Crain's Detroit Business, Nov. 27, 2017 issue by Crain's Detroit Business

NOVEMBER 27 - DECEMBER 3, 2017

Detroit requests proposals for a Brush Park development

State’s largest furniture dealers, manufacturers CRAIN

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City wants residences on prized vacant site. Page 3

Redevelopment

Dynamite or wrecking ball? Silverdome is set to get both 10

By Kirk Pinho kpinho@crain.com

AP PHOTO/THE OAKLAND PRESS, VAUGHN GURGANIAN

The J.L. Hudson’s department store in downtown Detroit was the tallest building ever imploded at the time of its demolition in 1998, replaced in 2009 by Ocean Tower on South Padre Island. The decaying Pontiac Silverdome, former home of the Detroit Lions,

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will also be destroyed by a controlled explosion — in part. But whether a structure is demolished over the course of weeks or months, or in just a matter of seconds or minutes, depends on a variety of factors. The most critical is what surrounds the targeted building, said Rick Cuppetilli, executive vice president of Detroit-based demolition contractor Ada-

mo Group Inc., which is razing the Silverdome starting Dec. 3 with a minor implosion of the stadium’s upper ring. If it’s a large building in a dense area, implosion — which can take weeks or months to prepare for — is the best way of assuring that surrounding buildings are not damaged as a structure is razed, he said. SEE SILVERDOME, PAGE 19

How Detroit does office design today

he modern office is more than a place to park some desks and get down to business. It’s a crucial recruiting tool. It’s a design showcase. It tells a story about a company’s brand, its values and its culture. And it’s changing with the times, with trends, with new research. Sitting is out. Flexibility is in. Open offices? Well, we’re rethinking them. We take a look at cutting-edge Detroit-area companies that are redefining how our workplaces look. A bowling alley-turned-digital marketing agency. A historic department store that’s turning design-watchers’ heads. Co-working spaces that are building community right into their business model. Pull up a chair — or stand up at your sit/stand desk — and read more starting on Page 10.

ROSSETTI/JOHN D’ANGELO

Small Business

Steve Mansour, co-owner of AAA True Value, 17400 Livernois Ave., and his brother invested $400,000 in 2013 to convert an abandoned daycare into a hardware store.

Can Detroit’s neighborhood hardware stores compete with Home Depot? By Chad Livengood clivengood@crain.com

Three hardware stores on Detroit’s east side have closed this year, reflecting increased competition from big box home improvement stores and online retailers as well as the challenge of doing business in an impoverished area still suffering from

CHAD LIVENGOOD/ CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

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population loss and dwindling rates of homeownership. This past spring, the owners of Busy Bee Hardware sold their building at Gratiot and Russell and shuttered a century-old mainstay on the edge of downtown and Eastern Market. In July, Hammer Time True Value Hardware on Warren Avenue went

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out of business, as the owner sold off much of his stock to longtime competitors who passed on taking over the business. And by Dec. 1, Gratiot True Value will close for good after nearly 43 years under the ownership of the Ribiat family. SEE HARDWARE, PAGE 18

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Detroit design grows up. This page Rethinking the open office. Page 11

Co-working community. Page 13

Detroit offce design today: A confident murmur, rather than a shout.

Detroit design grows up By Ashley Catherine Woods Special to Crain’s Detroit Business

state ap-

Need to know

JJDetroit design has modern silhouettes,

stom art installations

“We took a simple, elegant approach, beginning with the story a that the building could have been d workers be-

toonish furniture. Say hello to modern silhouettes, custom art installations and details that tell a story.

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MICHIGAN BRIEFS

INSIDE

From staff and wire reports. Find the full stories at crainsdetroit.com

Michigan reaches settlement on deceptive charity practices Healing American Heroes Inc. will shut down and pay restitution as part of a settlement struck with Michigan’s Charitable Trust Section, the attorney’s general office announced last week. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette in July alleged the Round Rock, Texas-based charity and its Warrenton, Va..-based fundraising counsel Jeremy Squire & Associates Ltd. committed more than a million violations with “deceptive solicitations and diversion of funds raised to other purposes,” a news release said. The charity, which also goes by Help Our Wounded, is said to have racked up more than 10,000 contributions worth more than $200,000 that violated the Charitable Organizations and Solicitations Act. The practice raised $2.6 million nationwide, the news release said. Terms of the settlement include Healing American Heroes founder Rosalinda Babin paying $20,000 and forfeiting rights to serve as a charitable fiduciary. In the past year, the Charitable Trust Section has stepped up en-

forcement of deceptive charitable solicitations laws by taking action against eight charities, the release stated.

House of Flavors upgrades Ludington facility

House of Flavors Inc. expects to create 30 jobs as it expands in its hometown of Ludington. The ice cream maker has invested $30 million to improve its facility to “keep up with customer demand, product trends and neighborhood changes,” according to a news release from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. The MEDC awarded House of Flavors a $240,000 Michigan Business Development Program grant through the Michigan Strategic Fund to support the expansion of one of Ludington’s biggest employers, the release said. Another grant, $100,000 from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, will go toward installing new equipment to expand production. It is the first award given through the new Food and Agriculture Investment Fund, Jamie Clover Adams, the department’s director, said in the release. The company is also spending $1.5 million to help the city upgrade Ludington’s wastewater

treatment plant to conform to new pollution regulations, the release said. “With this outpouring of support, we can continue to make investments that grow our capabilities to meet new value added customer opportunities while at the same time contribute to upgrades to the city’s waste water treatment plant that have a direct impact on the environment,” House of Flavors President Whit Gallagher said in the release. House of Flavors has been a popular landmark in Ludington since the early 1900s. The full-service dairy operation — first called Miller’s Dairy, then Park Dairy — has evolved into one of the largest private-label packaged ice cream and frozen dessert manufacturers in the country and the largest in Michigan. The third-generation Neal family-owned business produces more than 25 million gallons of ice cream a year and operates restaurants in Ludington and Manistee, according to its website.

Review recommends Michigan State improve Title IX program

A law firm hired to review Michigan State University’s Title IX program found it complies with federal legal requirements but can be improved.

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The school said a report released last week by the Kansas City-based Husch Blackwell firm recommended the university improve the program by re-evaluating its mandatory reporting protocols and streamlining the policy to make it more accessible for students and employees. The firm was hired in September after three football players were accused of sexually assaulting a woman earlier this year. The former players were dismissed for violating the school’s relationship violence and sexual misconduct policy. They were kicked off the football team in June after criminal charges against them were made public. As part of its review, Husch Blackwell interviewed university officials, students, faculty and staff. WIKIPEDIA

A law firm hired to review Michigan State University’s Title IX program found it complies with federal legal requirements but can be improved.

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Regulations

Ballot drives that could impact businesses

By Lindsay VanHulle

Crain’s Detroit Business/Bridge Magazine

From legalizing recreational marijuana to shutting down an oil pipeline, activists are pushing to get at least eight ballot measures before state voters in 2018. The stakes are high, but so are the hurdles. And the sheer number of proposals can be dizzying. So we’ve waded through the research and spin surrounding each effort so you don’t have to. Here is a guide to ballot drives that could affect business in Michigan, what each group wants, their progress to date and the significant obstacles each faces. Winning a spot in the November general election, when an open governor’s seat will lead the statewide

races, requires hundreds of thousands of valid signatures from registered Michigan voters, all collected within a challenging window of 180 days.

The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs would administer the law and come up with rules related to licensing, fees, safety and security and product testing. The proposal would create a 10 percent state tax on marijuana sold by retailers, with revenue dedicated for municipalities, counties, public schools and roads. The proposal wouldn’t prevent employers from banning marijuana use in the workplace or disciplining an employee for violating a company’s drug policies. Municipalities also would be allowed to ban or limit marijuana establishments within their borders. The coalition followed recent legislative changes to the state’s medical marijuana law regarding licensing to

Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol What is it? A proposed legislative change that would allow Michigan residents 21 and older to legally possess, use, grow and sell marijuana for recreational uses. Currently, Michigan law only allows marijuana for medicinal purposes. The group’s proposal aims to reduce arrests for marijuana possession among adults and create a legal structure that taxes revenue from marijuana operations and deters black market activity.

create a similar structure for both medical and recreational uses, said Josh Hovey of Lansing-based public relations firm Truscott Rossman and spokesman for the coalition. “We’re at a point where the laws and regulations have not caught up with where society’s at with the issue,” Hovey said. “Just like with alcohol, if you take it out of the shadows and you tax it and you regulate it and allow responsible adults to use it responsibly, a lot of the fears that people had about marijuana are shown to be unfounded.” Who’s behind it? The effort is spearheaded by the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group aiming to decriminalize marijuana use across the country. SEE BALLOT, PAGE 20

Keep Our Lakes Great has started a ballot effort to stop the transmission of crude oil through the Line 5 pipeline beneath the Straits of Mackinac. STATE OF MICHIGAN

Development

Detroit seeks developers for Brush Park land By Kirk Pinho kpinho@crain.com

The city of Detroit is looking for developers to build more housing on a 1.1-acre parcel of highly prized, vacant Brush Park land, which is becoming a rarer commodity as the district becomes a hotbed of development. The Housing and Revitalization Department is seeking a developer to build more than 100 residences, with at least half of them rental units, on a U-shaped property bounded by Brush Street to the west, Watson Street to the north, Beaubien Street to the east and Wilkins Street to the south. If completed, the Brush Park project would add to a flurry of construction in the once-posh 117-acre

Need to know

J RFP went out to 300 developers and others J Vacant parcels become a rarer commodity

‘Detroit Rising’

Land neighbors massive Dan Gilbert project J

neighborhood north of downtown that claimed the Kahns and the Whitneys as residents, among other historical Detroit elites. Arthur Jemison, the city’s director of housing and revitalization, said notice of the RFP went out last month to about 300 people including developers, contractors, state employees and nonprofits. SEE DEVELOPER, PAGE 19

MUST READS OF THE WEEK How the city has become a branding symbol for food, spirits businesses. Page 4

Cuts ‘sticker price’ The University of Detroit Mercy has decided to trim its tuition to reflect what students actually pay. Page 9 KIRK PINHO/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Detroit is looking for developers to build more housing on a 1.1-acre parcel of highly prized, vacant Brush Park land.

Legislation

Tax reform limbo could delay M&As to new year By Dustin Walsh

Need to know

As tax reform legislation winds its way through Congress, the promise of a reduced corporate tax rate is likely to push merger and acquisition closings in December into the New Year. More deals close in December than any other month and both the U.S. House and Senate bills call for reducing the marginal corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent — the House bill cuts the rate immediately upon passing and the Senate bill cuts the rate in 2019. With the potential to save millions on next year’s tax bill, companies are putting the brakes on closing in

delaying December M&A

dwalsh@crain.com

JJExpectations of tax reform may be

JJSellers will see benefit after new year with lower corporate tax rate JJCongress hasn’t passed reform yet

2017, according to local experts. “We’re not seeing anyone pulling their deals forward, I’ll tell you that,” said Cliff Roesler, managing director of Birmingham-based M&A advisory firm Angle Advisors-Investment Banking LLC. “December is normally a huge month for closings, but I suspect it won’t be this year. The smart money is on waiting and see whether

you get an advantage to close on Jan. 2.” Advisers, accountants and lawyers across Southeast Michigan are scrambling to find the potential advantages for their clients among the bills. “We obviously don’t know exactly how this is going to play out, but we’re giving the best preliminary advice we can at the moment,” said Daniel Soleimani, associate attorney at Southfield-based law firm Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss. “There’s a consensus that something is going to pass, so we’re determining with our clients if deductions or depreciative assets would be more valuable in 2017 or 2018.”

Another reason M&A activity may be stalled out until next year is companies are waiting to use cash held overseas, Roesler said. The joint committee on taxation estimated domestic companies hold $2.6 trillion overseas. Alternatively, President Donald Trump pinned the figure at $3 trillion to $5 trillion at a September speech in Missouri about tax reform, though there’s no evidence to support saying it’s grown so large. Ford Motor Co., which ostensibly has the most offshore liquidity for a local company, had $5.7 billion held overseas at the close of 2016. General Motors Co. had $2.4 billion, Lear SEE TAXES, PAGE 19

Party like a bootlegger Fundraiser unlocks secret speakeasy under Belle Isle Aquarium. Page 22

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Valentine Distilling Co. owner Rifino Valentine (from left) and McClure’s Pickles co-owner Joe McClure speak with Crain’s Senior Reporter Chad Livengood (right) on the “Detroit Rising” podcast about the growth of spirits and food processing businesses in Detroit. The interview was recorded at Narrow Way Cafe at 19331 Livernois Ave. in Detroit.

