NEWSPAPER
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Cobo expansion poses logistical problems PAGE 7 ~Chamber
players try to shore up finances PAGE 32
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Boston firm plans 2S1-suite Troy hotel PAGE 14
WEEK OF NOV. 4 - 10,1985 VOLUME 1 0 NO. 40
Cherry Bowl
Enter Brewery Park
shoots for No.2 status
Stroh plans office project on old plant site BY MARY SOLOMON SMYKA
BY BRADFORD WERNLE
CRAIN'S DETR OIT BUSINES S
CRAIN'S DETR OIT BUSIN ESS
Hoisting a can of Cherry Coke, Michael Mills contemplates his storybook five-year script for Michigan's fledgling Cherry Bowl football game. The first part of the script has a lready been written . Michigan State lost to Army 10-6 in last year's inaugural. Next in Mills' story line, in no particular order, would be the University of Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State or Penn State, each playi ng some powerful opponent. Within five years, Mills hopes the Cher r y Bow I will be the second biggest post-season contest in the land, right after the Rose Bowl. A far-fetched , misty-eyed scheme? Maybe, but Mills and the Cherry Bowl staff, headed by ex-Michigan Stat e Coach Frank (Muddy ) Waters, aren 't laughing about their grand plans. And they're cranking up a huge promotional effort to establish a bowl tradition here in the north, far from the bikini s, beaches and palm trees usually associated with post-season college football . Gross revenues from the 1984 contest were $2.1 million. Much of the money that wasn't paid out to the football teams has been plowed back into an aggressive marketing plan to create a new tradition. The organizers base their optimism on several factors: • General Motors Corp. and its divisions are chipping in more than $1 million in sponsorship fees, and
The Stroh Cos. Inc. are gambling that their old brewing site can be turned into a successful office complex in an area of Detroit unaccustomed to new office buildings. Stroh's plan to redevelop the brewery site on Gratiot Avenue at 1-75 into office and showroomloffice space met with some enthusiasm and some skepticism in the real estate community late last week. Stroh's gamble is the final step in a transition for the Stroh Cos. from Stroh's long-time role in Detroit as a manufacturer of beer into a group of real estate and banking companies. The Stroh presence has gone from blue-collar to white.
MARIANNE SACHS
other big sponsors have been landed. • New stations on the Mizlou Television Network, which is producing the nationwide telecasts of the game, may boost the game's ratings as much as 35 percent. • The Silverdome is among the largest of all stadiums to host a bowl. • Attendance at last year's inaugural contest was 70,203, fourth among 18 sanctioned NCAA bowls. • The $741,000 each paid to Army and Michigan State was the fourth largest payout among the 18 bowl games, according to Mills. • And that Cherry Coke Mills is so happy about is the official soft drink of the Cherry Bowl. The Cherry Coke deal tastes parSee BOWL, PAGE 35 ~
Stroh's hopes for the site coincide with the companies' own reshaping and with the change in the near-downtown area from a manufacturing area to an office and service center. The planned 350,000-square-foot office compex , called Brewery Park, would be unique in its neareast-side location, where the business base consists primarily of Eastern Market and its ancillary services. The $30 million project is being developed jointly by River Place Properties, the real estate development arm for Stroh, and Kirco Realty & Development Ltd. of Bloomfield Hills. Stroh's transition began in 1984 when Stroh anSee STROH, PAGE 35
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Two credit • unions merge BY CHARLES CHILD CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS
Two Detroit-area credit unions have merged in what may be the largest combination of financially healthy credit unions in Michigan history. Hospital & Health Services Credit Union, based in Ann Arbor, and Pontiac-based Clinton Oakland Employees Credit Union will keep the Ann Arbor credit union's name. The merger will permit the new credit union to grow in affiuent Oakland County and is part of a trend: Credit unions are becoming increasingly competitive with banks and savings and loan associations. Justin Moran, spokesman for the Michigan Bankers Association, said credit unions See MERGER, PAGE 36
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GLENN TRIEST
Vice president Stanley Surowiec says Michigan Consolidated Gas Co. will buy less spot gas. Story, Page 3 ~
A.L. Williams bucks insurance establishment BY CHARLES CHILD CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS
Santo Ribaudo is living the A.L. Williams dream. Before he joined the fast-growing life insurance agency in 1978, he was earning $40,000 per year for another insurance company. Seven years later, as one of 25 national sales directors for A.L. Williams & Associates Inc., he takes home more than $200,000 per year from his Warren office. He recently purchased a $56,000 Excalibur automobile. About 1,200 salesperRibaudo sons work for him in Michigan. And his company, which emphasizes big dreams and zealous salesmanship,
has honored him for his sales records. His achievements at A.L. Williams, however, have earned him little respect in Detroit's insurance establishment. Donald Haas, a Southfield-based insurance salesman and financial planner, said A.L. Williams salespersons, recruited with lures of quick cash, mislead consumers with simplistic sales pitches. Haas is president of the Greater Detroit Chapter of the American Society of Chartered Life Underwriters, a professional organization. He said A .L. Williams relies on an Amway-like sales network that prompts salespersons to spend time building a personal sales force instead of responsibly selling life insurance. Ribaudo responds that established insurers are crying foul simply because they're being outsold. "The middle-class American has been totally ignored for 150 years by the big insur-
ance companies," Ribaudo said. "We're going to win out in the field because we're right, and we do the job for the American consumer." A.L. Williams has grown phenomenally by persuading buyers to replace their whole life or universal life insurance policies, which represent an investment as well as insurance, with much cheaper term insurance. Based in Atlanta, A.L. Williams represents virtually the entire sales force of Massachusetts Indemnity and Life Insurance Co., based in Santa Monica, Calif. In 1984, MILICO sold $38 billion worth of individual life insurance to become the top seller in the United States, according to figures from A.M. Best Co., an industry analyst based in Oldwick, N.J. Best figures say that The Prudential Insurance Co. of America, based in Newark, N.J., was No.2, selling $34 billion last year. A Prudential spoke-
sperson, though, said Prudential sold $38 billion worth of individual life insurance last year. In Michigan, A.L. Williams is not No.1, but is gaining. MILICO collected premiums of $8.3 million in 1984, following sales of $2.5 million in 1982, and $4.9 million in 1983, according to the Michigan Insurance Bureau, a state regulatory agency. The totals include premiums from new policies and renewal premiums from policies sold in previous years. By comparison, the leading seller of individual life insurance in Michigan, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., based in Milwaukee, collected $65.2 million worth of premiums in 1984 from new and old policies, according to Best's figures. From policies sold in 1984 alone, Northwestern Mutual See WILLIAMS, PAGE 34
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