Hills wholesale insurance broker and underwriting manager Burns & Wilcox extended its sponsorship deal with defending PGA Championship winner Jimmy Walker and announced a new deal with 2012 U.S. Open winner Webb Simpson. Terms were not disclosed.

J Ann Arbor-based FarmLogs announced it has raised a $22 million Series C round of financing — the data science company’s largest fund-raising phase to date. The round brought FarmLogs’ total capital raised to $37 million.

J The Cleveland-based Riverside Co. made a platform investment in Xcentric Mold & Engineering in Clinton Township. Terms were not disclosed.

J Arbor Bancorp Inc., the parent company of the Bank of Ann Arbor, said it has completed a merger announced in July to buy Birmingham Bloomfield Bancshares Inc., parent of the Bank of Birmingham.

J The Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality, a New York City-headquartered anti-racism initiative created by Detroit-born billionaire and sports figure Stephen Ross, opened a field office in Detroit to service the Midwest.

J California shoe manufacturer Vans will open its first outlet store in Michigan this spring at Great Lakes Crossing Outlets in Auburn Hills.

J Revenue for Detroit’s three casinos totaled $1.4 billion in 2016, a 0.7 percent increase from 2015, the Michigan Gaming Control Board said.

J Florida-based Spirit Airlines Inc. in May will add nonstop seasonal summer flight destinations from Detroit to Oakland, Calif., and Seattle.

OTHER NEWS

Michigan Medicine is the new name for the University of Michigan Health System, the university announced.

Marschall Runge, M.D., will serve as CEO; he has been dean of the UM Medical School and executive vice president for medical affairs.

J Pontiac City Council members voted 7-0 to sell the city’s troubled downtown Phoenix Center parking garage in a complex deal with an Australia-based software company, the Detroit Free Press reported. BoonEx has told the city it would relocate its North American headquarters from Atlanta to two office towers connected to the Phoenix Center.

J A federal investigation of corruption in Macomb County reached a fourth community as Christopher Craigmiles, a trustee in New Haven, and Brett Harris, a former trustee, were charged with taking bribes from an undercover FBI agent, AP reported.

Three officials in three townships in the county were charged last year.

J Detroit is one of seven cities in the U.S., Canada and Israel to be awarded a grant of up to $1.5 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s foundation, for changing the way city government services are delivered.

J

RUMBLINGS

DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS

Claude Monet created “Gladioli” between 1871 and 1878 while living near Paris.

DIA plans exhibit centered around Monet masterpiece The Detroit Institute of Arts is pulling together an exhibit that will feature roughly a dozen works from acclaimed Impressionist painters Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir when it debuts in October.

The DIA developed the theme for the exhibit, “Monet: Framing Life,” to highlight Monet’s “Gladioli” (c. 1876), a permanent piece in its own collection. The exhibit will run through March 4, 2018.

Monet created the painting during his residency in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil between late 1871 and early 1878. During that time, he and other avant-garde painters of the time formed the group now known as the Impressionists, the French 19th century art movement that marked a break from tradition in European painting.

In turning away from the fine finish and detail to which most artists of their day aspired, the Impressionists aimed to capture the

momentary impression objects made on the eye in a fleeting instant, according to The Art Story, a New York-based educational nonprofit. To give that effect, they presented a fuzzier image of the main subject rather than the traditional clarity of form for the main subject.

The checklist for the works to be included in the DIA’s Monet exhibit is not yet final, but the museum’s current plans include a total of nine works by Monet and three by Renoir. All but “Gladioli” will be on loan from other museums.

The exhibit will present the story of how “Gladioli” was created and how it fits into Monet’s body of work, along with the broader history of Impressionism. It will be available for an additional charge beyond museum admission, said Pamela Marcil, public relations director.

The expectation is that the exhibit will be very popular, as the DIA’s lone Monet is a visitor favorite, she said.

State biz to celebrate Trump’s debut Michigan business luminaries and political influencers are heading this week to Washington, D.C., for the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.

Among them are John Rakolta Jr., chairman and CEO of Detroit construction company Walbridge Aldinger Co., and Ron Weiser, a University of Michigan regent and former Michigan Republican Party chairman. Lena Epstein, the co-owner of Southfield-based Vesco Oil Corp. who was a co-chair of Trump’s Michigan campaign, is also making the trek to the nation’s capitol this week.

Weiser is running to become chairman of the state party again in an effort to succeed Ronna Romney McDaniel, who is Trump’s pick to run the Republican National Committee and who is also expected to gather for Trump’s swearing-in.

Also in attendance will be Betsy DeVos, Trump’s selection to run the U.S. Department of Education, and Andrew Liveris, chairman and CEO of Midland-based Dow Chemical

Co., Weiser said.

Michigan Republican and Democratic Party leaders and dignitaries will gather for the State Society ball Friday night at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

“Detroit business leaders are very much going to be present at the inauguration,” Epstein said.

Epstein said she’s leaving Wednesday for Washington, D.C., for four days of festivities.

Gov. Rick Snyder is planning to host a reception Friday at the Willard InterContinental Hotel, according to Epstein.

The day before Trump takes the oath of office, Michigan Republicans are planning a reception at the Old Ebbitt Grill in honor of DeVos, a former state GOP chairman.

Michigan also has a connection to the inaugural platform. Lansing-based The Christman Co., which also has an office in Detroit, built it, as well as the platforms for President Barack Obama’s inaugurations in 2009 and 2013.

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