How Detroit has become a branding symbol for food, spirits businesses A F e e - O n l y We a l t h M a n a g e m e n t G r o u p

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When Rifino Valentine quit his job as a Wall Street equities trader and moved back to Michigan in 2005 to venture into the hand-crafted spirits distilling business, his investors were adamant that he keep the name “Detroit” off of his bottles. Valentine was opening Valentine Distilling Co. just outside the city limits in Ferndale at a time when Detroit was increasingly tarred as bad for business because of decades of population loss, political dysfunction and pervasive crime, blight and municipal debt. “At the beginning, this was 11 or 12 years ago, my investors said ‘Get that off the bottle.’ This was at a time when Detroit didn’t have that reputation,” Valentine said in an interview on the Crain’s “Detroit Rising” podcast. Valentine and Joe McClure,

‘Detroit Rising’

CHAD LIVENGOOD clivengood@crain.com

co-owner of McClure’s Pickles, joined me on the podcast to discuss their decade-old businesses in the spirits, beverage and food industries and how the changing public perception of Detroit has benefited their companies. “Companies like McClure’s and Valentine, we believed in (Detroit) and finally it’s come around and it’s exciting to see that worldwide Detroit

“Detroit Rising” is a weekly Crain’s podcast on businesses, entrepreneurship and economic and workforce development in Detroit that is broadcast each Monday at about 12:42 p.m. on “Business Rap” on WQTX 92.1 FM in Lansing and is published on crainsdetroit.com/DetroitRising on Tuesdays. You can also listen to all our podcasts by subscribing on iTunes, Apple Podcasts or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

now has that great brand recognition, I guess, behind it,” Valentine said in an interview recorded at Narrow Way Cafe in Detroit. McClure and his brother, Bob, founded McClure’s Pickles in 2006 using a family recipe for spicy pickles. Their company now produces potato chips, dill pickles, relish and a Bloody Mary mix that is marketed with Valentine’s vodka. McClure’s is now producing 1.5 million jars of pickles annually at its plant near the Detroit-Hamtramck border. Joe McClure said the success of food production businesses in Detroit hinges on creating a quality product and getting outside exposure. McClure’s Pickles has 32 employees in Detroit and posted $7.5 million in revenue last year as its products continue to get distributed elsewhere in the country. “Producers that can kind of take that Pepsi Challenge ... and go nationwide and take that story outside of Detroit, and go to Chicago, go to Nashville, go to Toronto,” McClure said. “I think it starts with quality and quality producers and you take that outside of Detroit to resonate that sort of Detroit vibe.” If you've got a story idea to feature on the podcast, email me at clivengood@ crain.com or call me at (313) 446-1654.

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CHAD LIVENGOOD/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

The City of Detroit closed a block of Woodward Avenue between Larned Street and Jefferson Avenue in June to create the new Spirit Plaza next to the Spirit of Detroit statue. The plaza hosted food trucks, outdoor games and special events over the summer. Through Jan. 7, Spirit Plaza is one of three plazas downtown with Downtown Detroit Markets pop-up stores for holiday shopping.

Spirit Plaza to remain open until spring despite criticism By Chad Livengood clivengood@crain.com

Detroit City Council has agreed to keep a portion of Woodward Avenue closed until spring as officials evaluate the impact the five-month-old Spirit Plaza has had on nearby businesses and traffic flow in an increasingly pedestrian-heavy area of downtown. Mayor Mike Duggan’s administration opened Spirit Plaza in June and closed off the portion of Woodward, diverting traffic away from the busy intersection at Jefferson Avenue outside the Coleman Young Municipal Building. The new outdoor plaza on the block of Woodward between Larned and Jefferson has been seen as the brainchild of city Planning Director Maurice Cox, who has promoted the creation of more walkable and outdoor spaces for downtown workers, residents and visitors. On Tuesday, council members grilled Cox and Department of Public Works Director Ron Brundridge on why they didn’t get council approval before the plaza was opened or after it operated for 90 days with food trucks, outdoor games, music and seating. “I really don’t have a good answer for that,” Brundridge said. “... After the 90-day period, I should have brought something forward to this body.” The owners or representatives of three downtown restaurants told council members Tuesday that their foot traffic and sales have declined since Spirit Plaza opened in June. “Decisions that are made like this without council input, without input from the business community … can be a very dangerous decision for business,” said Timothy Tharp, owner of Grand Trunk Pub on Woodward

Need to know

JJWoodward pedestrian plaza draws

business complaints

JJCouncil agrees to keep plaza until at least April 1 JJCouncil members ask pointed questions of Cox, Brundridge

Avenue and co-owner of Checker Bar on Cadillac Square. “It can put them out of business.” Detroit’s top planner said the plaza should be having the opposite effect. “This should be putting more pedestrians in front of their shops,” Cox said. “This should be a boom for them, not a drag.” Councilwoman Janeé Ayers, the leading critic of Spirit Plaza’s impact on downtown traffic patterns, demanded Cox come to council chambers during Tuesday’s meeting and address the body. Cox said creating the new plaza has been a learning experience. Early on, the city got complaints from Wayne County judges in the city-county building about being able to hear the plaza’s lunchtime outdoor music inside their courtrooms. In response to the complaints, the music was turned off, Cox said. “I wish I could have anticipated all of the consequences, negative and positive,” Cox said. “But that’s just the nature of a test.” Ayers and Council President Brenda Jones were upset the council was never consulted about the plaza until after the barricades went up and officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony. “You’re asking us to extend an agreement that wasn’t approved in the first place,” Ayers told Brundridge.

Paul Hutch, attorney for Woodward Coney Island owners Patricia and George Keros, called the creation of Spirit Plaza in June “closing by ambush.” Councilman Andre Spivey was especially pointed in his criticism of Cox’s actions, noting the planning director came to Detroit from an academic background at the University of Tulane in New Orleans. “We like you here, man,” Spivey told Cox. “But sometimes I think you look at us as a city, as a council, in a condescending way — that you came from New Orleans and Virginia and you know everything about urban planning, and I don’t think you do.” Hutch questioned whether the planning or public works departments could be trusted to provide an “unbiased” study of traffic given their pursuit of building the plaza without council approval. “A true traffic study needs to be done by an unbiased group,” Hutch said. “... We have not experienced this closing during the middle of these harsh winters. Study the small business impact this closing has.” Woodward Coney Island has seen a decline in curbside to-go orders because of traffic problems along Woodward Avenue as a result of the closed section of street a block away, Hutch said. City Council approved keeping Spirit Plaza open until April 1, 2018. Brundridge said city officials would return to City Council by mid-February with a plan for continuing operation of Spirit Plaza that addresses the various concerns about its operations and traffic flow. “I think we’ve heard your message loud and clearly,” Brundridge said. Chad Livengood: (313) 446-1654 Twitter: @ChadLivengood

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OPINION

COMMENTARY

Technology is changing Christmas T hey say, and I do not know exactly who “they” are, that we’ll do more shopping online than in stores this Christmas. How can we exist without the mad dash of crowds and the chaos that goes along with Christmas shopping at the mall? Crowds online? Somehow, it takes the spirit — or the challenge — out of Christmas. It makes it too easy. But like the advent of the autonomous vehicle, online shopping can be a godsend for older people or people with disabilities. Or those just so busy juggling jobs and children’s schedules that online is perfect for them. I don’t know what will happen to all the brick-and-mortar stores across the nation. I do know you just shouldn’t shop online for some items. Jewelry, for example. Maybe a sweater for Uncle Joe. Online holiday shopping this year may actually top $100 billion! Smart retailers let the customer decide how to shop, but will have ways for them to pick up a purchase at the store or have it shipped to their front doors. Success is giving the customer what they want, not what the retailer finds

KEITH CRAIN Editor-in-chief

most convenient. Marketing has changed quite a bit from our postwar period. From neighborhood stores to big-box stores and now to the web. I’m sure it will change in the future, but I’m not going to predict. My crystal ball isn’t any better then the next guy’s. Retailing is in a constant state of flux, and it probably won’t settle down any time soon. The old saying is true: the only thing for sure is change. We’ll always have new winners and losers as customers discover new ways of shopping, paying and delivering. Retailers will have to remain very fleet of foot if they are to survive and prosper. It’s a new world in retailing, and the customer is writing the rules.

TALK ON THE WEB

Re: Gilbert’s developments take step forward Development is good for Detroit. However the city needs to generate tax revenue. I think that the time needs to come to curtail the total lack of property taxes paid. Justin Thompson

Re: Other than a parade, what makes Michaels smile?

This story makes me smile! The Parade Company is an exceptional organization and truly unique to Detroit. Kudos to Tony and his team, and here’s to many more years of fun! Kate F. Hill

Re: How Detroit has become a branding symbol for food, spirits businesses Just an idea, to connect more to the Canadian part of our metropolis, I’d love to see a wine bar featuring the wineries around Harrow. Maybe something that includes a starting point for winery tours. It could include some “up north” wines and a

menu of foods to complement the wines, an atmosphere similar to the French Laundry. Something of a start to say Grand Rapids is beer city and Detroit is wine country as part of that “Detroit vibe.” E M Parmelee

Re: Interim RTA CEO leaving for new role Tiffany Gunter is one of the most skilled women in Southeast Michigan, understands transportation issues, and can work well with other leaders across the region to get things done. There was no logic to not hiring her as the director after 90 days. Once again the RTA has a loss, at a critical time for our region. I hope that DDOT or SMART or one of the universities or projects involved in transit or transportation retains her, in a serious and well-paying leadership role, so that our region continues to grow. Effective and efficient regional transportation is a major missing link in southeast Michigan. Jeff Jenks

Re: Google confirms its new office space Not seeing the benefit here, simply a revenue transfer from Oakland to Wayne County. Bill Martin

COMMENTARY

Put Michigan’s grid on a solar pathway

TE Energy, the electric utility serving southeast Michigan, flipped the switch on Lapeer Solar Park last month. The project grabbed headlines for good reason: it is now Michigan’s largest solar project and will generate enough local, reliable electricity to power 11,000 homes. Lapeer represents about half of all the solar power currently operating in Michigan, which means that the Great Lakes State has a long way to go. Right now, Michigan ranks in the nation’s bottom half for total solar deployment. Even nearby Illinois plans to build 30 times more solar than what Michigan has today. In the race to establish a clean energy economy that creates good jobs and delivers affordable electricity, Michigan is falling behind. That’s because while Lapeer Solar Park is a laudable step in the right direction, it’s just a token compared to DTE’s plan to spend billions on new fossil fuels over the next decade. You read that right: DTE is asking state regulators for $1 billion for just one new gas plant, and ultimately aims to build more than 2,000 megawatts worth of new gas plants. For those keeping score, that’s a whopping 66 times more natural gas than the same plan’s 30 megawatts solar allocation. While large and small customers are asking for more renewable energy, DTE plans to delay more renewable energy for Michigan until after 2025 while it replaces old dirty coal plants with new dirty gas plants. DTE’s proposal ignores evidence from state regulators that it can do better. In 2015, the Michigan Public Service Commission (PSC) conducted a study concluding that so-

OTHER VOICES Becky Stanfield

lar could reasonably comprise five percent of Michigan’s electricity mix by 2030. Under that scenario, Michigan would use both smaller rooftop solar and larger utility-scale solar projects for a total of 5,000 megawatts, roughly 50 times what exists today. With a 5,000 megawatts solar target — which experts agree is within reach — the Great Lakes State can put its residents to work building the clean energy economy. There are already more than a quarter million Americans in the solar workforce, and just one industry job, solar installers, will be the fastest-growing overall job in the country over the next decade. The benefits of solar power are not lost on the majority of Americans: the fuel is free, the cost to install solar has dropped by more than 70 percent since 2010, and there are now more than a million and a half American families and businesses that have gone solar. The good news is that there is a straightforward path to progress for Michigan. Lansing lawmakers can begin with removing costly and burdensome restrictions on solar access. Elected officials should eliminate the unnecessary cap on the number

of people who can participate in net metering and earn credit for the excess power that they export to the grid. Lawmakers can also require community solar in Michigan, which lets all families enjoy the economic benefits of solar by subscribing to a nearby solar array. They should also support Rep. Tom Barrett’s legislation to ensure that solar customers are not penalized with a personal tax liability. Power regulators, too, play a critical role in building a clean, reliable, and affordable energy system. The Michigan PSC should ensure that solar customers are fairly credited for the clean, local electricity they export to the grid. The commission can also require utilities to use distributed resources like solar, batteries, and other local technology to reduce the need for expensive upgrades to infrastructure as has been proven in other states. In addition, the PSC has the authority and obligation to require each electric company to use the most prudent and cost-effective resources to meet demand, which presents a major opportunity for state regulators to insist on a full and fair assessment of cleaner, cheaper and less risky resources to power Michigan. Solar is reliable, affordable, and ready to power Michigan’s future. Setting a 5,000 megawatt target and using proven policy tools to achieve the target will reduce the cost of the grid, create jobs and reduce the need for pipelines and smokestacks. Let’s do it. Becky Stanfield is senior director, western states, for the Vote Solar advocacy group.

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Detroit Mercy cuts ‘sticker price’ to reflect actual cost By Sherri Welch swelch@crain.com

The University of Detroit Mercy is cutting the sticker price on its tuition to more accurately reflect what students pay after university-provided financial aid. The shift, priNeed marily a marketto know ing move that will JJUniversity cuts be revenue neufinancial aid it tral for the univerprovides to students sity and won’t change out-ofJJSticker price pocket costs for more accurately most students, is reflects what intended to help students pay after the university ataid tract and retain JJIntent is to get more students. more students to Effective with consider the the next academuniversity ic year that begins in fall 2018, tuition for new students will be $28,000 per year, down from the current annual cost of $41,158. Current students’ tuition will decrease to Antoine Garibaldi: $28,840 next year, reflecting a 3 perStudents will take cent tuition ina serious look. crease upperclassmen are charged. The current sticker price had been deterring parents and students from considering the Catholic university, President Antoine Garibaldi said. Since joining Detroit Mercy six years ago, Garibaldi has gotten to know many of the local high school principals. They tell him students and

Beginning in fall 2018, tuition for new students at University of Detroit Mercy will be $28,000 per year, down from the current annual cost of $41,158.

parents think highly of Detroit Mercy but don’t even consider it once they see stated tuition price, which very few students actually pay after financial aid. “Now we will really be in the ballpark with other prospective schools so that parents and students will take a serious look at us,” Garibaldi said. The University of Michigan and Michigan State University, the Detroit university’s largest competitors, are charging in-state freshmen $14,826 and $14,516 for the current academic year, respectively. “Most people don’t understand the fact that tuition price is reduced by scholarships and grants,” Garibaldi

said. “In institutions like ours and lots of others, 99 percent of the individuals ... are not paying the full price.” More than 90 percent of Detroit Mercy’s students receive some sort of aid, he said, paying between $16,000 and $20,000 after scholarships, grants, financial aid and institutional aid are applied toward the $41,000 tuition costs. With the decrease in sticker price, Detroit Mercy won’t have to provide as much institutional aid to students, Garibaldi said, noting it’d provided $50 million to $53 million in institutional aid, on average, each of the past five years. “We’ll still be providing grants for students, but we will be in the ballpark

with other public … (and) private institutions as far as what they’re charging.” The move is expected to be revenue-neutral to Detroit Mercy, given that the institutional aid it provides to students will also decrease and the university expects to gain students with the lower tuition. This year, the university had about 550 freshmen. Garibaldi said the goal for next year is 600 freshmen and a slight increase in the 86 percent retention rate for students going from their first year to second year. Net revenue to Detroit Mercy on the tuition paid by most students has been about $14,000-$15,000, its president

UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT MERCY

said, and will be very similar going forward. The university has operated on a balanced budget for the past 15 or more years, Garibaldi said. That, combined with record enrollment and a doubling of Detroit Mercy’s endowment to $52.5 million as part of a $100 million campaign launched in 2011, have put it on strong financial footing. It has received state and federal grants to support first-generation students, Garibaldi said, noting that about a third of Detroit Mercy’s students are the first in their family to attend college. “We have not lost sight of our mission,” he said.

Tamara Real, first director of The Arts Alliance, dies By Kurt Nagl knagl@crain.com

Tamara Real, the first executive director of The Arts Alliance in Ann Arbor, died Thursday after battling ALS. She was 63. She passed away peacefully in her Ann Arbor home, said her longtime friend Lori Dick. “What I will remember most about Tamara is that she was a very strong, deterTamara Real: mined woman Served as director who wanted to of nonprofit. make a difference in the world,” Dick said. Real was born in New Britain, Conn., the only child of Walter and Jeanette Karpie. She has no living relatives, said Dick, 57. Real served as The Art Alliance’s first director 2002-11, according to a news release from the nonprofit. During her tenure, she established the alliance as a strong support group for the arts. Prior to her role with the alliance, Real worked in marketing and created her own firm, Get Real! Communications. She had a master’s degree in art history from Johns Hopkins University and bachelor’s degrees in art history and French from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania.

“What I will remember most about Tamara is that she was a very strong, determined woman who wanted to make a difference in the world.”

Do you know how tax reform will change your life? House bill, senate bill, no bill…it all matters! Learn with us, and prepare proactively.

Lori Dick

Real was deeply committed to researching Lewy Body Dementia disease after her husband, Carl Rinne, was diagnosed with it and then died in 2013. After his diagnosis, Real stepped down from her role at the alliance to care for her husband full time. Real established the Rinne Lewy Body Dementia Initiative at the University of Michigan, where her husband had been a professor. It provides support to those diagnosed with the disease and works to build public awareness of it. She donated her brain to ALS research and established an endowment to continue the LBD initiative. Donations in her memory can be made to the Carl Rinne and Tamara Real Lewy Body Dementia Support, Education and Awareness Endowment Fund. Arrangements are being made under the direction of Muehlig Funeral Chapel in Ann Arbor. A celebration of life is being planned for a later date.

There are different ramifications for individuals, companies and non-profits.

Fiduciary Financial literacy is our passion. Partner with us to spread knowledge, for free. We have e-books, videos, classes and customized materials available on the topic of tax reform and more.

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FOCUS

SPECIAL REPORT: WORKSPACE DESIGN

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Detroit offce design today: A confident murmur, rather than a shout. ROSSETTI / JOHN D’ANGELO

Detroit design grows up

By Ashley Catherine Woods Special to Crain’s Detroit Business

When Bedrock Real Estate approached designer Kyle Evans about joining a team to renovate downtown Detroit’s Metropole building, they offered a grand vision for the turn-ofthe-century relic. “They were looking for someone who reflected Detroit as a general aesthetic — ‘make us feel Detroit in the office’ is what they wanted,” Evans remembered. “For a while, reflecting Detroit in interior design was incredibly literal — Detroit signs, Detroit skylines, hubcaps, photos of Eminem. We get it, we know, we’re past it. I wanted to do something different.”

Need to know

 Detroit design has modern silhouettes, custom art installations

New design attitude showcased by new and renovated offices 

 It’s about telling the story of the brand or company

Instead, the Metropole team — led by Kyle Evans Design and represented by Bedrock, dPOP, Neumann/ Smith Architecture and Integrated Design Solutions — fashioned a new narrative for the old building, which had previously functioned as a hotel and private offices, and was once the home of the Mabley & Co. Department Stores.

“We took a simple, elegant approach, beginning with the story that the building could have been a light factory with skilled workers before. Maybe it was where parts were assembled,” Evans said. “We wanted to give the building the feel that it had lived through that era.” The result? A stunningly sophisticated workspace with subtle nods to the Motor City’s heritage as a factory town. It’s the latest example of a new design attitude showcased by the new and renovated offices opening their doors as Detroit continues its rebound from bankruptcy and financial crisis. Gone are the bright walls and car-

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toonish furniture. Say hello to modern silhouettes, custom art installations and details that tell a story. It’s a confident murmur, rather than a shout — from a city that no longer feels the need to jump up and down for attention. Detroit design today is about the show, not the tell.

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Telling stories Workspace design is more than just picking out colors or furniture — it’s about telling the story of the brand or company through its physical space. SEE DESIGN, PAGE 12

BEDROCK

Design elements at 615 Lafayette, the former Detroit News building, pay homage to the newspaper’s history.

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Rethinking the open office

Designers focus on creating flexible work experiences that fit a company’s culture By Ashley Catherine Woods Special to Crain’s Detroit Business

My neighbor is noisy. These overhead lights are too bright. Too much distraction. I can’t hear myself think. Sound familiar? Complaints like these have dogged the open office concept since it first swept through America’s business landscape. Tech companies like Google seized upon the open workplace in the mid2000s to inspire rapid collaboration and idea-sharing, and offices across America raced to follow their lead — partially fueled by the design trend’s tendency, in many cases, to ease the budget’s bottom line. “The economic downturn forced much of the open workspace solution,” said Patrick Thompson, principal of Detroit’s Patrick Thompson Design. “Companies had to scale down and downsize and move more people into bigger areas. And it came as a shock to the system for people who once had cubicles or an office.” Experts say the open office backlash hasn’t driven a desire to return to traditional corporate floor plans of the past, with rows of offices lining the perimeter. Instead, designers now focus on creating flexible work experiences that offer workers a range of spaces and environments to complete their tasks.

When Thompson designed his own team’s office in Grand Circus Park’s Palms Building, he employed openspace concepts, with a focus on hospitality. “Hospitality is universal,” he said.

Opening up the space

PATRICK THOMSPON DESIGN

How to start small to create a more open office Not ready for a full redesign? Still skeptical? Test out the theory by creating a multi-use space for employees to gather and collaborate. “In any company, there are multiple ways people need to interact,” said Jennifer Janus, COO of dPOP. “They need to interact in hallways and meeting rooms and by their desks. Having the ability to design something that works for multiple situations is key.” When dPOP scopes a new project, someone on Janus’ team might be assigned to count the number of employees who walk through a corridor over the course of an hour. If your office is smaller, identify a few high-traffic areas that might make for natural collaboration spaces. Here are some tried-and-tested ways to integrate more flexible workspaces into your current office setup.  Add a table and high chairs to a wide hallway. It’s a less-distracting spot for your employees to catch up in between meetings.  Outside the conference room: Place a table or a few small chairs so employees can prep for upcoming meetings while they wait outside. Bonus: Offer coffee or bottled water.  Snag an idea from restaurant design and source a banquette or booth to host friendly lunches in the kitchen.  Transform a utility closet or small office into a nap pod or nursing room. Think balanced and peaceful — reclining chair, aromatherapy and comfy pillows.  Use economical wall partitions or dividers to chop up a meeting room or divide a high-traffic area from workspaces so your employees can focus.

ROSSETTI / JOHN D’ANGELO

International Bancard’s new office design makes use of “non-space,” like corridors and space in front of conference rooms, to create areas for employees to gather, focus and recharge. The result is a design that’s equal parts urban and whimsical.

When Thompson designed Push 22’s new office in Bingham Farms, the company decided to abandon exterior offices and cubicles for a more relaxed open workspace. They built offices with glass walls in the center of the floor for account directors and other members of the leadership team. Moving offices to the interior allowed for more natural light and room to breathe for employees who share space. He also integrated features like a think tank room with whiteboard walls and lounge furniture that could be easily moved to accommodate small groups. “They are a very collaborative creative firm,” Thompson said. “And they realized they had to step it up on the design side to retain talent.” When International Bancard hired the Detroit architectural firm Rossetti to design their new downtown Detroit offices, creative director Kelly Deines and his team made key use of what he calls non-space, like corridors and space in front of conference rooms, to create areas for employees to gather, focus and recharge. Call them “micro-curations” of furniture. The result is a design that is equal parts urban and whimsical, featuring bright custom pipe work that evokes drive-thru banking tubes, symbolizing the millions of transactions the company processes. “There’s an approachability to the design,” Deines said. “The Forbes 500 look is over. Those days of a staunchy, buttoned-up office is done. It kind of goes along with business casual attire. We’re realizing that a necktie does not equal productivity.” International Bancard also embraced Rossetti’s push to create kitchen areas with banquettes and counter islands to inspire more socialization among employees. SEE OPEN, PAGE 13

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SPECIAL REPORT: WORKSPACE DESIGN DESIGN FROM PAGE 10

Bedrock, a member of the Quicken Family of Companies, underwent a brand refresh at the same time it began construction on the new office digs at the Metropole. Though the building is historic, most of the classic architectural details were destroyed or white-boxed before Bedrock acquired the property. If the Metropole was going to feel like it honored Detroit’s past, the team would have to recreate some of that history. “The heyday of architecture in Detroit to me is the 1920s and Art Deco. It symbolizes a moment in time when Detroit was growing and was healthy, economically speaking,” said Evans. “We didn’t want to go and make an ornate Art Deco office, but we wanted to reference it.” So the team set out to design a luxury office building that would still feel like it was once a factory in Detroit’s bullish industrial days. Management offices have glass walls, recalling the factory offices of long ago. Rows of sitstand desks sourced by dPOP are the “assembly lines” of the building. Many of the floors appear to have been painted over and over through the decades — but that’s a clever design element. In many cases, Evans’ team painted the wood floors black, layered white paint on top, and prewore the wood floors to give them a warm, antique feel. Even the stairwell guardrails are shaped like fold-down Model T windshields. Orange was once the main color of the Bedrock brand, but it became an accent color in both the new branding and the new building. Greens and gold — reflective of the “green gold” of Detroit’s lumber industry — take on new importance in the color palette. The building’s focal point is the staircase and stadium seating built directly beneath the lobby skylight. The skylight had been added in the 1970s, so the team had to inject more classic elements to create flow with the surrounding decor. “It’s a great way to get employees away from their desks,” Evans said. “They can lay down on the pillows and relax. If someone wants to give a speech, it doubles as a place where the entire office can gather.” But design watchers can’t stop talking about the building’s swankiest feature: A secret period speakeasy that’s accessed by swiping a badge inside a historic phone booth. Inside, the gorgeous curved bar, velvet couches and Detroit antiques create the perfect exclusive space to make a bold offer or celebrate a new deal. “I had so much fun with that,” Evans said. “Being able to design a bar and almost replicate an exact experience from 90 years ago is an incredible experience.” True to his word, it’s a feature that offers a signature taste of Detroit’s story — with elegance and style.

Design reflects culture Digital marketing firm 24G had badly outgrown its Clawson office space and two other locations. Employees were on top of each other, searching for a new space to house their rapidly-growing company. CEO Scott Wiemels wanted something unique and creative. “There was no shortage of industrial parks where you could set up a

Digital marketing agency 24G recently converted Thunderbird Lanes, a former bowling alley in Troy, into a creative, collaborative office space.

thousand cubes, but it didn’t suit our culture,” he said. So they bought an abandoned bowling alley. Renovating the abandoned Thunderbird Lanes was a 19-month adventure. The team was tasked with overcoming the building’s present challenges to create a workspace that projected a fun-loving, vintage vibe without feeling dingy or dated. Their schematics needed to include open workspace, warehouse space that could fit a semi truck, a studio setup for product shoots and collaborative areas for small group work. Most importantly, Wiemels wanted the building to facilitate Agile Workflow, a collaboration-heavy team process that calls for rapid iteration and product delivery. That required some ingenuity. “We tore out most of the bowling alley lanes to create more workspace,” said architect Jeff Klatt of Krieger Klatt Architects in Royal Oak. Klatt and the contractor created steel frames on casters and used the wood from the demolished lanes to build custom tables, desks and benches for employees. Team members can roll the tables throughout the building to set up different displays or team workspaces. They also painted most of the walls with whiteboard paint, allowing for sudden brainstorms to occur anywhere in the building. Employees can snag a private “hive” room for focused work or socialize with their laptops at the coffee bar. “You are really touring the culture,” Wiemels said. “It’s like a concept car.” Klatt says he sees a steady uptick in companies who believe workspace design is a key recruiting tool. “I would definitely say there’s been a larger focus on making that office environment more flexible, more fun and more inviting. Trying to keep people to stay at the office, make a place that they want to work for and be a solid team. People didn’t used to pay attention to big break rooms or huddle rooms or building areas for team meetings.” The end product makes a bold statement about who they are and the work they do — and it’s already paying off as 24G recruits new clients. “Every tour is a tour of our culture and our workflow, and that blows our clients away — being in the space allows them to think outside of their own boxes,” Wiemels said. “If they want to come and have an innovation session — with beer and bowling — they can. We’re not just not just paying lip service to our culture. We live it.”

24G

The past and the future The newsrooms are gone from 615 W. Lafayette. But visitors who step inside the storied building’s redesigned lobby are greeted by a 3-D sculpture made to look like artfully crumpled paper produced by Detroit artist Leon Dickey. It’s just one of many design elements integrated into the former Detroit News building that recalls the decades of journalism produced within those walls. “It was important for us to respect what it was while still making it current for today,” said Melissa Price, founder of dPOP design firm. “Anytime we walk a building for the first time, we ask ourselves — what’s still here? What can we reuse? What can inspire us?” Those subtle references are found throughout the building and in the fast casual restaurant on the ground floor, dubbed “The Press Room.” Vintage local newsprint advertisements for nylons and the Dodge brothers became custom wallpaper to decorate a women’s bathroom. Newsprint is shredded and reused as a textile to add warmth to a bare wall. An installation of blackand-white portraits from local photographer Eric Perry adds photographic glamour to a busy corridor. Many of the building’s grand accents from the golden era of journalism remain intact, like bronze wall signs pointing the way to the lost departments of “Editorial” and the “Business Office,” or conference rooms named for legacy newspapers like the Times Picayune. Still, for all its reverence of local history, this building isn’t looking back. As a training and call center location for Quicken Loans employees, it’s a hub of activity — and a proving ground to demo the latest in workplace technology. Multi-functional office stations allow trainers to customize meeting rooms for the size and training level of their students. They also come in handy for employees in Quicken’s call centers — many whom prefer to alternate standing and sitting throughout the day. Price’s team is currently hard at work integrating voice-activated Amazon “Alexa” and other applications into the building’s conference rooms. Soon, Quicken employees will be able to walk into a conference room and ask Alexa to get the conference call up and running. That’s only the beginning. “If I swipe my ID badge to enter a conference room, my badge should be able to tell the room to raise the temperature three degrees, because I’m always cold, or to turn on the computer and log me in,” she said.

The Metropole Building’s focal point is the staircase and stadium seating built directly beneath the lobby skylight, which gives workers an excuse to get away from their desk and lounge on the pillows, or for company leaders to address the team. BEDROCK

This isn’t just cool technology. Smart conference room amenities save valuable time and needless frustration for employees who struggle to master projectors, video conferencing and unfamiliar computers. “We have such a high tolerance for things to be broken in the conference room,” Price said. “We expect it. How do we get it down to the simplest layer and make it work?” Simple is a relative term. When it comes to that technology layer, the dPOP team thinks way outside the box. Holograms of remote workers in the office? Using data to visualize a home that a mortgage broker could “stand in” while she makes a sale? In Price’s world, interior design in the workspace means striving to unite the past, the present and even the virtual.

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Putting the community in co-working spaces By Ashley Catherine Woods Special to Crain's Detroit Business

Once a fad, co-working spaces are now a fixture of Metro Detroit’s entrepreneurial community. Credit the success of early adopters like Tech Town, the Green Garage in Midtown Detroit and Bamboo Detroit with fueling the city’s co-work fever. The communal workspaces, shared amenities and wallet-friendly pricing are making many small companies, entrepreneurs and remote workers say “no thanks” to corner office aspirations. With so many options available in Metro Detroit, co-working spaces now tout curated community benefits as their most enticing feature. Here’s a glimpse into Metro Detroit’s ever-expanding co-working universe. FOR STARTUPS: Launching your new company? WeWork and Bamboo Detroit are hubs for the city’s upstart community of tech entrepreneurs. Bamboo Detroit residents have access to startup-themed happy hours, training and feedback sessions. WeWork hosts the Creator Awards, a nationwide contest that rewards worthy startups at all stages with venture funding. Needing more space, Bamboo Detroit moved into a new space in the Madison building this year. WeWork recently opened a second location in Campus Martius.

OPEN FROM PAGE 11

“Where there’s food, there’s people,” Deines said. “The cool thing about International Bancard is that they do have some youth. There is something exciting and successful about how that transition occurred and how people feel comfortable there.” When Thompson designed his team’s new office in Grand Circus Park’s Palms Building, he wanted a space that could function as a gathering space for employees and play double-duty as event space when he hosts a party. The large island on wheels can be moved throughout the office — and the flexibility is key for when he hosts a few dozen clients or friends. He says great workplace design takes cues from restaurants, hotels and other gathering spaces. “Hospitality is universal. We focus less on trends for retail or restaurants or the workplace, and more on creating an experience that’s comfortable,” Thompson said.

Cues from the culture

Designers created a clever weathered look at the Metropole Building by painting the floors black, then white, then wearing down the top layer of paint. BEDROCK

Research from the Holland, Mich., office furniture manufacturer Haworth says intentional planning of spaces for collaborative and focus work, plus areas where workers can mentally recharge, help employees be more productive and happy. That’s why it’s essential for companies to consider the needs of their employees when considering a more open floor plan, said Melissa Price, CEO of Detroit’s dPOP. “Sometimes it’s assumed that the open office space is best from a real estate perspective — but that can’t be the driving force. It has to be for the attrac-

WeWork Merchant’s Row 1449 Woodward Ave., Detroit WeWork Campus Martius 1001 Woodward Ave., Detroit wework.com Bamboo Detroit 1420 Washington Blvd. #301, Detroit bamboodetroit.com FOR THE LADIES: Boasting salmon pink walls and a chandelier, new Detroit co-working space Femology celebrates women entrepreneurs. The downtown location offers its women customers access to a glam modern business lounge, along with discounts on curated programming and complimentary coffee, tea and snacks. Femology Detroit 553 E. Jefferson Ave. Detroit femologydetroit.com FOR PARENTS: This year has seen a bumper crop of co-working spaces with daycare options included — great news for moms and dads on the go. At Ferndale’s Honey, founder Brooke Miller has brought together a community of more than 150 moms and moms-to-be who take advantage of the Honey clubhouse, daycare and beauty bar or relax with acupuncture, yoga and themed classes. The new Detroit Parent Collective, located near Marygrove College and supported by the Frank Family, Metro Solutions Inc. and The Skillman tion of talent. If you just focus on saving space and cramming them in, that’s not ideal.” She recommends companies ask themselves: “From a goals standpoint, what are we trying to achieve — and who are we?” Thompson said companies who are recruiting millennial employees should focus on developing amenities as an additional workplace feature. That doesn’t just mean happy hours and game rooms. Thompson said many trend-setting companies consider ergonomic workspace solutions to keep workers healthier and happier, like chairs that beep to suggest the worker should stand and take a healthy walk around the office. “Sitting is the new smoking,” Rossetti’s Deines said. He said half of Rossetti’s office desks will be replaced by standing workstations this year. Thompson and Deines both begin a new design relationship by asking questions and visiting the space before they offer suggestions. Complaints can offer cues. “It feels gloomy” might indicate a lack of natural light. “We can’t keep young talent” could be a symptom of a stifling environment. “One interesting change in the workplace is that the people are informing the work place more than they ever have,” Thompson said, “which is a huge change from how it’s been done in the past.” But change can be scary for an office that is steeped in the familiar. Deines recommends that managers and leadership build buy-in for new design elements by seeking feedback and being transparent about the planning process. “In the past, people used to say ‘don’t tell anyone, be careful.’ It was a secretive process. Social media has changed that dynamic.”

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Foundation, offers co-working and child education for busy parents. In addition to drop-in daycare, the coop preschool boasts Montessori-like curriculum led by a master teacher. Honey For Moms 3136 Hilton Road, Ferndale honeyformoms.com Detroit Parent Collective 8418 McNichols Road W., Detroit detroitparentcollective.com FOR THE BUILDERS: SpaceLab Detroit is meeting the needs of the built-environment community — creating a hub and a respite for archi-

FOR COLLABORATORS: Straddling the border of Detroit and Grosse Pointe Park, Mash Detroit calls itself a community bridge helping different kinds of people meet and learn from each other. After launching a successful prototype of a co-working space for artists, nonprofits and entrepreneurs in the Jefferson-Chalmers District, the next iteration of Mash is reportedly coming soon. Mash Detroit mashdetroit.com FOR BUSINESS TRAVELERS: Byte & Mortar’s motto? It’s Your Office. The Troy-based co-working spaces include top-of-the-line reception and conference rooms. But if you’re the type of worker who likes to plug in from the beach, Byte & Mortar offers above-and-beyond services like a local telephone number, voicemail and call forwarding and answering from professional receptionists. Byte & Mortar 2609 Crooks Road, Troy byteandmortar.com

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CRAIN'S LIST: LARGEST MICHIGAN OFFICE FURNITURE DEALERS Ranked by 2016 revenue Company Address Rank Phone; website

Revenue Revenue ($000,000) ($000,000) 2016 2015

Top executive(s)

National Business Supply Inc. 2595 Bellingham, Troy 48083 (248) 823-5400; www.yourNBS.com

Richard Schwabauer president

MarxModa 751 Griswold Street, Detroit 48226 (855) 242-9292; www.marxmoda.com

Percent change

Employees in Detroit area Jan. 2017

Employees Jan. 2017 Michigan/ Worldwide

Brands of furniture carried

$138.0

$130.0

6.2%

163

NA NA

Steelcase

Joe Marx CEO

85.0

75.0

13.3

115 117

Herman Miller

Interior Environments B 48700 Grand River, Novi 48374 (248) 213-3010; www.ieoffices.com

Randy Balconi and Steve Cojei, principals

52.3

45.3

15.3

72 88

Allsteel, Gunlocke, HBF, OFS Brands, Allermuir

American Interiors Inc. 30553 S. Wixom Road, Suite 200, Wixom 48393 (248) 624-2255; www.aminteriors.com

Rick Essig SVP of Sales

28.4

27.2

4.2

24 101

Knoll, DIRTT

Airea Inc. 3000 Town Center Suite 80, Southfield 48075 (248) 426-0100; www.aireainc.com

Vinnie Johnson, chairman and CEO; Ken Bylsma, president; Dave Kiwior, executive VP Mary Ann Lievois CEO

21.0

27.0

-22.2

30 NA

Haworth

20.2

18.5

9.1

20 20

Haworth, Kimball, AIS, OFS

12.0

14.0

-14.3

118 135

HON, Trendway, National, Kimball, Global, Allsteel, Groupe Lacasse, As-Is & Remanufactured Herman Miller

10.0 C

NA NA

Trendway, HON, Global and Lorell

5 6

Interior Systems Contract Group Inc. 612 N. Main St., Royal Oak 48067 (248) 399-1600; www.iscginc.com

Kentwood Office Furniture Inc. 3063 Breton Rd. SE, Grand Rapids 49512 (616) 957-2320; www.kentwoodoffice.com

Art Hasse, CEO; Bob Von Kaenel, president

Global Office Solutions LLC 22759 Heslip Drive, Novi 48375 (800) 331-8990; www.globalofficesolutions.com

Reuben Levy president

Space Care Interiors Inc. 2222 W. Eleven Mile Rd., Berkley 48072 (248) 541-9060; www.spacecareinteriors.com

Kevin Lewis, CEO; Alan Kroll, president

9.5

11.0

-13.1

7 7

National, OFS AIS, Global, Davis

Metro Office Environments Inc.

Mark Schefke president and CEO

8.5

6.4

32.8

22 22

Global, Evolve, OTG, Fraint, others

Forterra Dr., Warren 48089 10 24782 (586) 755-7910; www.moeoffice.com

This list of Michigan office furniture dealers is not a complete listing but the most comprehensive available. Crain's estimates are based on industry analyses and benchmarks, news reports and a wide range of other sources. Unless otherwise noted, information was provided by the companies. Companies with headquarters elsewhere are listed with the address and top executive of their main Michigan office. Actual revenue figures may vary. NA = not available.

B Also known as Balco Interiors LLC. C Company estimate.

CRAIN'S LIST: LARGEST MICHIGAN OFFICE FURNITURE MANUFACTURERS Ranked by 2016 revenue Company Address Rank Phone; website

Top executive(s)

Revenue Revenue ($000,000) ($000,000) Percent 2016 2015 change

Employees Jan. 2017 Michigan/ Worldwide

Industries Served

Type of Products

James Keane president and CEO, Steelcase Inc.

$3,032.4

$3,100.0

-2.2%

11,000 NA

Steelcase Inc. 901 44th St. SE, Grand Rapids 49508 (616) 247-2710; www.steelcase.com

Office furniture, including wood products and storage solutions

Brian Walker president and CEO

2,278.2

2,260.0

0.8

3,731 7,051

Commercial, health care, education, residential

Seating, furniture, storage, textiles and accessories

Herman Miller Inc. 855 E. Main Ave., Zeeland 49464 (616) 654-3000; www.hermanmiller.com

Franco Bianchi president and CEO

1,940.0 B

1,820.0

6.6

2,000 7,000

Haworth Inc. 1 Haworth Center, Holland 49423 (616) 393-3000; www.haworth.com

Office furniture, including work stations, private offices, raised access flooring, storage, moveable walls and seating

50.0

0.0

250 375

Hospitality, office furniture, senior living, medical and residential furniture

Wood seating, case goods, furniture and clocks

Daniel Ahlem Alexis Manufacturing general 3188 Wilson Drive NW, Grand Rapids 49534 (616) 735-3905; www.alexismanufacturing.com manager John Rea president

15.0 C

40 D NA

Panel systems, desking, seating, and acoustical wall tiles

Contract office, healthcare, GSA, and education

Compatico Inc. 5005 Kraft Ave. SE, Grand Rapids 49512 (616) 940-1772; www.compatico.com

Ted Banta president

1.5

1.4

7.1

Banta Furniture 3390 Broadmoor SE, Grand Rapids 49512 (616) 575-8180; BantaFurniture.com

12 NA

Office furniture, theater, education

Upholstered furniture components, cushions, lounge seating, specialty theater seating

This list of Michigan office furniture manufacturers is not a complete listing but the most comprehensive available. Crain's estimates are based on industry analyses and benchmarks, news reports and a wide range of other sources. Unless otherwise noted, information was provided by the companies. Companies with headquarters elsewhere are listed with the address and top executive of their main Michigan office. Actual revenue figures may vary. NA = not available.

B From MiBiz. C Crain's estimate. D Company estimate. LIST RESEARCHED BY SONYA D. HILL

Expanded versions of these lists are available with a Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s data membership at crainsdetroit.com/lists

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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 // N O V E M B E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

CALENDAR WEDNESDAY, NOV. 29 JVS Business Connections: Why You Should Take Artificial Intelligence Personally. 7:30-8:45 a.m. Stephen Couchman, president and CEO of LivePicture, will talk about machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision and machine reasoning. He will also speak about emerging business opportunities and market trends and how to respond to the technology. Jewish Community Center, West Bloomfield. Free, but registration required. Contact: Angela Bevak, phone: (248) 233-4482; email: abevak@jvsdet.org CREW Detroit Presents Carla Harris. 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Commercial Real Estate Women Detroit. Carla Harris, Morgan Stanley’s vice chairman, managing director and senior client adviser, shares her “Tools for Maximizing Your Success.” The Reserve, Birmingham. $75 member; $125 nonmember. Contact: Kelly Sternberg, phone: (248) 436-5520; email: kelly.sternberg@bartonmalow.com; website: crewdetroit.org

THURSDAY, NOV. 30 The Voice of Business in America — Regaining Trust in Our Institutions. 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. George Barrett, chairman and CEO of Cardinal Health, is the speaker. Westin Book Cadillac. $45 members, $55

SPOTLIGHT guest of members, $75 nonmembers. Website: econclub.org

UPCOMING EVENTS Michauto Summit: A Conversation on Culture & Careers. 9:30 a.m.-4:15 p.m. Dec. 6. Detroit Regional Chamber. College students and emerging industry leaders meet with Michigan’s automotive and mobility companies around career opportunities and the culture of the business. College for Creative Studies. $150 members; $200 nonmembers. Contact: Jordan Yagiela, phone: (313) 596-0384; email: jyagiela@detroitchamber.com What is GDPR? The New Privacy. 8-9 a.m. Dec. 7. Bodman PLC. In May 2018, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation becomes effective and will apply to many U.S. organizations providing products and services to EU residents. Charles Russman, Bodman’s Data Privacy and Security Practice Group leader, will discuss how GDPR applies to business; the legal implications if a company is not compliant and how to prepare for the requirements. Bodman PLC at Ford Field. Free. Contact: Pamela Iacobelli, phone: (313) 5308033; email: pmiacobelli@gmail. com; website: bodmanlaw.com A Third Century of Public Impact. 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Dec. 11. University of Michigan President Mark

Ascension Crittenton names new president and CEO

Schlissel looks at what’s ahead for public research universities as the University of Michigan marks 200 years. Westin Book Cadillac. $45 members, $55 guest of members, $75 nonmembers. Website: econclub.org Global Business Outlook for 2018 and Beyond. 8-11 a.m. Jan. 11. Automation Alley. Keynote presentation from Paul Traub, senior business economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Detroit Branch, on the shifting dynamics of the global economy and how companies can best position themselves to do business in the U.S. and overseas. Topics to include: the impact of interest rate hikes on the world economy; the bid to renegotiate free-trade agreements; deregulation; tax reform; health care; potential stock market corrections; geopolitical risks in China, Iran, North Korea and Russia and how these and other factors will affect Michigan’s business and industry climate, especially the automotive and other advanced manufacturing industries. Automation Alley. $99 members; $125 nonmembers. Contact: Lisa Lasser, email: lasserl@automationalley.com The Big Four. 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Jan. 23. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel dis-

Duggan

Evans

Patterson

Hackel

cuss regional successes, issues and their plans to drive the Southeast Michigan region forward. The meeting will take place during the 2018 North American International Auto Show. Cobo Center. $45 members, $55 guest of members, $75 nonmembers. Website: econclub.org To submit calendar items visit crainsdetroit.com and click “Events” near the top of the home page. Then, click “Submit Your Events” from the drop-down menu that will appear. Fill out the submission form, then click “Submit event” at the bottom of the page. More Calendar items can be found at crainsdetroit.com/events.

Chris Palazzolo has been appointed president and CEO of Ascension Crittenton Hospital in Rochester Hills, extending his leadership capacity in the Ascension Michigan Chris Palazzolo health care system. Palazzolo, 62, takes his new position Nov. 27, replacing Margaret Dimond, who left the company recently to become CEO of McLaren Oakland in Pontiac. Gwen MacKenzie, senior vice president of Ascension Healthcare and a Ministry Market executive, named Palazzolo to his new position last week. Palazzolo is also president and CEO of Grand Blancb a s e d G e n e s y s Health System and AscenMichiBetsy Aderholdt sion gan’s Northern and Mid-Michigan ministries, a role he took in 2016 when Betsy Aderholdt retired, Ascension spokesman Brian Taylor said. Aderholdt, 59, is returning to Ascension to serve as interim president of the company's Northern Ministries, a role Palazzolo is leaving under his new appointment. Prior to serving as Ascension Mid-Michigan’s president and CEO, Palazzolo served as CFO of Ascension St. John Hospital & Medical Center in Detroit. Before that, he was senior vice president and CFO of the Detroit Medical Center.

Free Press names new editor to oversee business news

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The Detroit Free Press is bringing back a former top editor to oversee its business news and automotive coverage. Randy Essex, 59, who was the newspaper’s depuRandy Essex ty managing editor from 2006 to 2011, is returning as senior content director, effective Dec. 4. Essex said his focus will be on business, automotive and transportation news as well as the city’s resurgence. Essex, a native of Nebraska, has been the publisher and editor of the Post Independent newspaper in Colorado since 2014, according to Talking Biz News, a website focused on business journalism.

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // N O V E M B E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

MARKET PLACE

PEOPLE ADVERTISING/ MARKETING/PR Bonnie Bisson to vice president, sales enablement, Valassis Communications Inc., Livonia, from sales enablement, InsideView Technologies, San Francisco, Calif. J Mike Gatto to creative director, Phire Group, Ann Arbor, from creative director, Perficient Digital, Ann Arbor. J

ARCHITECTURE Michael Moeller to senior associate from associate, JPRA Architects, Farmington Hills; David Galazka to senior associate from associate; Don Garafalo to associate from documents leader; and Matthew Siegrist to associate studio leader, graphic design, from designer. J

FINANCE J Michael J. Muglia to underwriting manager, professional liability center of excellence, from senior underwriter, professional liability, Burns & Wilcox, Farmington Hills. J Taylor J. Smith to associate vice president, corporate development,

from director, corporate development, H.W. Kaufman Group, Farmington Hills. Also, Kelly E. Viviano to director, corporate communications, marketing, from senior manager, marketing.

SERVICES Sarah Zigila to business development executive, Innovative Learning Group Inc., Troy, from program manager, Winning Futures, Warren. J

NONPROFITS/ ORGANIZATIONS J Rogelio Landin to executive director, U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce, Great Lakes Chapter, Detroit, from founder, PerformancEd, Detroit. J Wendy Miller Garner to program director, InterFaith Leadership Council of Metropolitan Detroit, Oak Park, from writer in interactive marketing and social media, K2M Creative Media, Southfield.

To submit news of your new hires or promotions to People, go to crainsdetroit.com/peoplesubmit and fill out the online form.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS

The Detroit-Wayne Joint Building Authority (D-WJBA) owner/operator of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center (Center) is seeking proposals from qualified firms who desires to provide consulting services for the future construction of a parking deck at the Center. The Center is a 745,000-square foot office building located in the heart of downtown Detroit. The anticipated services: μ Market and Demand Analysis μ Financial Analysis and Forecast μ Comparison of development scenarios μ Assistance in selecting a delivery approach μ Preparation of a Developer RFP, if requested μ Preparation of high level financial feasibility analysis μ Preparation of an investment grade feasibility report, if requested A detailed Request for Qualifications may be obtained on or before 12:00 Noon, Wednesday, December 6th, 2017.

via e-mail to Commissioners@dwjba.com Interested firms must provide four (4) sealed original sets and one electronic submission no later than 12:00 Noon, Friday, December 15th, 2017 to The Detroit-Wayne Joint Building Authority 2 Woodward Avenue, Suite 1316 Detroit, Michigan, 48226 Attention: Gregory R. McDuffee, Executive Director

JOB FRONT POSITIONS AVAILABLE

RETIREMENT SYSTEMS OF THE CITY OF DETROIT 500 Woodward Ave, Suite 3000 Detroit, Michigan 48226 Job Title: Investment Officer (Salary dependent on experience)

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS

Sterling Heights-based Key Safety Systems won a stalking horse bid to acquire the embattled Japanese Takata out of bankruptcy.

Key Safety Systems signs deal to acquire Takata By Dustin Walsh

dwalsh@crain.com

Key Safety Systems Inc. announced Tuesday that it signed the definitive agreement to acquire Takata Corp. for $1.588 billion. The announcement comes weeks after the final paperwork for the deal was entered into U.S. bankruptcy court and unchanged from the two companies’ memorandum of understanding signed in June. The Sterling Heights-based supplier won a stalking horse bid to acquire the embattled Japanese supplier out of bankruptcy, which it filed earlier this year. Takata’s malfunctioning airbag inflators, which have sent shards of metal into drivers and passengers and are linked to at least 17 deaths globally, have plagued it for more than eight years. With pressure mounting, the 84year old Takata filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan and its U.S. subsidiary, Auburn Hills-based TK Holdings Inc., filed for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware on June 25 in a prepackaged agreement to sell to Key Safety, which beat out nearly a half dozen competitors. Under the deal, Key Safety’s management vows to maintain Takata’s 45,000-person employment base,

Need to know

Key Safety and Takata sign definitive agreement for acquisition J

Deal is valued at $1.6 billion

J Deal still requires regulator and court approval

with the exception of its problematic ammonium nitrate airbag inflator business, which is expected to end operation after the sale. The deal was further complicated after Key Safety’s CEO Jason Luo resigned in August to take the CEO position for Ford China. Yuxin Tang, member of Key Safety’s board, assumed the role of interim president. Key Safety will finance the deal using existing equity and debt. The deal still requires bankruptcy court approval and sign off from federal regulators, including the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which has to approve the deal because Key Safety is owned by China’s Ningbo Joyson Electronics. The acquisition will make Key Safety one of the largest players in the safety market, with more than 60,000 employees in 23 countries and more than $7 billion in revenue. Dustin Walsh: (313) 446-6042 Twitter: @dustinpwalsh

The Retirement Systems of the City of Detroit (RSCD) is seeking experienced candidates to fill one or more professional investment position(s) that will assist in the management of RSCD’s $5 billion externally managed investment portfolio. This position reports directly to the CIO and requires an advanced understanding of Capital Markets and Institutional Pension Investing across various asset classes (Public & Private Equity and Debt Investments, Real Assets, Hedge Funds, etc.) The Investment Officer will be responsible for supporting the CIO in managing and evaluating the Plans’ investments in accordance with the Investment Policy Statements as well as applicable state and federal laws and regulations.

BUSINESSES FOR SALE

U.S. BANKRUPTCY COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN (DETROIT) ) Chapter 11 In re: Hamilton Engineering, Inc. ) Voluntary ) Bankruptcy Petition #: Debtor In Possession 34000 Autry, Livonia, MI 48150 ) 17-48381-mlo ) Judge Maria L. Oxholm WAYNE-MI BUSINESS FOR SALE Hamilton Engineering, Inc. provides custom engineered water heating systems for a wide variety of commercial applications – from self-service laundries, hotel laundries, to apartment buildings, to hospital laundry facilities either direct or through a network of hot water specialist distributors. Geographic sales and installations have occurred in North, Central, South America, Asia and Europe. The Company is headquartered in a leased 75,000 square foot facility in Livonia, Michigan (suburb of Detroit). In business since 1981 with a customer base that includes Fortune 500 companies, local school districts and US Armed Forces installations. The Company’s primary product line is high efficiency condensing water heaters, boilers, and pool heaters that are 99.8% efficient. Models range from 79,000 BTU’s to 2,000,000 BTU’s per unit. The Company filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in June 2017 in the United States Bankruptcy Court. Hamilton has been operating as Debtor in Possession since the filing date and recently has decided to pursue a 363 sale of assets under the bankruptcy provisions. The company has received a “stalking horse” bid of $1.4 million which remains subject to court approval. Wadsworth Whitestar Consultants has been retained to assist in the sale of the Company’s assets as a going concern. Accordingly, we are soliciting expressions of interest from qualified buyers prepared to move quickly in pursuit of this unique acquisition opportunity. If you are interested in this opportunity, please contact the undersigned at your earliest convenience. Please visit the Company’s web site at: www.hamiltonengineering. Wadsworth Whitestar Consultants Patrick Caracciolo, Telephone: 708-814-7028, Email: patrick@wadsworthwhitestar.com

Tier One Auto Supplier Macomb County, Michigan Industry Leader in Tool Build, Prototype and Production Casting & Machining. Owner Retiring Contact: Aluminumfoundryforsale@gmail.com

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HARDWARE FROM PAGE 1

“A lot of the hardware stores around here have either gone or are going. Everyone goes to Home Depot,” said Billy Ribiat, 47, who bought Gratiot True Value from his father 10 years ago. “They come in to buy a paint brush or get a key made, but they don’t buy any big ticket items. It’s been happening for years.” But even though the traditional retail sector is on increasingly shaky ground, some owners of neighborhood hardware stores say their sales growth has remained steady. They attribute their success to reinvesting in their stores, bringing in new merchandise, providing good customer service and having items in stock that an online retailer like Amazon.com still needs a day or two to deliver to a doorstep. True Value Co., a Chicago-based co-operative network of 4,000 member owners, has been trying to counter the decline of neighborhood hardware stores with strategies aimed at getting owners to reinvest in their stores and maintain a search engine-friendly website for younger customers whose smart phone is their phone book. Nationally, stores that participated in the co-op’s remodeling program in 2016 saw an average 8 percent increase in sales through the first half of the year, said Tim Mills, senior vice president of growth for True Value. “The success factors of this industry really get back to relevance,” Mills said. “You have to have a great store environment, you have to have fantastic customer service and there has to be an omni-channel presence. When stores are closing, what you find generally most of those attributes are missing.” The co-owner of two independent True Value stores in Detroit says the strategy has paid off for his company, as some competitors have continued to go under. Steve Mansour and his brother, Alan, invested $400,000 in 2013 to convert an abandoned daycare and one-time post office on Livernois Avenue into a brightly-lit home improvement store under their AAA True Value Hardware company name. They spent another $150,000 on fixtures, paint-mixing and glass-cutting machines and stocked the store with $350,000 in merchandise, Mansour said. The Livernois store’s yearly sales have grown between 10 percent and 15 percent annually, Steve Mansour said. “It’s like anything else — you have to change with the times,” Mansour said. “You have to remodel constantly, you have to bring in new merchandise, you have to advertise, you have to keep up your stores. “The people who went out of business — and I know them personally — they didn’t want to change much.” The Mansours’ store at 17400 Livernois Ave. is less than three miles from the Home Depot on Seven Mile Road. Their second store on the east side at 11616 Whittier Ave. also is less than three miles from the Home Depot on Kelly Road on the Detroit-Harper Woods border. The two brothers have focused on using True Value’s bulk-buying power for its 4,000 member stores nationwide to keep their prices in line with Home Depot, while offering more personal service. “For instance, we have fire logs for $11.99, which is pretty close to Home Depot's price,” Steve Mansour said while pointing to a pallet of packaged

PH0TOGRAPHS BY CHAD LIVENGOOD/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Billy Ribiat, owner of Gratiot True Value, rearranges items on the shelves of his store, which is liquidating its inventory and closing after 43 years of ownership in his family. The store’s shelves and cases were dated. Officials with the Chicago-based company attribute hardware store closures in its member-owned co-op to a lack of reinvestment in modern facilities and new merchandise.

Need to know JJThree east side Detroit hardware stores

have closed this year

JJOther hardware businesses in the city that upgraded stores are seeing sales growth JJTrue Value is looking for investors for 10 more stores in Detroit

Competing on service

Mike Ross, co-owner of Triangle Hardware, 10185 Gratiot Ave., rings up a customer’s order on the store’s original 1912 National cash register. After the recent closures of Busy Bee Hardware and Gratiot True Value, Triangle is the only remaining independent hardware store on Gratiot Avenue from downtown to Detroit’s Eight Mile northern boundary.

“It’s a fight every day with the big boxes. We can’t match price for price with them, but we have that service.” — Mike Ross, co- owner of Triangle Hardware, an independent hardware store

fireplace logs in the middle of the Livernois store. “It’s pretty huge that we can compete with them.” They have also found their niche in the home improvement marketplace by understanding that, due to space, they can’t simply carry everything the big box store has. “When you walk in a Home Depot and they have aisles and aisles of faucets, you cannot have three or four aisles of faucets,” Mansour said. “Your business is not going to succeed that way.”

This past summer, the Mansour brothers sold a third family hardware store on Joy Road that their father started in the mid-1970s after the Chaldean family immigrated to Detroit from Iraq. The brothers, both in their mid-50s, wanted to focus on running two stores well, Steve Mansour said. “Our key is the service that we provide,” Mansour said. “Most of our customers like that.” Bob Smith, a regional retail consultant for True Value Co., said he advises independent store owners that they have to match the hours, lighting and cleanliness of a big box retailer to be welcoming to first-time customers. “If we’re going to change our customer and bring in the millennial and the female and the 30-something male homeowner, it’s what they expect,” Smith said. “To me it is key — if you want your wife to come back to a hardware store, it has to be clean and well-lit.”

At Gratiot True Value, Billy Ribiat and his only remaining employee have spent the past month holding a daily liquidation sale. Sales have been declining for years as the population the store served along the Gratiot Avenue corridor east of I-94 dwindled. The store’s inside fixtures are dated and its merchandise varied from plumbing supplies and household hardwares to roaster ovens and wrapping paper. Ribiat believes “price and perception” of Home Depot and other big box retailers were the main factors in his store’s demise. “Everyone thinks everything’s cheaper there — it’s not,” Ribiat said. Two miles north on Gratiot, Triangle Hardware is the only remaining independent hardware store along the busy six-lane trunkline that connects downtown Detroit to Macomb County’s eastern suburbs. Triangle has been in business on Gratiot since 1950. Mike Ross, who has been an owner of Triangle since 1980, said he’s seen a noticeable uptick in foot traffic since Hammer Time and Busy Bee shuttered and Gratiot True Value started liquidating its inventory. Ross has used the closings of his nearest competitors and a recent visit by Detroit Police Chief James Craig for a community meeting held inside the store to re-arrange the layout and make the store entrance area more inviting to customers.

The store is organized like an auto parts store, with most of the stock on shelves behind a service counter that employees retrieve for customers and then ring them up at an original 1912 National cash register. “It’s a fight every day with the big boxes,” Ross said. “We can’t match price for price with them, but we have that service.” At Triangle, Ross has employees at the ready who will load a 50-pound bag of a cement in a customer’s car, repair a ripped porch screen or make at-home service calls. “If you don’t know how to put a faucet together, I’ve got people on hand who can put in a faucet or install a hot water tank,” Ross said. “We’re not going get rich here.”

New customer base While some hardware stores continue to struggle in Detroit, True Value’s retail consultant believes the city is poised to have more home improvement stores as new housing is built and older homes are renovated after years of decline and deferred maintenance. “We’d love to put 10 more stores in the city of Detroit, but we just can’t find the investors,” Smith told Crain’s. Smith said the recent closures of the Hammer Time and Gratiot True Value stores are not reflective of the potential customer base in Detroit, especially younger customers who don’t want to trek to the city’s far corners or the suburbs for routine home improvement projects. “Not everybody’s moving out,” Smith said. “There are people still there who need you and if you’re not reacting to those needs, then those people are going elsewhere. You gotta spend smart money to make money.” Chad Livengood: (313) 446-1654 Twitter: @ChadLivengood

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // N O V E M B E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

FROM PAGE 1

And while implosion is more expensive, the benefits play out beyond the bottom line, Cuppetilli said from the Atlanta area last week, where his company had just demolished the Georgia Dome. That used 300-plus pounds of explosives and 4,500 pounds of dynamite, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “We worked in here for four months preparing the structure,” he said. “But we only impacted the area for one halfday. The highways were open by noon, and now we can proceed with minimal impact to surrounding areas.” Take, for instance, the Ilitch family-owned Park Avenue Hotel, which Adamo imploded in August 2015 to make way for the $862.9 million Little Caesars Arena, which opened last month for the Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Pistons. “For us to mechanically demolish it, we would have impacted them (arena contractors) for three to four weeks,” Cuppetilli said. “Instead, we did all the

TAXES FROM PAGE 3

Corp. $767 million, BorgWarner Inc. $437.1 million, and so on. Both bills offer a repatriation of offshore income at a reduced tax rate, the House taxing those funds at 14 percent and the Senate taxing at 10 percent. “We’re seeing and hearing corporate buyers who are engaging more aggressively right now, thinking they will be able to repatriate cash held offshore and put it to work in the U.S.,” Roesler said. “Yes, they have plenty of (investment cash) already here, but those offshore funds are just sitting on a shelf.” It’s unclear how much cash will actually be brought back to the U.S. Congress tried the same thing under President George W. Bush as part of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004. The bill offered a one-year holiday on foreign profits at a rate of 5.25 percent. But only 843 of the roughly 9,700 eligi-

DEVELOPER FROM PAGE 3

Brush Park fell into decay over the course of decades, but large new residential projects underway or completed by Dan Gilbert’s Detroit-based Bedrock LLC and Birmingham-based Broder & Sachse Real Estate Services LLC, among many others, have helped trigger sharp interest in the neighParcels borhood east of 2968 Brush St. Woodward and north of the Fisher 2994 Brush St. Freeway. 418 Watson St. Nearby, the former Brewster 432 Watson St. Wheeler Recre3001 Beaubien St. ation Center is expected to be rede3009 Beaubien St. veloped by 3019 Beaubien St. restaurateur Curt Catallo and KC 3027 Beaubien St. Crain, president 3035 Beaubien St. and chief operating officer of Crain Communications Inc., parent company of Crain’s Detroit Business. Construction is expected to start early next year. And Detroit native John Rhea, founder of Rheal Capital Management LLC, and Livonia-based Schostak Bros.

Need to know

Pounds of dynamite to be used: 300. Structural steel to be recycled: 1,700 tons. Rebar to be recycled: 1,800 tons.

interior work for two weeks, and we impacted them for one morning.” Don’t expect as dramatic of a scene as what played out downtown two years ago or in Atlanta last week with the Silverdome. Only the stadium’s upper ring is being imploded Dec. 3, using about 300 pounds of dynamite. “Money,” he said, when asked why the Silverdome won’t be entirely imploded. “And the only reason we are doing the ring is that it’s a high structure.” Hydraulic excavators with concrete-crushing attachments will be used to complete the demolition process, expected to be complete within about a year. Utility services at the site off M-59 have been disconnected, a final requirement of the demolition permit being issued. About 1,700 tons of structural steel ble corporations participated in the tax holiday, according to the Internal Revenue Service. Roughly $312 billion was repatriated under the program in 2004, nearly four times the repatriations of 2003, according to the IRS. Roesler believes this time will be different. “There’s some enthusiasm out there about repatriating among buyers,” he said. “Maybe there’s more of an appetite for deals this time around.” But there are naysayers. Michael Robbins, principal and head of the tax consulting group at accounting firm Rehmann in Lansing, said the time line may be advantageous for some sellers, but adjusting business plans around theoretical tax policy is dangerous. The House passed its tax reform bill earlier this month and the Senate pushed its own bill out of committee last week, preparing for a full Senate vote in the coming weeks. Both bills would enter reconciliation between the two chambers before a final bill is & Co. are planning a nearly 300-unit housing development in Brush Park with a mix of incomes and home styles. In addition, the neighborhood sits across Woodward from the new $862.9 million Little Caesars Arena anchoring the Ilitch family’s planned District Detroit. All but two of the parcels at Brush and Watson (see box) are owned by the city. The other two, in the southern center portion of the square block at 429 and 438 Wilkins, are owned by an entity tied to Detroit-based American Community Developers, which paid $465,000 for them in November 2016, according to city property records. The RFP was released Oct. 26 and proposals are due to the city’s Housing and Revitalization Department by Dec. 18 at 5 p.m. A shortlist is expected by January, and a final recommendation by Jan. 29, according to the RFP, which is posted on the city’s website. It says the city expects completion by the end of 2021 and that 20 percent or more of the units would be designated affordable to those making 80 percent or less of the area median income. The city has determined the property’s fair market value to be $960,000. Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412 Twitter: @kirkpinhoCDB

and 1,800 tons of rebar will be recycled at a plant in Pontiac. The Silverdome, which is owned by Toronto-based Triple Properties Inc., sits on 127 acres and has been deteriorating for years. The city and Triple Properties reached a court agreement in March to hire a demolition contractor and raze the 80,000-plus seat stadium, which was home to the Lions until 2002, when the team moved to Ford Field in downtown Detroit. In February, the city sued Toronto-based Triple Properties, which purchased the Silverdome at auction from the city in 2009 for $583,000, just 1.05 percent of the total 1975 construction cost of $55.7 million. The city alleged violations of building and safety codes, as well as illegal storage of vehicles. Demolishing the property would be the next major step to finding a new use for the property, which has become run-down and photographed strewn with debris and is generally considered an eyesore in the city of 60,000 people.

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Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412 Twitter: @kirkpinhoCDB voted. The Republicans’ goal is to have Trump sign the collective bill before Christmas. “We’re a long way from law, and I’m a cynic,” Robbins said. “This is such a dysfunctional Congress, we can’t get serious until this gets closer to signing. We are paying attention and informing clients, but if you’re making a decision based on tax law, especially a theoretical one, you’re making a mistake.” “I don’t have a crystal ball, so I can only offer my advice and that’s not to do anything dumb because there’s so many moving parts,” Robbins said.

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A committee known as MI Legalize, which ran the effort in 2016, has been involved with coordinating volunteers, Hovey said. How much money has it raised? The committee took in $88,644 in the most recent filing period from July 21 through Oct. 20, according to state campaign finance records. It has raised $606,932 to date this calendar year. It had $6,297 in the bank as of the October reporting deadline. What’s the status? The coalition on Nov. 20 submitted more than 360,000 signatures of a required 252,523 to the state Bureau of Elections for review. Activists must collect more signatures than required under the law because many wind up rejected. What’s the opposition say? The Committee to Keep Pot Out of Neighborhoods and Schools calls the proposal “ill-advised and not in the public interest.” The opposition committee has raised $5,000 so far this calendar year, and had $3,997 in the bank as of Oct. 20, according to state records. “Their proposal will be creating a system that allows for mass quantities of unregulated, untested and untaxed marijuana to be grown by anybody anywhere, creating a true black market for illegal drugs,” its statement reads.

Protecting Michigan Taxpayers What is it? A proposed repeal of Public Act 166 of 1965, which sets a prevailing wage — typically unionscale wages and benefits — for all state-funded construction projects. Opponents of Michigan’s prevailing wage law say it artificially inflates the cost of taxpayer-funded building projects. Repealing the law generally is supported by nonunion contractors, while union-backed contractors tend to support preserving the law. They see the repeal effort as an attack on labor that would lower wages and weaken training programs at a time when Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration is trying to boost enrollment in skilled trades careers. Repealing the law has been a priority of Republicans in the Legislature, specifically Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof. But lawmakers have held off on advancing their own bills, in large part because Snyder opposes repealing the law and could veto legislation. A citizen-initiated law is different, in that it’s immune from Snyder’s veto. Should the coalition supporting repeal collect enough valid signatures, the proposal would be sent to the Legislature, which could enact it on its own. “We’re overcharging taxpayers for public construction projects,” said Jeff Wiggins, state director of Associated Builders and Contractors of Michigan and president of Protecting Michigan Taxpayers, which supports the proposal. Who’s behind it? Associated Builders and Contractors of Michigan, a Lansing-based trade group that includes mostly non-union contractors, is leading the repeal effort. It also has the backing of the DeVos-backed Michigan Freedom Fund and the National Federation of Independent Business. How much money has it raised? The committee took in $530,500 in the most recent filing period from July 21

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A coalition seeking to regulate marijuana like alcohol on Nov. 20 submitted more than 360,000 signatures of a required 252,523 to the state Bureau of Elections for review.

through Oct. 20, according to state campaign finance records. It has raised more than $1.3 million to date this calendar year. It had nearly $132,592 in the bank as of October. What’s the status? Protecting Michigan Taxpayers this month submitted more than 380,000 signatures of a required 252,523 to the state Bureau of Elections for review. It hired National Petition Management Inc. to collect signatures. The effort failed to make the November 2016 ballot after the Las Vegas-based signature collection firm it hired submitted duplicate signatures. At the time, opponents, including the Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council, hired Lansing-based attorney John Pirich, a partner at Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, to challenge the validity of the signatures. Pat Devlin, secretary-treasurer of the trades council, said Pirich again has been retained to review the signatures for a potential challenge. Opponents intend to fight the signature-gathering process to keep state election officials from approving it. If they can do that, they can prevent backers of the measure from using the signatures to spur legislation before next year’s election. “Our goal isn’t to put it on the ballot,” acknowledged Wiggins, of the group supporting the ballot measure. “Our goal is to have the Legislature vote on it as soon as we can get our signatures validated and confirmed.” What’s the opposition say? Groups including the Michigan Laborers’ District Council, Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights and the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association oppose the effort. A ballot committee called Protect Michigan Jobs has raised $55,000 in the most recent filing period from July 21 through Oct. 20. It has raised $765,500 to date this calendar year. “It’s about taking money out of people’s pockets,” Devlin said.

MI Time to Care What is it? A legislative effort to allow Michigan workers to accrue paid sick leave for themselves or to care for family members, as well as for victims or family members of victims of domestic violence or sexual assault who miss work due to medical care, counseling appointments, legal proceedings or relocation. Employees would be able to earn at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, capped at 72 hours — the equivalent of nine work days — each year, said Danielle Atkinson, co-chairwoman of the MI Time to Care committee.

People who work for small companies, defined as those with fewer than 10 employees, could accrue up to 40 hours, or the equivalent of at least five days, of paid leave each year. They also could earn another 32 hours of unpaid sick leave annually. Any unused hours can carry over into the next year, Atkinson said, so long as the time remains below the annual cap. Michigan does not require employers to provide paid sick leave for employees. Atkinson said the proposal has been in the works for years but has gained no traction in the GOP-controlled Legislature. “It was one of the issues our moms kept talking about,” said Atkinson, also the founder of Royal Oak-based Mothering Justice, an advocacy organization on behalf of policies to support Michigan mothers. “The inability to take time off when they were sick or their children were sick was impacting not only their ability to take care of them, but their financial stability.” Who’s behind it? Mothering Justice is one of the leading organizations behind the MI Time to Care committee, and has contributed $50,000, state records show. Atkinson said a number of grassroots organizations support it. Sixteen Thirty Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(4) organization that advocates for social welfare issues, contributed $200,000 to the committee in October, state campaign finance records show. The Fairness Project, an advocacy group for raising the minimum wage and enacting paid sick leave also based in the nation’s capital, has given more than $103,000 to the initiative so far. How much money has it raised? The committee took in $300,000 from Sept. 9 through Oct. 20, according to state campaign finance records. It has raised $465,010 so far this year. It had $240,378 in the bank as of the October reporting deadline. What’s the status? Atkinson declined to disclose how many signatures have been gathered thus far, but said the group’s 180-day deadline is in early spring. She said the committee is “really confident” that it will gather enough signatures. What’s the opposition say? The Michigan Chamber of Commerce is among the proposal’s critics, saying the “one-size-fits-all mandate” would have a “chilling impact” on the state economy if approved. The proposal “will hit the tourism, hospitality and retail industries and seasonal businesses the hardest,” the chamber posted on its website. “Companies that can afford to provide paid leave typically do. For those that don’t, cost is the driving factor. A paid leave mandate, if approved by voters, will have a chilling impact on these busi-

nesses and, ultimately, their employees who may see increased responsibilities, fewer raises, fewer bonuses, reduced hours and even layoffs.”

Abrogate Prohibition Michigan What is it? A proposed constitutional amendment that would legalize marijuana for “agricultural, personal, recreational, medicinal, commercial, industrial and other uses,” according to the ballot language. It would end any prohibition of marijuana use. The state would not be allowed to impose any fees, fines, taxes or regulations that would “diminish the use of cannabis.” Timothy Locke, a Midland resident who is leading the Abrogate Prohibition Michigan initiative, said his interest in a constitutional amendment is to ensure that legislators don’t try to rewrite state marijuana laws based on the goals of lobbyists and special interests. Unlike the other pot initiative, this proposal doesn’t include age restrictions. Locke said one goal is to stop people caught with marijuana from being arrested. That includes children or teens. Parents, rather than the government, should be the ones to address the issue, he said. “That’s what Abrogate does: It gives parents back the authority over their children,” said Locke, who added that he started using marijuana as a teenager in 1980 for medical reasons and has used cannabis regularly for more than 30 years. Who’s behind it? Locke said the initiative is a grassroots effort. Its website says the ballot committee has at least 286 volunteers. How much money has it raised? The committee took in $1,330 from July 21 through Oct. 20, according to state campaign finance records. It has raised $1,598 to date this calendar year. It had roughly $275 in the bank as of the October reporting deadline. What’s the status? Locke said the group is early in its signature collection process. Constitutional amendment committees have until July to submit their petitions, though Locke said his 180-day window runs until roughly the end of February. What’s the opposition say? Josh Hovey, a spokesman for the larger of the two marijuana ballot drives, Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, said “we just can’t (imagine) the Abrogate proposal getting much traction” without regulations and provisions to keep minors from getting marijuana.

Michigan One Fair Wage What is it? A legislative effort to

create the Improved Workforce Opportunity Wage Act, which would gradually increase Michigan’s minimum wage to $10 in 2019 and to $12 by 2022. The higher wages also would apply to restaurant workers and other employees who receive tips, who today are paid below minimum wage. The minimum wage in Michigan today is $8.90, and is set to rise to $9.25 on Jan. 1, 2018. Tipped workers currently earn a minimum of $3.38 per hour before tips, which will go to $3.52 per hour in January. “If you work a 40-hour (per week) job, you should not have to go and apply for food stamps,” said Alicia Farris, state director of Restaurant Opportunities Center of Michigan, who is leading the initiative. “People deserve to get a decent living.” Who’s behind it? The initiative is backed by the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Michigan, which advocates for better working conditions for metro Detroit restaurant workers. The group has given $125,000 to the ballot drive. It also has received nearly $300,000 from a ballot committee called Raise Michigan, which has led the initiative in past election cycles. How much money has it raised? The committee took in $509,500 in the most recent filing period from July 21 through Oct. 20, according to state campaign finance records. It had nearly all of that amount in the bank as of the October reporting deadline. What’s the status? The committee could not be reached for comment. Ballot initiatives for legislation have until May 30 to submit 252,523 signatures. What’s the opposition say? The Michigan Restaurant Association opposes the effort. In a statement in September, President and CEO Justin Winslow called the effort “irresponsible and dangerously out of touch.” The group says eliminating tipped wages would hurt the restaurant industry and reduce job opportunities.

Keep Our Lakes Great What is it? A legislative effort to stop the transmission of crude oil through the Line 5 pipeline beneath the Straits of Mackinac, owned by Canadian energy company Enbridge Inc. The proposed ballot language would end a 1953 pipeline easement in the Straits and require that pipelines that carry crude oil “over, through, under or upon the bottomlands of the Great Lakes” carry a $4 billion bond or insurance and $400 million in surety bonds. Who’s behind it? The initiative is led by Phil Bellfy, a retired university professor and former Democratic legislative candidate, and Jeff Hank, who also leads the MI Legalize ballot committee that has worked on marijuana decriminalization. Neither could be reached for comment. How much money has it raised? The committee took in no money from July 21 through Oct. 20, according to state campaign finance records. It has raised $3,170 to date this calendar year. It had roughly $634 in the bank as of the October reporting deadline. What’s the status? The committee could not be reached for comment. Ballot initiatives for legislation have until May 30 to submit 252,523 signatures. What’s the opposition say? The Michigan Chamber of Commerce opposes the effort “to suddenly and arbitrarily shut down Line 5, a critical oil and gas pipeline that crosses the Straits of Mackinac that has been safely operated for over 60 years.”

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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 // N O V E M B E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

THE WEEK ON THE WEB

RUMBLINGS

City Council votes are major step forward for Gilbert projects

NCAA rule changes may lead to beer, wine sales at finals held locally

NOVEMBER 17-21 | For more, visit crainsdetroit.com

Billionaire businessman Dan Gilbert’s $2.1 billion in downtown Detroit real estate development plans took a big step forward as Detroit City Council gave approval last week to a tax-capturing designation for three large projects and greenlighted a land swap with Wayne County tied to the new county jail Gilbert wants to build. City Council voted 7-1 in favor of a transformational brownfield designation and community benefits agreement for Gilbert’s plans to build what would be the state’s tallest building on the site of the former J.L. Hudson’s store, construct a 35-story office tower on the Monroe Block and redevelop the Book Building and Tower. The council also approved the transformational brownfield designation for Gilbert’s plans to add a 300,000-square-foot addition to One Campus Martius, the former Compuware building that serves as Quicken Loans Inc.’s headquarters. If approved by the state, the brownfield designation will allow Gilbert’s Rock Ventures LLC to capture certain state sales and income taxes generated by the four projects. City Councilwoman Raquel Castañeda-López cast the lone “no” vote. There was no community benefits agreement attached to the expansion of One Campus Martius expansion, which Gilbert co-owns with Meridian Health. Gilbert’s Rock Ventures still needs to come back to council for final approval of a 15-year property tax exemption. The four projects also need the approval of the state’s economic development board for the developer to capture future state taxes generated on the sites, City Councilman Gabe Leland said. The council also unanimously approved a land swap with Wayne County that is needed for the county to sign a deal with Gilbert’s Rock Ventures LLC to build a new criminal justice complex at East Warren Avenue and I-75. Without debate, the council approved the Duggan administration’s proposal to trade the 13-acre Detroit Department of Transportation site on East Warren for the 35-acre former American Motors Corp. site on Detroit’s northwest side at 14250 Plymouth Road. Gilbert’s Rock Ventures has proposed building a $520.3 million criminal justice building and jail at the East Warren Avenue site in exchange for the unfinished Gratiot Avenue jail site. The county would be responsible for $380 million of the cost and Gilbert would get possession of the Gratiot site for redevelopment.

BUSINESS NEWS J Piedmont Office Realty Trust Inc. is selling office buildings at 1075 W. Entrance Drive in Auburn Hills and the Auburn Hills Corporate Center as it exits the Detroit area office ownership market, one of four in which it is selling all of its assets.

ERIC PATERNO

A rendering created by local architecture enthusiast Eric Paterno shows what impact Dan Gilbert’s plan for a $900 million 800-foot-tall skyscraper at the site of the former J.L. Hudson’s store in downtown Detroit would have on the city’s aesthetic. Using the computer program SketchUp, Paterno produced a rough 3-D model of the development and placed it in the city using Google Earth Pro. Paterno, 25, who is from Rochester, N.Y., and lives in Detroit, shared his mock-ups on the image-sharing website Imgur, arousing the interest of internet users and local media.

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

$22.3 million The amount Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. is investing to expand in Auburn Hills and Pontiac.

The number of years Chinn Jewelry has been in business. The owner will close down the Royal Oak shop in January.

29,178 square feet The space Google confirmed it will take up when it moves more than 100 employees into an office space next to Little Caesars Arena.

J A footpool facility is expected to open Dec. 9 above the Fowling Warehouse in Hamtramck. The game mixes soccer and pool. J After opening the Femology women-only workspace in downtown Detroit this summer, Meagan Ward plans to travel to Tbilisi, Georgia, as a featured speaker for the U.S. Embassy during its 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence campaign. J Houghton-based Orbion Space Technology won the $500,000 grand prize at the eighth annual Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition. The company develops systems to propel satellites into space to collect data. J The Detroit Tigers released their 2018 spring training schedule, which starts Feb. 22 with an annual exhibition game against Florida Southern College at the renovated

Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium and a first Grapefruit League home game with the Toronto Blue Jays on Feb. 24. J A massive natural gas fire erupted late at night last Monday in Orion Township near Auburn Hills, prompting evacuation of nearby businesses and homes. No injuries were reported in the explosion and fire, which were were ignited when a Consumers Energy Co. natural gas line ruptured.

hen Little Caesars Arena hosts the 2020 Frozen Four men’s ice hockey tournament, there’s a good chance fans will be able to crack open a cold one in the stands. The NCAA is taking initial steps to permitting alcohol sales at future championship events, but local organizers say they haven’t yet begun talking to the NCAA about beer and wine sales. The board of governors of the Indianapolis-based NCAA, which oversees college athletics, in late October ended the ban on alcohol sales at championship events, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal. The board opted to put the decision on beer and wine sales in the hands of its three divisions, the newspaper reported, and the big school Division I has shown the only interest. In 2016, the NCAA launched a pilot program of alcohol sales at the Division I baseball and softball championships. Such sales are looked at by some as a revenue booster and as a safety measure aimed at reining in pregame binge drinking by making a controlled flow of booze available inside the venue. Just how much revenue alcohol

sales could generate is unclear, but beer and wine typically have a high profit margin. Ohio State last year reported $1.1 million from its first year of beer sales during football games. The NCAA’s toe-dip into alcohol sales for its postseason championships is separate from individual universities deciding to sell beer and wine during their own home games. Those decisions are controlled by the schools. NCAA championships in lacrosse, wrestling, volleyball and ice hockey will likely be selling beer by 2018, the Indianapolis Business Journal reported, citing what it said are sources close to the NCAA. Additionally, there are already preliminary talks about allowing beer sales at every round of the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, the newspaper reported. Little Caesars Arena will host the first two rounds of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in March 2018. It’s unclear if beer and wine sales could be approved in time for that. A message was left with the NCAA’s media relations staff. Metro Detroit will host NCAA Division I hockey and wrestling championships in coming years, and finals in fencing and bowling.

OTHER NEWS J The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the EPA will work together to monitor a toxic plume of pollution in Ann Arbor, the Associated Press reported. The agencies will work together to ensure public health is protected. J The Detroit City Council approved hiring law firms to represent the city as it gears up to sue major pharmaceutical companies over their marketing tactics and sale of highly addictive opioid pain killers. This follows a litigation strategy being pursued by Oakland and Wayne counties and other major cities across the country. J President Donald Trump nominated The Suburban Collection Chairman and CEO David Fischer to be ambassador of the U.S. in Morocco. Fischer was a $250,000 donor to the Trump inauguration committee. J A federal court of appeals rejected the Moroun companies’ appeal to halt construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge. The ruling affirmed a deal between Gov. Rick Snyder and Canada. J The Park Players, Detroit’s oldest community theater group, will move to the Redford Theatre in 2018 from the North Rosedale Park Community House, its home of 64 years, The Detroit News reported.

BELLE ISLE CONSERVANCY

Belle Isle Aquarium will unveil a new sturgeon exhibit during a Nov. 30 fundraiser that also includes a peek at its hidden speakeasy from the Prohibition era.

Fundraiser unlocks secret aquarium speakeasy

ew have seen the speakeasy below the Belle Isle Aquarium that was used as a hub for bootleggers bringing liquor to Detroit from Canada during Prohibition. But guests of the Belle Isle Conservancy’s “Deeper Dive: Urgin’ for Sturgeon” fundraiser benefiting the aquarium will get that chance and the opportunity to win a private party in the speakeasy as part of a silent auction. The Nov. 30 dinner will include a pre-party in the Prohibition-era speakeasy, with specialty cocktails by Valentine Distilling and other drinks,

along with a first look at its new Great Lakes sturgeon exhibit showcasing the prehistoric fish. A sturgeon-themed art exhibit of reproductions from 42 U.S. artists will also be on display, giving the public the first look at the exhibit which will be housed at the aquarium for the next three months. And renowned graffiti artist Antonio “Shades” Agee, known for creating custom murals for movies and canvases for organizations including Chrysler, Ford and Universal Studios, will create an exclusive piece of work in front of guests, which will be auctioned at the end of the evening.

THE

AT IS OUT OF THE BAG

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